Page 95 - NOTES ON EZEKIEL

CHAPTER XIX. 89
to bring home the conviction of our own sinfulness l
“ Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, every
one according to his ways, saith the Lord Jehovah.
Repent, and turn yourselves from all your transgressions;
so iniquity shall not be your ruin. Cast away from you
all your transgressions, whereby ye have transgressed;
and make you a new heart and a new spirit: for why
will ye die, O house of Israel ? For I have no pleasure
in the death of him that dietk, saith the Lord Jehovah:
wherefore turn yourselves, and live ye.” (Ver. 30—32.)
It is a call to conscience, not the call of grace wherein
God promises that He will give them a new heart and
put a new spirit within them, the truth of which will
be self-loathing, true repentance, and fitness for future
blessing. (Chap, xxxvi.) The comparison of the two
chapters of the same prophet is highly and strikingly
instructive, the misuse of ours as common as it is
miserably opposed to the gospel. The Spirit is here
overwhelming them with the conviction of their sin­
fulness. The day is still future when God will plant
Israel in their land, and bless them, born again, with
•every good thing on earth.

CHAPTER XIX.

'C h a p t e r x ix . is a la m e n ta tio n fo r th e p rin ces, a s th e
p re v io u s o n e d e m o n s tra te d th e p eo p le’s sta te , th e so u l’s
c o n d itio n in a ll.
“ Moreover take thou up a lamentation for the pnnees
•of Israel, and say, What is thy mother? A lioness: she