The Pulpit Commentary — Ezekiel — Volume 1 — Section 386

I. IT IS A FACT THAT THE RIGHTEOUS SUFFER WITH THE WICKED. We see this fact in everyday experience, and it would be a falsehood to formulate a doctrine which i;eemed to our short-sighted jndgment more just, if it did interpret events. 1. Froin human conduct. The bad policy of a king brings war and its attendant miseries on 11 whole nation. The crime of a father bequeaths poverty, shame, and misery to his whole family. 2. From 'IW,tural, calamities. An earthquake will shake down a church upon the heads of the most devout worshippers, with as terrible a slaughter as that which follows the overthrow of some theatre of sinful revelry. IT. THE COMMON LIFE OF MANKIND NECESSITATES THIS COMMON FATE. There is e. certain solidarity of man. We are members one of another, so that if one member 1mffers, all the members suffer. This is one penalty we pay for the union with our fellow-men which on the whole is immensely helpful, ,vithout such a union there would be no society, no organic connection between individuals. The rich, full life that grows out of the mutual ministries of man would then be impossible. III. IT IS AN AGGRAVATlON OF A CALAMITY THAT THE RIGHTEOUS SHARE THE FATE OF THE WICKED. The wicked could well be spared, and it might seem to be a good thing for the world that their places should be vacant; but every good man has his good work which suffers when he is taken away. The guilt of those who brinu disaster on the innocent is all the greater on this account. No worse thing can happe~ to a people than that its saving elements should be taken away. They are the salt of the land. 1V. THE RIGHTEOUS WHO SUFFER WITH THE WICKED ABE NOT ULTIMATELY mJUBED. The injustice is temporary. 1. The outward suffering is an inward blessing. The physical nature of the suffering may be the same in both cases ; but its moral character mffers entirely according as it is deserved or not. When it falls on innocent men it is not punishment; there is no curse in it; it comes as the fire that purges the silver. 2. The temporary suffering 'IDUl be followed by eternal blessedness. We may say of the righteous and the sinful who were victims of a common calamity, "In their death they were noi divided." But after death there is a swift and searching separation. Then it is seen that the righteous were taken from the evil to come. V. THE COMMON FATE OF THE RIGHTEOUS AND WICKED MAY BE A MEANS OF SAVING BOTH. It was so in the Captivity. Good men like Daniel and '"l'he Three Children" were taken to Babylon together with the corrupt courtiers of Jerusalem, and there they maintained the flame of ancient Hebrew piety, so as to prepare for a renewed people's restoration. Christ died the sinner's death that he might save the sinner, after he him.self had been raised up from the dead in victory over sin, Ver. 9.-The sword <if war. I. THE SWORD OF WAB BRmGs FEARFUL TROUBLE. When the hoarded judgment bursts over the head of the guilty nation of Israel, it falls in the form of war. Those people who speak lightly of war a.s being "good for trade," as" opening careers for men," and as "developing manly virtues," etc., would do well to consider that the fearful monster is regarded1in the Bible as the worst of plagues. David was a man of war, and he knew what its horrors meant. It was with no nervous fear like that of King James who shuddered at the sight of a sword, with no sentimental tremors of an effeminate nature, that the old warrior David chose the horrors of a pestilence in preference to those of war. Note some of its evils. 1. Destructiveness. It must be a fallacy to regard it as "good for trade." Whatever temporary and artificial fillip commerce may receive during the actual campaign is paid for ten times over by the subsequent collapse. England was thrown back for generations by the Napoleonic wars. The soldiers are withdrawn from productive work; ordinary commerce is stopped; and a vast amount of property is directly destroyed. 2. Suffering. Every one who has witnessed the scenes of a battle-field turns from the recollection of them with loathing and horror. War is not a pageant of drums and trumpets and flying banners; it is a huge Inferno of groans and agonizing deaths. Thousands lie wounded on the field, some trampled on by charging steeds, some anguished for want of the drop of water which cannot be reached, sick with the blazing heat of the sun or chilled to the marrow in snow and frost. Thousands are cut off in the flower of their youth, sent prematurely to the grave before their real life-work is begun. And every death meatll3 a ho\l.l!ehold of bitter mourning in the old home. 3. Wickedness, War lets loose on. xxt. 1-32.J TIIE BOOK OF THE PROPHET EZEK1EL. 389