The Pulpit Commentary — Ezekiel — Volume 2 — Section 134

IV. ANOTHER FRUIT 01!' Goo's DISPLEASURE 19 TEMPORARY DISPERSIOli. "I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations. . . . I will bring again the captivity of Egypt." Compulsory banishment is a eerioue disgrace, a heavy calamity. The poor, no less than the rich, have tender attachment to their homes. 'fhe tendrils of strong affection twine round the cottage in which one is born. To be compelled to turn away from the familiar scenes-to be compelled by a foreign conqueror-is galling to every sentiment, is like a fire in one's bones. Such enforced separation means loss, hardship, uncertainty, dishonour, Defeat in war is affiiction sore enough; banishment is tenfold worse. How insane on the part of men to provoke God into such necessity of chastisement I V. ANOTHER EFFECT OF Goo's ANGER IS, PERPETUAL DEGRADATION. .. It shall be the basest of the kingdome, neither shall it exalt itself any more above the nations." To have a friend who is cultured and refined is to have an elevating power at our side, lifting us up to a better life. God is wise; and to have God as a Friend is to gain wisdom steadily. God is pure; and to have God's friendship is to become pure also. God is love; and he who is much in God's society becomes lovely and loving. All good flows from God as its Fount; and to cut off one's self wilfully from that fount is to eink into ignorance and misery. The friends of God must rise ; the foes of God must deteriorate. To-day this prophecy is signally fulfilled. For centuries past Egypt has been the tool and the slave of other empires. She has been ground to the dust by the oppressor, nor is there at present any prospect that she will rise again. The word of the Lord by Ezekiel, although then improbable, has been performed.-D. Vers. 17-20.-.A New Year's gift to a king. There is a common proverb, that" he who gives quickly gives double." But this is not always true. A deferred gift is sometimes the best gift. God may to us seem to forget, but it is only seemiug. His memory never fails, nor yet his good will. L RoUGB WAB IS SOMETIMES SERVICE DONE FOR Goo. "'They wrought for me, saith the Lord God." Men of delicate sensibility cannot understand how God can allow the rough business of war to serve his cause. Nevertheless, he does. If a warrior-king is actuated by a desire to vindicate righteousness or to redress a wrong, he is fighting in the cause of Jehovah. Probably his motives and ambitions may be of a mixed and conglomerate character. Love of self may be commingled with love of justice; yet so far as a righteous purpose appears, he mo.y expect the benediction of God. If our Lord Jehovah did not bless human endeavour until it was free from every admixture of selfishness, he would never bless at all. Abundant generosity marks all his action, By so doing he encourages youngest efforts in the right direction. II. IN WAR, Goo IS THE SUPREME ABDITER. Possibly Nebuchadnezzar did not know Jehovah-did not know that be was rendering a service to the God of heaven. This happens sometimes. Isaiah was commissioned by God to say to Cyrus, "I girdeJ tJ1ee, though thou hast not known me." Ignorance, if not preventible, is excusable, Ignorance that is wilful is a crime. God does not always take sides in war. Very often both sides are actuated simply by malice or some equally base passion. Tem- porary success in war cannot, therefore, be accepted as the approval of Jehovah. The devil does, now and again, obtain a transient triumph-at least a seeming triumph. But, on the whole, God acts as Arbiter, and often quickly reverses the effect of o. visible conquest. In every battle he sees much to condemn, sometimes much to approve. IIL Go» IS THE UNDISPUTED DrBPOSER OF EMPIRES. Without question, he gave the empires of Canaan to the seed of Abraham. He gave the territory· of North America to the British. He gave Egypt for a time to the kings of Persia. "He setteth up one, and putteth down another." As be claims supreme control over individual persons, so he does also over empires, large and small. "The earth is the Lord's." He alone may rule with a high hand, and give to men no account of his doings. JV, fl19 REWARDS, THOUGH SEEMINGLY DELAYED, ABE TIMELY AND GENEROUS, In this passage God does not stint hi~ pro.ise to Nebuchadnezzar. He generously styles it •• a great service." He bas noted carefully all the hard toil which his army  138 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET EZEKIEL. [oa. xxxx.1-21.