EXEGETICAL NOTES.—The prophet addresses the men of his day, showing that they are equally guilty with their fathers. They are to receive just retribution, and to be purified among the heathen.
Ezekiel 20:30. “Are ye polluted after the manner of your fathers? and commit ye whoredom, after their abominations? These interrogations are intended to imply a strong affirmative.
Ezekiel 20:31. “Even unto this day.” “The note struck in the question of Ezekiel 20:29 is still maintained, not merely to express astonishment, but still more to compel self-reflection. I ask, what further communication you would have?”—(Lange.)
Ezekiel 20:32. “We will be as the heathen” They flattered themselves that the heavy judgments which the prophets had threatened would not be inflicted; that they could accept without molestation the state of the heathen, and the responsibility of the heathen. “That which cometh into your mind shall not be at all.” That wish is declared to be impossible, for they stood before God on a different foundation from the heathen around them. “Here we have the announcement of their continued punishment. The heathen stood under the divine long-suffering (Romans 3:25); not so Israel, to whom God had so gloriously made Himself known. Wherein the heathen may prosper, therein Israel must decline. The designation of the heathen gods as wood and stone, alone sufficient to counteract the strange notion which attributed a real existence to the heathen gods, is taken from Deuteronomy 4:28; Deuteronomy 28:36.”—(Hengstenberg.)
Ezekiel 20:33. Surely with a mighty hand, and with a stretched-out arm, and with fury poured out, will I rule over you.” “Their thought was, that they should become like the heathen in the lands of the earth, to serve wood and stone; that is to say, we will become idolators like the heathen, pass into heathenism. This shall not take place; on the contrary, God will rule over them as King with strong arm and fury. The words, “with a mighty hand, and with a stretched-out arm,” are a standing expression in the Pentateuch for the mighty acts by which Jehovah liberated His people from the power of the Egyptians, and led them out of Egypt (Exodus 6:1; Exodus 6:6; Deuteronomy 4:34; Deuteronomy 5:15; Deuteronomy 7:19, etc.). By the introduction of the clause, “with fury poured out,” the manifestation of the omnipotence of God which Israel experienced in its dispersion, and which it was still to experience among the heathen, is described as an emanation of the divine wrath, a severe and wrathful judgment.—(Keil). “For the friendly and gracious government of God they have given Him little thanks, and have wickedly withdrawn from Him. As God, however, must come to His sovereign rights, so His sovereignty now assumes a terrible form.”—(Hengstenberg.)
Ezekiel 20:34. “And will gather you out of the countries wherein ye are scattered.” “Although Keil explains the ‘leading out’ as neither local nor material, yet we do not understand it with him of a spiritual separation from the heathen world (to which they are immediately brought, Ezekiel 20:35), ‘lest they should be absorbed in it,’ etc., but of an aggravation of their exiled condition, a spiritual experience of it, so that they should know and feel that they as the people of God were once more in the wilderness, but not at all in the same sense as before (Deuteronomy 8:15; Deuteronomy 32:10).”—(Lange.)
Ezekiel 20:35. “The wilderness of the people.” In ancient time, Israel had been trained and disciplined in the literal wilderness (Deuteronomy 8:15-16); now God was about to send them to a new school of affliction, among the busy, populous world. There they would be made to feel their isolation severely. “The wilderness is designated as ‘the wilderness of the peoples’, in contradistinction to the former wilderness, where was only the howling of wild beasts (Deuteronomy 32:10), lions, serpents, and the like (Deuteronomy 8:15; Isaiah 30:6). The new wilderness is one in which Israel is in the midst of the peoples, and can therefore be no ordinary wilderness, for wilderness and peoples exclude one another. It must rather be a symbolic or typical designation of the state of punishment and purification. The interchange of type and thing is in Ezekiel 20:36 separated. From the defect of historical notices concerning the state of the exiles, we cannot show the fulfilment of this prophetic announcement. It is natural, however, to suppose that the part taken by the exiles in the political intrigues of the home country brought upon them also severe sufferings.”—(Hengstenberg.) “There will I plead with you face to face.” “Jehovah threatens to deal with them as in open court by clearing those who had repented of their wickedness, and punishing the obstinate as He had done their fathers of old.”—(Henderson.)
Ezekiel 20:36. “Like as I pleaded with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt.” “They were not led into the wilderness of the peoples as a punishment; although on account of their disobedience it often became a place of punishment; but the divine intention was to try them, to prove them (Deuteronomy 8:2, etc.), from which resulted separation of individuals, purification, which was so strongly urged upon them in reference to Egypt, whither they were always looking back (Numbers 20:5; Numbers 21:5).” (—Lange.)
Ezekiel 20:37. “And I will cause you to pass under the rod” The reference is to the rod of a shepherd counting his sheep (Leviticus 27:32). “A shepherd lets his sheep pass through under the rod for the purpose of counting them, and seeing whether they are in good condition or not (Jeremiah 33:13). The figure is here applied to God. Like a shepherd, He will cause His flock, the Israelites, to pass through under His rod, i.e., to take them into His special care.”—(Keil.) “And I will bring you into the bond of the covenant.” “By this we are not merely to understand covenant punishments, but the covenant promises must also be included. For not only the threats of the covenant, but also its promises, are bonds by which God trains His people. The Hebrew word is not only applied to burdensome and crushing fetters, but to the bonds of love as well (Song of Solomon 7:1-6).”—(Keil.) The “bonds” of God’s covenant are those of love (Hosea 11:4).
Ezekiel 20:38. “The rebels.” Those who would not have the Lord for their king (St. Luke 19:14; Luke 19:27). “I will bring them forth out of the country where they sojourn, and they shall not enter into the land of Israel.” Canaan was called “the land of their pilgrimage” (Exodus 6:4). They had debased the land which God gave them to dwell in by their idolatries, and so it became to them the land of bondage. Therefore God would bring them out of it, and send them to wander in the world’s wilderness. Through unfaithfulness they were unable to enter “into God’s rest” (Psalms 95:11), that rest which remaineth only for those whose God is the Lord (Hebrews 4:9). “The language here implies that the great body of the nation should be recovered from idolatry, and return to their native land, and that only a portion would continue in a state of rebellion against Jehovah, and consequently remain in exile” (Henderson.) “And ye shall know that I am the Lord.” “This is the painful experience that will sooner or later force itself upon all those who despise salvation.”—(Hengstenberg.)
HOMILETICS
GOD HIDING HIMSELF FROM ISRAEL PROFESSING TO SEEK HIM
The Elders professed that they had come “to inquire of the Lord.” But they came insincerely. That High-place still remained as a witness to their idolatries (Ezekiel 20:29). In spite of the reformations under Hezekiah and Josiah, and the frequent warnings of the prophets, they worshipped false gods even in front of the Lord’s Temple (1 Kings 11:7). Hence God’s final refusal, through His prophet, “I will not be enquired of by you” (Ezekiel 20:31). Why did God hide Himself from His people, who, through these Elders, were professing to seek Him?
I. Because of their continuance in the sin of idolatry. They were polluted after the manner of their fathers (Ezekiel 20:30-31). God encourages all who seek the truth in sincerity, even though it be through ignorance and superstition. But when the truth we seek is a delusion, which we wilfully follow—a mere idol, God hides His face from us.
1. Idolatry obscures man’s natural knowledge of God. It leads the religious instinct astray, and into all that is debasing and vile. Though it may call in the aid of beauty and refinement, yet it has ever a degrading and downward tendency.
2. Idolatry in the chosen people was the rankest transgression. They were God’s people by vocation, by covenant, by special providence. This sin was, therefore, the worst that Israel could possibly commit. And it shewed further,—
(1.) The power of bad example. The corrupting influences of the idolatries around them.
(2.) The perils of all pomp and glaring externals in religion. They were attracted by the outward and the sensual, which were the characteristics of heathen worship.
II. Because of the impossibility of their becoming in all respects like the heathen. They might imitate their customs, worship their idols, and sink down into their degraded condition; yet they could not be made to stand on the same footing before God.
1. They could not get rid of their responsibility. God had made Himself known unto them by revelation. Therefore they could not be judged as the heathen, but by a different standard. Men will be judged by the highest standard revealed to them, and not by the lowest, which they have chosen in their sin and folly.
2. God’s long suffering towards the heathen did not apply to Israel. The patience which God showed towards the heathen could not be expected towards those who had higher religious advantages.
3. It is impossible so to obliterate the past as though it had never been. The memory of the past makes our whole life one. We cannot part from our former selves. However Israel might have sunk into idolatry, the fact of their glorious privileges in the past still remained. None of those who dwell in a land visited by the light of God’s Revelation can become, in all respects, like the heathen. We may choose the sins of heathenism, but we must be judged as those who have had opportunity for the knowledge of God.
1. The Lord doth distinguish His people from others. “I will cause you to pass under the rod.” I will examine which are sheep, and which are goats, and will sever the one from the other. Christ knew His sheep, His little flock, from all the goats of the mountains. When the men appeared with weapons of slaughter in their hands, and execution was to be upon Jerusalem, the Lord made His people to “pass under the rod.” He numbered them, and set His mark upon them, that they might not perish in the common calamity (Ezekiel 9).
2. Though God’s people do go out from Him, and violate the covenant, yet He will not let them so go, but will bring them under His power. These had transgressed the covenant, broken the bonds, cast off the ways of God, thought to exempt themselves from His rule over them, but, saith the Lord, “I will bring you into the bond of the covenant;” you shall be under my power and law. Though I suffer Babylonians and other nations to be at their own disposal, yet it shall not be so with you who are my people with whom I am in covenant, and to whom I must be faithful whatever you are to me, and will be known to be your God and Sovereign. I will have account of you, and make you know that you are under my bonds, and not Babylonish ones.
3. God’s dealings with His people is very different. He brings them “into the bonds of the covenant,” to see what they are; if they be goats, wicked, He punishes them and purges them out; if they be sheep, though they have gone astray, He pardons them and enables them to yield to covenant obedience. He purged out the wicked by judgments and death, and preserved the others. The righteous were jewels, and therefore spared; the wicked were stubble, and therefore destroyed.
4. Though the wicked be among the godly yet they shall not always be so. “I will purge out from among you the rebels, and them that transgress against me.” It is God’s method, even here in this world, ofttimes to separate the wicked from the godly, to fan out the chaff from the wheat.
5. Whatever man’s thoughts are of the world, they are but sojourners therein. “I will bring them out of the land of their sojournings,” were it Canaan or Babylon, they were no more than “sojourners.” Wicked men think they are heirs to, owners and lords of the earth (Psalms 49:11). David, though king in Israel, yet acknowledgeth himself a sojourner, as all his fathers were. They spent a few days therein, and so passed away, and this was his condition. Let us look so upon ourselves, and “pass the time of our sojourning here in fear” (1 Peter 1:17); and mind that city which hath foundations, out of which, if we be once possessed, we shall never be removed.
6. When God brings His people into Canaan, He will shut out the wicked, they shall not enter into the land of Israel. Others shall be brought in, but as for those who would be as the world, as the heathen, as Babylonians, they shall never come into Canaan. Canaan was the type of heaven, and this exclusion of these wicked ones, represents the exclusion of ungodly ones out of heaven. However, good and bad are mingled together in this world, and oft in the church, yet when God brings His people to the heavenly Canaan, no unclean thing shall enter there (Revelation 21:7; 1 Corinthians 6:9).
7. Mercies and judgments make God known experimentally. “Ye shall know that I am the Lord.” God would purge out the rebels from the obedient; there was mercy. Keep them out of the land of Israel; there was judgment. The rebels should know and acknowledge Him to be Jehovah, being convinced with the equity of His judgments, and affected with the severity of them. The godly should do it, being convinced and affected with the nature, greatness, needfulness, and freeness of that mercy. Judgment upon these rebels was mercy to the godly; and mercy to the godly was mercy to the rebels; and both were brought to acknowledge the Lord. Mercies and judgments work most affectionately and effectually upon the godly; for it is said, “Ye shall know,” ye that are purged, ye that shall come to the land of Israel.—(Greenhill.)
“And I will bring you into the wilderness of the people, and there will I plead with you face to face.” The history of the Jews is a surprising but most instructive history. These men have been the moral benefactors of the world by what they have said, by what they have done, by what they have suffered. Men have been blessed in them, and all generations have reason to call them blessed. In their prosperity they were the lights of the world; in their adversity they have been the instructors of it also.
The situation of Judea was remarkably adapted to the moral purposes God had in view. Placed in the centre of those great continents of the ancient world, at the head of the Mediterranean, and surrounded by those empires and dynasties which contended for the sovereignty of the East, they were happily so situated as to convey the light of truth in different directions. They were in the direct line of intercourse between the Assyrians and Egyptians, and a prominent object of attention to the Grecians and Romans. It was a place of great resort though little engaged in commerce. Frequent embassies were exchanged by the Jewish government and foreign nations, which rendered their laws and customs, and, above all, their Scriptures known.
But, strange to say, in their adversity they have been quite as useful as in their prosperity. In prosperity they held the lamp of truth to the view of the nations; in adversity they carried it wheresoever they wandered; a striking proof that if we will not voluntarily honour God in our enjoyments, He can make us honour Him in our distresses. In their very captivities they were made a blessing. They were scattered for their own sins, but God brought a revenue of glory to Himself and a harvest of blessing to the world from that very event. God brought them, as the text says, into the wilderness of the nations. They were scattered into all lands,—many of them never returned, and the ten tribes still are mixed with the nations.
The subject arising from the text is, The mixed character of Divine dispensations. Not all judgment, lest we despair; nor all mercy, lest we presume. Affliction is here traced in its causes, design, consolations.
I. The causes of affiiction. These are to be traced to human sinfulness. Israel’s sorrows are here traced to Israel’s sins. Though the righteous and wicked are both involved in the same calamities, yet God has different ends in the same dispensation. That which hardens the one, softens and sanctifies the other. The two chief sins of the Jews were—
1. The abuse of mercies (Ezekiel 20:5-26; Hosea 2:8). Teaching that sins under or after peculiar mercies are greatly offensive to God. Jesus said, “Go thy way, sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon thee.” It is a remark respecting Solomon’s idolatries that he fell into them “after the Lord had appeared unto him twice.” The aggravations of David’s sin (2 Samuel 13:7). Sins under or after special mercies will meet with a severe rebuke. Nothing more distresses the conscience than the remembrance, in darkness, of abused light; in desertions, of neglected love. Great opportunities of service neglected, and great gifts unimproved, involve guilt.
2. The abuse of trials. This involves guilt, and calls down heavier afflictions. This constitutes the peculiar instruction of their history. They were now in captivity. The elders of Israel came to Ezekiel in the most hypocritical manner. They proposed to consult God about their joining the people of the country, abandoning their religious peculiarities, and conforming to the customs of the heathen. God would not be consulted, but instructs Ezekiel to detect and expose their hypocrisy. It seems they had not openly expressed the sentiment, but it was “in their mind” to say, “we will be as the heathen to serve wood and stone.” This calls down the threatening of the text (Ezekiel 20:32-35). Religion is the best armour, but not the best cloak.
Guard against taking occasion from your afflictions of plunging into greater guilt. Many fail to improve their afflictions, but it is awful indeed to be the worse for them like Ahaz, who, in his distress, sinned yet more. It is a fearful thing to have hard hearts under softening providences, and to have proud hearts under humbling ones. We may say of affliction as Paul said of the Law, “That which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death.” Men’s hearts are of an anvil temper, made harder by affliction, and reverberate the blow. Guard against going farther from God under trials, against having recourse to sinful means and worldly appliances to extricate yourself from calamity, against despising “the chastening of the Lord, or fainting when thou art rebuked of Him.” This course will either call down greater judgments, or provoke God to withhold chastisement altogether: which is the greatest of all judgments. The wrath of God is then suffered to accumulate, till it breaks down all the fences and barriers that restrained it, and then comes upon us to the uttermost. They that will not fear shall feel the wrath of heaven. The rods shall be changed into scorpions. “God shall wound the head of His enemies, and the hairy scalp of such an one as goeth on still in his trespasses” (Psalms 68:21.) The chapter closes with solemn threatening (Ezekiel 20:47.)
II. The design of affliction. God has designs of love in bringing them into the wilderness. “Then will I plead with you face to face.” He pleads with them, not against them.
1. With convincing power. He will be justified when He speaketh. Job complained against his friends, but not against God. David was “dumb with silence” when the hand of God was upon him.
2. With compassionate tenderness (Hosea 2:14-15; Hosea 2:19-23).
3. With long forbearance and condescension.
III. The consolations of which this state is susceptible.
1. From the Author of affliction consolation is derived. God brings us into the wilderness; He neither drives us there nor leaves us there. Affliction is not casual, but designed by Him who knows us better than we know ourselves. It “springeth not from the dust.” God pleads with us there. Better to hear His voice in thunder than to be deserted by him altogether. Better for Adam to be called from his hiding place by a voice of terror than to be allowed for ever to separate himself from God. It is rebuke, not destruction; mercy, not judgment; life, not death. It is the death of the sin, not the death of the soul. God says, “I will allure her.”
2. From its design. The design of affliction is to embitter sin, to separate the sin that God hates from the soul that He loves, to improve the character, to promote spirituality, to prevent greater sufferings, to inspire sympathy, to further usefulness, to prepare for higher enjoyments. God says, “I withheld thee from sinning against Me” (Genesis 20:6). Paul was kept from pride, how? by the thorn in the flesh. God prevents us by the blessings of his goodness. By affliction, God promotes self-knowledge, humbles us and proves us to know what is in our heart. “I little thought,” says one, “that I was so proud till I was called to stoop; or so impatient till required to wait; or so easily provoked till I met with such an offence; or so rooted to earth till so much force was required to detach me from it.
3. From its promised support. “I will be with thee in trouble.” “I will never leave thee nor forsake thee.”
4. From its ascertained issue.
IV. There are some special lessons to be learned.
1. Take heed that you do not plunge yourself into a wilderness. By careless, sinful, inconsistent conduct. Self-made troubles are hard to bear.
2. If you are in scenes of difficulty, be anxious to converse with Him who brought you there. Though He “plead with you face to face,” do not shun the intercourse, but submit, say, “Show me wherefore thou contendest with me.”
3. Pray for those who are in the wilderness without a shepherd, and without a hope. The heathen, the Jews, the ungodly, etc.
4. Rejoice that the permanent home of God’s people is not the wilderness. They are there but for a short time on their way to a better country.