Ezekiel. Chapter 33

Ezekiel 33 • 1 min. read • grade level: 9

This is the testimony of righteousness against carnal assurance—a prophet amongst them in the Land. The city was smitten then, and so the kingdom of the beast in the Land; but the subject was the city smitten.

24. Note the same principle in this and other passages—the evidence of unbelief or faith, according as proposed by the flesh, or by the Lord, and, on the other hand, that the opposite principles are evidence of unbelief, when the moral circumstances are changed. Thus, here "Abraham was one, and we are many, the land is given us for an inheritance," in the condition of sin and rebellion, was unbelief and wickedness. In Isa. 51:2²Look unto Abraham your father, and unto Sarah that bare you: for I called him alone, and blessed him, and increased him. (Isaiah 51:2), it is presented as the warrant and assurance of faith, and they are called to lean upon this warrant—that Abraham was but one, and yet blessed and multiplied. Oh! for faith!

On the other hand, when Israel came out of Egypt, it was just their sin and unbelief to say, "Is the Lord among us or not?" Ex. 17:7⁷And he called the name of the place Massah, and Meribah, because of the chiding of the children of Israel, and because they tempted the Lord, saying, Is the Lord among us, or not? (Exodus 17:7). In Mic. 3:11¹¹The heads thereof judge for reward, and the priests thereof teach for hire, and the prophets thereof divine for money: yet will they lean upon the Lord, and say, Is not the Lord among us? none evil can come upon us. (Micah 3:11), it is their sin and presumption, to say, "Is not the Lord among us? No evil shall come upon us."

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