Bible Commentaries

HOMILETICAL HINTS

On Ch28

Ezekiel 28:2-11. “The prophet had the more reason to bring forward the king of Tyre in his fall, as he thus obtains a counterpart to the glorious rise of the kingdom of Israel in Christ” (Hengst.).—“God resisteth the proud, 1 Peter 5:5. Whoever, therefore, is proud has God for his enemy” (Stck.). “I am God—many, indeed, will not speak plainly out; but they bear themselves so as if no one had the right to say anything to them. God may well enough call governors gods, but they are not themselves to assume anything on that account, else their divinity will soon come to a disgraceful end with Dagon, 1. Sam5:3, 4” (B. B.).—“The new wisdom teaches, man is God, and there is no God except in man—which points to the man of sin, 2 Thessalonians 2:4, whose typical foreshadowing the king of Tyre was” (Schmieder).—“It belongs to the nature of God to be and have everything out of Himself; to the nature of man, to derive all from the fulness of God” (Hengst.).—“Nothing is more foolish than when a man forgets his human condition” (Stck.).—Thou sayest, I am rich, etc, see Revelation 3:17.

Ezekiel 28:3. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of true wisdom.—“Our wisdom puffs us up, when love fails” (H. H.).—“Imaginary wisdom hinders prayer for the true wisdom” (St.).—The worldly wisdom of Daniel, as compared with that of the prince of Tyre.

Ezekiel 28:4. The husbandman, also, gathered much into his granary; yet he was a fool, whose soul was that night to be required of him, Luke 12.

Ezekiel 28:5. God demands the heart; mammon lifts it up, that it may not betake itself to God.—No one can become happy by means of riches.

Ezekiel 28:6. The king of Tyre and the king of Babylon, Daniel 4:27.—“The punishment for pride is humiliation” (H. H.).—“To come from a pit to a high position is an agreeable change, as with Joseph and David; but the coming for the ungodly is in the opposite direction” (Stck.).—God must bring us to the height, and keep us in the height, if we are not to fall from all real and imaginary heights into the depths of the abyss.

Ezekiel 28:9. “In the day of trouble men employ quite another language than in prosperity, nay, learn then what they would not learn throughout their whole life” (Stck.).

Ezekiel 28:10. “Balaam desired to die the death of the righteous” (Stck.).—The death of the ungodly is death manifold—bodily, spiritual, eternal.

Ezekiel 28:11-19. Even this lamentation shows that God has no pleasure in the death of the wicked.—“Impress of the original, therefore the image of God, Hebrews 1:2. More exactly: he who not only in himself, but also in all his works, expresses the prototype. This Jesus testifies of Himself, John v19, 36” (Schmieder).

Ezekiel 28:13 sq. To whom much is given, of him also shall much be required.—The great spirits, who think the law was not given for them, in the judgment.—“So also we must regard as precious stones Christ and His name, the Holy Spirit, faith, the prophets, God’s word, the sacraments, the virtues, the patience of the saints, the forgiveness of sins, etc.—with which a false Christ seeks to bedeck and to adorn himself, Revelation 17:4” (B. B.).—“Ungodly people have their Eden in this world, but believers seek it in heaven” (St.).

Ezekiel 28:15. “On the common ground of hereditary corruption, there still are in the life of individuals and of whole nations differences, times of comparative innocence as well as of deep declension, provoking the judgments of God. As a rule, youth is the better time; the older the worse. Sin, when not combated, is continually on the increase,” etc. (Hengst.)—“It does not always happen that they who promise well in youth shall be the same in advanced life, for many change their habits” (St.).—“Every man flatters himself, and every king is flattered by his Tyre” (Schmieder).

Ezekiel 28:16. The perils of merchandise for entire peoples, and for individuals.—“They who aim at being rich fall into dangerous snares” (Stck.).

Ezekiel 28:17. “The foundation of wisdom is humility, which sees things as they are, has an open eye for one’s own weaknesses and the excellences of others, and is on its guard against dangerous undertakings, Psalm 131:1. The ‘brightness’ received into the heart blinds the eye, so that one regards himself alone as great, everything else as little, and rushes wantonly into dangers for which he is not prepared, adventures upon paths which lead to perdition—as the combat (of Tyre) with the flourishing Chaldean monarchy. But haughtiness itself works its own ruin. This is the rock on which all the heathen powers of the old world were wrecked” (Hengst.).—“But God-fearing kings will thence derive the instruction that the king, not less than the meanest subject, has to pray daily to God on his knees for a wise and humble heart” (Schmieder).—The dust of kings appears and is treated exactly as the dust of the very poorest. Sursum corda, but in the right sense!—Our heart should be a sanctuary of God.

Ezekiel 28:18-19. “The fire of lust and covetous desire draws after it the other fire of judgment” B. B.).—“A destruction like that of Sodom in the olden time, in which the sin-root of Canaan first came to full development, while the judgment upon Tyre forms the close of the long series of judgments upon the Canaanites” (Hengst.).—“On the other hand, he who does the will of God abides for ever, 1 John 2:17” (Stck.).—“Where thou wilt not be for ever, there seek for thyself no fixed abode” (B. B.).

Ezekiel 28:20. “In the judgments of God shines forth His glory, so that men are obliged to confess that He is righteous, and that His judgments are righteous” (Stck.).

Ezekiel 28:24. “God’s judgment on the ungodly tends to the good of His church” (Cr.).—God sets His own free at length.—“How easily is a thorn drawn out!” (Stck.)—“How well is it to be under the protection of the Lord Messiah, and under His gracious wings to dwell securely!” (Tüb. B.)—“Hence has it been fully made good through Christ, as Zacharias says ( Luke 1:74 sq.), that we are redeemed from the hand of our enemies to serve Him without fear,” etc. (H. H.)—“Then do believers first come to their true and perfect rest, when all their bodily and spiritual enemies have been rooted out” (O.).—“This prophecy is fulfilled in the Christian Church, which is the true seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Those born under the Old Covenant were in bondage, while believers under the New Testament are free” (Cocceius).