Ver. 25.-God accused of man's injustice. The Jews were asserting that the ways of God were not equal, when the fa.et was that their ways, not his, were unequal. I. GoD IS AOOUBEO OF INJUSTIOE. "Ye say, The way of the Lord is not equal." It is felt that the rule of the supreme God should be very different from that of earthly judges, some of whom take bribes, and all of whom are fallible. "Shall not the J ud(Te of all the earth do right?" exclaims Abraham, when venturing to expostulate with G~d on what appears to him a. threatened injustice (Gen. xviii. 25). Yet the facts of life are often discoumging, and suggest to doubting, impatient souls a notion that God ii, not 328 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET EZEKIEL. [en. xvm. 1-32.
acting justly. The wicked prosper, and the good meet with misfortune. Children 1mffer from the misdeeds of their parents. Persons equal in character are unequal in fortune. 'l'o one the way of life is far more smooth than to another, althouo h wo can detect no good reason for the distinctiou. At one timo a wild and mindle~s Chanco seems to play with the world, at another a blind, stern Fate appears to hold it in an iron grip. We cannot discover the hand of jU6tice behind the drifting cloud of cit-cum- 1Stances. But: 1. Jw,tice does not involve equality, but treatment according to desert. 2. We only see a small part of God's ways, and therefore cannot judge of the whole. The fly on the wheel cannot understand the machine. He might think the action of the "eccentric" deranged because it was unequal, and yet it is essential to the right working of the whole engine. 3. We ai·e too limited in nature to judge, even if we Flaw all the facts. II. THIS ACCUSATION RESULTS FROM MAN'S INJUSTICE. We impute to God what is in ourselves. We judge him by our own hearts and conduct. We know what would be our motives if we did certain things which we discover in the Divine action, and therefore we ascribe those same motives to God. We colour what we see with the hues that are in our own eyes. To the railway traveller the hedgerows and trees appear to be turning about invisible pivots, now flying to him and then swiftly whirling away; yet the motion is with the observer. 1. We are un:just in attempting to fudge God. Here on the threshold the fault is seen to be ours. Even if God were unjust, since we are not capable of understanding his actions, we should be unjust also in venturing to give a verdict on his deeds. 2. We are unjust in our general conduct. There is a lack of integrity of heart in us even when our external behaviour is straight. We walk in crooked paths, and our conscience itself is perverted, so that the very rule by which we measure is warped. It is not surprising that God seems to be unjust when our standard of measurement does not agree with his action; but then the fault is with the standard. Until our own hearts and lives are right, it is not possible for us to form right views of God. 3. We are unfust in ascribing our own infustice to God. The inequalities of society are charged against God. They come from " man's inhumanity to man." Vers. 26-28.-.Reversals of character. We have here an instance of man's misjudg- ment of God, and wrongful accusation of injustice against him. People who have borne good characters are punished by God, and others who have earned themselves odious reputations a.re spared. This is the stumbling-block. But our text supplies the expla- na.tion of the apparent inconsistency. The good men have fallen into sin, and the bad men have repented and mended their lives. Therefore it is not unjust in God to treat them no longer according to their old characters. L Gon JUDGES ACCORDING TO PRESENT CHARAOTEB. Human judgment is stiff and blunt. Having formed our estimate of a man, we hold it after all justification for it has vanished. We are blind to those traits in his character which do not agree with our theory; or, if we are forced to recognize them, our first impulse is to twist them into harmony with the theory. Thus men's characters in the world outlive the facts on which they are founded. They are not all equal in this respect. A good character is more easily lost than a bad character. If a man hat1 once earned an evil name, it is almost impossible for him to divest himself of it. People will not believe in his thorouo-h 0 conversion. 'l'his suspicion is partly due to ignorance of the hearts of men, and to a consequent danger of being imposed upon by hypocrisy. But God knows hearts. He is not bound by names and reputations. He sees present facts, and he judges men as they are. Then he judges according to present con<lition. He does not spare the fallen man on account of past goodness, and he does not rake up old charges against the penitent. We must not suppose, however, that God j~dges by a man's latest act. 'l'his would throw in an element of chance. A man 1s not condemned because he happens to be doing wrong at the moment of death, or saved because.death finds him on his knees in prayer. But when the whole life is turned round, God Judges by its present character, and not by its former state. 11 REVERSALS OF CHARACTER ABE POSSIBLE. We are not arguing on hypothetical cases. The ways of God to men are to be justified in part by the knowledge that such cases exist. 1. The good man may fall away into sin. When this happens, the world lifts UJJ its Lauds in horror at what it supposes to be a revelation of monstrous and oa. xvm.1-32.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET EZEKIEL. 329