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Ezekiel Chapter
Fourteen
Ezekiel 14
Chapter Contents
Threatenings against hypocrites. (1-11) God's purpose to
punish the guilty Jews, but a few should be saved. (12-23)
Commentary on Ezekiel 14:1-11
(Read Ezekiel 14:1-11)
No outward form or reformation can be acceptable to God,
so long as any idol possesses the heart; yet how many prefer their own devices
and their own righteousness, to the way of salvation! Men's corruptions are
idols in their hearts, and are of their own setting up; God will let them take
their course. Sin renders the sinner odious in the eyes of the pure and holy
God; and in his own eyes also, whenever conscience is awakened. Let us seek to
be cleansed from the guilt and pollution of sins, in that fountain which the
Lord has opened.
Commentary on Ezekiel 14:12-23
(Read Ezekiel 14:12-23)
National sins bring national judgments. Though sinners
escape one judgment, another is waiting for them. When God's professing people
rebel against him, they may justly expect all his judgments. The faith,
obedience, and prayers of Noah prevailed to the saving of his house, but not of
the old world. Job's sacrifice and prayer in behalf of his friends were
accepted, and Daniel had prevailed for the saving his companions and the wise
men of Babylon. But a people that had filled the measure of their sins, was not
to expect to escape for the sake of any righteous men living among them; not
even of the most eminent saints, who could be accepted in their own case only
through the sufferings and righteousness of Christ. Yet even when God makes the
greatest desolations by his judgments, he saves some to be monuments of his
mercy. In firm belief that we shall approve the whole of God's dealings with
ourselves, and with all mankind, let us silence all rebellious murmurs and
objections.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on Ezekiel》
Ezekiel 14
Verse 1
[1] Then came certain of the elders of Israel unto me, and
sat before me.
Elders — Men of note, that were in office and power among the
Jews, who were come from Jerusalem.
Verse 3
[3] Son of man, these men have set up their idols in their
heart, and put the stumblingblock of their iniquity before their face: should I
be enquired of at all by them?
Set up — Are resolved idolaters.
The stumbling block — Their idols which
were both the object of their sin, and occasion of their ruin.
Verse 4
[4] Therefore speak unto them, and say unto them, Thus saith
the Lord GOD; Every man of the house of Israel that setteth up his idols in his
heart, and putteth the stumblingblock of his iniquity before his face, and
cometh to the prophet; I the LORD will answer him that cometh according to the
multitude of his idols;
According — According to his desert, I will
give answer, but in just judgment.
Verse 5
[5] That I may take the house of Israel in their own heart,
because they are all estranged from me through their idols.
Take — That I may lay open what is in their heart, and
discover their hypocrisy, and impiety.
Through their idols — It is always through some
idol or other, that the hearts of men are estranged from God: some creature has
gained that place in the heart, which belongs to none but God.
Verse 7
[7] For every one of the house of Israel, or of the stranger
that sojourneth in Israel, which separateth himself from me, and setteth up his
idols in his heart, and putteth the stumblingblock of his iniquity before his
face, and cometh to a prophet to enquire of him concerning me; I the LORD will
answer him by myself:
The stranger — Every proselyte.
I the Lord — He shall find by the answer,
'twas not the prophet, but God that answered: so dreadful, searching, and
astonishing shall my answer be.
Verse 8
[8] And I will set my face against that man, and will make
him a sign and a proverb, and I will cut him off from the midst of my people;
and ye shall know that I am the LORD.
A sign — Of divine vengeance.
Verse 9
[9] And if the prophet be deceived when he hath spoken a
thing, I the LORD have deceived that prophet, and I will stretch out my hand
upon him, and will destroy him from the midst of my people Israel.
The prophet — The false prophet, who speaks all
serene, and quiet, in hope of reward.
Have deceived — Permitted him to err, or justly
left him in his blindness.
Verse 13
[13] Son of man, when the land sinneth against me by
trespassing grievously, then will I stretch out mine hand upon it, and will
break the staff of the bread thereof, and will send famine upon it, and will
cut off man and beast from it:
When — At what time soever.
Verse 14
[14] Though these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in
it, they should deliver but their own souls by their righteousness, saith the
Lord GOD.
Noah — Who 'tis probable prevailed with God to spare the
world for some years, and saved his near relations when the flood came.
Daniel — Who prevailed for the life of the wise men of Chaldea.
Job — Who daily offered sacrifice for his children, and at
last reconciled God to those that had offended.
Verse 17
[17] Or if I bring a sword upon that land, and say, Sword, go
through the land; so that I cut off man and beast from it:
That land — What land soever it be.
Verse 19
[19] Or if I send a pestilence into that land, and pour out
my fury upon it in blood, to cut off from it man and beast:
In blood — In death and destruction, not by the sword.
Verse 21
[21] For thus saith the Lord GOD; How much more when I send
my four sore judgments upon Jerusalem, the sword, and the famine, and the
noisome beast, and the pestilence, to cut off from it man and beast?
How much more — If they could not be able to keep
off one of the four, how much less would they be able to keep off all four,
when I commission them all to go at once.
Verse 22
[22] Yet, behold, therein shall be left a remnant that shall
be brought forth, both sons and daughters: behold, they shall come forth unto
you, and ye shall see their way and their doings: and ye shall be comforted
concerning the evil that I have brought upon Jerusalem, even concerning all
that I have brought upon it.
Their way — Their sin and their punishment.
Comforted — In this proof of the truth of
God.
Verse 23
[23] And they shall comfort you, when ye see their ways and
their doings: and ye shall know that I have not done without cause all that I
have done in it, saith the Lord GOD.
Comfort you — That is, you will be comforted,
when you compare their case with your own: when they tell you how righteous God
was, in bringing these judgments upon them. This will reconcile you to the
justice of God, in thus punishing his own people, and to the goodness of God,
who now appeared to have had kind intentions in all.
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on Ezekiel》
14 Chapter 14
Verses 1-11
These men have set up their idols in their heart.
Heart idols
The Lord is now going to search the heart, to turn out the corners
of the inmost recesses of the mind, the idol and favourite sin. He will proceed
to do a spiritual work; He will lay aside His hammer with which He has broken
the wall, and no more will He tear and rend the garments which cover falsehood:
He will enter the heart, He will name the idols one by one which occupy that
secret sanctuary; He will name them, He will bring them forth to judgment, and
He will conduct that most penetrating of all criticism, the judgment of the
thought and motive and purpose of man. “Then came certain of the elders of
Israel unto me,”--came to be looked through, weighed, measured, and adjudged.
No office can save men from Divine criticism. How comforting is this thought,
though terrible in some aspects! It were well that our judges should be judged,
else who can tell to what extremes of folly they might go, hounded on by
ambition, or stung to further issues by envy and malice? The higher the office,
the greater the responsibility; the larger the privileges, the greater the sin
if they are outraged; the more brilliant the genius, the more infamous the
mischief if that genius be perverted. The able man, the man of faculty and
education, can do more sin in one moment than a poor uneducated soul can do in
a lifetime. Elevation aggravates sin. The place of the disease indicates its
fatal character--“in their heart.” This is heart disease. Men almost whisper
when they indicate that some friend is suffering from disease of the heart;
there is hopelessness in the tone: great allowance should be made, they say,
for a man who is suffering from heart disease; be must not be startled, or
excited, or suddenly pounced upon; his wishes must be gratified, they must as
far as possible even be anticipated; and any little impatience he may show must
be looked at charitably. The talk is humane, the considerateness is full of
affection, the conditions imposed are suggested by reason. Is there not a
higher disease of the heart? What is the meaning of this disease of the heart,
this idolatry in the inmost soul? When a moral disease is of the heart it means
that the disease is liked, enjoyed; it is wine drunk behind the door, it is a
feast of fat things eaten in secrecy; every mouthful so sweet, so good, so
rich. When a disease is of the heart in a moral and spiritual sense it means
that it is consented to; it is voluntary, it is personal, it is desired; there
would be a sense of loss without it. Disease of this kind, too, is most
difficult of eradication. It is not in the skin, or it might be cut out; it is
not in the limb, or it might be amputated, and the knife might anticipate
mortification: the evil is in the heart; no knife can touch it, no persuasion
can get at it; nothing can be done with it but one thing--only a miracle of the
Holy Ghost can overcome that difficulty and turn that disease into health.
“Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.” Are we chargeable
with heart idolatry? We have no idols of a visible kind, it may be, yet we may
be the veriest pagans in our hearts. We say, How distressing that poor human
nature should fall down before stock and stone and worship it! and we, inflated
pagans, worship a golden calf, a tinsel crown, a sounding name, a crafty
policy. Are we chargeable with heart idolatry? Certainly we are. No man can
escape this accusation. It is subtle, far reaching, all but ineradicable. If we
do not face such difficulties our piety is a stucco that will peel off in the
wet weather, and leave the ghastly moral ugliness exposed to public scorn.
Doubt may be an idol used to diminish responsibility. Others, again, may have
in the heart an idol called Ignorance, kept there for the purpose of
diminishing service: we will not go into the dark places of the city, then we
need not attend to the cries which are said to be arising there from overborne
and hopeless humanity; we will keep on the broad thoroughfare, where the
gaslight is plentiful; we shall see the surface and outer shape of things, and
then retire to rest, saying that, say what fanatics may, there is really a good
deal of solid happiness in the city. Have we not an idol in the heart we call
Orthodoxy, which We keep there in order to enlarge moral licence? Is there not
an intellectual orthodoxy and a spiritual heterodoxy often united in the same
man? “Therefore say unto the house of Israel, Thus Saith the Lord God: Repent.”
When did the Lord ever conclude a discourse without some evangelical tone in
it? The Bible is terrific in denunciation, awful beyond all other books in its
denunciation of sin and its threatening of perdition; yet through it, and
through it again, and ruling it, is a spirit of clemency and pity and mercy and
hope, yea, across hell’s burning mouth there lies the shadow of the Cross. (J.
Parker, D. D.)
Mental idolatry
The father of modern philosophy and science has shown us that
there are in the mind of man, as man, natural idols which act as impediments to
his acquisition of knowledge and his search after truth. Till these idols are
overthrown and broken in pieces and taken away it is simply useless for man to
pursue knowledge. His efforts will be neutralised and their results vitiated.
Now, if this is so in the matter of human science, it is none the less worthy
of our regard in the matter of Divine truth and of the knowledge of God. We
cannot know God, whom to know is eternal life, as long as these natural
obstacles are not taken out of the way. We cannot serve Him acceptably as long
as, instead of being dethroned, they are still set up in our hearts. What,
then, is the practical bearing of this truth? First, there must be a single eye
to the knowledge of God. If we have not determined with ourselves that God, and
the knowledge of God, and the fear of God, is more to be desired, and if we
personally do not desire it more than wealth, or ease, or success, or the
applause of men, or position in life, or influence, or comfort, or anything
else, then we may be never so punctual in our religious duties, never so
zealous for the outward honour of God, never so eager for the triumph of
particular principles, or a particular party, or a particular cause, but for
all that there is still enshrined in some inner recess, some secret corner of
our hearts, an idol which disputes with the Most High God the possession and
sovereignty of them. Again, not only must there be a clear and undimmed
perception of God as the one sole object of our services, but there must also
be a readiness to sacrifice anything in order to know and to serve Him. How
many there are in the present day, not, thank God, who cannot afford to be
religious--for that brings with it no slur in our times, but rather the
reverse--but how many there are who dare not follow Truth whithersoever she may
lead, who cannot afford to obey their own convictions, and therefore stifle
them with the excuses of propriety or usage or convenience. This is a hard
thing, and it is so because the claims of truth and the idol in the heart
cannot both be acknowledged. And there is no condition of life where this does
not apply. It is hard for the man of science, whose name has been identified
with certain theories and principles, to sacrifice his name and fair renown to
the growing conviction of counter theories and principles which will make the
past a blank, or show it to have been a mistake. It is hard for the religious
partisan, whose life has been east in a particular mould, and whose sympathies
are linked to one form of opinion and practice, to yield to the force of truth
when it comes with the authority of conviction to the mind and compels the
acknowledgment of previous error and misunderstanding. But more than this, it
is hard not to approach the consideration of religious truth with a distinct
bias; but it is certain that the existence of any such bias must damage our
appreciation of the truth. Unless we can see all round a thing, we can have no
true apprehension of the thing. We may view it partially, but shall have no
conception of it as a whole. The idol in possession of the mind will prevent
the entrance of the true idea. But if this is true, and in proportion as it is,
there are certain general principles to which it behoves us all to give heed
when we come to the worship of God. First of all, we must empty ourselves of
ourselves. We must come as though our present knowledge of God were as nothing,
and as if God were still to be known and learnt. The whole of what we have must
be sacrificed for the sake of what we are to have and to gain. As long as sin,
in one of its innumerable forms, lurks in the heart or on the conscience, the
service of God will be a vain thing, because the pursuit of truth is a lie. It
is that practised dishonesty, it is that cherished lust, it is that pampered
self-love, it is that incurable indolence, it is that willingly defiled
imagination, it is that malice and envy which vitiates all your worship and
renders all your religion a lie. There is One who searches the heart, and who
cleanses it because He searches it. There is One whose blood cleanses us from all
sin, if we are willing to walk in the light, as He is in the light. It is in
direct personal communion with this heart-searcher, with this sin-bearer, but
only so, that we become sinless. But if anything is suffered to interfere with
that direct personal intercourse and communion, no matter what it is, even
though it should be some sacred word or ordinance of His own, that is an idol
which interferes with our worship and service of Him, and therefore an idol
which must be broken down. (S. Leathes, D. D.)
Idolaters inquiring of God
I. What is meant
by the setting up of idols?
1. It is oppressive to men in their natural state to think of the
spiritual, omnipresent, heart-searching God. Accordingly they have brought down
their conception of God to something that can be apprehended by sense. They
have thus tried to satisfy the religious instinct within them, while at the
same time pleasing themselves. It is much easier to have an object of worship
that we can see, or touch, or taste. An idol, too, is not so exacting as the
incorruptible and sin-hating God. Being material, it cannot require heart
worship.
2. We are in no danger of worshipping idols of wood and stone. But
the tendency of human nature is always the same, and where there is not
renewing grace there is something creaturely that is idolised--it may be some
place of power, or wealth, or some sensual pleasure, or child, or creation of
the mind.
II. The inquiring.
These Israelites did not mean by setting up their idols utterly to east off
Jehovah. They meant still to connect Him with their past history as their
national deity. And so we can understand their going to inquire of one of the
Lord’s prophets. There were cross-currents in their life. There was the
idolatrous current which led them to do what was forbidden by God, and yet
there was the old current which led them to inquire of God. We may find an
analogy to this still.
1. There is this inquiring when we ask for light and help in prayer,
while at the same time we are determined to follow what pleases ourselves.
2. There is this inquiry when we search the Bible while yet we are
resolved to see in it only certain things.
III. The divine
treatment.
1. Why it must be futile to inquire of God while bent on our own way.
2. How God shows the futility of inquiring of Him while we are bent
on our own way. “I the Lord will answer him.”
Idols in the heart
I. The principle
laid down. As a magnet attracts out of rubbish only the bits of iron for which
it has an affinity, so the idol-idea in a man’s mind will make him fix on
whatever will minister to it, and neglect everything else. The very Word of God
will be but a mirror in which he sees reflected the thought which possesses his
soul.
II. The working of
this principle.
1. The apostles, like the rest of the Jews, had a settled conviction
that the Messiah would be a great temporal Prince.
2. Another instance is found in those who seek a system of Church
government in the New Testament.
3. The controversy as to the ultimate doom of the unbelieving.
Restorationist, annihilist, and believer in endless torment--all appeal to same
Word, and often to same texts.
III. Practical use.
Three common idols--
1. The thought that to repent of sin and turn to Jesus at last hour
will be enough.
2. The thought that good works are not essential to salvation.
3. The thought that the new life of faith must be ushered in with
some great and overwhelming spasm of feeling. (J. Ogle.)
The idols in the heart a barrier to the truth
I. The idols that
are in the heart and the stumbling blocks that are before the face, are the
sins with which God’s people are sometimes chargeable.
II. Men professing
to inquire after God while their idols are in their hearts, and their stumbling
blocks before their faces; or, the gross inconsistency of seeking to mingle the
service of God with the pursuit of sin.
1. Men may pray from the influence of custom.
2. From the promptings of conscience.
3. From the desire to stand, well with their fellow men.
4. From a yam desire to set themselves right with God.
III. God taking
notice of the idols that are in men’s hearts, and the stumbling-blocks that are
before their faces, or the faithful warnings which God addresses to those who
follow sin while they profess to serve Him.
1. He intimates that He is perfectly acquainted with us.
2. He tells us that He cannot answer the requests of those who
indulge in sin.
3. He shows us how unreasonable it is to expect that He will be
inquired of by us. (Evangelical Preacher.)
Heart disease the worst disease
Manton says, “What would we think of a man who complained of the
toothache, or of a cut finger, when all the while he was wounded at the heart?
Would it not seem very strange?” Yet men will lament anything sooner than the
depravity of their hearts. Many will confess their wandering thoughts in
prayer, but will not acknowledge the estrangement of their hearts from God.
They will be sorry for having spoken angrily, but not for having a passionate
heart. They will own to Sabbath breaking, but never lament their want of love
to Jesus, which is a heart matter. The evil of their hearts seems nothing to
them: their tongues, hands, feet, are all that they notice. What! will they cry
over a cut finger, and feel no fear when they have a dagger thrust into their
bowels? Oh, madness of sinners, that they trifle most with that disease which
is the most dangerous, and lies at the bottom of all other ills. God’s great
complaint of men is that they set up in their hearts idols which they
themselves think nothing of. Certain in our day are so far gone that they even
deny that the human heart is diseased. What then? It does but prove the
intimate connection between the heart and the eyes. A perverted heart soon
creates a blinded eye. Of course, a depraved heart does not see its own
depravity. Oh that we could lead men to think and feel aright about their
hearts; but this is the last point to which we can bring them! They beat about
the bush, and mourn over any and every evil except the source and fountain of
it all. Lord, teach me to look within. May I attend even more to myself than to
my acts. Purge Thou the spring, that the stream may no longer be defiled. I
would begin where Thou dost begin, and beseech Thee to give me a new heart.
Thou sayest, “My son, give Me thine heart.” Lord, I do give it to Thee, but at
the same time I pray, “Lord, give me a new heart”; for without this my heart is
not worth Thy having. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Idolatry in the heart
Travellers tell us that there is a tribe in Africa so given to
superstition that they fill their huts and hovels with so many idols that they
do not even leave room for their families. How many men there are who fill
their hearts with the idols of sin, so that there is no room for the Living
God, or for any of His holy principles! (John Bate.)
Verses 1-11
These men have set up their idols in their heart.
Heart idols
The Lord is now going to search the heart, to turn out the corners
of the inmost recesses of the mind, the idol and favourite sin. He will proceed
to do a spiritual work; He will lay aside His hammer with which He has broken
the wall, and no more will He tear and rend the garments which cover falsehood:
He will enter the heart, He will name the idols one by one which occupy that
secret sanctuary; He will name them, He will bring them forth to judgment, and
He will conduct that most penetrating of all criticism, the judgment of the
thought and motive and purpose of man. “Then came certain of the elders of Israel
unto me,”--came to be looked through, weighed, measured, and adjudged. No
office can save men from Divine criticism. How comforting is this thought,
though terrible in some aspects! It were well that our judges should be judged,
else who can tell to what extremes of folly they might go, hounded on by
ambition, or stung to further issues by envy and malice? The higher the office,
the greater the responsibility; the larger the privileges, the greater the sin
if they are outraged; the more brilliant the genius, the more infamous the
mischief if that genius be perverted. The able man, the man of faculty and
education, can do more sin in one moment than a poor uneducated soul can do in
a lifetime. Elevation aggravates sin. The place of the disease indicates its fatal
character--“in their heart.” This is heart disease. Men almost whisper when
they indicate that some friend is suffering from disease of the heart; there is
hopelessness in the tone: great allowance should be made, they say, for a man
who is suffering from heart disease; be must not be startled, or excited, or
suddenly pounced upon; his wishes must be gratified, they must as far as
possible even be anticipated; and any little impatience he may show must be
looked at charitably. The talk is humane, the considerateness is full of
affection, the conditions imposed are suggested by reason. Is there not a
higher disease of the heart? What is the meaning of this disease of the heart,
this idolatry in the inmost soul? When a moral disease is of the heart it means
that the disease is liked, enjoyed; it is wine drunk behind the door, it is a
feast of fat things eaten in secrecy; every mouthful so sweet, so good, so
rich. When a disease is of the heart in a moral and spiritual sense it means
that it is consented to; it is voluntary, it is personal, it is desired; there
would be a sense of loss without it. Disease of this kind, too, is most
difficult of eradication. It is not in the skin, or it might be cut out; it is
not in the limb, or it might be amputated, and the knife might anticipate
mortification: the evil is in the heart; no knife can touch it, no persuasion
can get at it; nothing can be done with it but one thing--only a miracle of the
Holy Ghost can overcome that difficulty and turn that disease into health.
“Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.” Are we chargeable
with heart idolatry? We have no idols of a visible kind, it may be, yet we may
be the veriest pagans in our hearts. We say, How distressing that poor human
nature should fall down before stock and stone and worship it! and we, inflated
pagans, worship a golden calf, a tinsel crown, a sounding name, a crafty
policy. Are we chargeable with heart idolatry? Certainly we are. No man can
escape this accusation. It is subtle, far reaching, all but ineradicable. If we
do not face such difficulties our piety is a stucco that will peel off in the
wet weather, and leave the ghastly moral ugliness exposed to public scorn.
Doubt may be an idol used to diminish responsibility. Others, again, may have
in the heart an idol called Ignorance, kept there for the purpose of
diminishing service: we will not go into the dark places of the city, then we
need not attend to the cries which are said to be arising there from overborne
and hopeless humanity; we will keep on the broad thoroughfare, where the
gaslight is plentiful; we shall see the surface and outer shape of things, and
then retire to rest, saying that, say what fanatics may, there is really a good
deal of solid happiness in the city. Have we not an idol in the heart we call
Orthodoxy, which We keep there in order to enlarge moral licence? Is there not
an intellectual orthodoxy and a spiritual heterodoxy often united in the same
man? “Therefore say unto the house of Israel, Thus Saith the Lord God: Repent.”
When did the Lord ever conclude a discourse without some evangelical tone in
it? The Bible is terrific in denunciation, awful beyond all other books in its
denunciation of sin and its threatening of perdition; yet through it, and
through it again, and ruling it, is a spirit of clemency and pity and mercy and
hope, yea, across hell’s burning mouth there lies the shadow of the Cross. (J.
Parker, D. D.)
Mental idolatry
The father of modern philosophy and science has shown us that
there are in the mind of man, as man, natural idols which act as impediments to
his acquisition of knowledge and his search after truth. Till these idols are
overthrown and broken in pieces and taken away it is simply useless for man to
pursue knowledge. His efforts will be neutralised and their results vitiated.
Now, if this is so in the matter of human science, it is none the less worthy
of our regard in the matter of Divine truth and of the knowledge of God. We
cannot know God, whom to know is eternal life, as long as these natural
obstacles are not taken out of the way. We cannot serve Him acceptably as long
as, instead of being dethroned, they are still set up in our hearts. What,
then, is the practical bearing of this truth? First, there must be a single eye
to the knowledge of God. If we have not determined with ourselves that God, and
the knowledge of God, and the fear of God, is more to be desired, and if we
personally do not desire it more than wealth, or ease, or success, or the
applause of men, or position in life, or influence, or comfort, or anything
else, then we may be never so punctual in our religious duties, never so
zealous for the outward honour of God, never so eager for the triumph of
particular principles, or a particular party, or a particular cause, but for
all that there is still enshrined in some inner recess, some secret corner of
our hearts, an idol which disputes with the Most High God the possession and
sovereignty of them. Again, not only must there be a clear and undimmed
perception of God as the one sole object of our services, but there must also
be a readiness to sacrifice anything in order to know and to serve Him. How
many there are in the present day, not, thank God, who cannot afford to be
religious--for that brings with it no slur in our times, but rather the
reverse--but how many there are who dare not follow Truth whithersoever she may
lead, who cannot afford to obey their own convictions, and therefore stifle
them with the excuses of propriety or usage or convenience. This is a hard thing,
and it is so because the claims of truth and the idol in the heart cannot both
be acknowledged. And there is no condition of life where this does not apply.
It is hard for the man of science, whose name has been identified with certain
theories and principles, to sacrifice his name and fair renown to the growing
conviction of counter theories and principles which will make the past a blank,
or show it to have been a mistake. It is hard for the religious partisan, whose
life has been east in a particular mould, and whose sympathies are linked to
one form of opinion and practice, to yield to the force of truth when it comes
with the authority of conviction to the mind and compels the acknowledgment of
previous error and misunderstanding. But more than this, it is hard not to
approach the consideration of religious truth with a distinct bias; but it is
certain that the existence of any such bias must damage our appreciation of the
truth. Unless we can see all round a thing, we can have no true apprehension of
the thing. We may view it partially, but shall have no conception of it as a
whole. The idol in possession of the mind will prevent the entrance of the true
idea. But if this is true, and in proportion as it is, there are certain
general principles to which it behoves us all to give heed when we come to the
worship of God. First of all, we must empty ourselves of ourselves. We must
come as though our present knowledge of God were as nothing, and as if God were
still to be known and learnt. The whole of what we have must be sacrificed for
the sake of what we are to have and to gain. As long as sin, in one of its
innumerable forms, lurks in the heart or on the conscience, the service of God
will be a vain thing, because the pursuit of truth is a lie. It is that
practised dishonesty, it is that cherished lust, it is that pampered self-love,
it is that incurable indolence, it is that willingly defiled imagination, it is
that malice and envy which vitiates all your worship and renders all your
religion a lie. There is One who searches the heart, and who cleanses it
because He searches it. There is One whose blood cleanses us from all sin, if
we are willing to walk in the light, as He is in the light. It is in direct
personal communion with this heart-searcher, with this sin-bearer, but only so,
that we become sinless. But if anything is suffered to interfere with that
direct personal intercourse and communion, no matter what it is, even though it
should be some sacred word or ordinance of His own, that is an idol which
interferes with our worship and service of Him, and therefore an idol which
must be broken down. (S. Leathes, D. D.)
Idolaters inquiring of God
I. What is meant
by the setting up of idols?
1. It is oppressive to men in their natural state to think of the
spiritual, omnipresent, heart-searching God. Accordingly they have brought down
their conception of God to something that can be apprehended by sense. They
have thus tried to satisfy the religious instinct within them, while at the
same time pleasing themselves. It is much easier to have an object of worship
that we can see, or touch, or taste. An idol, too, is not so exacting as the
incorruptible and sin-hating God. Being material, it cannot require heart
worship.
2. We are in no danger of worshipping idols of wood and stone. But
the tendency of human nature is always the same, and where there is not
renewing grace there is something creaturely that is idolised--it may be some
place of power, or wealth, or some sensual pleasure, or child, or creation of
the mind.
II. The inquiring.
These Israelites did not mean by setting up their idols utterly to east off
Jehovah. They meant still to connect Him with their past history as their
national deity. And so we can understand their going to inquire of one of the
Lord’s prophets. There were cross-currents in their life. There was the
idolatrous current which led them to do what was forbidden by God, and yet
there was the old current which led them to inquire of God. We may find an
analogy to this still.
1. There is this inquiring when we ask for light and help in prayer,
while at the same time we are determined to follow what pleases ourselves.
2. There is this inquiry when we search the Bible while yet we are
resolved to see in it only certain things.
III. The divine
treatment.
1. Why it must be futile to inquire of God while bent on our own way.
2. How God shows the futility of inquiring of Him while we are bent
on our own way. “I the Lord will answer him.”
Idols in the heart
I. The principle
laid down. As a magnet attracts out of rubbish only the bits of iron for which
it has an affinity, so the idol-idea in a man’s mind will make him fix on
whatever will minister to it, and neglect everything else. The very Word of God
will be but a mirror in which he sees reflected the thought which possesses his
soul.
II. The working of
this principle.
1. The apostles, like the rest of the Jews, had a settled conviction
that the Messiah would be a great temporal Prince.
2. Another instance is found in those who seek a system of Church
government in the New Testament.
3. The controversy as to the ultimate doom of the unbelieving.
Restorationist, annihilist, and believer in endless torment--all appeal to same
Word, and often to same texts.
III. Practical use.
Three common idols--
1. The thought that to repent of sin and turn to Jesus at last hour
will be enough.
2. The thought that good works are not essential to salvation.
3. The thought that the new life of faith must be ushered in with
some great and overwhelming spasm of feeling. (J. Ogle.)
The idols in the heart a barrier to the truth
I. The idols that
are in the heart and the stumbling blocks that are before the face, are the
sins with which God’s people are sometimes chargeable.
II. Men professing
to inquire after God while their idols are in their hearts, and their stumbling
blocks before their faces; or, the gross inconsistency of seeking to mingle the
service of God with the pursuit of sin.
1. Men may pray from the influence of custom.
2. From the promptings of conscience.
3. From the desire to stand, well with their fellow men.
4. From a yam desire to set themselves right with God.
III. God taking
notice of the idols that are in men’s hearts, and the stumbling-blocks that are
before their faces, or the faithful warnings which God addresses to those who
follow sin while they profess to serve Him.
1. He intimates that He is perfectly acquainted with us.
2. He tells us that He cannot answer the requests of those who
indulge in sin.
3. He shows us how unreasonable it is to expect that He will be
inquired of by us. (Evangelical Preacher.)
Heart disease the worst disease
Manton says, “What would we think of a man who complained of the
toothache, or of a cut finger, when all the while he was wounded at the heart?
Would it not seem very strange?” Yet men will lament anything sooner than the
depravity of their hearts. Many will confess their wandering thoughts in
prayer, but will not acknowledge the estrangement of their hearts from God.
They will be sorry for having spoken angrily, but not for having a passionate
heart. They will own to Sabbath breaking, but never lament their want of love
to Jesus, which is a heart matter. The evil of their hearts seems nothing to
them: their tongues, hands, feet, are all that they notice. What! will they cry
over a cut finger, and feel no fear when they have a dagger thrust into their
bowels? Oh, madness of sinners, that they trifle most with that disease which
is the most dangerous, and lies at the bottom of all other ills. God’s great
complaint of men is that they set up in their hearts idols which they
themselves think nothing of. Certain in our day are so far gone that they even
deny that the human heart is diseased. What then? It does but prove the
intimate connection between the heart and the eyes. A perverted heart soon
creates a blinded eye. Of course, a depraved heart does not see its own
depravity. Oh that we could lead men to think and feel aright about their
hearts; but this is the last point to which we can bring them! They beat about
the bush, and mourn over any and every evil except the source and fountain of
it all. Lord, teach me to look within. May I attend even more to myself than to
my acts. Purge Thou the spring, that the stream may no longer be defiled. I
would begin where Thou dost begin, and beseech Thee to give me a new heart.
Thou sayest, “My son, give Me thine heart.” Lord, I do give it to Thee, but at
the same time I pray, “Lord, give me a new heart”; for without this my heart is
not worth Thy having. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Idolatry in the heart
Travellers tell us that there is a tribe in Africa so given to
superstition that they fill their huts and hovels with so many idols that they
do not even leave room for their families. How many men there are who fill
their hearts with the idols of sin, so that there is no room for the Living
God, or for any of His holy principles! (John Bate.)
Verse 4
I the Lord will answer him that cometh according to the multitude
of his idols.
Answered according to their idols
With them, as froward, the All-seeing will, in the psalmist’s
terribly bold phrase, “show Himself froward”; they will incur that penalty
which Scripture describes as a blinding of their eyes and a hardening of their
heart, and which essentially consists in their being left to themselves without
the light which they do not sincerely seek for--left, in fact, to take their
own way, and see what will come of it. This line of Biblical language has caused
difficulties which cannot be passed over; the more so, because one passage in
which it is found (Isaiah 6:10) is of all passages in the
Old Testament the one most frequently cited in the New Testament; and St. John,
with a startling distinctness, attributes the “blinding” and “hardening” to the
Lord. The explanation must be found in that law of ethical life whereby
persistency in self-will--the process, as Shakespeare, in an awfully vivid
passage, calls it, of “growing hard in viciousness”--does inevitably produce
moral insensibility. All serious moralists, whatever be their theological
standpoint, will admit this to be a fact; and all who believe in a God will see
in it a revelation of His character, so that when it works He is, in fact,
allowing it to take its course. And it is the method of Scripture writers to
impress the fact on men’s minds with a concrete vividness, by representing such
action on God’s part as a literal penal infliction. There, anyhow, stands the
fact, and we have to reckon with it. Let us’ also fear, and be on our guard,
lest, for lack of the single-eyed purpose which our Lord insists upon in His
great sermon, we too should be left in the great darkness which waits like a
shadow on hardness of heart. (Canon Bright.)
The blight of the idol
A man’s vision determines what kind of revelation he will accept.
It will guide him in the choice of his prophet: “Son of man, these men have set
up their idols in their heart, and put the stumbling block of their iniquity
before their face: should I be inquired of at all by them?” (Ezekiel 14:3). When an inquirer comes
with his idol in his heart, he is not an inquirer, but a claimant; he has
brought with him the only answer which he is prepared to entertain: he falls
over the stumbling block of his iniquity, and misses the light of the bright
and morning star. How that “according to” reverberates through the prophet’s
messages! Here it declares that every idol carries with it a lie that will be
believed for truth. There is an atmosphere in which the true prophet cannot
draw his breath and speak distinctly; the false prophet can and that is the
disaster. “Mischief shall come upon mischief, and rumour shall be upon rumour;
then shall they seek a vision of the prophet; but the law shall perish from the
priest, and counsel from the ancients” (Ezekiel 7:26). when idols flourish,
ideals perish. (H. E. Lewis.)
Verse 5-6
They are all estranged from Me through their idols.
Alienation from God
We read here, in God’s own words, His rule of dealing with persons
who come to Him in a certain disposition of mind.
1. The word “estranged” implies a former condition of close
relationship and affection, from which they have since fallen. You would not
apply the term to foreigners. You would not say of a Frenchman that he was
estranged from this country, simply because he never belonged to it; but if an
Englishman resided so long in Paris as to lose his patriotism and interest in
our affairs, you would say that he was estranged. So, again, you would not say
of a mere acquaintance, if you ceased to see him, that he was estranged from
you; but if the love of an old friend grow cold, if a child become indifferent
to his home, or a husband fail in his devotion to his wife, you describe such a
falling off as estrangement. In this temper certain elders of Israel presented
themselves before the prophet of God. They came to inquire His will and seek
His aid. What self-delusion, then, is this! what blindness of heart! Men coming
to God to inquire of Him, and not knowing that there is that within them which
will forbid God’s hearing them! Who has persuaded them to come this way at all?
No voice but that of their own heart! And yet do you say that it is their heart
which bars the way of God against them? “Estranged from Me through their
idols!” Oh, to us, who may be as these elders of Israel, how hard does this
rule of God press upon us! Like them, only far more favoured in all spiritual
blessings, with everything to turn our feet towards God, the very currents of
society swaying us in this direction, the breeze of fashion gently impelling us
hither, the hand of custom with its constant but almost unfelt pressure laid
upon the helm of our daily life to guide us within the haven of the Church. We
learn to say our prayers, and prayer becomes a trick of words. Bibles are
cheap, and in every man’s hand. And yet, even now, there may be amongst us some
who do not remember, that with idols in our heart we are estranged from God,
and that He will not be inquired of by us at all!
2. But this is not the worst. The question God puts expects the
answer “No”; and yet it is not the answer which He gives it. His answer admits
us to a nearer view of His mysterious dealings with man. We see Him work by a rule
that we know nothing of, a rule of mystery, marvellous and inscrutable, but one
which example and experience teach us He applies with unerring force. When men
thus estranged and alienated from Him in heart present themselves in person
before Him, He does not refuse them an audience. They pray--He hears--their
prayer is answered: but how fatal is the gift which He grants! “I the Lord will
answer him that cometh according to the multitude of his idols.” What
illustrations of the Divine conduct does Scripture offer both in the Old
Testament and the New! The Jews clamoured for a king, and God gave them one,
but in this wise,--“I gave thee a king in Mine anger, and took him away in My
wrath.” They cried in the wilderness for flesh,--“So they did eat, and were
well filled, for He gave them their own desire; they were not disappointed of
their lust. But while the meat was yet in their mouths,” etc., “and smote down
the chosen men that were in Israel.” Balaam received the king’s messengers a
second time, and though God had once answered him, he professed to inquire of
Him again. He came with idols in his heart, his affection estranged from God:
and what was the result? Did God forbid his praying? Oh that He had done so!
Did He refuse his prayer? Alas! He granted it, saying, “Rise up and go with
them.” And Balaam, too happy to get the permission, went. But God’s anger was
kindled because he went: and the end was that he fell from sin to sin, selling
himself to do the tempter’s work; and he died among God’s enemies, his own
pious prayers and blessings ringing the curse of the hypocrite in his ears.
There is yet another example nearer the person of the blessed Lord Himself; and
therefore the warning is more terrible. Jesus chose but twelve to help Him in
His work; and even on one of these He looked--a man with idols in his
heart--and said of him, “Have not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a
devil?” This man came near to Christ, as the eleven: he passed as one of them.
He was with them almost up to the very last; he just wanted a little time to go
away and finally arrange the plot, and that time he had. God gave him the
opportunity,--say not gave, but permitted him. Jesus looked at him and said,
“What thou doest, do quickly.” Was ever prayer heard like that? was ever man on
earth answered after the multitude of his idols like that?
3. God’s purpose in answering the evil desires of hearts alienated
from His love. Their heart is to become their snare, the net in which they
shall be caught, the pitfall in which they shall be entrapped. Your talents and
tastes and affections and ruling desires,--the gifts with which nature’s hand
has made you rich, the inheritance with which you started in life,--your
physical strength, your youth, your beauty, your wit, your attractiveness, your
amiable temper, your power of sympathy, your grace of manner, your aptitude for
business, your strong will, your influence over others--with these you made
your casts early in life: they have brought you in glittering spoils and stores
of comfort, and have enriched your home with pleasures and with wealth. But
these very instruments of gain, what else have you done with them? Have they
entangled you too much in the world? impeded you on your way to God? implicated
you dangerously with others? Have you ensnared others, and made inextricable
confusion in their projects of a peaceful, holy, happy life? And now, as you
grow older, are you so involved in this world’s business that you cannot escape
its toils? When Christ, the rightful Master of your heart, calls to you from
the quiet shore, and bids you leave your nets, and become, if not expressly
“fishers of men,” yet at least servants in His work, is your heart free to
follow Him? is your heart His at all? nay, is your heart your own to give? Have
you not given it away already to idols, to false gods, to the world? or it may
be, you have lost your heart in sin! (Archdeacon Furse.)
Things that estrange the heart from God
It was a true and beautiful remark made by the mother of Wm.
Allan, the Quaker chemist, when she was seeking to win her son to give more
attention to religion, and to devote less time to the prosecution of his
studies in his favourite and fascinating science: “Remember, my boy, that
Christ cast even the doves out of the temple.” The lesson thus gently taught
was effectually taken to heart. Young Allan learned, with lasting profit, that
the most innocent and lawful of earthly objects of interest may not occupy that
central place in our affections which our Saviour claims for Himself; but in
the souls of the redeemed all other desires will, without painful effort,
arrange themselves at due distances from this centre.
Repent, and turn
yourselves from your idols.--
Repentance
1. Repentance is a turning from sin to God. It is not any turning, but
a turning of the judgment, so that men judge otherwise of God, of His laws and
ways, of sin, of themselves, than before; a turning of the will and affections,
so that they are carried wholly and fully unto God (Joel 2:12).
2. Repentance is a continued act. It is a grace, and must have its
daily operation, as well as other graces. Where a spring breaks forth it is
always flowing.
3. Sinners should stir up themselves, and do the utmost which lies in
their power to further their turning unto God. “Turn yourselves from your
idols”; use all arguments you can to cause your hearts to turn from idols, and
from other sinful ways. Consider--
4. True repentance and turning to the Lord doth manifest itself in
the effects and fruits of it: it hath meet fruit (Matthew 3:8), worthy fruit (Luke 3:8). Now, here are three effects
thereof in these words:
Sin not tolerated
When his people at Wittenberg showed him their licences to sin,
Luther’s answer was, “Unless you repent you will all perish.”. . . “Please God,
I’ll make a hole in his drum,” he said, when he first heard of Tetzel selling
these indulgences. (Anecdotes of Luther.)
Verse 7
Which separateth himself from Me.
Point of contact disturbed by sin
Dr. Cortland Meyers says that one of the electric bells in his
home recently refused to ring. He failed to discover the cause. An electrician
was sent for. After some time spent over it he found that right up under the
bell, so insignificant as to be almost imperceptible, was a place where the
point of contact was lost. It is often so with the Church. “Battery all right,
machinery and wires all right, but the point of contact is
defective”--disobedience, pride, covetousness have estranged the heart from
God. (R. Venting.)
Sin’s power to separate man from God
A man never gets to the end of the distance that separates between
him and the Father, if his face is turned away from God. Every moment the
separation is increasing. Two lines start from each other at the acutest angle,
are farther apart from each other the farther they are produced, until at last
the one may be away up by the side of God’s throne, and the other away down in
the deepest depths of hell. (A. Maclaren.)
Verse 11
That the house of Israel may go no more astray from Me.
Chastisement of God’s people
Manton says, “There is more squaring and hewing and hacking used
about a stone that is to be set in a stately palace than that which is placed
in an ordinary building; and the vine is pruned when the bramble is not looked
after, but let alone to grow to its full length.” This should reconcile
believers to their chastisements. Brambles certainly have a fine time of it,
and grow after their own pleasure. We have seen their long shoots reaching far
and wide, and no knife has threatened them as they luxuriated upon the commons
and waste lands. The poor vine is eat down so closely that little remains of it
but bare stems. Yet, when clearing time comes, and the brambles are heaped for
their burning, who would not rather be the vine? (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Verses 12-14
Though these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they
should deliver but their own souls.
The limit of influence
The solemnity of this assurance is increased by the fact that it
forms quite an exception to the general tenor of the Divine government. Again
and again God has saved the earth because of the righteous men who were in it:
He would have spared the cities of the plain if Abraham could have found ten
praying souls in the whole of their corrupt population; He blessed the house of
Potiphar for Joseph’s sake; He allowed the intercession of Moses to shield
Israel from judgment well deserved; for Paul’s sake He, saved the ship in the
storm. In the text we come upon a sharp variation of the general method: no
longer is Noah or Daniel or Job to count for more than one; the day of prevailing
intercession is to close; character is to be individualised, and the diffusion
of collateral benefit is to pass away forever. Terrible as it may seem on first
reading, yet there is quite a deep well of comfort in all this wilderness of
desolation. It will be observed that though the darkness brought down upon the
earth by sin is very great, yet through all the gloom the figures of Noah,
Daniel, and Job are seen in all their vividness and pathetic suggestiveness,
showing that the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and that their memory
is precious to Him. It is clear, however, that the text is meant to be a
warning rather than a comfort, and it is in this spirit that we must approach
its interpretation. It is a warning to individual men. They cannot tell how
soon they will be called upon to cease their intercessory ministry. Specially,
however, is this a warning to households. How terrible is this tragedy, that a
man should no longer be the priest of his own family! The son shall be
separated from the father, and the daughter from the mother, and shall realise
in an awful individualism of position how true it is that every soul must give
an account of itself to God. The Lord will not spare the children when they
have gone astray, having broken every holy vow and shattered every commandment
issued from heaven. “I will also send wild beasts among you,” etc. This is a
threatening which may operate in either of two ways; either because the
children have forfeited Divine confidence, or because the parents have
abandoned the right way, and can only be brought home again by processes of
affliction and desolation. This is a warning also to nations. The nation is
saved because of the living Church that is within it. Prophets must not cease
to pray for the land in which they live. Amid political tumult and uproar the
voice of their prayer may seem to be but a feeble sound, yet they are called
upon by the very genius of their faith to keep the way clear between heaven and
earth for large and profitable intercourse. Into the mystery of intercession we
cannot enter, but we find that it is at the very heart of things, a rule and a
law, a judgment and a blessing, an opportunity large in its possibilities, but
always hastening to a solemn conclusion. The great principle of mediation is,
of course, most vividly and gloriously represented by the ministry of our Lord
Jesus Christ; but even in His case the priesthood is to cease, the long and
loving prayer for others is to come to a perpetual close: “Then cometh the end,”
etc. We live in a great intercessory period; the Spirit itself maketh
intercession for us with groanings that cannot be uttered; we need not fear
because our prayer halts and stumbles as to the mere eloquence of its
expression; the eloquence of prayer is in its sincerity; to the man who is of a
broken and a contrite heart will God look, and on him will He set signs of
approval. A wondrous gift is it to have the gift of intercession, the power of
putting into heavenly words the wants of other men, and the power of pleading
with God on behalf of those who never plead for themselves. Some suppliants can
but pray for themselves; others can only pray concerning great events and great
subjects; others, more Christ-like, seem to carry the world in their hearts, and
to plead for continents and empires in great intercessions. Let us get a clear
view of the system of spiritual government under which we live. We are to
conclude all our prayers, and indeed begin them and continue them, with the
sentiment, “For Christ’s sake.” We cannot understand the mystery of this
ground, and yet we feel how solid it is, and how impossible it would be for us
to pray without it. It is in Christ that we find God. It is through Christ that
we find access to the throne of the heavenly grace. We do not plead Christ as
if we were pleading with an arbitrary deity, who would not do anything for us
ourselves, but would only do it through the mediation of His Son, or because of
His partiality for one whom He calls His Only-Begotten. Though our prayers are
to be heard for Christ’s sake, yet Christ Himself was given for our sake!
Herein is love, that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us! God sent His
Son to seek and to save that which was lost. (J. Parker, D. D.)
A delusion dispelled
I. The righteousness
of the most godly cannot avail for the ungodly.
1. We prove this, first, by referring you to our text, and asking you
to read it for yourselves. Mark ye how the anger of the Lord kindles, and how
the words are launched forth like hot thunderbolts from the lips of the Most
High.
2. Next, I ask you to inspect more narrowly the portraits of these
men of God, who are presumed to have stood counsel for the defendants, and to
have occasioned so much astonishment, because with all their special pleadings
they signally lost their case. The Lord declares that if the whole three were
put together they should not save son or daughter.
3. This truth may be further substantiated by observing the course of
Providence as regards the things of this life. Could the merits of friends and
parents secure the salvation of their relatives or children, we must expect to
see “the son or the daughter” of a righteous man screened from the full
punishment of his own misdeeds; but we have evidence that such is not the case.
4. Painful though it be, I must carry the assertion a stage further.
The righteousness of good men has not availed to save their relatives from the
terrors of the world to come. Cain, where are you tonight? Are you sitting
here; and do you dream that your brother Abel now with God can by any means
bless you? That must not be. Dispel the delusion.
II. The prayers of
the greatest intercessors cannot avail if men persist in their unbelief.
1. Remember that all the prayers of godly men cannot alter the nature
of sin, and if they cannot alter the nature of sin, then they that continue in
it must perish.
2. Moreover, the prayers of good men cannot alter the conditions of
the eternal future, so long as the present abides the same. There is no law
more immutable than that “to be good is to be happy,” and to be bad is sooner
or later to be wretched. It must be so. Trust not, therefore, to the prayers of
others, but come to Christ for yourselves, that you may be cleansed from sin
and made meet for heaven.
3. Perhaps you say, “Sir, I did not think prayer would suffice to
effect a change in my circumstances without a corresponding change in myself;
but I thought that somehow by prayer I should be compelled to believe and to
repent.” Compelled to believe and to repent? Well, man, what sort of repentance
and faith must that be which comes of compulsion? (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Good men: their power and their weakness
I. God recognises
the existence of good men. Many ages had passed away since two of the men
mentioned here, Noah and Job, had left the world. Yet they were not forgotten
by God. Their histories were fresh to Him. Good men are ever before the mind of
God. They are “had in everlasting remembrance.”
2. God appreciates the services of good men. The language implies
that Noah, Daniel, and Job could do much for the world. God hath been pleased
to endow men with power for great achievements, and when this power is rightly
used He grants the smile of His approval.
III. God limits the
influence of good men. These men could do much, had done much; but there was
much they could not do. When righteous retribution overtakes us, the services
of the best men that ever lived will be of no avail.
IV. God secures the
salvation of good men. Their righteousness ensures their salvation. A righteous
man--a man right in his relation towards God, standing fully acquitted before
his Maker, and right in the principles and purposes of his own soul, is safe
everywhere--safe amidst the most terrible judgments of heaven. (D. Thomas,
D. D.)
Noah, Daniel, and Job
If we look at the history of the three holy men mentioned in the
text we shall find that they did save their souls or their lives by their
righteousness. And it is manifestly in accordance with our own deepest sense of
right and justice that this should be so; the notion that good deeds will bring
a reward, and that evil deeds will bring punishment, is too deep to be rooted
out. You perceive how thoroughly it was assumed as a principle by Abraham (Genesis 18:25), as it must be by anyone
who has a sense of the goodness of God, and who believes that the feelings of
right and justice which he finds in his own soul are but the reflexion of God’s
image there,--assumed as a principle, I say, that God would make a difference
between the evil and the good, and would allow a righteous man to live by his
righteousness. Precisely the same kind of doctrine may be found in the New
Testament. For let us turn to that solemn description which our blessed Lord
has Himself left to us of the final judgment; I mean the description which is
contained in St. Matthew 25:1-46. Who shall say, with this
description of the judgment before him, that the last judgment will not be a
judgment according to works, that righteousness will not save souls alive? The
description is only a sketch, it is not intended to be complete; but this
feature is there, you cannot get rid of it, it is that which gives to the whole
judgment its tone and its complexion. And why should we desire to get rid of
it, when the principle upon which it is based is so thoroughly in accordance
with all our sense of right, and in accordance too with those other words of
Christ in which He declares that those who have done good shall rise to the
resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of
condemnation? And why also, with such words of our Lord before us, should we
hesitate to give to the words of St. James their full and undiminished force
when He says, “Ye see, then, how by works a man is justified and not by faith
only”? (Bishop Harvey Goodwin.)
Verse 19-20
Or if I send a pestilence.
Public calamity a call to private humiliation
Depend upon it, we have need, and as the years roll away we shall
have more and more need, to remind ourselves of the unseen Hand which sends us
our blessings or withdraws them from us. New appliances of mechanical skill
have a tendency to keep God out of our sight. The simple machinery which
depended on the wind or the stream for motion did not suffer men so easily to
forget their immediate dependence on God. His agency is half obscured when they
become independent of the breath of heaven, and of the moisture which cometh
down from above. And so there is a constant danger of our lapsing into
practical atheism, if we allow ourselves, in the mere contemplation of a natural
law apart from its Divine Author; or attend to its results, without adverting
to the revealed cause of its operation. It is no disparagement to natural
science to declare that, pursued in any but a godly spirit, it sometimes has a
tendency to obscure the vision of God: to interpose hard names and technical
phrases between Him and ourselves; and practically to keep Him out of our
sight. Nay, the very progress of civilisation, the increase of wealth and
refinement and luxury--all have the same tendency. The table daily spread
without our care helps to keep God out of sight. And the special value of
Scripture is seen in the unconditional and most unceremonious way in which it
brushes aside this web of words; puts God, the Giver, prominently forward; and
vindicates His absolute Sovereignty in creation. When Christ says, “He maketh
His sun to rise,”--His language is altogether unscientific, to be sure; but He
declares a truth which to the devout soul is of paramount importance; namely,
that the heavenly bodies are all His creatures; and that, in reality, the
phenomena which attend them are but the visible expression of His will. While
thoughtful men are investigating the natural history of a calamity which,
unless it be stayed, will inevitably press with terrible severity on the
poor;--which, if it spreads, may bring contagion to all our doors,--occasion
death within our homes and darken every domestic hearth;--“a more excellent
way” is revealed to us in Holy Scripture; a method which is within the reach of
us all. I allude, of course, to individual acts of repentance,--personal
efforts after holiness,--the heartfelt use of private prayer. The special
mention of three of God’s chiefest saints “Noah, Daniel, and Job,” reminds us
that we must as individuals seek to turn away God’s anger from this Church and
nation. What, above all, shall be said of our unconcern for the spiritual wants
of the benighted heathen,--of our own countrymen in foreign parts, of our
fellow citizens here at home? (Dean Burgon.)
Verse 23
Ye shall know that I have not done without cause all that I have
done in it, saith the Lord God.
Waiting for God’s vindication
I. The truths
doubted. In all ages, as in our own, men have doubted the goodness and justice
of God, and have murmured at His acts. They reject consolation, and charge
Jehovah with cruelty. Speak of the sufferings of Jesus for us, and the agnostic
declares that is simply another example of injustice.
II. Causes of
scepticism. Ask for a reason of doubt, and the rationalist asserts that pain
contradicts either the goodness or the power of the Divine Being. But reasons
given are not always causes. Grief is selfish, and tears blind us. Most people
in trouble are like a ship directed by a careless captain, and left with full
canvas when the tempest bursts upon it. We sink because we are not prepared for
gales. Men indulge false hopes, refuse all warnings, expect all things but
death, and when the end comes they cry out that they have been wronged. Custom
makes them regard a loan as a possession, and they call restoration robbery.
III. The futility of
doubt. Of what use is doubt of the fundamental truths of Christianity? How does
it work? A sinner suffering penalty is hardened by doubt of God’s justice, and
discouraged from repentance by question of His mercy. A saint in agony and near
to death is plunged in deeper darkness by doubt of all that remains to her.
Doubt confirms a transgressor, and robs the holy of consolation. To whom, then,
is it good?
IV. Comfort in
God’s truth. If we could look at sin in its hideous deformity, its deep guilt,
its inhuman effects, with sound vision, we mould be slow to complain. If God
did not punish moral evil we could not respect Him, and if He permitted wrong
to go uncorrected the holy could not hope. Haste and impatience hide truth from
us. If we could see the results of suffering in character we might be consoled.
History is an account of the martyrdom of man. But martyrs have not complained.
They have preferred truth, beauty, goodness to the alternatives, and have not
regretted the price. Can we confide in God and wait? And while you wait, be not
idle. There are works meet for repentance. God’s winds are hard to face as “head
winds,” but wondrously helpful to those who will sail with them. The Divine
purpose works toward correction of evil and edification of good. Build with
God, and you will have naught to tear down. (C. R. Henderson, D. D.)
──《The Biblical Illustrator》