Ezekiel 30:1-7 - Homilies By W. Clarkson

The day of desolation.

To what extent we are to take the prophet's description of the "woe" that was to overtake Egypt in a strictly external sense must (as said before on Ezekiel 29:16 ) depend on our principle of biblical interpretation, together with our reading of ancient history. For the purpose of religious edification it is enough that we accept these words as a picture of the desolation to which a course of guilt, whether national or individual, may be expected to lead.

I. NATIONAL DESOLATION . Of this Ezekiel furnishes, in the whole chapter, a most graphic picture.

1. Prosperity (fullness) departs, and there is no more boast of its great population (Verse 10).

2. Violent death lays numbers of its people low; the land is "filled with the slain" (Verses 4, 11).

3. Its hope, in the person of its young men, is slain (Verse 17).

4. Its beauty, its pride, in the person of its daughters, is removed (Verse 18).

5. Its physical resources are dried up (Verse 12).

6. Its natural leaders are lost to it (verse 13).

7. Its religious institutions are broken up (Verse 13).

8. Its allies and dependencies are dragged down with it to the ground (Verses 5, 6); " its yokes are broken" (Verse 18).

9. Its people are stricken with dismay; instead of its ancient pride and pomp (Verse 18), fearfulness fills the heart of its inhabitants (Verse 13); a cloud of dire misfortune throws the whole country into dark shadow (Verses 3, 18). The final, comprehensive touch is in the language of the text.

10. Desolation in the midst of desolation. It does not appear that Egypt ever presented so desperate a scene as this; and we may understand either

II. THE DESOLATION OF THE SPIRIT .

1. In what it is found . Spiritual desolation is experienced when all that is really precious to the human soul is broken up and has departed. When

2. How it may be averted . "None of them that trust in him shall be desolate," says the psalmist ( Psalms 35:22 ). The fear of God, walking in the light of his truth, communion with Jesus Christ and association with his friends and followers, the daily prayer for the restraining and the prompting influences of the Spirit of God,—this will secure the soul from loss and from decline. He who lives thus will not enter even the outer shadow of this calamity.

3. The way of deliverance . Men once thought that there was no way for a human soul to ascend from the pit of spiritual ruin to the lofty levels of holy service and sacred joy and immortal hope. We think thus no more now that he has spoken to us who has said, "I am the Way."—C.