Ezekiel 14:5

Eze 14:5 That I may take the house of Israel in their own heart, because they are all estranged from me through their idols.

Ver. 5. That I may take the house of Israel in their own heart.] Ut deprehendam, or, as others, ut reprehendam; that I may convince their consciences of their impieties, and sting them to the heart with unquestionable conviction and horror.

Because they are all estranged from me.] And fallen in with the devil, who is ειδωλοχαρης, as saith Synesius, a great promoter of idolatry. Idola sunt prima saliva, et initium deficiendi a Deo. {a} Idolatry paveth the way to utter apostasy.

{a} Oecolamp.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Eze_14:5-6

They are all estranged from Me through their idols.

Alienation from God

We read here, in Gods own words, His rule of dealing with persons who come to Him in a certain disposition of mind.

1. The word estranged implies a former condition of close relationship and affection, from which they have since fallen. You would not apply the term to foreigners. You would not say of a Frenchman that he was estranged from this country, simply because he never belonged to it; but if an Englishman resided so long in Paris as to lose his patriotism and interest in our affairs, you would say that he was estranged. So, again, you would not say of a mere acquaintance, if you ceased to see him, that he was estranged from you; but if the love of an old friend grow cold, if a child become indifferent to his home, or a husband fail in his devotion to his wife, you describe such a falling off as estrangement. In this temper certain elders of Israel presented themselves before the prophet of God. They came to inquire His will and seek His aid. What self-delusion, then, is this! what blindness of heart! Men coming to God to inquire of Him, and not knowing that there is that within them which will forbid Gods hearing them! Who has persuaded them to come this way at all? No voice but that of their own heart! And yet do you say that it is their heart which bars the way of God against them? Estranged from Me through their idols! Oh, to us, who may be as these elders of Israel, how hard does this rule of God press upon us! Like them, only far more favoured in all spiritual blessings, with everything to turn our feet towards God, the very currents of society swaying us in this direction, the breeze of fashion gently impelling us hither, the hand of custom with its constant but almost unfelt pressure laid upon the helm of our daily life to guide us within the haven of the Church. We learn to say our prayers, and prayer becomes a trick of words. Bibles are cheap, and in every mans hand. And yet, even now, there may be amongst us some who do not remember, that with idols in our heart we are estranged from God, and that He will not be inquired of by us at all!

2. But this is not the worst. The question God puts expects the answer No; and yet it is not the answer which He gives it. His answer admits us to a nearer view of His mysterious dealings with man. We see Him work by a rule that we know nothing of, a rule of mystery, marvellous and inscrutable, but one which example and experience teach us He applies with unerring force. When men thus estranged and alienated from Him in heart present themselves in person before Him, He does not refuse them an audience. They pray--He hears--their prayer is answered: but how fatal is the gift which He grants! I the Lord will answer him that cometh according to the multitude of his idols. What illustrations of the Divine conduct does Scripture offer both in the Old Testament and the New! The Jews clamoured for a king, and God gave them one, but in this wise,--I gave thee a king in Mine anger, and took him away in My wrath. They cried in the wilderness for flesh,--So they did eat, and were well filled, for He gave them their own desire; they were not disappointed of their lust. But while the meat was yet in their mouths, etc., and smote down the chosen men that were in Israel. Balaam received the kings messengers a second time, and though God had once answered him, he professed to inquire of Him again. He came with idols in his heart, his affection estranged from God: and what was the result? Did God forbid his praying? Oh that He had done so! Did He refuse his prayer? Alas! He granted it, saying, Rise up and go with them. And Balaam, too happy to get the permission, went. But Gods anger was kindled because he went: and the end was that he fell from sin to sin, selling himself to do the tempters work; and he died among Gods enemies, his own pious prayers and blessings ringing the curse of the hypocrite in his ears. There is yet another example nearer the person of the blessed Lord Himself; and therefore the warning is more terrible. Jesus chose but twelve to help Him in His work; and even on one of these He looked--a man with idols in his heart--and said of him, Have not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil? This man came near to Christ, as the eleven: he passed as one of them. He was with them almost up to the very last; he just wanted a little time to go away and finally arrange the plot, and that time he had. God gave him the opportunity,--say not gave, but permitted him. Jesus looked at him and said, What thou doest, do quickly. Was ever prayer heard like that? was ever man on earth answered after the multitude of his idols like that?

3. Gods purpose in answering the evil desires of hearts alienated from His love. Their heart is to become their snare, the net in which they shall be caught, the pitfall in which they shall be entrapped. Your talents and tastes and affections and ruling desires,--the gifts with which natures hand has made you rich, the inheritance with which you started in life,--your physical strength, your youth, your beauty, your wit, your attractiveness, your amiable temper, your power of sympathy, your grace of manner, your aptitude for business, your strong will, your influence over others--with these you made your casts early in life: they have brought you in glittering spoils and stores of comfort, and have enriched your home with pleasures and with wealth. But these very instruments of gain, what else have you done with them? Have they entangled you too much in the world? impeded you on your way to God? implicated you dangerously with others? Have you ensnared others, and made inextricable confusion in their projects of a peaceful, holy, happy life? And now, as you grow older, are you so involved in this worlds business that you cannot escape its toils? When Christ, the rightful Master of your heart, calls to you from the quiet shore, and bids you leave your nets, and become, if not expressly fishers of men, yet at least servants in His work, is your heart free to follow Him? is your heart His at all? nay, is your heart your own to give? Have you not given it away already to idols, to false gods, to the world? or it may be, you have lost your heart in sin! (Archdeacon Furse.)

Things that estrange the heart from God

It was a true and beautiful remark made by the mother of Wm. Allan, the Quaker chemist, when she was seeking to win her son to give more attention to religion, and to devote less time to the prosecution of his studies in his favourite and fascinating science: Remember, my boy, that Christ cast even the doves out of the temple. The lesson thus gently taught was effectually taken to heart. Young Allan learned, with lasting profit, that the most innocent and lawful of earthly objects of interest may not occupy that central place in our affections which our Saviour claims for Himself; but in the souls of the redeemed all other desires will, without painful effort, arrange themselves at due distances from this centre.

Repent, and turn yourselves from your idols.--

Repentance

1. Repentance is a turning from sin to God. It is not any turning, but a turning of the judgment, so that men judge otherwise of God, of His laws and ways, of sin, of themselves, than before; a turning of the will and affections, so that they are carried wholly and fully unto God (Joe_2:12).

2. Repentance is a continued act. It is a grace, and must have its daily operation, as well as other graces. Where a spring breaks forth it is always flowing.

3. Sinners should stir up themselves, and do the utmost which lies in their power to further their turning unto God. Turn yourselves from your idols; use all arguments you can to cause your hearts to turn from idols, and from other sinful ways. Consider--

(1) That they are separated from the Lord (Isa_59:2).

(2) That mans life is short, and the pleasures of sin but for a season.

(3) The daily treasuring up of wrath, and danger of final impenitency (Rom_2:5). It is a seal of condemnation.

(4) The condemnations of a mans own heart and conscience (Isa_57:20-21).

(5) Absolute necessity of repenting and turning unto God (Luk_13:3). Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.

4. True repentance and turning to the Lord doth manifest itself in the effects and fruits of it: it hath meet fruit (Mat_3:8), worthy fruit (Luk_3:8). Now, here are three effects thereof in these words:

(1) When the soul is truly turned to God it seeks to turn others; it is not content that itself is come to God, but would have many come to Him.

(2) It dispenses with no sin; it saith not, Lord, be merciful to me in this, but turns from all abominations, from every idol, the most daring sin shall then go to it (Hos_14:8).

(3) It avoids the occasions of sin and appearances of evil. (W. Greenhill, M. A.)

Sin not tolerated

When his people at Wittenberg showed him their licences to sin, Luthers answer was, Unless you repent you will all perish.. . . Please God, Ill make a hole in his drum, he said, when he first heard of Tetzel selling these indulgences. (Anecdotes of Luther.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

That is, convince them by their own conscience.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

That I may take--that is, unveil and overtake with punishment the dissimulation and impiety of Israel hid in their own heart. Or, rather, "That I may punish them by answering them after their own hearts"; corresponding to "according to the multitude of his idols" (see on Eze 14:4); an instance is given in Eze 14:9; Rom 1:28; Th2 2:11, God giving them up in wrath to their own lie.

idols--though pretending to "inquire" of Me, "in their hearts" they are "estranged from Me," and love "idols."

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

He shows God’s object in being unwilling to dismiss without an answer the hypocrites who still impiously trifled with him. He says, that I may seize the house of Israel in their heart. It is yet asked how the impious are seized, when God answers them neither according to the opinion of their mind nor their expectation, but pronounces what they dislike and fear most grievously. I reply, that the impious are answered when they are driven to madness, and God thus extracts from them what was formerly hidden in their own hearts. He says, therefore, that their impiety may be manifest to all, I will answer them. For as long as God spares the impious, they endeavor to soothe him by a kind of flattery; but when they see that they take nothing by their false blandishments, then they roar, nay, bellow furiously against God: thus they are caught in their own hearts: that is, all their former dissembling is made bare, so that all may easily perceive that there never was a spark of piety in their hearts. God, therefore, bears witness that his answers would be of this kind, that he may take the house of Israel in their hearts; that is, that his severity may draw out into the light what was formerly hidden; for the word of God is a two-edged sword, and examines all the sentiments of men. (Hebrews 4:12.) Some are so slain by this sword that they grow wise again; but others are stung with fury when they see that they must engage with the power of God; therefore they are seized in their own hearts when God twists from them what they would willingly have kept always hidden. Since they have estranged themselves from me, literally, in their idols. This passage is explained in two ways, as we have said. Some say, because they separated themselves; but I approve of the other version, because they have alienated themselves, and we shall understand the point more clearly afterwards when the subject leads us to it. They alienated themselves, then, from God; that is, when they had utterly declined from God’s law; yet, as long as this was concealed, they still wore their masks. The separation of which the Prophet here speaks seems to be referred to this pretense. Since, then, they so alienated themselves from me by their idols; that is, he says they are deceived in thinking that they cannot be discovered, and that their abominations, however foul they are, will remain secret. And this agrees with the last clause, namely, that he would seize the hypocrites in their own heart.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

5. take … in their own heart] The sinner’s sin is like a snare in which he is captured and destroyed; sin carries its own retribution in itself (Job_8:4). The phrase “take them in their own heart” is explained by the words that follow, “because they are all estranged from me through their idols.” Their “heart” is the idolatrous direction of their thoughts and affections; in this they shall be taken (Eze_14:3-4; Eze_14:7).

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

That I may take the house of Israel in their own heart,.... By which they are ensnared, and drawn aside to their ruin; being given up to strong delusions, to believe a lie, and worship idols; God threatening to answer them by righteous judgments, and thereby take the wickedness, the hypocrisy, and idolatry, that were in their hearts, and expose and make it manifest unto others; or, by punishing them, to draw out the corruption and sin that were in them, that it might be seen what a wicked people they were. The Targum interprets the text in another way,

"that I may bring near the house of Israel, and put repentance into their hearts;''

because they are all estranged from me through their idols; they grew shy of God and his worship, when they fell into idolatry. Alienation from God, from the life of God, from the law of God, from the worship of God, and of the affections from him, is owing to some idol or another set up in the heart, or before the eye; whatever is worshipped besides God, or gains the ascendant in the heart, alienates from him; and God will not admit of a rival, he cannot and will not bear it; and for this reason he inflicts punishment, or answers in a terrible way.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

That I may take ... - i. e., that I may take them, as in a snare, deceived by their own heart.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

The. Septuagint, "he may ensnare the house," (Haydock) or "to bring" unto repentance. (Chaldean) (Calmet)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

That I may convince and pierce their very hearts, or lay open what is in their heart, and discover their hypocrisy and impiety; because they have shamefully followed idols, which now in their distress neither know the cause, or can frame a remedy; and what folly is it to choose such gods! what greater impiety than this, to adhere to idols, and forsake God, the only true God and Saviour?

Estranged from me; minds that increase their averseness to God. Idolatry draws the man more and more from the Lord.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

5. That I may take… in their own heart — “The sinner’s sin is like a snare in which he is captured and destroyed; sin carries its own retribution in itself (Job_8:4). Their ‘heart’ is the idolatrous direction of their thoughts and affections; in this they shall be taken (Eze_14:3-4; Eze_14:7).” — Davidson.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

That I may take the house of Israel, etc. The words me a threat rather than a promise. The "double-hearted" shall be taken in the snare which they have made for themselves.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Take - That I may lay open what is in their heart, and discover their hypocrisy, and impiety. Through their idols - It is always through some idol or other, that the hearts of men are estranged from God: some creature has gained that place in the heart, which belongs to none but God.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

In order to take hold of the house of Israel, etc. In order to draw the house of Israel near, to put repentance into their hearts.

who have drawn away Heb. נָזֹרוּ, like (Gen. 48:26): “the one separated (נְזִיר) from his brothers” furent asevrez in Old French; were severed, separated.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.