PUBLIC-DOMAIN CHRISTIAN BOOK
The Pulpit Commentary — Ezekiel — Volume 2
Edward Hayes Plumptre [1821-1891] · 422,810 words · 476 reading sections
The Pulpit Commentary — Ezekiel — Volume 2 — Section 181
HOMILETICS. Vers. 1-9.-The watchman. Ezekiel here returns to an idea which he has expressed earlier (eh. iii. 17). He stands as a watchman for his people. Every Christian preacher and teacher is in a similar position. The same may be said of every Christian man and woman who knows the peril of sin and has an opport…
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wat.chman must have courn.ge to sound the alarm, There are times when the harp must be exchanged for the trumpet. The preacher must have courage to say unpleasant things. Ver. 10.-A question of <lespair. I. THE OAUBE OF THE DESPAIR, The prophet ha~ just been told that his responsibility is limited to his warning tbe p…
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II. IT IS A FACT THAT GOD HAS NO PLEASURE IN THE DEATII OF THE WICKED, 1. This i,s positivdy a:ffirmed. Here it is st."lted on oath. No truth of revelation is more clear or positive than this. 2. It is true to the character of God, God is love, and love cnn have no pleasure in suffering and death. God is our Father,…
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Ver. 17.-<Jharging God with infustice. I. IT IS NATURAL FOR MEN TO BE CON• CEBNED ABOUT THE JUSTIOE OF Goo's ACTIONS, The moral character of Providence is of immense importance. If God acted from caprice, there would be no ground on which we could rely in approaching him, and our whole lives would lie at the mercy of c…
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the threat that the Jews shall be expelled from their land. It is not difficult to dis• cover its hollowness. But it is propped up by common fallacies against which we need to be on our guard. J. THE PLEA. It stands on two grounds. 1. That children have a right to their faihcr's property. This is recognized in law …
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words cloy if forcible words do not accompany them. Demosthenes the orator of force was greater than Cicero the orator of grace. 6. Truth. Ezekiel spoke true words- words that were true to fact and life, true to the heart of man, and true to the thought of God. There is a spell in truth. To speak truth feebly may arres…
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HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. Ver. 7.-The commission of tl,,e watchman. In the position occupied by Ezekiel there was much that was special and peculiar; his commission and his duty accordingly differed in many respects from those of other prophets, and in a degree still more marked from those of ordinary ministers of …
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Vere. 12, 13.-The vanity of transitory goodness. The ministers of religion are often pained and sometimes discouraged by instances, such as are here referred to, of that goodness which is "as the morning cloud and the early dew, which soon goeth away." I. THERE IS A GOODNESS WBIOH IS SPECIOUS, BUT SUPERFICIAL. Like th…
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,of Jerusalem. He waited in end suspense for the fnlfilrnent of his inspired prediction . .At last it came; and one who bad escaped from Jerusalem, and who bad fled eastward, brought the tidings to the children of the Captivity. J. THESE TIDINClS AFFECTED EZEKIEL AB A MAN, AROUSING HIS SYMPATHY, II, THESE TIDINGS A…
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Vers. 30-33.-The prophet's f"eception. Ofientimes have faithful ministers ,f religion to share the experience and the distress of Ezekiel, who was listened to with a measure of curiosity, interest, and satisfaction, but whose counsels were unheeded and whose requirements were unfulfilled. 'l'he Lord, who commissioned h…
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unknown. Such an act ag a public declaration of war was never considered a public duty. The more secretly and suddenly a hostile army could make its attack, the more to its credit. Hence a border population was kept in continual suspense. It had to bear the brunt of a thousand alarms and a thousand perils. Such invasio…
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Vers. 10-20.-llfen's misconception of God's govei·nment. Men are naturally prone to merge themselves in the nation. This was, perhaps, a stronger habit among the· Jews than among us. They could not understand how that, while God punished the nation, he could protect the individual. Israel may be depressed in fortune…
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is the birth of right and honest feeling towards God. Whether our past feelings and actions have been wrong by way of omission or by way of guilty commission, the whole sin, greater or less, will be candidly confessed. Repentance does not consist in exoessive grief, but in genuine turning-a complete change of mind. The…
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"The land is given us for inheritance," God placed his edict," The mountains of Israel shall be desolate, that none shall pass t~rough." The ministers of Divine vengeance ha.d received their commission, and the time fer revoking it had passed. Wild beasts, the pestilence, and the sword had heard the fiat of God, and…
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bring? By what steps can we find reconciliation? What immediate duty presses for fulfilment? 4. Imitation of good men is a confession of their excellence. "They come as my people come, and sit as my people sit." Such conduct is grossly incon~ sistent-is self-condemning. II[. THE PREACHER'S MESSAGE MEETS WITII A SERlO…
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is entitled to their respect, while to his solemn monition a serious regard is due. 2. To ad immediately on conviction; to place a distinct distance between themselves and the threatened evil; to keep the insidious theory, the subtle falsehood, the dangerous half- truth well out of their miud; to refuse any entrance…
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aspect. God would "that the wicked turn from his way and live." If the absence of any desire on the part of the Supreme that sin should go on and down to death gives- a gleam of hope to the hopeless, bow much light ruay not be gained from the presence or a distinct and positive desire on his part that the sinner should…
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.acceptance; God requires of us that 'Ye be pure in heart, loyal in spirit, upright in word and deed, or he cannot grant us his benediction or admit us to his home. III. THE RIGHTEOUSNESS oF Gon IN BOTH RESPECTS. 1. God is righteous in for- giving the sinful man and restoring him to fulness of life. The Pharisaic vi…
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some position of autho1ity and influence in the Church of Christ, or to a home in the heavenly country; but we have no right whatever to expect either of these if our claim is based either on fleshly connections or on the formalities of devotion, and the sooner we awake from our dream the better will it be for us. We m…
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EXPOSITION. next clause, this is probably preferable CHAPTER XXXIV. (comp. l Cor. ix. 7; Isa. vii. 22). Ver. 4. -The diseased he.ve ye not Ver. 1.-And the word of the lord, eto. strengthened. The verbs indicate the dif- As no da.te is giYen, we ma.y infer that what ference between the "diseased," i.e. the follows…
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ple.ces of the oountry, serves as a parable or of that prophecy), to a line of true rulere, that which is to follow on the restoration or each faithfully representing the ideal David Israel. The sheep that had been wandering 811 the faithful Ruler, the true Shepherd of his so long in the wilderness should e.t le.et …
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HOMILETICS. Vers. 1-10.-Shepherds denounced. I. THEm RESPONSIBILITY. Ezekiel now turns from the people to their leaders. Theirs is the greatest guilt. They were placed in posi- tions which led to much being expected of them. Their failure means a correspond- ing guilt. The princes and priests, the political leaders…
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life in innocent childhood not far from the bosom or God. 2. They have gone int" distant places. Israel was driven abroad locally; souls depart from their homes spiritually, (1) in thought, when the old beliefs are abandoned for the wilderness or doubt; (2) in life, when the old ways are left, and God and duty are n…
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as to who are entrnsted with the highest privileges of Christian fellowship. It is easier not to encourage the unworthy to enter than to eject them after they have made themselves obnoxious to the community. Nothing can be more foolish than to enlarge the nominal roll of a Church by including doubtful names. A wise t…
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from the preceding verses, this is very prominent in our Lord's 01vn description of his work. Dy the sacrifice of his own life he saves his sheep (John x. 15). The favourite picture of the persecuted early Christians, on the walls of the catacomba at Rome, is perhaps the choicest of all representations of Christ-viz. t…
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sad to be on the margin of a shower, perhaps to receive some of the duet that precedes it, yet to have no droppings of its refreshing water. 2. Active servants Qf God. The preacher, the missionary, the Sunday school teacher, the Christian worker in all kinds of service, need, greatly need, showers of blessing (1) in…
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cf it. It is customary for a member of the royal family who visits a country place to be asked to plant a tree. If the request is complied with, the young tree is watched with peculiar care and ever after pointed out with interest. It is a pla11.t of renown. Not only has the Church been planted by God; it has been plan…
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is present with his people as their Owner. He comes to them to claim them. He visits bis inheritance to take possession of it. When we perceive that God is with us. we have to go further and acknowledge his relationship to us. It is much to ackaow- ledge that we do not belong to ourselves, that we are God's possession,…
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I. THEIR 00NDUCT. This is very graphically and (after Ezekiel's manner) witli outspoken plainness described in these verses. 1. The shepherds' neglect of the flock. They neither feed them upon suitable pastures, nor strengthen the weak, nor heal th<1 sickly, nor recover the lost, nor deliver the defenceless sheep fr…
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pathy; no weakly, tender lamb of his flock shall perish through neglect. "He shall gather the lambs in bis arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those 1.hat give suck." APPLI0A.TI0N, These representations of Divine pity and tenderness are amply fulfilled in the gospel of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Ch…
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Vere. 27, 28.-The peace and welfare of the (Jhwrch. Bo much of this book of pro- phecy is occupied with denunciation and with pictures of destruction and desolation, that a passage like this is grateful and welcome, as a relief and contrast to much of what has gone before. The prophet was evidently inspired to look int…
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The public health must be his care. Measures for alleviating and uprooting diseaso, must origiuate at the palace. The education of the young, the development of mental, resources, the dissemination of all useful knowledge, form part of the monarch's duty. The sanitation of the people's dwellings is a more royal serv…
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God's judgment upon evil rulers. Now is brought to light the wrong-doing of men in private and unofficial stations. The sins of pride and violence soon filter down from mngnates to merchants, from princes to peasants. Vice is more contagious than an7 bodily disease we are familiar with. As children easily learn to i…
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I. A lIEW Knm. He is described as "my servant David." This description is not 'to be accepted literally, but symbolically. 'l'he people could not understand the magnificent purpose of God by any other language. As God stoops to our infantilo stat.e by describing heaven to us in language borrowed from earth, so did he…
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Their knowledge or God shall be deep and experimental. They shall have something better than theoretical and speculative knowledge. They shall have the full assur,,nce that God is among them. They shall feel that God has a proprietorship in them, and that they have a proprietorship in God. God is their God. "The h"use …
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<>f men on the ground of social rank or of circumstance finds no place at all in the mind and h~rt of God. He car~s for men as the¥ are ; possessed as they nre with a nature that rs capable of grea~ things-great s~~~rmgs, sorrows, degrad,ltion, iniquities, on the one band, and great Joys, hopes, nob1ht1es 1 achievem…
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ing One who was just, holy, kind, true, faithrul; one who was worthy the deepest 1"everence, the fullest trust, the strongest affection that the human soul could offer; 'One whose service constituted the most lofty enjoyment and exerted the roost elevat- ing influence on the minds and lives of his worshippers. 2. Its …
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utterly unbeautiful must it, then, seem in the sight of him who is Love itself! Surely it is one oft.hose things which be is " of purer eyes than to behold," which he re cannot look upon" save with profound aversion. II. ITS HEARTLESSNESS AND DEMORALIZING EFFECT Ul'ON THE AGENTS OF IT. It argues a pitiful inconsiderat…
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EXPOSITION. CHAPTER XXXV. xiv. 9, 13; xxv. 7, 18; and Exod. vii 5), and I will make thea most desolate; lite- Ver. 1.-lll[oreover the word of the Lord rally, a desolation and an astonishment (cf. came Ullto me, ■ayillg. As no date is given, ver. 7). AgainBt the mountains of Israel the present oracle, extending to th…
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that her iniquity had an end; or, in the time Edom and Israel, and hold the oharge to be 6/ the i1•i.quity of the end (Revised Version); that Edom had hated his "brother" Israel. me1ming, nccor<ling to Keil, " the time of Others, with Hengstenberg, take the blood Judah's final transgression;" or, according Edom hate…
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Ver. 10.-Beca.use thou hast aaid. The Israel (vcr. 12), and had rer.koned these as second ground of Edom's punishment lo.y in blasphemies uttered against himself ( ver. this, that she had presumptuously ae well 13). ·as confidently exclaimed, not concerning Ver. 14.-When the whole ee.rth rejoiceth, Idumea and Judah…
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the succeeding brightness of Isratl's restoration. This looks like an after-thought of judgrnent. It is as though Edam, the nation typified by Mount Seir, had been for- gotten until suddenly, by an unlucky chance, she came into mind, and then without drlay the thread of joyous prophecy is broken and her doom is ruth…
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need not be so strictly righteous if we are Christians, as we should need to be ii we were not. Christ expects a higher righteousness than that of the Law (Matt. v. 20). But when we perceive that our sin ie our utter undoing, we are prepared to welcom, Christ ns our Saviour from this chiefly. v. IT I8 WELL '1'0 CONSID…
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arithmetic that shall not fail to give a large place to the influence of God on all things. Ver. 13.-Boasting against God. Edom had ignored the presence of God (ver. 10}. Now she bas gone further, and boasted against God. This is a sign either of licatheriish darkness that does not know God, or of wilful rebellion …
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ia for the wide world. All the nations are to enter into the heritage of the future. Christ" shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied" (Isa. !iii. 11). No 1canty salvage from the huge wreck of humanity could S11tisfy the great soul of Jesus. II. IT 18 POSSIBLE FOB ANY ONE TO BE EXCLUDED FROM THIS G…
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HOMILIES BY VARIOUB AUTHORS. Vers. 5, 6.-" Lex .talionis." Ezekiel returns to his prophecy regarding the inha- bitants of Mount Se1r. These neighbours of the Israelites were animated by hostility to God's people which was of a peculiarly bitter character. The prophet's mind was deeply affected and sorely pained by th…
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Vera. 1-15.-Speeial punishment of apecial sin. Very painful must it be to an intelligent spirit to be the executor of Jehovah'a vengeance upon transgressors: tba pain is only one remove the less to announce the coming doom. Yet. as we gain broader and clearer views of God's administration, we discover that the 11ufferi…
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I. AN INFLlOTION ANBWEBING lN CHARACTER TO THE SIN. "Because thou hast given over . , . to the power of the sword . . . therefore . , . I will prepare thee unto- blood, and blood shall pursue thee" (vers. 5, 6). Our Lord also himself tells us that "they who take the sword shall perish with the sword." Violena shown to …
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as a daint.y morsel, as if it had only to stretch out its hand and take it I "And Jehovah was there "-that One in whose presence all Edom, with all its civil and military power, was but the dust of the balance, was nothing and less than nothin~ and vanity; that Holy One who held Edom responsible for its enmity and i…
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expressly declarod to be the jubilation over to dwell throughout on the derision rather the downfall of Israel, and the eagerness than the desolation to which hie country, with which they sought to appropriate to the mountains of Isre.el, had been subject." themselves her Corso.ken land. Aha I Ex- And ye are taken up; …
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get it) for a prey. (2) Taking ::Ti')?l~ a.s a that, 88 God Ju1d previously visited Israel noun "for the sake of its possession for with judgment on e.coount of sin, so hence- n pr;v " (Kliefoth), "that their suburbs forth would he visit her with graoe on oon- shon!d be a prey" (Hengstenberg), "on dition of repentan…
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,(according to the Keri, followed by tbe God (vers. 33-38); o.nd (3) to remove all Authorized e.nd Revised Versions, e.s well doubt from the people's minds e.s to the as by Ewe.Id e.nd Bmend), but (according possibility of this happening by the vision to the Chethih, preferred by Keil, Kliefoth, of the dry bones (eh…
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nn,l tarnished by the words of the heathen, the present or immediate future. The Israel- and inasmuch RS this result had been brought of Ezekiel's time had not been scattered nbout by Israel's sin, on Israel properly the among and could not be gathered from all, bhme lRy. countries; yet in the years that he.ve passed …
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as e.g. faith, for which he is incompetent fact that the words, Ye shall be my people without the help of Divine grace. Besides and I will be your God (comp. eh. xi. 20; the cleansing of her guilt and her restitntion Jer. vii. 23; xi. 4; xu. 22), descriptive or in consequence to Jehovah's favour, Israel the covenant re…
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K untilled in its lands," and "broken down cations for the very blessings he hwi pro- in its buildings;" iu contrMt with which, mi~e<l. In answorto theirprayers,he engages, in the golden era of the future, the towns gorng baok to the language of eh. x:u.iv. 22, l!hould be inhabit.ed, the fields tilled, and to inoreaae …
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secutions. Then followed the great apostasy. The dark ages marked the triumph of ignorance and cruelty. To-do.y the powers of evil are mighty and exultant. II. Tme TRIUMPH WILL BE REVERRED. It is premature. We have not yet reached the end of the story. The battle is still raging; it is too early for the foe to sing h…
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We shall be able to till and sow just because God is with us. The glorious prosperity will come from God as a fruit of his gracious benediction, and it will come through us as the human instruments who are called by God like labourers to work in his vineyard. Ver. 10.-Multiplying men. I. THB TRUE WEALTH OF A PEOPLE IS…
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question. Waiving the point as to whether the past history of our race has been cbare.cterized by progress or by a process of degeneration, we have still to ask whether the future may not be better than anything that bas been experienced in the past. Now, it is the distinct teaching of the Bible that it will be so. …
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The best song of heavenly praise is the hymn of redemption (Rev. v. 9), There is. glory in creaL!on; ~md the _gre:i:t~ess, the order, the beauty, the l~fe of the universe praise God. 'I here 1s glory m D1vme government; and the manner m which God rules all things and establishes righteousness displays his glory. But…
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The guilt is washed out by a Divine pardon given through the propitiatory sacrifice of Christ, and the impurity is purged away by the Holy Spirit communicated to us b-:1 the grace of God in Christ. 'l'he cross redeems from all sin. The Lamb of Gl-uci taketh away the sin of the world. '!'here is perfect cleansing of cha…
859 wordsSource & rights
Public domain historical Pulpit Commentary. Source page identifies the volume as Public Domain; text extracted from its historical PDF.
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Historical Christian writing; not Scripture.