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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadPaul Kretzmann Commentary - Ezekiel 16:53 - 16:63
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Mercy Promised for the latter end
v. 53. When I shall bring again their captivity, the captivity of Sodom and her daughters, and the captivity of Samaria and her daughters, restoring sinners of even the worst type to the enjoyment of His grace, then will I bring again the captivity of thy captives in the midst of them, rather, "and the captivity of thy captivity in their midst," Israel being placed on the same level with the greatest sinner from among the heathen, also in her relation to the grace of God,
v. 54. that thou mayest bear thine own shame, suffer the well-deserved punishment, and mayest be confounded in all that thou hast done, in that thou art a comfort unto them, her own eventual restoration serving as an encouragement to other sinners, that they also may find mercy.
v. 55. When thy sisters, Sodom and her daughters, shall return to their former estate, and Samaria and her daughters shall return to their former estate, the position which they held before they yielded to the godless behavior which brought the decline upon them, then thou and thy daughters shall return to your former estate. This is said only by way of comparison, to bring home the fact that the mercy of the Lord is able to lift up men from the very abysses of degradation and give them the privileges and blessings of his children for the sake of His mercy.
v. 56. For thy sister Sodom was not mentioned by thy mouth in the day of thy pride, her fate was not made the subject of discussion, with the purpose of letting it serve as a warning; Israel did not profit by the example of Sodom's destruction,
v. 57. before thy wickedness was discovered, when Judah still stood proud and haughty, as at the time of thy reproach of the daughters of Syria, and all that are round about her, the daughters of the Philistines, which despise thee round about. By the judgment which was carried out upon Jerusalem on the part of the Chaldeans her wickedness was uncovered, to her great shame, as at the time when the Syrians on the east and the Philistines on the west took every opportunity to humiliate her.
v. 58. Thou hast borne thy lewdness and thine abominations, saith the Lord, suffering the well-deserved punishment of her sins, especially of her pride.
v. 59. For thus saith the Lord God, I will even deal with thee as thou hast done, in forgetting the oath of faithfulness and in forsaking the covenant relation, which hast despised the oath in breaking the covenant. Cf Deu_29:11-12. But although Israel has been guilty of treachery and must bear the punishment of her sins, yet all faithlessness on the part of men cannot change the eternal faithfulness of Jehovah.
v. 60. Nevertheless I will remember My covenant with thee in the days of thy youth, being ready once more to show mercy to a repentant people, and I will establish unto thee an everlasting covenant, the Messianic idea being brought out at this point.
v. 61. Then thou shalt remember thy ways, the goodness of God leading at least a few to repentance, and be ashamed, when thou shalt receive thy sisters, thine elder and thy younger, representatives from various parts of the heathen world becoming partakers of the privileges formerly accorded to Israel alone; and I will give them unto thee for daughters, but not by the covenant, that is, not by that of the Old Testament, under which Israel had been chosen.
v. 62. And I will establish My covenant with thee, namely, that of the new dispensation, and thou shalt know that I am the Lord, realizing the new covenant relation and making use of it in the proper way,
v. 63. that thou mayest remember and be confounded and never open thy mouth any more because of thy shame, all boasting on the part of man being excluded by the obvious deliverance by grace alone, when I am pacified toward thee for all that thou hast done, saith the Lord God. Thus the grace of God which has pardoned so many and so great sins is the one great subject of Gospel-preaching at all times. Nothing is so conducive to love and humility as the sense of the riches of God's pardoning grace.