Ezekiel 20:5-6

God's Dealings with Them in Egypt.

“And say to them, Thus says the Lord Yahweh, In the day when I chose Israel, and lifted up my hand to the seed of the house of Jacob, and made myself known to them in the land of Egypt, when I lifted up my hand to them and said, “I am Yahweh your God”, in that day I lifted up my hand to them to bring them forth out of the land of Egypt, to the land which I had espied for them, flowing with milk and honey, which is the glory of all lands.”

God depicts His choice of them as occurring when they were in Egypt. Prior to that His choice had been of individuals and their households, of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. But in Egypt He had chosen Israel as a budding nation, as a people for Himself.

This reminds us that in spite of Ezekiel's stress on individual responsibility, God was sovereignly at work in His people. Indeed He had bound Himself to them by an oath. To ‘lift up the hand' was a popular means of swearing an oath.

Note the sequence. He chose them, then He swore to them, then He made Himself known to them, then He delivered them. The actions were all of God. Compare Exodus 3:6; Exodus 6:2.

‘In the day when I chose Israel.' God had previously chosen Abraham and his descendants (Genesis 12:1; Genesis 18:18). But the day when He chose Israel as a people with their own identity (composed not just of descendants of Abraham but of all those who had attached themselves to them as descendants of the servants of Abraham, and of those who had intermarried with them or thrown in their lot with them) was the day when he called them through Moses (Deuteronomy 4:37; Deuteronomy 7:6; Deuteronomy 10:15; Deuteronomy 14:2 compare Amos 3:2; Psalms 105:6; Psalms 105:9). Note that ‘Israel' is defined as ‘the seed of the house of Jacob', but the word ‘seed' indicates the seed of all who were conjoined with Jacob in the family tribe, those who were ‘born in his household' (compare Genesis 14:14).

‘And lifted up my hand to the seed of the house of Jacob.' The ‘lifting up of the hand', the swearing of the oath, is spoken of as being before the making of Himself known to them in order to bring out that it was the act of Yahweh alone in His divine will. The manifestation of this oath-swearing occurred a number of times, and especially at Mount Sinai, but these were all the result of His first oath made to Himself (compare Genesis 22:16; Hebrews 6:13).

‘And made myself known to them in the land of Egypt, when I lifted up my hand to them and said, “I am Yahweh your God”.' ‘I am Yahweh your God' was first declared to them in Exodus 6:7; compare Ezekiel 6:2; Ezekiel 6:8, and confirmed in Exodus 20:2, compare Psalms 81:10; Hosea 13:4. This was a specific adoption of Israel by Yahweh as His ‘firstborn' (Exodus 4:22).

‘In that day I lifted up my hand to them to bring them forth out of the land of Egypt, to the land which I had espied for them, flowing with milk and honey, which is the glory of all lands.' God's intention in choosing them as His people was that He might deliver them from Egypt and bring them to a good land, a fruitful land. The term ‘flowing with milk and honey', both natural products of the land, is a description regularly used of Canaan describing it as naturally fruitful (Exodus 3:8; Exodus 3:17; Exodus 13:5; Exodus 33:3; Jeremiah 11:5; Jeremiah 32:22).

‘To the land which I had espied for them.' A beautiful picture. He had, as it were, looked around and selected out a suitable place for them.

‘Which is the glory of all lands.' That was the Israelite view of it. They saw it as God's land, God's inheritance and therefore highly favoured (compare Jeremiah 3:19; Exodus 15:17; Deuteronomy 4:21; Deuteronomy 15:4. See also Daniel 11:16; Daniel 11:41; Daniel 8:9).