18:19-23. Yet say ye, Why? doth not the son bear the iniquity of the father? When the son hath done that which is lawful and right, and hath kept all My statutes, and hath done them, he shall surely live. The soul that sinneth, it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son: the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon [pg 453]him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him. But if the wicked will turn from all his sins that he hath committed, and keep all My statutes, and do that which is lawful and right, he shall surely live, he shall not die. All his transgressions that he hath committed, they shall not be mentioned unto him: in his righteousness that he hath done he shall live. Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die? saith the Lord God: and not that he should return from his ways, and live?—The wicked man who turns to righteousness shall not have his former sins held against him; but he shall live.
18:24-30. But when the righteous turneth away from his righteousness, and committeth iniquity, and doeth according to all the abominations that the wicked man doeth, shall he live? All his righteousness that he hath done shall not be mentioned: in his trespass that he hath trespassed, and in his sin that he hath sinned, in them shall he die. Yet ye say, The way of the Lord is not equal. Hear now, O house of Israel; is not My way equal? are not your ways unequal? When a righteous man turneth away from his righteousness, and committeth iniquity, and dieth in them; for his iniquity that he hath done shall he die. Again, when the wicked man turneth away from his wickedness that he hath committed, and doeth that which is lawful and right, he shall save his soul alive. Because he considereth, and turneth away from all his transgressions that he hath committed, he shall surely live, he shall not die. Yet saith the house of Israel, The way of the Lord is not equal. O house of Israel, are not My ways equal? are not your ways unequal? Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways, saith the Lord God. Repent, and turn yourselves from all your transgressions; so iniquity shall not be your ruin.—The righteous man who turns to iniquity shall die.
18:31, 32. 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 dieth, saith the Lord God: wherefore turn yourselves, and live ye.—This will be true of individuals as soon as the last member of the spirit-begotten Body of Christ has died. And it is true now—and has been true since 1878—of the institutions of “this present evil age,” which have been in Divine judgment since 1878. If ecclesiasticism, “the house of Israel,” would cast away all their transgressions, and gain a new heart and a new spirit, they would abide forever; but they will never change their evil ways; their destruction will be their own wilful act—“Why will ye die?”
Ezekiel 19—The Lion's Whelps
19:1. Moreover, take thou up a lamentation for the princes of Israel.—Chapter 19 has the form of a dirge. It represents in antitype the downfall, in the Time of Trouble, of ecclesiasticism pictured first, as two roaring lions which are taken captive; and secondly, as a vine destroyed by fire of internal origin. The princes of Israel are the clergy.
19:2. And say, What is thy mother? A lioness: she lay down among lions, she nourished her whelps among young lions.—As the father and the mother of Isaac were Abraham and Sarah, and the spiritual father and mother of the true Church are Jehovah and His Covenant of Grace (Gal. 4:22-28), so the spiritual father and mother of ecclesiasticism, priestcraft, are the Devil and his covenant with death. (Gen. 3:4; Isa. 28:18.) “The Devil goeth about like a roaring lion.” (1 Pet. 5:8.) Their nourishment has been “doctrines of devils.”
19:3. And she brought up one of her whelps; it became a young lion, and it learned to catch the prey; it devoured men.—Ecclesiasticism divided into two classes; one higher, richer, more educated than the other—“one of her whelps.” They learned to devour men, make them their prey.
19:4. The nations also heard of him; he was taken in their pit, and they brought him with chains unto the land of Egypt.—The unbelieving peoples heard them; they, the clergy, were taken in the pit of corrupt doctrine; they were captivated, taken captive, into worldliness, the wisdom of this world, of “Egypt.”