The Pulpit Commentary — Ezekiel — Volume 2 — Section 249

revealing more clearly his active righteousness to Israel; and thia with a view to arouse their drugged and drowsy consciences. The equity and justice of his sceptre had been vividly portrayed. The keen edge of his judicial sword had been felt. Some movements of better feeling in the exiles were apparent. And now God hastens to foster penitential sentiments with a promise of generous kindness. Further revela- tions of his great nature are madEl, The excellence of his grace is unveiled to the opening eye of the penitents. Stupendous condescension is shown. God himself will undertake the renovation of human nature. He will go down to the very root of the evil. He will transform the innermost principles in the minds of the people, and so qualify them for national restoration and national prosperity. And he will do this mainly that he may set before the world the wealth of goodness and kindness which constitut.es his glory, "I do this for my holy Name's sake, saith the Lord." I. !SBAEL's ABBAIGNMENT. 1. The gravamen of the accusation ia idolatry. Than idolatry, no greater affront can be put upon God, no greater evil can be wrought. God was deposed from his rightful throne, and senseless matter elevated into his place. The perfect will of God was set aside for the vain fancies of wicked men. The devil was preferred to Jehovah. 2. Idolatry was a system of active vice. It did not repre- sent merely a change of belief; it was the enthronement and deification of vice. Public sanction was given to lust and unchastity. The marriage-tie was dissolved. The temple of God was desecrated with animal lust. The barbarous rites of idolatrous worship served to crush every tender feeling and to make men fiends. Wrong soon lost its hideous features in the eyes of men. They became inhuman, cruel, quarrel- some, murderous. Human life lost its sanctity, and the land was stained with blood. 3. Idolatry's fruits were most offensive to God. In order to convey to men an approxi- mate idea of this offensiveness, God was compelled to borrow an illustration from the most loathsome thing familiar to men. As if he bad said," Picture to yourselves the thing most repulsive to your senses; thia thing will feebly convey the idea of disgust I feel towards this monstrous crime." A common dung-hill is fragrance itself compared with the moral foulness of idolatry; and dead to every virtuous instinct must be the man who can endnre it. II. lsBAEL'S ABB.ilGNMENT LED TO BEVEBEBT PENALTY. 1. .A diacl,arge of Gorl'• anger. "I poured out my fury upon them." The long-gathering storm of ju.st indig- nation burst upon them as torrents from a broken reservoir. This is God's own account of his conduct, and he speaks, as usual, after the manner of a man. The violent anger of a man under a strong sense of injury has its correspondence in God, save that in God it is filled with the element of righteousness, and is in exact propor- tion to the sinner's deserts. 2. It embraced the dissolution of the covenant. The covenant made with Abraham and renewed with the Israelites was founded on a moral condition. That condition had been broken and abandoned by the nation; hence God publicly testified that he was no longer bound. The land of Canaan ce~sed to be held by Divine covenant; and, as the result of the broken compact, the Assyriana took possession. Pledges and contracts between God and man, wantonly violated, are surely followed by gravest disaster. This should teach all men the reality and the value of righteousness. 3. The penalty, though severe, was strictly equitable. "According to their doings I judged them." The fullest equity in God's dealings is guaranteed (1) by the qualities of his nature and (2) by the well-being of all the moral intelligences of his kingdom. Every act of loving obedience shall be rewarded. Every deed of rebellion shall be punished according to the most equitable scale. And in this category is registered every secret design, as well as every overt deed. Ill. TBIS MANIFESTATION OF JUSTICE OVEBSIIADOWED TIIE BENIGNANT NATURE o• GoD. "They profaned my holy Name." It is a great responsibility to bear the Name of God-a great responsibility to belong to his kingdom, We carry his reputation in our hands. Mankind will judge him by what they see in us. If they discover in us selfishness, avarice, lust, they will conclude that our God is not over-righteous. If we, for our sins, are chastised, men will shrink from serving such a Master. Such was the ca.se in the olden time among all the peoples that dwelt in the vicinity of Palestine. They 11&id contemptuously, j~ This Jehovah, who conquered Canaan for his people, was not o.ble to retain it for them I Or else, he is a God easily offended I He chooses a nation for his favour one dny, and casts it off on tho morrow! Or else, hisjustico is so OH, x:xxVL 1-38.J THE BOOR OF THE PROPHET EZEKIEL. 257