The Pulpit Commentary — Ezekiel — Volume 2 — Section 309

Vers. 17-20.-Degrad,a,tion and reversal. The scene before us is painful; it hardly befits description; we cannot dwell upon it without turning from it with repulsion, But we may so far realize it in our thought as to learn two lessons respecting the issue of e,il, the sad and painful consequences of sin. These are- I. DEGRADAT~ON: The unclean birds of t_he air and the foul beasts of the field eating the flesh and drmkmg the blood "of the princes of the earth" I To what a miserable and shameful death has human greatness, human dignity, fa.lien I For those who had sat on the loftiest seats of honour, and moved in the highest spheres of action, to lie unburied on the enemy's soil, and to furnish a meal for carrion-bir.ds and for "four- footed beasts" I Could dishonour or degradation go further than this? And is not degradation the constant end of persistent wrong, of wilful and wanton disobedience to the Word of God? .And shall we not acknowledge, when we think of it, that some of those things which seem to most men allowable, and some which seem even honour- able a.nd desirable, a.re, in the sight of God, deplorable and condemnable, because they are really a degradation and a descent? This is so when: 1. The powers of the human soul are exhausted upon very small things;' when men seek their chief satisfaction, not in their relationship to God, in their service of Christ, but in the petty honours and conventional proprieties, and sensuous gratifications of this passing world. To allow the things of utter unimportance to absorb the manifold and noble powers of heart and mind, l<'a.ving no room for the heavenly and the Divine, is surely a pitiful degradation. Men do not know, they cannot see, how they are lowering their life, how they are dishonouring themselves, Similarly and more obviously when: 2. The lower passion11 tyrannize over the soul; when covetousness, or the craving for alcoholic or for social excitement, or the demon of lust, or jealousy, or overweening and maddening ambition, possesses the soul and leads it astray; any one of these passions will lead a man down into very dark depths ; he has become the prey of the spoiler. 3. Human life is reduced to a pursuit of mere amusement or passing gratification. 4. The forces of a country are employed, not in the enrichment and the elevation of the people, but in fighting the armies and despoiling the strength and wealth of neighbouring powers. IL REVERSAL. Ordinarily and naturally birds and beasts provide the sacrifice for men. Here, however, the case is reversed, and men provide a sacrifice for them. Properly, men sit down to the table on which bird and beast are set forth for food; here, however, men are placed upon the table, and bird and beast are the partakers. What a strange and pitiful reversal I But under the dominion of sin, what do we look for but anomalies and reversals? 1. Instead of man moving constantly upward, we find him moving steadily downward. 2. Instead of habit being the faithful and valu- able servant of man, it becomes its tyrannous and unrelenting master. 8. Instead ot asking how we can serve men at every turn and in every possible way, we ask how we can use them, how we can make them serve us. 4. Instead of our seeking GIJd with the eagerness that will not be denied, we hold aloof or wander away, and he is seeking u, with a patience that does not fail and that follows us through many rebellious years. 6. Instead of the felt nearness of God being II heritage and a joy, it becomes an inconvenience and an intrusion. 6. Instead of death being regarded as the beginning of the larger and better life, it is treated as the melancholy end of the life on earth. But Christ comes to revolutionize and reverse the anomalies and the reverses of sin; and thus to bring again the primeval blessedness. Happy they who learn of him and follow him, for they will be restored to the truth and the life which they have lost 1-C. Vers. 21-29.-God his own Interpreter. The final result of this great conflict between Gog and the people of Jehovah will prove to be that God's Name is hallowed as it never was before. 'l'here had been great misconstruction of his ways and mistake as to hie purpose, but all should be made clear, L Gon MUCH IWIUNDEBBTOOD, How seriously and 11&dly God has been and is mis- understood is seen in the facts that (1) his very existence has been denied; (2) he has been mistaken for a blind, unintelligent l<'orcc, without any knowledge or character; (3) bis unity has been disregarded, and his manifold activities referred to a plurality ou. XL. 1-49.J THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET EZEKIEL. 319