Ezekiel 14:1-11 Then came certain of the elders of Israel to me, and sat before me.… I. WHAT IS MEANT BY THE SETTING UP OF IDOLS? 1. It is oppressive to men in their natural state to think of the spiritual, omnipresent, heart-searching God. Accordingly they have brought down their conception of God to something that can be apprehended by sense. They have thus tried to satisfy the religious instinct within them, while at the same time pleasing themselves. It is much easier to have an object of worship that we can see, or touch, or taste. An idol, too, is not so exacting as the incorruptible and sin-hating God. Being material, it cannot require heart worship. 2. We are in no danger of worshipping idols of wood and stone. But the tendency of human nature is always the same, and where there is not renewing grace there is something creaturely that is idolised — it may be some place of power, or wealth, or some sensual pleasure, or child, or creation of the mind. (1) There is this idolatry when we are intent upon a sin or a course of sinning. (2) There is this idolatry when we set up particular ideas in our heart from which we do not mean to turn. II. THE INQUIRING. These Israelites did not mean by setting up their idols utterly to east off Jehovah. They meant still to connect Him with their past history as their national deity. And so we can understand their going to inquire of one of the Lord's prophets. There were cross-currents in their life. There was the idolatrous current which led them to do what was forbidden by God, and yet there was the old current which led them to inquire of God. We may find an analogy to this still. 1. There is this inquiring when we ask for light and help in prayer, while at the same time we are determined to follow what pleases ourselves. 2. There is this inquiry when we search the Bible while yet we are resolved to see in it only certain things. III. THE DIVINE TREATMENT. 1. Why it must be futile to inquire of God while bent on our own way. (1) God requires submission. (2) God requires sincerity. 2. How God shows the futility of inquiring of Him while we are bent on our own way. "I the Lord will answer him."(1) He allows our dispositions to work out some terrible result to bring us to shame. We are ruined in our estate, or in our health. Some child whom we idolise may prove a grief to us. (2) He allows us to get into despondency and despair. No one who puts an idol in the place of God is above being unhinged. Especially is the devotee who has his darling sin the likely victim of despondency. (3) Or He allows us to be hardened so as to be unable to see the difference between right and wrong. (R. Einlayson, B. A.) Parallel Verses KJV: Then came certain of the elders of Israel unto me, and sat before me.WEB: Then came certain of the elders of Israel to me, and sat before me. |
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