The Pulpit Commentary — Ezekiel — Volume 1 — Section 211

but when our judgment is enlightened, we perceive that this is the richest boon God can give or man receive. This is an inner fountain of blessing-" a well of water springing up into everlasting life." 2. There follows a spirit of filial loyaUy. Possess- ing this new nature, God's Law will become a. delight. The sentiment of David is reproduced in them: "Oh, how I love thy Law!" Better still; they learn to say, like Jesus," I delight to do thy will, 0 God I" The path of obedience now becomes a. fascination-a. flowery mead or a. fragrant grove, As the stars of heaven observe their proper orbits, so the new-born man spontaneously runs in the statutes of God. Obedi- ence is no longer irksome; it is as natural as breathing, as natural as fruit-bearing. 3. Covenant relationship. "They shall be my people, and I will be their God." This covenant secures for the chosen ones the inalienable favour and protection of God. God obtains, by mutual treaty, a new proprietorship in these people; they, on their part, obtain a proprietorship in God. They have a. claim yielded to them by Divine condescension-a. claim upon God they did not possess before. 4. National unity. "I will give them one heart." Division had been one source of weakness ln the former time, Civic rivalry had been the forerunner of national disaster. Now a. better feeling shall prevail. "Judah shall not vex Ephraim, Ephraim shall not envy Judah." Union of the tribes shall be strength. 5. On this shall follow demolition of idolatry. "They shall take away all the detestable things." '!'he mt>re we know God-bis Fatherhood, love, and mercy-the more we see the folly and vanity of idols. The baubles that pleased a. child are despised when we become men. Our growing love to God will make us intolerant of every rival. As the burnt child dreads the fire, so the restored Hebrews abhorred idols. The man who has a clean heart desires also a clean home. Real reformation begins within-at the centre, and works outward. V. Gon'll GOVERNMENT DEAT.S WITH THE INDIVIDUAL MAN. Such is the series of precious donations God engaged to bestow upon his afflicted people in exile; yet their repentance and submission was the pivot on which all good depended. If one here and there still clung to the old idolatry, that one should be excluded from all share in the nation's regeneration. His sin shall bear its proper fruit. The new covenant was to be personal as well as national; for God will not overlook the individual in the crowd. "Each one shall give account of himself unto God." The one among the guests destitute of the wedding garment was in a moment espied by the King. Not a solitary culprit shall escape the scrutiny of God's eye, nor the operation of God's Law. .As the light of day penetrates every chink and comer of our globe, so the light of God's righteousness will disclose every sin of man.-D. Vers. 1-13.-The presumptuous security of sinners exh{bited and condemned. " Moreover the Spirit lifted me up, aud brought me unto the east gate of the Lord's house," etc. I. THE PRESUMPTUOUS AND FALSE BEOURITY OF SINNERS EXH!DITED. (Vers. 1-3.) '!'he twenty-five men here mentioned are not the same as those mentioned in eh. viii. 16; for already they have been slain in vision. In both places the number is a round one. And in this place it is clear that they were leaders of the people; for they gave counsel unto them, and two princes of the people were in the midst of them. Their conduct shows to us : 1. Sinners boasting their security in defiance of the declarations of the Lord by his prophets. Some of the exiles io. Babylon had looked forward to a speedy return to their own land. Jeremiah the prophet sent to them a letter to correct this error, saying, "Build ye houses, and dwell in them;" a.nu assuring them that not until they had accomplished seventy years of exile would they bo pem1itted to return to the lao.d of their fathers (Jer. xxix. 1-14). In the same letter be threatened those that were left at Jerusalem with "the sword, the famine, and the pestilence." And these five and twenty men, in mockery of the words of the prophet, said, "It is not near to build houses." They encouraged themselves and others in the opinion that, however it might be with the captives in Babylon, they were safe enough in Jerusalem, and need not trouble themselves about building houses. Moreover, Jeremiah had seen in vision a seething pot, or cauldron, with its face toward the north, which symbolized the coming of the kingdoms of the north against Jerusalem and against the cities of Judah, and taking them (Jer. i. 13-16). And in derision of this prophecy these twenty-five men said," This is the cauldron, and we are the flesh." As the flesh within the cauldron  206 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHE'l' EZEKIEL. [011. xr. 1-26.