Ezekiel 20:1-44

History Repeating itself

Some four years before the fall of Jerusalem the elders of Tel-abib again came to consult Ezekiel, who declared that God had no answer to give them. The reason was that their enquiry was insincere, and this passage is consequently an illustration of the principle of Ezekiel 14:3. The exiles were beginning to avow idolatrous tendencies (Ezekiel 20:32), with which the elders were in secret sympathy. Ezekiel recounted how God had dealt with Israel's idolatrous spirit in the past, and announced that He would deal in the same way with those who still cherished it.

Israel had been idolatrous in Egypt and yet had been brought forth (Ezekiel 20:5). Suecessive generations had been idolatrous in the wilderness, and of these the first had been shut out of the Promised Land, while the second had been brought into it under a warning of exile and dispersion should they continue unfaithful (Ezekiel 20:13). They had not heeded the warning, but had adopted the worship of the Canaanites, and God's threat had now been fulfilled (Ezekiel 20:27). In all this course of mercy and judgment God had 'wrought for His name's sake,' that His character might be truly known to Israel and to the world.

The present exiles were no better than their fathers. They too were resolving to be like the heathen (Ezekiel 20:30). But God would frustrate their purpose. He would bring them also into a wilderness, and would deal with them there as He had dealt with those who came out of Egypt (Ezekiel 20:33). The persistent sinners among them would not enter the land of Israel, but the others would again be brought into a covenant with God, and restored to their own country, where they would worship God acceptably in humble penitence (Ezekiel 20:37). In all this God would act from the same great motive as before (Ezekiel 20:44).