The Pulpit Commentary — Ezekiel — Volume 1 — Section 374

irreparable loss and injury to man. 3. Successiveness in sin. "The children rebelled against me," etc. (ver. 21). 'fhe younger generation were far from being so wicked as their fathers (Josh. xxiv. 31); they were also far from being true and faithful in their relation to the Lord their God. Scott says truly "that the generation that entered Canaan was the best which there ever was of that favoured nation." Yet they frequently rebelled against the Lord. What a lamentable successiveness in sin there has been in the generations of our race I Real advance certainly has been made; but still sin, dark and pre'"alent, has characterized every generation of mankind, III. THE Drvnrn RETRrBUTION ON AOOOUNT OF THE SINS OF THE PEOPJ.E. 1. The -nature of this retrilmtion. The elder generation was excluded from the promised land because of their unbelief and rebellion against God and against the leaders whom he had chosen. "I lifted up my hand unto them in the wilderness, that I would not bring them into the land which I had given them," etc. (vers. 16, 16; and cf. Numb. xiv. 26--35 ; Ps. cvi. 24-2G). They disbelieved God's word of promise, and they should not share in its fulfilment; "they despised the pleasant land," and they were not allowed to enter therein; they wished that they had died in the wilderness, and in the wilderness they died. And as to the younger generation, their retribution is thus described: "I gave them also statutes that were not good, and judgments whereby they should not live,'' etc. (vers. 25, 26). "The 'judgments whereby they should not live' are those spoken of in ver. 18, and are contrasted with the judgment!I in vers. 13, 21, laws other than Divine, to which God gives up those whom he afflicts with judicial blindness, because they have wilfully closed their eyes (Ps. lxxxi. 12; Rom. i. 24)" (' Speaker's Commentary'). Hengstenberg says, "We may compare here Rom. i. 24, according to which God, in just retribution for their revolt, gave over the heathen to vile affections; Acts vii. 42, where it is traced back to God that the heathen served the host of heaven; and 2 Thess. ii. 11, where God sends the apost,ates strong delusions. God has so constituted human nature that revolt from him must be followed by total darkness and disorder; that no moderation in error and sin, no standing still at the middle point, is possible; that the man, however willing he might be to stand still, must, against his will, sink from step to step. Revolt from God is the crime, excess in error and moral degradation the merited doom, from which all would willingly escape if this were in their power. By way of example, the custom of sacrificing children is mentioned in ver. 26. 'To cause to pass through' the fire (ver. 31; cf. eh. xvi. 21; xxiii. 37) is the current phrase for sacrificing children which were offered to Moloch. Into such a detestable custom did God in his righteous judgment permit them to fall, that the merited punishment might come upon them (' that I might lay them desolate'), by which they learn that their paternal God, whom they set at nought, is God in the full sense, whom to forsake is at once to fall into misery." 2. The deRign of this retri- bution. "To the end that they might know that I am the Lord." (See our notes on these words in eh. vi. 7, 10; vii. 4.) We must every one be brought to know him, either by the way of his grace or by the way of his judgments.-W. J. Vers. 27-29.-God, and Israe,l in Oanaan. "Therefore, son of man, speak unto the· house of lsrael, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God,'' etc. We have here- 1 I. Gr:EAT KINDNESS GliACIOUSLY CONFERRED. "I had brought them into the land, which I lifted up mine hand to give unto them." 1. The Lord gave Canaan unto them, and brought them into it. "He gave them the lands of the nations; and they took the labour of the peoples in possession" (Ps. cv. 44); "And when he had destroyed seven nations in the land of Canaan, he gave them their land for an inheritance " (Acts xiii. 19). Look at the taking of Jericho as an illustration of this. It was not by human strategy or strength that they obtained the city, but by Divine interposition. And this land was a desirable possession (cf. Numb. xiii. 27; Deut. viii. 7-9; xi. 10-12; and see our notes on eh. xix. 10). 2. The Lord brought them into Oanaan infufilment of his promise. "The land which I lifted up mine hand to give unto them." The lifting up of the hand is the gesture of the oath, or solemn promise. Notwithstanding the rebellions of those to whom the l)romise was given, and the difficulties in the way of its fulfilment, he m~de bis promise good. His faithfulness and bis power guaranteo the 1,erf•Jrmance of his word. Here we have ground for confidence in him (cf. Numb. xx.iii. 19; Matt. xxi•:. 35; 1 Pet. i. 25). 3. The Lo'"d brought them into Canaan oj on, xx. 1-40.J THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET EZEKIEL. 377