DENUNCIATION OF JEREMIAH AND EZEKIEL.
The Hebrew nation reached its summit of power and glory during the
reign of King Solomon, but corruption crept in and disintegration
followed, and a series of conflicts between portions of the kingdom.
The laws given by Moses were neglected, and a long period of gross
sinning followed. They were warned by the faithful yet hopeful prophet
Isaiah that the overthrow of their nation was certain, and that their
people would be carried captive to a strange land unless they forsook
utterly their sins and turned to righteousness. They did not heed and
the predicted calamities came upon them.
In the midst of these calamities the contemporary prophets Jeremiah
and Ezekiel ministered. They differed greatly in their dispositions.
Jeremiah was a complainer. Always bemoaning his own and his people's
hard lot. The Lamentations are recognized as the best extant
expression of unmitigated grief. He lamented his birth because he was
treated as a usurer and oppressor, when he had never exacted usury,
nor had business with usurers. Jer. 15:10: "Woe, is me, my brother,
that thou hast borne me a man of strife and a man of contention to the
whole earth. I have neither lent on usury, nor have men lent to me on
usury; yet every one of them doth curse me."
Ezekiel was always patient, faithfully proclaiming his messages, and
suffering in silence. The completeness of his self-control and patient
suffering is shown in the short but pathetic description of the death
of his beloved wife, yet at the divine command he repressed his grief
and delivered his message the following morning. Ezekiel 24:15-18:
"Also the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, behold, I
take away from thee the desire of thine eyes with a stroke; yet
neither shalt thou mourn nor weep, neither shall thy tears run down.
Forbear to cry, make no mourning for the dead, bind the tire of thy
head upon thee, and put on thy shoes upon thy feet, and cover up thy
lips, and eat not the bread of men. So I spake of people in the
morning; and at even my wife died; and I did in the morning as I was
commanded."
These prophets were familiar with the same scenes. They met the same
sins. Some have thought they exchanged messages, sending them
respectively to Jerusalem and Chaldea for encouragement and
confirmation. This was the opinion of Jerome.
In a catalogue of the sins prevailing in Jerusalem, for which the
judgment of God came upon them, this prophet places "Usury and
increase." Ezekiel 22: 7-12: "In thee have they set light by father
and mother: in the midst of thee have they dealt by oppression with
the stranger: in thee have they vexed the fatherless and the widow.
Thou hast despised mine holy things, and hast profaned my Sabbaths. In
thee are men that carry tales to shed blood: and in thee they eat upon
the mountains: in the midst of thee they commit lewdness. In thee have
they discovered their father's nakedness: in thee have they humbled
her that was set apart for pollution. And one hath committed
abomination with his neighbor's wife; and another hath lewdly defiled
his daughter-in-law; and another in thee hath humbled his sister, his
father's daughter. In thee have they taken gifts to shed blood; thou
hast taken usury and increase, and thou hast greedily gained of thy
neighbors by extortion, and hast forgotten me, saith the Lord God."
It would not be easy to give a list of more gross and flagrant sins
than those associated with usury in this passage. They are all, always
and everywhere, sinful. In no condition can they be lawful and right.
One of the answers familiar to both Jeremiah and Ezekiel when the
people were reproved for their sins and exhorted to forsake them, that
the divine judgments might be removed, was this, that their sufferings
were not on their own account, but for the sins of their fathers. They
thus met the charge of personal sins and claimed their sufferings were
inherited and unavoidable. Their fathers had indulged in sin and they
must reap the consequences. They complained that this was hardness in
God. They expressed this murmur by a proverb. Jer. 31:29: "The
fathers have eaten a sour grape, and the children's teeth are set on
edge."
The answer of the prophet Jeremiah briefly is, that every one shall
answer for his own sin. Jer. 31:30: "But every one shall die for his
own iniquity: every man that eateth the sour grape, his teeth shall be
set on edge."
This same proverb was repeatedly given to Ezekiel, as an excuse for
continuing in sins, even when the judgments of God were upon them. The
word of the Lord came more fully and explicitly to him.
Ezekiel declares that the sins of the fathers were visited on the
children only when they continued in their father's iniquity. That
those who forsook the sins of their fathers and were righteous, were
free from the punishment of the unrighteous parents.
Ezekiel 18:1-17: "The word of God came unto me again, saying, What
mean ye, that ye use this proverb concerning the land of Israel,
saying, The fathers have eaten sour grapes and the children's teeth
are set on edge.
As I live, saith the Lord God, ye shall not have occasion to use this
proverb in Israel. Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the
father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sinneth, it
shall die. But if a man be just, and do that which is lawful and
right, and hath not eaten upon the mountains, neither hath lifted up
his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel, neither hath defiled his
neighbor's wife, neither hath come near to a menstruous woman,
(_i.e._ neither hath committed a rape,) and hath not oppressed any,
but hath restored to the debtor his pledge, hath spoiled none by
violence, hath given his bread to the hungry, and hath covered the
naked with a garment. He that hath not given forth upon usury, neither
hath taken any increase, that hath withdrawn his hand from iniquity,
hath executed true judgment between man and man. Hath walked in my
statutes, and hath kept my judgments, to deal truly; he is just, he
shall surely live, saith the Lord God."
"If he beget a son that is a robber, a shedder of blood, and that
doeth the like to any one of these things; and that doeth not any of
those duties but even hath eaten upon the mountains, and defiled his
neighbor's wife, hath oppressed the poor and needy, hath spoiled by
violence, hath not restored the pledge, and hath lifted his eyes to
the idols, hath committed abomination, hath given forth upon usury,
and hath taken increase: Shall he then live? He shall not live: he
hath done all these abominations; he shall surely die; his blood shall
be upon him. Now, lo, if he beget a son, that seeth all his father's
sins which he hath done, and considereth, and doeth not such like:
that hath not eaten upon the mountains, neither hath lifted up his
eyes to the idols of the house of Israel, hath not defiled his
neighbor's wife, neither hath oppressed any, hath not withholden the
pledge, neither hath spoiled by violence, but hath given his bread to
the hungry, and hath covered the naked with a garment, that hath taken
off his hand from the poor, that hath not received usury or increase,
hath executed my judgments, hath walked in my statutes; he shall not
die for the iniquity of his father, he shall surely live."
It will be noticed that usury or increase is here mentioned among the
grossest and foulest sins of which that people were guilty. They are
placed by the prophet in the worst possible company. He classifies
them among those things that can never be right. There is no
qualification of "increase" great or small, nor of "usury" whether the
loan be domestic or commercial, whether for personal need, or to go
into business, whether the borrower be poor or rich.
Usury is mentioned as "_malum per se_." "Usury and increase" are
treated as sinful in themselves, just as fraud, violence, impurity,
and idolatry are sinful, and can never be innocent unless their very
natures are reversed. When there is fraud without dishonesty, and
violence without injury, and adultery without impurity, and idolatry
without false worship, then may there be "usury and increase" without
injustice and oppression. "Some sins in themselves and by reason of
several aggravations are more heinous in the sight of God than
others," the prophet Ezekiel places "usury or increase" in the list of
"abominations."