Ezekiel 35:1-9, 14, 15 Moreover the word of the LORD came to me, saying,… When God is obliged to be "against" a man or a people, as he was against Edom (ver. 2), he (it) may look for these three things in the retribution which impends - I. AN INFLICTION ANSWERING IN CHARACTER TO THE SIN. "Because thou hast given over... to the power of the sword... therefore... I will prepare thee unto blood, and blood shall pursue thee" (vers. 5, 6). Our Lord also himself tells us that "they who take the sword shall perish with the sword." Violence shown to others commonly brings down violence on its own head. Craft and cunning lead men to great wariness, and even to a corresponding wiliness, in their dealing with the man who endeavors to undermine and to deceive. The man who is much engaged in digging pits for others is very likely to fall into one himself. Miserliness of spirit and behavior always leads to a real impoverishment of soul, and often to an imaginary poverty of circumstance which, though imaginary, is real enough to the man's own mind. There is no one whom the penurious man deprives of so much good and joy as himself. Penalty always answers to wrong-doing in its character. They who sin in the flesh suffer in the flesh, and they who sin in the spirit suffer in the spirit. The man who sins against his family will suffer domestic trouble; he that does not respect himself wrongs himself grievously, if not fatally. II. AS INFLICTION ANSWERING IN MEASURE TO THE SIN. The severity of Edom's punishment was to answer to the greatness of her crime. 1. Lasting enmity was to be visited with lasting desolation (see vers. 5, 9). 2. Because they had "hated blood," i.e. had shown such determined malice and cruel hatred towards their own relatives (Theodoret, Jerome, Michaelis), therefore "blood should pursue them;" violence should not only overtake and slay, but should pursue them, should continue to smite them. 3. "According to the joy of the whole land [of Edom], God would make it a desolation" (ver. 14; Fairbairn); as it did rejoice in Israel's fall, in like measure would it be the object of derision and of triumph "in the dark hour coming on." As its joy, so its desolation; the height of the one would measure the depth of the other. We cannot always prove that penalty answers in measure to the extent of the wrong that has been wrought; but we can very often see that it does, and we are quite sure that it does so when we cannot recognize the fact. The truth that much sorrow is not penalty at all but discipline and preparation for higher work and a larger life, and the further and deeper truth that a very large and most important part of penalty is found in inward experience and especially in spiritual deterioration, will explain many apparent exceptions to this rule. Fuller knowledge and profounder wisdom will bring their sufficient revelations in good time; meanwhile we may be perfectly assured of the fact that the further we wander from God, from truth, from righteousness, from love, the deeper is the brand that enters into our soul, and the sadder is the destiny we are weaving for ourselves. III. THE CONSTANTLY RECURRING ELEMENT OF DESOLATION. As the word "desolate," or "desolation," is the prevailing note of this prophecy, and indeed of many others also, so may it be said that loss, diminution, destitution, ruin, is the constantly recurring evil which sin is working in the Soul and in the life of men. They who forsake the God of their fathers and who seek their heritage not in his holy service but in material successes or in the lower affections and delights, will surely find that they are bereaving themselves of all that is best; that they are denuding their life of its highest worth, that they are going down, step by step - sometimes it is by very steep steps, too - to the condition which may be well described in the prophet's words as "a desolation and an astonishment" (ver. 3). - C. Parallel Verses KJV: Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, |
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