Ezekiel 20:33

As I live, saith the Lord GOD, surely with a mighty hand, and with a stretched out arm, and with fury poured out, will I rule over you: AS I LIVE, SAITH THE LORD GOD, SURELY WITH A MIGHTY HAND ... WILL I RULE OVER YOU. Here begins the second division of the prophecy. This second part extends to , where the chapter ought properly to end. Lest the covenant-people should abandon their distinctive hopes, and amalgamate with the surrounding pagan, he tells them that, as the wilderness journey from Egypt was made subservient to discipline, and also to the taking from among them the rebellious, so a severe discipline (such as the Jews are now for long actually undergoing) should be administered to them during the next exodus for the same purpose (), and so to prepare them for the restor...

33-44 The wicked Israelites, notwithstanding they follow the sinful ways of other nations, shall not mingle with them in their prosperity, but shall be separated from them for destruction. There is no shaking off God's dominion; and those who will not yield to the power of his grace, shall sink under the power of his wrath. But not one of God's jewels shall be lost in the lumber of this world. He will bring the jews to the land of Israel again; and will give them true repentance. They will be overcome with his kindness: the more we know of God's holiness, the more we see the hateful nature of sin. Those who remain unaffected amidst means of grace, and would live without Christ, like the world around them, may be sure it is the way to destruction....

God’s future dealings with His people: (1) in judgment Ezekiel 20:32; (2) in mercy Ezekiel 20:39. Ezekiel 20:32 The inquirers had thought that if Jerusalem were taken, and the whole people became sojourners in a foreign land, they would cease to be a separate nation. In their love for idolatry some may have even desired this. But more probably they thought that this very consequence precluded the possibility of such a catastrophe. God answers that He will not allow them to become as the pagan, but this will only subject them to

EXPOSITION EZEKIEL 20:1 A new date is given, and includes what follows to Ezekiel 23:49. The last note of time was in Ezekiel 8:1, and eleven months and five days had passed, during which the prophecies of the intervening chapters had been written or spoken. We may note further that it was two years one month and five days after the prophet's call to his work (Ezekiel 1:1.), and two years and five months before the Chaldeans besieged Jerusalem (Ezekiel 24:1). The immediate occasion here, as in...

AS I LIVE, SAITH THE LORD GOD,.... The form of an oath; the Lord swears by his own life, used more than once before; it supposes something of moment, and the certain performance of it: SURELY WITH A MIGHTY HAND, AND WITH AN OUTSTRETCHED ARM; from which none can escape, and which none can withstand: AND WITH FURY POURED OUT: like floods of water, in a violent hasty shower of rain; it denotes the abundance of divine wrath, and the sudden and sure execution of it: WILL I RULE OVER YOU; not in a gentle and merciful way, but with great rigour and severity; though they had contrived to withdraw themselves from under his domination and government, by joining with the Gentiles, and conforming to their laws and customs, and complying with their religious rites and idolatrous practices; yet they should not be able to accomplish their designs; they should be so far from being free men, as they p...

CHAPTER S 20-24 Further and Final Predictions Concerning the judgment of Jerusalem _ 1. Jehovah rehearses His mercies bestowed upon Israel (Ezekiel 20:1) _ 2. The impending judgment announced (Ezekiel 21:1) 3. Jerusalem's sins and whoredom (Ezekiel 22:1; Ezekiel 23:1) 4. The parable of the boiling pot and the last word (Ezekiel 24:1) Ezekiel 20:1. The chapter contains a divine retrospect and an arraignment of th

THE RESTORATION OF THE FUTURE. But after all, Yahweh has chosen Israel (Ezekiel 20:5) for a purpose, and that purpose must not be frustrated; and despite the sin and darkness of the present, Ezekiel looks hopefully out to the future. But first there must be a sifting. Israel is to be gathered into the wilderness between Babylon and Canaan (Ezekiel 20:35) and passed under the rod as the shepherd passes the sheep; there the rebels shall be left, but the good shall be brought to Canaan, and with self-loathing and penitent hearts they will offer on Mount Zion acceptable worship. Then Yahweh's gracious purpose will be fulfilled, and His power and His character will be recognised by Israel and the world alike....

WITH. MIGHTY HAND, he. Reference to Pentateuch (Deuteronomy 4:34, &c.) WILL. RULE. will. become king....

Jehovah's regard to his own name will fashion the history of the people to come as it has fashioned the past Having reviewed the past and shewn the elders their own picture in the doings of their fathers, and how the thing which has fashioned the history in the past has been Jehovah's regard for his own name, the prophet now comes to read to them the history of the future as the same regard of Jehovah to his name will model it. First, Ezekiel 20:30. The Lord will not give any answer to such enquirers who follow the ways of their fathers. But they may be assured that their resolution to assimilate themselves to the heathen and become like them worshippers of wood and stone shall not be permitted to have effect. Jehovah _will_assert his sovereignty over them, and will disentangle them out from among the heathen as he gathered their fathers from among the Egyptians. Secondl

AND THAT WHICH COMETH INTO YOUR MIND— By all this it appears, that this rebellious people were not anxious to avoid their approaching captivity, denounced and threatened by all the prophets. What they wanted was, a light and easy servitude, which might enable them to mingle with, and at last to be lost among the nations; like the ten tribes which had gone before them. Against the vileness of these hopes is this part of the prophesy directed. God assures them, that he will bring them out of the Assyrian captivity, as he had done out of the Egyptian; but not in mercy, as was that deliverance, but in judgment, and _with fury poured out:_ and as he had brought their fathers into the _wilderness of the land of Egypt,_ so would he bring them into the _wilderness of the people,_ that is, the land of Canaan, which, they would find on their return to it, was become desert and uninhabited, and the...