EXEGETICAL NOTES.— Ezekiel 18:29. “Are not your ways unequal?” “They asserted (Ezekiel 18:25) that the ways of God were not right—properly, not weighed in the balance of righteousness (Job 21:6)—but regulated by caprice. This assertion proceeded from defective consciousness of sin, that could find no other key to suffering than this, that it was decreed unrighteously, on account of the sins of the fathers. The prophet points to this, that the guilt lies on their side. If they only sincerely return to God, they will no more have cause to complain of Him.”—Hengstenberg.
Ezekiel 18:30. “Therefore I will judge you.” “Therefore, because my way, and not yours, is right, I will judge you, every one according to his way. Repent, therefore, if ye would escape from death and destruction.”—Keil.
Ezekiel 18:31. “Make you a new heart and a new spirit.” “A man cannot, indeed, create either of these by his own power; God alone can give them (Ezekiel 11:19). But a man can and should come to God to receive them: in other words, he can turn to God, and let both heart and spirit be renewed by the spirit of God.”—Keil.
HOMILETICS
AN ERANEST CALL TO REPENTANCE (Ezekiel 18:27-32)
The prophet would not content himself merely with vindicating the ways of God, and thus silencing his adversaries. His design was not to refute, but to save them. Hence he renews the call to repentance, and strengthens that call by several considerations.
I. A genuine repentance will be accepted. When a man considers and turns from his evil ways, and practises righteousness, God promises him life (Ezekiel 18:27). But—
1. The repentance must be complete. Mere outward reformation will not suffice. There must be no retaining of a few cherished sins. “All your transgressions” (Ezekiel 18:3).
2. Repentance must have special regard to their chief sins. They are to “cast away” all their transgressions. This expression is used because their chief sin was the worship of idols. When the chief sin is conquered, the victory over the rest is easy.
II. God’s judgment against impenitent sinners is sure. God will not change, and therefore man must, if he would escape destruction. It is men’s ways that are unequal. The prophet cuts short the controversy with a “therefore.” For the rule of God is invariable, and, therefore, they must decide whether it shall operate for, or against them. The sinner who persists in his impenitence is sure to be brought to ruin (Ezekiel 18:30).
III. God would supply them with the necessary strength for the life of righteousness. “Make you a new heart and a new spirit” (Ezekiel 18:31). Such a command to change themselves into a new nature, coming, as it does, from God, carries the gift of a new power. For God does not give to man impossible commands. There is something still for us to do, but the provisions and strength for our duty are supplied to us. The new man is “created after God’s likeness,” but believers are commanded to “put it on” (Ephesians 4:24). When Jesus called on the paralytic man to “arise and walk;” and said to the deaf man, “Be thou opened,” with the command He gave the power to perform it.
IV. God’s will and purpose are on the side of the repentant sinner. God is not a mere judge or monarch whose only care is to see that the law is outwardly obeyed, and that transgressors are punished. He is a loving Father, who mourns over the transgressions of His children and longs for their return to the privileges of their true home. He has no pleasure in their death. The sinner must charge himself with his own ruin. Surely the voice of the tenderest compassion is in the question, “For why will ye die, O house of Israel?”
If anyone feels—I am fallen very low in the world—here all has been so much against me—my parents were the ruin of me—let him remember this one word of Ezekiel, “Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die? saith the Lord God: and not that he should return from his ways and live?” Let him turn from his father’s evil ways, and do that which is lawful and right, and then he can say with the Prophet, in answer to all the strokes of fortune and the miseries of circumstance, “Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy: when I fall I shall arise.” Provided he will remember that God requires of all men something, which is. to be as good as they can be; then he may remember also that our Lord Himself says, “Unto to whomsoever much is given, of him shall much be required.” God’s ways are not unequal. He has one equal, fair, and just rule for every human being; and that is perfect understanding, perfect sympathy, perfect goodwill, and therefore perfect justice and perfect love. And if any one answers in his heart—these are good words, and all very well, but they come too late. I am too far gone. I ate the sour grapes in my youth, and my teeth must be set on edge for ever and ever. I have been a bad man, or I have been a foolish woman too many years to mend now. I am down, and down I must be. I have made my bed, and I must lie on it, and die on it, too. Whoever you are who says that, unsay it again, for it is not true. Ezekiel tells you that it is not true, and one greater than Ezekiel—Jesus Christ, your Saviour, your Lord, your God, tells you that it is not true. For what happens, by God’s eternal and unchangeable laws of retribution, to a whole nation, or a whole family, may happen to you—to each individual man. They fall by sin; they rise again by repentance and amendment. They may rise punished by their sins, and punished for a long time, heavily weighted by the consequences of their own folly, and heavily weighted for a long time. But they rise—they enter into their own new life weak and wounded from their own fault. But they enter in. And from that day things begin to mend—the weather begins to clear, the soil begins to yield again—punishment gradually ceases when it has done its work, the weight lightens, the wounds heal, the weakness strengthens, and by God’s grace within them, and by God’s providence outside them, they are made men of again, and saved. So you will surely find it in the experience of life. No doubt, in general, in most cases, “the child is father of the man” for good and evil. A pious and virtuous youth helps, by sure laws of God, towards a pious and virtuous old age. And on the other hand, an ungodly and profligate youth leads, by the same laws, toward an ungodly and profitable old age. That is the law. But there is another law which may stop that law—just as the stone falls to the ground by the natural law of weight; and yet you may stop that law by using the law of bodily strength, and holding it up in your hand. And what is the gracious law, which will save you from the terrible law which will make you go on from worse? It is this—“When the wicked man turneth away from his wickedness that he hath committed, and doeth that which is lawful and right, he shall save his soul alive.” It is not said that his soul shall come in a moment to perfect health and strength. No. There are old, bad habits to be got rid of, old ties to be broken, old debts (often worse debts than any money debts) to be paid. But he shall save his soul alive. His soul shall not die of its disease. It shall be saved. It shall come to life, and gradually mend and be cured, and grow from strength to strength, as a sick man mends day-by-day, after a deadly illness—slowly it may be, but surely: for how can you fail of being cured if your physician is none other than Jesus Christ your Lord and your God. If you will but recollect that last word, you will never despair. How dare any man say—Bad I am, and bad I must remain—while the God who made heaven and earth offers to make you good? Who dare say, I cannot amend, when God Himself offers to amend you? Who dare say, I have no strength to amend, when God offers to give you strength, strength of His strength, and life of His life, even His Holy Spirit? Who dare say, God has given me up; He has a grudge against me which He will not lay by, an anger against me which cannot be appeased, a score against me which will never be wiped out of His book? Oh foolish and faint-hearted soul. Look, look at Christ hanging on His cross, and see there what God’s grudge, God’s anger, God’s score of your sins is like. Love, love unspeakable, and nothing else. To wash out your sins, He spared not His only-begotten Son, but freely gave Him for you, to show you that God, so far from hating you, has loved you; that so far from being your enemy, He was your father; that so far from willing the death of a sinner, He willed that you and every sinner should turn from his wickedness and live. Now, even if you suffer somewhat in this life for your sins, that suffering is not punishment, but wholesome chastisement; as when a father chastens the son in whom he delighteth. Say not—I must be as I am—when Christ died that you should not be as you are. Say not—there is no hope—when Christ died and rose again, and reigns for ever, to give hope to you and all mankind, that when the wicked man turns away from the wickedness that he hath committed, and doeth that which is lawful and right, he shall save his soul alive, and all his transgressions shall not be mentioned unto him, but in his righteousness that he hath done shall he live.—(“All saint’s Day and other Sermons,” by C. Kingsley.)