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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadGreater Men and Women of the Bible by James Hastings: 430. The Nation and its Sinfulness
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The Nation and its Sinfulness
But Ezekiel goes further than Jeremiah in the way of condemnation, regarding the whole history of Israel as an unbroken record of apostasy and rebellion, while Jeremiah at least looks back to the desert wandering as a time when the ideal relation between Israel and Jehovah was maintained. But on the whole, and especially with respect to the present state of the nation, their judgment is substantially one. The source of all the religious and moral disorders of the nation is infidelity to Jehovah, which is manifested in the worship of false gods and in reliance on the help of foreign nations. Specially noteworthy is the frequent recurrence in Jeremiah and Ezekiel of the figure of “whoredom,” an idea introduced into prophecy by Hosea to describe these two sins. The extension of the figure to the false worship of Jehovah by images and other idolatrous emblems can also be traced to Hosea; and in Ezekiel it is sometimes difficult to say which species of idolatry he has in view, whether it be the actual worship of other gods or the unlawful worship of the true God. His position is that an unspiritual worship implies an unspiritual deity, and that such service as was performed at the ordinary sanctuaries could by no possibility be regarded as rendered to the true God who spoke through the prophets. From this fountainhead of a corrupted religious sense proceed all those immoral practices which both prophets stigmatize as “abominations” and as a defilement of the land of Jehovah. Of these the most startling is the prevalent sacrifice of children, to which they both bear witness, although, as we shall afterwards see, with a characteristic difference in their point of view.
Idolatry is, both literally and verily, not the mere bowing down before sculptures, but the serving or becoming the slave of any images or imaginations which stand between us and God, and it is otherwise expressed in Scripture as “walking after the imagination” of our own hearts. And observe also that while, at least on one occasion, we find in the Bible an indulgence granted to the mere external and literal violation of the second commandment, “When I bow myself in the house of Rimmon, the Lord pardon thy servant in this thing,” we find no indulgence in any instance, or in the slightest degree, granted to “covetousness, which is idolatry” (Col_3:5; no casual association of terms, observe, but again energetically repeated in Eph_5:5, “No covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ”); nor any to that denial of God, idolatry in one of its most subtle forms, following so often on the possession of that wealth against which Agur prayed so earnestly, “Give me neither poverty nor riches, lest I be full and deny thee, and say, ‘Who is the Lord?' ” And in this sense, which of us is not an idolater? Which of us has the right, in the fulness of that better knowledge, in spite of which he nevertheless is not yet separated from the service of this world, to speak scornfully of any of his brethren, because, in a guiltless ignorance, they have been accustomed to bow their knees before a statue? Which of us shall say that there may not be a spiritual idolatry in our own apparent worship?1 [Note: Ruskin, Stones of Venice, ii. appendix 10 (Works, x. 451).]
2. Ezekiel teaches, not less distinctly than Jeremiah, a doctrine of Divine grace. If there is any prospect of Israel's becoming again the “righteous” or “holy nation” it was Divinely intended to be, dwelling under the shadow of Jehovah's wings and fulfilling His requirement, the only hope of this consummation lies in the action of Jehovah Himself. He alone can “put a new spirit within” the hearts of His people; can “take away the stony heart out of their flesh, and give them an heart of flesh,” enabling them to walk in His statutes and to live worthy of their vocation as a people of God. The promise of the Spirit, indeed, is a new note in prophecy, characteristic of the Exilic period. Even Jeremiah does not expressly indicate the agency by which Jehovah will write His law in the hearts of men and so bring His new covenant to accomplishment. Thus Ezekiel's prediction of Israel's future gives a new form to Jeremiah's doctrine that only the power of Jehovah Himself can bring about the moral and spiritual renewal which is Israel's sorest need.
3. In connexion with this picture of the future, there are two or three points that call for special attention.
(1) These words of hope were intended chiefly for the exiles. In Jer_11:14-21 a sharp distinction is drawn between them and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. The latter lay claim to the promises of the past, saying: “Get you far from the Lord; unto us is this land given for a possession.” But the prophet replies that it is those who have been removed far off among the nations who are to inherit the land and be, in fact, the people of God. Again, in Jer_33:23-26, thosewho remained in the waste places after the fall of Jerusalem are reported as saying, “Abraham was one, and he inherited the land: but we are many; the land is given us for inheritance.” To this the prophet replies by declaring that these survivors themselves will be visited by a destructive judgment which will make it clear that possession of the land rests, not upon natural grounds, but upon moral fitness. Everywhere in the Book of Ezekiel it is the returned exiles, and apparently they alone, who are to share in the Messianic salvation. Of those who remained in Palestine, Ezekiel, like Jeremiah, seems to have had a low opinion. The future of Israel's religion, he was convinced, lay with “them of the captivity.”
(2) Another point to be observed in connexion with Ezekiel's view of the future is the Divine motive for the restoration of Israel. It is not love, as in Hosea, nor compassion, as in Jeremiah, but jealousy, regard for His own honour. Jehovah would not permit the heathen to profane His holy name by attributing the continuance of Israel's exile to His own weakness. He must therefore restore Israel, in order to convince the nations that He is Jehovah and to sanctify His name in their eyes. Not for Israel's sake, then, was the restoration to be accomplished, but for His own name's sake. Behind this representation lay the great idea that the goal of human history is to be found in the recognition of the sovereign will of God. Reverence for Him as the moral ideal is the basis of all true religion. In the idea also that the restoration of the exiles did not depend upon their own deserts, there was an element of consolation. If they were to be dealt with according to their own merits, there would be little hope for them. Their one ground of confidence lay in the gracious will of God. We have here an anticipation of the Pauline doctrine of justification by faith.
(3) But a more remarkable anticipation of Pauline teaching is to be found in Ezekiel's doctrine of regeneration and the impartation of the Divine Spirit. Israel, before her restoration, and as a condition of it, is to undergo a complete change of character. “I will sprinkle,” says Jehovah, “clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you; and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgements, and do them.” This is one of the high points in Ezekiel's teaching. Jeremiah had already taught the inwardness of true religion and the need of a radical change of heart, but nowhere does he express so clearly as we have it here the idea of the new birth. Ezekiel at this point takes a step beyond Jeremiah.
In the life of every man has there been a day when the heavens opened of their own accord, and it is almost always from that very instant that dates his true spiritual personality. It is doubtless at that instant that are formed the invisible, eternal features that we reveal, though we know it not, to angels and to souls.… Our veritable birth dates from the day when, for the first time, we feel at the deepest of us that there is something grave and unexpected in life. Some there are who realize suddenly that they are not alone under the sky. To others will it be brusquely revealed, while shedding a tear or giving a kiss, that “the source of all that is good and holy from the universe up to God is hidden behind a night, full of too distant stars”; a third will see a divine hand stretched forth between his joy and his misfortune; and yet another will have understood that it is the dead who are in the right. One will have had pity, another will have admired or been afraid. Often does it need almost nothing, a word, a gesture, a little thing that is not even a thought.…
We can be born thus more than once; and each birth brings us a little nearer to our God. But most of us are content to wait till an event, charged with almost irresistible radiance, intrudes itself violently upon our darkness, and enlightens us, in our despite. We await I know not what happy coincidence, when it may so come about that the eyes of our soul shall be open at the very moment that something extraordinary takes place. But in everything that happens is there light; and the greatness of the greatest of men has but consisted in that they had trained their eyes to be open to every ray of this light.1 [Note: M. Maeterlinck, The Treasure of the Humble, 172.]