The scoffing nation.
The first nation selected for denunciation is the Ammonite, situated on the east of the Jordan and to the north of Moab, with its further border towards the Syrian desert. Its scoffing at the sacred things of the Jews, and its cruel mockery of their calamities, are to be followed by a dreadful destruction. Scoffing and mockery are dangerous practices for those who indulge in them.
I. THE CRUEL SCOFFING.
1. An insult to religion. "Thou saidst, Aha! against my sanctuary when it was profaned" (Ezekiel 25:3). No doubt the sanctuary was regarded as a mystical center of the power of the Jews. When the sacred edifice was overthrown, the talisman was destroyed, the spell was broken. This was a matter of delight to an enemy. Thus scoffing is itself a testimony to the power of religion, though that power may be apprehended in a very ignorant and superstitious way. But to rejoice in the downfall of religious influence is to proclaim one's self an enemy of God. It is fair, however, to see that scoffing at religion may be provoked by the misconduct of its champions. Much of the scoffing of unbelievers at Christianity is not inspired by hatred to the gospel, but by disgust at the unworthy conduct of Christians. The sins of the Jews led to dishonor to their temple. The sins of Christians invite insults against Christ.
2. The love of destruction. The Ammonites scoffed "against the land of Israel when it was desolate." The northern nation had been already destroyed and scattered, but the waste and ruined condition of the deserted land was a delight to the jealous neighbors on the eastern border. There is a fierce joy in the idea delenda est Carthago. But this is heathenish and wicked. Sin that works for death creates a delight in destruction. The Christian idea is the opposite to this—not breaking a bruised reed, but helping on the time when "the wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad; and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose" (Isaiah 35:1).
3. A pleasure in cruelty. The Ammonites scoffed at the contemporary calamity of the southern kingdom—"the house of Judah, when they went into captivity." The earlier destruction of Israel is a source of wild, fiendish joy. "Thou hast clapped thine hands, and stamped with the feet, and rejoiced in heart with all thy despite against the land of Israel" (Ezekiel 25:6). There is no more Satanic wickedness than joy springing from the contemplation of the misery of others.
II. THE NATIONAL DOOM. This is to be very similar to that of Israel and Judah, so that what the Ammonites rejoiced to see in their neighbors shall come on their own heads, but still with certain variations determined by their situation and character.
1. Subjection to others. Ammon had rejoiced over the downfall of her western neighbors. She in turn shall be overrun by people from the cast. The destruction was to come from Babylon, but "the men of the east," i.e. the Arabs, would follow it, and like vultures pounce on the prey left by the advancing Chaldean army. Cruelty makes many enemies and no friends. The scoffer must expect to be scoffed at.
2. Reduced civilization. Rabbah, the proud capital, will become a pasture for camels, and the once populous land of Ammon a sheep run. National punishment lowers a people in the scale of social life.
3. National destruction. The Ammonites are to "perish out of the countries." This old-world nation did cease to exist. Though individuals may remain, the corporate life of the nation is destroyed. As the wages of individual sin is individual death, so a nation's sin is punished by national destruction. The wicked Roman Empire was destroyed. It depends on our national conduct whether the same fate will come on the British Empire.