John Calvin Commentary Ezekiel 15:7-8

"And I will set my face against them; they shall go forth from the fire, but the fire shall devour them; and ye shall know that I am Jehovah, when I set my face against them. And I will make the land desolate, because they have committed a trespass, saith the Lord Jehovah." — Ezekiel 15:7-8 (ASV)

He confirms what had been said in the last verse and at the same time explains it: as if the citizens of Jerusalem retained some form because they were not reduced to dust, but the fire had burned all around them, as if the flame were licking a bundle of twigs.

While the royal seat remained to them, the name of a people also remained, and therefore an opportunity for their obstinacy. For they were not to be subdued, since they were not entirely consumed.

And now another madness was added: as soon as they had escaped from any misfortune, they thought themselves quite safe — “Oh, now we shall rest,” they said. If the enemy had departed from the city, or if new forces had not arrived against them, or if provisions failed the enemy’s troops, they immediately regained their courage. They not only breathed again but also proudly laughed at God and His prophets, as if they were beyond all danger.

For this reason He now says, I have set my face against them. To set, or, if anyone prefers it, to establish one’s face, is to persist constantly, so as not only to do anything merely in passing, but to remain there until we have accomplished our intention. Thus, those who say, “I have set my face firmly,” are not poor interpreters of the Prophet: they do not translate literally, but according to God’s meaning.

For He often chastises a whole nation or city, and yet He does not “set His face”—that is, He does not stay there, but chastises them lightly and only for a short time, as if passing in another direction. But He means something else here—that He would set His face—that is, He would never desist until the people’s name, as well as their city, was utterly abolished.

For we have said that the prophets speak of the present state of the people when they threaten such destruction. I will set my face, therefore, against them: they shall escape from one fire, and another shall devour them. Here the Prophet strikes down that foolish opinion by which the Jews deceived themselves.

For if they escaped from one danger, they thought it was the last, and from this arose their security and even obstinacy.

But the Prophet says here that after they had escaped from one fire, a new fire to consume them was lit. He means that there were different means in God’s hand by which He destroys and extinguishes a people. As He had previously said that He was armed with pestilence and the sword, famine and wild beasts, so now under the name of fire He comprehends various scourges.

If, therefore, people have escaped the sword, a new attack shall destroy them, since God will press them with famine, or strike them with pestilence, or in other ways. And then, they shall know, says He, that I am Jehovah, when I shall set my face against it. By these words he signifies that His glory could not otherwise remain safe, since impunity blinded the Jews—indeed, hardened them until they became like brutes.

If, therefore, God had spared them, His glory would have been, as it were, buried; and through so long a connivance, He would no longer have been acknowledged as God. There was a real necessity for such rigor: since He would never show Himself to be God otherwise than by destroying the impious who were so stupefied by their sins as long as He tolerated them.

Finally, he adds, I will lay the land waste since they have prevaricated by prevarication. Here, also, God expresses how terrible, yet just, that judgment was, because the Jews were no trifling offenders. They had perfidiously departed from His worship and from the whole teaching of the law, and were obstinate in their ingratitude. Since they were so abandoned, we gather that God was not too severe when He put forth His hand to destroy them utterly.

Prayer:

Grant, Almighty God, since You have not only deigned to separate us from the common mass of people but also to renew Your image in us; and while Your favors towards us are conspicuous, You exhort us at the same time to glorify Your name: Grant that, being mindful of our calling, we may strive to devote ourselves wholly to You and so to extol You with special, true, and rightful praises, that we may finally be partakers of the glory to which You invite us, and which has been acquired for us by the blood of Your only-begotten Son. Amen.