Ezekiel 22:14 - Homiletics

A total collapse.

I. DELUSIVE HOPE . Consider what it rests on.

1. A stout heart . The sinner believes in himself. He feels brave and confident. No doubt this temper of mind will help him over a number of difficulties. But will it stand in the awful day of Divine judgment?

2. Strong hands . The sinner is conscious of strength in himself and in his possessions, in his body and mind, and in the resources of his ill-gotten gain. The wicked king owns his army; the bad millionaire holds his money; the sinful man of humbler pretensions relies on his wits, his energy, or at worst on his luck.

3. Present prosperity . The text refers to future days, when God will deal with the sinner. Those days have not yet dawned, and all is fair at present. The natural tendency is to believe that the world will continue as it is now. "For as in the days that were before the Flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark" ( Matthew 24:38 ).

II. CERTAIN FAILURE . The text is in the form of a question, but it plainly suggests only one dismal answer. The delusive hope must fail. Note the grounds of the certain failure.

1. Human feebleness . It is a case of the strength of man matched against the might of God. Who can doubt the issue? In such a contest the stoutest heart must fail and the strongest arm go down. Man is the lord of creation; but he is a feeble insect before Omnipotence.

2. Divine constancy . "I the Lord have spoken it, and will do it." God is true to his word. He does not mock his children with idle threats. He is too sure to fail.

3. Changed circumstances . "In the days that I shall deal with thee." Those days have not yet arrived. Therefore we cannot comfort ourselves that we shall be safe in the future because we are comfortable enough at present. The coming days will wear a new aspect. We are not fortified against winter storms by the enjoyment of summer sunshine. The ease with which we glide down the stream is no guarantee that the thunder of the falls will never be reached. The delusive hope which shines fair in the old times of Divine waiting will be shattered to fragments in the new days of Divine judgment.

III. CONSEQUENT MISERY . The question of the text is not answered; but the doleful silence with which it is received suggests the misery that is to follow. If heart and hand fail, the ruin and wretchedness must be complete. While a good man fighting against adversity is said to be a sight for the admiration of gods as well as men, a bad man crushed by misery is only an object of horror. The stout heart of honest intentions can bear up against unmerited woes and find in its own fortitude a certain solace. But this solace will be wanting in the collapse of the false hope of the sinner. Then will follow the deepest misery, the sense of being confounded, the helplessness of being swept away in a flood of destruction. Pain is not the worst evil. The depth of hell is reached when heart and strength fail, and the sinner loses all power to withstand his fate. Hence the supreme need of a Savior ( Romans 8:1 ).