The Dread Development of Moral Evil
W. Jones Ezekiel 7:23-27 Make a chain: for the land is full of bloody crimes, and the city is full of violence.… Make a chain: for the land is full of bloody crimes, etc. This paragraph suggests the following observations. I. THAT PERSISTENCE IN SIN LEADS TO PLENITUDE OF SIN. "Make a chain: for the land is full of bloody crimes, and the city is full of violence." The wickedness of the people had grown to such an extent that the darkest crimes were everywhere prevalent and predominant. The city was filled with outrage, and the country with blood guiltness. Sin, unless it be striven against and resisted, increases both in measure and in power, until it attains unto terrible fulness and maturity. As in holiness, so also in wickedness, full development is reached gradually. Peoples and nations arrive at thorough moral corruption not with a bound, but step by step. But unless checked, wickedness ever tends to that dreadful goal (cf. Genesis 15:16; Daniel 8:23; Matthew 23:32; 1 Thessalonians 2:16). II. THAT PLENITUDE OF SIN USHERS IN THE AWFUL JUDGMENTS OF GOD. Because of the fulness of wickedness, the calamities announced by the prophet were coming upon the people. This is explicitly stated in both the twenty-third and twenty-fourth verses. The prevalent iniquities of Israel were the meritorious cause of the stern judgments of the Lord. Several features of these require notice. 1. They were of dread severity. They were to be carried into captivity. To set forth this truth Ezekiel is summoned to "make a chain." And, as a matter of fact, Zedekiah the king was bound with fetters of brass, and carried to Babylon (2 Kings 25:7). And a post-exilian poet speaks of the miserable captivity of the people (Psalm 107:10-12). Their homes were to be seized and held by their enemies. "I will bring the worst of the heathen, and they shall possess their houses." Their sanctuary was to be profaned. "Their holy places shall be defiled." The reference is to the temple, their "holy and beautiful house." The prophet speaks of it as theirs, not God's, probably to indicate that God had already forsaken the sanctuary which they had defiled. "Woe be to us when our sanctuaries are nothing but our sanctuaries!" Anguish was to take hold upon hem. "Destruction cometh;" literally, "standing up of the hair cometh" (Professor Cheyne). If we accept this view of the word, it denotes extreme anguish or horror by one of the physical manifestations thereof, as in 'Hamlet' (act 1. sc. 5) - "I could a tale unfold, whose lightest word Would harrow up thy soul; freeze thy young blood; Make thy two eyes, like stars, start from their spheres; Thy knotted and combined locks to part, And each particular hair to stand on end, Like quills upon the fretful porpentine." (Shakespeare.) 2. They were to come in terrible succession. "Mischief shall come upon mischief, and rumour shall be upon rumour." "Mischief" fails to fully express the force of the original word. Fairbairn renders it "woe;" Cheyne, "ruin;" Schroder, "destruction." Woe upon woe, misery upon misery, would befall them. Calamities would rush upon them in troops. As the king of Egypt was visited with plague after plague, so the strokes of the Divine judgments are sometimes sternly repeated, each stroke for a time being the harbinger of others. 3. Even the mightiest would be unable to stand against them. "I will also make the pomp of the strong to cease." Jehovah by his servant Moses had threatened the Israelites with a dreadful series of punishments if they persisted in rebelling against him, including this, "I will break the pride of your power" (Leviticus 26:19). When the Omnipotent arises for judgment, the most powerful creature is impotent to withstand him. "Hast thou an arm like God?" III. THAT IN TIMES OF SORE DISTRESS THE WICKED SEEK HELP OF THE LORD OR OF HIS SERVANTS. "They shall seek peace, and there shall be none;... they shall seek a vision of the prophet." "Peace" is not an adequate rendering of the Hebrew here.. Professor Cheyne translates, "safety;" and Schroder, "salvation." In their overwhelming calamities the Israelites would seek the help which they had despised in the time of their prosperity. So the proud Pharaoh, when the plagues were upon him and his subjects, repeatedly called for Moses and Aaron, and besought them to entreat the Lord. on his behalf. So also the perverse and rebellious Israelites applied unto Moses when they were smarting under the Divine chastisements (Numbers 11:2; Numbers 21:7; cf. Psalm 78:34-37). And the presumptuous Jeroboam, soon as his hand was smitten with paralysis, entreated the prayers of the prophet whom a moment before he was about to treat with violence (1 Kings 13:6). By thus seeking deliverance from God in the time of their distress, the wicked bear witness to their sense of the reality of his Being, and of their need of him. And by seeking the intercession of his faithful servants they unwittingly testify to the worth of genuine religion. IV. THAT MEN WHO HAVE REJECTED GOD IN SEASONS OF PEACE MAY SEEK HELP FROM HIM IN SEASONS OF DISTRESS, YET NOT OBTAIN IT. "They shall seek peace, and there shall be none;... then shall they seek a vision of the prophet; but the Law shall perish from the priest, and counsel from the ancients. The king shall mourn," etc. The following points require brief notice. 1. Deliverance from trouble, and direction in trouble, sought in vain. The Israelites seek for safety, but find it not; for prophetic guidance, but it fails them. The prophet or seer has no vision for them; the priest has no instruction in the Law or in religion; the ancients or wise men have no counsel for their life and conduct. Saul, the King of Israel, presents a mournful illustration of this (1 Samuel 28:6, 15). "Because I have called, and ye refused," etc. (Proverbs 1:24-31). 2. Failure to obtain help in trouble producing great distress. "The king shall mourn, and the prince shall be clothed with desolation," etc. The distress is general. The king, the prince, and the people all feel it. The calamities are not partial or sectional, but national. The distress is very great. The king mourns in deep inward grief; the prince clothes himself with horror, is as it were wrapt up in terror; and the hands of the common people tremble. 3. The righteousness of these judgments. "I will do unto them after their way, and according to their deserts will I judge them." The dealings of the Lord with them would be regulated by their conduct. His judgments would correspond with their lives and works. They would reap the fruit of their doings. 4. The righteous judgments of God leading to the recognition of him. "And they shall know that I am the Lord." In this day of their calamity they will feel and acknowledge the supremacy of Jehovah. (See our remarks on ver. 4, and on Ezekiel 6:7, 10.) Let us seek to know him, not in his judgments, but in his mercies; not in wrath, but in love. "And this is life eternal, that they should know thee the only true God, and him whom thou didst send, even Jesus Christ." - W.J. Parallel Verses KJV: Make a chain: for the land is full of bloody crimes, and the city is full of violence. WEB: Make the chain; for the land is full of bloody crimes, and the city is full of violence.