The Pulpit Commentary — Ezekiel — Volume 2 — Section 390

in the Cburch is responsibility. Example is contagious. Treaohe1·y by a military officer is a graver sin than treachery by a soldier in the ranks. Pollution at the fount is a greater evil than pollution in a branch-stream. Disease in the heart is a more serious matter than disease in the skin or at the extremities. If the priests of God sanction idolatry, the whole nation will follow suit, and the cause of God is betrayed, The sin of Judas lay in this-that he had been a trusted friend and companion of Jesus. God's ministers hold responsible posts. I. MEN ARE OFTEN BUBJECJ'l'ED TO A ORUOUL TEST. The present race is mainly tempted to infidelity, but the earlier generations of mAn were tempted to idolatry. As infidelity is now the ally of vice, so was and is idolatry. Both chime in with the lower passions of human nature. In the period preceding Ezekiel's birth Israel had gone astray after idols. On every side false deities were being set up. Idolatry was in the atmosphere. A great opportunity opened to the Levites. As ministers of Jehovah, set apart for the service of religion, they should have stood in the gap and raised barriers against the inflowing tide of idolatry. The honour of God was in their keeping. The well-being of the nation rested with them. They were the trustees of God's truth for the world. It was a testing-time. Men's favour or God's-which would they choose? Popularity for the moment or enduring fidelity-which? Alas I they made a suicidal choice I They chose the path of selfish ease. Like a physician summoned to a critical case, they too might have abated the raging fever and saved the patient's life. But they had no religious earnestness. They were mere func- tionaries of a system; and so long as duty was light and a livelihood secure, religion might take care of itself. Honoured with a tremendous trust, they proved themselves unworthy-faithless. Regard for God was lacking. Moral prowess was lacking. They drifted with the stream. Their sin was the sowing of evil tares, which developed into a harvest of misery and disaster. II. IN BUCH OASES TWO LINES OF CONDUCT ARE POSSIBLE. In the stress of tempta- tion men can either resist or yield. In no case is it a necessity to succumb. Moral principle in man has withstood the incoming deluge of temptation, and it always can. Unseen resources are on the side of him who steadfastly adheres to right, God is at his side. So far as public action went, Elijah stood alone in the days of Jezebel's idolatry. In Babylon Daniel stood erect as the sole witness for Jehovah, and notable triumph was his. Martin Luther was for years the only champion of Bible truth on the continent of Europe-one man against the world; yet he prevailed. So, in the instance narrated here, one family remained faithful. The sons of Zadok were worthy sons of a worthy sire. A good name.is a good heritage, and no better name can a man wear than Za<lok, i.e. "Righteousness." If a man trusts to his good name, be is a fool; but if he lives up to a good name-makes that his model-he is wiser than Solomon. A rotten ship will not survive the storm, though she is named Impregnable. These sons of Zadok were like Abdiel, "faithful among the faithless found." "They kept the charge of the sanctuary" when Israel went astray. They had moral backbone- some iron principle in their blood. It is the basest cowardice merely to go with the majority. Numbers are not tbe arbiter of truth or of right. Men who deserve the name inquire for themselves, judge for themselves, seek guidance from the Unerring Source, and act according to the result. There was no external necessity to follow the crowd of idolaters. The sons of Zadok resisted. So in every case a man's conduct is the outcome of his own choice. Ill. As THERE .A.RE TWO LINES OF OONDUOT, THERE ARE TWO KINDS 01' AWARD, It is only the blindness of men that supposes that God's justice ever slumbers or ever mistakes. God can patiently wait his time, and can generously forbear. Yet with perfoct calmness he metes out justice to every man. Touching these Levites he declares, "they shall even bear their iniquity." If any seusitiveness of soul was left in them, they must have been sorely pained, during the seventy years of captivity, with lhe sell-conviction that their unfaithfulness bad been a me.in cause of Israel'8 disaster. Nor was this all. A perpetual stigma was upon their name. An everlasting degradation was imposed on them and on their posterity. Their children and their children's children through many generations were involved in the disgrace and in the deprivation of office. So far as it bad been an honour to be e. Levite, now it shall be reversed-it shall be a dishonour, "They shall not coQle near unto me, to do tllo office of a rriea~ cm xuv. 1-81.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET EZEKIEL, 405