The Pulpit Commentary — Ezekiel — Volume 2 — Section 59

V. THE FmAL AIM. "They shall know that I am the Lord." This conviction of God's existence and God's active righteousness will surely come at length, but in many cases will not come in time to avert the great catastrophe. Every such national over• throw will be a monument to God's power and God's veracity. "Being dead, these nations yet speak." The mounds ransacked to-day for treasures produce eloquent demonstrations of the truthfulness of ancient prophecy and of the certainty of Divine retribution. There is a knowledge that saves; there is a knowledge_that does not save.-D. Vers. 1-7.-The sin and fudgment of the Ammonites. "The word of the Lord ea.me again unto me, saying, Son of man, set thy face against the Ammonites," etc. For a time the mouth of Ezekiel was closed in relation to his own countrymen; he was to be to themss a dumb man, or at least dumb as a prophet (eh. xxiv. 27). But having already proclaimed the judgment of God upon Israel and Judah by various figures and with much reiteration, he proceeds to declare that judgment against the neighbouring heathen nations. "Judgment indeed begins at the house of God; but if the Father of the household does not spare the sons, how soon must it alight upon the others I This doctrine first of all shines forth from the connection of this chapter with the preceding chapters. Then, also, we see here how, with all the special solicitude wherewith God interested himself in Israel, he still by no means lets the heathen out of his sight, since he must show himself to be a God also for the heathen." Of these nations the prophet first addresses himself to the Ammonites. They were related to the Israelites., being the descendants of Ben-ammi, the son of Lot by his younger daughter. Yet they were inveterate enemies to Israel. " They had joined Eglon, had oppressed Israel in the time of J eph thah, had fought against Saul, David, Jehoshaphat, and J otham. They had joined the Moabites in Nebuchadnezzar's army, when he besieged Jerusalem in the reign of Jehoiakim (2 Kings xxiv. 2)." And they exulted in the miseries of Israel and Judah. The date of this prophecy is uncertain. Hengstenberg says that" the date in eh. xxiv. 1 applies to this also. What was predicted in eh. xxiv. regarding the immediate future of Judah is here presupposed as already accomplished; so that the point of view is ideal." But the• Speaker's Commentary' supposes "that this prophecy was delivered immediately after the capture of the.city by Nebuchadnezzar." We have in the text- L AN EXHIBITION OF THE SIN OF THE AMMONITES. 1. Exultation in the miseries of others. "Thou saidst, Aha! against my sanctuary, when it was profaned; and against the land of Israel, when it was made desolate; and against the house of Judah, when they went into captivity." "They were," says Greenhill," the neighbours bordering upon them; they were their confederates, in league with the King of Egypt, as the Jews were; they were their ha.If-brethren, descending from Lot; and upon these accounts should have sympathized with the Jews, wept with those tha.t wept (Rom. :xii 15), been sensible of their great adversities (Heb. xiii. 3); but they insulted over them, mocked at them, were despitefnl against them, and added coals to the fire, weight to their burdens, and more chains to their bonds" (cf. Lam. i. 2). They rejoiced when Shalmaneser King of Assyria invaded Israel, desolated the land, and carried the people into captivity (2 Kings xvii. 1-6). Again, they exulted in the miseries of the people of Judah when they were conquered and carried into exile in Babylon (2 Kings xxiv. 10-16; xxv. 1-11). They triumphed in the national ruin and sore calamities of the Jews (cf. eh. xxi. 28; Lam. ii. 15, 16; Zeph. ii. 8). Such derision and insultation are directly opposed to the will of God, especially when, as in this case, the mockers are themselves also guilty of the sin which brought down the distresses. When some suffer sore calamities, God's will is that others should ba thereby stimulated to consider their ways and repent of their evil doings (cf. Luke :xiii. 1-5). Moreover, in exulting over the fallen and mocking the miserable there is Satanic malevolence and shocking cruelty. Sometimes saintly men have severely suffered by reason of such mockery. David smarted under it (Ps. xxxv. 12-16). But the guilt of the Ammonites was darker even than this. They rejoiced in the desecration of the temple of God. "Thou saidst, Aha! aaainst my sanctuary, when it 0 was profaned." They looked upon that as the overthrow cf the religion of the Jews, and probably deciared that Jehovah was unable to defend either his temple or his OH. xxv.1-17.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET EZEKIEL. 61