EXEGETICAL NOTES.— Ezekiel 16:43. “Hast fretted Me in all these things.” Instead of regarding their calamaties as the just punishment of their sin, they raged against the Lord. The judgments that ought to have led them to repentance only served to make them desperate, and to plunge them into still greater depths of apostacy. “And thou shalt not commit this lewdness above all thine abominations.” “Lewdness and abomination are not in themselves different: the thought is, that the measure of the lewdness and abomination is now full—that it is time for the punishment to enter into the place of sin.”—(Hengstenberg.) “We must explain the words from Leviticus 19:29, where the toleration by a father of the whoredom of a daughter is designated as Zimmáh. If we adopt this interpretation, Jehovah says that He has punished the spiritual whoredom of Israel, in order that He may not add another act of wrong to the abominations of Israel, by allowing such immorality to go unpunished. If he did not punish, He would commit Zimmâh Himself,—in other words, would make himself accessory to the sins of Israel.”—(Keil.)
Ezekiel 16:44. “Behold every one that useth proverbs shall use this proverb against thee, saying, as is the mother, so is her daughter.” “Her abominable life is so conspicuous, that it strikes every one, and furnishes occasion for proverbial sayings. The daughter is of course Jerusalem, as the representative of Israel. The mother is the Canaanitish race of Hittites and Amorites, whose immoral nature had been adopted by Israel.”—(Keil.)
Ezekiel 16:45. “Thou art thy mother’s daughter that loveth her husband and her children; and thou art the sister of thy sisters, which loveth their husbands, and their children; your mother was an Hittite, and your father an Amorite.” Here Jehovah is represented as the husband, not only of Israel, but also of the other nations. In their case, also, idolatry was apostacy from God who first gave them that knowledge of Himself which they were not willing to retain. Keil notes that Theodoret has explained it correctly in this way: “He shows by this, that He is not the God of Jews only, but of Gentiles also; for God once gave oracles to them, before they chose the abominations of idolatry. Therefore he says that they also put away both the husband and the children by denying God, and slaying the children to demons.”
Ezekiel 16:46. “Thine elder sister is Samaria … thy younger sister is Sodom.” “Samaria and Sodom are called sisters of Jerusalem, not because both cities belonged to the same mother-land of Canaan, for the origin of the cities does not come into consideration here at all, and the cities represent the kingdoms, as the additional words, “her daughters,” that is to say, the cities of a land or kingdom dependent upon the capital, clearly prove. Samaria and Sodom, with the daughter cities belonging to them, are sisters of Jerusalem in a spiritual sense, as animated by the same spirit of idolatry. The Heb. ought to be rendered, “Thy great sister is Samaria … and thy sister, who is smaller than thou, is Sodom.” Samaria is called the greater sister of Jerusalem, and Sodom the smaller sister. This is not equivalent to the older and the younger, for Samaria was not more deeply sunk in idolatry than Sodom, nor was her idolatry more ancient than that of Sodom” (Keil). The expressions “left hand,” “right hand” are employed, because the Orientals regarded the East as the principal point of the heavens. Hence the left would designate the North, and the right the South, the direction in which Sodom had lain.
Ezekiel 16:47. “Thou wast corrupted more than they in all thy ways.” Jerusalem had greater guilt, because she was distinguished by greater religious privileges than these cities. She had the temple, the sacrifices, Divinely appointed priests, and the law. In her midst God was worshipped once in the beauty of holiness.
Ezekiel 16:48. “Sodom, thy sister hath not done … as thou hast done.” Compare Lamentations 4:6; Matthew 11:24.
Ezekiel 16:49. “Pride, fulness of bread and abundance of idleness was in her.” Prosperity proves dangerous to virtue, idleness leads to temptation and to every sin. Moses had forwarned Israel against these dangers (Deuteronomy 6:11-12; compare Hosea 13:6). Idleness predisposes men to infidelity (Isaiah 32:9; Ezekiel 32:11; Jeremiah 22:21). “Neither did she strengthen the hands of the poor and needy.” The “cry” of the oppressed in Sodom was the great reason for her destruction. Such a cry had also come forth from Jerusalem.
Ezekiel 16:50. “Therefore I took them away as I saw good.” Heb., “According to what I saw.” “This points to Genesis 18:21. God conducts the inspection by His angels.”—(Hengstenberg.)
Ezekiel 16:51. “And hadst justified thy sisters in all thine abominations.” “To justify the crimes of others is a Hebrew mode of speech, denoting to make them appear comparatively innocent by the side of others, accompanied with much more aggravating circumstances.”—(Henderson.) Jerusalem had a longer probation than Samaria, and had been warned by the example of Samaria’s punishment. Yet she committed worse crimes than those which prevailed in Samaria after Jehu had suppressed Baal-worship.
Ezekiel 16:52. “Be thou confounded also, and bear thy shame, in that thou hast justified thy sisters.” “Judah had concurred from the heart in the Divine judgment on Sodom and Samaria, and exalted herself above them on this account, as the Pharisee in the Gospel. In the condemnation of her sisters she had condemned herself (Romans 2:1). Jerusalem has “justified” her sisters, inasmuch as she has behaved worse than they, and so retributive punishment must overtake her also.”—(Hengstenberg).
HOMILETICS
GOD’S JUDGMENTS UPON ISRAEL JUSTIFIED
God’s judgments for sin will at last be acknowledged as just even by sinners themselves. But even in this world we can see enough of God’s righteous dealings to assure us that He will be clear when He judges. The prophets of Israel were concerned that men should know that God’s ways are equal—that His punishments were not arbitrary, but just. His judgments upon Israel could be clearly justified.
I. They sinned against a great and extraordinary grace. The Lord had been with this nation from its youth up. He had adopted this people, had made known Himself to them, had distinguished them above all others by gifts of knowledge and of privilege. The duties and customs of the pure worship of Jehovah were made known to them. They had every reason to worship God alone, for they were in possession of the purest form of religion known to mankind, and they ought to have been superior to every temptation to forsake that religion for the debasing forms of idolatry around them. But they forgot their high calling. “Thou hast not remembered the days of thy youth” (Ezekiel 16:43). They had displeased a personal God who could feel the wrongs done to Him by His creatures. “Thou hast fretted me in all these things.”
II. They surpassed other nations in iniquity. Samaria and Sodom were punished, and they had not sinned against such great light and privilege. “Thou wast corrupted more than they in all thy ways” (Ezekiel 16:47). The people of Israel would reckon themselves as saints when compared with Sodom and Samaria, but how different was God’s judgment! They had been warned against the sins of Sodom; yet they had done worse, for more was given to them and more would be required (Deuteronomy 6:11-12; comp. Hosea 13:6).
III. They are condemned out of their own mouth. “Thou also which hast judged thy sisters, bear thine own shame for thy sins that thou hast committed more abominable than they; they are more righteous than thou: yea, be thou confounded also, and bear thy shame, in that thou hast justified thy sisters” (Ezekiel 16:52). In the condemnation of her sisters she had condemned herself. Israel had nothing to answer; for the same judgments upon others, which they regarded as just, were now visited upon themselves with equal justice (Romans 2:1). Every sinner will be brought, at last, to admit the justice of God in his condemnation. He will be confounded,—have literally nothing to answer. When men see the awful reality of things they are forced into the terrible silence of conviction.
I. when a man is said to be idle.
1. When he doth nothing, is unemployed (Matthew 20:3). The Greek word for “idle” means a man without work. Solomon’s sluggard would not plough by reason of the cold (Proverbs 20:4).
2. When they do not what they should do. He is idle who does not do God’s work. There is a work of God’s appointment for the day, which you ought to take notice of, and do. “There are some among you which work not at all, but are busy-bodies” (2 Thessalonians 3:11), doing no work, yet working about everywhere.
3. When they do not so much as they ought to do, but are lazy in doing little. When men put not forth themselves to do what they ought to do in conscience, and according to right reason, they are justly said to be idle (Romans 12:11; Ecclesiastes 9:10; Proverbs 18:9).
II. The evil of this sin.
1. It is against the end of man’s creation. God made man for labour when he was in a state of innocency (Genesis 2:15). He must not be idle there, taking his pleasure in a paradise. And after the Fall, in the sweat of his face he was to eat bread. It is the end of man’s creation and birth to be doing.
2. It is a sin against the light of nature, which puts every thing upon motion. The heavens, with the glorious lights thereof, move and are constant in their motions (Psalms 19:5). The ant is a very little creature, but exceedingly laborious. So the bee is little in bulk, but great in employment, and wonderfully busy. These creatures, with many others, confute the sluggard daily, preach down idleness and call for action.
3. It puts God’s family out of order. The world is God’s family, and he hath appointed men unto some employment in it. As a wise artist makes no wheel in a clock, but to move and help on the general work; and if one wheel stands, it is out of order and hinders all the rest. Idle persons are disorderly persons (1 Thessalonians 5:14).
4. It sets a man among the dead. An idle man is both unsavoury and inactive. The poorest and meanest man in the world that follows a calling, and is laborious in it, is better than the most eminent that doth nothing. One is living, and the other a dead man.
5. Idleness exposes a man to variety of temptations. It lays him open to Satan, for a man unemployed is like a city without walls and gates whither any enemy may easily have entrance (Ezekiel 38:11). An idle man is like a vessel which is empty, any one that comes to it may put in what he will; so Satan pours into idle persons what liquor he pleases. Those who are out of God’s work are most exercised with the devil’s.
6. Idleness is the mother and nurse of our most dangerous enemies, viz.: lusts. Standing waters corrupt soonest. Among the Sodomites was abundance of idleness, and abundance of lusts, which fight and war against the soul. And what madness is it for a man to harbour and feed the enemies that seek his life. In doing nothing men learn to do ill.
7. Poverty and beggary are the issues of idleness. Solomon tells the sluggard that his “poverty shall come as one that travelleth, and his want as an armed man” (Proverbs 6:11). He lieth still, but poverty is up and marching towards him. He is without defence, but that comes armed. The meaning is, poverty will come upon an idle and slothful person suddenly and irresistibly. “Drowsiness shall clothe a man with rags” (Proverbs 23:21).
8. Idleness is such a sin as exempts a man from the protection of the angels. He shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways” (Psalms 91:11). What ways? Those which are according to His will, which His providence leads unto, not in the ways of sin. A man that is idle is in the devil’s way, not in God’s way. Idle persons that have no calling go out from God and the guard of His angels. If these feared God, they would walk in a calling, and the angels of God would be about them (Psalms 34:7). Faith is a working grace, witness Hebrews 11.; 1 Timothy 5:8.
9. Idle persons are burden-some creatures. The fig-tree was a burden to the ground where it stood (Luke 13:7). It was a burden to the garden, to the gardener, to the other trees, to the lord and master of all. “Why stand ye here all the day idle? You do no good to ourselves, none to your neighbours, none to the public, none to posterity, nor bring any glory to God.”
10. It is a wasting of precious time, a hiding of our talent. Time, that is given us to get grace, to work out our salvation, to glorify God. This the idle person squanders away. Such are not minding the apostolical rule, “See that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time” (Ephesians 5:15-16). The man who had one talent would not use it, but hid it in the earth. “Thou wicked and slothful servant” (Matthew 25:25-26). Thus wickedness and sloth go together. When Joseph’s brethren came into Egypt, and were before Pharaoh, the first question he asked them was, “What is your occupation?” (Genesis 47:3). This was a good question of a king, when strangers were to come and dwell in his laud, to know whether they had any calling, could get their livings, and not be burdensome to his kingdom and subjects.—(Greenhill.)
But these terrible punishments are not to be the end of the Lord. He will remember His ancient Covenant, and bring His people out of misery, so that they shall attain to the glory which He had promised them. They must however, reach this through humility for the restoration of Sodom and Samaria are also announced. Hence all boasting on the part of Israel is excluded.