Ezekiel 14:11

That the house of Israel may go no more astray from me, neither be polluted any more with all their transgressions; but that they may be my people, and I may be their God, saith the Lord GOD. THAT THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL MAY GO NO MORE ASTRAY FROM ME. Love was the spring of God's very judgments on His people who were incurable by any other process. THAT THEY MAY BE MY PEOPLE, AND I MAY BE THEIR GOD - (; )....

Here God shows that there was no other remedy, if he would recall to safety those who had almost perished, and at the same time he teaches that it is useful to the Church to chastise those who had so impiously declined from himself. Meanwhile it happens that God thunders, and exercises his judgments even to the extreme of rigor: meanwhile men do not repent but remain obstinate: nay, the punishment which God inflicts upon the reprobate sinks them into deeper destruction. How so? Those who harden themselves against the hand of God heap upon themselves severer punishments, since the reprobate do not submit to the yoke when God wishes to correct their hardness and obstinacy. But here God announces that he will not be so severe as not to consult for their safety. But this contradiction might disturb many, since God destined the people as well as the false prophets to destruction, for this see...

1-11 No outward form or reformation can be acceptable to God, so long as any idol possesses the heart; yet how many prefer their own devices and their own righteousness, to the way of salvation! Men's corruptions are idols in their hearts, and are of their own setting up; God will let them take their course. Sin renders the sinner odious in the eyes of the pure and holy God; and in his own eyes also, whenever conscience is awakened. Let us seek to be cleansed from the guilt and pollution of sins, in that fountain which the Lord has opened....

“God,” it has been said, “punishes sins by means of sins,” but the end is the re-establishment of righteousness....

EXPOSITION EZEKIEL 14:1 As the result, probably, of the previous utterances, certain ELDERS OF ISRAEL, _i_._e_. of the exiles in Tel-Abib, came to consult Ezekiel, wishing to know what counsels or what predictions he had for them. In Ezekiel 8:1 we have "the elders of Judah," and it is possible that there were two groups in the Population of the town, and that these represented Israel as distinct from Judah—a deputation, as it were, from the earlier exiles. The term appears again in Ezekiel 20:1. More probably, however, the terms are used interchangeably. Ezekiel 14:

THAT THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL MAY GO NO MORE ASTRAY FROM ME,.... Or from his worship, as the Targum; from the law of God, and obedience to it: sin is a going astray from God, a deviation from his commandments; it leads men out of the way of their duty into wrong paths, which issue in ruin, if grace prevent not; and sometimes the means which God makes use of for the restoring of his own people, and bringing them back to himself, are the punishments which he inflicts upon others; and which is his end in so doing, as it was here; that the false prophets, and those that followed them, being made examples of, might be a warning unto others, and caution them against falling into the same sins, that so they might not bear the same punishment; or be a means of reclaiming them from their errors, and for the future beware of going astray again: NEITHER BE POLLUTED ANY MORE WITH ALL THEIR TRANSGRESSION...

Ezekiel 14:1. These inquiring elders, with wickedness in their hearts, give another illustration of the depth of degradation in which the people had sunk. He who searches the hearts knew what was in them. They came with pious, religious pretensions. It sounded well to inquire of the Lord and seek the prophet-priest for that purpose. Their hearts were full of evil. While their lips spoke of asking the Lord, their hearts were full of idolatry. They liked idolatry. Their hearts were in it and this stumbling-block of their iniquity they had put before their faces, which means they openly defied the Lord God of Israel by their doings. “Should I be inquired of at all by them?” To seek the Lord and inquire of Him in such a condition reveals a brazen spirit and the deepest depravity. Yet this also belongs to the conditions in which the professing people of God are when judgment overtakes them....

INSINCERITY OF THOSE WHO CONSULT THE PROPHETS. Like prophet, like people. The prophets, as _we_ have just seen (Ezekiel 13), were greatly to blame; but no less were the people partly because of their scepticism (Ezekiel 12:21), and partly, as we now see, because of their insincerity. This is illustrated by a question put by certain elders on the occasion of a visit to Ezekiel a question which neither deserved nor received an answer; for they are idolaters, certainly at _heart and_ probably in fact; they worship Yahweh with divided heart, and are therefore inevitably excluded from a knowledge of His purpose and will. No answer can be given to such, but the answer of the Divine judgment; and if they continue their policy of impenitent compromise, their fate will be nothing less than terrible (Ezek

TRANSGRESSIONS. rebellions. Hebrew. _pasha_ '. App-44, GOD. Hebrew. _Elohim_. App-4. SAITH THE LORD GOD,. [is] _Adonai Jehovah's_ oracle....

Yet all these judgments of God have a far-off merciful end in view. They are a blast of fire and of judgment to consume the sin of the people (Isaiah 4:4), and when the tempest is overpast the sky rises clear behind that the house of Israel go no more astray … but that they may be My people and I may be their God....