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<TITLE>Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary on the Whole Bible [Ezekiel XVI].</TITLE>
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<center><h1>Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary
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on the Whole Bible</h1>
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[<A HREF="MHC00000.HTM">Table of Contents</A>]<BR>
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Matthew Henry<BR><I>Commentary on the Whole Bible</I> (1712)
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<!-- (Begin Body) -->
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<CENTER>
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<BR><FONT SIZE=+3><B>E Z E K I E L.</B></FONT>
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<BR>
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<BR><FONT SIZE=+2>CHAP. XVI.</FONT>
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<HR SIZE=1 WIDTH=50>
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</CENTER>
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<FONT SIZE=-1>
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<P>
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Still God is justifying himself in the desolations he is about to bring
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upon Jerusalem; and very largely, in this chapter, he shows the
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prophet, and orders him to show the people, that he did but punish them
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as their sins deserved. In the foregoing chapter he had compared
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Jerusalem to an unfruitful vine, that was fit for nothing but the fire;
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in this chapter he compares it to an adulteress, that, in justice,
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ought to be abandoned and exposed, and he must therefore show the
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people their abominations, that they might see how little reason they
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had to complain of the judgments they were under. In this long
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discourse are set forth,
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I. The despicable and deplorable beginnings of that church and nation,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+16:3-5">ver. 3-5</A>.
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II. The many honours and favours God had bestowed upon them,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+16:6-14">ver. 6-14</A>.
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III. Their treacherous and ungrateful departures from him to the
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services and worship of idols, here represented by the most impudent
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whoredom,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+16:15-34">ver. 15-34</A>.
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IV. A threatening of terrible destroying judgments, which God would
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bring upon them for this sin,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+16:35-43">ver. 35-43</A>.
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V. An aggravation both of their sin and of their punishment, by
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comparison with Sodom and Samaria,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+16:44-59">ver. 44-59</A>.
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VI. A promise of mercy in the close, which God would show to a penitent
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remnant,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+16:60-63">ver. 60-63</A>.
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And this is designed for admonition to us.</P>
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</FONT>
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<A NAME="Eze16_1"> </A>
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<A NAME="Eze16_2"> </A>
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<A NAME="Eze16_3"> </A>
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<A NAME="Eze16_4"> </A>
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<A NAME="Eze16_5"> </A>
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<A NAME="Sec1"> </A>
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<TABLE WIDTH="100%" BORDER=0>
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<TR><TD><FONT SIZE=+1><I>The Meanness of Judah's Origin.</I></FONT></TD>
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<TD ALIGN=RIGHT><FONT SIZE=-1>B. C.</FONT> 593.</TD></TR>
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<TR><TD COLSPAN=2><HR SIZE=1></TD></TR>
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</TABLE>
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<P>
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<FONT SIZE=+1>1 Again the word of the L<FONT SIZE=-1><B>ORD</B></FONT> came unto me, saying,
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2 Son of man, cause Jerusalem to know her abominations,
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3 And say, Thus saith the Lord G<FONT SIZE=-1><B>OD</B></FONT> unto Jerusalem; Thy birth
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and thy nativity <I>is</I> of the land of Canaan; thy father <I>was</I> an
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Amorite, and thy mother a Hittite.
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4 And <I>as for</I> thy nativity, in the day thou wast born thy
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navel was not cut, neither wast thou washed in water to supple
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<I>thee;</I> thou wast not salted at all, nor swaddled at all.
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5 None eye pitied thee, to do any of these unto thee, to have
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compassion upon thee; but thou wast cast out in the open field,
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to the loathing of thy person, in the day that thou wast born.
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</FONT></P>
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<P>
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Ezekiel is now among the captives in Babylon; but, as Jeremiah at
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Jerusalem wrote for the use of the captives though they had Ezekiel
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upon the spot with them
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(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=eze+29:1-21"><I>ch.</I> xxix.</A>),
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so Ezekiel wrote for the use of Jerusalem, though Jeremiah himself was
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resident there; and yet they were far from looking upon it as an
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affront to one another's help both by preaching and writing. Jeremiah
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wrote to the captives for their consolation, which was the thing they
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needed; Ezekiel here is directed to write to the inhabitants of
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Jerusalem for their conviction and humiliation, which was the thing
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they needed.</P>
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<P>
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I. This is his commission
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(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+16:2"><I>v.</I> 2</A>):
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"<I>Cause Jerusalem to know her abominations</I> (that is, her sins);
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set them in order before her." Note,
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1. Sins are not only <I>provocations</I> which God is angry at, but
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<I>abominations</I> which he hates, as contrary to his nature, and
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which we ought to hate,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Jer+44:4">Jer. xliv. 4</A>.
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2. The sins of Jerusalem are in a special manner so. The practice of
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profaneness appears most odious in those that make a profession of
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religion.
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3. Though Jerusalem is a place of great knowledge, yet she is loth
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<I>to know her abominations;</I> so partial are men in their own favour
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that they are hardly made to see and own their own badness, but deny
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it, palliate or extenuate it.
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4. It is requisite that we should know our sins, that we may confess
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them, and may justify God in what he brings upon us for them.
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5. It is the work of ministers to cause sinners, sinners in Jerusalem,
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<I>to know their abominations,</I> to set before them the glass of the
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law, that in it they may see their own deformities and defilements, to
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tell them plainly of their faults. <I>Thou art the man.</I></P>
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<P>
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II. That Jerusalem may be made <I>to know her abominations,</I> and
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particularly the abominable ingratitude she had been guilty of, it was
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requisite that she should be put in mind of the great things God had
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done for her, as the aggravations of her bad conduct towards him; and,
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to magnify those favours, she is in
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+16:1-5">these verses</A>
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made to know the meanness and baseness of her original, from what poor
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beginnings God raised her, and how unworthy she was of his favour and
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of the honour he had put upon her. Jerusalem is here put for the
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Jewish church and nation, which is here compared to an outcast child,
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base-born and abandoned, which the mother herself has no affection nor
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concern for.
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1. The extraction of the Jewish nation was mean: "<I>Thy birth is of
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the land of Canaan</I>
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(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+16:3"><I>v.</I> 3</A>);
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thou hadst from the very first the spirit and disposition of a
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Canaanite." The patriarchs dwelt in Canaan, and they were there but
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<I>strangers and sojourners,</I> had no possession, no power, not one
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foot of ground of their own but a burying-place. Abraham and Sarah were
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indeed their <I>father and mother,</I> but they were only inmates with
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the Amorites and Hittites, who, having the dominion, seemed to be as
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parents to the seed of Abraham, witness the court Abraham made to the
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<I>children of Seth</I>
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(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ge+23:4,8">Gen. xxiii. 4, 8</A>),
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the dependence they had upon their neighbours the Canaanites, and the
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fear they were in of them,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ge+13:7,34:30">Gen. xiii. 7; xxxiv. 30</A>.
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If the patriarchs, at their first coming to Canaan, had conquered it,
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and made themselves masters of it, this would have put an honour upon
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their family and would have looked great in history; but, instead of
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that, they <I>went from one nation to another</I>
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(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+105:13">Ps. cv. 13</A>),
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as tenants from one farm to another, almost as beggars from one door to
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another, when they <I>were but few in number,</I> yea, very few. And
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yet this was not the worst; their fathers had <I>served other gods in
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Ur of the Chaldees</I>
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(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Jos+24:2">Josh. xxiv. 2</A>);
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even in Jacob's family there were <I>strange gods,</I>
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ge+35:2">Gen. xxxv. 2</A>.
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Thus early had they a genius leading them to idolatry; and upon this
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account their ancestors were Amorites and Hittites.
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2. When they first began to multiply their condition was really very
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deplorable, like that of a new-born child, which must of necessity die
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from the womb if the knees prevent it not,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Job+3:11,12">Job iii. 11, 12</A>.
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The children of Israel, when they began to increase into a people and
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became considerable, were thrown out from the country that was intended
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for them; a famine drove them thence. Egypt was <I>the open field</I>
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into which they were cast; there they had no protection or countenance
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from the government they were under, but, on the contrary, were ruled
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with rigour, and their lives embittered; they had no encouragement
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given them to build up their families, no help to build up their
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estates, no friends or allies to strengthen their interests. Joseph,
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who had been the <I>shepherd and stone of Israel,</I> was dead; the
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king of Egypt, who should have been kind to them for Joseph's sake, set
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himself to <I>destroy this man-child as soon as it was born</I>
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(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Re+12:4">Rev. xii. 4</A>),
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ordered all the males to be slain, which, it is likely, occasioned the
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exposing of many as well as Moses, to which perhaps the similitude here
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has reference. The founders of nations and cities had occasion for all
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the arts and arms they were masters of, set their heads on work, by
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policies and stratagems, to preserve and nurse up their infant states.
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<I>Tantæ molis erat Romanam condere gentem--So vast were the
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efforts requisite to the establishment of the Roman name.</I> Virgil.
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But the nation of Israel had no such care taken of it, no such pains
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taken with it, as Athens, Sparta, Rome, and other commonwealths had
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when they were first founded, but, on the contrary, was doomed to
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destruction, like an infant new-born, exposed to wind and weather,
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<I>the navel-string not cut,</I> the poor babe <I>not washed,</I> not
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clothed, <I>no swaddled,</I> because not <I>pitied,</I>
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+16:4,5"><I>v.</I> 4, 5</A>.
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Note, We owe the preservation of our infant lives to the natural pity
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and compassion which the God of nature has put into the hearts of
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parents and nurses towards new-born children. This infant is said to be
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<I>cast out, to the loathing of her person;</I> it was a sign that she
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was loathed by those that bore her, and she appeared loathsome to all
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that looked upon her. <I>The Israelites were an abomination to the
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Egyptians,</I> as we find
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ge+43:32,46:34">Gen. xliii. 32; xlvi. 34</A>.
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Some think that this refers to the corrupt and vicious disposition of
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that people from their beginning: they were not only the weakest and
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<I>fewest of all people</I>
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(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=De+7:7">Deut. vii. 7</A>),
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but the worst and most ill-humoured of all people. <I>God giveth thee
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this good land, not for thy righteousness, for thou art a stiff-necked
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people,</I>
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=De+9:6">Deut. ix. 6</A>.
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And Moses tells them there
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(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+16:24"><I>v.</I> 24</A>),
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<I>You have been rebellious against the Lord from the day that I knew
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you.</I> They were not <I>suppled,</I> nor <I>washed,</I> nor
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<I>swaddled;</I> they were not at all tractable or manageable, nor cast
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into any good shape. God took them to be his people, not because he saw
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any thing in them inviting or promising, but <I>so it seemed good in
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his sight.</I> And it is a very apt illustration of the miserable
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condition of all the children of men by nature. <I>As for</I> our
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<I>nativity, in the day that we were born</I> we were shapen in
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iniquity and conceived in sin, our understandings darkened, our minds
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alienated from the life of God, polluted with sin, which rendered us
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loathsome in the eyes of God. <I>Marvel not</I> then that we are told,
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<I>You must be born again.</I></P>
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<A NAME="Eze16_6"> </A>
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<A NAME="Eze16_7"> </A>
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<A NAME="Eze16_8"> </A>
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<A NAME="Eze16_9"> </A>
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<A NAME="Eze16_10"> </A>
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<A NAME="Eze16_11"> </A>
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<A NAME="Eze16_12"> </A>
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<A NAME="Eze16_13"> </A>
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<A NAME="Eze16_14"> </A>
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<A NAME="Sec2"> </A>
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<TABLE WIDTH="100%" BORDER=0>
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<TR><TD><FONT SIZE=+1><I>God's Kindness to Israel.</I></FONT></TD>
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<TD ALIGN=RIGHT><FONT SIZE=-1>B. C.</FONT> 593.</TD></TR>
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<TR><TD COLSPAN=2><HR SIZE=1></TD></TR>
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</TABLE>
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<P>
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<FONT SIZE=+1>6 And when I passed by thee, and saw thee polluted in thine own
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blood, I said unto thee <I>when thou wast</I> in thy blood, Live; yea,
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I said unto thee <I>when thou wast</I> in thy blood, Live.
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7 I have caused thee to multiply as the bud of the field, and
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thou hast increased and waxen great, and thou art come to
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excellent ornaments: <I>thy</I> breasts are fashioned, and thine hair
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is grown, whereas thou <I>wast</I> naked and bare.
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8 Now when I passed by thee, and looked upon thee, behold, thy
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time <I>was</I> the time of love; and I spread my skirt over thee, and
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covered thy nakedness: yea, I sware unto thee, and entered into a
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covenant with thee, saith the Lord G<FONT SIZE=-1><B>OD</B></FONT>, and thou becamest mine.
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9 Then washed I thee with water; yea, I thoroughly washed away
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thy blood from thee, and I anointed thee with oil.
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10 I clothed thee also with broidered work, and shod thee with
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badgers' skin, and I girded thee about with fine linen, and I
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covered thee with silk.
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11 I decked thee also with ornaments, and I put bracelets upon
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thy hands, and a chain on thy neck.
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12 And I put a jewel on thy forehead, and earrings in thine
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ears, and a beautiful crown upon thine head.
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13 Thus wast thou decked with gold and silver; and thy raiment
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<I>was of</I> fine linen, and silk, and broidered work; thou didst eat
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fine flour, and honey, and oil: and thou wast exceeding
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beautiful, and thou didst prosper into a kingdom.
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14 And thy renown went forth among the heathen for thy beauty:
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for it <I>was</I> perfect through my comeliness, which I had put upon
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thee, saith the Lord G<FONT SIZE=-1><B>OD</B></FONT>.
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</FONT></P>
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<P>
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In there verses we have an account of the great things which God did
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for the Jewish nation in raising them up by degrees to be very
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considerable.
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1. God saved them from the ruin they were upon the brink of in Egypt
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(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+16:6"><I>v.</I> 6</A>):
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"<I>When I passed by thee, and saw thee polluted in thy own blood,</I>
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loathed and abandoned, and appointed to die, <I>as sheep for the
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slaughter,</I> then <I>I said unto thee, Live.</I> I designed thee for
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life when thou wast doomed to destruction, and resolved to save thee
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from death." Those shall live to whom God commands life. God looked
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upon the world of mankind as thus cast off, thus cast out, thus
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polluted, thus weltering in blood, and his thoughts towards it were
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thoughts of good, designing it <I>life, and that more abundantly.</I>
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By converting grace, he says to the soul, <I>Live.</I>
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2. He looked upon them with kindness and a tender affection, not only
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pitied them, but <I>set his love upon them,</I> which was
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unaccountable, for there was nothing lovely in them; but <I>I looked
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upon thee,</I> and, <I>behold, thy time was the time of love,</I>
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+16:8"><I>v.</I> 8</A>.
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It was <I>the kindness and love of God our Saviour</I> that sent Christ
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to redeem us, that sends the Spirit to sanctify us, that brought us out
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of a state of nature into a state of grace. That <I>was a time of
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love</I> indeed, distinguishing love, when God manifested his love to
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us, and courted our love to him. <I>Then was I in his eyes as one that
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found favour,</I>
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=So+8:10">Cant. viii. 10</A>.
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3. He took them under his protection: "<I>I spread my skirt over
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thee,</I> to shelter thee from wind and weather, and to <I>cover thy
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nakedness,</I> that the shame of it might not appear." Boaz <I>spread
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his skirt over</I> Ruth, in token of the special favour he designed
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her,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ru+3:9">Ruth iii. 9</A>.
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|
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God took them into his care, as an <I>eagle bears her young ones upon
|
|
her wings,</I>
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|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=De+32:11,12">Deut. xxxii. 11, 12</A>.
|
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|
When God owned them for his people, and sent Moses to Egypt to deliver
|
|
them, which was an expression of the good-will of him <I>that dwelt in
|
|
the bush,</I> then he <I>spread his skirt over them.</I>
|
|
|
|
4. He cleared them from the reproachful character which their bondage
|
|
in Egypt laid them under
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+16:9"><I>v.</I> 9</A>):
|
|
|
|
"<I>Then washed I thee with water,</I> to make thee clean, <I>and
|
|
anointed thee with oil,</I> to make thee sweet and supple thee." All
|
|
the disgrace of their slavery was rolled away when they were brought,
|
|
<I>with a high hand and a stretched-out arm, into the glorious liberty
|
|
of the children of God.</I> When God said, <I>Israel is my son, my
|
|
first-born--Let my people go, that they may serve me,</I> that word,
|
|
backed as it was with so many works of wonder, <I>thoroughly washed
|
|
away their blood;</I> and when God led them under the convoy of <I>the
|
|
pillar of cloud and fire</I> he <I>spread his skirt over them.</I>
|
|
|
|
5. He multiplied them and built them up into a people. This is here
|
|
mentioned
|
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|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+16:7"><I>v.</I> 7</A>)
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before his <I>spreading his skirt over them,</I> because <I>their
|
|
numbers increased exceedingly</I> while they were yet bond-slaves in
|
|
Egypt. They <I>multiplied as the bud of the field</I> in spring time;
|
|
they <I>waxed great, exceedingly mighty,</I>
|
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|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ex+1:7,20">Exod. i. 7, 20</A>.
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Their <I>breasts were fashioned</I> when they were formed into distinct
|
|
tribes and had officers of their own
|
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(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ex+5:19">Exod. v. 19</A>);
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their <I>hair grew</I> when they grew numerous, whereas they had been
|
|
<I>naked and bare,</I> very few and therefore contemptible.
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|
|
6. He admitted them into covenant with himself. See what glorious
|
|
nuptials this poor forlorn infant is preferred to at last. How she is
|
|
dignified who at first had scarcely her life <I>given her for a prey: I
|
|
swore unto thee and entered into covenant with thee.</I> This was done
|
|
at Mount Sinai: "when the covenant between God and Israel was sealed
|
|
and ratified then <I>thou becamest mine.</I>" God called them his
|
|
people, and himself the God of Israel. Note, Those to whom God gives
|
|
spiritual life he takes into covenant with himself; by that covenant
|
|
they become his subjects and servants, which intimates their duty--his
|
|
portion, his treasure, which intimates their privilege; and it is
|
|
<I>confirmed with an oath, that we might have strong consolation.</I>
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|
|
7. He beautified and adorned them. This maid cannot forget her
|
|
ornaments, and she is gratified with abundance of them,
|
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|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+16:10-13"><I>v.</I> 10-13</A>.
|
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|
|
We need not be particular in the application of these. Her wardrobe was
|
|
well furnished with rich apparel; they had <I>embroidered work</I> to
|
|
wear, shoes of fine <I>badgers' skins, linen</I> girdles, and
|
|
<I>silk</I> veils, <I>bracelets</I> and <I>necklaces, jewels</I> and
|
|
<I>ear-rings,</I> and even <I>a beautiful crown,</I> or coronet.
|
|
Perhaps this may refer to the jewels and other rich goods which they
|
|
took from the Egyptians, which might well be spoken of thus long after
|
|
as a merciful circumstance of their deliverance, when it was spoken of
|
|
long before,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ge+15:14">Gen. xv. 14</A>.
|
|
|
|
<I>They shall come out with great substance.</I> Or it may be taken
|
|
figuratively for all those blessings of heaven which adorned both their
|
|
church and state. In a little time they came to <I>excellent
|
|
ornaments,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+16:7"><I>v.</I> 7</A>.
|
|
|
|
The laws and ordinances which God gave them were to them as
|
|
<I>ornaments of grace to the head and chains about the neck,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Pr+1:9">Prov. i. 9</A>.
|
|
|
|
God's sanctuary, which he set up among them, was <I>a beautiful crown
|
|
upon their head;</I> it was the <I>beauty of holiness.</I>
|
|
|
|
8. He fed them with abundance, with plenty, with dainty: <I>Thou didst
|
|
eat fine flour, and honey, and oil</I>--manna, angels' food--<I>honey
|
|
out of the rock, oil out of the flinty rock.</I> In Canaan they did eat
|
|
bread to the full, the finest of the wheat,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=De+32:13,14">Deut. xxxii. 13, 14</A>.
|
|
|
|
Those whom God takes into covenant with himself are fed with the bread
|
|
of life, clothed with the robe of righteousness, adorned with the
|
|
graces and comforts of the spirit. The <I>hidden man of the heart is
|
|
that which is incorruptible.</I>
|
|
|
|
9. He gave them great reputation among their neighbours, and made them
|
|
considerable, acceptable to their friends and allies and formidable to
|
|
their adversaries: <I>Thou didst prosper into a kingdom</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+16:13"><I>v.</I> 13</A>),
|
|
|
|
which speaks both dignity and dominion; and, <I>They renown went forth
|
|
among the heathen for thy beauty,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+16:14"><I>v.</I> 14</A>.
|
|
|
|
The nations about had their eye upon them, and admired them for the
|
|
excellent laws by which they were governed, the privilege they had of
|
|
access to God,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=De+4:7,8">Deut. iv. 7, 8</A>.
|
|
|
|
Solomon's wisdom, and Solomon's temple, were very much <I>the
|
|
renown</I> of that nation; and, if we put all the privileges of the
|
|
Jewish church and kingdom together, we must own that it was the most
|
|
accomplished beauty of all the nations of the earth. The beauty of it
|
|
was perfect; you could not name the thing that would be the honour of a
|
|
people but it was to be found in Israel, in David's and Solomon's time,
|
|
when that kingdom was in its zenith-piety, learning, wisdom, justice,
|
|
victory, peace, wealth, and all sure to continue if they had kept close
|
|
to God. <I>It was perfect, saith God, through my comeliness which I had
|
|
put upon thee,</I> through the beauty of their holiness, as they were a
|
|
people set apart for God, and devoted to him, to be to him <I>for a
|
|
name, and for a praise, and for a glory.</I> It was this that put a
|
|
lustre upon all their other honours and was indeed the perfection of
|
|
their beauty. We may apply this spiritually. Sanctified souls are
|
|
truly beautiful; they are so in God's sight, and they themselves may
|
|
take the comfort of it. But God must have all the glory, for they were
|
|
by nature deformed and polluted, and, whatever comeliness they have, it
|
|
is that which God has put upon them and beautified them with, and he
|
|
will be well pleased with the work of his own hands.</P>
|
|
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|
<A NAME="Eze16_15"> </A>
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|
<A NAME="Eze16_16"> </A>
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|
<A NAME="Eze16_17"> </A>
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<A NAME="Eze16_18"> </A>
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<A NAME="Eze16_19"> </A>
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<A NAME="Eze16_20"> </A>
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<A NAME="Eze16_21"> </A>
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<A NAME="Eze16_22"> </A>
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<A NAME="Eze16_23"> </A>
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<A NAME="Eze16_24"> </A>
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<A NAME="Eze16_25"> </A>
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<A NAME="Eze16_26"> </A>
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<A NAME="Eze16_27"> </A>
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<A NAME="Eze16_28"> </A>
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<A NAME="Eze16_29"> </A>
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<A NAME="Eze16_30"> </A>
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<A NAME="Eze16_31"> </A>
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<A NAME="Eze16_32"> </A>
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<A NAME="Eze16_33"> </A>
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|
<A NAME="Eze16_34"> </A>
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<A NAME="Sec3"> </A>
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|
<TABLE WIDTH="100%" BORDER=0>
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|
<TR><TD><FONT SIZE=+1><I>Ingratitude of Israel; Shameful Idolatry of Israel.</I></FONT></TD>
|
|
<TD ALIGN=RIGHT><FONT SIZE=-1>B. C.</FONT> 593.</TD></TR>
|
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<TR><TD COLSPAN=2><HR SIZE=1></TD></TR>
|
|
</TABLE>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
<FONT SIZE=+1>15 But thou didst trust in thine own beauty, and playedst the
|
|
harlot because of thy renown, and pouredst out thy fornications
|
|
on every one that passed by; his it was.
|
|
16 And of thy garments thou didst take, and deckedst thy high
|
|
places with divers colours, and playedst the harlot thereupon:
|
|
<I>the like things</I> shall not come, neither shall it be <I>so.</I>
|
|
17 Thou hast also taken thy fair jewels of my gold and of my
|
|
silver, which I had given thee, and madest to thyself images of
|
|
men, and didst commit whoredom with them,
|
|
18 And tookest thy broidered garments, and coveredst them: and
|
|
thou hast set mine oil and mine incense before them.
|
|
19 My meat also which I gave thee, fine flour, and oil, and
|
|
honey, <I>wherewith</I> I fed thee, thou hast even set it before them
|
|
for a sweet savour: and <I>thus</I> it was, saith the Lord G<FONT SIZE=-1><B>OD</B></FONT>.
|
|
20 Moreover thou hast taken thy sons and thy daughters, whom
|
|
thou hast borne unto me, and these hast thou sacrificed unto them
|
|
to be devoured. <I>Is this</I> of thy whoredoms a small matter,
|
|
21 That thou hast slain my children, and delivered them to
|
|
cause them to pass through <I>the fire</I> for them?
|
|
22 And in all thine abominations and thy whoredoms thou hast
|
|
not remembered the days of thy youth, when thou wast naked and
|
|
bare, <I>and</I> wast polluted in thy blood.
|
|
23 And it came to pass after all thy wickedness, (woe, woe unto
|
|
thee! saith the Lord G<FONT SIZE=-1><B>OD</B></FONT>;)
|
|
24 <I>That</I> thou hast also built unto thee an eminent place, and
|
|
hast made thee a high place in every street.
|
|
25 Thou hast built thy high place at every head of the way, and
|
|
hast made thy beauty to be abhorred, and hast opened thy feet to
|
|
every one that passed by, and multiplied thy whoredoms.
|
|
26 Thou hast also committed fornication with the Egyptians thy
|
|
neighbours, great of flesh; and hast increased thy whoredoms, to
|
|
provoke me to anger.
|
|
27 Behold, therefore I have stretched out my hand over thee,
|
|
and have diminished thine ordinary <I>food,</I> and delivered thee
|
|
unto the will of them that hate thee, the daughters of the
|
|
Philistines, which are ashamed of thy lewd way.
|
|
28 Thou hast played the whore also with the Assyrians, because
|
|
thou wast unsatiable; yea, thou hast played the harlot with them,
|
|
and yet couldest not be satisfied.
|
|
29 Thou hast moreover multiplied thy fornication in the land of
|
|
Canaan unto Chaldea; and yet thou wast not satisfied herewith.
|
|
30 How weak is thine heart, saith the Lord G<FONT SIZE=-1><B>OD</B></FONT>, seeing thou
|
|
doest all these <I>things,</I> the work of an imperious whorish woman;
|
|
31 In that thou buildest thine eminent place in the head of
|
|
every way, and makest thine high place in every street; and hast
|
|
not been as a harlot, in that thou scornest hire;
|
|
32 <I>But as</I> a wife that committeth adultery, <I>which</I> taketh
|
|
strangers instead of her husband!
|
|
33 They give gifts to all whores: but thou givest thy gifts to
|
|
all thy lovers, and hirest them, that they may come unto thee on
|
|
every side for thy whoredom.
|
|
34 And the contrary is in thee from <I>other</I> women in thy
|
|
whoredoms, whereas none followeth thee to commit whoredoms: and
|
|
in that thou givest a reward, and no reward is given unto thee,
|
|
therefore thou art contrary.
|
|
</FONT></P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
In these verses we have an account of the great wickedness of the
|
|
people of Israel, especially in worshipping idols, notwithstanding the
|
|
great favours that God had conferred upon them, by which, one would
|
|
think, they should have been for ever engaged to him. This wickedness
|
|
of theirs is here represented by the lewd and scandalous conversation
|
|
of that beautiful maid which was rescued from ruin, brought up and well
|
|
provided for by a kind friend and benefactor, that had been in all
|
|
respects as a father and a husband to her. Their idolatry was the great
|
|
provoking sin that they were guilty of; it began in the latter end of
|
|
Solomon's time (for from Samuel's till then I do not remember that we
|
|
read any thing of it), and thenceforward continued more or less the
|
|
crying sin of that nation till the captivity; and, though it now and
|
|
then met with some check from the reforming kings, yet it was never
|
|
totally suppressed, and for the most part appeared to a high degree
|
|
impudent and barefaced. They not only worshipped the true God by
|
|
images, as the ten tribes by the calves at Dan and Bethel, but they
|
|
worshipped false gods, Baal and Moloch, and all the senseless rabble of
|
|
the pagan deities.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
This is that which is here all along represented (as often elsewhere)
|
|
under the similitude of whoredom and adultery,
|
|
|
|
1. Because it is the violation of a marriage-covenant with God,
|
|
forsaking him and embracing the bosom of a stranger; it is giving that
|
|
affection and that service to his rivals which are due to him alone.
|
|
|
|
2. Because it is the corrupting and defiling of the mind, and the
|
|
enslaving of the spiritual part of the man, and subjecting it to the
|
|
power and dominion of sense, as whoredom is.
|
|
|
|
3. Because it debauches the conscience, sears and hardens it; and
|
|
those who by their idolatries dishonour the divine nature, and change
|
|
the truth of God into a lie and his glory into shame, God justly
|
|
punishes by giving them over to a reprobate mind, to dishonour the
|
|
human nature with vile affections,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ro+1:23">Rom. i. 23</A>,
|
|
|
|
&c. It is a besotting bewitching sin; and, when men are given up to it,
|
|
they seldom recover themselves out of the snare.
|
|
|
|
4. Because it is a shameful scandalous sin for those that have joined
|
|
themselves to the Lord to join themselves to an idol. Now observe
|
|
here,</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
I. What were the causes of this sin. How came the people of God to be
|
|
drawn away to the service of idols? How came a virgin so well taught,
|
|
so well educated, to be debauched? Who would have thought it? But,
|
|
|
|
1. They grew proud
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+16:15"><I>v.</I> 15</A>):
|
|
|
|
"<I>Thou trustedst to thy beauty,</I> and didst expect that that should
|
|
make thee an interest, and didst <I>play the harlot because of thy
|
|
renown.</I>" They thought, because they were so complimented and
|
|
admired by their neighbours, that, further to ingratiate themselves
|
|
with them and return their compliments, they must join with them in
|
|
their worship and conform to their usages. Solomon admitted idolatry,
|
|
to gratify his wives and their relations. Note, Abundance of young
|
|
people are ruined by pride and particularly pride in their beauty.
|
|
<I>Rara est concordia formæ atque pudicitiæ--Beauty and
|
|
chastity are seldom associated</I>
|
|
|
|
2. They forgot their beginning
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+16:22"><I>v.</I> 22</A>)
|
|
|
|
"<I>Thou hast not remembered the days of thy youth,</I> how poor, and
|
|
mean, and despicable thou wast, and what great things God did for thee
|
|
and what lasting obligations he laid upon thee thereby." Note, It
|
|
should be an effectual check to our pride and sensuality to consider
|
|
what we are and how much we are beholden to the free grace of God.
|
|
|
|
3. They were weak in understanding and in resolution
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+16:30"><I>v.</I> 30</A>):
|
|
|
|
<I>How weak is thy heart, seeing thou dost all these things.</I> Note,
|
|
The strength of men's lusts is an evidence of the weakness of their
|
|
hearts; they have no acquaintance with themselves, nor government of
|
|
themselves. She is weak, and yet an imperious whorish woman. Note,
|
|
Those that are most foolish are commonly most imperious, and think
|
|
themselves fit to manage others when they are far from being able to
|
|
manage themselves.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
II. What were the particulars of it.
|
|
|
|
1. They worshipped all the idols that came in their way, all that they
|
|
were ever courted to the worship of; they were at the beck of all their
|
|
neighbours
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+16:15"><I>v.</I> 15</A>):
|
|
|
|
<I>Thou pouredst out thy fornications on every one that passed by; his
|
|
it was.</I> They were ready to close with every temptation of this
|
|
kind, though ever so absurd. No foreign idol could be imported, no new
|
|
god invented, but they were ready to catch at it, as a common trumpet
|
|
that prostitutes herself to all comers and <I>multiplies her
|
|
whoredoms,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+16:25"><I>v.</I> 25</A>.
|
|
|
|
Thus some common drunkards will be company for every one that puts up
|
|
the finger to them; how weak are the hearts of such!
|
|
|
|
2. They adorned their idol-temples, and groves, and high places, with
|
|
the fine rich clothing that God had given them
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+16:16,18"><I>v.</I> 16, 18</A>):
|
|
|
|
<I>Thou deckedst thy high places with divers colours,</I> with the
|
|
coats of divers colours, like Joseph's, which God had given them as
|
|
particular marks of his favour, <I>and hast played the harlot</I> (that
|
|
is, worshipped idols) <I>thereupon.</I> Of this he saith, "<I>The like
|
|
things shall not come, neither shall it be so;</I> that is, this is a
|
|
thing by no means to be suffered; I will never endure such practices as
|
|
these without showing my resentments."
|
|
|
|
3. They made images for worship of the jewels which God had given them
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+16:17"><I>v.</I> 17</A>):
|
|
|
|
<I>The jewels of my gold and my silver which I had given thee.</I>
|
|
Note, It is God that gives us our gold and silver; the products of
|
|
trade, of art and industry, are the gifts of God's providence to us, as
|
|
well as the fruits of the earth. And what God gives us the use of he
|
|
still retains a property in. "It is <I>my silver</I> and <I>my
|
|
gold,</I> though I have <I>given it to thee.</I>" It is his still, so
|
|
that we ought to serve and honour him with it, and are accountable to
|
|
him for the disposal of it. Every penny has God's image upon it as well
|
|
as Cæsar's. Should we make our silver and gold, our plate, money,
|
|
and jewels, the matter of our pride and contention, our covetousness
|
|
and prodigality, if we duly considered that they were God's silver and
|
|
his gold? The Israelites began betimes to turn their jewels into idols,
|
|
when Aaron made the golden calf of their earrings.
|
|
|
|
4. They served their idols with the good things which God gave them for
|
|
their own use and to serve him with
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+16:18"><I>v.</I> 18</A>):
|
|
|
|
"<I>Thou hast set my oil and my incense before the,</I> upon their
|
|
altars, as perfumes to these dunghill-deities; <I>my meat, and fine
|
|
flour, and oil,</I> and that honey which Canaan flowed with, and
|
|
<I>wherewith I fed thee,</I> thou hast regaled them and their hungry
|
|
priests with, hast made an offering of it to them for <I>a sweet
|
|
savour,</I> to purify them, and procure acceptance with them: and
|
|
<I>thus it was, saith the Lord God;</I> it is too plain to be denied,
|
|
too bad to be excused. <I>These things thou hast done.</I> He that
|
|
knows all things knows it." See how fond they were of their idols, that
|
|
they would part with that which was given them for the necessary
|
|
subsistence of themselves and their families to honour them with, which
|
|
may shame our niggardliness and strait-handedness in the service of the
|
|
true and living God.
|
|
|
|
5. They had sacrificed their children to their idols. This is insisted
|
|
upon here, and often elsewhere, as one of the worst instances of their
|
|
idolatry, as indeed there was none in which the devil triumphed so much
|
|
over the children of men, both their natural reason and their natural
|
|
affection, as in this (see
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Jer+7:31,19:5,32:35">Jer. vii. 31; xix. 5; xxxii. 35</A>):
|
|
|
|
<I>Thou hast taken thy sons and thy daughters,</I> and not only made
|
|
them to pass through the fire, or between two fires, in token of their
|
|
being dedicated to Moloch, but thou hast <I>sacrificed them to be
|
|
devoured,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+16:20"><I>v.</I> 20</A>.
|
|
|
|
Never was there such an instance of the degenerating of the paternal
|
|
authority into the most barbarous tyranny as this was. Yet that was not
|
|
the worst of it: it was an irreparable wrong to God himself, who
|
|
challenged a special property in their children more than in their gold
|
|
and silver and their meat: They are <I>my children</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+16:21"><I>v.</I> 21</A>),
|
|
|
|
the <I>sons and daughters which thou hast borne unto me,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+16:20"><I>v.</I> 20</A>.
|
|
|
|
He is the <I>Father of spirits,</I> and rational souls are in a
|
|
particular manner his; and therefore the taking away of life, human
|
|
life, unjustly, is a high affront to the <I>God of life.</I> But the
|
|
children of Israelites were his by a further right; they were the
|
|
<I>children of the covenant,</I> born in God's house. He had said to
|
|
Abraham, <I>I will be a God to thee and to thy seed;</I> they had the
|
|
seal of the covenant in their flesh from eight days old; they were to
|
|
bear God's name, and keep up his church; to murder them was in the
|
|
highest degree inhuman, but to murder them in honour of an idol was in
|
|
the highest degree impious. One cannot think of it without the utmost
|
|
indignation: to see the pitiless hands of the parents shedding the
|
|
guiltless blood of their own children, and by offering those pieces of
|
|
themselves to the devil for buying sacrifices openly avowing the
|
|
offering up of themselves to him for living sacrifices! How absurd was
|
|
this, that the children which were born to God should be <I>sacrificed
|
|
to devils!</I> Note, The children of parents that are members of the
|
|
visible church are to be looked upon as born unto God, and his
|
|
children,; as such, and under that character, we are to love them, and
|
|
pray for them, bring them up for him, and, if he calls for them,
|
|
cheerfully part with them to him; for <I>may he not do what he will
|
|
with his own?</I> Upon this instance of their idolatry, which indeed
|
|
ought not to pass without a particular brand, this remark is made
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+16:20"><I>v.</I> 20</A>),
|
|
|
|
<I>Is this of thy whoredoms a small matter?</I> which intimates that
|
|
there were those who made a small matter of it, and turned it into a
|
|
jest. Note, There is no sin so heinous, so apparently heinous, which
|
|
men of profligate consciences will not make a mock at. But is
|
|
whoredom, is spiritual whoredom, a small matter? Is it a small matter
|
|
for men to make their children brutes and the devil their god? It will
|
|
be a great matter shortly.
|
|
|
|
6. They built temples in honour of their idols, that others might be
|
|
invited to resort thither and join with them in the worship of their
|
|
idols: "<I>After all thy wickedness</I> of this kind committed in
|
|
private, for which, <I>woe, woe, unto thee</I>" (that comes in in a sad
|
|
parenthesis, denoting those to be in a woeful condition who are going
|
|
on in sin, and giving them warning in time, if they would but take it),
|
|
"thou hast at length arrived at such a pitch of impudence as to
|
|
proclaim it; thou hast long had a whore's heart, but now thou hast come
|
|
to have a whore's forehead, and canst not blush,"
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+16:23-35"><I>v.</I> 23-35</A>.
|
|
|
|
<I>Thou hast built there an eminent place,</I> a <I>brothel-house</I>
|
|
(so the margin reads it), and such their idol temples were. <I>Thou
|
|
hast made for thyself a high place,</I> for one idol or other, <I>in
|
|
every street,</I> and <I>at every head of the way;</I> and again
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+16:31"><I>v.</I> 31</A>.
|
|
|
|
They did all they could to seduce and debauch others, and to spread the
|
|
contagion, by making the temptations to idolatry as strong as possibly
|
|
they could; and hereby the ringleaders in idolatry did but <I>make
|
|
themselves vile,</I> and even those that had courted them to it,
|
|
finding themselves outdone by them, began to be surfeited with the
|
|
abundance and violence of their idolatries: <I>Thou hast made thy
|
|
beauty to be abhorred,</I> even by those that had admired it. The
|
|
Jewish nation, by leaving their own God, and doting on the gods of the
|
|
nations round about them, had made themselves mean and despicable in
|
|
the eyes even of their heathen neighbours; much more was their
|
|
<I>beauty abhorred</I> by all that were wise and good, and had any
|
|
concern for the honour of God and religion. Note, Those shame
|
|
themselves that bring a reproach on their profession. And justly will
|
|
that beauty, that excellency, at length be made the object of the
|
|
loathing of others which men have made the matter of their own
|
|
pride.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
III. What were the aggravations of this sin.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
1. They were fond of the idols of those nations which had been their
|
|
oppressors and persecutors. As,
|
|
|
|
(1.) The Egyptians. They were a people notorious for idolatry, and for
|
|
the most sottish senseless idolatries; they had of old abused Israel by
|
|
their barbarous dealings, and of late by their treacherous
|
|
dealings-were always either cruel or false to them; and yet so
|
|
infatuated were they that <I>they committed fornication with the
|
|
Egyptians their neighbours,</I> not only by joining with them in their
|
|
idolatries, but by entering into leagues and alliances with them, and
|
|
depending upon them for help in their straits, which was an adulterous
|
|
departure from God.
|
|
|
|
(2.) The Assyrians. They had also been vexatious to Israel: "And <I>yet
|
|
thou hast played the whore with them</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+16:28"><I>v.</I> 28</A>);
|
|
|
|
though they lived at a greater distance, yet thou hast entertained
|
|
their idols and their superstitious usages, and so <I>hast multiplied
|
|
thy fornications unto Chaldea,</I> hast borrowed images of gods,
|
|
patterns of altars, rites of sacrificing, and one foolery or other of
|
|
that kind, from that remote country, that enemy's country, and hast
|
|
imported them <I>into the land of Canaan,</I> enfranchised and
|
|
established them there." Thus Mr. George Herbert long since foretold,
|
|
or feared at least,</P>
|
|
|
|
<CENTER>
|
|
<TABLE BORDER=0>
|
|
<TR><TD>That Seine shall swallow Tiber, and the Thames
|
|
<BR>By letting in them both pollute her streams.
|
|
</TD></TR>
|
|
</TABLE>
|
|
</CENTER>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
2. They had been under the rebukes of Providence for their sins, and
|
|
yet they persisted in them
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+16:27"><I>v.</I> 27</A>):
|
|
|
|
<I>I have stretched out my hand over thee,</I> to threaten and frighten
|
|
thee. So God did before he <I>laid his hand upon them</I> to ruin and
|
|
destroy them; and that is his usual method, to try to bring men to
|
|
repentance first by less judgments. He did so here. Before he brought
|
|
such a famine upon them as broke the staff of bread he <I>diminished
|
|
their ordinary food,</I> but them short before he cut them off. When
|
|
the overplus is abused, it is just with God to diminish that which is
|
|
for necessity. Before he delivered them to the Chaldeans to be
|
|
destroyed he delivered them <I>to the daughters of the Philistines</I>
|
|
to be ridiculed for their idolatries; for they hated them, and, though
|
|
they were idolaters themselves, yet were ashamed of the lewd way of the
|
|
Israelites, who had grown more profane in their idolatries than any of
|
|
their neighbours, who changed their gods, whereas other nations did not
|
|
change theirs,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Jer+2:10,11">Jer. ii. 10, 11</A>.
|
|
|
|
For this they were justly chastised by the Philistines. Or it may
|
|
refer to the inroads which the Philistines made upon the south of Judah
|
|
in the reign of Ahaz, by which it was weakened and impoverished, and
|
|
which was the beginning of sorrows to them
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=2Ch+28:18">2 Chron. xxviii. 18</A>);
|
|
|
|
but they did not take warning by those judgments, and therefore were
|
|
justly abandoned to ruin at last. Note, In the account which impenitent
|
|
sinners shall be called to they will be told not only of the mercies
|
|
for which they have been ungrateful, but of the afflictions under which
|
|
they have been incorrigible,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Am+4:11">Amos iv. 11</A>.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
3. They were insatiable in their spiritual whoredom: Thou <I>couldst
|
|
not be satisfied,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+16:28,29"><I>v.</I> 28
|
|
and again <I>v.</I> 29</A>.
|
|
|
|
When they had multiplied their idols and superstitious usages beyond
|
|
measure, yet still they were enquiring after new gods and new fashions
|
|
in worship. Those that in sincerity join themselves to the true God
|
|
find enough in him for their satisfaction; and, though they still
|
|
desire more of God, yet they never desire more than God. But those that
|
|
forsake this living fountain for broken cisterns will find themselves
|
|
soon surfeited, but never satisfied; they have soon enough of the gods
|
|
they have, and are still enquiring after more.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
4. They were at great expense with their idolatry, and laid out a great
|
|
deal of wealth in purchasing patterns of images and altars, and hiring
|
|
priests to attend upon them from other countries. Harlots generally had
|
|
their hire; but this impudent adulteress, instead of being hired to
|
|
serve idols, hired idols to protect her and accept her homage. This is
|
|
much insisted on,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+16:31-34"><I>v.</I> 31-34</A>.
|
|
|
|
"In this respect <I>the contrary is in thee from other women in thy
|
|
whoredoms:</I> others are courted, but thou makest court to those that
|
|
do not follow thee, art fond of making leagues and alliances with those
|
|
heathen nations that despise thee; others have gifts given them, but
|
|
thou givest thy gifts, the gifts which God had graciously given thee,
|
|
to thy idols; herein thou art like a wife that commits adultery, not
|
|
for gain, as harlots do, but entirely for the sin's sake." Note,
|
|
Spiritual lusts, those of the mind, such as theirs after idols were,
|
|
are often as strong and impetuous as any carnal lusts are. And it is a
|
|
great aggravation of sin when men are their own tempters, and, instead
|
|
of proposing to themselves any worldly advantage by their sin, are at
|
|
great expense with it; such are <I>transgressors without cause</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+25:3">Ps. xxv. 3</A>),
|
|
|
|
wicked transgressors indeed.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
And now is not Jerusalem in all this made to know her abominations? For
|
|
what greater abominations could she be guilty of than these? Here we
|
|
may see with wonder and horror what the corrupt nature of men is when
|
|
God leaves them to themselves, yea, though they have the greatest
|
|
advantages to be better and do better. And the way of sin is down-hill.
|
|
<I>Nitimur in vetitum--We incline to what is forbidden.</I></P>
|
|
|
|
<A NAME="Eze16_35"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Eze16_36"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Eze16_37"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Eze16_38"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Eze16_39"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Eze16_40"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Eze16_41"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Eze16_42"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Eze16_43"> </A>
|
|
|
|
<A NAME="Sec4"> </A>
|
|
<TABLE WIDTH="100%" BORDER=0>
|
|
<TR><TD><FONT SIZE=+1><I>Grievous Punishment of Israel; Punishment Threatened.</I></FONT></TD>
|
|
<TD ALIGN=RIGHT><FONT SIZE=-1>B. C.</FONT> 593.</TD></TR>
|
|
<TR><TD COLSPAN=2><HR SIZE=1></TD></TR>
|
|
</TABLE>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
<FONT SIZE=+1>35 Wherefore, O harlot, hear the word of the L<FONT SIZE=-1><B>ORD</B></FONT>:
|
|
36 Thus saith the Lord G<FONT SIZE=-1><B>OD</B></FONT>; Because thy filthiness was poured
|
|
out, and thy nakedness discovered through thy whoredoms with thy
|
|
lovers, and with all the idols of thy abominations, and by the
|
|
blood of thy children, which thou didst give unto them;
|
|
37 Behold, therefore I will gather all thy lovers, with whom
|
|
thou hast taken pleasure, and all <I>them</I> that thou hast loved,
|
|
with all <I>them</I> that thou hast hated; I will even gather them
|
|
round about against thee, and will discover thy nakedness unto
|
|
them, that they may see all thy nakedness.
|
|
38 And I will judge thee, as women that break wedlock and shed
|
|
blood are judged; and I will give thee blood in fury and
|
|
jealousy.
|
|
39 And I will also give thee into their hand, and they shall
|
|
throw down thine eminent place, and shall break down thy high
|
|
places: they shall strip thee also of thy clothes, and shall take
|
|
thy fair jewels, and leave thee naked and bare.
|
|
40 They shall also bring up a company against thee, and they
|
|
shall stone thee with stones, and thrust thee through with their
|
|
swords.
|
|
41 And they shall burn thine houses with fire, and execute
|
|
judgments upon thee in the sight of many women: and I will cause
|
|
thee to cease from playing the harlot, and thou also shalt give
|
|
no hire any more.
|
|
42 So will I make my fury toward thee to rest, and my jealousy
|
|
shall depart from thee, and I will be quiet, and will be no more
|
|
angry.
|
|
43 Because thou hast not remembered the days of thy youth, but
|
|
hast fretted me in all these <I>things;</I> behold, therefore I also
|
|
will recompense thy way upon <I>thine</I> head, saith the Lord G<FONT SIZE=-1><B>OD</B></FONT>:
|
|
and thou shalt not commit this lewdness above all thine
|
|
abominations.
|
|
</FONT></P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
Adultery was by the law of Moses made a capital crime. This notorious
|
|
adulteress, the criminal at the bar, being in the foregoing verses
|
|
found guilty, here has sentence passed upon her. It is ushered in with
|
|
solemnity,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+16:35"><I>v.</I> 35</A>.
|
|
|
|
The prophet, as the judge, in God's name calls to her, <I>O harlot!
|
|
hear the word of the Lord.</I> Our Saviour preached to harlots, for
|
|
their conversion, to bring them into the kingdom of God, not as the
|
|
prophet here, to expel them out of it. Note, An apostate church is a
|
|
harlot. Jerusalem is so if she become idolatrous. <I>How has the
|
|
faithful city become a harlot!</I> Rome is so represented in the
|
|
Revelation, when it is marked for ruin, as Jerusalem here.
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Re+17:1">Rev. xvii. 1</A>,
|
|
|
|
<I>Come, and I will show thee the judgments of the great whore.</I>
|
|
Those who will not hear the commanding word of the Lord and obey it
|
|
shall be made to hear the condemning word of the Lord and shall tremble
|
|
at it. Let us attend while judgment is given.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
I. The crime is stated and the articles of the charge are summed up
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+16:36"><I>v.</I> 36</A>)
|
|
|
|
and (as is usual) with the attendant aggravations
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+16:43"><I>v.</I> 43</A>);
|
|
|
|
for when God speaks in wrath he will be justified, and clear when he
|
|
judges, clear when he is judged; and sinners, when they are condemned,
|
|
shall have their sins so set in order before them that their mouth
|
|
shall be stopped and they shall not have a word to object against the
|
|
equity of the sentence. The crimes which this harlot stands convicted
|
|
of, and is now to be condemned for, are,
|
|
|
|
1. The violation of the first two commandments of the first table by
|
|
idolatry, which is here called her <I>whoredoms with her lovers</I> (so
|
|
she called them,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ho+2:12">Hos. ii. 12</A>,
|
|
|
|
because she loved them as if they had been indeed her benefactors),
|
|
that is, with <I>all the idols of her abominations,</I> the abominable
|
|
idols which she served and worshipped. This was the sin which provoked
|
|
God to jealousy.
|
|
|
|
2. The violation of the first two commandments of the second table by
|
|
the murder of their own innocent infants: <I>The blood of thy children
|
|
which thou didst give unto them.</I> It is not strange if those that
|
|
have cast off God and his fear break through the strongest and most
|
|
sacred bonds of natural affection. Their sins are aggravated from the
|
|
consideration,
|
|
|
|
(1.) Of the dishonour they had thereby done to themselves: "Hereby
|
|
<I>thy filthiness was poured out;</I> the uncleanness that was in thy
|
|
heart was hereby discovered and brought to light, and thy nakedness was
|
|
exposed to view, and thou wast there by exposed to contempt." God is
|
|
displeased with his professing people for shaming themselves by their
|
|
sins.
|
|
|
|
(2.) Their base ingratitude is another aggravation of their sins:
|
|
"<I>Thou hast not remembered the days of thy youth,</I> and the
|
|
kindness that was done thee then, when otherwise thou wouldst have
|
|
perished,"
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+16:43"><I>v.</I> 43</A>.
|
|
|
|
And,
|
|
|
|
(3.) The vexation which their sins gave to God, whom they ought to have
|
|
pleased: "<I>Thou hast fretted me in all these things,</I> not only
|
|
angered me, but grieved me." It is a strange expression, and, one would
|
|
think, enough to melt a heart of stone, that the great God, who cannot
|
|
admit any uneasiness, is pleased to speak of the sins and follies of
|
|
his professing people as <I>fretting</I> to him. <I>Forty years long
|
|
was I grieved with this generation.</I></P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
II. The sentence is passed in general: <I>I will judge thee as women
|
|
that break wedlock and shed blood are judged</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+16:38"><I>v.</I> 38</A>),
|
|
|
|
and those two crimes were punished with death, with an ignominious
|
|
death. "Thou hast <I>shed blood,</I> and therefore I will <I>give thee
|
|
blood;</I> thou hast <I>broken wedlock,</I> and therefore I will give
|
|
it thee, not only in justice, but in jealousy, not only as a righteous
|
|
Judge, but as an injured and incensed husband, who <I>will not spare in
|
|
the day of vengeance,</I>"
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Pr+6:34,35">Prov. vi. 34, 35</A>.
|
|
|
|
He will <I>recompense their way upon their head,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+16:43"><I>v.</I> 43</A>.
|
|
|
|
In all the judgments God executes upon sinners we must see <I>their own
|
|
way recompensed upon their head;</I> they are dealt with not only as
|
|
they deserved, but as they procured. It is the end which their sin, as
|
|
a way, had a direct tendency to. More particularly,
|
|
|
|
1. This criminal must be (as is usually done with criminals) exposed to
|
|
public shame,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+16:37"><I>v.</I> 37</A>.
|
|
|
|
Malefactors are not executed privately, but are made a spectacle to the
|
|
world. Care is here taken to bring spectators together: "<I>All those
|
|
whom thou hast loved, with whom thou hast taken pleasure,</I> shall
|
|
come to be witnesses of the execution, that they may take warning and
|
|
prevent their own like ruin; and those also <I>whom thou hast
|
|
hated,</I> who will insult over thee and triumph in thy fall." Both
|
|
ways the calamities of Jerusalem will be aggravated, that they will be
|
|
the grief of her friends and the joy of her foes. These shall not only
|
|
be gathered <I>around her,</I> but <I>gathered against her;</I> even
|
|
those with whom she took unlawful pleasure, with whom she contracted
|
|
unlawful leagues, the Egyptians and Assyrians, shall now contribute to
|
|
her ruin. As, <I>when a man's ways please the Lord, he makes even his
|
|
enemies to be at peace with him,</I> so when a man's ways displease the
|
|
Lord he makes even his friends to be at war with him; and justly makes
|
|
those a scourge and a plague to sinners, and instruments of their
|
|
destruction, who were their tempters, and with whom they were partakers
|
|
in wickedness. Those whom they have suffered to strip them of their
|
|
virtue shall see them stripped, and perhaps help to strip them, of all
|
|
their other ornaments; to <I>see the nakedness of the land</I> will
|
|
they come. It is added, to the same purport
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+16:41"><I>v.</I> 41</A>),
|
|
|
|
<I>I will execute judgments upon thee in the sight of many women;</I>
|
|
thou shalt be made an example of <I>in terrorem--that others may see
|
|
and fear</I> and do no more presumptuously.
|
|
|
|
2. The criminal is <I>condemned to die,</I> for her sins are such as
|
|
death is the wages of
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+16:40"><I>v.</I> 40</A>):
|
|
|
|
<I>They shall bring up a company</I> (that is, a company shall be
|
|
brought up) <I>against thee,</I> and <I>they shall stone thee with
|
|
stones,</I> and <I>thrust thee through with their swords;</I> so great
|
|
a death, so many deaths in one, is this adulteress adjudged to. When
|
|
the walls of Jerusalem were battered down with stones shot against
|
|
them, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem were put to the sword, then this
|
|
sentence was executed in the letter of it.
|
|
|
|
3. The estate of the criminal is confiscated, and all that belonged to
|
|
her destroyed with her
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+16:39"><I>v.</I> 39</A>):
|
|
|
|
<I>They shall throw down thy eminent place,</I> and
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+16:41"><I>v.</I> 41</A>)
|
|
|
|
they <I>shall burn thy houses,</I> as the habitations of bad women are
|
|
destroyed, in detestation of their lewdness. Their high places, erected
|
|
in honour of their idols, by which they thought to ingratiate
|
|
themselves with their neighbours, shall be an offence to them, and even
|
|
<I>they</I> shall <I>break them down.</I> It was long the complaint,
|
|
even in some of the best reigns of the kings of Judah, that <I>the high
|
|
places were not taken away;</I> but now the army of the Chaldeans, when
|
|
they lay all waste, shall break them down. If iniquity be not taken
|
|
away by the justice of the nation, it shall be taken away by the
|
|
judgments of God upon the nation.
|
|
|
|
4. Thus both the sin and the sinners shall be abolished together, and
|
|
an end put to both: <I>Thou shalt cease from playing the harlot;</I>
|
|
there shall be no remainders of idolatry in the land, because the
|
|
inhabitants shall be wholly extirpated, and they shall <I>give no more
|
|
hire</I> because they shall have no more to give. Some that will not
|
|
leave their sins live till their sins leave them. When all that with
|
|
which they honoured their idols is taken from them they shall not
|
|
<I>give hire any more</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+16:41"><I>v.</I> 41</A>):
|
|
|
|
"Then <I>thou shalt not commit this lewdness</I> of sacrificing thy
|
|
children, which was a crime provoking <I>above all thy
|
|
abominations,</I> for thy children shall all be cut off by the sword or
|
|
carried into captivity, so that thou shalt have none to sacrifice,"
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+16:43"><I>v.</I> 43</A>.
|
|
|
|
Or it may be meant of the reformation of those of them that escape and
|
|
survive the punishment; they shall take warning, and shall <I>do no
|
|
more presumptuously.</I> The captivity in Babylon made the people of
|
|
Israel to cease for ever <I>from playing the harlot;</I> it effectually
|
|
cured them of their inclination to idolatry. And then all shall be
|
|
well, when this is the fruit, even the <I>taking away of sin;</I> then
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+16:42"><I>v.</I> 42</A>)
|
|
|
|
<I>my jealousy shall depart. I will be quiet, and no more angry.</I>
|
|
When we begin to be at war with sin God will be at peace with us; for
|
|
he continues the affliction no longer than till it has done its work.
|
|
When sin departs God's jealousy will soon depart, for he is never
|
|
jealous but when we give him just cause to be so. Yet some understand
|
|
this as a threatening of utter ruin, that God will <I>make a full
|
|
end</I> and the fire of his anger shall burn as long as there is any
|
|
fuel for it. <I>His fury shall rest upon them,</I> and not remove.
|
|
Compare this with that doom of unbelievers,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+3:36">John iii. 36</A>.
|
|
|
|
<I>The wrath of God abideth on them.</I> They shall drink the dregs of
|
|
the cup, and then God will be <I>no more angry,</I> for he is <I>eased
|
|
of his adversaries</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Isa+1:24">Isa. i. 24</A>),
|
|
|
|
is satisfied in the abandoning of them, and therefore will be <I>no
|
|
more angry,</I> because there are no more for his anger to fasten upon.
|
|
They had fretted him, when judgment and mercy were contesting; but now
|
|
<I>he is quiet,</I> as he will be in the eternal damnation of sinners,
|
|
wherein he will be glorified, and therefore he will be satisfied.</P>
|
|
|
|
<A NAME="Eze16_44"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Eze16_45"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Eze16_46"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Eze16_47"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Eze16_48"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Eze16_49"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Eze16_50"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Eze16_51"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Eze16_52"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Eze16_53"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Eze16_54"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Eze16_55"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Eze16_56"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Eze16_57"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Eze16_58"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Eze16_59"> </A>
|
|
|
|
<A NAME="Sec5"> </A>
|
|
<TABLE WIDTH="100%" BORDER=0>
|
|
<TR><TD><FONT SIZE=+1><I>The Wickedness of Jerusalem; Punishment of Jerusalem.</I></FONT></TD>
|
|
<TD ALIGN=RIGHT><FONT SIZE=-1>B. C.</FONT> 593.</TD></TR>
|
|
<TR><TD COLSPAN=2><HR SIZE=1></TD></TR>
|
|
</TABLE>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
<FONT SIZE=+1>44 Behold, every one that useth proverbs shall use <I>this</I>
|
|
proverb against thee, saying, As <I>is</I> the mother, <I>so is</I> her
|
|
daughter.
|
|
45 Thou <I>art</I> thy mother's daughter, that loatheth her husband
|
|
and her children; and thou <I>art</I> the sister of thy sisters, which
|
|
loathed their husbands and their children: your mother <I>was</I> an
|
|
Hittite, and your father an Amorite.
|
|
46 And thine elder sister <I>is</I> Samaria, she and her daughters
|
|
that dwell at thy left hand: and thy younger sister, that
|
|
dwelleth at thy right hand, <I>is</I> Sodom and her daughters.
|
|
47 Yet hast thou not walked after their ways, nor done after
|
|
their abominations: but, as <I>if that were</I> a very little <I>thing,</I>
|
|
thou wast corrupted more than they in all thy ways.
|
|
48 <I>As</I> I live, saith the Lord G<FONT SIZE=-1><B>OD</B></FONT>, Sodom thy sister hath not
|
|
done, she nor her daughters, as thou hast done, thou and thy
|
|
daughters.
|
|
49 Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride,
|
|
fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her
|
|
daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and
|
|
needy.
|
|
50 And they were haughty, and committed abomination before me:
|
|
therefore I took them away as I saw <I>good.</I>
|
|
51 Neither hath Samaria committed half of thy sins; but thou
|
|
hast multiplied thine abominations more than they, and hast
|
|
justified thy sisters in all thine abominations which thou hast
|
|
done.
|
|
52 Thou also, which hast judged thy sisters, bear thine own
|
|
shame for thy sins that thou hast committed more abominable than
|
|
they: they are more righteous than thou: yea, be thou confounded
|
|
also, and bear thy shame, in that thou hast justified thy
|
|
sisters.
|
|
53 When I shall bring again their captivity, the captivity of
|
|
Sodom and her daughters, and the captivity of Samaria and her
|
|
daughters, then <I>will I bring again</I> the captivity of thy
|
|
captives in the midst of them:
|
|
54 That thou mayest bear thine own shame, and mayest be
|
|
confounded in all that thou hast done, in that thou art a comfort
|
|
unto them.
|
|
55 When thy sisters, Sodom and her daughters, shall return to
|
|
their former estate, and Samaria and her daughters shall return
|
|
to their former estate, then thou and thy daughters shall return
|
|
to your former estate.
|
|
56 For thy sister Sodom was not mentioned by thy mouth in the
|
|
day of thy pride,
|
|
57 Before thy wickedness was discovered, as at the time of
|
|
<I>thy</I> reproach of the daughters of Syria, and all <I>that are</I>
|
|
round about her, the daughters of the Philistines, which despise
|
|
thee round about.
|
|
58 Thou hast borne thy lewdness and thine abominations, saith
|
|
the L<FONT SIZE=-1><B>ORD</B></FONT>.
|
|
59 For thus saith the Lord G<FONT SIZE=-1><B>OD</B></FONT>; I will even deal with thee as
|
|
thou hast done, which hast despised the oath in breaking the
|
|
covenant.
|
|
</FONT></P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
The prophet here further shows Jerusalem her abominations, by comparing
|
|
her with those places that had gone before her, and showing that she
|
|
was worse than any of them, and therefore should, like them, be utterly
|
|
and irreparably ruined. We are all apt to judge of ourselves by
|
|
comparison, and to imagine that we are sufficiently good if we are but
|
|
as good as such and such, who are thought passable; or that we are not
|
|
dangerously bad if we are no worse than such and such, who, though bad,
|
|
are not of the worst. Now God by the prophet shows Jerusalem,</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
I. That she was as bad as <I>her mother,</I> that is, as the accursed
|
|
devoted Canaanites that were the possessors of this land before her.
|
|
Those that use proverbs, as most people do, shall apply that proverb to
|
|
Jerusalem, <I>As is the mother, so is her daughter,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+16:44"><I>v.</I> 44</A>.
|
|
|
|
She is her <I>mother's own child.</I> The Jews are as like the
|
|
Canaanites in temper and inclination as if they had been their own
|
|
children. The character of the mother was that she <I>loathed her
|
|
husband and her children,</I> she had all the marks of an adulteress;
|
|
and that is the character of the daughter: she <I>forsakes the guide of
|
|
her youth,</I> and is barbarous to the children of her own bowels. When
|
|
God brought Israel into Canaan he particularly warned them not to do
|
|
according to the abominations of <I>the men of that land, who went
|
|
before them</I> (for which <I>it had spued them out,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Le+18:27,28">Lev. xviii. 27, 28</A>),
|
|
|
|
the monuments of whose idolatry, with the remains of the idolaters
|
|
themselves, would be a continual temptation to them; but they learned
|
|
their way, and trod in their steps, and were as well affected to the
|
|
<I>idols of Canaan</I> as ever they were
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+106:38">Ps. cvi. 38</A>),
|
|
|
|
and thus, in respect of imitation, it might truly be said that <I>their
|
|
mother</I> was a <I>Hittite</I> and their <I>father</I> an
|
|
<I>Amorite</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+16:45"><I>v.</I> 45</A>),
|
|
|
|
for they resembled them more than Abraham and Sarah.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
II. That she was worse than her sisters Sodom and Samaria, that were
|
|
adulteresses too, that <I>loathed their husbands and their
|
|
children,</I> that were weary of the gods of their fathers, and were
|
|
for introducing new gods, <I>a-la-mode--quite in style,</I> that came
|
|
newly up, and new fashions in religion, and were given to change. On
|
|
this comparison between Jerusalem and <I>her sisters</I> the prophet
|
|
here enlarges, that he might either shame them into repentance or
|
|
justify God in their ruin. Observe,</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
1. Who Jerusalem's sisters were,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+16:45"><I>v.</I> 45</A>.
|
|
|
|
Samaria and Sodom. Samaria is called the <I>elder</I> sister, or rather
|
|
the <I>greater,</I> because it was a much larger city and kingdom,
|
|
richer and more considerable, and more nearly allied to Israel. If
|
|
Jerusalem look northward, this is partly <I>on her left hand.</I> This
|
|
city of Samaria, and the towns and villages, that were as
|
|
<I>daughters</I> to that <I>mother-city,</I> these had been
|
|
<I>lately</I> destroyed for their <I>spiritual whoredom.</I> Sodom, and
|
|
the adjacent towns and villages that were her daughters, dwelt at
|
|
Jerusalem's <I>right hand,</I> and was her <I>less sister,</I> less
|
|
than Jerusalem, less than Samaria, and these were of old destroyed for
|
|
their corporeal whoredom,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Jude+1:7">Jude 7</A>.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
2. Wherein Jerusalem's sins resembled her sisters', particularly
|
|
Sodom's
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+16:49"><I>v.</I> 49</A>):
|
|
|
|
<I>This was the iniquity of Sodom</I> (it is implied, and this is
|
|
<I>thy</I> iniquity too), <I>pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of
|
|
idleness.</I> Their <I>going after strange flesh,</I> which was Sodom's
|
|
most flagrant wickedness, is not mentioned, because notoriously known,
|
|
but those sins which did not look so black, but opened the door and led
|
|
the way to these more enormous crimes, and began to fill that measure
|
|
of her sins, which was filled up at length by their unnatural
|
|
filthiness. Now these initiating sins were,
|
|
|
|
(1.) Pride, in which the heart lifts up itself above and against both
|
|
God and man. Pride was the first sin that turned angels into devils,
|
|
and the <I>garden of the Lord</I> into a <I>hell upon earth.</I> It was
|
|
the pride of the Sodomites that they despised <I>righteous Lot,</I> and
|
|
would not bear to be reproved by him; and this ripened them for ruin.
|
|
|
|
(2.) Gluttony, here called <I>fulness of bread.</I> It was God's great
|
|
mercy that they had plenty, but their great sin that they abused it,
|
|
glutted themselves with it, ate to excess and drank to excess, and made
|
|
that the gratification of their lusts which was given them to be the
|
|
support of their lives.
|
|
|
|
(3.) Idleness, <I>abundance of idleness,</I> a dread of labour and a
|
|
love of ease. Their country was fruitful, and the abundance they had
|
|
they came easily by, which was a temptation to them to indulge
|
|
themselves in sloth, which disposed them to all that abominable
|
|
filthiness which kindled their flames. Note, Idleness is an inlet to
|
|
much sin. The men of Sodom, who were idle, were <I>wicked,</I> and
|
|
<I>sinners before the Lord exceedingly,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ge+13:13">Gen. xiii. 13</A>.
|
|
|
|
The standing waters gather filth and the sitting bird is the fowler's
|
|
mark. When David <I>arose from off his bed at evening</I> he saw
|
|
Bathsheba. <I>Quæritur, Ægisthus quare sit factus adulter?
|
|
In promptu causa est; desidiosus erat--What made Ægisthus an
|
|
adulterer? Indolence.</I>
|
|
|
|
(4.) Oppression: Neither did she <I>strengthen the hands of the poor
|
|
and needy;</I> probably it is implied that she weakened their hands and
|
|
<I>broke</I> their arms; however, it was bad enough that, when she had
|
|
so much wealth, and consequently power and interest and leisure, she
|
|
did nothing for the relief of the poor, in providing for whose wants
|
|
those that themselves are <I>full of bread</I> may employ their time
|
|
well; they need not be so abundantly idle as too often they are. These
|
|
were the sins of the Sodomites, and these were Jerusalem's sins. Their
|
|
pride, the cause of their sins, is mentioned again
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+16:50"><I>v.</I> 50</A>):
|
|
|
|
<I>They were haughty,</I> with the horrid effects of their sins, their
|
|
<I>abominations</I> which they <I>committed before God.</I> Men arrive
|
|
gradually at the height of impiety and wickedness. <I>Nemo repente fit
|
|
turpissimus--No man reaches the height of vice at once.</I> But, where
|
|
pride has got the ascendant in a man, he is in the high road to all
|
|
abominations.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
3. How much the sins of Jerusalem exceeded those of Sodom and Samaria;
|
|
they were more heinous in the sight of God, either in themselves or by
|
|
reason of several aggravations: "<I>Thou hast not only walked after
|
|
their ways,</I> and trod in their steps, but hast quite outdone them in
|
|
wickedness,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+16:47"><I>v.</I> 47</A>.
|
|
|
|
Thou thoughtest it <I>a very little thing</I> to do as they did; didst
|
|
laugh at them as sneaking sinners and silly ones; thou wouldst be more
|
|
cunning, more daring, in wickedness, wouldst triumph more boldly over
|
|
thy convictions, and bid more open defiance to God and religion: 'if a
|
|
man will break, let him break for <I>something.'</I> Thus <I>thou wast
|
|
corrupted more than they in all thy ways.</I>" Jerusalem was more
|
|
polite, and therefore sinned with more wit, more art and ingenuity,
|
|
than Sodom and Samaria could. Jerusalem had more wealth and power, and
|
|
its government was more absolute and arbitrary, and therefore had the
|
|
more opportunity of oppressing the poor, and shedding malignant
|
|
influences around her, than Sodom and Samaria had. Jerusalem had the
|
|
temple, and the ark, and the priesthood, and kings of the house of
|
|
David; and therefore the wickedness of that holy city, that was so
|
|
dignified, so near, so dear to God, was more provoking to him than the
|
|
wickedness of Sodom and Samaria, that had not Jerusalem's privileges
|
|
and means of grace. Sodom has <I>not done as thou hast done,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+16:48"><I>v.</I> 48</A>.
|
|
|
|
This agrees with what Christ says.
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mt+11:24">Matt. xi. 24</A>,
|
|
|
|
<I>It shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of
|
|
judgment than for thee.</I> The kingdom of the ten tribes had been very
|
|
wicked; and yet <I>Samaria has not committed half thy sins</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+16:51"><I>v.</I> 51</A>),
|
|
|
|
has not worshipped half so many idols, nor slain half so many prophets.
|
|
It was bad enough that those of Jerusalem were guilty of Sodom's sins,
|
|
Sodomy itself not excepted,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=1Ki+14:24,2Ki+23:7">1 Kings xiv. 24; 2 Kings xxiii. 7</A>.
|
|
|
|
And though the Dead Sea, the standing monument of Sodom's sin and ruin,
|
|
bordered upon their country
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Nu+34:12">Num. xxxiv. 12</A>),
|
|
|
|
and that sulphureous lake was always under their nose (God having
|
|
<I>taken away Sodom and her daughters</I> in such way and manner as he
|
|
<I>saw good,</I> as he says here,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+16:50"><I>v.</I> 50</A>,
|
|
|
|
so as that one thing should effectually make their <I>overthrow</I> an
|
|
<I>example to those that afterwards should live ungodly,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=2Pe+2:6">2 Pet. ii. 6</A>),
|
|
|
|
yet they did not take warning, but <I>multiplied their abominations
|
|
more than they;</I> and,
|
|
|
|
(1.) By this they <I>justified Sodom and Samaria,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+16:51"><I>v.</I> 51</A>.
|
|
|
|
They pretended, in their haughtiness and superciliousness, to <I>judge
|
|
them,</I> and in the days of old, when they retained their integrity,
|
|
they did judge them,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+16:52"><I>v.</I> 52</A>.
|
|
|
|
But now they justify them comparatively: <I>Sodom and Samaria</I> are
|
|
<I>more righteous than thou,</I> that is, less wicked. It will look
|
|
like some extenuation of their sins that, bad as they were, Jerusalem
|
|
was worse, though it was God's own city. Not that it will serve for a
|
|
plea to justify Sodom, but it condemns Jerusalem, against which Sodom
|
|
and Samaria will <I>rise up in judgment.</I>
|
|
|
|
(2.) For this they ought themselves to be greatly ashamed: "Thou who
|
|
hast <I>judged thy sisters,</I> and cried out shame on them, now
|
|
<I>bear thy own shame, for thy sins which thou hast committed,</I>
|
|
which, though of the same kind with theirs, yet, being committed <I>by
|
|
thee,</I> are <I>more abominable than theirs,</I>"
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+16:52"><I>v.</I> 52</A>.
|
|
|
|
This may be taken either as foretelling their ruin (<I>Thou shalt bear
|
|
thy shame</I>) or as inviting them to repentance: "<I>Be thou
|
|
confounded and bear thy shame;</I> take the shame to thyself that is
|
|
due to thee." It may be hoped that sinners will forsake their sins when
|
|
they begin to be heartily ashamed of them. And therefore they shall go
|
|
into captivity, and there they shall lie, that they may be
|
|
<I>confounded in all that they have done,</I> because they had been a
|
|
comfort and encouragement to Sodom and Samaria,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+16:54"><I>v.</I> 54</A>.
|
|
|
|
Note, There is nothing in sin which we have more reason to be ashamed
|
|
of than this, that by our sin we have encouraged others in sin, and
|
|
comforted them in that for which they must be grieved or they are
|
|
undone. Another reason why they must now be ashamed is because in the
|
|
day of their prosperity they had looked with so much disdain upon their
|
|
neighbours: <I>Thy sister Sodom was not mentioned by thee in the day of
|
|
they pride,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+16:56"><I>v.</I> 56</A>.
|
|
|
|
They thought Sodom not worthy to be named the same day with Jerusalem,
|
|
little dreaming that Jerusalem would at length lie under a worse and
|
|
more scandalous character than Sodom herself. Those that are high may
|
|
perhaps come to stand upon a level with those they contemn. Or "Sodom
|
|
was <I>not mentioned,</I> that is, the warning designed to be given to
|
|
thee by Sodom's ruin was not regarded." If the Jews had but talked more
|
|
frequently and seriously to one another, and to their children,
|
|
concerning <I>the wrath of God revealed from heaven</I> against
|
|
<I>Sodom's ungodliness and unrighteousness,</I> it might have kept them
|
|
in awe, and prevented their treading in their steps; but they kept the
|
|
thought of it at a distance, would not bear the mention of it, and (as
|
|
the ancients say) put Isaiah to death for putting them in mind of it,
|
|
when he called them <I>rulers of Sodom</I> and <I>people of
|
|
Gomorrah,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Isa+1:10">Isa. i. 10</A>.
|
|
|
|
Note, Those are but preparing judgments for themselves that will not
|
|
take notice of God's judgments upon others.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
4. What desolations God had brought and was bringing upon Jerusalem for
|
|
these wickednesses, wherein they had exceeded Sodom and Samaria.
|
|
|
|
(1.) She has already long ago been disgraced, and has fallen into
|
|
contempt, among her neighbours
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+16:57"><I>v.</I> 57</A>):
|
|
|
|
<I>Before her wickedness was discovered,</I> before she came to be so
|
|
grossly and openly flagitious, she bore the just punishment of her
|
|
secret and more concealed lewdness, when she fell under <I>the reproach
|
|
of the daughters of Syria, of the Philistines,</I> who were said to
|
|
<I>despise her</I> and <I>be ashamed of her</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+16:27"><I>v.</I> 27</A>),
|
|
|
|
and under the reproach of <I>all that were round about her,</I> which
|
|
seems to refer to the descent made upon Judah by the Syrians in the
|
|
days of Ahaz, and soon after another by the Philistines,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=2Ch+28:5,18">2 Chron. xxviii. 5, 18</A>.
|
|
|
|
Note, Those that disgrace themselves by yielding to their lusts will
|
|
justly be brought into disgrace by being made to yield to their
|
|
enemies; and it is observable that before God brought potent enemies
|
|
upon them, for <I>their destruction,</I> he brought enemies upon them
|
|
that were less formidable, <I>for their reproach.</I> If less judgments
|
|
would do the work, God would not send greater. In this <I>thou hast
|
|
borne thy lewdness,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+16:58"><I>v.</I> 58</A>.
|
|
|
|
Those that will not cast off their sins by repentance and reformation
|
|
shall be made to bear their sins to their confusion.
|
|
|
|
(2.) She is now <I>in captivity,</I> or hastening into captivity, and
|
|
therein is reckoned with, not only for her lewdness
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+16:58"><I>v.</I> 58</A>),
|
|
|
|
but for her perfidiousness and covenant-breaking
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+16:59"><I>v.</I> 59</A>):
|
|
|
|
"<I>I will deal with thee as thou hast done;</I> I will forsake thee as
|
|
thou hast forsaken me, and cast thee off as thou hast cast me off, for
|
|
thou hast <I>despised the oath, in breaking the covenant.</I>" This
|
|
seems to be meant of the covenant God made with their fathers at Mount
|
|
Sinai, whereby he took them and theirs to be a peculiar people to
|
|
himself. They flattered themselves with a conceit that because God had
|
|
hitherto continued his favour to them, notwithstanding their
|
|
provocations, he would do so still. "No," says God, "you have <I>broken
|
|
covenant with me,</I> have despised both the promises of the covenant
|
|
and the obligations of it, and therefore I will <I>deal with thee as
|
|
thou hast done.</I>" Note, Those that will not adhere to God as their
|
|
God have no reason to expect that he should continue to own them as his
|
|
people.
|
|
|
|
(3.) The captivity of the wicked Jews, and their ruin, shall be as
|
|
irrevocable as that of Sodom and Samaria. In this sense, as a
|
|
threatening, most interpreters take
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+16:53,55"><I>v.</I> 53, 55</A>.
|
|
|
|
"<I>When I shall bring again the captivity of Sodom and Samaria, and
|
|
when they shall return to their former estate, then I will bring again
|
|
the captivity of thy captives in the midst of them,</I> and as it were
|
|
for their sakes, and under their shadow and protection, because they
|
|
are <I>more righteous than thou,</I> and <I>then thou shalt return to
|
|
thy former estate,</I>" But Sodom and Samaria were never brought back,
|
|
nor ever returned to their former estate, and therefore let not
|
|
Jerusalem expect it, that is, those who now remained there, whom God
|
|
would <I>deliver to be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth for
|
|
their hurt,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Jer+24:9,10">Jer. xxiv. 9, 10</A>.
|
|
|
|
Sooner shall the Sodomites arise out of the salt sea, and the
|
|
Samaritans return out of the land of Assyria, than they enjoy their
|
|
peace and prosperity again; for, to their shame be it spoken, it is
|
|
<I>a comfort</I> to those of the ten tribes, who are dispersed and in
|
|
captivity, to see those of the two tribes who had been as bad as they,
|
|
or worse, in like manner dispersed and in captivity; and therefore they
|
|
shall live and die, shall stand and fall, together. The bad ones of
|
|
both shall perish together; the good ones of both shall return
|
|
together. Note, Those who do as the worst of sinners do must expect to
|
|
fare as they fare. <I>Let my enemy be as the wicked.</I></P>
|
|
|
|
<A NAME="Eze16_60"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Eze16_61"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Eze16_62"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Eze16_63"> </A>
|
|
|
|
<A NAME="Sec6"> </A>
|
|
<TABLE WIDTH="100%" BORDER=0>
|
|
<TR><TD><FONT SIZE=+1><I>Mercy in Reserve; Promise of Mercy.</I></FONT></TD>
|
|
<TD ALIGN=RIGHT><FONT SIZE=-1>B. C.</FONT> 593.</TD></TR>
|
|
<TR><TD COLSPAN=2><HR SIZE=1></TD></TR>
|
|
</TABLE>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
<FONT SIZE=+1>60 Nevertheless I will remember my covenant with thee in the
|
|
days of thy youth, and I will establish unto thee an everlasting
|
|
covenant.
|
|
61 Then thou shalt remember thy ways, and be ashamed, when thou
|
|
shalt receive thy sisters, thine elder and thy younger: and I
|
|
will give them unto thee for daughters, but not by thy covenant.
|
|
62 And I will establish my covenant with thee; and thou shalt
|
|
know that I <I>am</I> the L<FONT SIZE=-1><B>ORD</B></FONT>:
|
|
63 That thou mayest remember, and be confounded, and never open
|
|
thy mouth any more because of thy shame, when I am pacified
|
|
toward thee for all that thou hast done, saith the Lord G<FONT SIZE=-1><B>OD</B></FONT>.
|
|
</FONT></P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
Here, in the close of the chapter, after a most shameful conviction of
|
|
sin and a most dreadful denunciation of judgments, mercy is remembered,
|
|
mercy is reserved, for those who shall come after. As was when God
|
|
swore in his wrath concerning those who came out of Egypt that they
|
|
should not enter Canaan, "Yet" (says God) "your little ones shall;" so
|
|
here. And some think that what is said of the return of Sodom and
|
|
Samaria
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+16:53,55"><I>v.</I> 53, 55</A>),
|
|
|
|
and of Jerusalem with them, is a promise; it may be understood so, if
|
|
by Sodom we understand (as Grotius and some of the Jewish writers do)
|
|
the Moabites and Ammonites, the posterity of Lot, who once dwelt in
|
|
Sodom; their captivity was returned
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Jer+48:47,49:6">Jer. xlviii. 47; xlix. 6</A>),
|
|
|
|
as was that of many of the ten tribes, and Judah's with them. But
|
|
these closing verses are, without doubt, a previous promise, which was
|
|
in part fulfilled at the return of the penitent and reformed Jews out
|
|
of Babylon, but was to have its full accomplishment in gospel-times,
|
|
and in that <I>repentance and</I> that <I>remission of sins</I> which
|
|
should then be <I>preached</I> with success <I>to all nations,
|
|
beginning at Jerusalem.</I> Now observe here,</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
I. Whence this mercy should take rise-from <I>God himself,</I> and his
|
|
<I>remembering his covenant</I> with them
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+16:60"><I>v.</I> 60</A>):
|
|
|
|
<I>Nevertheless,</I> though they had been so provoking, and God had
|
|
been provoked to such a degree that one would think they could never be
|
|
reconciled again, yet "<I>I will remember my covenant with thee,</I>
|
|
that covenant which I made with thee <I>in the days of thy youth,</I>
|
|
and will revive it again. Though thou hast <I>broken the covenant</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+16:59"><I>v.</I> 59</A>),
|
|
|
|
I will remember it, and it shall flourish again." See how much it is
|
|
our comfort and advantage that God is pleased to deal with us in a
|
|
covenant-way, for thus the mercies of it come to be <I>sure mercies</I>
|
|
and <I>everlasting</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Isa+55:3">Isa. lv. 3</A>);
|
|
|
|
and, while this root stands firmly in the ground, there is <I>hope of
|
|
the tree,</I> though it be <I>cut down,</I> that <I>through the scent
|
|
of water it will bud again.</I> We do not find that they put him in
|
|
mind of the covenant, but <I>ex mero motu--from his own mere good
|
|
pleasure,</I> he <I>remembers</I> it as he had promised.
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Le+26:42">Lev. xxvi. 42</A>,
|
|
|
|
<I>Then will I remember my covenant, and will remember the land.</I> He
|
|
that bids us to be ever mindful of the covenant no doubt will himself
|
|
be ever mindful of it, the word <I>which he commanded</I> (and what he
|
|
commands stands fast for ever) to <I>a thousand generations.</I></P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
II. How they should be prepared and qualified for this mercy
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+16:61"><I>v.</I> 61</A>):
|
|
|
|
"<I>Thou shalt remember thy ways,</I> thy evil ways; God will put thee
|
|
in mind of them, will set them in order before thee, that thou mayest
|
|
be <I>ashamed of them.</I>" Note, God's good work in us commences and
|
|
keeps pace with his good-will towards us. When he remembers his
|
|
covenant for us, that he may not remember our sins against us, he puts
|
|
us upon remembering our sins against ourselves. And if we will but be
|
|
brought to remember our ways, how crooked and perverse they have been
|
|
and how we have walked contrary to God in them, we cannot but be
|
|
ashamed; and, when we are so, we are best prepared to receive the
|
|
honour and comfort of a sealed pardon and a settled peace.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
III. What the mercy is that God has in reserve for them.
|
|
|
|
1. He will take them into covenant with himself
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+16:60"><I>v.</I> 60</A>):
|
|
|
|
<I>I will establish unto thee an everlasting covenant;</I> and again
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+16:62"><I>v.</I> 62</A>),
|
|
|
|
<I>I will establish,</I> re-establish, and establish more firmly than
|
|
ever, <I>my covenant with thee.</I> Note, It is an unspeakable comfort
|
|
to all true penitents that the covenant of grace is so well ordered in
|
|
all things that every transgression in the covenant does not throw us
|
|
out of the covenant, for that is inviolable.
|
|
|
|
2. He will bring the Gentiles into church-communion with them
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+16:61"><I>v.</I> 61</A>):
|
|
|
|
"<I>Thou shalt receive thy sisters,</I> the Gentile nations that are
|
|
found about thee, <I>thy elder and thy younger,</I> greater than thou
|
|
art and less, ancient nations and modern, and <I>I will give them unto
|
|
thee for daughters;</I> they shall be founded, nursed, taught, and
|
|
educated, by that gospel, that <I>word of the Lord,</I> which shall
|
|
<I>go forth from</I> Zion and from <I>Jerusalem;</I> so that all the
|
|
neighbours shall call Jerusalem <I>mother,</I> while the church
|
|
continues there, and shall acknowledge the Jerusalem which is from
|
|
above, and <I>which is free,</I> to be <I>the mother of us all,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ga+4:26">Gal. iv. 26</A>.
|
|
|
|
They shall be thy <I>daughters,</I> but <I>not by thy covenant,</I> not
|
|
by the covenant of peculiarity, not as being proselytes to the Jewish
|
|
religion and subject to the yoke of the ceremonial law, but as being
|
|
converts with thee to the Christian religion." Or <I>not by thy
|
|
covenant</I> may mean, "not upon such terms as thou shalt think fit to
|
|
impose upon them as conquered nations, as captives and homagers to whom
|
|
thou mayest give law at pleasure" (such a dominion as that the carnal
|
|
Jews hope to have over the nations); "no, they shall be thy daughters
|
|
<I>by my covenant,</I> the covenant of grace made with thee and them in
|
|
concert, as in <I>indenture tripartite.</I> I will be a Father, a
|
|
common Father, both to Jews and Gentiles, and so they shall become
|
|
sisters to one another. And, when thou <I>shalt receive them,</I> thou
|
|
shalt be <I>ashamed of thy own evil ways</I> wherein thou wast
|
|
conformed to them. Thou shalt blush to look a Gentile in the face,
|
|
remembering how much worse than the Gentiles thou wast in the day of
|
|
thy apostasy."</P>
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<P>
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IV. What the fruit and effect of this will be.
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1. God will hereby be glorified
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(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+16:62"><I>v.</I> 62</A>):
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"<I>Thou shalt know that I am the Lord.</I> It shall hereby be known
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that the God of Israel is Jehovah, a God of power, and faithful to his
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covenant; and thou shalt know it who hast hitherto lived as if thou
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didst not know or believe it." It had often been said in wrath, <I>You
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shall know that I am the Lord,</I> shall know it to your cost; here it
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is said in mercy, You shall know it to your comfort; and it is one of
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the most precious promises of the new covenant which God has made with
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us that <I>all shall know him from the least to the greatest.</I>
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2. They shall hereby be more humbled and abased for sin
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(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+16:63">
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<I>v.</I> 63</A>):
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"<I>That thou mayest be</I> the more <I>confounded</I> at the
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<I>remembrance of all that thou hast done</I> amiss, mayest reproach
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|
thyself for it and call thyself a thousand times unwise, undutiful,
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|
ungrateful, and unlike what thou wast, and mayest never <I>open thy
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|
mouth any more</I> in contradiction to God, reflection on him, or
|
|
complaints of him, but mayest be for ever silent and submissive
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|
<I>because of thy shame.</I>" Note, Those that rightly remember their
|
|
sins will be truly ashamed of them; and those that are truly ashamed of
|
|
their sins will see great reason to be patient under their afflictions,
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|
to be dumb, and not open their mouths against what God does. But that
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|
which is most observable is, that all this shall be <I>when I am
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|
pacified towards thee, saith the Lord God.</I> Note, It is the gracious
|
|
ingenuousness of true penitents that the clearer evidences and the
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|
fuller instances they have of God's being reconciled to them the more
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|
grieved and ashamed they are that ever they have offended God. God is
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|
in Jesus Christ <I>pacified towards us;</I> he is our peace, and it is
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|
by his cross that we are reconciled, and in his gospel that God is
|
|
reconciling the world to himself. Now the consideration of this should
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|
be powerful to melt our hearts into a godly sorrow for sin. This is
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repenting because <I>the kingdom of heaven is at hand.</I> The
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prodigal, after he had received the kiss which assured him that his
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father was <I>pacified towards him,</I> was ashamed and confounded, and
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said, <I>Father, I have sinned against heaven and before thee.</I> And
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the more our shame for sin is increased by the sense of pardoning mercy
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the more will our comfort in God be increased.</P>
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