Ezekiel 16:60-63 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Nevertheless, I will remember my covenant with thee, in the days of thy youth I will yet have some regard for you, because you were formerly my people, by virtue of the covenant that I made with you at your coming out of Egypt. And I will establish with you an everlasting covenant Such a one as shall never be abolished, namely, that of the gospel: see note on Jeremiah 32:40. Then thou shalt remember thy ways, and be ashamed Thou shalt be affected with a deep sense of, and contrition for, thy former provocations, as a necessary preparation for thy conversion. When thou shalt receive thy sisters Converted with thee to Christianity; when the Gentiles, now strangers, but then sisters, shall be admitted with thee into the Christian Church. And I will give them unto thee for daughters As daughters hearken to, and obey their mothers, so shall the Gentiles, brought into the church of God, hearken to his word, which is there declared, and which first went forth from Jerusalem. “Even in the times of the apostles, there was a particular deference paid to the church of Jerusalem, as the mother church of the Christian world: see Romans 15:26-27. Accordingly, she is styled the mother of all churches, by the second general council in their synodical epistle: see Theod., Hist. Ecclesiastes, lib. 5. c. 9. A title which the Church of Rome now assumes, without any pretence from Scripture or antiquity.” Lowth. Not by thy covenant Not by that old covenant, which was violated; not by external ceremonies, which were a great part of the first covenant; but by that covenant which writes the law in the believer's heart, and puts the fear of God into his inward parts; the covenant which I will make with you, through the mediation of the Messiah; a covenant founded in the divine love, cemented by the blood of Christ, and freed from the yoke of bondage. The first covenant was only for a time, but this shall be for ever. And thou shalt know that I am the Lord Shalt know to thy comfort, that I am Jehovah, the source of being and of blessedness, the God of almighty power, of infinite love, and of inviolable faithfulness, merciful to thy unrighteousness, and remembering thy sins and iniquities no more, Jeremiah 31:34; as conspicuous in my mercies as I was before in my judgments. That thou mayest remember and be confounded That thou mayest acknowledge, and be deeply sensible, how many and great thy transgressions have been, and how great my mercy is in pardoning so many and such aggravated iniquities; and never open thy mouth any more Either to justify thyself, or to condemn others, or to quarrel with thy God; because of thy shame Because shame and sorrow, for thy past sins, will cover thee with confusion. When I am pacified toward thee for all that thou hast done When I have pardoned all thy transgressions, and am reconciled to thee, notwithstanding thy innumerable provocations. Observe, reader, the more sensible we are of God's love to us, the more ashamed we are that ever we offended him; and the more our shame for sin is increased, the more will our comfort in God be increased also.