mh_parser/vol_split/26 - Ezekiel/Chapter 4.xml

<div2 id="Ez.v" n="v" next="Ez.vi" prev="Ez.iv" progress="51.32%" title="Chapter IV">
<h2 id="Ez.v-p0.1">E Z E K I E L.</h2>
<h3 id="Ez.v-p0.2">CHAP. IV.</h3>
<p class="intro" id="Ez.v-p1" shownumber="no">Ezekiel was now among the captives in Babylon, but
they there had Jerusalem still upon their hearts; the pious
captives looked towards it with an eye of faith (as <scripRef id="Ez.v-p1.1" osisRef="Bible:Dan.6.10" parsed="|Dan|6|10|0|0" passage="Da 6:10">Daniel vi. 10</scripRef>), the presumptuous ones
looked towards it with an eye of pride, and flattered themselves
with a conceit that they should shortly return thither again; those
that remained corresponded with the captives, and, it is likely,
bouyed them up with hopes that all would be well yet, as long as
Jerusalem was standing in its strength, and perhaps upbraided those
with their folly who had surrendered at first; therefore, to take
down this presumption, God gives the prophet, in this chapter, a
very clear and affecting foresight of the besieging of Jerusalem by
the Chaldean army and the calamities which would attend that siege.
Two things are here represented to him in vision:—I. The
fortifications that should be raised against the city; this is
signified by the prophet's laying siege to the portraiture of
Jerusalem (<scripRef id="Ez.v-p1.2" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.3.1-Ezek.3.3" parsed="|Ezek|3|1|3|3" passage="Eze 3:1-3">ver. 1-3</scripRef>) and
laying first on one side and then on the other side before it,
<scripRef id="Ez.v-p1.3" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.3.4-Ezek.3.8" parsed="|Ezek|3|4|3|8" passage="Eze 3:4-8">ver. 4-8</scripRef>. II. The famine
that should rage within the city; this is signified by his eating
very coarse fare, and confining himself to a little of it, so long
as this typical representation lasted, <scripRef id="Ez.v-p1.4" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.3.9-Ezek.3.17" parsed="|Ezek|3|9|3|17" passage="Eze 3:9-17">ver. 9-17</scripRef>.</p>
<scripCom id="Ez.v-p1.5" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.4" parsed="|Ezek|4|0|0|0" passage="Eze 4" type="Commentary"/>
<scripCom id="Ez.v-p1.6" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.4.1-Ezek.4.8" parsed="|Ezek|4|1|4|8" passage="Eze 4:1-8" type="Commentary"/><div class="Commentary" id="Ez.v-p1.7">
<h4 id="Ez.v-p1.8">The Representation of a
Siege. (<span class="smallcaps" id="Ez.v-p1.9">b. c.</span> 595.)</h4>
<p class="passage" id="Ez.v-p2" shownumber="no">1 Thou also, son of man, take thee a tile, and
lay it before thee, and portray upon it the city, <i>even</i>
Jerusalem:   2 And lay siege against it, and build a fort
against it, and cast a mount against it; set the camp also against
it, and set <i>battering</i> rams against it round about.   3
Moreover take thou unto thee an iron pan, and set it <i>for</i> a
wall of iron between thee and the city: and set thy face against
it, and it shall be besieged, and thou shalt lay siege against it.
This <i>shall be</i> a sign to the house of Israel.   4 Lie
thou also upon thy left side, and lay the iniquity of the house of
Israel upon it: <i>according</i> to the number of the days that
thou shalt lie upon it thou shalt bear their iniquity.   5 For
I have laid upon thee the years of their iniquity, according to the
number of the days, three hundred and ninety days: so shalt thou
bear the iniquity of the house of Israel.   6 And when thou
hast accomplished them, lie again on thy right side, and thou shalt
bear the iniquity of the house of Judah forty days: I have
appointed thee each day for a year.   7 Therefore thou shalt
set thy face toward the siege of Jerusalem, and thine arm <i>shall
be</i> uncovered, and thou shalt prophesy against it.   8 And,
behold, I will lay bands upon thee, and thou shalt not turn thee
from one side to another, till thou hast ended the days of thy
siege.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ez.v-p3" shownumber="no">The prophet is here ordered to represent to
himself and others by signs which would be proper and powerful to
strike the fancy and to affect the mind, <i>the siege of
Jerusalem;</i> and this amounted to a prediction.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ez.v-p4" shownumber="no">I. He was ordered to engrave a draught of
Jerusalem upon a tile, <scripRef id="Ez.v-p4.1" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.4.1" parsed="|Ezek|4|1|0|0" passage="Eze 4:1"><i>v.</i>
1</scripRef>. It was Jerusalem's honour that while she kept her
integrity God had <i>graven her upon the palms of his hands</i>
(<scripRef id="Ez.v-p4.2" osisRef="Bible:Isa.49.16" parsed="|Isa|49|16|0|0" passage="Isa 49:16">Isa. xlix. 16</scripRef>), and the
names of the tribes were engraven in precious stones on the
breast-plate of the high priest; but, now that <i>the faithful city
has become a harlot,</i> a worthless brittle tile or brick is
thought good enough to <i>portray it upon.</i> This the prophet
must lay before him, that the eye may affect the heart.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ez.v-p5" shownumber="no">II. He was ordered to build little forts
against this portraiture of the city, resembling the batteries
raised by the besiegers, <scripRef id="Ez.v-p5.1" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.4.2" parsed="|Ezek|4|2|0|0" passage="Eze 4:2"><i>v.</i>
2</scripRef>. Between the city that was besieged and himself that
was the besieger he was to set up an <i>iron pan,</i> as an <i>iron
wall,</i> <scripRef id="Ez.v-p5.2" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.4.3" parsed="|Ezek|4|3|0|0" passage="Eze 4:3"><i>v.</i> 3</scripRef>. This
represented the inflexible resolution of both sides; the Chaldeans
resolved, whatever it cost them, that they would make themselves
masters of the city and would never quit it till they had conquered
it; on the other side, the Jews resolved never to capitulate, but
to hold out to the last extremity.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ez.v-p6" shownumber="no">III. He was ordered to lie upon his side
before it, as it were to surround it, representing the Chaldean
army lying before it to block it up, to keep the meat from going in
and the mouths from going out. He was to lie on his left side 390
<i>days</i> (<scripRef id="Ez.v-p6.1" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.4.5" parsed="|Ezek|4|5|0|0" passage="Eze 4:5"><i>v.</i> 5</scripRef>),
about thirteen months; the siege of Jerusalem is computed to last
eighteen months (<scripRef id="Ez.v-p6.2" osisRef="Bible:Jer.52.4-Jer.52.6" parsed="|Jer|52|4|52|6" passage="Jer 52:4-6">Jer. lii.
4-6</scripRef>), but if we deduct from that five months' interval,
when the besiegers withdrew upon the approach of Pharaoh's army
(<scripRef id="Ez.v-p6.3" osisRef="Bible:Jer.37.5-Jer.37.8" parsed="|Jer|37|5|37|8" passage="Jer 37:5-8">Jer. xxxvii. 5-8</scripRef>), the
number of the days of the close siege will be 390. Yet that also
had another signification. The 390 days, according to the prophetic
dialect, signified 390 years; and, when the prophet lies so many
days on his side, he bears the guilt of that iniquity which <i>the
house of Israel,</i> the ten tribes, had borne 390 years, reckoning
from their first apostasy under Jeroboam to the destruction of
Jerusalem, which completed the ruin of those small remains of them
that had incorporated with Judah. He is then to lie forty days
<i>upon his right side,</i> and so long to bear <i>the iniquity of
the house of Judah,</i> the kingdom of the two tribes, because the
measure-filling sins of that people were those which they were
guilty of during the last forty years before their captivity, since
the thirteenth year of Josiah, when Jeremiah began to prophesy
(<scripRef id="Ez.v-p6.4" osisRef="Bible:Jer.1.1-Jer.1.2" parsed="|Jer|1|1|1|2" passage="Jer 1:1,2">Jer. i. 1, 2</scripRef>), or, as
some reckon it, since the eighteenth, when the book of the law was
found and the people renewed their covenant with God. When they
persisted in their impieties and idolatries, notwithstanding they
had such a prophet and such a prince, and were brought into the
bond of such a covenant, what could be expected but ruin without
remedy? Judah, that had such helps and advantages for reformation,
fills the measure of its iniquity in less time than Israel does.
Now we are not to think that the prophet lay constantly night and
day upon his side, but every day, for so many days together, at a
certain time of the day, when he received visits, and company came
in, he was found lying 390 <i>days on his left side</i> and
<i>forty days on his right side</i> before his portraiture of
Jerusalem, which all that saw might easily understand to mean the
close besieging of that city, and people would be flocking in
daily, some for curiosity and some for conscience, at the hour
appointed, to see it and to make their different remarks upon it.
His being found constantly on the same side, as if <i>bands were
laid upon him</i> (as indeed they were by the divine command), so
that he could not <i>turn himself from one side to another till he
had ended the days of the siege,</i> did plainly represent the
close and constant continuance of the besiegers about the city
during that number of days, till they had gained their point.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ez.v-p7" shownumber="no">IV. He was ordered to prosecute the siege
with vigour (<scripRef id="Ez.v-p7.1" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.4.7" parsed="|Ezek|4|7|0|0" passage="Eze 4:7"><i>v.</i> 7</scripRef>):
<i>Thou shalt set thy face towards the siege of Jerusalem,</i> as
wholly intent upon it and resolved to carry it; so the Chaldeans
would be, and neither bribed nor forced to withdraw from it.
Nebuchadnezzar's indignation at Zedekiah's treachery in breaking
his league with him made him very furious in pushing on this siege,
that he might chastise the insolence of that faithless prince and
people; and his army promised themselves a rich booty of that
pompous city; so that both set their faces against it, for they
were very resolute. Nor were they less active and industrious,
exerting themselves to the utmost in all the operations of the
siege, which the prophet was to represent by the <i>uncovering of
his arm,</i> or, as some read it, the <i>stretching out</i> of his
arm, as it were to deal blows about without mercy. When God is
about to do some great work he is said to <i>make bare his arm,</i>
<scripRef id="Ez.v-p7.2" osisRef="Bible:Isa.52.10" parsed="|Isa|52|10|0|0" passage="Isa 52:10">Isa. lii. 10</scripRef>. In short,
The Chaldeans will go about their business, and go on in it, as men
in earnest, who resolve to go through with it. Now, 1. This is
intended to be a <i>sign to the house of Israel</i> (<scripRef id="Ez.v-p7.3" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.4.3" parsed="|Ezek|4|3|0|0" passage="Eze 4:3"><i>v.</i> 3</scripRef>), both to those in
Babylon, who were eye-witnesses of what the prophet did, and to
those also who remained in their own land, who would hear the
report of it. The prophet was <i>dumb</i> and <i>could not
speak</i> (<scripRef id="Ez.v-p7.4" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.3.26" parsed="|Ezek|3|26|0|0" passage="Eze 3:26"><i>ch.</i> iii.
26</scripRef>); but as his silence had a voice, and upbraided the
people with their deafness, so even then God <i>left not himself
without witness,</i> but ordered him to make signs, as dumb men are
accustomed to do, and as Zacharias did when he was dumb, and by
them to <i>make known his mind</i> (that is, the mind of God) to
the people. And thus likewise the people were upbraided with their
stupidity and dulness, that they were not capable of being taught
as men of sense are, by words, but must be taught as children are,
by pictures, or as deaf men are, by signs. Or, perhaps, they are
hereby upbraided with their malice against the prophet. Had he
spoken in words at length what was signified by these figures, they
would have entangled him in his talk, would have indicted him for
treasonable expressions, for they knew how to <i>make a man an
offender for a word</i> (<scripRef id="Ez.v-p7.5" osisRef="Bible:Isa.29.21" parsed="|Isa|29|21|0|0" passage="Isa 29:21">Isa. xxix.
21</scripRef>), to avoid which he is ordered to make use of signs.
Or the prophet made use of signs for the same reason that Christ
made use of parables, that <i>hearing they might hear and not
understand,</i> and <i>seeing they might see and not perceive,</i>
<scripRef id="Ez.v-p7.6" osisRef="Bible:Matt.13.14-Matt.13.15" parsed="|Matt|13|14|13|15" passage="Mt 13:14,15">Matt. xiii. 14, 15</scripRef>. They
would not understand what was plain, and therefore shall be taught
by that which is difficult; and herein the Lord was righteous. 2.
Thus the prophet <i>prophesies against Jerusalem</i> (<scripRef id="Ez.v-p7.7" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.4.7" parsed="|Ezek|4|7|0|0" passage="Eze 4:7"><i>v.</i> 7</scripRef>); and there were those who
not only understood it so, but were the more affected with it by
its being so represented, for images to the eye commonly make
deeper impressions upon the mind than words can, and for this
reason sacraments are instituted to represent divine things, that
we might see and believe, might see and be affected with those
things; and we may expect this benefit by them, and a blessing to
go along with them, while (as the prophet here) we make use only of
such signs as God himself has expressly appointed, which, we must
conclude, are the fittest. Note, The power of imagination, if it be
rightly used, and kept under the direction and correction of reason
and faith, may be of good use to kindle and excite pious and devout
affections, as it was here to Ezekiel and his attendants.
"<i>Methinks I see</i> so and so, myself dying, time expiring, the
world on fire, the dead rising, the great tribunal set, and the
like, may have an exceedingly good influence upon us: for fancy is
like fire, a <i>good servant, but a bad master.</i>" 3. This whole
transaction has that in it which the prophet might, with a good
colour of reason, have hesitated at and excepted against, and yet,
in obedience to God's command, and in execution of his office, he
did it according to order. (1.) It seemed childish and ludicrous,
and beneath his gravity, and there were those that would ridicule
him for it; but he knew the divine appointment put honour enough
upon that which otherwise seemed mean to save his reputation in the
doing of it. (2.) It was toilsome and tiresome to do as he did; but
our ease as well as our credit must be sacrificed to our duty, and
we must never call God's service in any instance of it a hard
service. (3.) It could not but be very much against the grain with
him to appear thus against Jerusalem, the city of God, the holy
city, to act as an enemy against a place to which he was so good a
friend; but he is a prophet, and must follow his instructions, not
his affections, and must plainly preach the ruin of a sinful place,
though its welfare is what he passionately desires and earnestly
prays for. 4. All this that the prophet sets before the children of
his people concerning the destruction of Jerusalem is designed to
bring them to repentance, by showing them sin, the provoking cause
of this destruction, sin the ruin of that once flourishing city,
than which surely nothing could be more effectual to make them hate
sin and turn from it; while he thus in lively colours describes the
calamity with a great deal of pain and uneasiness to himself, he is
<i>bearing the iniquity of Israel and Judah.</i> "Look here" (says
he) "and see what work sin makes, what an <i>evil and bitter thing
it is to depart from God;</i> this comes of sin, your sins and the
sin of your fathers; let that therefore be the daily matter of your
sorrow and shame now in your captivity, that you may make your
peace with God and he may return in mercy to you." But observe, It
is a day of punishment for a year of sin: <i>I have appointed thee
each day for a year.</i> The siege is a calamity of 390 days, in
which God reckons for the iniquity of 390 years; justly therefore do
they acknowledge that God had <i>punished them less than their
iniquity deserved,</i> <scripRef id="Ez.v-p7.8" osisRef="Bible:Ezra.9.13" parsed="|Ezra|9|13|0|0" passage="Ezr 9:13">Ezra ix.
13</scripRef>. But let impenitent sinners know that, though now God
is long-suffering towards them, in the other world there is an
everlasting punishment. When God <i>laid bands</i> upon the
prophet, it was to show them how they were <i>bound with the cords
of their own transgression</i> (<scripRef id="Ez.v-p7.9" osisRef="Bible:Lam.1.14" parsed="|Lam|1|14|0|0" passage="La 1:14">Lam. i.
14</scripRef>), and therefore they were now <i>holden in the cords
of affliction.</i> But we may well think of the prophet's case with
compassion, when God laid upon him the bands of duty, as he does on
all his ministers (<scripRef id="Ez.v-p7.10" osisRef="Bible:1Cor.9.16" parsed="|1Cor|9|16|0|0" passage="1Co 9:16">1 Cor. ix.
16</scripRef>, <i>Necessity is laid upon me, and woe unto me if I
preach not the gospel</i>); and yet men laid upon him bonds of
restraint (<scripRef id="Ez.v-p7.11" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.3.25" parsed="|Ezek|3|25|0|0" passage="Eze 3:25"><i>ch.</i> iii.
25</scripRef>); but under both it is satisfaction enough that they
are serving the interests of God's kingdom among men.</p>
</div><scripCom id="Ez.v-p7.12" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.4.9-Ezek.4.17" parsed="|Ezek|4|9|4|17" passage="Eze 4:9-17" type="Commentary"/><div class="Commentary" id="Ez.v-p7.13">
<h4 id="Ez.v-p7.14">The Representation of a
Famine. (<span class="smallcaps" id="Ez.v-p7.15">b. c.</span> 595.)</h4>
<p class="passage" id="Ez.v-p8" shownumber="no">9 Take thou also unto thee wheat, and barley,
and beans, and lentiles, and millet, and fitches, and put them in
one vessel, and make thee bread thereof, <i>according</i> to the
number of the days that thou shalt lie upon thy side, three hundred
and ninety days shalt thou eat thereof.   10 And thy meat
which thou shalt eat <i>shall be</i> by weight, twenty shekels a
day: from time to time shalt thou eat it.   11 Thou shalt
drink also water by measure, the sixth part of an hin: from time to
time shalt thou drink.   12 And thou shalt eat it <i>as</i>
barley cakes, and thou shalt bake it with dung that cometh out of
man, in their sight.   13 And the <span class="smallcaps" id="Ez.v-p8.1">Lord</span> said, Even thus shall the children of
Israel eat their defiled bread among the Gentiles, whither I will
drive them.   14 Then said I, Ah Lord <span class="smallcaps" id="Ez.v-p8.2">God</span>! behold, my soul hath not been polluted: for
from my youth up even till now have I not eaten of that which dieth
of itself, or is torn in pieces; neither came there abominable
flesh into my mouth.   15 Then he said unto me, Lo, I have
given thee cow's dung for man's dung, and thou shalt prepare thy
bread therewith.   16 Moreover he said unto me, Son of man,
behold, I will break the staff of bread in Jerusalem: and they
shall eat bread by weight, and with care; and they shall drink
water by measure, and with astonishment:   17 That they may
want bread and water, and be astonied one with another, and consume
away for their iniquity.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ez.v-p9" shownumber="no">The best exposition of this part of
Ezekiel's prediction of Jerusalem's desolation is Jeremiah's
lamentation of it, <scripRef id="Ez.v-p9.1" passage="La 4:3,4,5:10">Lam. iv. 3, 4,
&amp;c., and v. 10</scripRef>, where he pathetically describes the
terrible famine that was in Jerusalem during the siege and the sad
effects of it.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ez.v-p10" shownumber="no">I. The prophet here, to affect the people
with the foresight of it, must confine himself for 390 days to
coarse fare and short commons, and that ill-dressed, for they
should want both food and fuel.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ez.v-p11" shownumber="no">1. His meat, for the quality of it, was to
be of the worst bread, made of but little wheat and barley, and the
rest of beans, and lentiles, and millet, and fitches, such as we
feed horses or fatted hogs with, and this mixed, as mill corn, or
as that in the beggar's bag, that has a dish full of one sort of
corn at one house and of another at another house; of such corn as
this must the prophet's bread be made while he underwent the
fatigue of lying on his side, and needed something better to
support him, <scripRef id="Ez.v-p11.1" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.4.9" parsed="|Ezek|4|9|0|0" passage="Eze 4:9"><i>v.</i> 9</scripRef>.
Note, It is our wisdom not to be too fond of dainties and pleasant
bread, because we know not what hard meat we may be tied to, nay,
and may be glad of, before we die. The meanest sort of food is
better than we deserve, and therefore must not be despised nor
wasted, nor must those that use it be looked upon with disdain,
because we know not what may be our own lot.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ez.v-p12" shownumber="no">2. For the quantity of it, it was to be of
the least that a man could be kept alive with, to signify that the
besieged should be reduced to short allowance and should hold out
till all <i>the bread in the city was spent,</i> <scripRef id="Ez.v-p12.1" osisRef="Bible:Jer.37.21" parsed="|Jer|37|21|0|0" passage="Jer 37:21">Jer. xxxvii. 21</scripRef>. The prophet must eat but
twenty <i>shekels'</i> weight of bread a day (<scripRef id="Ez.v-p12.2" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.4.10" parsed="|Ezek|4|10|0|0" passage="Eze 4:10"><i>v.</i> 10</scripRef>), that was about ten ounces; and
he must drink but the <i>sixth part of a hin of water,</i> that was
half a pint, about eight ounces, <scripRef id="Ez.v-p12.3" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.4.11" parsed="|Ezek|4|11|0|0" passage="Eze 4:11"><i>v.</i> 11</scripRef>. The stint of the Lessian diet
is fourteen ounces of meat and sixteen of drink. The prophet in
Babylon had bread enough and to spare, and was by the river side,
where there was plenty of water; and yet, that he might confirm his
own prediction and be a sign to the children of Israel, God obliges
him to live thus sparingly, and he submits to it. Note, God's
servants must learn to endure hardness, and to deny themselves the
use of lawful delights, when they may thereby serve the glory of
God, evidence the sincerity of their faith, and express their
sympathy with their brethren in affliction. The body must be
<i>kept under and brought into subjection.</i> Nature is content
with a little, grace with less, but lust with nothing. It is good
to stint ourselves of choice, that we may the better bear it if
ever we should come to be stinted by necessity. And in times of
public distress and calamity it ill becomes us to make much of
ourselves, as those that <i>drank wine in bowls</i> and <i>were not
grieved for the affliction of Joseph,</i> <scripRef id="Ez.v-p12.4" osisRef="Bible:Amos.6.4-Amos.6.6" parsed="|Amos|6|4|6|6" passage="Am 6:4-6">Amos vi. 4-6</scripRef>.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ez.v-p13" shownumber="no">3. For the dressing of it, he must <i>bake
it with a man's dung</i> (<scripRef id="Ez.v-p13.1" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.4.12" parsed="|Ezek|4|12|0|0" passage="Eze 4:12"><i>v.</i>
12</scripRef>); that must be dried, and serve for fuel to heat his
oven with. The thought of it would almost turn one's stomach; yet
the coarse bread, thus baked, he must <i>eat as barley-cakes,</i>
as freely as if it were the same bread he had been used to. This
nauseous piece of cookery he must exercise publicly <i>in their
sight,</i> that they might be the more affected with the calamity
approaching, which was signified by it, that in the extremity of
the famine they should not only have nothing that was dainty, but
nothing that was cleanly, about them; they must take up with what
they could get. <i>To the hungry soul every bitter thing is
sweet.</i> This circumstance of the sign, the baking of his bread
with man's dung, the prophet with submission humbly desired might
be dispensed with (<scripRef id="Ez.v-p13.2" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.4.14" parsed="|Ezek|4|14|0|0" passage="Eze 4:14"><i>v.</i>
14</scripRef>); it seemed to have in it something of a ceremonial
pollution, for there was a law that man's dung should <i>be covered
with earth,</i> that God might <i>see no unclean thing in their
camp,</i> <scripRef id="Ez.v-p13.3" osisRef="Bible:Deut.23.13-Deut.23.14" parsed="|Deut|23|13|23|14" passage="De 23:13,14">Deut. xxiii. 13,
14</scripRef>. And must he go and gather a thing so offensive, and
use it in the dressing of his meat in the sight of the people?
"<i>Ah! Lord God,</i>" says he, "<i>behold, my soul has not been
polluted,</i> and I am afraid lest by this it be polluted." Note,
The pollution of the soul by sin is what good people dread more
than any thing; and yet sometimes tender consciences fear it
without cause, and perplex themselves with scruples about lawful
things, as the prophet here, who had not yet learned that it is not
that which <i>goes into the mouth that defiles the man,</i>
<scripRef id="Ez.v-p13.4" osisRef="Bible:Matt.15.11" parsed="|Matt|15|11|0|0" passage="Mt 15:11">Matt. xv. 11</scripRef>. But observe
he does not plead, "Lord, from my youth I have been brought up
delicately and have never been used to any thing but what was clean
and nice" (and there were those who were so brought up, who in the
siege of Jerusalem did <i>embrace dunghills,</i> <scripRef id="Ez.v-p13.5" osisRef="Bible:Lam.4.5" parsed="|Lam|4|5|0|0" passage="La 4:5">Lam. iv. 5</scripRef>), but that he had been brought up
conscientiously, and had never eaten any thing that was forbidden
by the law, that <i>died of itself</i> or was <i>torn in
pieces;</i> and therefore, "Lord, do not put this upon me now."
Thus Peter pleaded (<scripRef id="Ez.v-p13.6" osisRef="Bible:Acts.10.14" parsed="|Acts|10|14|0|0" passage="Ac 10:14">Acts x.
14</scripRef>), <i>Lord, I have never eaten any thing that is
common or unclean.</i> Note, it will be comfortable to us, when we
are reduced to hardships, if our hearts can witness for us that we
have always been careful to abstain from sin, even from little
sins, and the <i>appearances of evil.</i> Whatever God commands us,
we may be sure, is good; but, if we be put upon any thing that we
apprehend to be evil, we should argue against it, from this
consideration, that hitherto we have preserved our purity—and
shall we lose it now? Now, because Ezekiel with a manifest
tenderness of conscience made this scruple, God dispensed with him
in this matter. Note, Those who have power in their hands should
not be rigorous in pressing their commands upon those that are
dissatisfied concerning them, yea, though their dissatisfactions be
groundless or arising from education and long usage, but should
recede from them rather than grieve or offend the weak, or put a
stumbling-block before them, in conformity to the example of God's
condescension to Ezekiel, though we are sure his authority is
incontestable and all his commands are wise and good. God allowed
Ezekiel to use <i>cow's dung</i> instead of <i>man's dung,</i>
<scripRef id="Ez.v-p13.7" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.4.15" parsed="|Ezek|4|15|0|0" passage="Eze 4:15"><i>v.</i> 15</scripRef>. This is a
tacit reflection upon man, as intimating that he being polluted
with sin his filthiness is more nauseous and odious than that of
any other creature. <i>How much more abominable and filthy is
man!</i> <scripRef id="Ez.v-p13.8" osisRef="Bible:Job.15.16" parsed="|Job|15|16|0|0" passage="Job 15:16">Job xv. 16</scripRef>.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ez.v-p14" shownumber="no">II. Now this sign is particularly explained
here; it signified,</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ez.v-p15" shownumber="no">1. That those who remained in Jerusalem
should be brought to extreme misery for want of necessary food. All
supplies being cut off by the besiegers, the city would soon find
the want of the country, for <i>the king himself is served of the
field;</i> and thus <i>the staff of bread</i> would be <i>broken in
Jerusalem,</i> <scripRef id="Ez.v-p15.1" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.4.16" parsed="|Ezek|4|16|0|0" passage="Eze 4:16"><i>v.</i>
16</scripRef>. God would not only take away from the bread its
power to nourish, so that <i>they should eat and not be
satisfied</i> (<scripRef id="Ez.v-p15.2" osisRef="Bible:Lev.26.26" parsed="|Lev|26|26|0|0" passage="Le 26:26">Lev. xxvi.
26</scripRef>), but would take away the bread itself (<scripRef id="Ez.v-p15.3" osisRef="Bible:Isa.3.1" parsed="|Isa|3|1|0|0" passage="Isa 3:1">Isa. iii. 1</scripRef>), so that what little
remained should be <i>eaten by weight,</i> so much a day, so much a
head, that they might have an equal share and might make it last as
long as possible. But to what purpose, when they could not make it
last always, and the besieged must be tired out before the
besiegers? They should eat and drink <i>with care,</i> to make it
go as far as might be, and with <i>astonishment,</i> when they saw
it almost spent and knew not which way to look for a recruit. They
should <i>be astonished one with another;</i> whereas it is
ordinarily some alleviation of a calamity to have others share with
us in it (<i>Solamen miseris socios habuisse doloris</i>), and some
ease to the spirit to complain of the burden, it should be an
aggravation of the misery that it was universal, and their
complaining to one another should but make them all the more uneasy
and increase the <i>astonishment.</i> And the event shall be as bad
as their fears; they cannot make it worse than it is, for <i>they
shall consume away for their iniquity;</i> multitudes of them shall
die of famine, a lingering death, worse than that by <i>the
sword</i> (<scripRef id="Ez.v-p15.4" osisRef="Bible:Lam.4.9" parsed="|Lam|4|9|0|0" passage="La 4:9">Lam. iv. 9</scripRef>); they
shall die so as to <i>feel themselves die.</i> And it is sin that
brings all this misery upon them: <i>They shall consume away in
their iniquity</i> (so it may be read); they shall continue
hardened and impenitent, and shall die in their sins, which is more
miserable than to die on a dunghill. Now, (1.) Let us see here what
woeful work sin makes with a people, and acknowledge the
righteousness of God herein. Time was when <i>Jerusalem was filled
with the finest of the wheat</i> (<scripRef id="Ez.v-p15.5" osisRef="Bible:Ps.147.14" parsed="|Ps|147|14|0|0" passage="Ps 147:14">Ps.
cxlvii. 14</scripRef>); but now it would be glad of the coarsest,
and cannot have it. <i>Fulness of bread,</i> as it was one of
Jerusalem's mercies, so it had become one of her sins, <scripRef id="Ez.v-p15.6" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.16.49" parsed="|Ezek|16|49|0|0" passage="Eze 16:49">Ezek. xvi. 49</scripRef>. The plenty was abused
to luxury and excess, which were therefore thus justly punished
with famine. It is a righteous thing with God to deprive us of
those enjoyments which we have made the food and fuel of our lusts.
(2.) Let us see what reason we have to bless God for plenty, not
only for the fruits of the earth, but for the freedom of commerce,
that the husbandman can have money for his bread and the tradesman
bread for his money, that there is abundance not only in the field,
but in the market, that those who live in cities and great towns,
though they <i>sow not,</i> neither do they <i>reap,</i> are yet
fed from day to day with food convenient.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ez.v-p16" shownumber="no">2. It signified that those who were carried
into captivity should be forced to <i>eat their defiled bread among
the Gentiles</i> (<scripRef id="Ez.v-p16.1" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.4.13" parsed="|Ezek|4|13|0|0" passage="Eze 4:13"><i>v.</i>
13</scripRef>), to eat meat made up by Gentile hands otherwise than
according to the law of the Jewish church, which they were always
taught to call <i>defiled,</i> and which they would have as great
an aversion to as a man would have to bread prepared with dung,
that is (as perhaps it may be understood) kneaded and moulded with
dung. Daniel and his fellows confined themselves to <i>pulse and
water,</i> rather than they would <i>eat the portion of the king's
meat</i> assigned them, because they apprehended it would defile
them, <scripRef id="Ez.v-p16.2" osisRef="Bible:Dan.1.8" parsed="|Dan|1|8|0|0" passage="Da 1:8">Dan. i. 8</scripRef>. Or they
should be forced to eat putrid meat, such as their oppressors would
allow them in their slavery, and such as formerly they would have
scorned to touch. Because they <i>served not God</i> with
cheerfulness in the abundance of all things, God will make them
serve their enemies in the want of all things.</p>
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