Ezekiel 7:22
I will turn My face away from them, and they will defile My treasured place. Violent men will enter it, and they will defile it.
Sermons
The Averted FaceJ.R. Thomson Ezekiel 7:22
Fallacious DeliveranceJ.D. Davies Ezekiel 7:16-22
The Perversion of Desirable Possessions Punished by the Deprivation of ThemW. Jones Ezekiel 7:20-22














In the figurative but natural and expressive language of the Hebrews, the shining of God's countenance means his good pleasure and good will towards those whom he favours, and the hiding or averting of his countenance means his displeasure. Prayer often shaped itself into the familiar expression, "The Lord cause his face to shine upon us;" and the displeasure of Heaven was deprecated in such terms as these: "Turn not thy face from thy servants." The child distinguishes at once between the smile and the frown of the parent; the courtier is at no loss to discriminate between the welcome and favour and the displeasure apparent upon the monarch's face. To the mind at all sensitive to the moral beauty and glory of God, no sentence can be so dreadful as that uttered in the simple but terrible language of the text, "My face will I turn also from them."

I. IN THE SHINING OF GOD'S COUNTENANCE IS LIFE AND JOY. When the sun arises in his strength, and floods the hills and the valleys, the rivers and the forests, the cornfields and the meadows, with his glorious rays, nature returns the smiles, glows in the sunbeams, rejoices in the warmth and the illumination. Where the sun shines brightly, there the colours are radiant, the odour delicious, there the music of the grove is sweet and the harvest of the plain is golden, there life is luxuriant and gladness breaks forth into laughter and song. And in the moral, the spiritual realm, it is the sunlight of God's countenance, the manifestation of God's favour, which calls forth and sustains all spiritual life, health, peace, and joy. "In thy favour is life."

II. MAN'S UNBELIEF AND SIN OCCASION THE HIDING AND WITHDRAWING OF GOD'S COUNTENANCE. The change is not in him; it is in us. When the sun is not seen in the sky, it is not because he no longer shines, but because clouds, mists, or smoke, ascending from the earth, come between the orb of day and the globe which he illumines. So if God turns his face from an individual, a city, a people, it is because their sins have risen up as a dense, foul fog, intervening between them and a holy, righteous God. "Your iniquities have separated between you and your God." So it was with those against whom the Prophet Ezekiel was called upon to testify. So it is with multitudes whom the ministers of Christ are required to address in language of tender sympathy, yet of expostulation and reproach.

III. THE AVERSION OF GOD'S COUNTENANCE IS THE WORST OF ALL CALAMITIES. It is not to be wondered at that men with their composite nature, absorbed as they are in things which affect the body and the earthly life, should think chiefly of the sufferings and privations in which the moral laws of the universe involve them. And these sufferings and privations are realities which no thoughtful man can fail to perceive and to estimate with something like correctness. Yet he who is enlightened and in any measure spiritually sensitive cannot fail to see that it is the regard of God himself which is of chief import. It is better to enjoy the Divine loving kindness, even in poverty, privation, spoliation, and weakness, than to possess luxury, honour, and the delights of sense, and to know that God's countenance is turned away, is hidden.

IV. A MERCIFUL GOD WILL TURN AGAIN HIS FACE AND CAUSE IT TO SHINE UPON PENITENT AND BELIEVING SUPPLIANTS. It is sin which conceals the Divine countenance; it is repentance which seeks the shining anew of that countenance; and salvation consists in the response of God to the prayer of man. Yet the turning of his face towards us is the work of his own mercy, the revelation of his own nature - compassionate, gracious, and forgiving. - T.

For the vision is touching the whole multitude thereof, which shall not return.
Now the Jews recovered from all their former captivities; but from this one they never can recover. Where is their tribal register now? My object, therefore, will be to set before you a fourfold contrast between the covenant that is passed away and the covenant that shall not pass away.

1. The first contrast I notice is the passing away of the Jewish land, and the sure continuation of a better land in its place. In the second verse of this same chapter where our text is it saith, "An end, the end"; — that is a remarkable form of speech — "An end, the end," — the ultimate end, as it means, the final end — "is come upon the four corners of the land." Let us then see what we have to put in the place thereof, after just observing that that land was to pass away by violence, by war, famine, and pestilence, and everything that was awful. Now we go to the 60th of Isaiah, and we get something to put in the place thereof. There is a land of which it is written, "Violence shall no more be heard in thee," etc. And what land is this? Why, the land spoken of in the 1st chapter of the First Epistle of Peter, — "an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away." Here, then, by Jesus Christ, we have a land into which no violence can come. No sin can defile the Saviour, and no sin can defile the people as they stand in Christ, and no sin can defile that heavenly land into which He hath entered. There is therefore no violence. "Violence shall no more be heard in thee." Jesus is not crucified there, but glorified; the people are not persecuted and hated there, but universally loved. The people have no pain, no sorrow, no sigh, no tear there. And this blessedness, in place of the old land, is by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And now mark, — "Thou shalt call thy walls salvation"; that is, "salvation will God appoint for walls and bulwarks"; so that God will take care of you as a citizen by salvation; He is round about you by the perfect work of Jesus Christ. Can you think of a position so lovely as this?

2. The second contrast I give is that in ver. 11 — "Violence is risen up into a rod of wickedness; none of them shall remain," etc. Here is a positive declaration. Now go to the Saviour's day, and see how literally this is fulfilled. Was not the government of the Pharisees, as described in the 23rd of Matthew, a sceptre or rod of wickedness? They must be taken away, and taken away forever. Now let us look at the contrast to this. Let us come to the new covenant, and hear what is said there. In the new covenant the Lord speaketh thus: — "For as the new heavens" — meaning the Christian economy of eternal salvation "and the new earth" — meaning in substance the same thing — "which I will make" — and which were made when Christ was on the earth, for when Christ was on the earth He made, as it were, a new earth; that is, He established a new life, a new inheritance, a new kingdom, a new heaven, old things passed away, all things become new; — "As the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before Me, saith the Lord, so shall your seed and your name remain." All now is spiritual. "The time is come when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father seeketh such to worship Him."

3. The third contrast I notice is, I think, a very strong one. "The seller shall not return to that which is sold." Now, this seems a simple declaration, but it means a great deal more than may at first sight appear. Under the Old Testament dispensation when a man waxed poor, he sold his inheritance, but he sold it only up to the day of jubilee. Then, when the jubilee came, that man. without money, without price, by virtue of the order of things that God had established, returned to his inheritance. Now, this chapter says "The seller," alluding to that same circumstance, "shall not return to that which is sold." The meaning of it, therefore, is, — there shall never be another jubilee, and there has not been from that day to this, and there never will be down to the end of time. Where shall I now find the true jubilee? Why, in Christ. He has paid the mighty debt we owed; He has set the prisoners free; He brings His brethren into the inheritance.

4. Is there from the first chapter of Matthew to the last of Revelation a single hint about the restoration of the old Jerusalem? The Saviour says, "Your house is left unto you desolate." Does He say it shall some day be restored? Does He say, "Your house is left unto you desolate till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord"? No, He says no such thing. He says, "Ye shall not see Me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord." If I should get an invitation to preach in some Jewish synagogue, where they wanted to hear the Gospel, what would that be but their saying, "Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord"? that is, in the name of Jesus Christ. And if God were to open their eyes, and they should see Jesus, what would they say then? Ah, they would say, let the shadow go; let us have the substance. Let the ceremonial go; let us have the vital, the living, the eternal. They would turn their backs upon the temporal, and look at those things which are eternal.

(James Wells.)

People
Ezekiel
Places
Jerusalem
Topics
Defile, Desecrate, Destroyers, Enter, Face, Hidden, Pollute, Polluted, Precious, Profane, Robbers, Secret, Treasured, Turn, Unholy, Violent, Yea
Outline
1. The final desolation of Israel
16. The mournful repentance from that escape
20. The enemies defile the sanctuary because of the Israelites' abominations
23. Under the type of a chain is shown the miserable captivity of all orders of men

Dictionary of Bible Themes
Ezekiel 7:22

     1255   face of God

Ezekiel 7:20-22

     5211   art

Library
Motives to Holy Mourning
Let me exhort Christians to holy mourning. I now persuade to such a mourning as will prepare the soul for blessedness. Oh that our hearts were spiritual limbecs, distilling the water of holy tears! Christ's doves weep. They that escape shall be like doves of the valleys, all of them mourning, every one for his iniquity' (Ezekiel 7:16). There are several divine motives to holy mourning: 1 Tears cannot be put to a better use. If you weep for outward losses, you lose your tears. It is like a shower
Thomas Watson—The Beatitudes: An Exposition of Matthew 5:1-12

Healing a Demoniac in a Synagogue.
(at Capernaum.) ^B Mark I. 21-28; ^C Luke . IV. 31-37. ^b 21 And they [Jesus and the four fishermen whom he called] go into { ^c he came down to} Capernaum, a city of Galilee. [Luke has just spoken of Nazareth, and he uses the expression "down to Capernaum" because the latter was on the lake shore while Nazareth was up in the mountains.] And ^b straightway on the sabbath day he entered into the synagogue and taught. { ^c was teaching them} ^b 22 And they were astonished at his teaching: for he taught
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel

The Hebrew Sages and their Proverbs
[Sidenote: Role of the sages in Israel's life] In the days of Jeremiah and Ezekiel (Jer. xviii. 18; Ezek. vii. 26) three distinct classes of religious teachers were recognized by the people: the prophets, the priests, and the wise men or sages. From their lips and pens have come practically all the writings of the Old Testament. Of these three classes the wise men or sages are far less prominent or well known. They wrote no history of Israel, they preached no public sermons, nor do they appear
Charles Foster Kent—The Origin & Permanent Value of the Old Testament

"And There is None that Calleth Upon Thy Name, that Stirreth up Himself to Take Hold on Thee,"
Isaiah lxiv. 7.--"And there is none that calleth upon thy name, that stirreth up himself to take hold on thee," &c. They go on in the confession of their sins. Many a man hath soon done with that a general notion of sin is the highest advancement in repentance that many attain to. You may see here sin and judgment mixed in thorough other(315) in their complaint. They do not so fix their eyes upon their desolate estate of captivity, as to forget their provocations. Many a man would spend more affection,
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

Blessed are they that Mourn
Blessed are they that mourn. Matthew 5:4 Here are eight steps leading to true blessedness. They may be compared to Jacob's Ladder, the top whereof reached to heaven. We have already gone over one step, and now let us proceed to the second: Blessed are they that mourn'. We must go through the valley of tears to paradise. Mourning were a sad and unpleasant subject to treat on, were it not that it has blessedness going before, and comfort coming after. Mourning is put here for repentance. It implies
Thomas Watson—The Beatitudes: An Exposition of Matthew 5:1-12

"Thou Shall Keep Him in Perfect Peace, Whose Mind is Stayed on Thee, Because He Trusteth in Thee. "
Isaiah xxvi. 3.--"Thou shall keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee, because he trusteth in thee." All men love to have privileges above others. Every one is upon the design and search after some well-being, since Adam lost that which was true happiness. We all agree upon the general notion of it, but presently men divide in the following of particulars. Here all men are united in seeking after some good; something to satisfy their souls, and satiate their desires. Nay, but they
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

There is a Blessedness in Reversion
Blessed are the poor in spirit. Matthew 5:3 Having done with the occasion, I come now to the sermon itself. Blessed are the poor in spirit'. Christ does not begin his Sermon on the Mount as the Law was delivered on the mount, with commands and threatenings, the trumpet sounding, the fire flaming, the earth quaking, and the hearts of the Israelites too for fear; but our Saviour (whose lips dropped as the honeycomb') begins with promises and blessings. So sweet and ravishing was the doctrine of this
Thomas Watson—The Beatitudes: An Exposition of Matthew 5:1-12

Ezekiel
To a modern taste, Ezekiel does not appeal anything like so powerfully as Isaiah or Jeremiah. He has neither the majesty of the one nor the tenderness and passion of the other. There is much in him that is fantastic, and much that is ritualistic. His imaginations border sometimes on the grotesque and sometimes on the mechanical. Yet he is a historical figure of the first importance; it was very largely from him that Judaism received the ecclesiastical impulse by which for centuries it was powerfully
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament

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