EXEGETICAL NOTES.—The corrupt condition of all ranks of the people as the immediate cause of the destruction of the kingdom.
Ezekiel 22:24. “Thou art the land that is not cleansed.” The priests, whose office it was to keep the land tree from moral and ceremonial defilement had neglected their duty (Leviticus 16:19). The whole land had become corrupt, but Jerusalem was to be regarded as a concentration of the iniquity of the whole land. “Nor rained upon in the day of indignation” Heb. “that hath not her rain.” The rain which was her proper portion which ought to have fallen upon her. By this rain is signified, the gentle, sanctifying showers of the prophetic word (Deuteronomy 32:2). The blame of this desolate state of things is imputed to the prophets who were utterers of vain speeches and lying visions (Ezekiel 22:28). “A land that has no rain in the day of indignation, is a land that in the outburst of the divine judgment finds no grace, and simply, as the connection shows, because its impurity is not removed. The rain in the day of indignation would be a benefit. It would quench the flame of the divine indignation. To the indignation, the full energy of which is here called forth by the uncleanness, may be applied that which is said in the Song of Songs (Ezekiel 8:7) of the fire of love. ‘Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the rivers drown it.’ ”—(Hengstenberg).
Ezekiel 22:25. “A conspiracy of her prophets.” These professed to he the messengers of God, but they were conspiring against Him. They were His enemies, even as roaring lions are the enemies of their prey. “The false prophets are first singled out; on account of the greater influence which they exerted in seducing the people by their impious teachings. Not satisfied with each propagating error within his own sphere, they had formed a complot to oppose the messages of the servants of the Lord. Thus forming a powerful body, they resembled a roaring lion, tearing in pieces his prey. Unconcerned about the well are of the souls of whom they professedly had the cure, and intent only upon their own gain, they had occasioned the death of those who perished in the war with the Chaldeans, and thus increased the number of widows”—(Henderson.)
Ezekiel 22:26 “Her priests have violated My law, and have profaned Mine holy things.” The priest’s lips should keep knowledge, and give it out as from a pure fountain (Malachi 2:7). But these did violence to God’s law, both by breaking it themselves and making it void to others by false interpretations. “They have put no difference between the holy and profane.” The priests also knowingly admitted persons to God’s sacred ordinances, without any regard or discrimination as to their moral or spiritual fitness for partaking of them. They showed utter indifference to all moral distinctions—right and wrong, pure and impure. Upon them lies the woe pronounced upon those who call evil good, and good evil (Isaiah 5:20). “Have hid their eyes from My Sabbaths.” They neither observe the Sabbath themselves, and shut their eyes to the desecration of it by others. Thus they failed to carry out the chief command and reason of their office, which (as laid down by Moses) was “to teach the children of Israel all the statutes which the Lord had spoken unto them.” (Leviticus 10:11). “The law of the Sabbath is given as an example. This they rob of its deep spiritual import, and limit it to the external rest, as if it were given for animals, and not for men, who are to serve God in spirit. Because they thus let down the commandments of God to the level of man, and make them minister to human inclination, God Himself is desecrated by them. “I am profaned among them.” In place of the dread and holy God, who visits the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, appears a lax and sin-favouring god, who creates no one, and is glad if any one will only acknowledge him, and is thankful for every bow that is made to him”—(Hengstenberg).
Ezekiel 22:27. “Her princes … like wolves ravening the prey.” The term “princes” is applied generally to all the political authorities and officials. These, in their rapacity are compared to wolves, which are noted for their fierceness and cruelty.
Ezekiel 22:28. “Her prophets have daubed them with untempered morter.” “Them,” i.e., the princes. These were prophets who meddled with political matters, and upheld the princes in their iniquity. “The false prophets recur here once more, as abettors of the nobles, to whom they hold out deliverance, and thereby confirm them in their shameful course, instead of vehemently testifying against their sins, and setting before them the judgments of God. In Ezekiel 13:10 we have an example of the manner in which the prophets daubed with this untempered mortar. The building of the wall by the people denotes the political activity whereby they sought to raise themselves up—the effort made by the coalition. The false prophets daubed this wall; they gave to the impious and the ungodly movement of the people, that was condemned by the word of the true prophets, the appearance of a higher sanction, and confirmed them in it. The wall is a spiritual one, and so the absurdity suits it as a spiritual mortar. The attempt to put, instead of the spiritual, a material mortar, has arisen only from the want of capacity in expositors to understand the interchange of figure and reality. Nothing can be more absurd than to announce safety to a people living in sin, and to promise success to counsels that are in open contradiction to the revealed counsels of God” (Hengstenberg). These false prophets assured the princes that the King of Babylon would not take Jerusalem, in direct contradiction to the Word of God.
Ezekiel 22:29. “The people of the land.” “As placed here immediately after the classification of persons holding office, we are to understand the inhabitants generally without distinction of rank or office. Corruption had spread downwards through the whole mass of the community (Jeremiah 5:1-4). They ‘vexed the poor and needy,’ they ‘oppressed the stranger wrongfully.’ So far from encouraging, by their kindness and holy example, those foreigners who sojourned among them to devote themselves in spirit and truth to the service of Jehovah, the Jews did everything that was calculated to alienate them from His worship.”—(Henderson.)
Ezekiel 22:30. “I sought for a man among them … but I found none.” “Jeremiah, by his powerful preaching of repentance, presented himself as such a public deliverer; but they despised him, and he could gain no position. The man alone is nothing. The position must be added, and the people must gather around him.”—(Hengstenberg.) It was expressly forbidden to Jeremiah to intercede for them (Jeremiah 11:14).
Ezekiel 22:31. “Their own way have I recompensed upon their heads.” Thus the words of Ezekiel 18:30 are fulfilled. They are punished for their own personal transgressions, and not for those of their fathers.
HOMILETICS
THE CORRUPTION OF THE NATION
I. It was spread through all ranks and classes.
1. Prophets. “They have devoured souls; they have taken the treasure and precious things; they have made her many widows in the midst thereof” (Ezekiel 22:25). They were the enemies of God and of the souls which He had made. By their lying prophecies they brought the judgment of the sword upon the city, so that she was rifled of her treasure and her widows were multiplied.
2. Priests. Her priests violated God’s law; not only by breaking it themselves, but by putting false interpretations on it for the purpose of their own selfish ends. They were ordained to promote holiness, but they put no difference between the holy and the profane, between the unclean and the clean. They destroyed the very foundations of religion and morality. They profaned the blessed ordinance of the sabbath, which God had given to men for rest and worship, and which was wonderfully suited to nourish the growth of religion by promoting serious thought and meditation (Ezekiel 22:26).
3. Rulers. These no longer ruled by righteousness, but shed blood and destroyed souls to get dishonest gain. And the prophets were linked with them, upholding them in their iniquity (Ezekiel 22:27-28).
4. People. These could not be expected to be better than their guides. There was not a man to be found among them to stand in the gap, and to save the land by his righteousness (Ezekiel 22:30). We are reminded how when God sent His son, He was rejected by all these classes in succession,—by the religious teachers, then by the rulers, and, last of all, by the people.
II. We can trace the cause and progress of it. The prophets were utterers of lying visions and spurious oracles. Their object was only to flatter the civil authorities for their own selfish purposes. The priests had lost all sense of sacredness.
1. The decay of a nation’s life begins when false doctrines are promulgated. The history of the children of Israel was the history of religion. They were what they were because of certain doctrines and ordinances concerning God, and His service, and human duty. These were revealed to them from heaven. They were bound by solemn obligations to obey them. And God’s law is violated just as much by putting false interpretations upon it as by actual transgression. False doctrines are not immaterial. They are not mere errors of the head,—harmless speculations having no real influence upon life and duty. For it will be found that what is wrong in doctrine springs from the fountain of an evil heart. False doctrines are on the side of the passions. They are human inventions to justify the errors of heart and life. A right life must have right principles for its foundation. If we examine the errors of Popery, we find that they have their origin in corrupt human nature. They have an eye to political ascendancy, to the supremacy of a priestly class, to gain, to worldly ambitions, and to salve the consciences of men by easy and convenient methods of dealing with sin. True teaching concerning God and human duty can alone promote holiness of heart and life, which is the salt of nations to preserve them from corruption and decay.
2. The decay of a nation’s life also sets in when its rulers are no longer governed by conscience. When they set aside God’s law of righteousness, and are intent only upon dishonest gain, then they become oppressors of the poor and defenceless, and scruple not to shed innocent blood.
3. The decay of a nation’s life is imminent when priests become mere courtiers. When they flatter those in power, with the view only of advancing themselves. Corruptions of this kind soon followed when Rome embraced the Christian religion under Constantine, by which the clergy acquired political importance. The temptation to worldly ambition was strong, and they yielded to it. They sought to please princes in order to promote the temporal interests of the Church and their own wealth and grandeur. And when princes and priests are corrupted it is no marvel that the evil influence at length affects public opinion. When the reigning powers and public opinion are on the side of tyranny and wrong, corruption must find its way even to the seat of justice. Instead of equity we have caprice and irrational and unjust maxims and practices. And corruption in all these departments soon spreads into family life, and thus the last retreat of a nation’s strength and purity is invaded.
III. It brought sure judgment. The dire judgments which fell upon the people were inevitable. They happened by a moral necessity God had done everything for His vineyard that could be done in it, and there remained nothing more to be tried.
1. The ministry of the true prophets had failed. The people had been instructed and warned. When God’s teaching by the mouth of His holy prophets does no good, then have the people judged themselves. When Jerusalem killed the prophets, and stoned them that were sent unto her, then her house was left unto her desolate. “Your house,” said our Lord, as much as to say, My house no longer. They had profaned it, and God departed from His temple.
2. No righteous men were to be found amongst them (Ezekiel 22:30). Abraham’s intercession for Sodom teaches us that the presence of a few righteous among a people stays the hand of justice. When those who fear God decline in a land, judgment is coming.
3. In these judgments God was treating them on their own terms. They had punishment in kind as well as in necessary degree. The priests had made no distinction between the holy and the profane. And thus, by their own admission, they were not “a holy nation.” Let it be so, then; let them be profaned by being treated as such. Holiness was the very reason of their existence as a nation, and wanting that, there remained only a looking for judgment. The foundation of their national privileges was thus destroyed. They profaned the sanctuary, and they were themselves profaned among the heathen. They despised God, and they were “lightly esteemed” (1 Samuel 2:30). “Their own way have I recompensed upon their heads saith the Lord God” (Ezekiel 22:31).
1. There are prophets who will flatter wicked princes and rulers in their evil ways. The princes were ravening wolves, shed blood, destroyed souls, to get dishonest gain, and Jerusalem’s prophets daubed them with untempered mortar. They applauded their practices, justified their doings, and told them that God did approve of their ways. It was not the nobles, citizens, but the prophets of Jerusalem which did this. Princes and great ones want not false and lying prophets to bolster them up, and to bear them out in their vile and detestable courses. Ahab was a wicked king, and he had a multitude of flattering daubing prophets (2 Chronicles 18:10-11). There were “flattering divinations” among the false prophets (Ezekiel 12:24); and with these they bedaubed the wicked princes, and strengthened the hands of evil-doers (Jeremiah 23:14). Flattery is evil in any, but worst of all in prophets, and especially when they have to do with wicked princes, whom they harden in their wickedness thereby, and ripen for destruction. Reproof is a precious balm (Psalms 141:5); but flattery is a destructive net (Proverbs 29:5). Let the true prophets abhor it; and so speak the truth, that they may appeal to the consciences of great and small, as Paul doth (1 Thessalonians 2:5).
2. What false prophets give out is unsavoury, and unsound, weak, and useless. It is untempered mortar: it may stick in men’s heads a little, to strengthen them to do wickedly; but it will not stick in their hearts, to strengthen them against the day of evil, and to justify their doings. What is there in vanity and lies which can establish? It is truth, and divine truth, which establisheth) (2 Peter 1:19); the vain and lying imaginations of men, do deceive and disappoint. Pashur prophesied lies, the things of his own heart and spirit, which himself and others trusted in; but see how he and they who believed him, were deceived and disappointed (Jeremiah 20:6). The scornful rulers which made lies their refuge, and hid themselves under falsehood saying, “the over-flowing scourge shall not come unto us” (Isaiah 28:14-15). But, see what the Lord saith (Ezekiel 22:17). The hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding-place. False prophecies, false opinions, false confidences are all untempered mortar.
3. The subtlety and impudence of false prophets makes way for their vanity and lies. They say, “thus saith the Lord God, “there is their cunning; and to make God author of their vanities and lies, there is their impudency. They knew that their dreams, visions, vanities, and lies would not take with princes or people if not presented unto them as from God. They did not only abuse men, but they greatly abused God. “They have belied the Lord” (Jeremiah 5:12), and made that to be the word of God which was not; they walked in lies and strengthened the hands of evildoers; which provoked God so bitterly against them, that He saith He would “feed them with wormwood and make them drink the water of gall” (Jeremiah 23:14-15). Many prophets amongst us have belied the Lord, in making some Scriptures speak that to maintain their opinions and tenets which never was the mind of God.—(Greenhill).
1. God’s protection of them. He had a special care of them, being His Church and people, above all others; as the city Jerusalem had a wall about it (Nehemiah 1:3), so God was a wall to the citizens thereof, “a wall of fire round about them” (Zechariah 2:5; Song of Solomon 4:12). Lest any should hurt His vineyard, He kept it night and day, watched over it and preserved it.
2. Consider those things which God had given them to be a hedge or wall unto them.
(1.) Sound doctrine. This was a “hedge” to keep out all errors, corrupt and heathenish opinions, which they were in danger of, having the nations round about them. But God had given them good doctrine (Proverbs 4:2); right words (Psalms 33:4); lively oracles (Acts 7:38); faithful commands (Psalms 119:86); sure testimonies (Psalms 93:5); such as they were to try all doctrines and opinions by (Isaiah 8:20).
(2.) Pure worship. This was a hedge between them and the heathen (Deuteronomy 6:13-14). God had appointed them a pure way of worship, which hedged them in from all false ways of worship, from bringing in aught of their own or of others.
(3.) Good laws. No nation under heaven had such laws to be governed by as the Jews had, and those laws were hedges against all injustice; they might not wrong one another, nor strangers.
(4.) God had given them good prophets, priests, and princes. The prophets were to preserve the doctrine sound, the priests to keep the worship pure, and the princes to see justice impartially executed. Elijah, a good prophet, was the horsemen and chariot of Israel (2 Kings 2:12; 2 Kings 13:14); the priests were mediators between God and the people (Joel 2:17); the princes were the strength of the land (Proverbs 29:4). And more briefly, it was the covenant made between God and this people; He had promised to be their God and to protect them; they had promised to be His people, and to walk in His ways. But—
3. The “hedge” which God had given them was broken, and gaps were made in it.
(1). The doctrine was corrupted. There was much chaff mingled with the wheat (Jeremiah 23:28); false prophets gave in that to be divine, which was from their own hearts and heads (Ezekiel 13:2-3); they prophesied lies (Jeremiah 14:14); the providence of God was denied, His justice and omnipresence (Ezekiel 8:12; Ezekiel 18:2; Ezekiel 18:25). They taught the people to swear by a false God, even by Baal (Jeremiah 12:16).
(2). The worship was greatly corrupted. The sanctuary was defiled with detestable things (Ezekiel 5:11). They had brought images and idols into the temple (Ezekiel 8), they had high places and altars in every street (Ezekiel 16.) The statutes of Omri were kept, and the works of the house of Ahah (Micah 6:16); and the fear or worship of God was taught by the precepts of men (Isaiah 29:13).
(3). The laws were wrested and perverted, so that there was no justice. They abhor judgment, and pervert all equity (Micah 3:9). According to Isaiah, judgment was turned away backward, and justice stood afar off; they thrust them out of doors, out of their gates and cities, and when they pressed hard to come in there was no admission, the doors and gates were locked and bolted upon them, equity could not enter (Isaiah 59:14); only oppression was let in (Isaiah 5:7).
(4). The men who should have been as strong stakes to keep up the “hedge” were rotten. The prophets were “lions” (Jeremiah 23:14); the priests corrupters and wicked (Lamentations 4:13); the princes were rebellious, and companions of thieves (Isaiah 1:23); and all of them make covenant with God (Ezekiel 16:59).
4. How was the hedge to be made up?
(1.) In public opposing those corruptions which were crept in, and practised amongst them. When of old the Jews had broken down the “hedge” by making a calf, Moses appeared for God against this wickedess; he seized upon the calf, burnt it, and ground it into powder (Exodus 32). When the sons of Levi came to him, he commissioned them to slay the idolators; and this was the beginning of making up the breach. So when Josiah began to purge Judah and Jerusalem from the high places, the groves, images, and altars that were therein, then was the “hedge” making up which they had broken down (2 Chronicles 34:3-4). In Nehemiah’s days, when the “hedge” was new-made about them, there were some who began to tread down the “hedge” and to make a “gap” therein, by doing unlawful things on the Lord’s day. The zeal of Nehemiah was kindled, so that he contended with the nobles of Judah, who countenanced them, and did violence to the Sabbath themselves (Nehemiah 13:15-18).
(2.) In mourning for such breaches, and deprecating the wrath and judgments due for the same. Moses was affected much with what the people had done, and prays and intercedes for them (Exodus 32:10). This act was standing in the breach, and making up the “hedge” (Psalms 106:23); it kept out the fury of the Lord from breaking in upon them. The intercession of God’s servants is a strong “hedge” and wall to prevent judgments. Therefore, when the Lord was resolved upon the destruction of the Jews, He forbade Jeremiah to pray for them (Jeremiah 7:16).
(3.) In putting things into their primitive condition. When Josiah caused the house of the Lord to be repaired, the covenant with God to be renewed, the law to be read, and the Passover to be kept according to the institution, and all things were brought to their primitive condition (2 Chronicles 34; 2 Chronicles 35), then was the “hedge” made up—then was there a man stood in the gap before the Lord. So, when Jehoshaphat brought back the people from false doctrine, and false worship, to the Lord God of their fathers, then was the “hedge” made up, and God protected them against their enemies.
5. None were found to make up the “hedge.” Were there not Jeremiah and Ezekiel, who interceded with God for this people? Were there not many that mourned for the abominations that were among them? (Jeremiah 9:1; Jeremiah 14:11; Ezekiel 9:4; Ezekiel 9:8). It is true Jeremiah did appear for God: he opposed the false prophets, the perverting of justice, the iniquities of priests, princes, and people; but they would not hearken to him (Jeremiah 44:16). They sought to put him to death, and to cast him into prison. And three times God had forbidden him to pray for them. He could prevail with none of them towards making up the “hedge.” As for Ezekiel, he was in Babylon, and the Lord looked for a man amongst them in Jerusalem. “I looked for a man among them, “not among you. For the sighers and mourners that were in Jerusalem they did it in secret. They had not spirits to contradict the wicked prophets, priests, and princes; or, if they had, yet they saw there was no good to be done. The times were exceedingly and desperately wicked; a man was made an offender for a word, and a share was laid for him that reproved in the gate (Isaiah 29:21). It was an evil time, and the time for the prudent to keep silence (Amos 5:12-13). From this subject we learn—
(1) That sin makes breaches and gaps. Their sins brake down the hedge and made those gaps (Isaiah 30:13). Solomon’s sins made such a breach therein that ten tribes were rent therefrom and given to Jeroboam (1 Kings 11:31). Sin made the breach between them and other nations, the breach between God and them. Sin makes breaches in churches (1 Corinthians 1:11-12), in cities (Luke 19:14), in families (Ezekiel 16:38), in men’s names (Proverbs 6:33), in men’s estates (Deuteronomy 28:15-16), in men’s consciences (Matthew 27:3-4; Proverbs 18:14; Proverbs 15:4), and between the chiefest friends (Proverbs 16:28). There are some sins which make such breaches as shake the foundations (Psalms 82:5). The laws were their foundations, but the iniquity of the judges moved those foundations out of place, and the state was like a bowing wall and a tottering fence (Psalms 62:3).
(2). When breaches and gaps are made by sin, the Lord lets in His judgments thereby. When they made breaches upon the worship, statutes, and Sabbaths of the Lord, He resolved to pour out his fury upon them and consume them (Isaiah 1:23-24). Such is the lesson of the parable (Isaiah 5:6).
(3). When the hedge is down, and gaps are made, the Lord looks for some one to appear, so as to prevent those judgments. “I sought for a man to make up the hedge,” &c. God expected that they should have repented, and some at least to have said, What have I done? God was displeased, and now He looked that one or other should have showed a public spirit, opposed the sinful practices, and deprecated judgments. He looks in all the gaps round about, and “He saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor” (Isaiah 59:16), none to meet God, to set upon Him by prayer and strong arguments to withhold His judgments.
(4) Making up the hedge, and standing in the gap, is the way to save a land from destruction. Let man oppose the sinful practices in a land and deprecate the judgments of God, then the Lord will spare a sinful nation, a guilty city (Jeremiah 5:1) In such a case one man may do much. Moses stood in the gap, and diverted the wrath of God (Psalms 106:22); Aaron, also (Numbers 16:47-48). We, through infinite mercy, have had some like Moses and Aaron, to make up our hedges, raise up our foundations, to stop some gaps; but all our gaps are not yet stopped. Are there not gaps in the hedge of doctrine? If it were not so, how came in such erroneous, blasphemous, and wild opinions amongst us? Are there not gaps in the worship of God? Do not many tread down all churches, all ordinances; yea, the very Scriptures? Are there not gaps in the hedge of justice, through which the bulls of Bashan enter, which oppress the poor, and crush the needy (Amos 4:1)? Are there not gaps in the hedge of love; is not that bond of perfection broken? Are there not gaps in the hedge of conscience? Is not the peace broken between God and your souls? Doth not Satan come in often at the gap and disturb you?
(5) In times of general corruption in Church and State, it is hard to find a man of public spirit to oppose those corruptions, and to wrestle with God for mercy. The Lord “sought for a man amongst them.” The judges and great ones did oppress the people, and none appeared publicly for them, to plead their cause and to reprove their oppressors. Many disliked the carriage of things, but they had no spirit to oppose; they were “not valiant for the truth,” as Jeremiah saith (Jeremiah 9:3). God doth not say that there were “none,” but “none to help, none to uphold.” In common corruptions and calamities few have hearts to appear for the public good, against overspreading evils. Sinful prudence, or fear of crushing, makes them silent and lie hid (Ecclesiastes 4:1). The oppressions under the sun were great, the tears of the oppressed many, but there was no comforter, none pitied them, none used any means to relieve them (Greenhill).