JUDAH AND JERUSALEM CANNOT CLAIM EXEMPTION FROM JUDGMENTS BECAUSE OF THE RIGHTEOUS FEW THEREIN (Ezekiel 14:12-23)
EXEGETICAL NOTES.— Ezekiel 14:12-13. “When the land sinneth against me by trespassing grievously.” Their sin is more particularly defined as “trespass,” the literal expression being “to trespass a trespass,” i.e. to commit a very great trespass. The first signification of the Hebrew word is “to cover,” and therefore it is used to denote acting in any secret or treacherous manner, especially towards Jehovah, either by outward or inward idolatry or by withholding what is due to Him. Here the treachery specially pointed out is that of apostasy from God by idolatry.
Ezekiel 14:14. “Though these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it. These men are named as well-known examples of true righteousness of life. They were just in their generation living that life of obedience which springs from faith in God. Noah is so described in Genesis 6:9; and Job, in the Book of Job 1:1; and Daniel, in like manner, is classed with these ancient men as one who confessed a true faith by a righteous life. “The fact that Daniel is named before Job does not warrant the conjecture that some other older Daniel is meant, of whom nothing is said in the history, and whose existence is merely postulated. For the enumeration is not intended to be chronological, but is arranged according to the subject-matter; the order being determined by the nature of the deliverance experienced by these men for their righteousness in the midst of great judgments. Hävernick shows we have a climax here: Noah saved his family along with himself; Daniel was able to save his friends (Daniel 2:17-18); but Job, with his righteousness, was not even able to save his children” (Keil).
Ezekiel 14:15. “If I cause noisome beasts to pass through the land.” “Beasts” in the usual sense, or in human form (Ezekiel 14:17.)” (Hengstenberg), comp. Ezekiel 5:17; Leviticus 26:22; 2 Kings 17:25.
Ezekiel 14:16. “They shall deliver neither sons nor daughters.” “In the first instance, it is simply stated that Noah, Daniel, and Job would save their soul, i.e. their life, by their righteousness; whereas, in the three others, it is declared that as truly as the Lord liveth they would not save either sons or daughters, but they alone would be delivered. The difference is not merely a rhetorical climax or progress in the address by means of asseveration and antithesis, but indicates a distinction in the thought. The first case is only intended to teach that in the approaching judgment the righteous would save their lives, i.e. that God would not sweep away the righteous with the ungodly. The three cases which follow are intended, on the other hand, to exemplify the truth that the righteousness of the righteous will be of no avail to the idolaters and apostates; since even such patterns of righteousness as Noah, Daniel, and Job would only be able to save their own lives, and would not be able to save the lives of others also. This tallies with the omission of the asseveration in Ezekiel 14:14. The first declaration, that God would deliver the righteous in the coming judgments, needed no asseveration, inasmuch as this truth was not called in question; but it was required in the case of the declaration that the righteousness of the righteous would bring no deliverance to the sinful nation, since this was the hope which the ungodly cherished, and it was this hope which was to be taken from them” (Keil).
Ezekiel 14:17-20. Two more great judgments are threatened. “The four visitations of God, each introduced with an if, should actually come, as had been repeatedly predicted, unitedly upon the degenerate covenant people, upon the desecrated land of the Lord. The transition from the merely hypothetical to the actual follows in Ezekiel 14:21. The for at the beginning points to the ground of the discussion instituted, shows that it is no mere idle common place” (Heng.)
Ezekiel 14:21. “How much more when I send my four sore judgments upon Jerusalem.” “How much more must the general standard of the Divine judgments manifest itself before all in the servant, who knows his master’s will, and yet does what is worthy of stripes! ‘You only have I known of all the families of the earth; therefore I will visit upon you all your iniquities,’ says Amos” (Heng.) “The sword, and the famine, and the noisome beast, and the pestilence.” “The number four may possibly symbolise the completeness of the judgment, as one on all sides. Formerly famine was first; here it is the sword, because the calamity of war lay immediately before them. In consequence of it the other three judgments came one after another. War brings famine into the cities; corpses outside, which attract the beasts; and from all these follows the pestilence” (Lange).
Ezekiel 14:22. “Therein shall be left a remnant that shall be brought forth.” “A remnant,” i.e., persons who have escaped destruction. These shall be brought forth, i.e., led out of Jerusalem “unto you.” They shall join those who are already in exile in Babylon. “Sons and daughters.” “These are called sons and daughters, with an allusion to Ezekiel 14:16; Ezekiel 14:18; Ezekiel 14:20; and consequently we must not take these words as referring to the younger generation in contrast to the older” (Keil). “Ye shall be comforted concerning the evil that I have brought upon Jerusalem.” They shall be comforted in seeing the justification of the ways of God.
Ezekiel 14:23. “Their ways and their doings.” “Not those ways by which they had provoked the Lord to punish the nation, but the fruits of righteousness—the good works to the practice of which they had been recovered by the severe discipline through the course of which they had been brought. While they justified God in all the calamities which He had inflicted upon them, their being spared was a proof of His great mercy, and a pledge that, if their brethren in the captivity followed their example by renouncing idolatry, they also should be dealt with in mercy” (Hend.)
HOMILETICS
THE JUDGMENTS OF GOD UPON NATIONS
I. They usually take the shape of great public calamities.
1. The sources of the national wealth are undermined. “I will break the staff of the bread thereof, and will send famine upon it” (Ezekiel 14:13). Bread, the chief food of man, may well be called “the staff of life.” It is the prop which supports man’s physical nature, and when it is taken away he sinks exhausted to the ground. Famine is one of God’s sore judgments, for it seizes upon what is man’s greatest treasure, his life. Man and beast fail; the means of useful labour and food are cut off. The very foundations of life are destroyed.
2. The invasion of enemies. “If I cause noisome beasts to pass through the land” (Ezekiel 14:15). Man was invested with dominion over the beasts of the earth. By virtue of the power of his mind, and not merely by physical force, he retains his sovereignty over them. And God’s providence wonderfully preserves the balance of power between man and the lower animals. He sets a watch over all His creatures, so that they shall not pass His commandment, but fulfil His purpose in placing man head over all here below. But sin interferes with man’s complete dominion; and it is, after all, but a broken sceptre that he holds in his hand. God, for purposes of judgment, allows beasts to overcome man. Another enemy to nations is the sword. God says, “Sword, go through the land” (Ezekiel 14:17). War is one of the scourges which God uses to punish wicked nations. All the evils mentioned in this section—devouring beasts, pestilence, and famine—follow in its track.
3. Pestilence. “Or. if I send a pestilence into that land” (Ezekiel 14:19). In famine and other calamities men of wealth may be able to keep the enemy for a long while at bay, or even to hold out to the end. But they have no defence against pestilence. Then does the Angel of Death walk through the land with impartial step, sparing no age or condition.
II. Though they may be traced to natural causes they are still the work of God. War, pestilence, and famine, are due to the operation of natural laws. But it is also true that God sends them; for He is behind all nature, and behind all human history, whether in justice or in the mysterious march of its events. The calamities that fall upon nations have deep moral causes, and ultimately resolve themselves into the righteous will of God in His manifest indignation against human sin.
1. Nations, as such, are under moral law. This law expresses the will of God in regard to human conduct.
2. The transgression of those laws involves penalty. History has many sad examples which show how the moral corruption of a nation may become so great as to bring about its destruction. Nations can only be judged in this life, for as such they do not exist in another world. When a land sins against God by “trespassing grievously,” the calamities which are visited upon it are seen to come from God by all who believe that there is a moral Governor of the world.
III. They cannot always be averted by pleading the righteousness of the few therein. Abraham’s intercession for Sodom establishes that principle of God’s government by which whole nations are spared great judgments for the sake of the few righteous among them. The faithful few among many faithless are as the salt which preserves the whole community from corruption. We are exhorted and encouraged to pray for others, and even to be so bold as to ask that the hand of justice might be stayed when it is lifted against the ungodly. But there are limits to intercession. Even the prayers of Abraham could not save the devoted cities of the plain. In like manner the iniquity of Jerusalem had grown so great that the prayers and godly influence of men of such famous righteousness as Noah, Daniel, and Job, could not save it from the threatened doom. The Jews placed great reliance upon the intercession of the saints, and counted upon it as a refuge from judgment. They are now told that this is a vain hope, that God’s righteous law must take its course, and that the most holy men can but save themselves (Ezekiel 14:14; Ezekiel 14:16; Ezekiel 14:18; Ezekiel 14:20).
IV. The righteousness of God therein will appear unto His people. “And ye shall be comforted” (Ezekiel 14:22). This comfort would arise from clearly seeing the justification of God’s ways (Ezekiel 14:23). There was a sufficient cause for all the evil which was coming upon Jerusalem, and faithful souls should see how that the ways of the Lord were just. However severe God’s judgments may be in His dealings with mankind, it is a comfort when we know and believe that they are righteous. What a lesson for Christian nations! They are governed by the same great moral principles, but with added light their responsibilities are greater.
From this passage we may infer two things—
I. That there are seasons when even the intercession of the most eminent will not avail. There are seasons in which it is unalterably determined to inflict punishment.
II. That these are so rare and so extraordinary that to declare He will not turn away for intercession is the strongest token of His fierce indignation.
(1.) If God delights to hear prayer it is most reasonable to believe He will favourably regard intercessory prayer; for then the supplicant is exercising two most important virtues at once, piety and benevolence. He is then employed in fulfilling the whole law, and makes the nearest approach to the divine nature.
(2.) Examples of its success—Abraham, Moses, and Job.—R. Hall.
“NOAH, DANIEL, AND JOB.”
Some make great inquiry why these three men should be mentioned rather than others, and they give in their answer:—
1. It is thought that they are named, for that they could not divert God’s wrath by their holiness and prayers from the people of their times. Noah could not keep off the flood, nor Job the sad things which befel him and his, nor Daniel the captivity.
2. Others think they are named because they freed others in imminent danger in their times. Noah saved his family from the flood; Job prayed for his friends, and they were spared; Daniel preserved the magicians and wise men. But rather they are named, because they were men of great holiness, exercised with great trials, and so the more fervent in prayer. And what if these men, who were so acceptable to me, had so much interest in me and often prevailed with me, should pray for you, yet they should do nothing for your deliverance by their prayers. These were men in great afflictions, and affliction is the whetstone of prayer, the bellows to blow up that fire.—Greenhill.
1. When God’s judgments are sorest, yet then He shows mercy to some.
2. The Lord will satisfy and comfort the hearts of His people against the evil and scandal that comes by any of His judgments. When Jerusalem was destroyed, the Jews rooted out and carried to Babylon, what joy was there in the nations! what reproachings of the Jews! Where is now their God? At these things the Jews’ hearts in Babylon were grieved, offended; therefore the Lord tells them, they “shall be comforted concerning all the evil He hath brought upon Jerusalem.” They shall know the greatness of their sins which moved Him to do so.
3. That the Lord is righteous and just in His judgments. “I have not done without cause all that I have done in Jerusalem.” It is the devil’s design to hurt without cause; therefore saith God, “Thou movedst me against him, to destroy him without cause” (Job 2:3). But God would not do it; whatever He doth He hath great cause for. He is the only and infinitely wise God, and doth all things upon the height of reason. Their sins were such as impeached His honour, corrupted His worship, broke the covenant, questioned His providence, violated justice, and conformed them to the heathen. He had cause enough to do what He did, namely, to vindicate His honour, worship, covenant, providence, justice, and to show that His people, if they will sin with the world, must suffer grievous things for it.
4. Men shall know in due time the equity of God’s judgments. They are a great depth. Men cannot sound or measure them (Psalms 36:6). The causes of them are hidden from the eyes of most. Job’s friends mistook the cause of God’s dealing so sharply with him, but afterwards they understood it. They in Babylon, and others, were astonished at the sore judgments of God, but God let them know the cause of it, and so they were brought to justify God (1 Kings 9:7-9). God proclaims the cause of His severe judgments, so that men may see the equity of them, that “He is righteous in all His ways, and holy in all His works” (Psalms 145:17).—Greenhill.