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Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
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Matthew Henry |
E Z E K I E L.
CHAP. XVIII.
Perhaps, in reading some of the foregoing chapters, we may have been
tempted to think ourselves not much concerned in them (though they also
were written for our learning); but this chapter, at first view,
appears highly and nearly to concern us all, very highly, very nearly;
for, without particular reference to Judah and Jerusalem, it lays down
the rule of judgment according to which God will deal with the children
of men in determining them to their everlasting state, and it agrees
with that very ancient rule laid down,
“If though doest well, shalt thou not be accepted?” But, “if not, sin,”
the punishment of sin,”lies at the door.” Here is,
I. The corrupt proverb used by the profane Jews, which gave occasion to
the message here sent them, and made it necessary for the justifying of
God in his dealings with them,
II. The reply given to this proverb, in which God asserts in general
his own sovereignty and justice,
Woe to the wicked; it shall be ill with them,
But say to the righteous, It shall be ill with them,
But say to the righteous, It shall be well with them,
In particular, as to the case complained of, he assures us,
1. That it shall be ill with a wicked man, though he had a good father,
2. That it shall be well with a good man, though he had a wicked father,
And therefore in this God is righteous,
3. That it shall be well with penitents, though they began ever so ill,
4. That it shall be ill with apostates, though they began ever so well,
And the use of all this is,
(1.) To justify God and clear the equity of all his proceedings,
(2.) To engage and encourage us to repent of our sins and turn to God,
And these are things which belong to our everlasting peace. O that we
may understand and regard them before they be hidden from our eyes!
| Proverb of the Sour Grapes; Reply to the Sour Grapes; Divine Judgments Vindicated. | B. C. 593. |
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1 The word of the LORD came unto me again, saying,
2 What mean ye, that ye use this proverb concerning the land of
Israel, saying, The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the
children’s teeth are set on edge?
3 As I live, saith the Lord GOD, ye shall not have occasion
any more to use this proverb in Israel.
4 Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so
also the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sinneth, it shall
die.
5 But if a man be just, and do that which is lawful and right,
6 And hath not eaten upon the mountains, neither hath lifted
up his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel, neither hath
defiled his neighbour’s wife, neither hath come near to a
menstruous woman,
7 And hath not oppressed any, but hath restored to the debtor
his pledge, hath spoiled none by violence, hath given his bread
to the hungry, and hath covered the naked with a garment;
8 He that hath not given forth upon usury, neither hath taken
any increase, that hath withdrawn his hand from iniquity, hath
executed true judgment between man and man,
9 Hath walked in my statutes, and hath kept my judgments, to
deal truly; he is just, he shall surely live, saith the Lord
GOD.
Evil manners, we say, beget good laws; and in like manner sometimes
unjust reflections occasion just vindications; evil proverbs beget good
prophecies. Here is,
I. An evil proverb commonly used by the Jews in their captivity. We had
one before
and a reply to it; here we have another. That sets God’s
justice at defiance: “The days are prolonged and every vision
fails; the threatenings are a jest.” This charges him with
injustice, as if the judgments executed were a wrong: “You use this
proverb concerning the land of Israel, now that it is laid waste
by the judgments of God, saying, The fathers have eaten sour grapes
and the children’s teeth are set on edge; we are punished for the
sins of our ancestors, which is as great an absurdity in the divine
regimen as if the children should have their teeth set on edge, or
stupefied, by the fathers’ eating sour grapes, whereas, in the order of
natural causes, if men eat or drink any thing amiss, they only
themselves shall suffer by it.” Now,
1. It must be owned that there was some occasion given for this
proverb. God had often said that he would visit the iniquity of the
fathers upon the children, especially the sin of idolatry,
intending thereby to express the evil of sin, of that sin, his
detestation of it, and just indignation against it, and the heavy
punishments he would bring upon idolaters, that parents might be
restrained from sin by their affection to their children and that
children might not be drawn to sin by their reverence for their
parents. He had likewise often declared by his prophets that in
bringing the present ruin upon Judah and Jerusalem he had an eye to the
sins of Manasseh and other preceding kings; for, looking upon the
nation as a body politic, and punishing them with national judgments
for national sins, and admitting the maxim in our law that a
corporation never dies, reckoning with them now for the iniquities
of former ages was but like making a man, when he is old, to
possess the iniquities of his youth,
Job xiii. 26.
And there is no unrighteousness with God in doing so. But,
2. They intended it as a reflection upon God, and an impeachment of his
equity in his proceedings against them. Thus far that is right which is
implied in this proverbial saying, That those who are guilty of wilful
sin eat sour grapes; they do that which they will feel from,
sooner or later. The grapes may look well enough in the temptation, but
they will be bitter as bitterness itself in the reflection. They will
set the sinner’s teeth on edge. When conscience is awake, and sets the
sin in order before them, it will spoil the relish of their comforts as
when the teeth are set on edge. But they suggest it as unreasonable
that the children should smart for the fathers’ folly and feel the pain
of that which they never tasted the pleasure of, and that God was
unrighteous in thus taking vengeance and could not justify it. See how
wicked the reflection is, how daring the impudence; yet see how witty
it is, and how sly the comparison. Many that are impious in their jeers
are ingenious in their jests; and thus the malice of hell against God
and religion is insinuated and propagated. It is here put into a
proverb, and that proverb used, commonly used; they had it up ever and
anon. And, though it had plainly a blasphemous meaning, yet they
sheltered themselves under the similitude from the imputation of
downright blasphemy. Now by this it appears that they were unhumbled
under the rod, for, instead of condemning themselves and justifying
God, they condemned him and justified themselves; but woe to him
that thus strives with his Maker.
II. A just reproof of, and reply to, this proverb: What mean you
by using it? That is the reproof. “Do you intend hereby to try it out
with God? Or can you think any other than that you will hereby provoke
him to be angry with you will he has consumed you? Is this the
way to reconcile yourselves to him and make your peace with him?” The
reply follows, in which God tells them,
1. That the use of the proverb should be taken away. This is said, it
is sworn
(v. 3):
You shall not have occasion any more to use this proverb; or (as
it may be read), You shall not have the use of this parable. The
taking away of this parable is made the matter of a promise,
Here it is made the matter of a threatening. There it intimates that
God will return to them in ways of mercy; here it intimates that God
would proceed against them in ways of judgment. He will so punish them
for this impudent saying that they shall not dare to use it any more;
as in another case,
God will find out effectual ways to silence those cavillers. Or God
will so manifest both to themselves and others that they have
wickedness of their own enough to bring all these desolating judgments
upon them that they shall no longer for shame lay it upon the sins of
their fathers that they were thus dealt with: “Your own consciences
shall tell you, and all your neighbours shall confirm it, that you
yourselves have eaten the same sour grapes that your fathers ate before
you, or else your teeth would not have been set on edge.”
2. That really the saying itself was unjust and a causeless reflection
upon God’s government. For,
(1.) God does not punish the children for the fathers’ sins unless they
tread in their fathers’ steps and fill up the measure of their
iniquity
and then they have no reason to complain, for, whatever they suffer, it
is less than their own sin has deserved. And, when God speaks of
visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, that is
so far from putting any hardship upon the children, to whom he only
renders according to their works, that it accounts for God’s
patience with the parents, whom he therefore does not punish
immediately, because he lays up their iniquity for their
children,
Job xxi. 19.
(2.) It is only in temporal calamities that children (and sometimes
innocent ones) fare the worse for their parents’ wickedness, and God
can alter the property of those calamities, and make them work for good
to those that are visited with them; but as to spiritual and eternal
misery (and that is the death here spoken of) the children shall by no
means smart for the parents’ sins. This is here shown at large; and it
is a wonderful piece of condescension that the great God is pleased to
reason the case with such wicked and unreasonable men, that he did not
immediately strike them dumb or dead, but vouchsafed to state the
matter before them, that he may be clear when he is judged. Now, in his
reply,
[1.] He asserts and maintains his own absolute and incontestable
sovereignty: Behold, all souls are mine,
v. 4.
God here claims a property in all the souls of the children of men, one
as well as another. First, Souls are his. He that is the Maker
of all things is in a particular manner the Father of
spirits, for his image is stamped on the souls of men; it was so in
their creation; it is so in their renovation. He forms the spirit of
man within him, and is therefore called the God of the spirits
of all flesh, of embodied spirits. Secondly, All souls are
his, all created by him and for him, and accountable to him. As the
soul of the father, so the soul of the son, is mine. Our earthly
parents are only the fathers of our flesh; our souls are not
theirs; God challenges them. Now hence it follows, for the clearing of
this matter,
1. That God may certainly do what he pleases both with fathers and
children, and none may say unto him, What doest thou? He that
gave us our being does us no wrong if he takes it away again, much less
when he only takes away some of the supports and comforts of it; it is
as absurd to quarrel with him as for the thing formed to say to him
that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?
2. That God as certainly bears a good-will both to father and son, and
will put no hardship upon either. We are sure that God hates nothing
that he has made, and therefore (speaking of the adult, who are capable
of acting for themselves) he has such a kindness for all souls that
none die but through their own default. All souls are his, and
therefore he is not partial in his judgment of them. Let us subscribe
to his interest in us and dominion over us. He says, All souls are
mine; let us answer, “Lord, my soul is thine; I devote it to thee
to be employed for thee and made happy in thee.” It is with good reason
that God says, “My son, give me thy heart, for it is my own,” to
which we must yield, “Father, take my heart, it is thy own.”
[2.] Though God might justify himself by insisting upon his
sovereignty, yet he waives that, and lays down the equitable and
unexceptionable rule of judgment by which he will proceed as to
particular persons; and it is this:–First, The sinner that
persists in sin shall certainly die, his iniquity shall be his ruin:
The soul that sins shall die, shall die as a soul can die, shall
be excluded from the favour of God, which is the life and bliss of the
soul, and shall lie for ever under his wrath, which is its death and
misery. Sin is the act of the soul, the body being only the
instrument of unrighteousness; it is called the sin of the
soul,
Mic. vi. 7.
And therefore the punishment of sin is the tribulation and the
anguish of the soul,
Rom. ii. 9.
Secondly, The righteous man that perseveres in his righteousness
shall certainly live. If a man be just, have a good principle, a
good spirit and disposition, and, as an evidence of that, do
judgment and justice
(v. 5),
he shall surely live, saith the Lord God,
v. 9.
He that makes conscience of conforming in every thing to the will of
God, that makes it his business to serve God and his aim to glorify
God, shall without fail be happy here and for ever in the love and
favour of God; and, wherein he comes short of his duty, it shall be
forgiven him, through a Mediator. Now here is part of the character of
this just man.
1. He is careful to keep himself clean from the pollutions of sin, and
at a distance from all the appearances of evil.
(1.) From sins against the second commandment. In the matters of God’s
worship he is jealous, for he knows God is so. He has not only not
sacrificed in the high places to the images there set up, but he has
not so much as eaten upon the mountains, that is, not had any
communion with idolaters by eating things sacrificed to idols,
1 Cor. x. 20.
He would not only not kneel with them at their altars, but not sit with
them at their tables in their high places. He detests not only the
idols of the heathen but the idols of the house of Israel, which
were not only allowed of, but generally applauded and adored, by those
that were accounted the professing people of God. He has not only not
worshipped those idols, but he has not so much as lifted up his
eyes to them; he has not given them a favourable look, has had no
regard at all to them, neither desired their favour nor dreaded their
frowns. He has observed so many bewitched by them that he has not dared
so much as to look at them, lest he should be taken in the snare. The
eyes of idolaters are said to go a whoring,
Ezek. vi. 9.
See
(2.) From sins against the seventh commandment. He is careful to
possess his vessel in sanctification and honour, and not in
the lusts of uncleanness; and therefore he has not dared to
defile his neighbour’s wife, nor said or done any thing which
had the least tendency to corrupt or debauch her, no, nor will he make
any undue approaches to his own wife when she is put apart for her
uncleanness, for it was forbidden by the law,
Note, It is an essential branch of wisdom and justice to keep the
appetites of the body always in subjection to reason and virtue.
(3.) From sins against the eighth commandment. He is a just man,
who has not, by fraud and under colour of law and right, oppressed
any, and who has not with force and arms spoiled any by
violence, not spoiled them of their goods or estates, much less of
their liberties and lives,
v. 7.
Oppression and violence were the sins of the old world, that brought
the deluge, and are sins of which still God is and will be the avenger.
Nay, he is one that has not lent his money upon usury, nor
taken increase
(v. 8),
though, being done by contract, it may seem free from injustice
(Volenti non fit injuria–What is done to a person with his own
consent is no injury to him), yet, as far as it is forbidden by the
law, he dares not do it. A moderate usury they were allowed to receive
from strangers, but not from their brethren. A just man will not take
advantage of his neighbour’s necessity to make a prey of him, nor
indulge himself in ease and idleness to live upon the sweat and toil of
others, and therefore will not take increase from those who cannot make
increase of what he lends them, nor be rigorous in exacting what was
agreed for from those who by the act of God are disabled to pay it; but
he is willing to share in loss as well as profit. Qui sentit
commodum, sentire debet et onus–He who enjoys the benefit should bear
the burden.
2. He makes conscience of doing the duties of his place. He has
restored the pledge to the poor debtor, according to the law.
“If thou take thy neighbour’s raiment for a pledge, the raiment
that is for necessary use, thou shalt deliver it to him again,
that he may sleep in his own bedclothes.” Nay, he has not only restored
to the poor that which was their own, but has given his bread to the
hungry. Observe, It is called his bread, because it is
honestly come by; that which is given to some is not unjustly taken
from others; for God has said, I hate robbery for
burnt-offerings. Worldly men insist upon it that their bread is
their own, as Nabal, who therefore would not give of it to David
yet let them know that it is not so their own but that they are bound
to do good to others with it. Clothes are necessary as well as food,
and therefore this just man is so charitable as to cover the
naked also with a garment,
v. 7.
The coats which Dorcas had made for the poor were produced as witnesses
of her charity,
This just man has withdrawn his hands from iniquity,
v. 8.
If at any time he has been drawn in through inadvertency to that which
afterwards has appeared to him to be a wrong thing, he does not persist
in it because he has begun it, but withdraws his hand from that
which he now perceives to be iniquity; for he executes true
judgment between man and man, according as his opportunity is of
doing it (as a judge, as a witness, as a juryman, as a referee), and in
all commerce is concerned that justice be done, that no man be wronged,
that he who is wronged be righted, and that every man have his own, and
is ready to interpose himself, and do any good office, in order
hereunto. This is his character towards his neighbours; yet it will not
suffice that he be just and true to his brother, to complete his
character he must be so to his God likewise
(v. 9):
He has walked in my statutes, those which relate to the duties
of his immediate worship; he has kept those and all his other
judgments, has had respect to them all, has made it his constant
care and endeavour to conform and come up to them all, to deal truly,
that so he may approve himself faithful to his covenant with God, and,
having joined himself to God, he does not treacherously depart from
him, nor dissemble with him. This is a just man, and
living he shall live; he shall certainly live, shall have life
and shall have it more abundantly, shall live truly, live comfortably,
live eternally. Keep the commandments, and thou shalt enter
into life,
Matt. xix. 17.
| The Ways of God Justified; God’s Vindication of Himself. | B. C. 593. |
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10 If he beget a son that is a robber, a shedder of blood,
and that doeth the like to any one of these things,
11 And that doeth not any of those duties, but even hath
eaten upon the mountains, and defiled his neighbour’s wife,
12 Hath oppressed the poor and needy, hath spoiled by violence,
hath not restored the pledge, and hath lifted up his eyes to the
idols, hath committed abomination,
13 Hath given forth upon usury, and hath taken increase: shall
he then live? he shall not live: he hath done all these
abominations; he shall surely die; his blood shall be upon him.
14 Now, lo, if he beget a son, that seeth all his father’s
sins which he hath done, and considereth, and doeth not such
like,
15 That hath not eaten upon the mountains, neither hath
lifted up his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel, hath not
defiled his neighbour’s wife,
16 Neither hath oppressed any, hath not withholden the pledge,
neither hath spoiled by violence, but hath given his bread to
the hungry, and hath covered the naked with a garment,
17 That hath taken off his hand from the poor, that hath
not received usury nor increase, hath executed my judgments, hath
walked in my statutes; he shall not die for the iniquity of his
father, he shall surely live.
18 As for his father, because he cruelly oppressed, spoiled
his brother by violence, and did that which is not good among
his people, lo, even he shall die in his iniquity.
19 Yet say ye, Why? doth not the son bear the iniquity of the
father? When the son hath done that which is lawful and right,
and hath kept all my statutes, and hath done them, he shall
surely live.
20 The soul that sinneth, it shall die. The son shall not bear
the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the
iniquity of the son: the righteousness of the righteous shall be
upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him.
God, by the prophet, having laid down the general rule of judgment,
that he will render eternal life to those that patiently continue in
well-doing, but indignation and wrath to those that do not obey
the truth, but obey unrighteousness
comes, in these verses, to show that men’s parentage and relation shall
not alter the case either one way or other.
I. He applied it largely and particularly both ways. As it was in the
royal line of the kings of Judah, so it often happens in private
families, that godly parents have wicked children and wicked parents
have godly children. Now here he shows,
1. That a wicked man shall certainly perish in his iniquity, though he
be the son of a pious father. If that righteous man before described
beget a son whose character is the reverse of his father’s, his
condition will certainly be so too.
(1.) It is supposed as no uncommon case, but a very melancholy one,
that the child of a very godly father, notwithstanding all the
instructions given him, the good education he has had and the needful
rebukes that have been given him, and the restraints he has been laid
under, after all the pains taken with him and prayers put up for him,
may yet prove notoriously wicked and vile, the grief of his father, the
shame of his family, and the curse and plague of his generation. He is
here supposed to allow himself in all those enormities which his good
father dreaded and carefully avoided, and to shake off all those good
duties which his father made conscience of and took satisfaction in; he
undoes all that his father did, and goes counter to his example in
every thing. He is here described to be a highwayman–a robber and a
shedder of blood. He is an idolater: He has eaten upon the
mountains
(v. 11)
and has lifted up his eyes to the idols, which his good father
never did, and has come at length not only to feast with the idolaters,
but to sacrifice with them, which is here called committing
abomination, for the way of sin is down-hill. He is an adulterer,
has defiled his neighbour’s wife. He is an oppressor even of
the poor and needy; he robs the spital, and squeezes those who,
he knows, cannot defend themselves, and takes a pride and pleasure in
trampling upon the weak and impoverishing those that are poor already.
He takes away from those to whom he should give. He has
spoiled by violence and open force; he has given forth upon
usury, and so spoiled by contract; and he has not restored the
pledge, but unjustly detained it even when the debt was paid. Let
those good parents that have wicked children not look upon their case
as singular; it is a case put here; and by it we see that grace does
not run in the blood, nor always attend the means of grace. The race is
not always to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, for then the
children that are well taught would do well, but God will let us know
that his grace is his own and his Spirit a free-agent, and that though
we are tied to give our children a good education he is not tied to
bless it. In this, as much as any thing, appears the power of original
sin and the necessity of special grace.
(2.) We are here assured that this wicked man shall perish for ever in
his iniquity, notwithstanding his being the son of a good father. He
may perhaps prosper awhile in the world, for the sake of the piety of
his ancestors, but, having committed all these abominations, and
never repented of them, he shall not live, he shall not be happy
in the favour of God; though he may escape the sword of men, he shall
not escape the curse of God. He shall surely die; he shall be
for ever miserable; his blood shall be upon him. He may thank
himself; he is his own destroyed. And his relation to a good father
will be so far from standing him in stead that it will aggravate his
sin and his condemnation. It made his sin the more heinous, nay, it
made him really the more vile and profligate, and, consequently, will
make his misery hereafter the more intolerable.
2. That a righteous man shall be certainly happy, though he be the son
of a wicked father. Though the father did eat the sour grapes, if the
children do not meddle with them, they shall fare never the worse for
that. Here,
(1.) It is supposed (and, blessed be God, it is sometimes a case in
fact) that the son of an ungodly father may be godly, that, observing
how fatal his father’s errors were, he may be so wise as to take
warning, and not tread in his father’s tests,
Ordinarily, children partake of the parents’ temper and are drawn in to
imitate their example; but here the son, instead of seeing his
father’s sins, and, as is usual, doing the like, sees them and
dreads doing the like. Men indeed do not gather grapes of
thorns, but God sometimes does, takes a branch from a wild olive
and grafts it into a good one. Wicked Ahaz begets a good Hezekiah, who
sees all his father’s sins which he has done, and though he will
not, like Ham, proclaim his father’s shame, or make the worst of it,
yet he loathes it, and blushes at it, and thinks the worse of sin
because it was the reproach and ruin of his own father. He considers
and does not such like; he considers how ill it became his father
to do such things, what an offence it was to God and all good men, what
a wound and dishonour he got by it, and what calamities he brought into
his family, and therefore he does not such like. Note, If we did
but duly consider the ways of wicked men, we should all dread
being associates with them and followers of them. The particulars are
here again enumerated almost in the same words with that character
given of the just man
(v. 6,
&c.), to show how good men walk in the same spirit and in the same
steps. This just man here, when he took care to avoid his father’s
sins, took care to imitate his grandfather’s virtues; and, if we look
back, we shall find some examples for our imitation, as well as others
for our admonition. This just man can not only say, as the Pharisee,
I am no adulterer, no extortioner, no oppressor, no usurer, no
idolater; but he has given his bread to the hungry and
covered the naked. He has taken off his hand from the
poor; where he found his father had put hardships upon poor
servants, tenants, neighbours, he eased their burden. He did not say,
“What my father has done I will abide by, and if it was a fault it was
his and not mine;” as Rehoboam, who contemned the taxes his father had
imposed. No; he takes his hand off from the poor, and restores
them to their rights and liberties again,
Thus he has executed God’s judgments and walked in his
statutes, not only done his duty for once, but one on in a course
and way of obedience.
(2.) We are assured that the graceless father alone shall die in his
iniquity, but his gracious son shall fare never the worse for it. As
for his father
(v. 18),
because he was a cruel oppressor, and did hurt, nay, because,
though he had wealth and power, he did not with them do good among his
people, lo, even he, great as he is, shall die in his
iniquity, and be undone for ever; but he that kept his integrity
shall surely live, shall be easy and happy, and he shall not
die for the iniquity of his father. Perhaps his father’s wickedness
has lessened his estate and weakened his interest, but it shall be no
prejudice at all to his acceptance with God and his eternal
welfare.
II. He appeals to themselves then whether they did not wrong God with
their proverb. “Thus plain the case is, and yet you say, Does not
the son bear the iniquity of the father? No, he does not; he shall
not if he will himself do that which is lawful and right,”
But this people that bore the iniquity of their fathers had not done
that which is lawful and right, and therefore justly suffered for their
own sin and had no reason to complain of God’s proceedings against them
as at all unjust, though they had reason to complain of the bad example
their fathers had left them as very unkind. Our fathers have sinned
and are not, and we have borne their iniquity,
Lam. v. 7.
It is true that there is a curse entailed upon wicked families, but it
is as true that the entail may be cut off by repentance and
reformation; let the impenitent and unreformed therefore thank
themselves if they fall under it. The settled rule of judgment is
therefore repeated
(v. 20):
The soul that sins shall die, and not another for it. What
direction God has given to earthly judges
he will himself pursue: The son shall not die, not die
eternally, for the iniquity of the father, if he do not tread in
the steps of it, nor the father for the iniquity of the son, if
he endeavour to do his duty for the preventing of it. In the day of
the revelation of the righteous judgment of God, which is now
clouded and eclipsed, the righteousness of the righteous shall
appear before all the world to be upon him, to his everlasting
comfort and honour, upon him as a robe, upon his as a crown; and the
wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him, to his
everlasting confusion, upon him as a chain, upon him as a load, as a
mountain of lead to sink him to the bottomless pit.
| Encouragement to Repentance. | B. C. 593. |
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21 But if the wicked will turn from all his sins that he hath
committed, and keep all my statutes, and do that which is lawful
and right, he shall surely live, he shall not die.
22 All his transgressions that he hath committed, they shall
not be mentioned unto him: in his righteousness that he hath done
he shall live.
23 Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die? saith
the Lord GOD: and not that he should return from his ways, and
live?
24 But when the righteous turneth away from his righteousness,
and committeth iniquity, and doeth according to all the
abominations that the wicked man doeth, shall he live? All his
righteousness that he hath done shall not be mentioned: in his
trespass that he hath trespassed, and in his sin that he hath
sinned, in them shall he die.
25 Yet ye say, The way of the Lord is not equal. Hear now, O
house of Israel; Is not my way equal? are not your ways unequal?
26 When a righteous man turneth away from his righteousness,
and committeth iniquity, and dieth in them; for his iniquity that
he hath done shall he die.
27 Again, when the wicked man turneth away from his
wickedness that he hath committed, and doeth that which is lawful
and right, he shall save his soul alive.
28 Because he considereth, and turneth away from all his
transgressions that he hath committed, he shall surely live, he
shall not die.
29 Yet saith the house of Israel, The way of the Lord is not
equal. O house of Israel, are not my ways equal? are not your
ways unequal?
We have here another rule of judgment which God will go by in dealing
with us, by which is further demonstrated the equity of his government.
The former showed that God will reward or punish according to the
change made in the family or succession, for the better or for the
worse; here he shows that he will reward or punish according to the
change made in the person himself, whether for the better or the worse.
While we are in this world we are in a state of probation; the time of
trial lasts as long as the time of life, and according as we are found
at last it will be with us to eternity. Now see here,
I. The case fairly stated, much as it had been before
&c.), and here it is laid down once
(v. 21-24)
and again
(v. 26-28),
because it is a matter of vast importance, a matter of life and death,
of life and death eternal. Here we have,
1. A fair invitation given to wicked people, to turn from their
wickedness. Assurance is here given us that, if the wicked will
turn, he shall surely live,
v. 21, 27.
Observe,
(1.) What is required to denominate a man a true convert, how he must
be qualified that he may be entitled to this act of indemnity.
[1.] The first step towards conversion is consideration
(v. 28):
Because he considers and turns. The reason why sinners go on in
their evil ways is because they do not consider what will be in the
end thereof; but if the prodigal once come to himself, if he
sit down and consider a little how bad his state is and how easily it
may be bettered, he will soon return to his father
(Luke xv. 17),
and the adulteress to her first husband when she considers that
then it was better with her than now,
Hos. ii. 7.
[2.] This consideration must produce an aversion to sin. When he
considers he must turn away from his wickedness, which denotes a
change in the disposition of the heart; he must turn from his sins
and his transgression, which denotes a change in the life; he must
break off from all his evil courses, and, wherein he has done iniquity,
must resolve to do so no more, and this from a principle of hatred to
sin. What have I to do any more with idols?
[3.] This aversion to sin must be universal; he must turn from
all his sins and all his transgressions, with out a
reserve for any Delilah, any house of Rimmon. We do not rightly turn
from sin unless we truly hate it, and we do not truly hate sin, as sin,
if we do not hate all sin.
[4.] This must be accompanied with a conversion to God and duty; he
must keep all God’s statutes (for the obedience, if it be
sincere, will be universal) and must do that which is lawful and
right, that which agrees with the word and will of God, which he
must take for his rule, and not the will of the flesh and the way of
the world.
(2.) What is promised to those that do thus turn from sin to God.
[1.] They shall save their souls alive,
v. 27.
They shall surely live, they shall not die,
v. 21 and again v. 28.
Whereas it was said, The soul that sins it shall die, yet let
not those that have sinned despair but that the threatened death may be
prevented if they will but turn and repent in time. When David
penitently acknowledges, I have sinned, he is immediately
assured of his pardon: “The Lord has taken away thy sin, thou shalt
not die
thou shalt not die eternally.” He shall surely live; he shall be
restored to the favour of God, which is the life of the soul, and shall
not lie under his wrath, which is as messengers of death
to the soul.
[2.] The sins they have repented of and forsaken shall not rise up in
judgment against them, nor shall they be so much as upbraided with
them: All his transgressions that he has committed, though
numerous, though heinous, though very provoking to God, and redounding
very much to his dishonour, yet they shall not be mentioned unto
him
(v. 22),
not mentioned against them; not only they shall not be imputed to him
to ruin him, but in the great day they shall not be remembered against
him to grieve or shame him; they shall be covered, shall be sought for
and not found. This intimates the fulness of pardoning mercy; when sin
is forgiven it is blotted out, it is remembered no more.
[3.] In their righteousness they shall live; not for their
righteousness, as if that were the purchase of their pardon and bliss
and an atonement for their sins, but in their righteousness, which
qualifies them for all the blessings purchased by the Mediator, and is
itself one of those blessings.
(3.) What encouragement a repenting returning sinner has to hope for
pardon and life according to this promise. He is conscious to himself
that his obedience for the future can never be a valuable compensation
for his former disobedience; but he has this to support himself with,
that God’s nature, property, and delight, is to have mercy and to
forgive, for he has said
(v. 23):
“Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die? No, by
no means; you never had any cause given you to think so.” It is true
God has determined to punish sinners; his justice calls for their
punishment, and, pursuant to that, impenitent sinners will lie for ever
under his wrath and curse; that is the will of his decree, his
consequent will, but it is not his antecedent will, the will of his
delight. Though the righteousness of his government requires that
sinners die, yet the goodness of his nature objects against it. How
shall I give thee up, Ephraim? It is spoken here comparatively; he
has not pleasure in the ruin of sinners, for he would rather they
should turn from their ways and live; he is better pleased when
his mercy is glorified in their salvation than when his justice is
glorified in their damnation.
2. A fair warning given to righteous people not to turn from their
righteousness,
Here is,
(1.) The character of an apostate, that turns away from his
righteousness. He never was in sincerity a righteous man (as
appears by that of the apostle,
If they had been of us, they would, no doubt, have continued with
us), but he passed for a righteous man. He had the denomination and
all the external marks of a righteous man; he thought himself one, and
others thought him one. But he throws of his profession, leaves his
first love, disowns and forsakes the truth and ways of God, and so
turns away from his righteousness as one sick of it, and now
shows, what he always had, a secret aversion to it; and, having
turned away from his righteousness, he commits iniquity,
grows loose, and profane, and sensual, intemperate, unjust, and, in
short, does according to all the abominations that the wicked man
does; for, when the unclean spirit recovers his possession of the
heart, he brings with him seven other spirits more wicked than
himself and they enter in and dwell there,
Luke xi. 26.
(2.) The doom of an apostate: Shall he live because he was once
a righteous man? No; factum non dicitur quod non
perseverat–that which does not abide is not said to be done. In his
trespass
(v. 24)
and for his iniquity (that is the meritorious cause of his ruin),
for the iniquity that he has done, he shall die, shall die
eternally,
The backslider in heart shall be filled with his own ways. But
will not his former professions and performances stand him in some
stead–will they not avail at least to mitigate his punishment? No:
All his righteousness that he has done, though ever so much
applauded by men, shall not be mentioned so as to be either a
credit or a comfort to him; the righteousness of an apostate is
forgotten, as the wickedness of a penitent is. Under the law, if a
Nazarite was polluted he lost all the foregoing days of his separation
(Num. vi. 12),
so those that have begun in the spirit and end in the flesh may
reckon all their past services and sufferings in vain
unless we persevere we lose what we have gained,
2 John 8.
II. An appeal to the consciences even of the house of Israel, though
very corrupt, concerning God’s equity in all these proceedings; for he
will be justified, as well as sinners judged, out of their own mouths.
1. The charge they drew up against God is blasphemous,
The house of Israel has the impudence to say, The way of the
Lord is not equal, than which nothing could be more absurd as well
as impious. He that formed the eye, shall he not see? Can his
ways be unequal whose will is the eternal rule of good and evil, right
and wrong? Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right? No
doubt he shall; he cannot do otherwise.
2. God’s reasonings with them are very gracious and condescending, for
even these blasphemers God would rather have convinced and saved than
condemned. One would have expected that God would immediately vindicate
the honour of his justice by making those that impeached it eternal
monuments of it. Must those be suffered to draw another breath that
have once breathed out such wickedness as this? Shall that tongue ever
speak again any where but in hell that has once said, The ways of
the Lord are not equal? Yes, because this is the day of God’s
patience, he vouchsafes to argue with them; and he requires them to
own, for it is so plain that they cannot deny,
(1.) The equity of his ways: Are not my ways equal? No doubt
they are. He never lays upon man more than is right. In the present
punishments of sinners and the afflictions of his own people, yea, and
in the eternal damnation of the impenitent, the ways of the Lord are
equal.
(2.) The iniquity of their ways: “Are not your ways unequal? It
is plain that they are, and the troubles you are in you have brought
upon your own heads. God does you no wrong, but you have wronged
yourselves.” The foolishness of man perverts his way, makes that
unequal, and then his heart frets against the Lord, as if his
ways were unequal,
In all our disputes with God, and in all his controversies with us, it
will be found that his ways are equal, but ours are unequal, that he is
in the right and we are in the wrong.
| Warning against Apostasy. | B. C. 593. |
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30 Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one
according to his ways, saith the Lord GOD. Repent, and turn
yourselves from all your transgressions; so iniquity shall not
be your ruin.
31 Cast away from you all your transgressions, whereby ye have
transgressed; and make you a new heart and a new spirit: for why
will ye die, O house of Israel?
32 For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith
the Lord GOD: wherefore turn yourselves, and live ye.
We have here the conclusion and application of this whole matter. After
a fair trial at the bar of right reason the verdict is brought in on
God’s side; it appears that his ways are equal. Judgment
therefore is next to be given; and one would think it should be a
judgment of condemnation, nothing short of Go, you cursed, into
everlasting fire. But, behold, a miracle of mercy; the day of grace
and divine patience is yet lengthened out; and therefore, though God
will at last judge every one according to his ways, yet he waits
to be gracious, and closes all with a call to repentance and a promise
of pardon upon repentance.
I. Here are four necessary duties that we are called to, all amounting
to the same:–
1. We must repent; we must change our mind and change our ways; we must
be sorry for what we have done amiss and ashamed of it, and go as far
as we can towards the undoing of it again.
2. We must turn ourselves from all our transgressions,
v. 30 and again v. 32.
Turn yourselves, face about; turn from sin, nay, turn against it
as the enemy you loathe, turn to God as the friend you love.
3. We must cast away from us all our transgressions; we must
abandon and forsake them with a resolution never to return to them
again, give sin a bill of divorce, break all the leagues we have made
with it, throw it overboard, as the mariners did Jonah (for it has
raised the storm), cast it out of the soul, and crucify it as a
malefactor.
4. We must make us a new heart and a new spirit. This was the
matter of a promise,
Here it is the matter of a precept. We must do our endeavour, and then
God will not be wanting to us to give us his grace. St. Austin well
explains this precept. Deus non jubet impossibilia, sed jubendo
monet et facere quod possis et petere quod non possis–God does not
enjoin impossibilities, but by his commands admonishes us to do what is
in our power and to pray for what is not.
II. Here are four good arguments used to enforce these calls to
repentance:–
1. It is the only way, and it is a sure way, to prevent the ruin which
our sins have a direct tendency to: So iniquity shall not be your
ruin, which implies that, if we do not repent, iniquity will be our
ruin, here and for ever, but that, if we do, we are safe, we are
snatched as brands out of the burning.
2. If we repent not, we certainly perish, and our blood will be upon
our own heads. Why will you die, O house of Israel? What an
absurd thing it is for you to choose death and damnation rather than
life and salvation. Note, The reason why sinners die is because they
will die; they will go down the way that leads to death, and not
come up to the terms on which life is offered. Herein sinners,
especially sinners of the house of Israel, are most unreasonable and
act most unaccountably.
3. The God of heaven has no delight in our ruin, but desires our
welfare
(v. 32):
I have no pleasure in the death of him that dies, which implies
that he has pleasure in the recovery of those that repent; and this is
both an engagement and an encouragement to us to repent.
4. We are made for ever if we repent: Turn yourselves, and live.
He that says to us, Repent, thereby says to us, Live,
yea, he says to us, Live; so that life and death are here set
before us.
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