The prophet foretells the impending ruin of the land of Israel, which must be prevented by repentance and the destruction of the temple.
Ezekiel 7:1-15
God sends notice of the destruction of Israel, and the prophet inculcates the same expressions to show that the thing is certain and near. When the town is on fire, men cry out with a loud and lamentable voice, “Fire! fire!” The prophet proclaims, An end! an end! it has come, it has come! He that hath ears to hear let him hear.
➔ The end has come for the people of Jerusalem, the end of their wickedness and the final destruction of their nation. God has promised them a miserable end, but a miserable one, not the expected end. The end of all things is at hand, and Jerusalem’s last end was a type of the end of the world (Matthew 24:3) This end comes upon the four corners of the land, and it will be total, no part of the land shall escape, and all these things shall be dissolved. It is the end of time and days, and the end of our own time and days is much nearer.
➔ Sin is an evil, an only evil, that has no good in it and is the worst of evils. It is an evil without precedent or parallel, an evil that stands alone and is to the impenitent an only evil. It hardens their hearts and irritates their corruptions, but is sanctified by the grace of God and made a means of much good. The wicked have the dregs of that cup to drink which to the righteous is full of mercy, and the same affliction is to us either a half evil or an only evil according to how we conduct ourselves under it and make use of it.
➔ God has set a time for the inflicting of evil and the making of a full end, and the day of reckoning with wicked people is fixed. This time is the day of the revelation of the righteous judgment of god, and the people are told of it again and again. The day of trouble is near, and it is not a mere echo or report of troubles, as they were willing to think it was, but a groundless surmise. God’s patience may put them off, but man’s sincere repentance and reformation will put them by, and the day of judgment and execution is now coming upon them, a day of trouble to sinners, the year of their visitation.
➔ God’s wrath is the source of all calamities, not allayed with mercy. He is Lord of his anger, which does not break out but when he pleases, nor fasten upon any but as he directs it and gives it commission. He does not single out one person to be made example, but the whole body of the nation has become a vessel of wrath, fitted for destruction. He says, My eye shall not spare thee, neither will I have pity, and those who made light of mercy will have judgment without mercy.
➔ God will judge sinners according to their ways, examine their ways, compare them with the law, and then deal with them according to their merit of them. He will also recompense their own ways and bring every provocation to account. Two sins are particularly specified as provoking God to bring these judgments upon them: pride and oppression. Finally, God will not spare, nor have pity, because even when he is recompensing their ways, they trespass yet more. This is the just punishment for their sins, and it is what they have by their own folly brought upon themselves.
◆ God’s judgments will lower them because they have exalted themselves. In contrast to conceit, the rod of affliction has flowered (v. 10). What sin sows will eventually
bloom in some form of judgment. Like buds on a tree emerge in spring, so did Judah and Jerusalem’s pride among all classes and ranks of men.
◆ Their foes will have a difficult time dealing with them because of how poorly they have treated one another (v. 11). In other words, the magistrate’s authority protects and condones their harming one another. Violence had escalated to such a level of impudence that it had transformed the rod of government into a rod of evil. I observed the site of judgment and found Ecclesiastes there. 3:16; Isaiah 5:7. Whatever the results of God’s judgments, there is little doubt that their source is our sin.
➔ These judgments are unavoidable and cannot be defended against because they will be applied to everyone without a way out.
◆ Death will ride triumphantly in all of its forms, both in the city and outside of it, according to verse 15. Nowhere will men be safe; those who are in the field will perish by the sword (every field will be a battlefield to them), and those who are in the city, even if it is a holy city, will not be protected there; famine and pestilence will consume them.
◆ The text warns that those marked for death will not be able to escape the desolation that is coming, as they will be swept away by the mob of the rabble and their families will be destroyed. God’s judgments cannot be overpowered by multitudes, and the wicked will not go unpunished. The vision was touching the whole multitude, the bulk of the common people, and the judgments coming will carry them away wholesale.
◆ There won’t be any mourning for those who perish (v11) because no one will be around to do so save for those who are pursuing them quickly. And the times will be so awful that people will celebrate their friends’ deaths rather than mourn them as they count the happy people who have been spared from witnessing and participating in these calamities Jeremiah 16:4-5.
◆ God’s decree has gone forth, and the vision concerning them will not return. God will not reveal it, and they cannot defeat it, so it will not return without having accomplished its purpose. God’s word will take place.
● Particular persons cannot make their part good against God, and those who strengthen themselves in their wickedness will be found not only to weaken but to ruin themselves. None ever hardened their heart against God and prospered.
● The multitude cannot resist the torrent of judgments and make heads against them. They have blown the trumpet to call their soldiers together, but none enlist themselves or have the courage to face the enemy. If God is against us, none can be for us to do any service.
◆ Those who buy will have no hope of the return of their prosperity, with which to support themselves in their adversity; they will have given up all for gone; and those who sell will have less to lose and have increased their own cares and fears. It is also stated that the seller shall not return to the property they have sold in the year of jubilee, even if they should escape the sword and pestilence and live till that year comes. Jeremiah, about this time, bought his uncle’s field, yet the buyer did not rejoice but complained Jeremiah 32:25.
◆ God will be glorified in all, and those who believe it is Nebuchadnezzar who smites them will be made to know it is the Lord that smites them. They will be owned by the Lord in one way or another.
Ezekiel 7:16-22
We have attended the fate of those cut-off, and now we must attend the flight of those who have an opportunity to escape. Some may escape, but it is better to die once than to live a miserable life and escape only to be fugitives and vagabonds, afraid of being slain.
➔ The most important idea is that people should be isolated and melancholy in the mountains, not caring for society and ashamed of their low circumstances.
◆ The text discusses the sorrow of those who are under God’s displeasure, such as those who have been jovial and have set sorrow at defiance. They are mourning for their iniquity and the calamities it has brought upon them, and will be brought to acknowledge what they have contributed to the national guilt. Those who will not repent and mourn for it will be made to mourn at the last, when the flesh and the body are consumed, and to say, How have I hated instruction! (Proverbs 5:11-12).
◆ They will lose all of their physical and mental strength (v. 17): All hands will be weak, unable to fight or defend themselves; all knees will be as weak as water, unable to run or hold their ground; they will experience a universal collision; their knees will flow like water, forcing them to fall naturally. Be aware that God can quickly weaken a strong man’s power, therefore it is foolish for him to boast about it.
◆ The strong man will be deprived of all their strength of body and mind, and all hands and knees will be weak as water, making them unable to fight or defend themselves. This will lead to a universal colliquation of their knees, making them fall of course. It is folly for the strong man to glory in his strength, as God can weaken it.
◆ Those who will not be kept from sin by fear and shame will be punished for it, leading to confusion and despair. They will be deprived of all their hopes and abandon themselves to despair, and their aspects will show their prospects. They will also be covered in sackcloth, shame, and baldness, all expressions of desperate sorrow.
➔ Those who had wealth and riches were reduced to distress due to public trouble, and that they had promised themselves a lot of advantages in times of public trouble. They thought their wealth would be their strong city, that they could bribe enemies and buy friends, that it would be the ransom of their lives, and that money would answer all things.
◆ While they were prosperous, their riches had been a big temptation for them; they had focused their affections on it and placed their trust in it. It was the stumbling block of their iniquity because it caused them to fall into sin and prevented them from turning back to God. They were drawn into sin by their passionate pursuit of it and by their overindulgent pleasure in it. Be aware that many people’s money has turned into their downfall. Gaining the world results in people losing their souls; it makes people arrogant, confident, covetous, oppressive, and sensual, and when something is misused, it turns into a barrier to their righteousness.
◆ At this point in their hardship, there is no consolation for them.
● Riches cannot protect people from the judgments of God, as they will not be able to deliver them on the day of the wrath of the Lord. They will not serve to atone for his justice, turn away his wrath, or screen them from the judgments he is bringing upon them. There is a day of wrath coming when it will appear that men’s wealth is unable to deliver them or do them any service. Money is no defense against the arrests of death, nor any alleviation to the miseries of the damned.
● Gold and silver could not protect people from the judgments of God and they could not deliver them or do them any service on the day of wrath. Money is no defense against the arrests of death, nor any alleviation to the miseries of the damned. They could not fill their bowels, satisfy their hunger, or make one meal’s meat for themselves. There is a day of wrath coming when it will appear that men’s wealth is unable to deliver them. Gold and silver are not the greatest blessings to mankind and the wealth of this world has not that will satisfy the desires of the soul or be any satisfaction to it in a day of distress. If God gives us daily bread, we have reason to be thankful, and no reason to complain, but silver and gold are not enough to satisfy our souls or give us any inward comfort. If we throw away our silver and gold, either by the hands of the enemy or ourselves, we will have more spoil than we care for or can carry away. The time may come when worldly men will be as weary of their wealth as now they are wedded to it when those will fare best that have least.
➔ They will be rendered helpless by God’s temple (v. 20–22). They had taken great delight in this and promised themselves protection from it (Jeremiah 7:4; Micah 3:11), but their trust will be misplaced.
◆ God had done great honor to the people of Israel by setting up his sanctuary among them, which was beautiful and adorned with gold and gifts. He also built his sanctuary like a high palace, making it a glorious high throne from the beginning. However, the people had done great dishonor to God by profaning his sanctuary by making images of their counterfeit deities, which were called abominations and detestable things. God threatened that they would be deprived of the temple and it would be no succor to them, so he set it far from them so that it was out of reach of their services and they were out of the reach of its influences. God’s ordinances and privileges will be taken away from those that despise and profane them, and the temple itself will be involved in the common desolation.
◆ The Chaldeans, who have no veneration for it, will have it for prey and for a spoil, and all the ornaments and treasures of it will fall into their hands. This was the punishment of the sinners in Zion, who profaned the temple with strange gods and caused God to suffer it to be profaned by strange nations. Those unworthy to be honored with the form of godliness will not be governed by the power of godliness.
Ezekiel 7:23-24
➔ The prisoner was charged with: “Build a chain, in which to haul the offender to the bar, and set him before the tribunal of divine justice. Let him stand in fetters (as an infamous malefactor. Observe that people who sever the cords of God’s law and cast those cords from them will discover that they are still held and bound by the shackles of his judgments, which they are unable to sever or cast from them. The chain represented the siege of Jerusalem, the enslavement of those who were taken captive, or the fact that everyone was tied over to God’s just judgment and held in shackles.
➔ The indictment drawn up against the prisoner states that the land is full of bloody crimes, such as idolatry, blasphemy, witchcraft, Sodomy, and the like. These crimes were to be punished with death, and the judgment of blood, and when they had become national, there was no remedy but the nation must be cut off. The city of David, which should have been the pattern of righteousness, protector of it, and punisher of wrong, is now full of violence, and the rulers of that city are greater oppressors than any others. This was lamented, as the faithful city had become a harlot.
➔ This indictment’s verdict has been rendered. The upright Lord loves righteousness and is an avenger of injustice, and God will hold them accountable for both the profanation of his sanctuary and the perversion of justice amongst men.
◆ Because they had behaved worse than the heathen, God would send the most heinous and outrageous heathen upon them to destroy and lay waste, the ones who have the least sympathy for other people and the greatest hatred for the Jews. Keep in mind that some people from among the heathen are worse than others, and God occasionally chooses the worst to afflict his own people because he wants to burn them up when the work is over.
◆ Since they had stuffed their homes with illegally acquired goods and used their ostentation and strength to oppress and crush the weak, God would grant possession of their homes and all of their furniture to strangers and put an end to the pomp of the powerful so that their great men wouldn’t ever use their ostentation to blind the weak-sighted or use their strength to overturn the law as they had done.
◆ Since they had installed other gods’ statues in the temple, God would remove the signs of their own God’s presence there, and since they had polluted the sacred places with their idolatry, God would pollute them with his judgments. When their God abandons the holy locations, their foes will quickly corrupt them.
◆ Because they had committed sin after sin, God would pursue them by passing judgment one after the other: “Destruction comes, utter destruction (v. 25); for there shall come mischief upon a mischief to ruin you, and rumor upon rumor to frighten you, like the waves in a storm, one upon the neck of another.” Sinners who are marked for ruin shall be prosecuted for it because God will triumph when he judges.
◆ The people of Israel will seek peace, but there will be none, and their attempts to court their enemies and conquer them will be in vain. They will also not have the direction in the trouble that they expect, and they will not hear what God has to say to them by way of conviction. Counsel will perish from the ancients, and the elders of the people will be infatuated and at their wits’ end. It is bad for people when those that should be their counselors know not how to consider themselves, consult with one another, or counsel them.
◆ God would dispirit and dishearten the people of Israel so that they would not be able to make heads against the judgments of God. All orders and degrees of men would lie down by consent under the load, and the king and prince would mourn and be clothed with desolation. The people of the land would be troubled, and none of the men of might would find their hands. God would judge them according to their deserts, and make them know that he is the Lord, the God to whom vengeance belongs.