The king shall mourn, and the prince shall be clothed with desolation, and the hands of the people of the land shall be troubled: I will do unto them after their way, and according to their deserts will I judge them; and they shall know that I am the LORD.
The hands of the people of the land shall be troubled - the general multitude, as distinguished from the "king" and the "prince." The consternation shall pervade all ranks. The king, whose duty it was to animate others, and find a remedy for existing evils, shall himself be in the utmost anxiety-a mark of the desperate state of affairs.
The prince shall be clothed with desolation. Clothing is designed to keep off shame; but in this case shame shall be the clothing.
I will do unto them after their way - because of their wicked ways.
According to their deserts - literally judgments, i:e., what just judgment awards to them; used to imply the exact correspondence of God's judgment with the judicial penalties they had incurred: they oppressed the poor and deprived them of liberty, therefore they shall be oppressed and lose their own liberty.
Remarks:
(1) Ezekiel indicates, by the abruptness of his prophetic exclamations, and by his frequent repetitions, how deeply his soul was moved at the incurable sin of his people, and the inevitable ruin which was imminent. The long-suffering of God toward sinners, great as it is, must at last come to "an end" (Ezekiel 7:2). How soon "the end" my be, which of us can say? It cannot be far distant now, because more than 1,800 years ago Peter declared, "The end of all things is at hand (1 Peter 4:7). It is nearer us now by 18 centuries. When the end actually comes, God will judge sinners according to their ways, and He who Has shown such long-continued and wonderful pity will no longer pity nor spare the reprobates (Ezekiel 7:4). Then shall unmixed "evil," without a parallel (Ezekiel 7:5), overtake them - "an evil, an only evil." Justice. "waking" as it were from the slumber of ages (Ezekiel 7:5, note), wherein sinners were spared, shall cause never-ceasing vengeance to fall upon the impenitent.
(2) The ungodly chil dren of the darkness of this world promise to themselves a perpetual night, as though their works of darkness were never to be brought to light. But the fact is, "The night is far spent, the day is at hand" (Romans 13:12); "the morning" of the general resurrection and judgment, "the day of trouble" to the careless ones, is near (Ezekiel 7:7). The blast of the last trumpet, which shall summon all to the bar of the great God, shall be no empty "echo," or cry of hilarity, such as reverberates through the mountains (Ezekiel 7:7), but a solemn call, which all must obey. The "rod" of God's anger at men's "wickedness," long upheld in threat, shall then fall with destructive violence, nor shall there be any to pity and "wail for" their eternal ruin (Ezekiel 7:11).
(3) Seeing, then, that the time is short to us, as it was to the Jews on the eve of their overthrow by Nebuchadnezzar how loosely we should sit to earthly things! Of what profit at the judgment will earthly purchases, bought at a bargain, be to "the buyer" who has not bought the pearl of great price? (Ezekiel 7:12.) And what cause for mourning shall the seller of earthly possessions have then, if only he has not, like profane Esau, sold his heavenly birthright for the pleasures of sense? Let us not therefore be overtaken unawares by the day of the Lord, through the same earthly-mindedness as characterized the men of Sodom, who "did eat and drink, bought and sold," as if these were the chief end of man's being, until "it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all" (Luke 17:28-29). Rather, as Paul teaches us. (1 Corinthians 7:30-31), when we "rejoice," let us be "as though we rejoiced not," when we "buy, as though we possessed not," "using this world, and not abusing it, for the fashion of this world passeth away."
(4) When once judgment and eternity are come, there can be no "return" to earthly possessions (Ezekiel 7:13), because the former things shall have passed away forever (Revelation 21:4). No "strengthening of one's self in iniquity" will avail against the strength of Yahweh, which is arrayed against the sinner (Ezekiel 7:13). Men may make what preparations they will against coming trouble; so long as they are not reconciled to God in His only appointed way through Christ, all shall be of no use, (Ezekiel 7:14). Wherever they may be, "in the field" or "in the city," justice shall arrest them suddenly (Ezekiel 7:15); "all hands shall be feeble, all knees weak as water (Ezekiel 7:17), and "horror shall be their covering, and shame shall be upon their faces" (Ezekiel 7:18).
(5) Silver and gold are the idols of many now, but "their silver and their gold shall not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the Lord" (5: 19); nor can riches even now "satisfy their souls," though riches can procure for them many carnal gratifications. Nay, to most men the love of money proves a serious "stumblingblock" in the way of their heartily giving themselves up to God. Let us use whatever means God has given us, to the glory of the gracious Giver, knowing that whereas "riches profit not in the day of wrath, righteousness delivereth from death" (Proverbs 11:4).
(6) Self-deceiving professors, like the Jews who prided themselves on the temple and its beauty (Ezekiel 7:20), fancy that the spiritual privileges which they are favoured with will exempt them from condemnation. But these cannot avail the carnal, the worldly, and the unrenewed. Nay, God will for ever remove these privileges from those who have long neglected and abused them (Ezekiel 7:21-22).
(7) All who enchain the earth with oppression shall themselves be enchained. God will bind with His "chain" of judgment those who burst the bands of His holy law (Ezekiel 7:23). They who loved "violence" and war shall then "seek peace, and there shall be none" (Ezekiel 7:25). When they are promising to themselves "peace," sudden destruction shall come upon them (Ezekiel 7:25). They who once despised the prophets of God, and trampled on His law, shall then "seek a vision of the prophet, but the law shall perish, from the priest, and counsel from the ancients" (Ezekiel 7:26); so exactly doth God judge transgressors, alike the monarch and the peasant, "after their way, and according to their deserts" (Ezekiel 7:27).
(8) Blessed be God, as in the case of literal Israel, so in the case of spiritual Israel, an elect remnant shall "escape" when all others shall perish (Ezekiel 7:16). Let us see that we have the characteristic traits of this little flock that shall be saved-the true repentance wherewith they "mourn every one for his iniquity," the faith whereby they look on Him whom they pierced through their iniquities, and the obedience which flows from sincere faith and repentance.