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Ezekiel Chapter
Twenty-two
Ezekiel 22
Chapter Contents
The sins of Jerusalem. (1-16) Israel is condemned as
dross. (17-22) As the corruption is general, so shall be the punishment.
(23-31)
Commentary on Ezekiel 22:1-16
(Read Ezekiel 22:1-16)
The prophet is to judge the bloody city; the city of bloods.
Jerusalem is so called, because of her crimes. The sins which Jerusalem stands
charged with, are exceeding sinful. Murder, idolatry, disobedience to parents,
oppression and extortion, profanation of the sabbath and holy things, seventh
commandment sins, lewdness and adultery. Unmindfulness of God was at the bottom
of all this wickedness. Sinners provoke God because they forget him. Jerusalem
has filled the measure of her sins. Those who give up themselves to be ruled by
their lusts, will justly be given up to be portioned by them. Those who resolve
to be their own masters, let them expect no other happiness than their own
hands can furnish; and a miserable portion it will prove.
Commentary on Ezekiel 22:17-22
(Read Ezekiel 22:17-22)
Israel, compared with other nations, had been as the gold
and silver compared with baser metals. But they were now as the refuse that is
consumed in the furnace, or thrown away when the silver is refined. Sinners,
especially backsliding professors, are, in God's account, useless and fit for
nothing. When God brings his own people into the furnace, he sits by them as
the refiner by his gold, to see that they are not continued there any longer
than is fitting and needful. The dross shall be wholly separated, and the good
metal purified. Let those who suffer pains, or lingering sickness, and find
that their hearts can scarcely bear these light and momentary afflictions, take
warning to flee from the wrath to come; for if these trials are not sanctified
by the power of the Holy Spirit, to the cleansing their hearts and hands from
sin, far worse things will come upon them.
Commentary on Ezekiel 22:23-31
(Read Ezekiel 22:23-31)
All orders and degrees of men had helped to fill the
measure of the nation's guilt. The people that had any power abused it, and
even the buyers and sellers find some way to oppress one another. It bodes ill
to a people when judgments are breaking in upon them, and the spirit of prayer
is restrained. Let all who fear God, unite to promote his truth and
righteousness; as wicked men of every rank and profession plot together to run
them down.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on Ezekiel》
Ezekiel 22
Verse 2
[2] Now, thou son of man, wilt thou judge, wilt thou judge
the bloody city? yea, thou shalt shew her all her abominations.
Judge — The question is doubled, to awaken the prophet more
fully, and to quicken him to his work.
Verse 3
[3] Then say thou, Thus saith the Lord GOD, The city
sheddeth blood in the midst of it, that her time may come, and maketh idols
against herself to defile herself.
Her time — The time of ripeness in her sins, and of execution of
judgments on her.
To defile — For this does more defile them,
and provoke God to wrath against them.
Verse 4
[4] Thou art become guilty in thy blood that thou hast shed;
and hast defiled thyself in thine idols which thou hast made; and thou hast
caused thy days to draw near, and art come even unto thy years: therefore have
I made thee a reproach unto the heathen, and a mocking to all countries.
Thy days — The days of thy sorrows, and punishment.
Art come — Thou art grown up to the eldest years in sin, beyond
which thou art not to go.
Verse 5
[5] Those that be near, and those that be far from thee,
shall mock thee, which art infamous and much vexed.
Much vexed — Afflicted, impoverished, and
ruined.
Verse 6
[6] Behold, the princes of Israel, every one were in thee to
their power to shed blood.
Every one — Not one to be found of a more
merciful temper.
To their power — According to their ability.
Verse 7
[7] In thee have they set light by father and mother: in the
midst of thee have they dealt by oppression with the stranger: in thee have
they vexed the fatherless and the widow.
In thee — In Jerusalem.
Verse 8
[8] Thou hast despised mine holy things, and hast profaned
my sabbaths.
Thou — O Jerusalem.
Mine holy things — All mine
institutions, temple, sacrifices, feasts.
Verse 9
[9] In thee are men that carry tales to shed blood: and in
thee they eat upon the mountains: in the midst of thee they commit lewdness.
Carry tales — Informers, or persons that for
money, give in false witness against the innocent.
They eat — Offer sacrifice on the mountains and feast there, in
honour of their idols.
Verse 10
[10] In thee have they discovered their fathers' nakedness:
in thee have they humbled her that was set apart for pollution.
Discovered — Defiled their fathers bed.
Verse 13
[13] Behold, therefore I have smitten mine hand at thy
dishonest gain which thou hast made, and at thy blood which hath been in the
midst of thee.
Smitten mine hand — In testimony of my
abhorrence.
Verse 14
[14] Can thine heart endure, or can thine hands be strong, in
the days that I shall deal with thee? I the LORD have spoken it, and will do
it.
Endure — Withstand the evils that are coming, or bear them when
come.
Verse 16
[16] And thou shalt take thine inheritance in thyself in the
sight of the heathen, and thou shalt know that I am the LORD.
In thyself — Whereas I was thine inheritance
so long as thou wert a holy, obedient people; now be an inheritance to thyself,
if thou canst.
Verse 18
[18] Son of man, the house of Israel is to me become dross:
all they are brass, and tin, and iron, and lead, in the midst of the furnace;
they are even the dross of silver.
Dross — Utterly degenerate, and base metal.
The furnace — The afflictions I have laid upon
them have not bettered them.
The dross — While they loved mercy, did
justly, walked humbly with their God, they were as silver; now they are but
dross.
Verse 19
[19] Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Because ye are all
become dross, behold, therefore I will gather you into the midst of Jerusalem.
Gather you — From all parts. I will, by a
secret over-ruling providence, bring you into Jerusalem, as into a furnace,
where you may be consumed.
Verse 23
[23] And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
Her — The land of Israel.
Not cleansed — Though God's judgments have been
as violent floods; and as hottest fires.
Nor rained upon — Yet neither thy filth hath been
carried away, nor thy dross melted out of thee. Therefore thou shalt be
deprived of the rain, that should cool thy thirsty land.
Verse 25
[25] There is a conspiracy of her prophets in the midst
thereof, like a roaring lion ravening the prey; they have devoured souls; they
have taken the treasure and precious things; they have made her many widows in
the midst thereof.
A conspiracy — A contrivance, to speak all
alike, smooth words, and give out promises of peace and safety.
Thereof — Of the land.
The treasure — As a reward of their lies.
Made her — By persuading Zedekiah to hold out the war, which
filled Jerusalem with dead husbands, and forlorn widows.
Verse 26
[26] Her priests have violated my law, and have profaned mine
holy things: they have put no difference between the holy and profane, neither
have they shewed difference between the unclean and the clean, and have hid
their eyes from my sabbaths, and I am profaned among them.
My holy things — Sacrifices, and oblations.
Put no difference — Neither have they in
their practice, differenced holy and profane, nor in their teaching acquainted
the people with the difference, nor in the exercise of their authority,
separated the profane from the holy, either persons, or things.
Hid their eyes — Despised, and would not see the
holiness of the sabbaths.
Profaned — Contemned, dishonoured, disobeyed.
Verse 27
[27] Her princes in the midst thereof are like wolves ravening
the prey, to shed blood, and to destroy souls, to get dishonest gain.
Destroy souls — Ruin families; cutting off the
fathers, and impoverishing the widow, and fatherless.
Verse 28
[28] And her prophets have daubed them with untempered
morter, seeing vanity, and divining lies unto them, saying, Thus saith the Lord
GOD, when the LORD hath not spoken.
Daubed them — Flattered them, in their ways of
sin.
Untempered mortar — With promises that
like ill-tempered mortar, will deceive them, though all seems at present smooth
and safe.
Verse 30
[30] And I sought for a man among them, that should make up
the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not
destroy it: but I found none.
I sought — God speaks after the manner of men.
A man — Any one, among princes, prophets, priests, or people,
to repair the breach.
And stand — Interpose between a sinful
people, and their offended God, and intreat for mercy.
But — All were corrupted.
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on Ezekiel》
22 Chapter 22
Verses 1-31
Verse 16
Thou shalt take thine inheritance in thyself.
Inheritance in thyself
Man, as a moral being, cannot have happiness or misery
independently of his inner life. Each man in some sense farms his own nature,
and reaps the harvest planted by his own hands. Man is a wealthy proprietor. No
lordly acres, no wide domain of forest land can ever equal the enclosure of his
own heart.
I. In a human
sense we take our inheritance in ourselves. Most certainly we are inheritors of
our past human delinquencies, or of the joy of duties fulfilled. All other
inheritances drop off from us; like gathered flowers they fade! These are
rooted in our hearts. Men may blame us and be wrong, or praise us and be wrong!
But our conscience is a true rest, and happy the man whose smile is as bright,
whose voice as cheery, and whose step is as elastic, whether the world crowns
him with garlands or stones him with scorn!
II. In a mental
sense we take our inheritance in ourselves. Mind is a most productive soil.
Tend it well, and do not hurry the crops, and there is nothing so wonderful in
the universe of God. When you enter the British Museum, remember that from year
to year every little and every large volume has to be received and registered
there. What a registry it is, but it is nothing to the registry of the human
brain! How easily it works, how quickly it shelves for future use the rarest
thoughts, how wonderfully at call it brings the fact or the illustration, not
by some stately messenger, but by the swift telegraphy of its own sensations.
III. In a moral
sense we take our inheritance in ourselves.
1. How true it is of national life. Rome took her inheritance when,
ceasing the virtues of simplicity, honour, and home life, she chose luxury,
pleasure, and the pomp of war. Greece took her inheritance when, choosing
philosophic disquisitions and sophistical debates, she darkened the moral sense
by mere casuistry. Jerusalem took her inheritance when, forsaking the sublime
simplicity and tender spirituality of her faith, she became rabbinical in her
theology, inhuman in her neglect of the needy, and proud in the speciality of her
privileges. In each ease the inheritance came: the military strength of the
northern armies crushed the power of Rome; the enfeeblement of Epicureanism and
refined libertinism seized upon the heart of Greece; and the pride, prejudice,
and pernicious formalism of the Pharisees slew the soul of Hebrew piety.
2. We, too--each of us--take the inheritance in ourselves; the
harvests of life are either tares or wheat, according to our past sowing. Nor
does the Gospel of Jesus Christ interfere with this law. When we become
Christians our past sins are forgiven us through the precious blood of Christ.,
but their influence on our after character and life growth is not hereby
destroyed. Old habits, old pursuits, old readings, old companionships are not
dead and forgotten in a day. They, too, still will be helping or hindering our
progress in the Divine life, and elevating or depressing the spirituality of
our minds.
IV. In all these
aspects of life we mark the Divine fitness of things. If men tell us that we
have no business to occupy our thoughts with moral fitnesses, that God’s yea is
yea, and God’s nay is nay, whatever we may judge, we answer that God is more
considerate than such critics, for He has condescended to appeal to us, that we
may judge between Him and His vineyard; He has permitted the record of those
early cries--“This be far from Thee, Lord, to destroy the righteous with the
wicked.” “Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” And he has sanctioned
St. Paul’s appeal not to every man’s blind obedience, but to every man’s
conscience in the sight of God. Thus we can rest our arguments upon the
unimpeachable bases of Scripture and conscience.
V. In the ministry
of Christ we see this great fact recognised. The Divine Lord saw, as we never
can, the hearts of men. He not only saw rich publicans and lowly Nazarenes, not
only lordly Pharisees and impoverished Samaritans, but He saw the great heart
burthens men were everywhere bearing.. Surely He was a Prophet, and more than a
Prophet; for prophets came to warn and to condemn, to lift up the cry, “Repent!
repent!” But this face was not like one of the old prophets. No! There were
touches of tenderness in it such as they had not, womanly almost, yet weak.
Out, out, they went to Christ. Surely the voice was strange, for great souls
fill words with love as well as thought, and what would not the Divine soul do?
Yes! they heard Jesus. Never man spake as He spake. And what was His theme? Ah!
it is well that we know it. Come, ye inheritors of shame and woe and ill-gotten
wealth, and long-repented lives of sensual sin! Come! you cannot lose your
memories of life, you cannot cut off their influence on mind and heart; but the
bitter, bitter inheritance of shame and agony and woe and guilt--you, even you,
may lose all these! Listen to me: “I am the Good Shepherd; the Good Shepherd
giveth His life for the sheep.” “Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy
laden, and I will give you rest.”
VI. In the future
days the inheritance will work itself out. Yes! Thou shalt take it. As a
pilgrim of eternity, you take the life burthen with you. He that soweth to the
flesh, shall of the flesh reap corruption; and he that soweth to the spirit,
shall of the spirit reap life everlasting. This is in exact harmony with moral
law. (W. M. Statham.)
Verse 18
Son of man, the house of Israel is to me become dross.
Sin’s deteriorating power
Stand in fancy in one of the fights of the old civil war. The
Royalists are fighting desperately, and are winning apace; but I hear a cry
from the other side that Cromwell’s Ironsides are coming. Now we shall see some
fighting. Oliver and his men are lions. But lo! I see that the fellows who come
up hang fire, and are afraid to rush into the thick of the fight; surely these
are not Cromwell’s Ironsides, and yonder captain is not old Nell? I do not
believe it; it cannot be. Why, if they were what they profess to be, they would
have broken the ranks of those perfumed cavaliers long ago, and have made them
fly before them like chaff before the wind. So when I hear men say, “Here is a
body of Christians.” What! those Christians? Those cowardly people, who hardly
dare speak a word for Jesus! Those covetous people, who give a few cheese
parings to His cause! Those inconsistent people, whom you would not know to be
Christian professors if they did not label themselves! What! such beings
followers of a crucified Saviour! The world sneers at such pretensions, and
well it may. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Verse 24
Thou art the land that is not cleansed, nor rained upon in the day
of indignation.
Practical uses of the state of the land of Judah
We propose to speak concerning the special instruction which the
prophet received to intimate her state. It was not communicated to him as a
secret, or whispered in the ears of a few select friends. A commission is
prefixed, by, which he was commanded to proclaim the state of the land in the
public ear: “Son of man, say unto her, Thou art the land that is not cleansed,
nor rained on in the day of indignation.” On several considerations this solemn
formality was necessary.
1. It was necessary on account of the stiffness and haughtiness of
the people. In the temper of every backsliding church pride is a reigning
corruption; but among the peculiar people, it appears at that time to have
risen to the highest elevation of vanity and guilt. Blown up by lying
divinations, and full of extravagant notions of their own importance, they
persuaded themselves that peculiar privileges could not be forfeited, nor an
everlasting possession alienated and transferred. But the Lord, having declared
by the mouth of Jeremiah that He would mar the pride of Judah, and the great
pride of Jerusalem, sent fresh instructions unto Ezekiel in Babylon to carry on
the approaches, and to invest and storm the stronghold of the national pride.
2. This solemn formality was necessary on account of the depravation
of national manners, and the inefficacy of means which had been used to
retrieve national honour. Kings, princes, and judges, priests, prophets, and
people, despised exhortation and warning, and humbled not themselves under
correction and chastisement. In this state of depravation and impurity the day
of indignation found the land, and its filthiness increasing, and hardening
under the heart, Ezekiel, a little after the delivery of the message sent him
in the text, added Ezekiel 24:12-14.
3. This solemn formality was necessary to justify the violent
measures that were to be adopted for removing the barrenness and filth of the
land. Milder expedients to correct the depravity and recover the glory of the
nation being used without effect, violent measures became necessary, and were
actually pursued. Lamentations 2:6. Under church and state
the spirit of judgment and the spirit of burning kindled and devoured together
the thorns and the briars in both. These measures of justice and violence were
communicated to Ezekiel, in a message which stands recorded before the text (Ezekiel 22:18-22).
4. The solemn formality of a special message concerning the state of
the land in the day of indignation was necessary, to contrast the singularity
of her mercies with the singularity of her sins. Terms and expressions very
uncommon are used concerning their sufferings. Proverb, by-word, derision,
scorn, reproach, taunt, hissing, laugh stock, astonishment, curse are bitter
expressions which frequently occur, and have a dreadful reality in their
history. Now, from the justice and equity of the Lord their God we may infer
that people, whom in His wrath He made a derision to the world, had made
themselves a scandal and abhorrence to the world by their crimes.
5. This solemn formality was necessary to stop the mouths of that
murmuring and gainsaying people, and to cut off occasion of complaining as if
they had been surprised or taken unawares. The corrupt and filthy state of the
land, which was become a nuisance to the world, had been set forth in the
plainest language, and as it resisted ordinary means of cleansing, an example
was necessary for the honour of the God of the land, the God of the whole
earth; but before He made the example, this instruction is sent to Ezekiel,
“Son of man, say unto her, Thou art the land that is not cleansed,” etc.
Application--
1. After hearing the state of the land of Judah described, are ye
highly elevated? Believers, the glory of the Most High over all the earth,
breaking forth in the execution of judgment upon the land of Judah in the day
of His indignation, is the glory of our God. In His glory “our God is a
consuming fire”; and in His glory our “God is love”!
2. After reading and hearing the state of the land of Judah in the
day of indignation, are ye deeply humbled? Next to Gethsemane and Golgotha,
where sin and wrath met upon the Son of God, stand the city of Jerusalem and
the land of Judah, where iniquity set its throne, and wrath poured itself into
the cup of fury full of mixture. About this humbling monument we will walk, and
view it on every side, looking upon Him whom we have pierced, and whom “God
hath made to be sin or us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in
Him.”
3. After reading and hearing the state of the land of Judah in the
day of indignation, are ye rejoicing in hope? With Israelites, Gentiles are now
fellow heirs, and of the same body, partakers of the promises of God in Christ
by the Gospel, and drink the waters of the river whose streams made Jerusalem a
rejoicing and her people a joy. The river of consolation flowing out of the
promises of Messiah, the heat of indignation could not dry up. Flowing through
the blood and fire and ashes of Jerusalem, it deepened and widened, and filled
its course, till at last it run over the mountains of Jerusalem, spread itself
into the valleys of the Gentiles, and in deserts and wildernesses poured into
families and churches the water of life.
4. After reading and hearing the state of the land of Judah in the
day of indignation, are we trembling with fear? To infidels and atheists, to
sinners in Zion and hypocrites in heart, wrath is an object of fearful and
certain apprehension. Against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who
hold the truth in unrighteousness, it is revealed, and unless they hide
themselves in the Saviour, even Jesus who delivered us from the wrath to come,
it will fall, either in this or the other world, or in both, in a destroying
storm.
5. After reading and hearing the state of the land of Judah in the
day of indignation, are ye established in the faith of the providence of God?
By the judgment which He executeth the Lord is known, and known not only to
live but to reign.
6. After reading and hearing the state of the land of Judah in the
day of indignation, are we prepared unto every good work? Exhortations to good
works were disregarded by that gainsaying and perverse race of evil-doers. Show
yourselves to be men of spirit and business, men full of faith and of good
works. If a day of indignation be coming, where should we be found? Under the
righteousness of Christ, and at our business. Do ye look for it? what manner of
persons ought ye to be in holy conversation and godliness? (A.
Shanks.)
Applications from the state of the land of Judah to the present
times
Water is a natural mirror, and when men look into it face
answereth to face. Scripture is a spiritual mirror, and when we look into it,
church answereth to church, and one generation of evil-doers to another.
1. Errors and heresies of the most pernicious quality are appearing
amongst us, and perverting and corrupting multitudes from the simplicity that
is in Christ. Fools who adore no Creator, believe no providence, and fear no
Judge, walk on every side; and against God, in whom they live and move and have
their being, utter many blasphemous words. By some who profess to know God, the
revelation of His will in the holy Scriptures is rejected; and by others who
acknowledge the inspiration of these holy writings, truths revealed in them are
denied and misrepresented.
2. Truth, where it is believed and preached, appears to have
purifying influence on very few. Where converting and healing doctrine is
preached, few appear to be converted and healed; and Holy Scripture itself,
which shows unto men the way of salvation, is either neglected by the greatest
part who acknowledge its inspiration, or read without faith and love and profit
to their souls.
3. Under the dispensations of providence, our principles and manners
are not amended. In smiling and frowning dispensations the voice of the Lord is
disregarded, and our conduct is becoming worse and worse every day. The
goodness of Providence, the calling of the elect out of the world, and the
charter of the Son of God to the uttermost parts of the earth, are not
evidences that the Lord will not enter into judgment with us for our
iniquities, and the iniquities of our fathers together. Britain, like Judah,
may be wiped as a man wipeth a dish, wiping it, and turning it upside down. His
jealousy for His glory is not extinguished. His indignation against sin is not
cooled. The threatenings in His Word are not blotted out, nor is His power to
execute these abated. When He shall ride out for bringing forth judgment unto
truth, if degenerated churches and sinful kingdoms will not give way by
repentance and reformation, they must be crushed under the wheels of His
chariot. (A. Shanks.)
Like priests, like people
Manton says: “O ye ministers of the Word, consider well
that you are the first sheets from the King’s press; others are printed after
your copy. If the first sheet be well set, a thousand more are stamped with
ease. See, then, that the power of religion prevail over your own hearts, lest
you not only lose your own souls, but cause the ruin of others.” Correcting for
the press is work which has to be done with great care, since thousands of
copies will be faulty if the proof sheet be not as it should be. So should the
minister of a congregation be seriously earnest to be right, because his people
will imitate him. Like priest, like people; the sheep will follow the shepherd.
What need there is that the pastor should order his steps aright, lest he lead
a whole flock astray! If the town clock be wrong, half the watches in the place
will be out of time. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Degeneration of the priests
Someone asked Boniface the martyr whether it was lawful to give
sacramental wine in a wooden cup. “Time was,” said he, “when there were wooden
chalices and golden priests; but now there are golden chalice: and wooden
priests.”
No distinction made
Joseph Cook tells that when he was in Halle, Professor Tholuck
said to him, with the emphasis of tears in his deep, spiritual eyes, that he
regretted nothing so much in the arrangements of the German State churches as
that the distinction between the converted and unconverted, which Jonathan
Edwards and Whitfield drew so deeply on the mind of New England, was almost
unknown to the Church practice of Germany. “We are all mixed pell-mell,” said
he; “there is no distinct on made between one who has made a solemn public
profession to lead a religious life and one who has not.” (H. O. Mackay.)
Dishonest gain
Most men are sickened of the gaming table by their losses. He
(Wilberforce) left it because on one particular night he won £600. The thought
that men of straitened means or portionless younger sons might be crippled by
his gains preyed upon his sensitive spirit, and he resolved to play no more,
that he might be free from the blood-guiltiness of adding to the list of
victims whom gambling had hurled from wealth to beggary, and from happiness to
suicide. (W. M. Punshon, D. D.)
──《The Biblical Illustrator》