The Pulpit Commentary — Ezekiel — Volume 2 — Section 307

tion would not be permanent. The element of life was in the people still· and aa soon as repentance and moral renovation appeared, return to independenc~ and' ti Palestine followed. It was a moral discipline. JV. THAT PREVIOUS REVELATIONS OF GoD WERE PREPARATORY TO THE GREAT ,tEVELATION OF ms GRAOE. "Therefore thus saith the Lord, Now will I . . . have mercy upon the whole house of Israel, and will be jealous for my holy Name." 'l'he glory of God is his compassion-pure, unstinted, self-sacrificing love. To Moses who craved to see God's glory, the responding voice proclaimed, "The Lord God m:rciful and gracious." Micah asked, in profound surprise, "Who is a God like unto thee?" In what- respect did he mean? In the splendours of his kingly state? In the might of his arm? In the range of his government? Nay. "Who is a God like unto thee that pa.rdoneth iniquity, transgreS&on, and sin?" Herein lies the central excellence of Jehovah, viz. that, providing for the violated interests of justice by his own suffering he freely forgives, renovates, and uplifts the guilty sons of men. Men have not see~ tbe_full significance of_his Name, nor co~.jectured the dazzling radiance of his goodness, until they have seen his mercy-seen him as the Healer of the fallen. But his mercy is a righteous mercy. Whom he pardons, he purifies. Righteousness is the foundation on which he erects the magnificent structure of hls grace. So far as we know at present, this is the climax of hls self-revelations. V. THAT THE PERPETUAL ENJOY:MEl.'T OF ms FAVOUR IS GUARANTEED BY THE GIFT OF BIB SPIRIT. "Neither will I hide my face any more from them; for I have poured out my Spirit upon the house of Israel, saith the Lord God." The possession of prosperity and blessing outside a man depends upon the state of feeling and desire within a man. A.nd a right state of mind Godward is secured to the genuine Israelite by the indwelling of God's mighty Spirit. If men cannot withstand temptation in their native and unaided state, God will not leave them to themselves. As the supreme culmination of all blessing, God will impart himself to humble, suppliant men. He will inweave his own Spirit into our spirit. He will unite himself with us by indis- soluble bonds-will pour hls life into the empty channels of our nature. His great salvation is first internal, then external. We cannot miss our highest destiny if God, by his Spirit, be within us. Then, surely, we have the highest guarantee of safety, elevation, and noble joy. We shall be renovated in the very root-principles of our nature, moulded into a higher life by the silent workmanship of hie Spirit. His mercy will never forsake us.-D. Ver. 3.-Divine inter-position. God would smite the bow out of the left ho.nd o.nd cause the arrows to fall out of the right hand of the impious invader. He would disarm him; he would interpose to break his purpose, to arrest him in hls evil course. We have here-- I. Gon's RIGHTEOUS INTERPOSITION. God permits evil-in the form of bad institu- tions, wicked governments or powers, unprincipled men-to go ?ertain lengths, and when they think they have finally established themselves he lays his band upon them, takes away their weapons, reduces them to helplessness and humiliation. "A. fool doth not understand it," but the very prosperity of the wicked is only a preparation for their utter and irrecoverable downfall; "When the workers of iniquity do flourish, it is that they shall be destroyed for ever" (Ps. xcii. 6, 7). God interposes to smite the weapons out of the band of the disloyal and of the mischievous when: 1. He causes death to c,vertake the guilty before his time. And be is continually doing this; for under the action of his laws, which are at once severe and beneficent, the vicious man is the victim of his vice and the violent man of his violence. The one can sow no more of his pernicious seed, and the other can do no more of his lawless harm, because God has smitten them, and their weapons fall from their band. 2. He makes the unprincipled adventurer to suffer an irretrievable disaster; when the man who has climbed to a throne by usurpation and bloodshed, and wielded authority in the exercise of despotic power, suffers some disaster which sends him to the lonely rock or to the quiet country house for the rest of his days. 8. He breaks the schemes of the wily plotter; when some dissatisfied, and consequently malignant and even (it may be) murderom1 citizen determines to wreak bis vengeance on those whom he takes to be his enemies, and when, in the midst of hls machinations, his plane arc discovered and overthrown, OH, XXXIX, 1-29,] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET EZEKIEL. 317