1277 lines
95 KiB
XML
1277 lines
95 KiB
XML
<div2 id="Ez.xvii" n="xvii" next="Ez.xviii" prev="Ez.xvi" progress="55.34%" title="Chapter XVI">
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<h2 id="Ez.xvii-p0.1">E Z E K I E L.</h2>
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<h3 id="Ez.xvii-p0.2">CHAP. XVI.</h3>
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<p class="intro" id="Ez.xvii-p1" shownumber="no">Still God is justifying himself in the desolations
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he is about to bring upon Jerusalem; and very largely, in this
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chapter, he shows the prophet, and orders him to show the people,
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that he did but punish them as their sins deserved. In the
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foregoing chapter he had compared Jerusalem to an unfruitful vine,
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that was fit for nothing but the fire; in this chapter he compares
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it to an adulteress, that, in justice, ought to be abandoned and
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exposed, and he must therefore show the people their abominations,
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that they might see how little reason they had to complain of the
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judgments they were under. In this long discourse are set forth, I.
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The despicable and deplorable beginnings of that church and nation,
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<scripRef id="Ez.xvii-p1.1" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.16.3-Ezek.16.5" parsed="|Ezek|16|3|16|5" passage="Eze 16:3-5">ver. 3-5</scripRef>. II. The many
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honours and favours God had bestowed upon them, <scripRef id="Ez.xvii-p1.2" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.16.6-Ezek.16.14" parsed="|Ezek|16|6|16|14" passage="Eze 16:6-14">ver. 6-14</scripRef>. III. Their treacherous and
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ungrateful departures from him to the services and worship of
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idols, here represented by the most impudent whoredom, <scripRef id="Ez.xvii-p1.3" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.16.15-Ezek.16.34" parsed="|Ezek|16|15|16|34" passage="Eze 16:15-34">ver. 15-34</scripRef>. IV. A threatening of
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terrible destroying judgments, which God would bring upon them for
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this sin, <scripRef id="Ez.xvii-p1.4" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.16.35-Ezek.16.43" parsed="|Ezek|16|35|16|43" passage="Eze 16:35-43">ver. 35-43</scripRef>.
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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, <scripRef id="Ez.xvii-p1.5" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.16.44-Ezek.16.59" parsed="|Ezek|16|44|16|59" passage="Eze 16:44-59">ver. 44-59</scripRef>. VI. A promise of mercy in the
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close, which God would show to a penitent remnant, <scripRef id="Ez.xvii-p1.6" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.16.60-Ezek.16.63" parsed="|Ezek|16|60|16|63" passage="Eze 16:60-63">ver. 60-63</scripRef>. And this is designed
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for admonition to us.</p>
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<scripCom id="Ez.xvii-p1.7" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.16" parsed="|Ezek|16|0|0|0" passage="Eze 16" type="Commentary"/>
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<scripCom id="Ez.xvii-p1.8" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.16.1-Ezek.16.5" parsed="|Ezek|16|1|16|5" passage="Eze 16:1-5" type="Commentary"/><div class="Commentary" id="Ez.xvii-p1.9">
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<h4 id="Ez.xvii-p1.10">The Meanness of Judah's
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Origin. (<span class="smallcaps" id="Ez.xvii-p1.11">b. c.</span> 593.)</h4>
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<p class="passage" id="Ez.xvii-p2" shownumber="no">1 Again the word of the <span class="smallcaps" id="Ez.xvii-p2.1">Lord</span> came unto me, saying, 2 Son of man,
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cause Jerusalem to know her abominations, 3 And say, Thus
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saith the Lord <span class="smallcaps" id="Ez.xvii-p2.2">God</span> unto Jerusalem;
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Thy birth and thy nativity <i>is</i> of the land of Canaan; thy
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father <i>was</i> an Amorite, and thy mother a Hittite. 4
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And <i>as for</i> thy nativity, in the day thou wast born thy navel
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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
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have compassion upon thee; but thou wast cast out in the open
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field, to the loathing of thy person, in the day that thou wast
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born.</p>
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<p class="indent" id="Ez.xvii-p3" shownumber="no">Ezekiel is now among the captives in
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Babylon; but, as Jeremiah at Jerusalem wrote for the use of the
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captives though they had Ezekiel upon the spot with them (<scripRef id="Ez.xvii-p3.1" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.29.1-Ezek.29.21" parsed="|Ezek|29|1|29|21" passage="eze 29:1-21"><i>ch.</i> xxix.</scripRef>), so Ezekiel
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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.
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Jeremiah wrote to the captives for their consolation, which was the
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thing they needed; Ezekiel here is directed to write to the
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inhabitants of Jerusalem for their conviction and humiliation,
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which was the thing they needed.</p>
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<p class="indent" id="Ez.xvii-p4" shownumber="no">I. This is his commission (<scripRef id="Ez.xvii-p4.1" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.16.2" parsed="|Ezek|16|2|0|0" passage="Eze 16:2"><i>v.</i> 2</scripRef>): "<i>Cause Jerusalem to
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know her abominations</i> (that is, her sins); set them in order
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before her." Note, 1. Sins are not only <i>provocations</i> which
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God is angry at, but <i>abominations</i> which he hates, as
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contrary to his nature, and which we ought to hate, <scripRef id="Ez.xvii-p4.2" osisRef="Bible:Jer.44.4" parsed="|Jer|44|4|0|0" passage="Jer 44:4">Jer. xliv. 4</scripRef>. 2. The sins of
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Jerusalem are in a special manner so. The practice of profaneness
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appears most odious in those that make a profession of religion. 3.
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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
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favour that they are hardly made to see and own their own badness,
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but deny it, palliate or extenuate it. 4. It is requisite that we
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should know our sins, that we may confess them, and may justify God
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in what he brings upon us for them. 5. It is the work of ministers
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to cause sinners, sinners in Jerusalem, <i>to know their
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abominations,</i> to set before them the glass of the law, that in
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it they may see their own deformities and defilements, to tell them
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plainly of their faults. <i>Thou art the man.</i></p>
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<p class="indent" id="Ez.xvii-p5" shownumber="no">II. That Jerusalem may be made <i>to know
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her abominations,</i> and particularly the abominable ingratitude
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she had been guilty of, it was requisite that she should be put in
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mind of the great things God had done for her, as the aggravations
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of her bad conduct towards him; and, to magnify those favours, she
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is in <scripRef id="Ez.xvii-p5.1" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.16.1-Ezek.16.5" parsed="|Ezek|16|1|16|5" passage="Eze 16:1-5">these verses</scripRef> made
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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
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and of the honour he had put upon her. Jerusalem is here put for
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the Jewish church and nation, which is here compared to an outcast
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child, base-born and abandoned, which the mother herself has no
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affection nor concern for. 1. The extraction of the Jewish nation
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was mean: "<i>Thy birth is of the land of Canaan</i> (<scripRef id="Ez.xvii-p5.2" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.16.3" parsed="|Ezek|16|3|0|0" passage="Eze 16:3"><i>v.</i> 3</scripRef>); thou hadst from the
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very first the spirit and disposition of a Canaanite." The
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patriarchs dwelt in Canaan, and they were there but <i>strangers
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and sojourners,</i> had no possession, no power, not one foot of
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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
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with the Amorites and Hittites, who, having the dominion, seemed to
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be as parents to the seed of Abraham, witness the court Abraham
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made to the <i>children of Seth</i> (<scripRef id="Ez.xvii-p5.3" osisRef="Bible:Gen.23.4 Bible:Gen.23.8" parsed="|Gen|23|4|0|0;|Gen|23|8|0|0" passage="Ge 23:4,8">Gen. xxiii. 4, 8</scripRef>), the dependence they had
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upon their neighbours the Canaanites, and the fear they were in of
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them, <scripRef id="Ez.xvii-p5.4" osisRef="Bible:Gen.13.7 Bible:Gen.34.30" parsed="|Gen|13|7|0|0;|Gen|34|30|0|0" passage="Ge 13:7,34:30">Gen. xiii. 7; xxxiv.
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30</scripRef>. If the patriarchs, at their first coming to Canaan,
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had conquered it, and made themselves masters of it, this would
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have put an honour upon their family and would have looked great in
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history; but, instead of that, they <i>went from one nation to
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another</i> (<scripRef id="Ez.xvii-p5.5" osisRef="Bible:Ps.105.13" parsed="|Ps|105|13|0|0" passage="Ps 105:13">Ps. cv. 13</scripRef>),
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as tenants from one farm to another, almost as beggars from one
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door to another, when they <i>were but few in number,</i> yea, very
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few. And yet this was not the worst; their fathers had <i>served
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other gods in Ur of the Chaldees</i> (<scripRef id="Ez.xvii-p5.6" osisRef="Bible:Josh.24.2" parsed="|Josh|24|2|0|0" passage="Jos 24:2">Josh. xxiv. 2</scripRef>); even in Jacob's family there
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were <i>strange gods,</i> <scripRef id="Ez.xvii-p5.7" osisRef="Bible:Gen.35.2" parsed="|Gen|35|2|0|0" passage="Ge 35:2">Gen. xxxv.
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2</scripRef>. Thus early had they a genius leading them to
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idolatry; and upon this account their ancestors were Amorites and
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Hittites. 2. When they first began to multiply their condition was
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really very deplorable, like that of a new-born child, which must
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of necessity die from the womb if the knees prevent it not,
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<scripRef id="Ez.xvii-p5.8" osisRef="Bible:Job.3.11-Job.3.12" parsed="|Job|3|11|3|12" passage="Job 3:11,12">Job iii. 11, 12</scripRef>. The
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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
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intended for them; a famine drove them thence. Egypt was <i>the
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open field</i> into which they were cast; there they had no
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protection or countenance from the government they were under, but,
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on the contrary, were ruled with rigour, and their lives
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embittered; they had no encouragement given them to build up their
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families, no help to build up their estates, no friends or allies
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to strengthen their interests. Joseph, who had been the <i>shepherd
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and stone of Israel,</i> was dead; the king of Egypt, who should
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have been kind to them for Joseph's sake, set himself to <i>destroy
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this man-child as soon as it was born</i> (<scripRef id="Ez.xvii-p5.9" osisRef="Bible:Rev.12.4" parsed="|Rev|12|4|0|0" passage="Re 12:4">Rev. xii. 4</scripRef>), ordered all the males to be
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slain, which, it is likely, occasioned the exposing of many as well
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as Moses, to which perhaps the similitude here has reference. The
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founders of nations and cities had occasion for all the arts and
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arms they were masters of, set their heads on work, by policies and
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stratagems, to preserve and nurse up their infant states. <i>Tantæ
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molis erat Romanam condere gentem—So vast were the efforts
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requisite to the establishment of the Roman name.</i> Virgil. But
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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>
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not clothed, <i>no swaddled,</i> because not <i>pitied,</i>
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<scripRef id="Ez.xvii-p5.10" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.16.4-Ezek.16.5" parsed="|Ezek|16|4|16|5" passage="Eze 16:4,5"><i>v.</i> 4, 5</scripRef>. Note, We
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owe the preservation of our infant lives to the natural pity and
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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
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to be <i>cast out, to the loathing of her person;</i> it was a sign
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that she was loathed by those that bore her, and she appeared
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loathsome to all that looked upon her. <i>The Israelites were an
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abomination to the Egyptians,</i> as we find <scripRef id="Ez.xvii-p5.11" osisRef="Bible:Gen.43.32 Bible:Gen.46.34" parsed="|Gen|43|32|0|0;|Gen|46|34|0|0" passage="Ge 43:32,46:34">Gen. xliii. 32; xlvi. 34</scripRef>. Some think
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that this refers to the corrupt and vicious disposition of that
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people from their beginning: they were not only the weakest and
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<i>fewest of all people</i> (<scripRef id="Ez.xvii-p5.12" osisRef="Bible:Deut.7.7" parsed="|Deut|7|7|0|0" passage="De 7:7">Deut. vii.
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7</scripRef>), but the worst and most ill-humoured of all people.
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<i>God giveth thee this good land, not for thy righteousness, for
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thou art a stiff-necked people,</i> <scripRef id="Ez.xvii-p5.13" osisRef="Bible:Deut.9.6" parsed="|Deut|9|6|0|0" passage="De 9:6">Deut. ix. 6</scripRef>. And Moses tells them there
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(<scripRef id="Ez.xvii-p5.14" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.16.24" parsed="|Ezek|16|24|0|0" passage="Eze 16:24"><i>v.</i> 24</scripRef>), <i>You
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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
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cast into any good shape. God took them to be his people, not
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because he saw any thing in them inviting or promising, but <i>so
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it seemed good in his sight.</i> And it is a very apt illustration
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of the miserable condition of all the children of men by nature.
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<i>As for</i> our <i>nativity, in the day that we were born</i> we
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were shapen in iniquity and conceived in sin, our understandings
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darkened, our minds alienated from the life of God, polluted with
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sin, which rendered us loathsome in the eyes of God. <i>Marvel
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not</i> then that we are told, <i>You must be born again.</i></p>
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</div><scripCom id="Ez.xvii-p5.15" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.16.6-Ezek.16.14" parsed="|Ezek|16|6|16|14" passage="Eze 16:6-14" type="Commentary"/><div class="Commentary" id="Ez.xvii-p5.16">
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<h4 id="Ez.xvii-p5.17">God's Kindness to Israel. (<span class="smallcaps" id="Ez.xvii-p5.18">b. c.</span> 593.)</h4>
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<p class="passage" id="Ez.xvii-p6" shownumber="no">6 And when I passed by thee, and saw thee
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polluted in thine own blood, I said unto thee <i>when thou wast</i>
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in thy blood, Live; yea, I said unto thee <i>when thou wast</i> in
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thy blood, Live. 7 I have caused thee to multiply as the bud
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of the field, and thou hast increased and waxen great, and thou art
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come to excellent ornaments: <i>thy</i> breasts are fashioned, and
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thine hair 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,
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thy time <i>was</i> the time of love; and I spread my skirt over
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thee, and covered thy nakedness: yea, I sware unto thee, and
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entered into a covenant with thee, saith the Lord <span class="smallcaps" id="Ez.xvii-p6.1">God</span>, and thou becamest mine. 9 Then
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washed I thee with water; yea, I thoroughly washed away thy blood
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from thee, and I anointed thee with oil. 10 I clothed thee
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also with broidered work, and shod thee with badgers' skin, and I
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girded thee about with fine linen, and I covered thee with silk.
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11 I decked thee also with ornaments, and I put bracelets
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upon thy hands, and a chain on thy neck. 12 And I put a
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jewel on thy forehead, and earrings in thine ears, and a beautiful
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crown upon thine head. 13 Thus wast thou decked with gold
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and silver; and thy raiment <i>was of</i> fine linen, and silk, and
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broidered work; thou didst eat fine flour, and honey, and oil: and
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thou wast exceeding beautiful, and thou didst prosper into a
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kingdom. 14 And thy renown went forth among the heathen for
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thy beauty: for it <i>was</i> perfect through my comeliness, which
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I had put upon thee, saith the Lord <span class="smallcaps" id="Ez.xvii-p6.2">God</span>.</p>
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<p class="indent" id="Ez.xvii-p7" shownumber="no">In there verses we have an account of the
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great things which God did for the Jewish nation in raising them up
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by degrees to be very considerable. 1. God saved them from the ruin
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they were upon the brink of in Egypt (<scripRef id="Ez.xvii-p7.1" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.16.6" parsed="|Ezek|16|6|0|0" passage="Eze 16:6"><i>v.</i> 6</scripRef>): "<i>When I passed by thee, and
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saw thee polluted in thy own blood,</i> loathed and abandoned, and
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appointed to die, <i>as sheep for the slaughter,</i> then <i>I said
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unto thee, Live.</i> I designed thee for life when thou wast doomed
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to destruction, and resolved to save thee from death." Those shall
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live to whom God commands life. God looked upon the world of
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mankind as thus cast off, thus cast out, thus polluted, thus
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weltering in blood, and his thoughts towards it were thoughts of
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good, designing it <i>life, and that more abundantly.</i> By
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converting grace, he says to the soul, <i>Live.</i> 2. He looked
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upon them with kindness and a tender affection, not only pitied
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them, but <i>set his love upon them,</i> which was unaccountable,
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for there was nothing lovely in them; but <i>I looked upon
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thee,</i> and, <i>behold, thy time was the time of love,</i>
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<scripRef id="Ez.xvii-p7.2" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.16.8" parsed="|Ezek|16|8|0|0" passage="Eze 16:8"><i>v.</i> 8</scripRef>. It was <i>the
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kindness and love of God our Saviour</i> that sent Christ to redeem
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us, that sends the Spirit to sanctify us, that brought us out of a
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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
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to us, and courted our love to him. <i>Then was I in his eyes as
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one that found favour,</i> <scripRef id="Ez.xvii-p7.3" osisRef="Bible:Song.8.10" parsed="|Song|8|10|0|0" passage="So 8:10">Cant. viii.
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10</scripRef>. 3. He took them under his protection: "<i>I spread
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my skirt over thee,</i> to shelter thee from wind and weather, and
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to <i>cover thy nakedness,</i> that the shame of it might not
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appear." Boaz <i>spread his skirt over</i> Ruth, in token of the
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special favour he designed her, <scripRef id="Ez.xvii-p7.4" osisRef="Bible:Ruth.3.9" parsed="|Ruth|3|9|0|0" passage="Ru 3:9">Ruth
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iii. 9</scripRef>. God took them into his care, as an <i>eagle
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bears her young ones upon her wings,</i> <scripRef id="Ez.xvii-p7.5" osisRef="Bible:Deut.32.11-Deut.32.12" parsed="|Deut|32|11|32|12" passage="De 32:11,12">Deut. xxxii. 11, 12</scripRef>. When God owned them
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for his people, and sent Moses to Egypt to deliver them, which was
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an expression of the good-will of him <i>that dwelt in the
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bush,</i> then he <i>spread his skirt over them.</i> 4. He cleared
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them from the reproachful character which their bondage in Egypt
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laid them under (<scripRef id="Ez.xvii-p7.6" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.16.9" parsed="|Ezek|16|9|0|0" passage="Eze 16:9"><i>v.</i>
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9</scripRef>): "<i>Then washed I thee with water,</i> to make thee
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clean, <i>and anointed thee with oil,</i> to make thee sweet and
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supple thee." All the disgrace of their slavery was rolled away
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when they were brought, <i>with a high hand and a stretched-out
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arm, into the glorious liberty of the children of God.</i> When God
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said, <i>Israel is my son, my first-born—Let my people go, that
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they may serve me,</i> that word, backed as it was with so many
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works of wonder, <i>thoroughly washed away their blood;</i> and
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when God led them under the convoy of <i>the pillar of cloud and
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fire</i> he <i>spread his skirt over them.</i> 5. He multiplied
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them and built them up into a people. This is here mentioned
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(<scripRef id="Ez.xvii-p7.7" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.16.7" parsed="|Ezek|16|7|0|0" passage="Eze 16:7"><i>v.</i> 7</scripRef>) before his
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<i>spreading his skirt over them,</i> because <i>their numbers
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increased exceedingly</i> while they were yet bond-slaves in Egypt.
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||
They <i>multiplied as the bud of the field</i> in spring time; they
|
||
<i>waxed great, exceedingly mighty,</i> <scripRef id="Ez.xvii-p7.8" osisRef="Bible:Exod.1.7 Bible:Exod.1.20" parsed="|Exod|1|7|0|0;|Exod|1|20|0|0" passage="Ex 1:7,20">Exod. i. 7, 20</scripRef>. Their <i>breasts were
|
||
fashioned</i> when they were formed into distinct tribes and had
|
||
officers of their own (<scripRef id="Ez.xvii-p7.9" osisRef="Bible:Exod.5.19" parsed="|Exod|5|19|0|0" passage="Ex 5:19">Exod. v.
|
||
19</scripRef>); their <i>hair grew</i> when they grew numerous,
|
||
whereas they had been <i>naked and bare,</i> very few and therefore
|
||
contemptible. 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> 7. He
|
||
beautified and adorned them. This maid cannot forget her ornaments,
|
||
and she is gratified with abundance of them, <scripRef id="Ez.xvii-p7.10" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.16.10-Ezek.16.13" parsed="|Ezek|16|10|16|13" passage="Eze 16:10-13"><i>v.</i> 10-13</scripRef>. 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, <scripRef id="Ez.xvii-p7.11" osisRef="Bible:Gen.15.14" parsed="|Gen|15|14|0|0" passage="Ge 15:14">Gen. xv. 14</scripRef>. <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> <scripRef id="Ez.xvii-p7.12" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.16.7" parsed="|Ezek|16|7|0|0" passage="Eze 16:7"><i>v.</i> 7</scripRef>. 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> <scripRef id="Ez.xvii-p7.13" osisRef="Bible:Prov.1.9" parsed="|Prov|1|9|0|0" passage="Pr 1:9">Prov. i. 9</scripRef>. 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, <scripRef id="Ez.xvii-p7.14" osisRef="Bible:Deut.32.13-Deut.32.14" parsed="|Deut|32|13|32|14" passage="De 32:13,14">Deut. xxxii.
|
||
13, 14</scripRef>. 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> (<scripRef id="Ez.xvii-p7.15" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.16.13" parsed="|Ezek|16|13|0|0" passage="Eze 16:13"><i>v.</i>
|
||
13</scripRef>), which speaks both dignity and dominion; and,
|
||
<i>They renown went forth among the heathen for thy beauty,</i>
|
||
<scripRef id="Ez.xvii-p7.16" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.16.14" parsed="|Ezek|16|14|0|0" passage="Eze 16:14"><i>v.</i> 14</scripRef>. 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, <scripRef id="Ez.xvii-p7.17" osisRef="Bible:Deut.4.7-Deut.4.8" parsed="|Deut|4|7|4|8" passage="De 4:7,8">Deut. iv. 7, 8</scripRef>.
|
||
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>
|
||
</div><scripCom id="Ez.xvii-p7.18" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.16.15-Ezek.16.34" parsed="|Ezek|16|15|16|34" passage="Eze 16:15-34" type="Commentary"/><div class="Commentary" id="Ez.xvii-p7.19">
|
||
<h4 id="Ez.xvii-p7.20">Ingratitude of Israel; Shameful Idolatry of
|
||
Israel. (<span class="smallcaps" id="Ez.xvii-p7.21">b. c.</span> 593.)</h4>
|
||
<p class="passage" id="Ez.xvii-p8" shownumber="no">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 <span class="smallcaps" id="Ez.xvii-p8.1">God</span>. 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 <span class="smallcaps" id="Ez.xvii-p8.2">God</span>;) 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 <span class="smallcaps" id="Ez.xvii-p8.3">God</span>, 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.</p>
|
||
<p class="indent" id="Ez.xvii-p9" shownumber="no">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 class="indent" id="Ez.xvii-p10" shownumber="no">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, <scripRef id="Ez.xvii-p10.1" osisRef="Bible:Rom.1.23" parsed="|Rom|1|23|0|0" passage="Ro 1:23">Rom. i. 23</scripRef>, &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 class="indent" id="Ez.xvii-p11" shownumber="no">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
|
||
(<scripRef id="Ez.xvii-p11.1" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.16.15" parsed="|Ezek|16|15|0|0" passage="Eze 16:15"><i>v.</i> 15</scripRef>): "<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
|
||
(<scripRef id="Ez.xvii-p11.2" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.16.22" parsed="|Ezek|16|22|0|0" passage="Eze 16:22"><i>v.</i> 22</scripRef>) "<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
|
||
(<scripRef id="Ez.xvii-p11.3" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.16.30" parsed="|Ezek|16|30|0|0" passage="Eze 16:30"><i>v.</i> 30</scripRef>): <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 class="indent" id="Ez.xvii-p12" shownumber="no">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 (<scripRef id="Ez.xvii-p12.1" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.16.15" parsed="|Ezek|16|15|0|0" passage="Eze 16:15"><i>v.</i>
|
||
15</scripRef>): <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> <scripRef id="Ez.xvii-p12.2" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.16.25" parsed="|Ezek|16|25|0|0" passage="Eze 16:25"><i>v.</i> 25</scripRef>. 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 (<scripRef id="Ez.xvii-p12.3" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.16.16 Bible:Ezek.16.18" parsed="|Ezek|16|16|0|0;|Ezek|16|18|0|0" passage="Eze 16:16,18"><i>v.</i> 16,
|
||
18</scripRef>): <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 (<scripRef id="Ez.xvii-p12.4" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.16.17" parsed="|Ezek|16|17|0|0" passage="Eze 16:17"><i>v.</i>
|
||
17</scripRef>): <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 (<scripRef id="Ez.xvii-p12.5" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.16.18" parsed="|Ezek|16|18|0|0" passage="Eze 16:18"><i>v.</i>
|
||
18</scripRef>): "<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
|
||
<scripRef id="Ez.xvii-p12.6" osisRef="Bible:Jer.7.31 Bible:Jer.19.5 Bible:Jer.32.35" parsed="|Jer|7|31|0|0;|Jer|19|5|0|0;|Jer|32|35|0|0" passage="Jer 7:31,19:5,32:35">Jer. vii. 31; xix. 5;
|
||
xxxii. 35</scripRef>): <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> <scripRef id="Ez.xvii-p12.7" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.16.20" parsed="|Ezek|16|20|0|0" passage="Eze 16:20"><i>v.</i> 20</scripRef>. 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> (<scripRef id="Ez.xvii-p12.8" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.16.21" parsed="|Ezek|16|21|0|0" passage="Eze 16:21"><i>v.</i> 21</scripRef>), the <i>sons and
|
||
daughters which thou hast borne unto me,</i> <scripRef id="Ez.xvii-p12.9" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.16.20" parsed="|Ezek|16|20|0|0" passage="Eze 16:20"><i>v.</i> 20</scripRef>. 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 (<scripRef id="Ez.xvii-p12.10" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.16.20" parsed="|Ezek|16|20|0|0" passage="Eze 16:20"><i>v.</i> 20</scripRef>), <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," <scripRef id="Ez.xvii-p12.11" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.16.23-Ezek.16.35" parsed="|Ezek|16|23|16|35" passage="Eze 16:23-35"><i>v.</i> 23-35</scripRef>. <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
|
||
<scripRef id="Ez.xvii-p12.12" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.16.31" parsed="|Ezek|16|31|0|0" passage="Eze 16:31"><i>v.</i> 31</scripRef>. 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 class="indent" id="Ez.xvii-p13" shownumber="no">III. What were the aggravations of this
|
||
sin.</p>
|
||
<p class="indent" id="Ez.xvii-p14" shownumber="no">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> (<scripRef id="Ez.xvii-p14.1" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.16.28" parsed="|Ezek|16|28|0|0" passage="Eze 16:28"><i>v.</i>
|
||
28</scripRef>); 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>
|
||
<verse id="Ez.xvii-p14.2" type="stanza">
|
||
<l class="t1" id="Ez.xvii-p14.3">That Seine shall swallow Tiber, and the Thames</l>
|
||
<l class="t1" id="Ez.xvii-p14.4">By letting in them both pollute her streams.</l>
|
||
</verse>
|
||
<p class="indent" id="Ez.xvii-p15" shownumber="no">2. They had been under the rebukes of
|
||
Providence for their sins, and yet they persisted in them
|
||
(<scripRef id="Ez.xvii-p15.1" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.16.27" parsed="|Ezek|16|27|0|0" passage="Eze 16:27"><i>v.</i> 27</scripRef>): <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> cut 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,
|
||
<scripRef id="Ez.xvii-p15.2" osisRef="Bible:Jer.2.10-Jer.2.11" parsed="|Jer|2|10|2|11" passage="Jer 2:10,11">Jer. ii. 10, 11</scripRef>. 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 (<scripRef id="Ez.xvii-p15.3" osisRef="Bible:2Chr.28.18" parsed="|2Chr|28|18|0|0" passage="2Ch 28:18">2 Chron. xxviii. 18</scripRef>); 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, <scripRef id="Ez.xvii-p15.4" osisRef="Bible:Amos.4.11" parsed="|Amos|4|11|0|0" passage="Am 4:11">Amos iv.
|
||
11</scripRef>.</p>
|
||
<p class="indent" id="Ez.xvii-p16" shownumber="no">3. They were insatiable in their spiritual
|
||
whoredom: Thou <i>couldst not be satisfied,</i> <scripRef id="Ez.xvii-p16.1" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.16.28-Ezek.16.29" parsed="|Ezek|16|28|16|29" passage="Eze 16:28,29"><i>v.</i> 28 and again <i>v.</i> 29</scripRef>. 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 class="indent" id="Ez.xvii-p17" shownumber="no">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, <scripRef id="Ez.xvii-p17.1" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.16.31-Ezek.16.34" parsed="|Ezek|16|31|16|34" passage="Eze 16:31-34"><i>v.</i>
|
||
31-34</scripRef>. "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> (<scripRef id="Ez.xvii-p17.2" osisRef="Bible:Ps.25.3" parsed="|Ps|25|3|0|0" passage="Ps 25:3">Ps. xxv. 3</scripRef>), wicked transgressors
|
||
indeed.</p>
|
||
<p class="indent" id="Ez.xvii-p18" shownumber="no">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>
|
||
</div><scripCom id="Ez.xvii-p18.1" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.16.35-Ezek.16.43" parsed="|Ezek|16|35|16|43" passage="Eze 16:35-43" type="Commentary"/><div class="Commentary" id="Ez.xvii-p18.2">
|
||
<h4 id="Ez.xvii-p18.3">Grievous Punishment of Israel; Punishment
|
||
Threatened. (<span class="smallcaps" id="Ez.xvii-p18.4">b. c.</span> 593.)</h4>
|
||
<p class="passage" id="Ez.xvii-p19" shownumber="no">35 Wherefore, O harlot, hear the word of the
|
||
<span class="smallcaps" id="Ez.xvii-p19.1">Lord</span>: 36 Thus saith the Lord
|
||
<span class="smallcaps" id="Ez.xvii-p19.2">God</span>; 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
|
||
<span class="smallcaps" id="Ez.xvii-p19.3">God</span>: and thou shalt not commit this
|
||
lewdness above all thine abominations.</p>
|
||
<p class="indent" id="Ez.xvii-p20" shownumber="no">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, <scripRef id="Ez.xvii-p20.1" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.16.35" parsed="|Ezek|16|35|0|0" passage="Eze 16:35"><i>v.</i> 35</scripRef>. 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.
|
||
<scripRef id="Ez.xvii-p20.2" osisRef="Bible:Rev.17.1" parsed="|Rev|17|1|0|0" passage="Re 17:1">Rev. xvii. 1</scripRef>, <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 class="indent" id="Ez.xvii-p21" shownumber="no">I. The crime is stated and the articles of
|
||
the charge are summed up (<scripRef id="Ez.xvii-p21.1" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.16.36" parsed="|Ezek|16|36|0|0" passage="Eze 16:36"><i>v.</i>
|
||
36</scripRef>) and (as is usual) with the attendant aggravations
|
||
(<scripRef id="Ez.xvii-p21.2" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.16.43" parsed="|Ezek|16|43|0|0" passage="Eze 16:43"><i>v.</i> 43</scripRef>); 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, <scripRef id="Ez.xvii-p21.3" osisRef="Bible:Hos.2.12" parsed="|Hos|2|12|0|0" passage="Ho 2:12">Hos. ii. 12</scripRef>, 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," <scripRef id="Ez.xvii-p21.4" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.16.43" parsed="|Ezek|16|43|0|0" passage="Eze 16:43"><i>v.</i> 43</scripRef>.
|
||
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 class="indent" id="Ez.xvii-p22" shownumber="no">II. The sentence is passed in general: <i>I
|
||
will judge thee as women that break wedlock and shed blood are
|
||
judged</i> (<scripRef id="Ez.xvii-p22.1" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.16.38" parsed="|Ezek|16|38|0|0" passage="Eze 16:38"><i>v.</i> 38</scripRef>),
|
||
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>" <scripRef id="Ez.xvii-p22.2" osisRef="Bible:Prov.6.34-Prov.6.35" parsed="|Prov|6|34|6|35" passage="Pr 6:34,35">Prov. vi. 34, 35</scripRef>. He will <i>recompense
|
||
their way upon their head,</i> <scripRef id="Ez.xvii-p22.3" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.16.43" parsed="|Ezek|16|43|0|0" passage="Eze 16:43"><i>v.</i> 43</scripRef>. 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, <scripRef id="Ez.xvii-p22.4" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.16.37" parsed="|Ezek|16|37|0|0" passage="Eze 16:37"><i>v.</i> 37</scripRef>. 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 (<scripRef id="Ez.xvii-p22.5" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.16.41" parsed="|Ezek|16|41|0|0" passage="Eze 16:41"><i>v.</i> 41</scripRef>), <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 (<scripRef id="Ez.xvii-p22.6" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.16.40" parsed="|Ezek|16|40|0|0" passage="Eze 16:40"><i>v.</i> 40</scripRef>): <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 (<scripRef id="Ez.xvii-p22.7" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.16.39" parsed="|Ezek|16|39|0|0" passage="Eze 16:39"><i>v.</i> 39</scripRef>):
|
||
<i>They shall throw down thy eminent place,</i> and (<scripRef id="Ez.xvii-p22.8" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.16.41" parsed="|Ezek|16|41|0|0" passage="Eze 16:41"><i>v.</i> 41</scripRef>) 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> (<scripRef id="Ez.xvii-p22.9" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.16.41" parsed="|Ezek|16|41|0|0" passage="Eze 16:41"><i>v.</i>
|
||
41</scripRef>): "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," <scripRef id="Ez.xvii-p22.10" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.16.43" parsed="|Ezek|16|43|0|0" passage="Eze 16:43"><i>v.</i> 43</scripRef>.
|
||
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 (<scripRef id="Ez.xvii-p22.11" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.16.42" parsed="|Ezek|16|42|0|0" passage="Eze 16:42"><i>v.</i>
|
||
42</scripRef>) <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, <scripRef id="Ez.xvii-p22.12" osisRef="Bible:John.3.36" parsed="|John|3|36|0|0" passage="Joh 3:36">John iii. 36</scripRef>.
|
||
<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> (<scripRef id="Ez.xvii-p22.13" osisRef="Bible:Isa.1.24" parsed="|Isa|1|24|0|0" passage="Isa 1:24">Isa.
|
||
i. 24</scripRef>), 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>
|
||
</div><scripCom id="Ez.xvii-p22.14" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.16.44-Ezek.16.59" parsed="|Ezek|16|44|16|59" passage="Eze 16:44-59" type="Commentary"/><div class="Commentary" id="Ez.xvii-p22.15">
|
||
<h4 id="Ez.xvii-p22.16">The Wickedness of Jerusalem; Punishment of
|
||
Jerusalem. (<span class="smallcaps" id="Ez.xvii-p22.17">b. c.</span> 593.)</h4>
|
||
<p class="passage" id="Ez.xvii-p23" shownumber="no">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
|
||
<span class="smallcaps" id="Ez.xvii-p23.1">God</span>, 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 <span class="smallcaps" id="Ez.xvii-p23.2">Lord</span>. 59 For thus saith the Lord <span class="smallcaps" id="Ez.xvii-p23.3">God</span>; I will even deal with thee as thou
|
||
hast done, which hast despised the oath in breaking the
|
||
covenant.</p>
|
||
<p class="indent" id="Ez.xvii-p24" shownumber="no">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 class="indent" id="Ez.xvii-p25" shownumber="no">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> <scripRef id="Ez.xvii-p25.1" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.16.44" parsed="|Ezek|16|44|0|0" passage="Eze 16:44"><i>v.</i> 44</scripRef>. 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>
|
||
<scripRef id="Ez.xvii-p25.2" osisRef="Bible:Lev.18.27-Lev.18.28" parsed="|Lev|18|27|18|28" passage="Le 18:27,28">Lev. xviii. 27, 28</scripRef>), 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 (<scripRef id="Ez.xvii-p25.3" osisRef="Bible:Ps.106.38" parsed="|Ps|106|38|0|0" passage="Ps 106:38">Ps. cvi. 38</scripRef>), 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> (<scripRef id="Ez.xvii-p25.4" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.16.45" parsed="|Ezek|16|45|0|0" passage="Eze 16:45"><i>v.</i> 45</scripRef>), for they resembled
|
||
them more than Abraham and Sarah.</p>
|
||
<p class="indent" id="Ez.xvii-p26" shownumber="no">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 class="indent" id="Ez.xvii-p27" shownumber="no">1. Who Jerusalem's sisters were, <scripRef id="Ez.xvii-p27.1" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.16.45" parsed="|Ezek|16|45|0|0" passage="Eze 16:45"><i>v.</i> 45</scripRef>. 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, <scripRef id="Ez.xvii-p27.2" osisRef="Bible:Jude.1.7" parsed="|Jude|1|7|0|0" passage="Jude 1:7">Jude 7</scripRef>.</p>
|
||
<p class="indent" id="Ez.xvii-p28" shownumber="no">2. Wherein Jerusalem's sins resembled her
|
||
sisters', particularly Sodom's (<scripRef id="Ez.xvii-p28.1" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.16.49" parsed="|Ezek|16|49|0|0" passage="Eze 16:49"><i>v.</i> 49</scripRef>): <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> <scripRef id="Ez.xvii-p28.2" osisRef="Bible:Gen.13.13" parsed="|Gen|13|13|0|0" passage="Ge 13:13">Gen.
|
||
xiii. 13</scripRef>. 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 (<scripRef id="Ez.xvii-p28.3" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.16.50" parsed="|Ezek|16|50|0|0" passage="Eze 16:50"><i>v.</i> 50</scripRef>): <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 class="indent" id="Ez.xvii-p29" shownumber="no">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, <scripRef id="Ez.xvii-p29.1" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.16.47" parsed="|Ezek|16|47|0|0" passage="Eze 16:47"><i>v.</i> 47</scripRef>. 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> <scripRef id="Ez.xvii-p29.2" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.16.48" parsed="|Ezek|16|48|0|0" passage="Eze 16:48"><i>v.</i>
|
||
48</scripRef>. This agrees with what Christ says. <scripRef id="Ez.xvii-p29.3" osisRef="Bible:Matt.11.24" parsed="|Matt|11|24|0|0" passage="Mt 11:24">Matt. xi. 24</scripRef>, <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> (<scripRef id="Ez.xvii-p29.4" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.16.51" parsed="|Ezek|16|51|0|0" passage="Eze 16:51"><i>v.</i> 51</scripRef>), 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, <scripRef id="Ez.xvii-p29.5" osisRef="Bible:1Kgs.14.24 Bible:2Kgs.23.7" parsed="|1Kgs|14|24|0|0;|2Kgs|23|7|0|0" passage="1Ki 14:24,2Ki 23:7">1 Kings
|
||
xiv. 24; 2 Kings xxiii. 7</scripRef>. And though the Dead Sea, the
|
||
standing monument of Sodom's sin and ruin, bordered upon their
|
||
country (<scripRef id="Ez.xvii-p29.6" osisRef="Bible:Num.34.12" parsed="|Num|34|12|0|0" passage="Nu 34:12">Num. xxxiv. 12</scripRef>),
|
||
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, <scripRef id="Ez.xvii-p29.7" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.16.50" parsed="|Ezek|16|50|0|0" passage="Eze 16:50"><i>v.</i> 50</scripRef>, so as that one thing should
|
||
effectually make their <i>overthrow</i> an <i>example to those that
|
||
afterwards should live ungodly,</i> <scripRef id="Ez.xvii-p29.8" osisRef="Bible:2Pet.2.6" parsed="|2Pet|2|6|0|0" passage="2Pe 2:6">2
|
||
Pet. ii. 6</scripRef>), 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> <scripRef id="Ez.xvii-p29.9" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.16.51" parsed="|Ezek|16|51|0|0" passage="Eze 16:51"><i>v.</i> 51</scripRef>. 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, <scripRef id="Ez.xvii-p29.10" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.16.52" parsed="|Ezek|16|52|0|0" passage="Eze 16:52"><i>v.</i> 52</scripRef>. 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>" <scripRef id="Ez.xvii-p29.11" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.16.52" parsed="|Ezek|16|52|0|0" passage="Eze 16:52"><i>v.</i> 52</scripRef>.
|
||
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,
|
||
<scripRef id="Ez.xvii-p29.12" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.16.54" parsed="|Ezek|16|54|0|0" passage="Eze 16:54"><i>v.</i> 54</scripRef>. 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> <scripRef id="Ez.xvii-p29.13" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.16.56" parsed="|Ezek|16|56|0|0" passage="Eze 16:56"><i>v.</i> 56</scripRef>. 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> <scripRef id="Ez.xvii-p29.14" osisRef="Bible:Isa.1.10" parsed="|Isa|1|10|0|0" passage="Isa 1:10">Isa. i.
|
||
10</scripRef>. Note, Those are but preparing judgments for
|
||
themselves that will not take notice of God's judgments upon
|
||
others.</p>
|
||
<p class="indent" id="Ez.xvii-p30" shownumber="no">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
|
||
(<scripRef id="Ez.xvii-p30.1" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.16.57" parsed="|Ezek|16|57|0|0" passage="Eze 16:57"><i>v.</i> 57</scripRef>): <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> (<scripRef id="Ez.xvii-p30.2" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.16.27" parsed="|Ezek|16|27|0|0" passage="Eze 16:27"><i>v.</i> 27</scripRef>), 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, <scripRef id="Ez.xvii-p30.3" osisRef="Bible:2Chr.28.5 Bible:2Chr.28.18" parsed="|2Chr|28|5|0|0;|2Chr|28|18|0|0" passage="2Ch 28:5,18">2 Chron. xxviii. 5, 18</scripRef>. 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> <scripRef id="Ez.xvii-p30.4" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.16.58" parsed="|Ezek|16|58|0|0" passage="Eze 16:58"><i>v.</i>
|
||
58</scripRef>. 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 (<scripRef id="Ez.xvii-p30.5" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.16.58" parsed="|Ezek|16|58|0|0" passage="Eze 16:58"><i>v.</i> 58</scripRef>),
|
||
but for her perfidiousness and covenant-breaking (<scripRef id="Ez.xvii-p30.6" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.16.59" parsed="|Ezek|16|59|0|0" passage="Eze 16:59"><i>v.</i> 59</scripRef>): "<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 <scripRef id="Ez.xvii-p30.7" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.16.53 Bible:Ezek.16.55" parsed="|Ezek|16|53|0|0;|Ezek|16|55|0|0" passage="Eze 16:53,55"><i>v.</i> 53, 55</scripRef>. "<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> <scripRef id="Ez.xvii-p30.8" osisRef="Bible:Jer.24.9-Jer.24.10" parsed="|Jer|24|9|24|10" passage="Jer 24:9,10">Jer. xxiv. 9, 10</scripRef>. 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>
|
||
</div><scripCom id="Ez.xvii-p30.9" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.16.60-Ezek.16.63" parsed="|Ezek|16|60|16|63" passage="Eze 16:60-63" type="Commentary"/><div class="Commentary" id="Ez.xvii-p30.10">
|
||
<h4 id="Ez.xvii-p30.11">Mercy in Reserve; Promise of
|
||
Mercy. (<span class="smallcaps" id="Ez.xvii-p30.12">b. c.</span> 593.)</h4>
|
||
<p class="passage" id="Ez.xvii-p31" shownumber="no">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 <span class="smallcaps" id="Ez.xvii-p31.1">Lord</span>: 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 <span class="smallcaps" id="Ez.xvii-p31.2">God</span>.</p>
|
||
<p class="indent" id="Ez.xvii-p32" shownumber="no">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 (<scripRef id="Ez.xvii-p32.1" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.16.53 Bible:Ezek.16.55" parsed="|Ezek|16|53|0|0;|Ezek|16|55|0|0" passage="Eze 16:53,55"><i>v.</i> 53, 55</scripRef>), 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 (<scripRef id="Ez.xvii-p32.2" osisRef="Bible:Jer.48.47 Bible:Jer.49.6" parsed="|Jer|48|47|0|0;|Jer|49|6|0|0" passage="Jer 48:47,49:6">Jer. xlviii. 47; xlix. 6</scripRef>), 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 class="indent" id="Ez.xvii-p33" shownumber="no">I. Whence this mercy should take rise-from
|
||
<i>God himself,</i> and his <i>remembering his covenant</i> with
|
||
them (<scripRef id="Ez.xvii-p33.1" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.16.60" parsed="|Ezek|16|60|0|0" passage="Eze 16:60"><i>v.</i> 60</scripRef>):
|
||
<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> (<scripRef id="Ez.xvii-p33.2" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.16.59" parsed="|Ezek|16|59|0|0" passage="Eze 16:59"><i>v.</i>
|
||
59</scripRef>), 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> (<scripRef id="Ez.xvii-p33.3" osisRef="Bible:Isa.55.3" parsed="|Isa|55|3|0|0" passage="Isa 55:3">Isa. lv. 3</scripRef>); 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. <scripRef id="Ez.xvii-p33.4" osisRef="Bible:Lev.26.42" parsed="|Lev|26|42|0|0" passage="Le 26:42">Lev. xxvi. 42</scripRef>, <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 class="indent" id="Ez.xvii-p34" shownumber="no">II. How they should be prepared and
|
||
qualified for this mercy (<scripRef id="Ez.xvii-p34.1" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.16.61" parsed="|Ezek|16|61|0|0" passage="Eze 16:61"><i>v.</i>
|
||
61</scripRef>): "<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 class="indent" id="Ez.xvii-p35" shownumber="no">III. What the mercy is that God has in
|
||
reserve for them. 1. He will take them into covenant with himself
|
||
(<scripRef id="Ez.xvii-p35.1" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.16.60" parsed="|Ezek|16|60|0|0" passage="Eze 16:60"><i>v.</i> 60</scripRef>): <i>I will
|
||
establish unto thee an everlasting covenant;</i> and again
|
||
(<scripRef id="Ez.xvii-p35.2" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.16.62" parsed="|Ezek|16|62|0|0" passage="Eze 16:62"><i>v.</i> 62</scripRef>), <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 (<scripRef id="Ez.xvii-p35.3" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.16.61" parsed="|Ezek|16|61|0|0" passage="Eze 16:61"><i>v.</i> 61</scripRef>): "<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>
|
||
<scripRef id="Ez.xvii-p35.4" osisRef="Bible:Gal.4.26" parsed="|Gal|4|26|0|0" passage="Ga 4:26">Gal. iv. 26</scripRef>. 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>
|
||
<p class="indent" id="Ez.xvii-p36" shownumber="no">IV. What the fruit and effect of this will
|
||
be. 1. God will hereby be glorified (<scripRef id="Ez.xvii-p36.1" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.16.62" parsed="|Ezek|16|62|0|0" passage="Eze 16:62"><i>v.</i> 62</scripRef>): "<i>Thou shalt know that I am
|
||
the Lord.</i> It shall hereby be known that the God of Israel is
|
||
Jehovah, a God of power, and faithful to his covenant; and thou
|
||
shalt know it who hast hitherto lived as if thou didst not know or
|
||
believe it." It had often been said in wrath, <i>You shall know
|
||
that I am the Lord,</i> shall know it to your cost; here it is said
|
||
in mercy, You shall know it to your comfort; and it is one of the
|
||
most precious promises of the new covenant which God has made with
|
||
us that <i>all shall know him from the least to the greatest.</i>
|
||
2. They shall hereby be more humbled and abased for sin ( <scripRef id="Ez.xvii-p36.2" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.16.63" parsed="|Ezek|16|63|0|0" passage="Eze 16:63"><i>v.</i> 63</scripRef>): "<i>That thou mayest
|
||
be</i> the more <i>confounded</i> at the <i>remembrance of all that
|
||
thou hast done</i> amiss, mayest reproach thyself for it and call
|
||
thyself a thousand times unwise, undutiful, ungrateful, and unlike
|
||
what thou wast, and mayest never <i>open thy mouth any more</i> in
|
||
contradiction to God, reflection on him, or complaints of him, but
|
||
mayest be for ever silent and submissive <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,
|
||
to be dumb, and not open their mouths against what God does. But
|
||
that which is most observable is, that all this shall be <i>when I
|
||
am pacified towards thee, saith the Lord God.</i> Note, It is the
|
||
gracious ingenuousness of true penitents that the clearer evidences
|
||
and the fuller instances they have of God's being reconciled to
|
||
them the more grieved and ashamed they are that ever they have
|
||
offended God. God is in Jesus Christ <i>pacified towards us;</i> he
|
||
is our peace, and it is 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 be powerful to melt our hearts into a
|
||
godly sorrow for sin. This is repenting because <i>the kingdom of
|
||
heaven is at hand.</i> The prodigal, after he had received the kiss
|
||
which assured him that his father was <i>pacified towards him,</i>
|
||
was ashamed and confounded, and said, <i>Father, I have sinned
|
||
against heaven and before thee.</i> And the more our shame for sin
|
||
is increased by the sense of pardoning mercy the more will our
|
||
comfort in God be increased.</p>
|
||
</div></div2> |