Ezekiel, Jonah, and Pastoral Epistles by Patrick Fairbairn - Ezekiel 28:20 - 28:26

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Ezekiel, Jonah, and Pastoral Epistles by Patrick Fairbairn - Ezekiel 28:20 - 28:26


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CHAPTER 28:20-26.

THE JUDGMENT OF SIDON, AND THE ULTIMATE PEACE OF ISRAEL.

WE have already remarked, in the introduction to this series of prophecies, that Sidon was not so properly an independent state, as rather an integral portion of the great maritime power of which Tyre was the centre. Hence in the description given by the prophet in Ezekiel 27 of the resources of Tyre, Sidon is mentioned as contributing of her mariners to man the Tyrian vessels. Though thus, however, politically merged in Tyre, Sidon had possessed a religious connection with the covenant-people, which does not appear to have extended to Tyre, and which furnished an historical reason for the separate mention of Sidon, in addition to the circumstance of its being necessary to complete the number seven. Whether it arose from Sidon being the elder city, or from her citizens having more frequent intercourse with the Israelites, or, finally, from the character of the religion prevalent in Sidon being of a more seductive and infectious character, the fact is certain, that a corrupting influence flowed in upon Israel from Sidon such as is never mentioned in connection with Tyre. So early as the time of the Judges, the gods of Sidon are named among the false deities that had acquired an ascendency over the children of Israel (Jdg_10:6). In the days of Solomon, the worship of Ashtoreth, the goddess of the Sidonians, was again openly practised (1Ki_11:33). And that this influence never became wholly extinct, and continued even to the times of the prophet, is evident from the scene described in Ezekiel 8, of women sitting in the attitude of mourners, and weeping for Tarnmuz. This was undoubtedly an importation from the territory of Sidon, where the Tammuz or Adonis-worship had its origin. And that the circumstance now referred to was not without its weight in determining the prophet to give a separate place to Sidon, may be certainly inferred, not only from the strongly historical bias of the prophet’s mind, but also from the express mention at the close, of the freedom that was to be acquired for Israel, by the overthrow of such neighbours as the Sidonians, from the corrupting influences that had vexed and troubled them in times past.

The prophecy itself against Sidon is of the most general description:

Eze_28:20. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

Eze_28:21. Son of man, set thy face toward Sidon, and prophecy against it; and say,

Eze_28:22. Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Behold I am against thee, Sidon, and shall be glorified in the midst of thee: and they shall know that I am Jehovah, when I shall have executed judgments in her, and shall he sanctified in her.

Eze_28:23. And I will send against her pestilence, and blood shall be in her streets, and the slain shall be judged in her midst by the sword against her from every side; and they shall know that I am Jehovah.

It was the less necessary to enter here into particulars, as from the nature of Sidon’s relation to Tyre it would naturally be understood that the fortunes of the larger city must be shared in by the less. If Tyre was to fall before the adverse influences that were to assail her, and become a scene of desolation, much more should Sidon, which had far inferior resources to meet the danger. It passed through many a siege, and consequently suffered many successive blows; and though it has never altogether ceased to be an inhabited place, it has possessed for ages nothing of the relative greatness and importance which belonged to it in the time of Ezekiel. God has indeed been sanctified in her by means of the humiliating reverses she has been made to undergo.

And now the prophet turns from these scenes of desolation to the prospect of better days to come for the covenant-people, to whom the downfall of these neighbouring heathen powers betokened good, as it indicated the purpose of God to rid them of what had hitherto vexed and troubled their condition.

Eze_28:24. And there shall not be any more to the house of Israel a vexing brier (The only verbal peculiarity in the passage, is in the epithet here applied to brier, îָîְàִéø . Gesenius derives it from îָàַø taken as synonymous with îָøַø , to be bitter; hence the word here, anything causing bitterness, vexing. îַîְàֶøֶú is applied to the leprosy, when found to be fixed and settled (Lev_13:51-52), where our translators have rendered it fretting. The ancient versions, Vulgate, Syriac, express the sense of bitterness in the passage before us; the noun evidently requires something of that sort.) and a grieving thorn of all that are round about them, that despise them; and they shall know that I am the Lord Jehovah.

Eze_28:25. Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Because I will gather the house of Israel from the peoples whither they are scattered, and I shall be sanctified in them in the eyes of the nations, and they shall sit down upon the land which I gave to my servant Jacob;

Eze_28:26. And they shall dwell upon it securely, and build houses, and plant vineyards, and dwell securely, since I execute judgments upon all that hate them round about them; and they shall know that I am Jehovah their God.

This concluding part of the prophecy evidently has respect to what was said by Moses, in Num_33:55, regarding such of the original inhabitants of Canaan as the Israelites in their unfaithfulness might fail to drive out: “They shall be pricks in your eyes, and thorns in your sides, and shall vex you in the land wherein you dwell.” Such in sad experience they found to be the case, and in regard to the Sidonians not less than others. The territory of Sidon lay within the bounds of the tribe of Asher; and it is expressly recorded that this tribe could not dispossess the inhabitants of Sidon (Jdg_1:31). A peaceful relation in process of time sprung up between the Sidonians and their Israelitish neighbours; but this only opened the way, as we have seen, to a more pernicious and destructive influence than the open assaults of war. In leading them to depart from the pure worship of Jehovah, by the introduction of the foul rites of Ashtoreth and Adonis, the Sidonians proved in the worst sense thorns in the side of the covenant-people. But the result of those judgments which God was now going to execute should be to put an end to these vexatious and perverting influences. What the people themselves had failed to do, on account of their unfaithfulness to the covenant, the faithful Jehovah would accomplish by the execution of his judgments; he would extirpate these annoying briers and thorns, and allow the people to enjoy in undisturbed freedom and repose the heritage he had given in covenant to their father Jacob.

The latter part of the prediction, which foretells a future period of peace and security to Israel, is a promise of coming good thrown into the form of the past—a prophecy cast in the mould of history. That the good would be realized to the full extent promised, we must certainly hold; but not, therefore, that it would be realized to the full in the precise form here adopted. For if our past investigations into the meaning of this prophet have taught us anything, it is that we must know how to distinguish between the form and the reality. Even the immediately preceding vision respecting the king of Tyre is remarkable for nothing so much as the tendency displayed in it to use the historical as the merely ideal form of the thoughts and feelings sought to be conveyed by the prophet. In the earlier part of it a completely ideal representation is given us, though under the form of history, of the pre-eminent greatness and glory of the king of Tyre; while in the latter part the form is changed, and is neither so boldly figurative nor is it thrown into the historical type. How far, therefore, in this concluding prophecy regarding Israel the historical form should be regarded, cannot be pronounced on with absolute certainty from the words themselves, but must be gathered from the course of Divine providence. The positive element in the promise—that which must be found in history, otherwise the word fails—is, that God’s future dealings with his covenant-people should be such as to rid them from the annoyance and the danger to which in past times they had been exposed from the worldly greatness and the idolatrous spirit of their immediate neighbours; so that they should enjoy the peculiar blessing of the covenant in comparative peace and security. And doubtless the Lord might fulfil this promise, while all the ancient relations were allowed to stand Israel restored to their proper territory, and the surrounding nations either entirely driven from their possessions, or so completely changed in their feelings toward Israel, and so reduced in outward circumstances, as to be no longer snares to Israel’s peace and prosperity. To a very considerable extent this was the case. Such of the people as afterwards returned from their dispersions, and settled in the land of Canaan, had comparatively few struggles with their old neighbours, either as political or religious adversaries. Those neighbours had themselves become too broken and enfeebled by the reverses they experienced to exert religiously the deleterious influence, or politically to inflict the evils which in their former flourishing condition they were quite able to produce. And though for a period there were trials and contests which Israel was obliged to maintain with them, yet these proved only occasional interruptions to the general peace; and for generations before the coming of our Lord it might justly be said, that Israel had no longer a thorn or a brier to plague them in their immediate neighbours. In a religious point of view—which is the one here chiefly meant—the Jews were even enabled to make reprisals upon the heathen; and it was not so much the worship of Jehovah that had to be afraid of the corrupting influence of heathenism, as rather the religions of heathenism that were endangered by the knowledge and worship of Jehovah. For instead of melting away, as of old, under the pernicious agency of surrounding idolatries and corruptions, Judaism could number its converts out of all lands, rescued from the crumbling superstitions of heathendom.

It thus appears that even in regard to the historical form of this prediction, it received a very striking and wonderful degree of fulfilment ages after he who uttered it had slept with his fathers. The Lord did bring back Israel to their own land, and by reason of the judgments he executed upon those who in past ages had troubled and vexed them, they were permitted to dwell in comparative peace, and even attained to a place of relative strength and moral ascendancy. But the prophecy should not be limited to that temporary and partial fulfilment. We see its full extent and compass of meaning only when, looking through the historical drapery and the shell of ancient relations, we contemplate Israel rising in Christ and the Church of the New Testament to be the head and centre of all that is great, permanent, and good in the world, before which everything that is adverse must fall. The heritage of Jacob is now no longer the narrow stripe of territory which was given to the seed of blessing as a temporary type and earnest, but the whole ransomed earth, which to its uttermost bounds is the destined possession of Christ and his Israel offspring. Till this great consummation is reached, the prophecy still waits for its full realization. And believing that it shall be realized, that it is the purpose of God to humble and destroy every adverse power, and exalt the saints with Christ to possess the kingdom, let the Church of God ply with every means at her command the blessed work of the world’s regeneration, and “bate not a jot in heart or hope” on account of the evil influences against her. Since it is the cause of truth and righteousness for which she contends, the victory cannot fail to be ultimately on her side.