Ezekiel 20:36

Like as I pleaded with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so will I plead with you, saith the Lord GOD. LIKE AS I PLEADED WITH YOUR FATHERS IN THE WILDERNESS OF ... EGYPT - (). Though God saved them out of Egypt, He afterward destroyed in the wilderness them that believed not (); so, though He brought the exiles out of Babylon, yet their wilderness state of chastening discipline continued even after they were again in Canaan....

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...

LIKE AS I PLEADED WITH YOUR FATHERS IN THE WILDERNESS OF THE LAND OF EGYPT,.... Which was opposite the land of Egypt, near unto it, on the borders of it; and into which the people immediately went, when they came out of Egypt, and passed the Red sea; and the Arabic version is, "when I brought them out of the land of Egypt.'' This refers to the controversy the Lord had with the Israelites for murmuring upon the report of the spies; and the sentence he passed upon them, that they should not enter into the land of Canaan, but their carcasses should fall in the wilderness, Numbers 14:29: SO WILL I PLEAD WITH YOU, SAITH THE LORD GOD; take vengeance on them, as the Targum; who disbelieve the Messiah, reject him, and will not have him to reign over them; these are now punished, by a dispersion of them in the wilderness of the nations, where they die an

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....

LIKE AS. PLEADED, &c. Reference to Pentateuch (Numbers 14:21; Numbers 14:28; Numbers 14:29). App-92. See also Ezekiel 20:13 and Ezekiel 20:38....

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...