| Back to Home Page | Back to
Book Index |
Ezekiel Chapter
Thirty-five
Ezekiel 35
Chapter Contents
A prophecy against Edom.
Commentary on Ezekiel 35:1-9
(Read Ezekiel 35:1-9)
All who have God against them
have the word of God
against them. Those that have a constant hatred to God and his people
as the
carnal mind has
can only expect to be made desolate for ever.
Commentary on Ezekiel 35:10-15
(Read Ezekiel 35:10-15)
When we see the vanity of the world in the
disappointments
losses
and crosses
which others meet with
instead of
showing ourselves greedy of worldly things
we should sit more loose to them.
In the multitude of words
not one is unknown to God; not the most idle word;
and the most daring is not above his rebuke. In the destruction of the enemies of
the church
God designs his own glory; and we may be sure that he will not come
short of his design. And when the fulness of the Jews and Gentiles shall come
into the church
all antichristian opposers shall be destroyed.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on Ezekiel》
Ezekiel 35
Verse 2
[2] Son of man
set thy face against mount Seir
and
prophesy against it
Mount Seir — The Edomites
who inhabited it.
Verse 5
[5] Because thou hast had a perpetual hatred
and hast shed
the blood of the children of Israel by the force of the sword in the time of
their calamity
in the time that their iniquity had an end:
Their iniquity — When their iniquity was punished
on them
which brought them to final ruin.
Verse 6
[6] Therefore
as I live
saith the Lord GOD
I will prepare
thee unto blood
and blood shall pursue thee: sith thou hast not hated blood
even blood shall pursue thee.
And blood — Thy guilt
and my just revenge of
innocent blood.
Hast not hated — Thou hast loved
rather than
hated
blood-shed; therefore vengeance for it follows thee.
Verse 7
[7] Thus will I make mount Seir most desolate
and cut off
from it him that passeth out and him that returneth.
That passeth out — All travellers that
go to or from Edom.
Verse 9
[9] I will make thee perpetual desolations
and thy cities
shall not return: and ye shall know that I am the LORD.
Return — To their former glory.
Verse 10
[10] Because thou hast said
These two nations and these two
countries shall be mine
and we will possess it; whereas the LORD was there:
Though — Though God was with Israel.
Verse 11
[11] Therefore
as I live
saith the Lord GOD
I will even do
according to thine anger
and according to thine envy which thou hast used out
of thy hatred against them; and I will make myself known among them
when I
have judged thee.
Judged — Punished thee.
Verse 14
[14] Thus saith the Lord GOD; When the whole earth rejoiceth
I will make thee desolate.
The whole earth — The inhabitants of all the
countries round about thee.
Rejoiceth — Is in peace and plenty.
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on Ezekiel》
35 Chapter 35
Verses 1-15
Verses 8-15
But ye . . . shall shoot forth your branches.
The Divine benison
When does God give short measure? When did He give otherwise than
pressed down
heaped up
running over? This is the consolation of heaven; this
is the measure of the Divine benison.
1. That blessing is to be physical: “Ye shall shoot forth your
branches
and yield your fruit.” God is not ashamed to have His name connected
with the daily loaf and with the daily goblet of water. When we go to the
harvest field we should think we ace going to church; when we go to the well of
springing water we should think we are going to a fountain rising in heaven.
Your harvests are God’s; your fields are the green ways leading up to His
sanctuary.
2. Not only physical
but social: “I will multiply men upon you . . .
and the wastes shall be builded.” God would have all the earth inhabited. He
would build men into organisations and brotherhoods; He would establish
fraternities of souls. The Lord is never ashamed to associate Himself with
social economy
social purity
social progress.
3. Not only physical and social
but municipal: “And the cities shaft
be inhabited.” Cities have not a good history; cities had a bad founder. The
foundations of cities were laid by a murderer. But it hath pleased God to
accept many human doings
and to purify them and ennoble them and turn them to
purposes sanctified and most beneficial. The Lord never set king over anybody
with His own real consent. He gave the people the desire of their hearts
and
plagued them every day since they got the answer. So He accepts the city
and
He will do what He can with the municipalities
to inhabit them
and direct
them
and purify them.
4. The Lord never concludes simply within the letter. At
the last
the invariably says something that opens up a distant and ever-receding because
ever-enlarging horizon. He says in this instance
“I will do better unto you
than at your beginnings.” He is able
let us say again with rising
thankfulness
to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think. The
Church constantly exclaims
Thou hast kept the good wine until now! We never
can get in advance of God. When we have reaped our most abundant harvest He
says
This is only an earnest of the harvest you shall one day possess; I will
do more for you and better unto you than at your beginnings.
5. Then let us grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus
Christ. Let us he no longer thoughtless; let us no longer limit the Holy One of
Israel
saying
The Lord hath made an end of His revelation
the Lord hath no
more grace to give
no more love to show; He has given us the Cross. Paul says
If He has freely given us the Cross
--it is not an end
it is a
beginning
--with the Cross He will also freely give us all things. The Lord
cannot be exhausted. His providence is ascending
expanding
deepening. (J.
Parker
D. D.)
Verse 10
Whereas the Lord was there.
Jehovah-Shammah
As Palestine was preserved from the enmity of Mount Seir by the
presence of Jehovah
so the Church
and each separate member of it
is
constantly kept by the power of a present God
despite the rage of adversaries.
I. A despised
people constantly triumphant because “the Lord was there.” The people of God
have always been
in every age
a hated and despised people. This may be seen
if you will notice a few facts.
1. The adversaries of God’s Israel have often thought in their hearts
that they would utterly destroy them. One of the Roman emperors set up a
monument
“In the memory of a destroyed superstition called Christianity.” But
was our holy religion destroyed? Could the dragon prevail against the remnant
which kept the commandment of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ? Behold the
multitudes who this day bow the knees at the name of Jesus of Nazareth. The
Lord being there
immortality
nay
eternity was in the Church. God is eternal
He is in the Church
and His Church is immortal too.
2. The enemies of the Church have frequently shown their scorn of her
by the ridicule which they have cast upon her attacks. But as the cake of
barley bread fell upon the tent of Midian and smote it that it lay along
even
so the Church is more than conqueror. Sydney Smith said
when Carey talked of
evangelising India
that a consecrated cobbler was going out to preach the
Gospel to educated and enlightened Hindoos
but the consecrated cobbler took
his post and digged in India a well of which thousands shall yet drink. That
man of God has placed the battering-ram of the Gospel in such a position that
ere long the hoary bastions of idolatry will tremble
and the world shall see
that the weakness of God is stronger than man.
3. The world’s estimation of the Church has frequently been seen in
the way in which it will mock at all her teachings. The wise men of this world
have always something far superior to anything that the Bible can reveal. Ah!
we can well endure their boastings
for the doctrines of grace are the loftiest
of all philosophy and the most intellectual of all teachings--because
Jehovah-Shammah
the Lord is in them; and where God is
there is perfect
wisdom; where God is
there is incomprehensible knowledge.
4. Do they not
also
very frequently cast in our teeth our trials?
Nebuchadnezzar can cast in but three
he cannot
however
cast out the fourth;
where the Church shall be
Christ shall walk the coals with His people
and
they shall come out of their trials triumphant
for God is there. Where God is
there is everlasting love; where God abideth
there is immutable affection; and
therefore let this be our comfort
God is with thee
Israel
passing through
the fire.
5. The world shows its disesteem of us by the way in which it often
treats the Christian. It sees him poor and naked and miserable
and therefore
pushes him about as though he were a beggar and not one of the blood royal. Little
do they know that
however poor the Christian may be
the Lord is there. The
very honour and dignity and majesty of Deity itself guards every follower of
the Saviour
however much he may be despised among men.
II. The man opposed
and yet a conqueror.
1. The early convictions of a newborn soul are always the subject of
Satanic attack. Satan hopes that with the laugh
the jeer
the jest and
merriment he will destroy utterly all convictions of sin; little does he dream
that “the Lord is there
” and where God sends the arrow home
no devil can ever
draw it out.
2. Then
as the fend has tried to destroy conviction
he will next
shoot his arrows against our faith. Poor
feeble follower of Jesus
he will
worry thee. But the faith which God gives to us overcometh the world--yea
and
overcometh the old dragon too.
3. Have not you always found that not only your faith but all your
good works are the subjects of Satan’s attacks? I never yet had a virtue or
possessed a grace but what it was sure to be the target for hellish bullets;
whether it was hope bright and sparkling
or love warm and fervent
or patience
all enduring
or real flaming like coals of fire
the old enemy of everything
that is good has tried if he could destroy or mar it. And why is it that anything
virtuous or lovely survives in you? There can be no reason given to this
but
“God is then.”
4. Note how sedulously Satan aims against the perseverance of God’s
people. They will never hold on their way
saith he. You and I have thought we
never should. And yet you have not fallen from grace yet
not yet have you
disgraced your character
not yet gone back to your old lusts. How is this?
Why
God was in you
and if He had not been there
then indeed had you been a
prey unto your adversaries. A Christian is something like an express train. On
some of our railroads
you know
there are express trains which do not stop to
take water
the water lies in a trench in the middle between the rails
and as
the train runs it sucks up its own supply of cold water
and so continues its
course without a pause. Our God in grace has forestalled our needs
He prepares
supplies for His own people
so that without their stopping to seek the streams
of creature confidence
sometimes without the use of means
He is pleased to speed
them on their pathway towards heaven
fed by a Divine arrangement of grace. Oh
it is blessed to think that if God be there
everything a Christian can want
for his final persevering
for his eternal life
is ready at hand.
5. I have no doubt
beloved
we shall find that when we come to die
our dying confidence will be the object of the enmity of all the powers of
hell. Perhaps like John Knox you may have your blackest day at the last
but
oh! thanks be unto God that giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus
Christ
we have no fear for our dying confidence
for “God is there
” even
there where the billows are the most tempestuous and the water is most chill;
we shall feel the bottom and know that it is good
our feet shall stand upon
the rock of ages even in our dying moments.
III. A desolate soul
not destroyed
because God is there. “My purpose is
” says Satan
“that be
shall dwell forever with me
in misery extreme. I have laid hold upon him
”
says he
“and he hath made a league with hell. He is mine
he is mine forever.”
But stop
stop
the Lord was there before the devil. Does the devil purpose?
Ah
but God’s purpose is older than the devil’s purpose. Does the sinner make a
covenant? Ay
but then
God’s covenant was made before that sinner was born
and what is the devil’s purpose compared with God’s purpose? You see
God is
there before him--“Whereas the Lord was there.” “Ah
but
” said Satan
“he is
mine
I will have him
I will go and take possession
he is mine”; and so he is
about to enter the vineyard
and take possession of the vines of sour grapes
when lo! someone meets him on the threshold
and says
“What dost thou here?”
“I am come to take possession
” saith he. “Take possession!” saith Christ; “I
have a claim upon this vineyard
I bought it and paid for it with drops of
blood; what dost thou here? Thou sayest
‘I will possess this land
’ whereas
the Lord was there”: and He shows the fiend the print of the nails
and points
to His wounded side
and says
“Whatever thy claim may be
Mine is a higher
claim; I bought
I paid for
I have the acceptance from the Divine hand
and
this vessel of mercy was Mine
Mine long before thou couldst have any claim
upon it.”
IV. The same
dear
friends
is true with regard to the entire world. The world cannot be
destroyed
because “Jehovah is there.” This world once shone
like its sister
stars
bright and fair
but a sad shadow of eclipse was thrown upon it--it
became swathed in the mists of sin and though the glory of the Lord hath risen
upon it
yet still much of the gloom and the thick darkness continues. Shall
that darkness cover all the nation? Shall the light become dim forever? No
no;
“The whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.” Shall
its groans and travails end in nothing? No
no; the day cometh when “The glory
of the Lord shall be revealed
and all flesh shall see it together
for the
mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.” (C. H. Spurgeon.)
──《The Biblical Illustrator》