Vera. 1-15.-Speeial punishment of apecial sin. Very painful must it be to an intelligent spirit to be the executor of Jehovah'a vengeance upon transgressors: tba pain is only one remove the less to announce the coming doom. Yet. as we gain broader and clearer views of God's administration, we discover that the 11uffering of a few brings advantage to the many. The splendour and the rare excellence of God's righteousness are thereby clearly revealed. And gradually we perceive that pain and pleasure are matters vastly inferior to right and wrong. The well-being of heaven is euspended upon just government in the universe. Right must be done, though the ■tars should fall and the material fabric become a wreck. I. AN AG~BAVATED ~ATIONAL OFFENCE. 1. It sprang out of an ancient hatred. 'l;'he then-exJBtent Inhabitants of Israel had done the Edomites no wrong. It was simply~ ember _of an old fire the Edomites ~ad fanned and kept alive generation aftnr generat10:n. Their duty clearly was to forgive and to forget. Centuries before, the bl~-stamed hatchet ought to have been buried. Heedlessly the Edomitea were doing their own nature a cruel wrong. They were strangling their noblest qualities. 2. Hatred, nursed, aoon deuelops into murder. " They had shed the blood of the children of Israel" Murder may stain the character of a state as much as it stains the character of an individual ; and every war, unjustly provoked, is only murder. The lives of a myriad innocent men will be required at some tyrants' hand.~. And this murderous outrage was an act of basest cowardice. They bad plunged the sword into Israel's breast when Israel was prostrate and wounded by other foes. It was as black 1 deed as ever had been done under the eye of the sun. 3. ~dded to this was an attempted spoliation of Israe'l's territory. "Becauso thou hast said, These two n.atious 234 THE BOOK OF 'l'HE PROPH:ET EZEKIEL: [CIJ. x:u.v. 1-15.
•.. shall be mine." Edom had hoped to blot Israel's name completely out of hi,t<)ry, and to embrace the sacred territory in the empire of Edom. '!'heir hatred had hatched! a purpose to murder and bury a nation-a nation that had beeu and might agaiu be- a blessing to the globe. And the guilt was equally as great as if the vile purpose had succeeded. To the eye of our righteous Goo. there is often a vast volum·e of crime :secreted ill a single purpose, in a hidden motive. The quilltessence of sin. may be- found there. 11 Cinm: AGAINST A NATION JS SIN AGAINST GoD. 1, God h<u identified himself with men. This was conspicuous ill a marked degree in the case of Israel. Yet -this identification with Israel's true welfare is typical of God's fatherly interest in all trustful souls. More or less, God identifies himself with humanity; and no wrona to humanity shall go unpunished. He will champion the illterests of the oppre;sed everywhere. 2. God carefully notes every act of inj'U/Jtice. "I have heard all thy blasphemies which thou hast spoken against the mountains of Israel." Every whisper of man is heard by God. Such acute hearing staggers our understanding, Yet "he that formed the ear, shall he not hear ? " The secrets of imperial councils 'are all seen and heard by Jehovah. Ultimately, and ill the best time, he baffles all wicked designs. 3. Human jolly in ignoring God's preser.ce. "Whereas the Lord was there.'' •In every age worldly men concoct their plans as if no God ruled over the affairs· of men. Ambitious rulers pa.reel out a neighbour's territory, totally unmindful tha(God is·in possession. "The earth is the Lord's," and his eye is never absent from his property. The weakest child of man may always summon God to his side-his Helper and Friend. IIL EQUITAJILE BETRlBUTION. 1. Divine activity. "I will stretch out mine hand.'" Rath God, then, a human hand? The langnage is an accommodation to the under- standing of man. God has an adaptation of power more than equivalent. to. the dexterous strength of the human hand. His almighty hand can -reach to the very extremities of the universe. As by a breath of the lips he can create,· so by a breath can he desolate cities. 2. Exact retn1mtion. "Sith thou hast not hated blood,-. even blood shall pursue thee." No hnman judge has ever been able to mete out such exact penalties as God does. A combination of perfect qualities is needed, and this perfect combination no one possesses save Jehovah. It is always a real alleviation if the victim can feel that he has not deserved so much severity; and it is the very core of anguish t.o realize that the sufferillg is absolutely just. Conscience itself becomes the executioner of God. 3. The penal,ty will be set in the light of contrast. " When the whole earth rejoiceth, I will make thee desolate." It is a slight mitigation of suffering when others share it with 118. It aggravates our suffering if all around 118 are bright with joy. 'l'he rich man of tlie parable felt his torment the keener because Lazarus was seen in• the repose of blessedness. Isolation in misery is an additional element of woe, ·f., The desolation wcu to be final. No prospect, not the most distant, could be entertained ·of relief. The stroke was to be, not disciplinary, but utterly penal. It was to be a perpetual desolation. The race was to suffer extirpation from the district. 5; The edict was confirmed by an oath. "As I live, saith the Lord God," this shall be-done. This form of speech by God is a further accommodation to men. As an affirmation makes a. deeper impression upon the millds of men when accompanied-by an oath, by a solemn appeal to the presence of God, so God condescends to speak to men in such manner as shall most powerfully affect them. From God the simplest form •of words is enough. "He is not a man, that he should lie." A word from him creates or destroys. But he speaks by way of oath, ill order to arrest our thoughts and to convince our Judgment. 6. Conviction of God's jurisdiction often comes too late. Men ignore God's presence and God's interference in human affail'll, until events force· upon them the· fact that they are fighting, not simply against their fellows, nor contending·, agaius& adverse circumstance, but are verily fighting against God. At length; out of the chaos of atheistic thoughts there looms the form and features of the living God. But -the knowledge comes too late. 'l'hey know God as their overpowering Foe,-whereaa they might have known him as a gracious Friend.-D. • Vere. 1-9, 14, 15.-Features to be /O'U,nd, in penalty. When God is obliged 'to b& "against" a man or a people, as he was against Edom (ver. 2), he (it) may look fo1 these three things in the retribution which impends- cm. xuv.1-15.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET EZEKIEL. 23&