HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. Vars, 1-49.-Inexcusable infidelity. What it must have cost the patriotic prophet to write this chapter passes our power to imagine. The Jew was naturally and pardon- ably proud of hie country and of its history. No thoughtful Jew could, indeed, be insensible to imperfections and flaws in the national character, to stains upon the nation's annals. But in this passage of bis prophecies the dark shading is relieved by no gleam of light. Israel ie depicted as bad from the days of Egyptian bondage down to the days of Babylonian captivity. The figurative language employed is such as could only be justified by facts most discreditable to the character of the Hebrew people. That there were exceptions to the rule, Ezekiel was well aware. But the rule was that the people were, at every stage of their existence, prone to depart from the God to whom they owed every privilege, every blessing; that they resisted no tempta. tion to idolatry; that they were incessantly provoking the anger and just condemnation of the theocratic king. To complete the horror of the representation, the northern aml southern tribes are alike included in the indictment and in the guilt. Penetrating beneath the faithful but very repulsive, yet necessary and just, similitude employed by the prophet, to the moral and spiritual lessons thus conveyed, we may trace the story of the inexcusable infidelity of Judah and Israel as related without exaggeration by one of their own race. I. DIBLOYALTY TO JEHOVAH WAS COMMON TO JuDAII AND ISRAEL. We have but to turn to the Books of Kings and of Chronicles to see that in this respect the northern and southern kingdoms were alike, if not equally, guilty. In the record we find, not- withstanding certain remarkable exceptions in the case of Judah, that kings and people continually forsook their Divine Deliverer and rightful King, and addicted the1melvcs to the degrading idolatries practised by the surrounding nations. II. DISLOYALTY TO JEHOVAH COMMENCED IN THE NATION'S YOUTH, DURING TIIE E□ YPTJAN BONDAGE. The record of the wanderings in the wilderness is a sufficient proof of this. The worship of the golden calf is a well-known instance of the rcadim·sd of Israel to fall back into the Egyptian idolatry, which, it might have been supposed, they had for ever left behind them when they cross~ the Red Sea, and witnt~scd the 26 'l'HE BOOK OF THE PROPHET EZEKIEL. [cu. xxm. 1-49.
powerlessness of the gods of Egypt to eave Pharaoh and his mighty but misguided host. III. DISLOYALTY TO JEHOVAH WAS REPEATED WHEN IsnAEL WAS DROUGHT INTO CON- TACT '\TITH THE AssYRIANS. In the frank and painful language of the prophet is depicted the fatal readiness of the Israelites to yield themselves to the seductions of the Oriental idolatries, and even to go out of their way to court the corruption which they should have eschewed. Compared with the pure and stately rites instituted by Divine command, and celebrated in the temple courts of Jerusalem, the worship of the Assyrians was inexpressibly degrading. 'fhe length of time during which the Hebrews had cnjo:red peculiar privileges increased their c~lpability in transferring, at this period, the alleg1a.nce they owed to the true God from him to the contemptible idols of Assyria. IV. DISLOYALTY TO JEIIOV..lH ALIENATED IIIM FROM THE PEOPLE WHOM HE HAD CHOSEN. As the soul of a. husband is estranged from the adulteress who bas deserted him, so the Lord declared his soul to be alienated from her whom he had signalized by his favour. Israel had forsaken the one incomparably holy and gracious God, and had attached herself to the lords many and the gods many of the surrounding peoples; and such conduct could not but raise a. barrier between Jehovah and the nation that had shown such insensibility to his favour, and such readiness to yield to the advances of his enemies. V. DISLOYALTY TO JEHOVAII WAS PUNISHED THROUGH THE AGENCY OF THE VERY l'EOPLE THROUGH WHOSE INSTIGATION IT w AS COMMITTED. How remarkable the threat, "I will raise up thy lovers a,,a-ainst thee"! By Assyria Judah and Israel were corrupted ; and by Assyria they were chastened. They alienated the Lord, and yet found no help from the false gods for whose sake they had deserted him. VI. P.un."'ERB IN DISLOYALTY WERE PABTNERS IN PUNISHMENT. Alike they sinned, and alike they suffered. They incurred the same fate, and from the same sword. Samaria and Judah alike endured the sorrows of the Eastern captivity and the shock of the Eastern armies. VIL DlsLOYALTY TO JEHOVAH W.ASSEVEBELY DEALT WITH. In various figures, each with its own dark shade of significance, the prophet portrays the impending fate of the guilty, a.postate nations. They were mutilated; they were compelled to drink the cup of astonishment and desolation; they were consumed with fire and slain with the sword. VIII. THE A.IM OF THUS PUNISHING DISLOYALTY WAS TO BRING IT TO AN END, •• Thus will I cause lewdness [i.e. idolatry] to oease out of the land, that a.11 women [i.e. 11ation.s] may be taught not to do after your lewdness." JX. JEHOVAH THUS VINDICATES HIS OWN CLAIM TO THE LOYALTY OF ALL IIIEN, AVENGING HIMSELF UPON THOSE WHO WRONG HIM, "Ye shall know that I a.m the Lord God." His honour he will not give unto another. To our reverence and our obeqience, to our devotion and service, our Creater and Redeemer has an indisputa.ble and indefeasible claim; and this he will assuredly assert and maintain. He will be honoured, both by the condemnation of the unfaithful and rebellious, and by the salva- tion of the penitent, the submissive, and the loyaL-T. Ver. 5a.-Exalted relationship and enormous sin. "And Aholah played the harlot when she was mine." L A RELATIONSHIP OF THE HIGHEST PRIVILEGE. " She was mine." Aholah is intended to represent the people of Israel a.a distinguished from the people of Judah. The Lord here says that she was his. In common with all other peoples, Israel was his: (1) By creation. God "himself giveth to all life, and breath, and all things." He is "the Father of spirits." (2) By sustentation. He is "the God in whose hand our breath is and whose are all our ways." With Job, we may say to him," Thou hast granted ~e life and favour, and thy visitation hath preserved my spirit." But: (3) Israel was his by redemption. He redeemed them from their bondage in Egypt by miuhty works and marvellous signs. That emancipation is an illustration of the redemption of man from sin effected by our Saviour Jesus Christ, "'l'he Lord hath anointed him . . . to proclaim liberty to the captives," etc. (Isa. l.xi. 1, 2). He "gave himself a ransom for all." (4) Israel was his pre-eminently by covenant engagement. " I sware unto thee, and entered into a covenant with thee, eaith the Lord God, and thou becamest mine" (eh, xvi. 8). They belonged to him as a wife belongs to her OR. x.nrr. 1-4,9.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET EZEKIEL. 27