Sutcliffe's Commentary on the Bible
Ezekiel 22:1-31
Ezekiel 22:8. Thou hast profaned my sabbaths, the sabbatical days and years. This is repeated in Ezekiel 23:38, to show that the desecration of holy things filled up the measure of Judah's sin: Ezekiel 20:12.
Ezekiel 22:18. They are brass, and tin, and iron, and lead, in the midst of the furnace: they are even the dross of silver. Both the Vatican and the Alexandrian versions of the Septuagint represent the house of Israel as gold and silver mixed with those baser metals in the midst of the furnace; for silver is mentioned at the twentieth verse.
Ezekiel 22:25. There is a conspiracy of her prophets, even in the city and sanctuary. Alas, when the true faith is lost, when the anointed ones fall under an evil influence, the whole body must be depraved, and sickened with a mortal malady.
Ezekiel 22:28. They have daubed with untempered mortar, as is stated in chap. 13:11.
Ezekiel 22:30. I sought for a man among them that should stand in the gap. A day's man, Psalms 106:23, that should stand in the gap as Moses did; but I found none. When Moses prayed, the contrite worshipped at the door of their tents; but in Jerusalem “they misused the messengers of the Lord.”
REFLECTIONS.
What an impeachment of the bloody city. What can we expect but the severest sentences of justice to follow; but from such a God as the God of Israel, justice is attempered with mercy. The first and great charge is, a prodigal effusion of innocent blood. The firstborn of many families passed through the fire to Moloch. Next, the judges took bribes against the lives of innocent men. Now the history of providence, in a general view, will satisfy all candid enquirers, that God has soon or late become the avenger of innocent blood. The vengeance which pursued Cain for his brother, which pursued the Egyptians for the infants, and Amalek for smiting the hindmost of the Hebrews, has never slumbered in the execution of its functions. And where is the nation which has persecuted and martyred the saints, that did not soon drink of blood in return. Sometimes justice may slumber till the third and fourth generation, as in France, but it is sure to speak in the end. The priests and nobles paid back, in the great revolution of 1789, the blood of the protestants shed by their grandfathers. See Bp. Reynold's book, entitled God's Revenge against Murder and Adultery.
We have here the awful consequences of the drunken and idolatrous feasts. Incest and unutterable mysteries of impurity followed. And if the brave and noble senate of Rome purged their country of the bacchanalians, and their orgies, and desired all families not to know their relatives who had been initiated into those mysteries, how much more would the Lord purge his people of crimes, which even polluted his holy place. Yes, he hasted to purge blood by blood, and to remove the oppressor by oppression.
In former times, the priests and princes had been compared to fine gold: but now, instead of being the precious sons of Zion, they were all but dross and dross of the basest metals. Hence, as there is a small proportion of metal in a mass of dross, the Lord resolved to find it by putting the mass in the hottest furnace of national disaster. And are these thy ways, oh Most Holy, when the crisis of affairs is come? Then may my soul never dare thy judgments, but humbly rejoice in thy mercy and forbearance.
The false prophets are in this, as in other sermons of Ezekiel, charged with misguiding the rulers and the public, and opposing the operation of the faithful warnings delivered by the Lord's prophets. Horrible, and utterly inexcusable then are all ministers, who give the slightest countenance to vice. And when ministers are relax, and the faithful are persecuted, there is no man to stand in the gap. Alas, alas, when a Lot escapes from Sodom, when a Moses ceases to pray, when an Elijah seeks his safety in flight, and when the Saviour says of covenant blessings, now they are hid from thine eyes; the city and nation so circumstanced, are on the verge of hell and destruction. No way seems to be left, but to bring the little silver which remains through the crucible, and to leave all the dross in the furnace of unquenchable fire.