(3.) THE FOOLISH PROVERB (Ezekiel 12:21-28)
EXEGETICAL NOTES.—The hearts of the Jerusalem people would evade any fair application of the ominous action of Ezekiel, and he is incited to aim a blow at the evasion, which took form in a proverbial saying, Ezekiel 12:22, “The days are prolonged, and every vision perisheth” time is going by, and not one forecast of good or evil has come to pass; it has been a deluding of us. Ezekiel 12:23. Against this sentiment the communication from the Lord is, “The days are near, and the word of every vision,” the passing days are inevitably bringing on the speedy fulfilment of every word folded in the imagery which has been perceived by the spiritual vision of the prophets. Ezekiel 12:25. Over against the merely human prophecies, which had largely contributed to the formation of the condemned proverb, the divine truthfulness would be manifested, and utterly dislodge the former, “For I, the Lord, will speak whatever word I will speak, and it shall come to pass,” not in some far-off future, but “in your days, O house of rebellion.” On the generation of his contemporaries would come both the earlier and the later effects which had been declared certain.
Ezekiel 12:26-28. An emphatic assertion of the impending accomplishment of Ezekiel’s own prophetic utterances is made against the temporising of “the house of Israel, who say the vision that he seeth is for many days, and for far off times he prophesieth.” They believed his words would come true, but not in their experience at any rate. To meet that idea of postponement the Lord said, “None of my words shall be delayed any more; whatever word I shall speak, it shall come to pass.”
HOMILETICS
MEN’S EVASION OF THE DIVINE INTERFERENCE IN EVENTS
God does not only begin, He goes along with the whole development of the world’s history. He can foretell any portion of that history. By special communication or general providence He proves that all its “government is upon His shoulders;” that “He sitteth on the throne judging right,” and working so that men should cease to do evil and learn to do well. There is that in human nature which reaches a point at which it resiles from the idea of this immanence, where it finds the absolute rights of God unwelcome to itself. In this state we observe—
I. The power exerted by what is visible. “Prophets and preachers are men like yourselves. Why should you yield up your souls that they may ride over them with what they assert are messages from an invisible mighty Being? What palpable proofs can they give that He communicates with them, though He never does with you? You might accept their statements did you see any clear fulfilment of the threats of punishment which they plentifully cast forth; but in failure of such evidence you have reason to make light of the claims which they advance for the recognition of the truth of what they say.” How shall these difficulties be overcome? “Let what is righteous and true and holy and good get an honest hearing in your consciences. Let the operation of principles, which is so much more slow to become obvious than the operation of the physical forces, have due time accorded; you will be brought to see that your craving for what is sensible is a depreciation of that nobler part of your nature which feels after higher things than it sees. You may be convinced if what is spiritual commends itself by its close adherence to rectitude, you are wrong in ignoring or postponing its indications.” How many hearers of the Word of God will not accept Jesus Christ as Lord, because they expect some more palpable influences to be brought into action! Do not portions of modern society indicate doubt and even aversion to the demands of the Bible, because they do not place themselves in the light of what is sinless and just and unbending to worldly pleasures? Thus space given for repentance is too often turned into space for hardening the heart against the Unseen and Eternal.
II. Doubts of the efficiency of God. They may acknowledge Him as Maker of the undeveloped world, but decline to acknowledge the signs that He is acting in it now. They see force of one kind or other, and as these forces always act in uniform lines, what place is there for a holy will behind and before and upon men in every event? So the thought is, There is no God in the common acceptation of the term. There may be a power that is unique, but it does not interfere in human affairs as prophets and preachers maintain. There is no reality expressed by the words, The God of Abraham and of Israel, of Jesus Christ and His Church. Is it forgotten by such thinkers that the nature of God must be expressed in words and acts corresponding to itself; that He must abide and must operate age after age; that whatever be the superficial sameness of society and slumbering of retributions, He has not forgotten the work of His hands? “I say the word and will perform it.”
III. Discredit cast upon personal application of divine messages. In this class it is not said, There is no prospect of the evil threatened ever coming near; but rather, There is no likelihood of it touching us. “When the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come nigh unto us.” Men who have committed iniquity for years do so with impunity, nations which have been selfish and oppressive have not been subjected to penalties, notwithstanding what men speaking in the name of the Lord say. We may believe that not in our days are their words to be practically illustrated. Thus is produced a feeling of security, if not of unbelief. The heart is set towards putting far off the evil day. It is a token of deepest immersion in spiritual darkness when men take the apparent absence of a frowning face as proof that God’s servants are not justified in saying that it is there. It would be seen if darkness did not blind the eyes. The feeling is widespread. The darkness covered the mass of Israel. It affects and will affect multitudes in these later days. “When the Son of Man Cometh, shall He find faith on the earth?” What need to question all our spiritual security to see whether it results from trust in God, or from a vague idea that we shall escape portending ill, that if others are to be sufferers for sin we shall not be!
1. Common sayings are not always true sayings. They may pass current in houses, shops, meetings, but when they have to stand a cross-examination how many utterly break down and show themselves to be bubbles—baseless and hollow.
2. God’s sayings are certain. He has spoken them in the constitution of man and that of the world, as well as also by holy men commissioned to declare His will. However prolonged the working out of His institutes be, they must develop fully and finally. He has eternity to act in. See that faith is placed in Christ Jesus, who gives insight of the thoughts and ways—the love and the wrath of God the Holy and True. We receive “a kingdom that cannot be moved, and serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear.”
3. The preference of man’s sayings may hasten the manifestation of the truth of God’s sayings. The boldness and mockery of deniers of God’s claims may make Him to become a swift witness for His veracity and against men’s despisal of it. Men who taunt Him to “make speed, hasten His word that we may see it,” may find, in the midst of sorrows, that they have brought upon themselves swift destruction. Repentance may prevent judgment; hardening of heart aggravates and expedites it. In the Lord alone is there sufficient to assure us that He will not forget, delay, change.