(Ezekiel 21)
THE last five verses of chapter 20, as marked in the Authorized Version, properly belong to chapter 21 Three separate communications are made to Ezekiel (ch. 20:45, 21:1 and 8) to show that the judgment of Jehovah was without question about to fall upon Jerusalem. “Son of man, set thy face toward the south... and prophesy against the forest of the south field”―the fire of judgment was about to sweep through the whole land from south to north, and none should be exempt; the green tree and the dry tree alike should suffer, and all flesh should become aware that “I the Lord have kindled it,” and moreover, “it shall not be quenched.” This seems explicit enough, and yet the guilty nation fail to realize the gravity of the announcement. They pitied the poor prophet, who kept faithfully sounding in their ears the solemn warning from the Lord: “Doth he not speak parables?” Is there nothing like this to be seen in Christendom to-day? Do not professing Christians — ah, and even some who seem really to be the children of God — close their ears at every mention of judgment about to fall on the professing Church? And yet, how clearly does the New Testament foretell it!
But now (chs. 21:1,8) all figurative language is dropped — “Son of man, set thy face toward Jerusalem... and prophesy against the land of Israel, and say to the land of Israel, Thus saith the Lord: Behold, I am against thee, and will draw forth My sword out of his sheath, and will cut off from thee the righteous and the wicked.” Nothing could be more explicit than this. Jehovah’s sword would be unsheathed against His own land. Not a mere temporary chastisement of evildoers amongst the people, but a national judgment wherein the righteous as well as the wicked should be the sufferers.
This it was that awakened Ezekiel’s sighs. To be a prophet of overwhelming judgment was no light matter, and Ezekiel was called to feel deeply the bitterness of it all. To see the prophet’s anguish of heart might awaken some to ask, “Wherefore sighest thou?” But the judgment could not now be stayed, for the people’s sin had gone too far; long delayed it had been, but now the painful tidings had gone forth — “Behold, it cometh, and shall be brought to pass, saith the Lord God.”
In passing, we would seek to learn and apply the instruction of this passage to ourselves and our own times. The professing Church is in ruins, and on the high road to judgment― “Because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of My mouth”
(Rev. 3:1616So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth. (Revelation 3:16)). Recovery is impossible, evil men and seducers are waxing worse and worse. True, there may be gracious times of revival and refreshing here and there, but this must not deceive us — the apostasy is rapidly developing.
But what effect has the knowledge of these things upon our consciences? “He that hath an ear let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.”
Nothing should ever hinder us from rejoicing in the Lord, personal failure alone excepted. To be walking in known sin and disobedience and yea to maintain an air of joy is nothing but insincerity; it is making mirth (ver. 10) when there should be sorrow and confession.
But there is nothing inconsistent between a deep sense of the ruin and failure of the professing Church, and fullness of joy in personal communion with the Lord.
Again the word of the Lord comes to Ezekiel (vers. 18-28), this time making known who He would use as His sword. Nebuchadnezzar, the King of Babylon, was His sword to execute His judgment upon His guilty people. This was to be the commencement of “the times of the Gentiles,” when the throne of Jehovah should be removed from the earth; these times are still running their course, but they began about this very time, when Zedekiah, the profane, wicked prince of Israel, “stiffened his neck, and hardened his heart from turning unto the Lord God of Israel” (2 Chron. 36:1313And he also rebelled against king Nebuchadnezzar, who had made him swear by God: but he stiffened his neck, and hardened his heart from turning unto the Lord God of Israel. (2 Chronicles 36:13)). He was called profane for despising the oath which he had sworn, and for breaking the covenant he had made with the King of Babylon in the name of Jehovah.
Verses 26 and 27 are of exceeding interest. In the government of Jehovah the diadem and crown have been removed from the land of Israel. Zedekiah was the last king to sit on the throne of David.
Since then, through the centuries until Christ, the true Messiah and King of Israel, was born, there has been nothing but anarchy and usurpation — “exalt the low and abase the high.” Everything that man has endeavored to do for the restoration of that scattered people has come to nothing — “I will overturn, overturn, overturn it.” God will not suffer anything to succeed “until He come, whose right it is.”
But He has come, and the Jewish nation would not have Him. It is “an indisputable fact, that the Lord Jesus of Nazareth is the last in Jewish history whose descent from the royal line of David can now be established by sufficiently authentic proof” (Barron). The right to sit on David’s throne was His; but other counsels had to be fulfilled, even that “eternal purpose” of God, which was to set the Church, composed of believing Jews and Gentiles, in heavenly glory with Christ; and for this He had to die. But nevertheless He came, whose right it was, and on that throne He yet will sit — “I will give it Him.”