Ezekiel 7:24
So I will bring the most wicked of nations to take possession of their houses. I will end the pride of the mighty, and their holy places will be profaned.
Sermons
The Dread Development of Moral EvilW. Jones Ezekiel 7:23-27
The Even Balances of JehovahJ.D. Davies Ezekiel 7:23-27














The penal judgments of God are not haphazard events. The minds of thoughtful men discover in them a marked feature of retribution. Striking correspondences occur between the transgression and the punishment. "I will do unto them after their way."

I. VIOLENCE IS MET BY VIOLENCE. The Law of God had been despised; and, instead of a just administration of Law, the rule of violence had prevailed. Therefore by violence they shall be mastered. "Make a chain." The arm of power had dominated over the hand of justice; therefore a mightier arm shall master it. Often has it been seen that they who ruthlessly use the sword themselves perish by the sword. Men are often "hoisted on their own petard." The gallows which Haman had prepared for another served for himself.

II. IDOLATRY ASSIMILATES MEN IN LIKENESS TO THE IDOLS. "I will bring the worst of the heathen upon them." The objects of their worship had reputed attributes of lust, cruelty, oppression, violence; these attributes shall appear in the worshippers. It is a law of nature, as well as a law of Scripture, that "they who make them are like unto them; so is every one that bows down to them." As the stream cannot rise above its fount, so man cannot rise above the object of his adoration. Worshippers of idols rapidly deteriorate in character and in moral quality. If God is driven out of the heart, demons will speedily come in. "Nature abhors a vacuum."

III. OPPORTUNITIES ABUSED ARE AT LENGTH CLOSED. "They shall seek peace, and there shall be none." "They shall seek a vision from the prophet; but the Law shall perish from the priest." Had they sought earlier, they would have found; now probation has ceased, the Judge has ascended his throne. All forbearance has its limits. any men are always one day behind. The tide has ceased to flow. Ebb has begun. In middle life they are weeping over a wasted youth. In old age they are lamenting the decay of vigorous manhood. On a death bed they regret the neglect of yesterday's opportunity. When the last shilling is spent men learn the value of money. Today there is the sunlight of hope; tomorrow there will be black despair.

IV. THE LEADERS IN REBELLION INCUR THE HEAVIEST CHASTISEMENTS. "The king shall mourn, and the prince shall be clothed with desolation." In proportion to the station any man occupies in society, in proportion to his talents and strength of character, is the influence he exerts, whether for good or for evil. The king will always have a crowd of servile imitators. Princes, by virtue of their exalted rank, wield an extensive influence. For the right employment of influence every man is responsible. He is daily sowing now; and, as the sowing is, so will be the harvest. The mourning of a king will have an intensity of bitterness that never acerbates the tears of a peasant.

V. JUSTICE, SHALL FINALLY BE PARAMOUNT. "They shall know that I am the Lord." Although they would not know him as Friend and Benefactor, they shall know him and acknowledge him as the Vindicator of right. The spirits in hell confess him, while blind and ungrateful men ignore him. "We know thee who thou art." Righteousness is endowed with a deathless life; and out of all present confusion and strife it shall come to the surface and be by all honoured. The lesson which men will not learn in the days of prosperity they shall learn in the dark hours of adversity. They shall know that Jehovah is supreme. Facile princeps. Yet such knowledge does not save; it leads only to deeper despair. It had been a long fight between self-will and God's will; and men often flatter themselves they are going to conquer. But the termination is always the same: God over all. - D.

Make a chain.
At school and in college, in announcing the mechanical powers, we glorified the lever, the pulley, the inclined plane, the screw, the axle and the wheel, but my text calls us to study the philosophy of the chain. These links of metal, one with another, attracted the old Bible authors, and we hear the chain rattle, and see its coil all the way through from Genesis to Revelation, flashing as an adornment, or restraining as in captivity, or holding in conjunction as in case of machinery. What I wish to impress upon you is the strength, in right and wrong directions, of consecutive forces, the superior power of a chain of influences above one influence, the great advantage of a congeries of links above one link. "Make a chain!" That which contains the greatest importance, that which encloses the most tremendous opportunities, that which of earthly things is most watched by other worlds, that which has beating against its two sides all the eternities, is the cradle. The grave is nothing in importance compared with it, for that is only a gully that we step across in a second, but the cradle has within it a new eternity, just born and never to cease. Now, what shall be done with this new life recently launched? Let it be constant instruction, constant prayer, constant application of good influences, a long line of consecutive impressions, reaching from his first year to his fifth, and from his fifth year to his tenth, and from his tenth year to his twentieth. "Make a chain!" Spasmodic education, paroxysmal discipline, occasional fidelity, amount to nothing. You can as easily hold an anchor by one link as hold a child to the right by isolated and intermittent faithfulness. The example must connect with the instruction. The conversation must combine with the actions. There is such a thing as impressing children so powerfully with good, that sixty years will have no more power to efface it than sixty minutes. What a rough time that young man has in doing wrong, carefully nurtured as he was! His father and mother have been dead for years, or over in Scotland, or England, or Ireland; but they have stood in the doorway of every dram shop that he entered, and under the chandelier of every house of dissipation, saying, "My son, this is no place for you. Have you forgotten the old folks? By the God to whom we consecrated you, by the cradle in which we rocked you, by the grass-worn graves in the old country churchyard, by the heaven where we hope yet to meet you, Go home!" And some Sunday you will be surprised to find that young man suddenly asking for the prayers of the church. Oh, the almighty pull of the long chain of early gracious influences! But all people between thirty and forty years of age, yes, between forty and fifty — aye, between fifty and sixty years — and all septuagenarians as well, need a surrounding conjunction of good influences. In all the great prisons are men and women who went wrong in mid-life and old age. We need around us a cordon of good influences. We forget to apply the well-known rule that a chain is no stronger than at its weakest link. If the chain be made up of a thousand links, and nine hundred and ninety-nine are strong, but one is weak, the chain will be in danger of breaking at that one weak link. We may be strong in a thousand excellences, and yet have one weakness which endangers us. That is the reason that we sometimes see men distinguished for a whole round of virtues collapse and go down. The weak link in the otherwise stout chain gave way under the pressure. A musician cannot afford to dwell among discords, nor can a writer afford to peruse books of inferior style, nor an architect walk out among disproportioned structures. And no man or woman was ever so good as to be able to afford to choose evil associations. Therefore, I said, have it a rule of your life to go among those better than yourselves. Cannot find them? Then, what a pink of perfection you must be! When was your character completed? What a misfortune for the saintly and angelic ones of heaven that they are not enjoying the improving influence of your society! Ah, if you cannot find those better than yourself, it is because you are ignorant of yourself.

(T. De Witt Talmage.)

People
Ezekiel
Places
Jerusalem
Topics
Bring, Caused, Cease, Defiled, Desecrated, Excellency, Heathen, Holy, Houses, Mighty, Nations, Ones, Places, Polluted, Pomp, Possess, Possessed, Possession, Pride, Profaned, Proud, Reason, Sanctifying, Sanctuaries, Strength, Strong, Themselves, Unclean, Wherefore, Wicked, Worst
Outline
1. The final desolation of Israel
16. The mournful repentance from that escape
20. The enemies defile the sanctuary because of the Israelites' abominations
23. Under the type of a chain is shown the miserable captivity of all orders of men

Dictionary of Bible Themes
Ezekiel 7:24

     6232   rejection of God, results
     7438   sanctuary
     8805   pride, results

Ezekiel 7:23-27

     6701   peace, search for

Library
Motives to Holy Mourning
Let me exhort Christians to holy mourning. I now persuade to such a mourning as will prepare the soul for blessedness. Oh that our hearts were spiritual limbecs, distilling the water of holy tears! Christ's doves weep. They that escape shall be like doves of the valleys, all of them mourning, every one for his iniquity' (Ezekiel 7:16). There are several divine motives to holy mourning: 1 Tears cannot be put to a better use. If you weep for outward losses, you lose your tears. It is like a shower
Thomas Watson—The Beatitudes: An Exposition of Matthew 5:1-12

Healing a Demoniac in a Synagogue.
(at Capernaum.) ^B Mark I. 21-28; ^C Luke . IV. 31-37. ^b 21 And they [Jesus and the four fishermen whom he called] go into { ^c he came down to} Capernaum, a city of Galilee. [Luke has just spoken of Nazareth, and he uses the expression "down to Capernaum" because the latter was on the lake shore while Nazareth was up in the mountains.] And ^b straightway on the sabbath day he entered into the synagogue and taught. { ^c was teaching them} ^b 22 And they were astonished at his teaching: for he taught
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel

The Hebrew Sages and their Proverbs
[Sidenote: Role of the sages in Israel's life] In the days of Jeremiah and Ezekiel (Jer. xviii. 18; Ezek. vii. 26) three distinct classes of religious teachers were recognized by the people: the prophets, the priests, and the wise men or sages. From their lips and pens have come practically all the writings of the Old Testament. Of these three classes the wise men or sages are far less prominent or well known. They wrote no history of Israel, they preached no public sermons, nor do they appear
Charles Foster Kent—The Origin & Permanent Value of the Old Testament

"And There is None that Calleth Upon Thy Name, that Stirreth up Himself to Take Hold on Thee,"
Isaiah lxiv. 7.--"And there is none that calleth upon thy name, that stirreth up himself to take hold on thee," &c. They go on in the confession of their sins. Many a man hath soon done with that a general notion of sin is the highest advancement in repentance that many attain to. You may see here sin and judgment mixed in thorough other(315) in their complaint. They do not so fix their eyes upon their desolate estate of captivity, as to forget their provocations. Many a man would spend more affection,
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

Blessed are they that Mourn
Blessed are they that mourn. Matthew 5:4 Here are eight steps leading to true blessedness. They may be compared to Jacob's Ladder, the top whereof reached to heaven. We have already gone over one step, and now let us proceed to the second: Blessed are they that mourn'. We must go through the valley of tears to paradise. Mourning were a sad and unpleasant subject to treat on, were it not that it has blessedness going before, and comfort coming after. Mourning is put here for repentance. It implies
Thomas Watson—The Beatitudes: An Exposition of Matthew 5:1-12

"Thou Shall Keep Him in Perfect Peace, Whose Mind is Stayed on Thee, Because He Trusteth in Thee. "
Isaiah xxvi. 3.--"Thou shall keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee, because he trusteth in thee." All men love to have privileges above others. Every one is upon the design and search after some well-being, since Adam lost that which was true happiness. We all agree upon the general notion of it, but presently men divide in the following of particulars. Here all men are united in seeking after some good; something to satisfy their souls, and satiate their desires. Nay, but they
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

There is a Blessedness in Reversion
Blessed are the poor in spirit. Matthew 5:3 Having done with the occasion, I come now to the sermon itself. Blessed are the poor in spirit'. Christ does not begin his Sermon on the Mount as the Law was delivered on the mount, with commands and threatenings, the trumpet sounding, the fire flaming, the earth quaking, and the hearts of the Israelites too for fear; but our Saviour (whose lips dropped as the honeycomb') begins with promises and blessings. So sweet and ravishing was the doctrine of this
Thomas Watson—The Beatitudes: An Exposition of Matthew 5:1-12

Ezekiel
To a modern taste, Ezekiel does not appeal anything like so powerfully as Isaiah or Jeremiah. He has neither the majesty of the one nor the tenderness and passion of the other. There is much in him that is fantastic, and much that is ritualistic. His imaginations border sometimes on the grotesque and sometimes on the mechanical. Yet he is a historical figure of the first importance; it was very largely from him that Judaism received the ecclesiastical impulse by which for centuries it was powerfully
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament

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