The sacredness of treaties.
The Old Testament abounds in illustrations of the bearing of religion upon national and corporate life. In this passage of prophecy Ezekiel rebukes his countrymen for their disc, intent under the Assyrian rule, and for their treacherous intrigues with Egypt. Speaking in the name of the King of kings, he upbraids them for deliberate infraction of a covenant which they were bound to observe. He shows them that political action may be sinful, and that, when such is the case, the Divine Ruler will not suffer it to go unpunished.
I. THE JUSTICE OF GOD IS DISCERNIBLE IN NATIONAL CALAMITIES. This was most evident in the case of Judah and Israel, who by their defection and apostasy incurred the righteous displeasure of the Almighty Ruler, and brought upon themselves the judgment beneath which, in the time of Ezekiel, they were smarting. The King of Babylon had come to Jerusalem, had taken the king thereof and the princes thereof, and had led them with him to Babylon; he had taken of the king's seed, and had established him in authority over the remnant in the land, that the kingdom, though base, might stand. In all this the righteous hand of God was visible to every observant and reflecting mind.
II. THE MERCY OF GOD IS DISCERNIBLE IN THE COVENANT BETWEEN THE CONQUERORS AND THE CONQUERED. Judah would have met with the fate she deserved had she been treated as an ordinary subject province. But God's providence ordered matters otherwise. The King of Babylon was disposed to deal favourably with the conquered sons of Judah. He made a covenant with Zedekiah, and took an oath of him. Thus some semblance of self-government was left with the vanquished. Although their chiefs were carried captive, those who were permitted to remain did so under the sovereignty of a member of the royal house. We are taught to see in this arrangement an evidence of the favour and forbearance of the Most High.
III. THE SANCTION OF GOD RESTS UPON NATIONAL ENGAGEMENTS SOLEMNLY UNDERTAKEN AND RATIFIED. An oath is an appeal to God, and he will not hold him guiltless that taketh his Name in vain. A nation may appeal to Heaven, as may an individual. Peoples come voluntarily into certain relations with each other in the great community of mankind. As surely as there is an Almighty Ruler who sways a righteous sceptre over the nations, so surely does sacredness attach to those obligations which nations take upon themselves with regard to one another. They are not indifferent and trivial matters, but matters with which the moral life of nations is bound up.
IV. THE DISPLEASURE OF GOD IS UPON THOSE WHO VIOLATE SOLEMN TREATIES. In language of truly prophetic indignation, the prophet upbraids the king and those who acted with him in secretly rebelling against the court of Babylon, to whose favour they owed whatever national existence was left to them, and with whom they had entered into sacred and binding treaty. "Shall he prosper? shall he escape that doeth such things? shall he break the covenant, and yet escape?" The Eternal regarded this conduct as a wrong, not so ranch to Babylon, as to himself. "Mine oath he hath despised; my covenant he hath broken." "He hath trespassed against me." It is to be feared that this is a consideration which never enters into the minds of some rulers and statesmen; they think of the effect of their conduct upon the great and mighty of this world, but they do not ask themselves how their falsehood and treachery are regarded by him who rules not in heaven only, but on the earth.
V. THE JUDGMENTS OF GOD WILL OVERTAKE THOSE WHO REGARD INTEREST AND EXPEDIENCY RATHER THAN PRINCIPLE AND PROMISES. It was foretold that Judah should gain nothing by her deceptive and base conduct. Pharaoh should not deliver the people with his mighty army. Judah's conduct should be recompensed by Divine interposition; the king who had rebelled should die in the midst of Babylon, and should not escape; the fugitives should fall by the sword, and they that remained should be scattered toward all winds. The lesson is one of universal import. Be they high or low, men who violate the compacts and disregard the engagements into which they have voluntarily and deliberately entered, shall not be unpunished, shall not escape the righteous judgments of the Judge of all the earth.—T.
The goodly cedar.
These verses contain a prophecy which can scarcely be deemed susceptible of an interpretation which should refer it to the establishment of the throne of any human, earthly sovereign. It is usually regarded as pointing on to the advent of the Messiah. This hope sprang up with irresistible power in the heart of Israel during the period of depression through which the people passed as a judgment for their defection, rebellion, and idolatry. The less of light the present afforded, the more did the captives and the conquered strain their eyes looking into the dim future. There were those who, like Isaiah and Ezekiel, were inspired to raise the courage and hopes of their countrymen by predicting the coming of a Divine Deliverer who should be raised up as a horn of salvation in the house of his father David.
I. CHRIST'S ORIGIN FROM A DESPISED AND OPPRESSED, YET FROM A ROYAL, STOCK. The members of the royal house of David were, in the lifetime of Ezekiel, reduced to comparative feebleness and obscurity. Either in Eastern exile or in the half-deserted land of their fathers' splendour, they were a deserted and dejected race. Yet from them—from the highest branch of the high cedar—Christ according to the flesh was to come.
II. CHRIST'S SELECTION AND APPOINTMENT THE TOKEN OF GOD'S FAVOUR TO HIS PEOPLE. The Messiah was "the Lord's Christ," and was set to be "a Light to lighten the Gentiles, and the Glory of God's people Israel" The temporal sovereignty might be lost, but a spiritual sovereignty should be established.
III. CHRIST'S EXALTATION, EMINENCE, AND GLORY. The twig was to be planted upon "a high mountain and eminent"—in "the mountain of the height of Israel." The Son of God was indeed "a Plant of renown." Unto him was given a Name chore every name, a kingdom ruling over all. He has become, and has remained for long centuries, the one great central Figure in the history of mankind. His kingdom is vaster and more glorious than the empire of Rome or of England—a kingdom over human hearts, over human society, over the moral life of man.
IV. CHRIST'S OFFICE AS THE SHELTER OF ALL THE NATIONS, THE PROVISION FOR ALL THEIR SPIRITUAL NEED. The goodly tree is to "bear fruit," and "under it shall dwell all fowl of every wing." This metaphorical and poetical language portrays alike the extent and beneficence of the Saviour's spiritual reign on earth and over the children of men. His influence ever grows. By his bounty myriads are provided with spiritual food. Beneath his loving care men of every race find peace and protection, safety and. life immortal.—T.