John Calvin Commentary Ezekiel 14:15-16

"If I cause evil beasts to pass through the land, and they ravage it, and it be made desolate, so that no man may pass through because of the beasts; though these three men were in it, as I live, saith the Lord Jehovah, they should deliver neither sons nor daughters; they only should be delivered, but the land should be desolate." — Ezekiel 14:15-16 (ASV)

Now he mentions the second kind of punishment. For we said that God’s four scourges were here brought before us, which are more familiarly known to men through frequent use: hunger, wild beasts, war, and pestilence. The Prophet has spoken of famine; he now turns to wild beasts.

This kind of scourge is rarely used in Scripture, for God more frequently mentions the sword, pestilence, and famine. However, when he specifically addresses his scourges, he also adds savage beasts. Therefore, he now says, if he had sent wild beasts to lay waste the land, and Noah, Job, and Daniel, had been in that land, they would be free from the common slaughter, but that their righteousness would not profit others.

He expresses a little more clearly what he had spoken briefly and obscurely when he addressed the famine. "If," says he, "I shall cause an evil beast to pass through and injure the land, so as to lay it waste, that no one may pass through on account of the wild beasts, as I live," says he, "if these three men shall free their sons and their daughters."

This passage teaches what I recently touched upon concerning the famine: namely, that the beasts do not break in by chance to attack and rage against men, but that they are sent by God. Thus God carries out his judgments by means of lions, bears, and tigers, no less than by rain and drought, the sword, and the pestilence. Surely, this can be understood if we reflect on the great savageness of these beasts. First, when hunger arouses them, they are carried along by a ravenous impulse. Then, even without the compulsion of necessity, they are hostile to the human race and, without doubt, would be driven to tear to pieces all they met, unless restrained by God’s secret instinct.

If, therefore, God restrains the wild beasts, he also sends them out whenever it pleases him, to exercise their ferocity against mankind, and in this way to become his scourges. But here an oath is introduced so that God may inspire confidence in his judgment; therefore, God swears by his own life.

This is the meaning of the phrase as I live; that is, "I swear by my life." This is, of course, said in human terms, for elsewhere we have seen that God swears by his life—that is, just as if he swore by himself, because, as the Apostle says, he has no greater by whom he can swear (Hebrews 6:13).

And as often as we swear by the name of God, we attribute supreme power to him, and thus we profess that our life is in his hand and that he is our only Judge. When, therefore, he swears by himself, he admonishes us at the same time that his name is profaned if we swear by any others. He then shows how much reverence is to be shown in oaths.

Let us, therefore, follow God’s example when our speech needs confirmation, by calling on him as a witness and judge. Furthermore, we should not use his name rashly or falsely, but our oath should truly be a testimony to our piety.

But here a question indeed arises: How can God say that the land should perish which has once been subjected to wild beasts? For sometimes wild beasts have infested many regions, and God has immediately restrained them, so their cruelty has passed away like a storm.

Again, we know that the prayers of the saints are not superfluous when they pray for others, yet God seems here to deny what is clearly manifest. The solution, however, is easy.

For since he inflicts his judgments not uniformly but variably—at one time hastening punishments and at another suspending them, at one time punishing men’s sins and at another delaying to do so—he fixes for himself no fixed law by which he is always bound. Instead, he speaks here of the land which he has destined for destruction.

Therefore, God may strike one region with famine, another with war, a third with pestilence, and a fourth with wild beasts, and yet he can mitigate his own rigor; when men begin to be terrified, he can withdraw his hand.

But if it has once been decreed that a land must perish, all the saints would intercede in vain, because no one would be a suitable intercessor to abolish that inviolable decree. We now understand the Prophet’s intention, for he is not speaking generally of any land whatever, but he points out the very land that was devoted to final destruction.