The Pulpit Commentary — Ezekiel — Volume 1 — Section 389

HOMILIES BY VARIOUS .AUTHORS. Vera. 3-5.-Undiscriminating infliction. It is a pathetic spectacle, this of the prophet, in his exile away in the north-east, turning by Divine command his gaze, sorrowful and sympathizing, towards Jerusalem, the holy places, the land of Israel. 'l'he present is sad enough, but Ezekiel has to bear the oppressive anticipation of the future. He hears the assurance of the God whom his countrymen have offended by their infidelity that worse calamity, even disaster, and death are about to befall the remnant in Palestine. The sword is about to be drawn out of its sheath, and the righteous and the wicked alike are about to feel the keenness of its edge. I. PROVIDENCF. REGARDS A NATION AS HAVING A CORPORATE LIFE. Israel was ll unity, and the scattered tribes were regarded by the King of nations as one people. It is the same with other communities. Every nation has its own national life, its own organic unity. Each subject or citizen is a member of the body, and his existence has meaning in this relation and all that it involves. II. RECTORAL LAW ACCORDINGLY DEALS WITH A NATION AS A WHOLE. The inha- bitants of the earth are under moral government and control, are subject to law and to the Divine Lawgiver and Judge. God is the God of nations. So much is this the case that political authority is represented in Scripture as being a Divine institution: "The powers that be are ordained of God." .As Providence designs that men should live in communities, so God determines the discipline, the moral education, through which nations must pass. God is in history; which is uninteresting and meaningless unless his hand is recognized, and the operation of his rule observed with ad.miring reverence. III. THIS PRINCil'LE INVOLVES THAT THE WICKED PARTICIPATE IN THE PROSPERITY, .AND THE GOOD IN THE ADVERSITY, WHICH COME UPON A NATION. Individuals are not always in sympathy with the community of which 'they form a part. There are other currents in a stream beside its main flow. Broadly speaking, the nation which publicly and flagrantly violates the mora.l law undermines its own life and prepares the way for its own dissolution. When the catastrophe comes, those who have protested against the nation's sins, aud have endeavoured to stem the torrent of unbelief and ungodliness, o.re carried away in the general destruction. IV. SuoH RETRIBUTION DOES NOT, HOWEVER, AFFECT THE INDIVIDUAL MOnAL PRO- BATION OF MEN. God deals with men upon general principles-according to broad, intelligible laws. We cannot see how it could be otherwise. Yet this seems to involve  THE :Morr. OF THll: PROPl1ET EZli:KIEt. (on. :x~r.1-32.