MAN’S inventions can, on occasion, serve the children of God, but many centuries bore the telegraph, the telephone and the radio were thought of, the prophet Ezekiel in Chaldea learned from God of the arrival of Nebuchadnezzar and his armed forces in the vicinity of Jerusalem, on the day when it occurred. (See Jeremiah 52:11Zedekiah was one and twenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Hamutal the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah. (Jeremiah 52:1).) It was a day to be remembered, for God had withdrawn His help from His earthly people; He was against them as formerly He had fought for them against their enemies. A word of Solomon’s (Proverbs 29:11He, that being often reproved hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy. (Proverbs 29:1)) was about to be proved true in the government of God: “He that being often reproved, hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy.”
It will be noted that until God has had long patience, He bears with men; message after message goes, to the rebellious; but at length forbearance is past, and the judgment of the sinner proceeds, or at least his day of grace is over, and judgment will certainly follow. The judgment, when it comes, will be reckoned according to the responsibility of the guilty. The principal laid down by the Lord in Luke 12:47, 4847And that servant, which knew his lord's will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. 48But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more. (Luke 12:47‑48) is of wider bearing than the “servants” spoken of there.
Verses 3 to 14 are very solemn as showing the merciless dealing that was to be measured out by Nebuchadnezzar to Jerusalem the rebellious. In the figure of a cooking pot, first with water to boil what is thrown into it, and afterward placed dry on the fire to burn what was left, God gave fresh assurance of the end of every hope that the city and its inhabitants might be preserved from destruction.
In chapter 11, verses 3 to 11, we learned of a proverb used by the wicked men there spoken of. They felt quite secure in Jerusalem, quite safe from enemies without.
“It is not near,” said they, “let us build houses; this city is the caldron, and we be the flesh”—and God told them that the city was truly the caldron, but He would bring them out of it to die by the sword in the border of Israel. Chapter 24 takes up the subject again, and shows that the people as a whole should be consumed in the siege by Nebuchadnezzar.
“Consume the flesh” and “let the bones be burned” (verse 10) testify to an end for the bloody city, sealed by the word of Jehovah ill verse 14.
Ezekiel, in verse 16, receives the heartrending news that his wife, the desire of his eyes, was about to be taken from him in death. What an affliction this must have been to the prophet whose faithfulness to God among his faithless fellow-captives made him a stranger in their midst! Nor was he to mourn or to weep, but to sigh in silence, giving none of the usual tokens of great grief, that the Jews should take him for a sign and do as he did (verse 24).
The captives in Chaldea were to learn that God was about to profane His sanctuary (the temple of Solomon), the pride of their strength, the desire of their eyes and their soul’s longing (as the text in Verse 21 is best translated).
Though the nation had given themselves to idol worship, they were proud of the temple that Solomon had built as a dwelling place for God. It carried an appeal to religious man, but as they were without an exercised conscience—indeed they had a seared one, the fear of Jehovah had little place in their hearts. Yet we may hope that there were some few in that dark day beside Jeremiah in Jerusalem, and Ezekiel in Chaldea, and Daniel and his three companions in Babylon, who were God’s children by faith; and to all these the destruction of the temple would bring very great sorrow.
The sons and daughters of the captives, left behind in Jerusalem were to fall by the sword, too (verse 21); yet the parents were not to mourn nor weep, but to waste away in their iniquities and moan one toward another. Unjudged sin in departing from the living God was the cause of all this woe, and God requires what is past.
Are there not in our own times many parents who are indifferent to the spiritual welfare of their children, and themselves negligent of God and His Word? What of the reaping day, the day when all that is now will be no more?
Thank God, the chapter does not close without the assurance that some would survive the pending judgment (verse 20). When such objects of mercy should come to Ezekiel he should open his mouth and be no more dumb (chapter 3:26 and 33:22).
ML-11/17/1935