Ezekiel 28:25 - Homiletics

The home-gathering.

It is a relief to turn from repeated threatenings of approaching doom to the voice of gracious promises. We have here a gleam of sunshine breaking for a moment through the clouds of judgment. As there was light in the land of Goshen while a plague of darkness fell on the rest of Egypt ( Exodus 10:23 ), so now the Jews are to be blessed when every neighboring nation lies in ruins. The home-gathering of the Jews is their great expected blessing, which stands out in strong contrast with the hopeless desolation of the heathen. A wider Christian vision will desire to see in this a type of that great spiritual restoration which is for all the people of God, and for all who are willing to become his people, even though they now belong to lost heathen races. A Jewish prophet predicted this wider and more glorious future ( Isaiah 19:25 ).

I. THE FRUIT OF DIVINE REDEMPTION IS A GREAT HOME - GATHERING . It was so physically with Israel; it is so spiritually with Christians.

1. Sin scatters . It drives men from God, banishes them from their old privileges, breaks up the brotherhood of fellow-men, and destroys the true family spirit. All evil is a solvent of society.

2. Christ restores .

II. THIS GREAT HOME - GATHERING IS FOR THE GLORY OF GOD . God was to be glorified in the punishment of the wicked ( Ezekiel 28:22 ). But he gains a fresh glory from redemption. When Israel is restored God "shall be sanctified in them in the sight of the heathen." The holiness of God will then be made apparent to the world. The restoration of Israel reveals the power and goodness of God, and shows how he cares for and saves the people who acknowledge him. In a much higher way the redemption of the world sanctifies God by revealing his holiness.

1. It shows his power over sin . He restrains the wicked, that those who obey his Word may have freedom to do so.

2. It shows his recovering grace . The Jews had sinned and had been banished as a punishment for their wickedness, in which they resembled the heathen. But they were penitent, and, being pardoned, they were also restored. There is greater glory in redemption than in retribution. If God conquers sin, not by destroying the sinner, but by converting him, God's holiness is most fully glorified. There is nothing on earth that so sanctifies God, by revealing him in separate, supreme goodness, as the triumphs of the gospel. Nebuchadnezzar glorified God, but Cyrus more so. God was glorified in the destruction of Jerusalem; he was more glorified in the preaching of St. Paul.