Ezekiel 3:20 - Exposition

From his righteousness. The Hebrew gives the plural, "his righteousnesses"—all his single righteous acts that lie behind. I lay a stumbling block, etc. The word is again characteristic ( Ezekiel 7:19 ; Ezekiel 14:3 , Ezekiel 14:4 ). It occurs in Jeremiah 6:21 , and Ezekiel may have learnt the use of the word from him. It is found also in Le Ezekiel 19:14 and Isaiah 57:14 ; but the date of these, according to the so called higher criticism, may be later than Ezekiel. In Isaiah 8:14 : the word is different. The English word sufficiently expresses the sense. One of the acts of Eastern malignity was to put a stone in a man's way, that he might fall and hurt himself Here the putting the stone is described as the act of Jehovah, and is applied to anything that tempts a man to evil, and so to his own destruction ( Jeremiah 6:21 ). The thought is startling to us, and seems at variance with true conceptions of the Divine will ( James 1:13 ). The explanation is to be found in the fact that the prophet's mind did not draw the distinction which we draw between evil permitted and the same evil decreed. All, from this point of view, is as God wills, and even those who thwart that will are indeed fulfilling it. Glimpses are given of the purpose which leads to the permission or decree. In the case now before us the man has turned from his righteousness before the stumbling block is laid in his way. The temptation is permitted that the man may become conscious of his evil (so Romans 7:13 ). If the prophet preacher does his duty, the man may conquer the temptation, and the stumbling block may become a "stepping stone to higher things." If, through the prophet's negligence, h e comes unwarned, and stumbles and falls, he, as in the case of the wicked, bears the penalty of his guilt, but the prophet has here also the guilt of blood upon his soul. The "righteousnesses" of the man (here, as before, we have the plural), his individual acts of righteousness, shall not be remembered, because he was tried, and found wanting in the essential element of all righteousness. The highest development of the thought is found in the fact that Christ himself is represented as a "stumbling stone" ( Isaiah 8:14 ; Romans 9:32 , Romans 9:33 ; 1 Corinthians 1:23 ). St. Paul's solution of the problem is found in the question, "Have they stumbled that they should fall?" ( Romans 11:11 ). Was that the end contemplated in the Divine purpose Will it really be the end?