The Pulpit Commentary — Ezekiel — Volume 2 — Section 197

aspect. God would "that the wicked turn from his way and live." If the absence of any desire on the part of the Supreme that sin should go on and down to death gives- a gleam of hope to the hopeless, bow much light ruay not be gained from the presence or a distinct and positive desire on his part that the sinner should live? If God wills that it should be sb, there can be no occasion to de.~pair; there must be reason, and strong reason, to hope. To know that this is the Divine disposition is a great thing indeed; it is to have left midnight a long way behind; it is to have entered the dawn of the morning. But we have much further to go into the light of day; for the- prophet's message includes- III. THE DIVINE CHALLENGE. "Turn ye . . . for why will ye die? " ThiS- includes: 1. A summons to repentance. Clearly repentance is an act which it is open to any soul to render at once if be will. It is not therefore either (1) the feeling of a. certain amount of emotion, for this is not always at command; or (2) a certain amount of good works done or.sacred services performed, for ~his can only~ the issue of ti_m~. Repentance is the turnmg of the heart and of the will to God and nghteousness; 1t 1s the act of the soul by which it turns away from its evil course of godlessness and wrong-doing, and turns toward the Divine Father with the full and fixed intention or henceforth serving him in the ways of righteousness. 'l'o do that which any and. every soul may do and should do without a day's.delay, God is summoning his disloyal servants (see Acts xvii. 30). 2. A gracious and powerful appeal. "Why will y& die?" Why should we die, when: (1) Death means so sad and so great a sacrifice- the loss of a human soul, capable of such beauty and such blessedness on the on& hand, and of such baseness and such misery on the other hand ? (2) God has don& such great things to save us; bas so loved us as to give bis only begotten Son to die for us, and by bis death to restore us. (3) The way of life is so free and so open to us all: "Whosoever believetb, . . . shall not perish, but have everlasting life." 3. The- life that is offered us in Christ means all that eternal life is /()'11,nd to be here and will prove to be hereafter.-C. Vera. 12-19.-God's equal way. These words bring out- I. THE OPPOnTin.'ITY OF THE BINNER. God gives him the opportunity of returning, and of recovering that which was Jost (see previous homily). He is "not to fall in the- day that be turns from bis wickedness." 1. God condemns and warns him; he tells him that bis sin is ruining him, leading him to death (ver. 14). 2. He hearkens and. repents; bas so deep a sense of his folly and his guilt that be turns utterly away, in heart and in life, from all his wrong-doing (vers. 14, 15). And then: 3. God takes. him back freely and fully into bis Divine favour (ver. 16). His sin is frankly forgiven him, and he "lives" unto God and in his sigijt-, This opportunity is offered to: 1~ The ignorant idolater who has been brought up in the dark shadows of superstition. 2. The man who, though brought up in the light of truth, has fallen into flagrnnt and shameful sin, into vice or crime. 3. 'l'he man who, while maintaining the proprieties. of behaviour, and perhaps the semblance of devotion, keeps his heart closed agaiust tb& truth and grace of Jesus Christ. 'l'o all or these, though they have lived through many years and even whole periods of. sin, there is open the gateway or immediate return and of foll reconciliation to God. II. THE PERIL OF THE RIGBTEOUs. 1. IHs God-given liope. He looks for life: "He shall. surely live" (ver. 13). The future before him is bright with many a precious promise; the fu~tber he goes t~e more be has to expect at the bands of the faithful and generous Giver, But let b1m not presume; here is : 2. His serious danger. He may, like the Jew, and like too many an erring Christian, imagine a favouritism on the part of the Supreme which rloes not exist, and, presuming upon it, may fall. If onc&- the devout man loses bis humility; forgets that he is Lut a weak, endeavouring human spirit; fosters in himself a sense of security; "trusts to bis own righteousness; "-then he stands at once within the circumference of spiritual peril. It is "when be is (con- sciously) weak, then be is strong" (2 Cor. xii. 10). And, conversely, when be is confidently strong, then is he weak, then is he most exposed to the darts of the enemy: pride precedes a fall. 3. His condemnation and liis doom. His former " righteousness will not deliver him;" for his iniquity and in his iniquity "he will die." No man living in sin may look up to Gud and say, "I was once pure," with any hope of" 20-! THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET EZEKIEL. [cu. mnL 1-33.