Ezekiel 25

EzekielNotes on Ezekiel 1:1-28; Ezekiel 2:1-10; Ezekiel 3:1-27; Ezekiel 4:1-17; Ezekiel 5:1-17; Ezekiel 6:1-14; Ezekiel 7:1-27; Ezekiel 8:1-18; Ezekiel 9:1-11; Ezekiel 10:1-22; Ezekiel 11:1-25; Ezekiel 12:1-28; Ezekiel 13:1-23; Ezekiel 14:1-23; Ezekiel 15:1-8; Ezekiel 16:1-63; Ezekiel 17:1-24; Ezekiel 18:1-32; Ezekiel 19:1-14; Ezekiel 20:1-49; Ezekiel 21:1-32; Ezekiel 22:1-31; Ezekiel 23:1-49; Ezekiel 24:1-27; Ezekiel 25:1-17; Ezekiel 26:1-21; Ezekiel 27:1-36; Ezekiel 28:1-26; Ezekiel 29:1-21; Ezekiel 30:1-26; Ezekiel 31:1-18; Ezekiel 32:1-32; Ezekiel 33:1-33; Ezekiel 34:1-31; Ezekiel 35:1-15; Ezekiel 36:1-38; Ezekiel 37:1-28 by F. W. Grant, from the fourth volume of the Numerical Bible. Notes on Ezekiel 38:1-23; Ezekiel 39:1-29; Ezekiel 40:1-49; Ezekiel 41:1-26; Ezekiel 42:1-20; Ezekiel 43:1-27; Ezekiel 44:1-31; Ezekiel 45:1-25; Ezekiel 46:1-24; Ezekiel 47:1-23; Ezekiel 48:1-35, with a Historical Chart of the Prophets, Plans illustrating the Temple, and the Future Division of the Land, by J. Bloore. Division 2. (Ezekiel 25:1-17; Ezekiel 26:1-21; Ezekiel 27:1-36; Ezekiel 28:1-26; Ezekiel 29:1-21; Ezekiel 30:1-26; Ezekiel 31:1-18; Ezekiel 32:1-32.)The judgment upon the Gentile enemies. Judgment is now executed upon Israel, God’s special people, who owed their prominence to the privileges granted to them, as the apostle reminds us -“chiefly that unto them were committed the oracles of God.” But this of necessity includes others also, in so far as these oracles have reached to others besides Israel. In God’s mind His house was to be a house of prayer for all nations and Israel, with her miraculous history, whose land was on the highway of national intercourse, was to be wisdom’s voice heard in the crossways in which God had appointed her stand. Could the nations around be guiltless, then? They were not in the simple ignorance which God could overlook, as the apostle states in his address to the Athenians (Acts 17:30). In fact, as we shall see, the message had in measure told upon them, but only to arouse, as to the mass of them, the natural enmity of the human heart to God. Accordingly, if Israel be judged, the nations around her must also be dealt with, and dealt with by the instrument which God uses in the judgment of Israel herself. Thus it is the nations in various degrees of relation to Israel that we find now summoned before the judgment-seat. Seven of the nations around are thus made special representatives of such responsibility, and their attitude towards the chosen people of God stands at the forefront of the account. In principle we have here what will be repeated in the last days, in the judgment before the Son of Man (Matthew 25:31-46, see Notes). Ammon we find to be against the sanctuary and the land. Moab, in pride of heart, will see nothing in Israel but a nation like all the rest. Edom and Philistia have nursed a spirit of vengeance against her. Tyre finds her own gain in Israel’s fall.

Sidon has been a sting and a thorn to her and Egypt, always a staff of reed. Whatever difference there may be one from another, it is plain that God’s word in Israel, which is necessarily for all His creatures, has been disregarded or refused. It may be said, and truly so, that there was not a missionary spirit in Israel, and that as yet there was no proper gospel to go out to others. Nevertheless, for the heart that seeks Him, there will be the consciousness that wherever He is to be found, He is the rewarder of those that seek Him out. His gifts, wherever appreciable to the carnal mind, will be easily recognized and sought after. At the time of Israel’s deliverance, when judgment passed upon Egypt and upon all her gods, there was such a testimony as could not be mistaken, but it only brought out more fully the fact that there was no heart to respond to it -that their ignorance of God was a willing ignorance.

Thus the opposition of surrounding nations to Israel in her after-course was, manifestly, largely due to a claim which these things pressed upon them, and to which they did not yield. It has been remarked by some that the number of these nations -seven in all -is meant to be significant. Together they present an epitome of the world as a whole, in the different forms which this resistance takes. This surely should cause us to inquire into the particular significance of each of these, and what we are to learn by it but it has been little inquired into. If we examine it, however, we shall find that what is given us here is not simply the world in Israel’s time, but the world in our time also. It is essentially the same -one in spirit all through and the lessons therefore abide for us today typically they are for spiritual lessons to us, having at the same time a prophetic meaning, manifesting itself everywhere to those who care to see. Let us take them up therefore in this manner, remembering the importance to apprehend God’s mind in everything that He may communicate to us, and that true blessing to ourselves is not merely found in what is distinctly addressed to ourselves, but in the apprehension of what God would give us in the consideration of all His ways either in judgment or in grace.

His steps everywhere, as we have said before, are always steps of revelation. His acts are of significance, as His words are and here, as elsewhere, all these things happened and were recorded for our admonition upon whom the ends of the ages have come.

Ezekiel 25:1-11

Section 1 (Ezekiel 25:1-11).Ammon-Moab, one in descent, in sin, and retribution. Their land given to the sons of the East. First of all, the kindred peoples of Ammon and Moab are set before us: one in their origin, according to their well-known shameful history, and one in their sin, as we shall see directly; one also, therefore, in the retribution which comes upon their sin. Yet there is a difference between them, a difference fully recognized in what we find here.

1. Ammon faces us first. In him is marked opposition to the sanctuary and to the land of Israel. But the sanctuary is God’s dwelling among men, the expression thus of grace -a grace which has been only more fully made known in after-times. In Christ we have had the fullest expression of it, dwelling amongst men in such a way as told out His delight in them; and this is a step which He will never take back. In Him, God and man are indissolubly joined, and with Him there is no repentance.

The land of Israel is the portion which God in grace has given them, and in which He would make manifest the blessedness of those who draw near to Him. These are lessons which at all times are meant to speak to all; but as Israel on the one hand could take such privileges to glorify themselves with them, and despise others, so on the other hand, men could take them as the mere exhibition of a narrow partiality on God’s part, and make Him but as one of the gods of the nations round about. If in this way we look back at the history of Ammon it will have continual significance for us. Their first father’s name, Ben-ammi, “son of my people,” is significant, if we think of it as in opposition to the people of God. The land also, as we find in the history of the Judges, he covets for himself, though he can take possession really of nothing, being only the nomad ravager which everything shows him to be. Thus, as others have remarked, we have no cities of the land of Ammon; nothing that indicates the proper occupation of the soil or the care of the agriculturist. Rabbah is his one city, “numerous,” as we may read the word, the hold of a motley host, as it were, but the stronghold of a Bedouin race; and the judgment which falls upon it is completely in character with this. In the congruous ways of God, the land of Ammon is given up to similar raiders, “the sons of the East;” the word for east signifying what is opposite to you, but which may easily acquire the character of what we find in the east wind -what is in opposition, or adverse. “The sons of the East,” such as the Ishmaelites, were men whose hand was against every one, and every one’s hand against them. Rabbah, under them, becomes itself broken up, and is but a habitation for camels, “the burden bearers” of the desert. If we look further at Ammon, and in the light of his previous history, which has been elsewhere considered, we need have little difficulty in discerning the foe who makes his attack upon the things of primary importance for us; above all, upon the grace of God and the portion which grace has for His people. It is characteristic of the errorist of all time, in whom the power of Satan specially is at work, one who is ever against Christ, and necessarily, therefore, against His people. Nahash, “the serpent,” the king of Ammon, is thus the figure of the great adversary of God and man. His attack upon the people in Saul’s time has been already considered in its place. Heresy, as we know, takes away the portion of God’s people, but it is able to do nothing with it. It cannot make the land fruitful in which it is simply a raider, and indeed cannot retain that upon which it may lay hold, as we see in Ammon’s previous possession of the land of Sihon which they had lost to the Amorite. All this is in the deepest way instructive for those who have learned in Scripture history to find not merely that, but prophecy also, bringing out, as prophecy ever does, the mind of God, His judgment of all the things that come into man’s mind. It is not the place to dwell upon it here at length, but the history will be found in this way significant throughout, and not merely in a few points which a lively imagination may read things into. The history as such, with all its admonition, is the more confirmed, of course, as we realize it to be an inspired history; with the breath of the Spirit of God in them, the prophets wrote much better than they knew. 2. From Ammon now we turn to Moab, who is associated in the closest way with Ammon, and with Seir also, in whom one of the great lessons that we read is the gravity of the association. In all that is here Moab is scarcely seen alone. Moab is the company-lover, and not careful as to the company he keeps; he is the true child of Lot, as we see at once, if we remember him as with Abraham on the one hand, and on the other off into Sodom, drawn there by what gain he can find in it. Moab is thus the very type of the comfortable worldling who will keep company with the people of God until he can almost persuade himself, as he would others, that he is one with them, while on the other hand he can consort with what is in deadliest opposition to the people of God; he is not able to discern for himself what constitutes the difference. Thus, “Moab and Seir say, Behold the house of Judah is like unto all the nations.” Moab’s character is thus as plainly marked as that of Ammon. In contrast with Ammon, he can win his land and have his cities, which are the glory of it. As mentioned specially here, he has a Beth-jeshimoth (“a house of the wastes”) to redeem the wastes. He has a Baal-meon, or more fully, Beth-baal-meon (“the house of the possessor of a dwelling”), and he appreciates it, of course. Then he has a Kiriathaim, “a walled double city,” in which security and the association which he loves, so favorable for polish and practical activities, are combined. These things stand for principles which men still glory in; and they come so near to what is true and right, that we find them taken up and adopted by Reuben, the typical child of God, as there is, no doubt, such transformation in them as that into which faith introduces him (Joshua 13:17-20. Compare Numbers 32:38, Notes). In all this, Moab exemplifies typically the professor of religion, but always tending to go easily with the heretic; he makes Christianity itself, as Moab made Judaism, but one of the forms which illustrate the religious element in man. Every one knows what a favorite idea this is coming to be in these last days. Thus Moab, in full company with Ammon in his later history and in his spirit, becomes partaker of his doom. In other places of Scripture they are treated as if one. The company he keeps testifies of the man he is; this is a lesson as to association which is continually needful.* \

Ezekiel 25:12-14

Section 2 (Ezekiel 25:12-14).Edom the unbrotherly enemy; the Lord’s vengeance for his vengeance. The judgment passes on to Edom, the typical enemy of Israel, who, according to what we have seen of it elsewhere, presents to us the world of the old man, as we may say -the natural fallen man -the most real enemy we have as Christians; none the less so for being akin to us all naturally, even as Edom was the unbrotherly brother of Israel. His enmity is characterized here as revenge. He had, as we know, a quarrel from the beginning -the primal loss of his birthright-blessing, his sale of which, for a mess of pottage, has passed out of his memory. Nothing is stated here as to the cause of his enmity, which is indeed inherent in his nature. The old man has had a quarrel with Cod from the beginning; having turned his back upon Him, and so lost paradise, he counts against God the evils of the place in which he finds himself now, which is indeed very much a wilderness, a “rugged” place, such as Seir was for Edom, according to its name. Yet he has acquired wisdom in it, the wisdom gathered from experience: “Necessity is the mother of invention,” as the proverb says; and fallen man has sought out many inventions. Teman, spoken of here, was noted for the wisdom of its inhabitants. It means “the right hand,” which, according to Scripture usage, was the south, and as this, has many significant implications. The right hand is the place of dependence, yet of honor: it was the place of Reuben in the wilderness, and we may remember that he also was a first-born who had lost his birthright place, and yet found blessing in the loss itself. Typically he is the man of faith, essentially dependent, yet finding abundant resources in God who is for him -the refuge always of the destitute. This Reuben thus learns a wisdom of his own, the wisdom of faith; and in this way, as the book of Numbers shows us, falls heir to Sihon, the king of Heshbon, which he possesses and builds up afresh. The story has been told elsewhere. (See Notes, Numbers 32:1-42.) Heshbon means “device,” and it is faith that restores the reason in man to its natural, dependent place, to find how much blessing in it!

Teman’s wisdom is dependent also, necessarily; it is Edomite, not Israelite -a fleshly dependence, therefore. He has no faith in God to keep him steady, to give him fixed points to reason from; he is born into a world where he must receive largely from others, inheriting the thoughts of men, fallible, in fact, often deceived, sinful, and capable of deception. Yet men pride themselves upon this godless wisdom, which so often assumes the name of science, though in its wilful ignorance of God it is necessarily ignorant of the sources and origin of all things. And here we find another name in the prophecy which seems to have a relation and adds significance to all this. Dedan is given as meaning “progress” -the watchword of the day, we might say; but which, after all, has doubt thrown upon it, in its derivation from a word which means not exactly to go forward, but rather to go softly or slowly. Slow enough indeed has been man’s progress through all these centuries of his possession of the earth, although the pace may be quicker now through the multiplication of experiences and experiments which he has been able to make. He has been variously assisted along the road, and by nothing so much as by the divine revelation which has lighted up every place in which it has shone, which he, nevertheless, is seeking to discredit as “unscientific.” Discarding this, however, his science must necessarily lose knowledge of the beginning, and is unable to look onward to the end. Put human wisdom right, let it not be esteemed as opposed to faith, let faith not be thought unreasonable, but rather the highest character of reason, and then indeed we might see splendid work, with nature yielding its resources -spite of the fall yielding true blessings, in the bounty of God, which still it witnesses. Stranger than this unbrotherly strife between Edom and Israel is that which is seen between the men of nature and the men of God. Yet it will continue, if we read Scripture aright, and Ezekiel’s prophecy should throw light upon it and make us aware of what is coming. For power will assuredly put down those whom grace has not subdued; and if neither the witness of Scripture nor of nature have a right effect upon this pride of human wisdom, God Himself must interfere. There is nothing left but for Him to come in in necessary judgment. In the case of Edom, as given here, Israel will be God’s instrument in this; for we know by the voice of prophecy everywhere that to Israel is given the inheritance of the earth, and through the seed of Abraham alone shall all the families of the earth be blessed. The gospel will not effect what men are looking for from it -though it does take out from the earth a people for heaven; but He to whom will be given the heathen for His inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for His possession, will surely rule over the nations with a rod of iron, and as the vessels of a potter shatter them to pieces. This, and Israel’s part in it, we find abundantly in the prophets elsewhere, but it is not the place here to take it up. (See Jeremiah 51:20; Jeremiah 51:23; Isaiah 11:14, etc.)

Ezekiel 25:15-17

Section 3 (Ezekiel 25:15-17).The Philistines under ban. The Philistines next come before us, as partakers of this inherent and perpetual enmity of Edom. They were intruders into a land promised to Israel, though with a conviction of their own prior right. They have given their name to the whole land (Palestine, from Phtlistia), which they claim, though they have never been able to take possession of more than its mere lowest border. We have seen them abundantly elsewhere, as typically natural men intruding into spiritual things. As Philistines they are “immigrants,” but never Hebrews -that is, “passengers” or “pilgrims.” They figure largely in the earlier historical books as far as Samuel, and must have a corresponding importance in their signification for us. As Christians, we should know these Philistines very well.

They are seen today in what claims to be the Catholic, the Univer_ sal Church, but which spiritual judgment recognizes as but Judaism with a thin veil of Christianity drawn over its face, and with the full inheritance of Jewish enmity to the children of the free woman apparent through it. Into this also we cannot enter now, and need not, as any that will can find it fully where the interpretation naturally belongs. (See Notes on Genesis 20:1-18; Genesis 26:12; Joshua 13:2-3; 1 Samuel 17:1-58, etc.) We have but one class of these Philistines specially noticed here, the Cherethites, the “cutters off,” which have been also elsewhere considered. (See Acts 27:1-44, Notes.) “Cutting off” naturally characterizes asceticism in its every shape, a remnant merely of the old heathenism, whatever its Christian dress. Externalism is manifest here, even in the most zealous forms of devotion. The Cherethites are taken by many, in certain passages at least, to mean “executioners,” and in this form of cutting off, Philistinism has ever distinguished itself; and, doubtless, many who sacrificed in this way the deepest feelings of their nature have thought they were doing God service. But all through, the enmity against Israel (the literal as well as the typical enmity) is apparent in what is here, and God threatens the Cherethites in a special manner: “Behold, I will stretch out my hands upon the Philistines, and I will cut off the Cherethites, and destroy the remnant of the seacoast.” Thus Philistia will perish in the day of God, and all that are with God will only rejoice over the judgment.