National prosperity and national ruin.
"Thy mother is like a vine in thy blood, planted by the waters," etc. This paragraph completes the lamentation for the princes of Israel. The figure is changed from the lioness and the young lions to the vine and its branches and fruit. This similitude is frequently used in the sacred Scriptures to represent the people of Israel (Ezekiel 15:1-8.; Ezekiel 17:5-10; Psalms 80:8-16; Isaiah 5:1-7; Jeremiah 2:21). The parable before us presents two pictures.
I. A PICTURE OF NATIONAL PROSPERITY. (Ezekiel 19:10, Ezekiel 19:11.)
1. Some features of national prosperity.
2. The great source of national prosperity. "She was fruitful and full of branches by reason of many waters." "The many waters," says Hengstenberg, "signify the Divine blessing which ruled over Israel, the rich influx of grace." The Israelites in a special sense owed their national existence and power and prosperity to Jehovah their God. And in all times and places true and lasting national prosperity can only be attained by compliance with the Law of God and realization of his blessing. "Righteousness exalteth a nation," etc.; "The throne is established by righteousness;" "The God of Israel, he giveth strength and power unto his people." He also "bringeth princes to nothing; he maketh the judges of the earth as vanity."
II. A PICTURE OF NATIONAL RUIN. (Ezekiel 19:12-14.) Schroder calls attention to the sudden transition from the description of the prosperity of this vine to the declaration of its destruction. "Without the intervention of anything further, there follows its splendid growth, like a lightning-flash from the clear heavens, the complete overthrow of the vine, i.e. of Jerusalem-Judah, the birthplace of kings, and therewith the Davidic kingdom."
1. Some features of this ruin.
2. The instrument of this ruin. "The east wind dried up her fruit" (cf. Ezekiel 17:10; Hosea 13:15). The east wind points to the Chaldeans as the instrument of the Divine judgment. The figure is appropriate, both because the Chaldeans dwelt in the east, and because the east wind is often injurious to vegetable life.
3. The cause of this ruin. "Fire is gone out of a rod of her branches, which hath devoured her fruit." "The fire goes out from the chief stem of the branches: it does not take its rise from the Chaldees, but proceeds from the royal family itself, which by its crimes called down the Divine vengeance." It was Zedekiah, by his base treachery towards Nebuchadnezzar, that at last brought on the ruin (Ezekiel 17:15-21). "The desolation of kingdoms," says Greenhill, "usually have been by their own kings and rulers, by those they have brought forth and set up; their follies, cruelties, treacheries, have fired and consumed their kingdoms."
CONCLUSION.
1. Prosperity, both individual and national, is of God.
2. Ruin, both individual and national, is self-caused. "The fire of one's own unrighteousness kindles the wrathful judgment of God." "Men first become parched, then the rite consumes them." "O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself!"
3. Sin invariably leads to sorrow. It first causes lamentation to the good, and then leads to general lamentation. Sin may be committed amidst mirth and music, but it will speedily had to mourning and woe. "This is a lamentation, and shall be for a lamentation."—W.J.
Ezekiel
Ezekiel 19 - ezekiel-19 - worlddic.com