Ezekiel 5:11 - Homiletics.

Diminishment.

The wicked nation is to be punished by being diminished ( i.e. if we accept the Authorized Version, confirmed as it is by the majority of the Revisers).

II. POPULATION IS DIMINISHED . After the exile Palestine was thrown back almost to the condition of a wilderness, and lions came up from the desert to the once thickly peopled country ( 2 Kings 17:25 ). But even before the exile, war, famine, and plague reduced the population. Professor Seeley has shown that the chief cause of the overthrow of Rome by the Teutonic invaders was the great depopulating of Italy that took place under the empire. France is now threatened by decreasing population. The strength of a nation is in its people more than in its wealth.

II. GLORY IS DIMINISHED . Instead of the growth of honour and fame among the nations which was seen under Solomon, the Hebrew nation is now to shrink in importance, and so to fall into a position of insignificance. This has happened to Greece, Rome, Spain, Holland. It may happen to England. We have no assurance that our proud British flag shall always float in glory. For our national sins God may permit it to be trampled in the mire.

III. POWER IS DIMINISHED . In regard to national movements this runs parallel with the previous thought, but in individuals it has a wider scope. The final punishment of sin is death. The prior penalties of sin are dying, i.e. a reduction of spiritual life, activity, and power. The once fruitful tree is now barren. He who was most successful in spiritual work now feels himself failing in all he attempts. His influence shrinks into insignificance. Sin has paralyzed his soul.

IV. THE VISION OF TRUTH IS DIMINISHED . Doubts succeed to the formerly growing knowledge of truth. The eyes of the soul become dim. God, who was once near, seems to withdraw himself into the darkness. The whole spiritual world, which had shone on the soul in full-orbed splendors, wanes and fades, and passes in gloom out of sight. The things unseen and eternal, which had been the very universe of existence, melt into vague shadows, and float out of consciousness like the summer clouds that disappear while we gaze at them.

V. THE JOY OF SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCE IS DIMINISHED . That joy can only be bright when the soul's life is fresh and strong. A dull apathy comes with the reduced spirituality. A very weariness succeeds to the old earnest gladness of service. The May time of the soul has gone, and a November gloom has taken its place.

CONCLUSION . There is hope still. Diminution is not extinction. The tree is hewn down, but the stump may sprout ( Isaiah 6:13 ). The Jews diminished by Nebuchadnezzar were restored under Cyrus. It is good in some way to feel diminution if pride is thereby also diminished. In the humility of shame the penitent may hope for his restoration to a new and more sound vigour by the merciful Saviour, who will not break the bruised reed nor quench the smoking flax ( Isaiah 42:3 ).