The Pulpit Commentary — Ezekiel — Volume 1 — Section 267

" work out your own salvation." 'l'here is no working by proxy here, "Each man sho.11 bear his own burden." "Each one of us shall give account of himself to God." Therefore "strive to enter in by the narrow door," eto, "Give the more diligence to make your calling and election sure. "-W. J. Vers. 22, 23. -TM ,-igh teousness of God doubted and vindicated. " Yet, behold, therein shall be left a remnant that shall be brought forth," eto. Our text, as Fair- bairn points out, "is addressed to the people already in exile, who are regarded as viewing the destruction about to be executed on Jerusalem with astonishment and some degree of dissatisfaction. The prophet tells such there would certainly be a remnant-not, however, in the proper sense, as if they were themselves deserving persons, or spared for blessing for the sake of the pious among them-but a remnant still so wedded to sin, and so manifestly deserving of severe chastisement, that every one would recognize the justice of God's dealings toward them. 'Ye shall see,' to use the language of Calvin, 'the men to be so wicked, that ye shall be forced to confess the city was deserving of destruction, and the men themselves worthy of death. And instead of murmuring and fretting against God, ye shall be satisfied it could not have been otherwise ordered, their wickedness was of so desperate a nature; so that with soothed and tranquil minds, ye shall henceforth proclaim my righteousness, and cease any more to utter the complaints which now disturb your minds!'" Let us consider- I. THE CONCERN OF THE GOOD FOB THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GoD IN HIS JUDGMENTS, Ezekiel foresaw that bis fellow-exiles would be amazed at the sternness of the judgments of God upon Jerusalem. Those judgments would be of great severity. And amongst the exiles there were some pious persons who would be troubled with doubts as to whether the Lord had sufficient cause for what he had done there. They would be distressed with the suspicion that perhaps the visitation of God had been disproportionate in its severity-that the sins of the people had not merited such punishment, And they would be distressed with misgivings as to the righteousness of God in the matter, "So long as we do not understand that God on just grounds acts sternly, so long are our souls distressed and tormented." Somewhat thus Abraham felt respecting the doom pronounced on Sodom and Gomorrah. "That be far from thee to do after this manner, to slay the righteous with the wicked, that so the righteous should be as the wicked; that be far from thee: shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?'' We have here, as Robertson, in fragmentary but striking and suggestive notes, remarks, •• a suspicion of the Divine justice: the most horrible with which the mind of man can be tempted. Dreadful to doubt one's own salvation, and feel suspended over the gulf! But a more terrible gulf when we doubt whether all is right here. 'Oh, to see the misery of this bleeding world!' Consider for a moment the misconception of these words, 'Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?' 'l.'hey have been used to prove the sovereignty of God. God is Judge, therefore what he does is right. He_ ha~ a right, and therefore it is right. Bat Abraham does not say that. So far from acquies~rng in the predestinarian feeling-it is to be, and therefore it is right; God is a sovereign, and may do what he pleases-he is precisely doubting this, whether, though Go~ be Judge, his deedl! are right, taking the moral sense of Abraham as a text, and cons1~er- ing it horrible if God's acts do not a~ee with it. It is a perilous _wa{ of speaking, 'God has a right to decree what he will; my salvation, your damnat10n. It 1s not so the Bible speaks. It appeals to the sense of justice,' Are not my ways equal?' et.:. God never says, 'I create a thing right, therefore I do it.' God's will doe~ not mak_o a thing right. It is God's character which determines his will. For else, if the devil bad created this world, wrong would be ri~ht, because his will, and we should have the terrible doctrine-might makes right"(' Life and Letters,' Appendix iii.). T~is is a.11 applicable to the doubts and fears of the exiles as to the righteousness of God in his judgments upon Jerusalem, as to the doubts of Abraham as to the doom of_ the cities of the plain. This concern of godly men for the righteousness of God's dealings implies: 1. .An inward sense of righteousness. It is a testimony to the existence and exercise and majesty of the moral sense in man. It is an outcome of the working Clf conscience. 2. Deep solicitude for the honour of God. Any doubt of his holiness, or of the rectitude of his doings, causes sore pain to his people, and it docs BO because the glory of l.iis character is urispeakably dear to them. <!iI. xv. 1-8.J TllE BOOK OF THE PROPHET EZEKIEL.