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Expositor's Bible Commentary Ezekiel 24:1 Again in the ninth year, in the tenth month, in the tenth day of the month, the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, FINAL ORACLES AGAINST JERUSALEM Ezekiel 22:1-31 ; Ezekiel 24:1-27 THE close of the first period of Ezekiel’s work was marked by two dramatic incidents, which made the day memorable both in the private life of the prophet and in the history of the nation. In the first place it coincided exactly with the commencement of the siege of Jerusalem. The prophet’s mysterious knowledge of what was happening at a distance was duly recorded, in order that its subsequent confirmation through the ordinary channels of intelligence might prove the divine origin of his message. { Ezekiel 24:1-2 } That Ezekiel actually did this we have no reason to doubt. Then the sudden death of his wife on the evening of the same day, and his unusual behaviour under the bereavement, caused a sensation among the exiles which the prophet was instructed to utilise as a means of driving home the appeal just made to them. These transactions must have had a profound effect on Ezekiel’s fellow-captives. They made his personality the centre of absorbing interest to the Jews in Babylon; and the two years of silence on his part which ensued were to them years of anxious foreboding about the result of the siege. At this juncture the prophet’s thoughts naturally are occupied with the subject which hitherto formed the principal burden of his prophecy. The first part of his career accordingly closes, as it had begun, with a symbol of the fall of Jerusalem. Before this, however, he had drawn out the solemn indictment against Jerusalem which is given in chapter 22, although the finishing touches were probably added after the destruction of the city. The substance of that chapter is so closely related to the symbolic representation in the first part of chapter 24 that it will be convenient to consider it here as an introduction to the concluding oracles addressed more directly to the exiles of Tel-abib. I. The purpose of this arraignment-the most stately of Ezekiel’s orations-is to exhibit Jerusalem in her true character as a city whose social condition is incurably corrupt. It begins with an enumeration of the prevalent sins of the capital ( Ezekiel 22:2-16 ); it ends with a denunciation of the various classes into which society was divided ( Ezekiel 22:23-31 ); while the short intervening passage is a figurative description of the judgment which is now inevitable ( Ezekiel 22:17-22 ). 1. The first part of the chapter, then, is a catalogue of the "abominations" which called down the vengeance of heaven upon the city of Jerusalem. The offences enumerated are nearly the same as those mentioned in the definitions of personal righteousness and wickedness given in chapter 18. It is not necessary to repeat what was there said about the characteristics of the moral ideal which had been formed in the mind of Ezekiel. Although he is dealing now with a society, his point of view is quite different from that represented by purely allegorical passages like chapters 16 and 23. The city is not idealised and treated as a moral individual, whose relations with Jehovah have to he set forth in symbolic and figurative language. It is conceived as an aggregate of individuals bound together in social relations; and the sins charged against it are the actual transgressions of the men who are members of the community. Hence the standard of public morality is precisely the same as that which is elsewhere applied to the individual in his personal relation to God; and the sins enumerated are attributed to the city merely because they are tolerated and encouraged in individuals by laxity of public opinion and the force of evil example. Jerusalem is a community in which these different crimes are perpetrated: "Father and mother are despised in thee; the stranger is oppressed in the midst of thee; orphan and widow are wronged in thee; slanderous men seeking blood have been in thee; flesh with the blood is eaten in thee; lewdness is committed in the midst of thee; the father’s shame is uncovered in thee; she that was unclean in her separation hath been humbled in thee." So the grave and measured indictment runs on. It is because of these things that Jerusalem as a whole is "guilty" and "unclean" and has brought near her day of retribution ( Ezekiel 22:4 ). Such a conception of corporate guilt undoubtedly appeals more directly to our ordinary conscience of public morality than the more poetic representations where Jerusalem is compared to a faithless and treacherous woman. We have no difficulty in judging of any modern city in the very same way as Ezekiel here judges Jerusalem; and in this respect it is interesting to notice the social evils which he regards as marking out that city as ripe for destruction. There are three features of the state of things in Jerusalem in which the prophet recognises the symptoms of an incurable social condition. The first is the loss of a true conception of God. In ancient Israel this defect necessarily assumed: the form of idolatry. Hence the multiplication. of idols appropriately finds a place among the marks of the "uncleanness" which made Jerusalem hateful in the eyes of Jehovah ( Ezekiel 22:3 ). But the root of idolatry in Israel was the incapacity or the unwillingness of the people to live up to the lofty conception of the Divine nature which was taught by the prophets. Throughout the ancient world religion was felt to be the indispensable bond of society, and the gods that were worshipped reflected more or less fully the ideals that swayed the life of the community. To Israel the religion of Jehovah represented the highest social ideal that was then known on earth. It meant righteousness, and purity, and brotherhood, and compassion for the poor and distressed. When these virtues decayed she forgot Jehovah ( Ezekiel 22:12 )-forgot His character even if she remembered His name-and the service of false gods was the natural and obvious expression of the fact. There is therefore a profound truth in Ezekiel’s mind when he numbers the idols of Jerusalem amongst the indications of a degenerate society. They were the evidence that she had lost the sense of God as a holy and righteous spiritual presence in her midst, and that loss was at once the source and symptom of widespread moral declension. It is one of the chief lessons of the Old Testament that a religion which was neither the product of national genius. nor the embodiment of national aspiration, but was based on supernatural revelation, proved itself in the history of Israel to be the only possible safeguard against the tendencies which made for social disintegration. A second mark of depravity which Ezekiel discovers in the capital is the perversion of certain moral instincts which are just as essential to the preservation of society as a true conception of God. For if society rests at one end on religion, it rests at the other on instinct. The closest and most fundamental of human relations depend on innate perceptions which may be easily destroyed, but which when destroyed can scarcely be recovered. The sanctities of marriage and the family will hardly bear the coarse scrutiny of utilitarian ethics; yet they are the foundation on which the whole social fabric is built. And there is no part of Ezekiel’s indictment of Jerusalem which conveys to our minds a more vivid sense of utter corruption than where he speaks of the loss of filial piety and; revolting forms of sexual impurity as prevalent sins in the city. Here at least he carries the conviction of every moralist with him. He instances no offence of this kind which would not be branded as unnatural by any system of ethics as heartily as it is by the Old Testament. It is possible, on the other hand, that he ranks on the same level with these sins ceremonial impurities appealing to feelings of a different order, to which no permanent moral value can be attached. When, for example, he instances eating with the blood as an "abomination," he appeals to a law which is no longer binding on us. But even that regulation was not so worthless, from a moral point of view at that time as we are apt to suppose. The abhorrence of eating blood was connected with certain sacrificial ideas which attributed a mystic significance to the blood as the seat of animal life. So long as these ideas existed no man could commit this offence without injuring his moral nature and loosening the Divine sanctions of morality as a whole. It is a false illuminism which seeks to disparage the moral insight of the prophet on the ground that he did not teach an abstract system of ethics in which ceremonial precepts were sharply distinguished from duties which we consider moral. The third feature of Jerusalem’s guilty condition is lawless violation of human rights. Neither life nor property was secure. Judicial murders were frequent in the city, and minor forms of oppression, such as usury, spoliation of the unprotected, and robbery, were of daily occurrence. The administration of justice was corrupted by systematic bribery and perjury, and the lives of innocent men were ruthlessly sacrificed under the forms of law. This after all is the aspect of things which bulks most largely in the prophet’s indictment. Jerusalem is addressed as a "city shedding blood in her midst," and throughout the accusation the charge of bloodshed is that which constantly recurs. Misgovernment and party strife, and perhaps religious persecution, had converted the city into a vast human shambles, and the blood of the innocent slain cried aloud to heaven for vengeance. "Of what avail," asks the prophet, "are the stores of wealth piled up in the hands of a few against this damning witness of blood? Jehovah smites His hand [in derision] against her gains that she has made, and against her blood which is in her midst. How can her heart stand or her hands be strong in the days when He deals with her?" ( Ezekiel 22:13-14 ). Drained of her best blood, given over to internecine strife, and stricken with the cowardice of conscious guilt, Jerusalem, already disgraced among the nations, must fall an easy victim to the Chaldaean invaders, who are the agents of Jehovah’s judgments. 2. But the most serious aspect of the situation is that which is dealt with in the peroration of the chapter ( Ezekiel 22:23-31 ). Outbursts of vice and lawlessness such as has been described may occur in any society, but they are not necessarily fatal to a community so long as it possesses a conscience which can be roused to effective protest against them. Now the worst thing about Jerusalem was that she lacked this indispensable condition of recovery. No voice was raised on the side of righteousness, no man dared to stem the tide of wickedness that swept through her streets. Not merely that she harboured within her walls men guilty of incest and robbery and murder, but that her leading classes were demoralised, that public spirit had decayed among her citizens, marked her as incapable of reformation. She was "a land not watered," "and not rained upon in a day of indignation" ( Ezekiel 22:24 ); the springs of her civic virtue were dried up, and a blight spread through all sections of her population. Ezekiel’s impeachment of different classes of society brings out this fact with great force. First of all the ancient institutions of social order, government, priesthood, and prophecy were in the hands of men who had lost the spirit of their office and abused their position for the advancement of private interests. Her princes have been, instead of humane rulers and examples of noble living, cruel and rapacious tyrants, enriching themselves at the cost of their subjects ( Ezekiel 22:25 ). The priests, whose function was to maintain the outward ordinances of religion and foster the spirit of reverence, have done their utmost, by falsification of the Torah, to bring religion into contempt and obliterate the distinction between the holy and the profane ( Ezekiel 22:26 ). The nobles had been a pack of ravening wolves, imitating the rapacity of the court, and hunting down prey which the royal lion would have disdained to touch ( Ezekiel 22:27 ). As for the professional prophets-those degenerate representatives of the old champions of truth and mercy-we have already seen what they were worth (chapter 13). They who should have been foremost to denounce civil wrong are fit for nothing but to stand by and bolster up with lying oracles in the name of Jehovah a constitution which sheltered crimes like these ( Ezekiel 22:28 ). From the ruling classes the prophet’s glance turns for a moment to the "people of the land," the dim common population, where virtue might have been expected to find its last retreat. It is characteristic of the age of Ezekiel that the prophets begin to deal more particularly with the sins of the masses as distinct from the classes. This was due partly perhaps to a real increase of ungodliness in the body of the people, but partly also to a deeper sense of the importance of the individual apart from his position in the state. These prophets seem to feel that there had been anywhere among rich or poor an honest response to the will of Jehovah it would have been a token that God had not altogether rejected Israel. Jeremiah puts this view very strongly when in the fifth chapter he says that if one man could be found in Jerusalem who did justice and sought truth the Lord would pardon her; and his vain search for that one man begins among the poor. It is this same motive that leads Ezekiel to include the humble citizen in his survey of the moral condition of Jerusalem. It is little wonder that under such leaders they had cast off the restraints of humanity, and oppressed those who were still more defenceless than themselves. But it showed nevertheless that real religion had no longer a foothold in the city. It proved that the greed of gain had eaten into the very heart of the people and destroyed the ties of kindred and mutual sympathy, through which alone the will of Jehovah could be realised. No matter although they were obscure householders, without political power or responsibility; if they had been good men in their private relations, Jerusalem would have been a better place to live in. Ezekiel indeed does not go so far as to say that a single good life would have saved the city. He expects of a good man that he be a man in the full sense-a man who speaks boldly on behalf of righteousness and resists the prevalent evils with all his strength: "I sought among them a man to build up a fence, and to stand in the breach before Me on behalf of the land, that it might not be destroyed; and I found none. So I poured out My indignation upon them; with the fire of My wrath I consumed them: I have returned their way upon their head, saith the Lord Jehovah" ( Ezekiel 22:30-31 ). 3. But we should misunderstand Ezekiel’s position if we supposed that his prediction of the speedy destruction of Jerusalem was merely an inference from his clear insight into the necessary conditions of social welfare which were being violated by her rulers and her citizens. That is one part of his message, but it could not stand alone. The purpose of the indictment we have considered is simply to explain the moral reasonableness of Jehovah’s. action in the great act of judgment which the prophet knows to be approaching. It is no doubt a general law of history that moribund communities are not allowed to die a natural death. Their usual fate is to perish in the struggle for existence before some other and sounder nation. But no human sagacity can foresee how that law will be verified in any particular case. It may seem clear to us now that Israel must have fallen sooner or later before the advance of the great Eastern empires, but an ordinary observer could not have foretold with the confidence and precision which mark the predictions of Ezekiel in what manner and within what time the end would come. Of that aspect of the prophet’s mind no explanation can be given save that God revealed His secret to His servants the prophets. Now this element of the prophecy seems to be brought out by the image of Jerusalem’s fate which occupies the middle verses of the chapter ( Ezekiel 22:17-22 ). The city is compared to the crucible in which all the refuse of Israel’s national life is to undergo its final trial by fire. The prophet sees in imagination the terror-stricken provincial population swept into the capital before the approach of the Chaldeans: and he says, "Thus doth Jehovah cast His ore into the furnace-the silver, the brass, the iron, the lead, and the tin; and He will kindle the fire with His anger, and blow upon it till He have consumed the impurities of the land." The image of the smelting-pot had been used by Isaiah as an emblem of purifying judgment, the object of which was the removal of injustice and the restoration of the state to its former splendour: "I will again bring My hand upon thee, smelting out thy dross with lye and taking away all thine alloy; and I will make thy judges to be again as aforetime, and thy counsellors as at the beginning: thereafter thou shalt be called the city of righteousness, the faithful city" ( Isaiah 1:25-26 ). Ezekiel, however, can hardly have contemplated such a happy result of the operation. The whole house of Israel has become dross, from which no precious metal can be extracted; and the object of the smelting is only the demonstration of the utter worthlessness of the people for the ends of God’s kingdom. The more refractory the material to be dealt with the fiercer must be the fire that tests it; and the severity of the exterminating judgment is the only thing symbolised by the metaphor as used by Ezekiel. In this he follows Jeremiah, who applies the figure in precisely the same sense: "The bellows snort, the lead is consumed of the fire; in vain he smelts and smelts: but the wicked are not taken away. Refuse silver shall men call them, for the Lord hath rejected them." { Jeremiah 6:29-30 } In this way the section supplements the teaching of the rest of the chapter. Jerusalem is full of dross-that has been proved by the enumeration of her crimes and the estimate of her social condition. But the fire which consumes the dross represents a special providential intervention bringing the history of the state to a summary and decisive conclusion. And the Refiner who superintends the process is Jehovah, the Holy One of Israel, whose righteous will is executed by the march of conquering hosts, and revealed to men in His dealings with the people whom He had known of all the families of the earth. II. The chapter we have just studied was evidently not composed with a view to immediate publication. It records the view of Jerusalem’s guilt and punishment which was borne in upon the mind of the prophet in the solitude of his chamber, but it was not destined to see the light until the whole of his teaching could be submitted in its final form to a wider and more receptive audience. It is equally obvious that the scenes described in chapter 24 were really enacted in the full view of the exiled community. We have reached the crisis of Ezekiel’s ministry. For the last time until his warnings of doom shall be fulfilled he emerges from his partial seclusion, and in symbolism whose vivid force could not have failed to impress the most listless hearer he announces once more the destruction of the Hebrew nation. The burden of his message is that that day-the tenth day of the tenth month of the ninth year-marked the beginning of the end. "On that very day"-a day to be commemorated for seventy long years by a national fast ( Zechariah 8:19 ; Zechariah 7:5 )-Nebuchadnezzar was drawing his lines around Jerusalem. The bare announcement to men who knew what a Chaldaean siege meant must have sent a thrill of consternation through their minds. If this vision of what was happening in a distant land should prove true, they must have felt that all hope of deliverance was now cut off. Sceptical as they may have been of the moral principles that lay behind Ezekiel’s prediction, they could not deny that the issue he foresaw was only the natural sequel to the fact he so confidently announced. The image here used of the fate of Jerusalem would recall to the minds of the exiles the ill-omened saying which expressed the reckless spirit prevalent in the city: "This city is the pot, and we are the flesh." { Ezekiel 11:3 } It was well understood in Babylon that these men were playing a desperate game, and did not shrink from the horrors of a siege. "Set on the pot," then, cries the prophet to his listeners, "set it on, and pour in water also, and gather the pieces into it, every good joint, leg, and shoulder; fill it with the choicest bones. Take them from the best of the flock, and then pile up the wood under it; let its pieces be boiled and its bones cooked within it" ( Ezekiel 24:3-5 ). This part of the parable required no explanation; it simply represents the terrible miseries endured by the population of Jerusalem during the siege now commencing. But then by a sudden transition the speaker turns the thoughts of his hearers to another aspect of the judgment ( Ezekiel 24:6-8 ). The city itself is like a rusty caldron, unfit for any useful purpose until by some means it has been cleansed from its impurity. It is as if the crimes that had been perpetrated in Jerusalem had stained her very stones with blood. She had not even taken steps to conceal the traces of her wickedness; they lie like blood on the bare rock, an open witness to her guilt. Often Jehovah had sought to purify her by more measured chastisements, but it has now been proved that "her much rust will not go from her except by fire" ( Ezekiel 24:12 ). Hence the end of the siege will be twofold. First of all the contents of the caldron will be indiscriminately thrown out-a figure for the dispersion and captivity of the inhabitants; and then the pot must be set empty on the glowing coals till its rust is thoroughly burned out-a symbol of the burning of the city and its subsequent desolation ( Ezekiel 24:11 ). The idea that the material world may contract defilement through the sins of those who live in it is one that is hard for us to realise, but it is in keeping with the view of sin presented by Ezekiel, and indeed by the Old Testament generally. There are certain natural emblems of sin, such as uncleanness or disease or uncovered blood, etc. , which had to be largely used in order to educate men’s moral perceptions. Partly these rest on the analogy between physical defect and moral evil; but partly, as here, they result from a strong sense of association between human deeds and their effects or circumstances. Jerusalem is unclean as a place where wicked deeds have been done, and even the destruction of the sinners cannot, in the mind of Ezekiel, clear her from the unhallowed associations of her history. She must lie empty and dreary for a generation, swept by the winds of heaven, before devout Israelites can again twine their affections round the hope of her glorious future. Even while delivering this message of doom to the people the prophet’s heart was burdened by the presemiment of a great personal sorrow. He had received an intimation that his wife was to be taken from him by a sudden stroke, and along with the intimation a command to refrain from all the usual signs of mourning. "So I spake to the people" (as recorded in Ezekiel 24:1-14 ) "in the morning, and my wife died in the evening" ( Ezekiel 24:18 ). Just one touch of tenderness escapes him in relating this mysterious occurrence. She was the "delight of his eyes": that phrase alone reveals that there was a fountain of tears sealed up within the breast of this stern preacher. How the course of his life may have been influenced by a bereavement so strangely coincident with a change in his whole attitude to his people, we cannot even surmise. Nor is it possible to say how far he merely used the incident to convey a lesson to the exiles, or how far his private grief was really swallowed up in concern for the calamity of his country. All we are told is that "in the morning he did as he was commanded." He neither uttered loud lamentations, nor disarranged his raiment, nor covered his head, nor ate the "bread of men," nor adopted any of the customary signs of mourning for the dead. When the astonished neighbours inquire the meaning of his strange demeanour, he assures them that his conduct now is a sign of what theirs will be when his words have come true. When the tidings reach them that Jerusalem has actually fallen, when they realise how many interests dear to them have perished-the desolation of the sanctuary, the loss of their own sons and daughters-they will experience a sense of calamity which will instinctively discard all the conventional and even the natural expressions of grief. They shall neither mourn nor weep, but sit in dumb bewilderment, haunted by a dull consciousness of guilt which yet is far removed from genuine contrition of heart. They shall pine away in their iniquities. For while their sorrow will be too deep for words, it will not yet be the godly sorrow that worketh repentance. It will be the sullen despair and apathy of men disenchanted of the illusions on which their national life was based, of men left without hope and without God in the world. Here the curtain falls on the first act of Ezekiel’s ministry. He appears to have retired for the space of two years into complete privacy, ceasing entirely his public appeals to the people, and waiting for the time of his vindication as a prophet. The sense of restraint under which he has hitherto exercised the function of a public teacher cannot be removed until the tidings have reached Babylon that the city has fallen. Meanwhile, with the delivery of this message, his contest with the unbelief of his fellow captives comes to an end. But when that day arrives "his mouth shall be open, and he shall be no more dumb." A new career will open out before him, in which he can devote all his powers of mind and heart to the inspiring work of reviving faith in the promises of God, and so building up a new Israel out of the ruins of the old. The Expositor's Bible Text Courtesy of BibleSupport.com . Used by Permission.

Set on a pot. Ezekiel 24:1-14 The boiling cauldron Urijah R. Thomas. I. THE SINS OF ANY CITY ARE AN OFFENCE TO GOD. 1. Seen by Him. The whole city in its greed for gain, its intemperance, its hollowness, its lust. 2. Seen by Him with anger. He is a Moral Governor, and has the moral nature that breaks into the sunlight of a smile on goodness, and gathers into the thunder cloud of a frown upon wickedness. II. THE SINS OF ANY CITY WILL ENSURE ITS DOOM. 1. History illustrates this. The cities of the plain, the dynasties of the old world. 2. Prophecy predicts this. 3. The law of causation involves this. The disease of sin naturally works the death of destruction. III. THE SINS OF ANY CITY CONCERN EVERY INDIVIDUAL INHABITANT. 1. They bring sorrow on all. 2. They give a mission to all. Hence learn — (1) Seek to evangelise the entire city to save it. (2) Seek to convert individuals, that at least they may be saved. ( Urijah R. Thomas. ) The boiling cauldron A London Minister. 1. Those who profess a true religion and possess a bad character defile their creed by their character. The youth who belongs to an honourable family and lives a vicious life brings the very name of his family into ill-repute. The man who calls himself a Christian, and lives an un-Christlike life, defiles the name he bears. 2. The possession of a correct creed will not preserve a nation or an individual from moral degeneration unless it has its outcome in a life in accordance with it. The child who has a Bible given to it by his father may treasure the book carefully and boast of his possession. But the mere holding of the book will not save him from going down in the scale of morality. To do this he must translate the law of God into life, and thus create a new thing in the earth — a holy character which is all his own, and which he would not inherit from his parent. 3. There are higher claims than those springing from human relationships. The man who descends into the depths of a coal mine to rescue another who is perishing, while his wife stands at the pit's mouth, beseeching him not to venture his life, recognises this law. So does the citizen soldier who leaves his home and family to fight for the oppressed, and the doctor who from choice follows the army on campaign to relieve the sufferings of the wounded. ( A London Minister. ) Thou shalt not be purged from thy filthiness. Ezekiel 24:13 Obstinacy in sin W. Greenhill, M. A. 1. Obstinacy in sin provokes God to the destruction of sinners. "Her scum shall be in the fire." Jerusalem shall be burnt, and why? "In thy filthiness is lewdness"; thou art obstinate, hardened in thy wickedness. All sin offends, some sins provoke to judgments, obstinacy provokes to destruction ( Jeremiah 44:15 ). 2. In Scripture language, that is said to be done which God or men endeavour to do, though it be not done. "I have purged thee." God using means, and endeavouring, by His prophets, mercies, threats, and judgments, to purge Jerusalem from her sin, is called purging, though Jerusalem were not purged. 3. A people may have the means, and not improve the same for their good. 4. People may so slip the time of repenting, and turning to God, as that it may be too late for them to go about the same; they may sin away the time of mercy. Time present is the acceptable time ( 2 Corinthians 6:2 ). 5. Those who have had means, and not profited thereby, God will deal most severely with — there is no mercy, but altogether judgment for them. The fig tree in the vineyard had stood there three years, and was not better at last than at first; the influences of heaven, and fatness of the earth, had done it no good; and behold the severity of the owner: "Cut it down; why cumbereth it the ground?" ( Luke 13:7 ). ( W. Greenhill, M. A. ) So I spake unto the people in the morning: and at even my wife died; and I did in the morning as I was commanded. Ezekiel 24:15-27 Sin the worst sorrow Urijah R. Thomas. I. OTHER SORROWS MAY HAVE NO EVIL, BUT EVEN GOOD IN THEM; THIS IS ESSENTIALLY AND ETERNALLY EVIL. In a bereavement, in a national calamity, as also in bodily sufferings and many social griefs, it is manifest there may be no moral wrong. There may, indeed, be the highest moral good. But sin is, in its essence, in its indulgence, in its outcome, utterly evil, an object of nothing else than commiseration, loathing, and hatred. II. OTHER SORROWS ARE REMEDIABLE; THIS LEADS TO DESTRUCTION. III. OTHER SORROWS MAY COME DIRECT FROM GOD; THIS IS EVER IN DIRECT ANTAGONISM TO HIM. IV. OTHER SORROWS HAVE TO DO WITH MEN IN THEIR RELATION TO OTHERS; THIS WITH HIS OWN INNER BEING AND HIS RELATION TO GOD. Conclusion — 1. Rightly weigh your own sorrows. 2. Rightly deal with the world's sorrows. Pity their poverty, heal their sickness, but most of all grieve for and contend with their sin. 3. Rightly value the Saviour's mission. ( Urijah R. Thomas. ) Unwept bereavement: or, a great soul in a great sorrow M. Brokenshire. Individual characteristics are as marked and distinctive in the new life of the soul as they are in the old life of sin. While the graft draws its sap from the parent stock, it yields its own kind of fruit. Thus in the Christian life — it is the same spirit working variously in and through the mental trend, temperament, and educational attainments of the agent. Ezekiel is manifestly the spiritual dramatist of the prophetic order. He speaks in action, and voices by signs the stern purposes of his God. He is a seer in symbols, The touching incidents recorded in the chapter before us is marked by dramatic representation of Divine truth. First the "pot," from which parable he utters the terrible "Woe to the bloody city." Here, in his suppressed and even crushed grief over his deceased wife, "the desire of his eyes" taken away from him "with a stroke," is the picture in miniature of the unwept desolation of Jerusalem. In the painful experience of the prophet we have a great soul under a great trial. I. THE WOMAN — THE WIFE. "At eve my wife died." To the pure and noble and thoughtful, no sorrow can be greater. Where the wife is what God intended she should be, the helpmeet of man, the loss here stated is without a parallel. "At eve my wife died": not my crops were blasted, or my cattle killed or taken away, but my wife, the best part of myself, the light of life's darkest hour; the one that buoys up the man when all others throw on heavier burdens to press him down. My wife! What dreadful significance! What fulness of meaning! Many a man has been lifted to the highest places, and has been transported into fullest conditions, by the wisdom, piety, and thoughtfulness of a good wife. Young men sinking into debt, danger, and degradation have lifted up their heads above every flood when they have taken the float of a good wife — thus proving that "scanty fare for one will often make a royal feast for two." There are thousands in the Church today, or in heaven, who would certainly have made shipwreck of faith but for the firmer trust and steadier piety of a devoted wife — when the strong man has been weakened by the hard struggle of life, the weak woman, strong by devotion and radiant hope, has held him up in her heaven-derived might, till the man has regained his strength. The prophet is here called to pass through a most painful experience, and the terms used are touching. His wife is spoken of as the "desire of his eyes," and the "taking away" is to be done with a stroke. Not a gradual fading away of the life and love, with all the touching farewells and hopes of future meeting which characterise a death bed, but by one fell stroke the desire of the eye, the joy of the heart, the flower of the garden, the sun of the home, the star of earth's hope, shall be taken from him. The Lord frequently brings judgment near the heart, that He may plant His mercy in the heart. He kills for the purpose of making alive. The desire of the heart is often taken, that the heart may desire a Diviner portion. Note the time. At "eve," not in the morning ere work began, nor at night when the weaknesses of old age had rendered life a burden and death a release. But at "eve," after the toil but before the rest. Work accomplished, but not enjoyed. How like this now. Many a good wife who has toiled and struggled and denied her own needy appetite for the sake of husband and family, has lived just long enough to drag the household to the top of the hill; and when an easy plain way appeared in view, and a season of rest gilded the sky, she has fallen dead — not with the weight of years, so much as with the burden of hard work and heavy care. II. THE MAN — THE HUSBAND. The sublime self-possession, the equanimity of the prophet, the forgetfulness of a loss so great and a sorrow so deep, seem altogether beyond the range of common men, and can only be viewed in the light of a purpose as mysterious as it is beneficent. The Lord apprised him of his loss, but forbade the assumption of those signs of grief which characterise the obsequies of oriental countries. "Forbear to cry." Revised Version renders it — "Sigh, but not loud." The margin reads — "Be silent." Grief in the heart cannot be wholly quenched; it would be against nature to expect such a thing; but those extravagant signs of it were what the Lord corn, rounds the prophet against. This wonderful state of soul under an affliction so bitter may seem to some both unnatural and sinful. It win be a sufficient reply, perhaps, to say that exceptional circumstances defy ordinary modes of interpretation. We act wisely as we suspend judgment upon individual actions in the abstract, and consider them in the fight of surrounding circumstances and Divine purposes. We are now in the presence of a great soul whose vast proportions defy all the narrow measurements of popular conventionalism, and is a standing reproof to those mere appearances of grief and simulations of sorrow, and those extravagant habiliments of mourning, which are too often deeper than the grief they are supposed to represent. The full beauty and the whole worth of the Ezekiel conduct expresses itself in one word, "Obedience." To blame the prophet for what he did is to blame the Almighty who commanded it. It was at the bidding of the great God that he bare with such magnanimity so tremendous a loss. "He that ruleth his own spirit is better than he that taketh a city" ( Proverbs 16:32 ). The man who can hold in check, and keep in obedience to the high behests of heaven, all the powers, passions, and tender susceptibilities of the soul, has reached an altitude far beyond the level of common mortals. Look at this grand old prophet whose wild eye flings off the tear, and decks itself with the full blaze of the day of God. There he stands in the attitude of strength, dressed for action, and not muffled for lamentation. If, then, you can attribute the prophet's spirit and conduct to weakness or inhumanity, it must be because we view the same things from different standpoints. I confess that, personally, I am awed into littleness in presence of a soul so great. To my mind, the whole thing is explained, and, the mystery cleared up, in the doctrine of a future life. Deny this, and death is an unmitigated sorrow and an irretrievable loss, without a ray to relieve the darkness or a prospect to cheer the soul. ( M. Brokenshire. ) Ezekiel's wife not merely symbolic A. B. Davidson, D. D. Reuss is hardly right in regarding Ezekiel's wife and her death as fictions: the language used implies that she was a real person, and that her death occurred as stated, though, as usual, the prophet employed the incident for didactic purposes, and some of the details may be creations of idealism; for it is characteristic of him that real events float before his eve in a moral atmosphere which magnifies them and gives them an outline which is ideal only. ( A. B. Davidson, D. D. ) Loneliness through bereavement relieved by service R. J. Campbell, M. A. John Bright sat mourning in his sitting room; life was cold and drear to him, the body of his young wife lay dead in the room above. Richard Cobden, clear-sighted, enthusiastic, and withal practical, came to his friend, and said: "You have your sorrow; there are more sorrows in the world than yours; your opportunity has come; people are hungering in this England of ours. Come with me, and we will never rest until the Corn Laws are repealed." I am not making a political application of that utterance, but we do know that England was wretched and hungry, and that the lot of the poor was sadder than it is even today. That lion-hearted pair went out and fought in the midst of obloquy, misunderstanding, contempt, and persecution, until victory crowned their efforts, and in 1846 the tribune of the people and his friend rejoiced over their victory. ( R. J. Campbell, M. A. ) The prophet's discipline of sorrow A. Mackennal, D. D. Sorrow is here set before us not as personal chastisement, but as part of the prophet's training for his work. Duty is often incompatible with the indulgence of personal sorrow. Business arrangements, public obligations, engagements that must be fulfilled, often summon men from the house of death; sorrow must give way to necessity. 1. The prophet's insight necessitates a discipline of peculiar sorrow. In some states of the body men's sensitiveness is acute even to suffering. They see too much, their hearing and sense of smell are too keen. In other states of the body the perception is too intense; the feeling of time and space and weight is enlarged till minutes prolong themselves, and vast abysses open out, and there is a sense of overwhelming pressure. Poets. philosophers, who see in all around them the moving of an eternal life, are not, light-hearted men. To the prophet, who sees not only life everywhere, but God; who recognises not order only, but moral purpose; who sees the infinite holiness and the unerring judgment: there is oppressiveness even in his joy. But he must see the largeness of God's designs and the certainty of His operation before he can proclaim them; the word of the Lord is to him a burden before it is a word. The prophet sees, moreover, not only God, but man; he has insight into the human heart, its self-will and wickedness. 2. The prophet's relation to men involves a peculiar discipline of sorrow. He utters his message, and it is disregarded. He is treated as a vain dreamer, a raver; then as an actor, whose skill brings together affecting images which may relieve the tedium of an idle hour. There is no distress so great as to have earnestness thus trifled with; to feel for men an apprehension which they will not share. Moreover, it exposes the prophet to severe strokes from God. God will arouse men; if the prophet's words cannot make them thoughtful, He seeks to touch them by the prophet's sufferings. The common saying that a man's life is more efficacious than his teaching, is of wide application. 3. His discipline of sorrow fits the prophet for speaking to men in another way: God had a remnant in Israel, a remnant who should be won. If you are to comfort mourners, you must have seen affliction; you must know the smart of the wounds you seek to heal You desire to strengthen the faith of the doubting; one way of doing this is to fight your own doubts and gather strength. You would appeal to the tempted; you must know what temptation means, must vanquish the lying spirit, the worldly spirit, the spirit of unrighteousness; in manic a battle, hard "pressed and. sorely won, must come the skill you seek. ( A. Mackennal, D. D. ) The departure of friends Homilist. I. The departure of dear friends by death IS UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE GREAT GOD. Death is not the result of accident, necessity, or any chemical or mechanical force, but of the will of God. This doctrine teaches three practical lessons. 1. The grand aim of life should be to please God. 2. The grand aim in bereavement should be to acquiesce in the will of God. 3. Our grand impression at every deathbed should be that the Lord is at hand. II. The departure of dear friends by death is THE SOURCE OF GREAT SORROW. Sorrow for the dead indicates — 1. Something good in human nature. It always springs out of love, and love is Divine. 2. Something wrong in human nature. "As by one man sin entered into the world," etc. Man loves because he is human; man's love turns into agony because he is sinful. 3. Something wanted for human nature. (1) An assurance of a happy future life. (2) A hope of a happy future reunion. Whence comes this assurance? Not from human speculation, philosophy, or religion, but from the Gospel. III. The departure of dear friends by death SHOULD NOT INTERFERE WITH MORAL DUTY. 1. Because indulgence in sorrow confers no benefit on others; the fulfilment of duty does. 2. Because indulgence in sorrow injures self, and the fulfilment of duty does good to self. 3. Because indulgence in sorrow does not suspend the claims of duty. ( Homilist. ) Death of a wife Homiletic Review. The union of two hearts in wedded love is close, beautiful, and strong. But the tie, however strong, sooner or later is broken by a stroke, and death parts whom God had joined together. I. THE PRIMARY CAUSE OF DEATH IS GOD. The secondary causes may be any of the thousand ills that flesh is heir to, but God says, "I take away the desire of thine eyes with a stroke." "The Lord is at hand" in every death scene. II. THE DEATH OF A WIFE IS THE CAUSE OF GREAT SORROW. This world is called a "vale of tears," and rightly so; and if there is one place where tears flow faster than any other, it is where a loving wife and precious mother lies cold in death. Where there is most love there is keenest sorrow. III. THE DEATH OF A WIFE SHOULD NOT INTERFERE WITH THE HUSBAND'S DUTY. Though we may feel our hearts breaking, though all sunshine seems shut out, and the world can never be the same to us again, yet the full discharge of life's duties should be the most pressing thought. A sorrow that unmans us is evil. Duty-doing is grief-assuaging and God-honouring. ( Homiletic Review. ) The desire of the eyes taken away R. Young, M. A. I. WHAT IS THE DESIRE OF THINE EYES? 1. Some loved object of human relationship whom with "the body you worship." 2. Some dazzling dream of ambition that with the mind you grasp at; or, 3. Some ideal condition of spirituality that with the soul you aspire after. II. WHY IS THE DESIRE OF THINE EYES THUS TAKEN AWAY AT A STROKE BY A WISE AND JUST GOD? 1. To wean you from setting your affections too much upon perishable, disappointing earthly objects. 2. To develop in you the passive virtues of patience, fortitude, etc., which men are so prone to sacrifice to the active virtues, such as courage, etc., which they are compelled to display in the battle of life. 3. To make you look to eternal love, to eternal grandeur, and to eternal happiness to be realised hereafter in the presence of God, as alone calculated to satisfy the aspirations of your own immortal spirits. III. IN WHAT SPIRIT SHOULD YOU BEAR THE LOSS WHEN THUS THE DESIRE OF THE EYES IS TAKEN AWAY? 1. Not in a spirit of passionate anger against the Creator for taking away what was His own to give or take away. 2. Not in a spirit of repining, tearful melancholy, weeping fruitlessly for "the things that might have been." 3. Not in a spirit of sullen and voiceless despair, sorrowing "as one without hope." 4. Not in a spirit of affected stoical indifference, gnawed as to the inward heart by the bitterest disappointment, and careful only to hide from the eyes of men all outward signs of sorrow or chagrin. 5. But in a spirit of gentle resignation to, and of full trust in, the providence of God, exclaiming with the patriarch of old, "The Lord," etc. ( R. Young, M. A. ) The stroke of death D. Taylor. I. THE FORCE OF THE WORDS. 1. The conjugal relation is a very tender and sensible one. It is natural, it is right, it is commendable in a gracious husband to consider and regard his wife as the "desire of his eyes"; as the most valuable of earthly objects. 2. The stroke of death will assuredly part them. Whatever situation we are placed in, however prosperous our circumstances, however successful our pursuits, however harmonious and agreeable our tempers and dispositions, however weighty and numerous our cares, however advantageous our mutual counsels and assistances, and however reluctant we may be to a separation, the stroke will come, and will break in pieces this tenderest of all connections known on earth. 3. Such a stroke is peculiarly painful and calamitous to the surviving husband. It closes forever those dear eyes which have always been observant of what might contribute to his welfare; it gives a fatal dash to those capacities which have been united and exerted in a manner and to a degree scarcely possible in any other, to alleviate her partner's distresses, and advance his joys, as if those joys and distresses of her husband had been her own; it disconcerts their most pleasing schemes, though formed with the most perfect harmony of which mortals are capable, and though pursued with the most glowing ardour. It ought to silence all our murmurings, and excite a holy, humble resignation, to hear our merciful God and Father say, "The stroke is from Me." "Is it not lawful for Him to do what He will with His own?" What He does, and why He does it, we are frequently ignorant now; but, so far as it will contribute to our happiness, or be necessary to justify His proceedings, "we shall know hereafter." It will probably constitute one part of the happiness of saints in heaven to review and admire the dispensations of a wise and gracious God towards them while upon earth. II. A FEW OBSERVATIONS ON THE STROKE OF DEATH, AS IT RESPECTS MANKIND IN GENERAL AND BELIEVERS IN PARTICULAR. 1. Respecting mankind in general.(1) The stroke of death separates the soul and body from each other, and lays the latter in the dust.(2) This stroke is the consequence of sin.(3) It is a stroke that makes no distinctions among men. Grandeur, power, and dignity have, in this case, no respect paid them.(4) The stroke of death removes those on whom it falls from all the pleasures gad enjoyments of time.(5) By this stroke we are deprived of all opportunities to prepare for heaven.(6) The stroke of death is a certain stroke, that calls us to the judgment seat of Christ; in consequence of which our eternal state is irrevocably determined.(7) The time of this stroke is very uncertain. God only knows when it will fall on me, or on any of you. It is sometimes very sudden; and it may be so to any of us. Happy, happy the man who is always prepared for it. 2. Let us consider this stroke as it respects the true believer in particular.(1) The stroke of death translates them from a world of darkness, ignorance, and confusion, to a world of light.(2) By the stroke of death the saints are removed from a world of perplexing controversy and contention, to a world of harmony and peace.(3) This world is continually a state of temptations and defilements; but the true believer is, at death, delivered from it and translated to a state of purity and holiness.(4) The stroke of death delivers the saints from a state of fear and anxiety, and removes them to a world where these shall be known no more.(5) In the present state the children of God are frequently beheld with scorn and contempt by vain, unthinking men of the world, as their Saviour also was in the days of His flesh, and as His most eminent followers and servants have been in all ages. But the stroke of death takes them away from the scorn and derision of men, and they are translated to a world where they shall be advanced to real honour and dignity.(6) This is a state of toil and labour, But when the stroke comes of which we are now speaking, the saints shall be called to eternal rest.(7) While the saints are "at home in the body, they are absent from the Lord"; and consequently deprived of much felicity which is reserved for them; for "in His presence is fulness of joy," etc. And when they are delivered from this corrupt and degenerate world, this joy and these pleasures shall be theirs. III. WHAT PRACTICAL INSTRUCTIONS ARE DEDUCIBLE? 1. Hence we learn what is the one thing needful, and the folly and danger of neglecting it. Nothing will answer every purpose in life, death, and eternity but the knowledge and enjoyment of Jesus Christ, and salvation by Him. 2. Let me assist your inquiries respecting the way to enjoy this great blessing, and so to be prepared for the stroke of death. 3. From this view of death I call you to praise a merciful God, who has given His dear Son to deliver us from the fear of it, and recommend the blessed Jesus to you all, as your only, all-sufficient support and deliverer in your last trying moments. 4. The pitiable state of those who are practically preferring anything else to an immediate preparation for death. 5. Let all true believers, from hence, lift up an eye of faith, and take a pleasing view of that blessed world where the stroke of death shall be known no more. 6. Be diligent in improving the present moments for God. Employ all the members of your bodies, exert all the capacities of your mind, and all the superfluities of your earthly possessions, to support and advance your Redeemer's interest. Adorn it by a holy conversation; and recommend it to others by every prudent method." 7. Act as in continual expectation of death. 8. Is anything of equal consequence with dying safe? ( D. Taylor. ) The stroke of death under the direction of God Sketches of Four Hundred Sermons. I. SOCIAL CONNECTIONS ARE DESIRABLE ENJOYMENTS. 1. They are various; being derived from different sources.(1) Consanguinity, or oneness of blood ( Acts 7:26 ).(2) Affinity, or matrimonial alliance; such are the most endearing and indissoluble connections of Life ( Matthew 19:5 ).(3) Friendship, or union of hearts, formed by mutual benevolence ( 1 Samuel 18:1 ).(4) Piety, or an affectionate concern to promote each other's salvation ( Philippians 2:20 ). 2. They are justly desirable. They are so, because our present state is a state of —(1) Ignorance, and society is favourable to the attainment of useful knowledge ( Proverbs 11:14 ; Proverbs 15:22 ).(2) Weakness and danger, and society affords help — in bearing burdens — performing duties — and resisting enemies ( Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 ).(3) Affliction, and society is productive of mutual comfort ( 1 Thessalonians 5:11 ; Psalm 133:1 ).(4) Probation, and society promotes our eternal interests. This it does by rendering us capable of extensive usefulness ( Galatians 6:10 ); by preserving us from apostasy ( Hebrews 3:12, 13 ), and by exciting us to holy diligence ( Hebrews 10:25 ). Hence we should recollect our obligations to God for relative comforts. Our subject also teaches us the wisdom of employing our social influence for pious purposes. II. THESE ENJOYMENTS ARE SUBJECT TO THE STROKE OF DEATH. 1. The stroke of death should be expected by us all. However useful to society, beloved by mankind, dear to God — all must die ( 2 Samuel 14:14 ; Ecclesiastes 3:21 ; Hebrews 9:27 ). 2. We should seriously prepare for the stroke of death; because death is awfully important in its effects. 3. Our preparation for this stroke should be habitual. We should immediately seek this preparation, and very carefully retain it, because the time when this stroke will be laid on us is to us unknown ( Matthew 24:44 ). 4. The saint's recovery from this stroke should be anticipated, by faith in God's promises ( Hosea 13:14 ; Philippians 3:21 ), and hope of renewed communion with saints in heavenly glory ( 1 Thessalonians 5:8-10 ; 1 Thessalonians 4:16, 17 ; Revelation 1:18 ). This reminds us — III. THE STROKE OF DEATH IS UNDER THE DIRECTION OF GOD. 1. The death of our pious friends is only a removal; it is not annihilation — they still live with God ( 1 Thessalonians 5:10 ), and to Him ( Luke 20:38 ). They are taken away from toil, sorrow, and danger ( Revelation 7:16 ), to complete rest, happiness, and security ( Revelation 14:13 ). 2. They are taken away by God; by God heir proprietor, who had a right to dispose of them ( Matthew 20:15 ); by God their rewarder, who has taken them to crown them ( 2 Timothy 4:7, 8 ); by God our benefactor, who kindly indulged us with their society ( 1 Timothy 6:7 ) Hence His hand in their removal should be piously acknowledged, both with resignation and gratitude ( Job 1:21 ). ( Sketches of Four Hundred Sermons. ) Funeral sermon S. Palmer. I. OUR NEAR RELATIVES, WHEN THEY ARE WHAT THEY OUGHT TO BE, ARE DESERVEDLY THE DESIRE OF OUR EYES. The ties of nature are strong and tender. Those who are related by blood are led by instinct to love one another fervently. But of all relations the conjugal is the nearest, and is the foundation of the strongest affection and delight. Where that relation is properly formed, and the parties unite on proper principles, the bond is the firmest, and the reciprocal affection the strongest; insomuch that it is mentioned as the emblem of the relation between Christ and His Church. II. A DISSOLUTION MUST TAKE PLACE, AND WE ARE TO EXPECT EVEN THE NEAREST AND DEAREST FRIENDS SOON TO BE TAKEN FROM US. All the mutual offices of love and friendship must cease. All the pleasures and benefits arising from their society must be suspended. No longer can we take sweet counsel together, and go to the house of God in company; no longer unite in our prayers and praises at the family altar. III. THE STROKE WHICH SEPARATES BETWEEN FRIENDS AND KINDRED IS SOMETIMES SUDDEN AND UNEXPECTED. Not a few even in early life, and to all appearance in the full possession of health and vigour, are in a moment struck by the arrows of death, though they themselves and their friends had presumed that they had years to come. It would be our wisdom and happiness often to think of this, not only to quicken us in preparing for our own dissolution, but to prepare us for the loss of our friends and kindred, and engage us to improve the opportunities we have for our mutual benefit while they are continued; and to prevent that immoderate attachment to them which would be the source of excessive grief and surprise on their sudden removal. IV. IT IS GOD WHO TAKES THEM AWAY. "Son of man, behold, I take away from thee the desire of thine eyes with a stroke." In which words the Lord calls his attent on not only to the event, but to Himself as the agent. And He is equally the agent in the events which befall us and our friends, whatever be the instruments or second causes. That it is God who takes away our comforts as well as gives them is what none can doubt who have any just acquaintance with His holy word and believe what it teaches. We are there told, in general, that all things are of God, that a sparrow does not fall to the ground, and much less any human being, without our heavenly Father. "Behold," says Job, "He takes away, and none can hinder Him." Such a stroke ought to be felt, and it may be lamented as a heavy affliction. But when you consider the hand from whence it comes, you will see reason not only to submit, but to adore; and duty to Him requires that you should. V. GUARD AGAINST IMMODERATE GRIEF. Were it not for the hope of the Gospel — the hope of a blessed immortality beyond the grave — death would indeed be a most formidable object. When our friends leave the world, if we believed that there was an utter end of them, and they sunk into an eternal sleep, the thought of parting with them would be terrible. But if, when our dear friends die, we are fully persuaded that they live to God — if, when they are taken from us, we are well assured that they are gone to be with Christ, which is far better — we can have no just cause to mourn on their account; and if we have a Gospel foundation of hope that we are following them to glory, and shall ere long meet them there, whatever reason we have to mourn our own present loss, our sorrows ought to be mingled with joy.Conclusion — 1. Let us bless God for those dear friends and relatives who are deservedly the desire of our eyes. 2. Let us remember how precarious the continuance of them is, as well as of all earthly enjoyments, and be prepared for the loss of them. 3. Nor let us forget that this change is as likely to be effected by our removal as by that of our friends. 4. Under all the afflictions of this mortal life, and especially amidst our sorrows for our departed friends, let us bless God for the comforts of the Gospel; and let us never cast them from us, but by faith make application of them to ourselves. ( S. Palmer. ) Wilt thou not tell us w

24:1-14 The pot on the fire represented Jerusalem besieged by the Chaldeans: all orders and ranks were within the walls, prepared as a prey for the enemy. They ought to have put away their transgressions, as the scum, which rises by the heat of the fire, is taken from the top of the pot. But they grew worse, and their miseries increased. Jerusalem was to be levelled with the ground. The time appointed for the punishment of wicked men may seem to come slowly, but it will come surely. It is sad to think how many there are, on whom ordinances and providences are all lost. 24:15-27 Though mourning for the dead is a duty, yet it must be kept under by religion and right reason: we must not sorrow as men that have no hope. Believers must not copy the language and expressions of those who know not God. The people asked the meaning of the sign. God takes from them all that was dearest to them. And as Ezekiel wept not for his affliction, so neither should they weep for theirs. Blessed be God, we need not pine away under our afflictions; for should all comforts fail, and all sorrows be united, yet the broken heart and the mourner's prayer are always acceptable before God.