Ezekiel 20:30-44

II. ISRAEL'S FUTURE RESTORATION 20:30-44

TRANSLATION

(30) Therefore say unto the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord GOD: In the way of your fathers you have defiled yourselves, and you are whoring after their abominations, (31) and when You offer your gifts, in making your sons to pass through the fire, you defile yourselves with all your idols, unto this day; and shall I allow you to inquire of Me, O house of Israel? As I live (oracle of the Lord GOD) I shall not allow you to inquire of Me; (32) and that which goes up on your spirit shall not be; because you are saying, We shall be like the nations, as the families of the lands, to serve wood and stone. (33) As I live (oracle of the Lord GOD) surely with a mighty hand, and with an outstretched arm, and with fury poured out I will reign over you; (34) and I will bring you out from the peoples, and I will gather you from the lands where you were scattered, with a mighty hand, and with an outstretched arm, and with fury poured out; (35) and I will bring you unto the wilderness of the peoples; and I will plead with you there face to face. (36) As I pleaded with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, thus will I plead with you (oracle of the Lord GOD). (37) And I will cause you to pass under the rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant. (38) And I will purge out from you the rebels, and those who transgress against Me; I will bring them out from the land of their sojourn, and unto the land of Israel they shall not come; and you shall know that I am the LORD. (39) As for you, O house of Israel, thus says the Lord GOD: Go, serve each his idols, even because you have not hearkened unto Me; but My holy name you will not profane again with your gifts and with your idols. (40) For in My holy mountain, in the mountain of the height of Israel (oracle of the Lord GOD) there all the house of Israel, all of them, shall serve Me in the land; there I will accept them, and there I will require your heave offerings and the first of your gifts, with all your holy things. (41) With your sweet savor I will accept you, when I bring you out from the peoples, and gather you from the lands where you were scattered; and I will be sanctified in the sight of the nations. (42) And you shall know that I am the LORD when I bring you unto the land of Israel, unto the land which I lifted up My hand to give to your fathers. (43) And there you shall remember your ways, and all your deeds by which you were defiled; and you shall loathe yourself in your eyes for all your evils which you have done. (44) And you shall know that I am the LORD when I deal with you for the sake of My name, not according to your evil deeds, nor according to your corrupt ways, O house of Israel (oracle of the Lord GOD).

COMMENTS

Ezekiel replied to the request of the visiting elders by reviewing the past corruption of Israel; now he applies this teaching to the present and future of the nation. How can these representatives of the nation expect to receive encouraging divine responses to their inquiries when the abominable practices of idolatry continued to that very day? The present generation had defiled itself after the manner of their fathers by offering gifts to Baal and even causing their children to pass through the fire, i.e., offering them as burnt offerings to Molech.[345] How could God suspend or cancel the threat of judgment when they continued to defile themselves by such degrading religious practices? Their defilement drove a wedge between them and their God, and under present circumstances He refused to be inquired of by them, i.e., He would grant them no special insight into what the immediate future held in store beyond the threats which He had already announced through His prophet (Ezekiel 20:30-31).

[345] That immolation of the children is intended, and not just ritual purification, is made clear by Jeremiah 19:5.

The attitude among the exiles was reprehensible. In Ezekiel 20:32 the prophet reads the hearts of the inquirers. Being humiliated, subject to foreign domination, and driven from their homeland, they now felt free to join in the worship of their neighbors. How was it possible for them to continue to render homage to Yahweh when His Temple was so far away, and when all public acts of worship to Him were restricted to that Temple? If the Temple were destroyed, they thought, then the one restraint on the idolatries which they loved would be removed, and that by God Himself. According to their perverse logic, if God wanted their continued allegiance He would have to preserve the Temple and quickly restore them to Canaan. However, God would not allow this perverse purpose to stand. Those who thought the distinctive character of Israel would be and should be lost in exile were doomed to disappointment.

God was about to intervene in Israel's history with the same mighty hand and outstretched arm as saved them at the Exodus. He would show Himself again to be king over this people (Ezekiel 20:33) by leading them in judgment into another wilderness experience (cf. Hosea 2:14 f; Hosea 12:9). The Babylonian exile was Israel's second wilderness period. When the discipline was over, God would gather His people (Ezekiel 20:34). Israel would by no means lose her identity among the nations!

The exact prophetic import of Ezekiel 20:35-38 is in dispute. Some commentators understand these verses to be predicting that after the Babylonian exile Israel would be brought into another dispersion. It is better, however, to regard the wilderness of peoples as yet another reference to the Babylonian captivity. In Ezekiel 20:34 God states the general principle that He will in His own good time gather His people. Ezekiel 20:35-38 tell how that would come about. As in the wilderness of Egypt God constituted Israel as a nation, so in the Babylonian wilderness He would reconstitute them as a nation. There they would come face to face with God. He would plead with them, i.e., remonstrate and reason with them, through those harsh circumstances, through the voice of conscience, and through the stern preaching of men like Ezekiel (Ezekiel 20:35-36).

Not all those who were carried off to the wilderness of exile would be coming home. The captives would be scrutinized by the Good Shepherd and caused to pass under the rod. The allusion is to Leviticus 27:32 where every tenth sheep which passed under the rod of the shepherd was to be consecrated to the Lord, The select sheep of Israel would be brought into the bond of the covenant (Ezekiel 20:37). The apostasy had cancelled the blessings set forth in the Sinai covenant. The chastisement of exile, for those who would accept it, would serve the purpose of restoring that broken relationship with God.

The land of restored Israel would be a land of righteousness. Those who had rebelled against God's authority and who had transgressed against Him would be purged from the nation. They would not be allowed to re-enter the land of Canaan. God might bring them out of the land where they were presently sojourning, but He would by no means allow them to re-enter Canaan. When be brought them back the chastened remnant would know that He truly was Yahweh, the God of covenant faithfulness (Ezekiel 20:38).

In prophetic irony Ezekiel now called upon the house of Israel to go ahead with their idolatry. They cannot thereby frustrate God's ultimate purpose for a holy people. The day would come when God's holy name would no longer be profaned by idolatrous practices (Ezekiel 20:39).

In Ezekiel 20:40 Ezekiel passes on from the earlier stages of the restoration to speak of its consummation. He sees Israel as a mighty mountain (mountain of the height of Israel) or nation of the world (cf. Micah 4:1-2; Isaiah 2:2-3). He sees a united nation (all of them) Israel and Judah worshiping on Mt. Zion (My holy mountain). He sees a holy people rendering acceptable service and sacrifice to their God. Gone forever are the heathen influences which marred the worship of his own day. Heave offerings,[346] offerings of firstlings,[347] and other gifts would be required by God and willingly offered by His redeemed people (Ezekiel 20:40).

[346] Heave offerings (terumah) are mentioned in Exodus 29:27; Leviticus 7:14 and many other places.

[347] The first of your gifts would include the first-ripe grain (Deuteronomy 26:2 ff.), the firstborn of the cattle and the redemption fee for firstborn male children (Exodus 13:2; Exodus 13:12 ff,), and the first portion of the dough (Numbers 15:20 f.).

Ezekiel foresees seven consequences of the new relationship between God and His people:
1. The sacrifices which Israel offers to God would be considered a sweet savor by the Lord, i.e., would be pleasant in His sight.

2. God accepts Israel, i.e., acknowledges them as His own.

3. In and through that restored remnant God's name would be sanctified, i.e., respected and revered, by surrounding nations (Ezekiel 20:41). God's name is sanctified when He is manifested and recognized as holy (Leviticus 10:3; Numbers 20:13), Even the heathen would recognize that God's dealings with Israel had been holy and just,

4. Israel would realize without doubt that they had been restored to Canaan through the might of God. They would willingly acknowledge that He, and none other, is God (Ezekiel 20:42).

5. It would be obvious to the remnant that God keeps His word. He had sworn to give to their father the land of Canaan. Through sin Israel forfeited the right to live in that Holy Land. Now God would give them a second chance in Canaan (Ezekiel 20:43).

6. Remnant Israel would remember their past failings and loathe themselves for the abominations which they had com mitted prior to the captivity (Ezekiel 20:43). In spite of repentance and forgiveness, the redeemed man can never forget that he is a sinner saved by grace.

7. Remnant Israel would realize that their change in fortunes was not due to their own merits. They deserved to perish. How ever, for the sake of His name, the gracious God had ransomed the house of Israel (Ezekiel 20:44).