Ezekiel 33:23-25 - Homilies By W. Clarkson

Ill-grounded hope.

The address of the prophet is delivered to that "miserable fraction in Judaea who dwelt among its desolations, and who, notwithstanding all they had seen and suffered of the righteous judgments of God, were still wedded to their sinful ways, and cherishing the most groundless hopes They were appealing in the most confident manner to their connection with Abraham, and on that ground assuring themselves of their right to possess the land of Canaan. ' He, though but one, got the land for an inheritance, and we, his descendants, who are a greatly larger company than he could boast of, may we not justly expect to be kept in possession of it?'" (Fairbairn). The prophet dismisses this claim in the language of decisive disallowal and of strong rebuke. Fie tells them that, so far from God raising their position and making them possessors and rulers in the land, they may look for more judgments from his hand, for their iniquities were loudly demanding them. Here were—

I. MEN MISTAKING THEIR SPIRITUAL POSITION . It was much, in their mind, that they "had Abraham to their father." How little that mere genealogical fact weighed in the estimate of God we know from the language of the great prophet John, and of that One who was so much greater than he ( Matthew 3:9 ; John 8:33-39 ). While boasting of their descent from Abraham, they were, in character and conduct, everything that Abraham was not—everything from which that "friend of God" would have turned away with holy indignation (see verses 25, 26). Consequently, they were numbered amongst the most disloyal subjects of Jehovah, and were the objects of his most severe displeasure. Their confidence in themselves was utterly misplaced. They may be said to be the spiritual ancestors of a very numerous seed. How many are they who because

II. MEN DELUDING THEMSELVES WITH A FALSE HOPE . This, of course, follows from the other. The remnant of the Jews were hoping to become the possessors of the land, and to rise to the position from which their countrymen had fallen. But their hopes were vain, for they were built upon mistake and error. We may be looking forward to some position of authority and influence in the Church of Christ, or to a home in the heavenly country; but we have no right whatever to expect either of these if our claim is based either on fleshly connections or on the formalities of devotion, and the sooner we awake from our dream the better will it be for us. We must understand the one and only ground for hope in the future is our real, spiritual union with Jesus Christ, and the consequent rectitude of life which is the invariable and happy fruit of it.

III. A FAITHFUL HUMAN TEACHER . It is a very painful thing to extinguish a pleasant but a false hope in the heart. Yet it has sometimes to be done at all costs. And kinder far is it to destroy that hope when it is budding than to let it grow to maturity when it has to suffer a severe and sad extinction. The faithful course is always the kind one as well as the wise one, when all things are counted.—C.