Ezekiel 30:7 - Homiletics

Desolation.

Egypt is to be desolate in the midst of countries that are desolate, and her cities laid waste in the midst of other ruined cities. A picture of widespread and general desolation.

I. THERE IS A DESOLATION OF LANDS AND CITIES . Having lived free from the ravages of an invader ever since the Norman conquest, we find it impossible to imagine the agonies of war among the people who suffer from them. The excitement of battle may drown those horrors for a season. But when that excitement is over, the consequent distress is deep and hitter, widespread and lasting. War is a demon of destruction. It literally ravages a country. No incursion of wild beasts from the forest, no pestilence or famine, can bring about evils equal to those of war. It is the duty of all Christian people to band themselves together into a league of peace. The war-mongers often raise cries of "British interests in danger!" The country should learn that the greatest British interest is peace.

II. THERE IS A DESOLATION OF HOMES .

1. This happens in bankruptcy, which is often brought about by wicked devices of cunning men. The successful promoter of a company entraps unwary people, pockets a rich premium, escapes before the crash, and leave his victims to ruin and misery. Gambling ruins multitudes of homes. If a man considered his duty to his wife and children, he would see that this terribly prevalent national vice is selfish and cruel.

2. This happens in external prosperity . Drunkenness makes a home desolate even before it has brought poverty, and no home can be more wretched for the children than that of drunken parents. Therefore the self-indulgence of intemperance is brutally cruel. Quarrelling desolates a home. Many a house that is envied by the ignorant for its affluence and luxury is a very prison of misery. When love departs, the best-appointed home is desolate. Dreary souls then drag out a beclouded existence among the melancholy ruins of wasted affection.

III. THERE IS A DESOLATION OF CHURCHES .

1. This may be physical . The Mohammedans simply stamped out the relics of a decaying and quarrelsome Christianity in North Africa—the home of Tertullian, Cyprian, and Augustine, The seven Churches of Asia have nearly all disappeared. If we are not true and strong in the Christian life, our candlestick will at length be taken away from us.

2. It may be spiritual . The ruined abbeys of England are famed for their beauty, and few may regret their present condition when admiring the relies of architectural splendor. But there is a worse desolation for Churches than roofless naves and crumbling walls. A Church is indeed desolate when the Spirit of Christ has forsaken her. She may seem to flourish in numbers, finance, and mechanical enterprise. But in the sight of Heaven she is a moldering ruin.

IV. THERE IS A DESOLATION OF SOULS .

1. This may come in great sorrow . When "the desire of his eyes" is taken from a man, how can he be other than desolate? Job was desolate indeed when his children were killed. Rizpah was desolate when she sat by the corpses of her two sons to drive off the foul birds of prey ( 2 Samuel 21:10 ), and Naomi when she returned to Bethlehem a childless widow. But God can comfort this desolation and fill its victim with heavenly peace.

2. The worst desolation is in sin . The soul is a wreck. Its very constitution is a ruin. God is driven from his seat in conscience. Here is the most dire and dreadful desolation—that of the prodigal, who feeds swine in a far country, and who would fain fill himself with the husks that the swine cat! It reaches its climax in pitiless solitude—"and no man gave unto him" ( Luke 15:16 ).