Ezekiel 22:23-31 - Homilies By W. Jones

The universal prevalence of wickedness, and the consequent certainty of judgment.

"And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, say unto her, Thou art the land that is not cleansed," etc.

I. THE UNIVERSAL PREVALENCE OF WICKEDNESS . This is exhibited by Ezekiel:

1. In the absence of any effective correction thereof . "Thou art the land that is not cleansed." This refers to the moral condition of the people. The figure is viewed by some as a land that is not freed from noxious weeds, by others as not cleansed as metals are by the refiner's fire. With either view the spiritual signification is the same. "Judaea had been oft cleansing," says Greenhill, "but was never thoroughly cleansed. Hezekiah and Josiah made the greatest cleansings, but all the sin was not purged out in their days; they took away the objects and mediums of sin, viz. the idols, images, groves, and high places, but the people continued wicked; they did not cleanse their hands nor hearts and turn to the Lord, but returned to their former and worse abominations, when those good kings were gone. The Lord had sent them many prophets, who dealt with them several ways to draw them to repentance … Besides these things, God oft sent sweeping and fierce judgments amongst them, famine, sword, pestilence; and notwithstanding all these, they returned not to the Lord, but the land, that is, the people of it, did remain uncleansed, they were like a land wherein was nothing but weeds, nettles, briars, and thorns."

2. In its pernicious activity amongst all classes .

(a) Their guilty subservience to wicked rulers. "Her prophets have daubed for them [ i.e. the princes] with untempered mortar," etc. (Verse 28). The clauses of this verse have come under our notice already ( Ezekiel 13:10 , Ezekiel 16:7 ; Ezekiel 21:29 ). The princes were insatiably covetous, grossly dishonest, and ruthlessly cruel; and these false prophets who should have rebuked their wicked ness, countenanced their procedure, encouraged their practices, and assured them that their ways were approved by God.

(b) Their scandalous cupidity. "They take treasure and precious things" (Verse 25). They extorted from the people their valued possessions as the price of their prophesying. They did not forcibly despoil them of their treasures, but they obtained them by arts and devices which disgraced the sacred office whose functions they bad assumed. "The dogs are greedy, they can never have enough;… they have all turned to their own way, each one to his gain, from every quarter" ( Isaiah 56:11 ).

(c) Their grievous cruelty. "Like a roaring lion ravening the prey: they have devoured souls;… they have made her widows many in the midst thereof" (per. 25). "The false prophets," says Hengstenberg, "rob the goods and devour the souls, in so far as they stand by to help forward the robbing and murdering acts of the great (Verse 27), and sharpen not, but rather soothe their con science by saying, Peace, peace, when there is no peace. Thus they are accomplices in the robbing and murdering course of the great, who have them in their ray. They deport themselves as smooth and peaceful men, and present themselves as men of tenderness, in contrast with the rough preachers of repentance, the true prophets; but when examined in the light they are thieves and murderers."

(d) Their shameful combination. "There is a conspiracy of her prophets in the midst thereof." They were solemnly banded together for the accomplishment of their atrocious designs. They had entered into a compact to prophesy the same things, and "were careful not to contradict each other's lies."

(a) Misinterpretation of God's Law. "Her priests have done violence to my Law." "To violate the Law is to break it—to offer violence to the Law is to misinterpret it." The latter is the charge which is here preferred against the priests. They perverted the holy Law to make it harmonize with the inclinations of a sinful people, and with their own wicked practices.

(b) Profanation of God's institutions. "And have profaned mine holy things: they have put no difference between the holy and the common," etc. (Verse 26). We have noticed God's holy things in dealing with Verse 8. "It was the special office of the priests to keep up the distinction between holy and unholy, clean and unclean," consecrated and common things (cf. Le Ezekiel 10:10 ; Ezekiel 22:1-13 ). They "should have instructed the people what meats were lawful for them, what not; what sacrifices were fit to be brought to the Lord, and what not; who were worthy, and who not, to eat of the holy things and to approach unto the holy God" (Greenhill). But this they had not done. "The law of the sabbath," as Hengstenberg remarks, "is given as an example. This they rob of its deep spiritual import, and limit it to the external rest, as if it were given for animals, and not for men who are to serve God in spirit" (cf. Verse 8). By these doings they profaned God himself. "And I am profaned among them." The priests had degraded his infinitely holy and exalted character in the estimation of the people (cf. Malachi 1:6 , Malachi 1:7 ).

(a) Cupidity. They sought "to get dishonest gain." They had their own resources and revenues; but not content with these, they coveted other and larger resources, and resorted to oppression to obtain them, imposing burdensome taxes upon the people.

(b) Cruelty. "Her princes in the midst thereof are like wolves ravening the prey; to shed blood," etc. (Verse 27; and cf. Verses 6, 7; Zephaniah 3:3 ). The covetousness of King Ahab led to the murder of Naboth the Jezreelite.

3. In the fact that no one was found to keep back the destruction which it was bringing upon the land . "And I sought for a man among them that should make up the fence," etc. (Verse 30; of. Isaiah 59:4 ; Jeremiah 5:1 ; and see our homily on Ezekiel 13:5 ). The Lord represents himself as looking solicitously and diligently for such a man, but finding none. "Jeremiah," says Hengstenberg, "by his powerful preaching of repentance, presented himself as such a public deliverer; but they despised him, and he could gain no position. The man alone is nothing. The position must be added, and the people must gather around him. One 'against whom every man contends' cannot avert the judgment of God; he can only accelerate it."

II. THE CONSEQUENT CERTAINTY OF JUDGMENT . When wickedness has become so flagrant and universally prevalent, and there is no one to stand between the guilty people and the approaching judgment, the execution of judgment is inevitable. Notice:

1. The dread severity of this judgment . "Therefore have I poured out mine indignation upon them; I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath" (Verse 31). Words similar to these we have already noticed (Verse 22; Ezekiel 21:31 ). The judgment is so certain that it is spoken of as already accomplished. And as to its severity, what a day is "the day of the indignation" of God! Who can even conceive the terrors of his indignation? or the dread intensity of his wrath?

2. The total absence of alleviations of this judgment . "Thou art a land that is not rained upon in the day of indignation" (Verse 24); that " is a land that in the outburst of the Divine judgment finds no grace; and simply, as the connection shows, because its impurity is not removed. The rain in the day of indignation would be a benefit. It would quench the flame of the Divine indignation (Hengstenberg). But such rain it will not have. The clause we are dealing with amounts to a declaration like this: "Thou shalt have no mercy when the fire of my wrath is kindled."

3. The retributiveness of this judgment . "Their own way have I brought upon their heads, saith the Lord God." This aspect of the Divine judgment has already engaged our attention more than once (on Ezekiel 7:3 , Ezekiel 7:4 ; Ezekiel 9:10 ; Ezekiel 16:43 ).

CONCLUSION . The whole subject is charged with most solemn warnings to the wicked, both as individuals and as communities or nations ( Psalms 2:10-12 ; Isaiah 55:6 , Isaiah 55:7 ).—W.J.