Ezekiel 17:24 And all the trees of the field shall know that I the LORD have brought down the high tree, have exalted the low tree… I. IN THE CARRYING ON THE INTEREST OF CHRIST AND THE GOSPEL, GOD WILL WORK WONDERFUL PROVIDENTIAL ALTERATIONS. There are three principal seasons of the Lord's eminent appearance to carry on the kingdom of Christ and the Gospel, and all attended with dreadful providential alterations; and unto one of these heads may all particular actings be reduced. 1. The first is, the promulgation of the Gospel among the Jews by the Lord Christ Himself and His apostles: what this was attended withal is graphically described (Matthew 24:6, 7). 2. The second is, in the further carrying on of the Gospel, after the destruction of Jerusalem, throughout the world of the Gentiles, subject then in a great proportion to the Roman Empire. 3. The most signal is, the coming of the Lord Christ to recover His people from antichristian idolatry and oppression; which of all others is and shall be attended with the most astonishing alterations and desolations, pulling down of high trees, and exalting them that are low: thence is that war, described Revelation 17:14, and that mighty vengeance poured out by the Lord Christ on the nations, their kings and captains, chap. Revelation 19:11 to the end. Now the reasons of this are — (1) Because amongst all men, where the kingdom of Christ is to be set up, there is something or other possessed, that He alone must and will have; and therefore the Lord giving Jesus Christ but His own inheritance, it must needs be attended with great alterations. (2) The works that God hath to do in such a season require it: God hath three great works to do in the day of His carrying on the interest of Christ and the Gospel — (i) He hath great revenges to take. (ii) He hath great deliverances to work. (iii) He hath great discoveries to make. 1. Of His own, that they may be purged. 2. Of hypocrites, that they may be discovered. Use 1. — To discover where dwells that spirit that actuates all the great alterations that have been in these nations. Use 2. — To magnify the goodness of God, who unto us hath sweetened and seasoned all His dreadful dispensations, and all the alterations in those nations, with this His gracious design running through them all; this is that which puts all their beauty and lustre on them, being outwardly dreadful and horrible. II. THE ACTINGS OF GOD'S PROVIDENCE, IN CARRYING ON THE INTEREST OF CHRIST, ARE AND SHALL BE EXCEEDINGLY UNSUITED TO THE REASONINGS AND EXPECTATIONS OF THE MOST OF MEN. Some reasons of this may be given; and — 1. The first is taken from the corruptions of the hearts of men squaring the works of God to their fleshly reasonings, corrupt interests, and principles. They are bold with the wisdom of God, and conclude, thus and thus things ought to be, ordering their thoughts for the most part according to their corrupt and carnal advantages. 2. God chooseth thus to do things above and besides the expectations of men, that His presence, and the presence of the Lord Christ, may be the more conspicuous in the world. 3. God will do it for the hardening of many false empty professors, and others in the world, that the judgments appointed may come upon them to the uttermost. Use. — It serves, then, to discover the vanity of those men who, because the works of God have not been carried on in ways suitable to their reasonings and expectations, do utterly reject them, disown them, and oppose Him in them. Can these men give any one instance, of any one eminent work of God, that He hath brought about by such ways and means as men would rationally allot thereunto, especially in things that are in immediate subserviency to the kingdom of the Lord Christ? ( J. Owen, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: And all the trees of the field shall know that I the LORD have brought down the high tree, have exalted the low tree, have dried up the green tree, and have made the dry tree to flourish: I the LORD have spoken and have done it. |
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