If you turn with me to Ezekiel chapter 20, and we want to look at this chapter this evening. Ezekiel’s in, remember he’s in the land of Babylon. He’s ministering to those that have been taken captive by Nebuchadnezzar.
And some of the people that have been taken captive have come to Ezekiel and want to seek his advice. And so that’s what we’re going to be looking at tonight. And God wants them to understand that they haven’t dealt with the real problem.
And the real problem is their hard attitude. And he’s going to show that this has been a problem with the children of Jacob since God formed them into the nation of Israel. It’s not something that’s new.
But also, lest there are those people that live in our world today that say, see how wicked the Jews were, they sinned and they did all these things that made God angry. He’s done with them. At the end of the chapter we’re going to find out he’s not done with them.
And that he is going to fulfill his promises and that hearts of Jewish people will be turned back to the Lord that haven’t accepted him as their Lord and Savior. So let’s take a look at chapter 20 this evening out of the book of Ezekiel.
The Elders Seek the Lord (Ezekiel 20:1–4)
And it came to pass in the seventh year, in the fifth month, the tenth day of the month, that certain of the elders of Israel came to enquire of the Lord, and sat before me. 2 Then came the word of the Lord unto me, saying, 3 Son of man, speak unto the elders of Israel, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God; Are ye come to enquire of me? As I live, saith the Lord God, I will not be enquired of by you.
4 Wilt thou judge them, son of man, wilt thou judge them? cause them to know the abominations of their fathers:
Rebellion in Egypt: Rejecting God Early (20:5–7)
5 and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God; In the day when I chose Israel, and lifted up mine hand unto the seed of the house of Jacob, and made myself known unto them in the land of Egypt, when I lifted up mine hand unto them, saying, I am the Lord your God; 6 in the day that I lifted up mine hand unto them, to bring them forth of the land of Egypt into a land that I had espied for them, flowing with milk and honey, which is the glory of all lands: 7 then said I unto them, Cast ye away every man the abominations of his eyes, and defile not yourselves with the idols of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.
I want to pause here. You see that the problem began way back and it was a problem of putting faith and trust in idols instead of God and making and worshipping the idols.
And it started when they were in the land of Egypt. And if you look at what happened when they were in the land of Egypt, the land of Egypt had many gods and they also had idols they worshipped. And as is the case with, can be with Christians, the descendants of Jacob were influenced by the people around them instead of going to the Lord and being led by His Spirit and influenced by His wisdom.
And so they turned to idols. And as we’ve studied in Jeremiah and also as we looked in Ezekiel, and you can look back in Isaiah, you will see that idols can do nothing. They’re not gods at all.
There are demonic spirits behind them which can give the people false miracles or do things that appear to be supernatural, but they are demonic spirits. They’re not God. And the idols really, as Jeremiah says, they go out, the nation of Israel went out, and they cut down a tree and they carved this tree and they made an idol out of it.
And then they put silver and gold on it and dressed it in clothes and put fine jewels on it and then they began to worship it. But this idol had hands it couldn’t handle. It had eyes it couldn’t see.
It had a mouth it couldn’t speak. It had feet it couldn’t walk. They had to carry it everywhere they took it and it couldn’t do anything.
It was a mere idol. And yet this is what the people of Israel, way back at the beginning of their nation when God first called them, and He delivered them by the power of His hand out of the land of Egypt, revealing to them the falseness of all the gods of Egypt that they had no power at all, yet the people still clung to their idols as they came out of the land. Well, we’re going to go on and see what else Ezekiel has to say about this.
The Wilderness: Statutes Given, Sin Continued (20:8–9)
8 But they rebelled against me, and would not hearken unto me: they did not every man cast away the abominations of their eyes, neither did they forsake the idols of Egypt: then I said, I will pour out my fury upon them, to accomplish my anger against them in the midst of the land of Egypt. 9 But I wrought for my name’s sake, that it should not be polluted before the heathen, among whom they were, in whose sight I made myself known unto them, in bringing them forth out of the land of Egypt.
So God says they would not repent, they would not give up their idols, and so He chastised them, He judged them, and He brought His hand of chastisement against them. Well, what happened? Well, if you go back and you look in the book of Genesis and Exodus, you’ll see what happened to the people when they were in the land of Egypt.
They eventually grew great in number, but as they had a great number of people and descendants of Jacob, yet they walked in disobedience to God, and God allowed them to be enslaved to the Egyptians, and their life became very miserable. And they cried out for deliverance, and they desired to be delivered, and God heard their cry, and He also said, I am not going to destroy this people, I’m not going to continue to judge them, lest the Egyptians deny who I am. And He said, these people were created as a nation so that people could see the reality of my power and my word being fulfilled, and I’ve given promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, my word will not be denied, and so consequently, He said, I did not, as He said in the verse, but I wrought for my name’s sake that it should not be polluted before the heathen among whom they were, and in whose sight I made myself known unto them in bringing them forth out of the land of Egypt.
And so He said, I’m not going to be denied my power being revealed to the Egyptians as I bring them forth, even though the people had violated God’s word and rebelled against Him, and they’re not desiring to worship Him, but worshiping idols. But what happens when they come out of the land of Egypt? If you go back and look in the book of Genesis, you’ll see that God miraculously delivered them. I already gave reference to the fact that He had the ten plagues.
Every one of the plagues came against the God of Egypt. The last plague came against Pharaoh and the firstborn, showing that Pharaoh, the very one who was exalted as God amongst the people, yet he could not even save his own son. And the firstborn that were not covered by the blood of the Lamb resulted in the death angel killing them and judgment was brought upon them.
And even in the house of Israel, if the people did not by faith listen to God and place the blood of the Lamb on the doorpost and the lintel of the door, they would not be saved and their house would experience the same consequence to their disbelief. But those who believed were preserved. And we also know that there were some who were Egyptians or were not Israelites who did believe and were saved and brought out of Egypt at the time of the Israelites because it says that there came with them others besides just the descendants of Jacob.
So we see that there were some that saw the power of God that were not descendants of Jacob, believed in the power of God, and that’s exactly what God said the purpose of Israel was. One of the purposes was to reveal His power, reveal His authority, and reveal His character. That happened.
Well, you think He had made promises to them, I’m going to take you to a land flowing with milk and honey, a promise that I had given to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, a land that will be yours, that they would walk in obedience. Well, is that what they did? Let’s pick it up at verse 10.
Wherefore, I caused them to go forth out of the land of Egypt and brought them into the wilderness.
And I gave them My statutes and showed them My judgments, which if a man do, he shall even live in them. Moreover, also I gave them My Sabbaths to be a sign between Me and them that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctify them. But the house of Israel rebelled against Me in the wilderness, and they walked not in My statutes, and they despised My judgments, which if a man do, he shall even live in them.
And My Sabbaths they greatly polluted. Then I said I would pour out My fury upon them in the wilderness and consume them. Well, if you remember the accounts, what they did is God had given them, not only had He preserved them in the midst of Egypt and delivered them out of Egypt miraculously.
There’s no way that they would have gotten and escaped Egypt because Pharaoh had the military might to keep them there and had been doing that until God miraculously delivered them by the power of His might and through the miracles He performed and ultimately destroying Pharaoh and his army. When they got into the wilderness, God didn’t stop and say, okay, now I’ve given you your freedom. I’ve delivered you from being enslaved to this world system, which is really what Egypt was representing.
He said, I’m going to give you more. And so what He did is He gave them His law. He gave them His Word.
And that happened at Mount Sinai when the Lord revealed to them and gave them His law. And not only that, He said, I give you My Sabbaths. And the Sabbaths were designed as a special sign between God and the nation of Israel.
And there was very unique things about the Sabbaths. The seventh day of the week was to be the Shabbat or the day of Sabbath. And on that day, the nation of Israel was to rest from their work.
Do you remember what He gave them as one of the first signs of what the Sabbath was to mean? They needed food when they’re in the wilderness. And so God gave them manna. He brought manna down from heaven.
When He brought the manna down, He told them, now this is what’s going to happen. I want you to go out and gather manna every day. It’ll be there every morning for you.
But the thing is, you are only to take what you need for that day. If you take more than you need, it’ll rot. It’ll turn and it’ll have worms in it.
It’ll be no good. You can’t eat it. Only take what you need for that day.
And the next day, there’ll be more. However, when it comes to the Shabbat or the seventh day, which is to be a day where you are not to work. It’s to be a day where you’re to rest.
You’re to focus on Me. You’re to focus on My Word. You’re to have an intimate fellowship with Me on that day.
The day before, or the sixth day, you’re to take twice as much as you need on the sixth day. And that day, the extra will not rot. It will not get worms, so that you have to eat on the Sabbath.
Now, what happened is, they went out, and the first thing they did is a number of them went out and gathered up as much as they could get. They were going to get as much as they could. We don’t believe that God will provide us tomorrow, and we see it here today.
So they gathered it all up. Well, it did exactly what God said. The next day, it was spoiled.
And there were worms in it, and it wasn’t edible. And so they had to learn to trust in God for the next day’s needs. And then they also had to learn and trust that when He said, take double on the sixth day, that it would be preserved for their needs on the seventh.
And so they did that. But even as God was doing all of this, and if you stop and think, the manna from heaven must be an amazing food, because it met all of the needs that their bodies had for vitamins, for minerals, for protein, to sustain them. And it says that it did all of that, and they were sustained in the wilderness by manna.
But you know what happened? Like a lot of us, God gives us blessings, and we become ungrateful for them. We don’t see the blessing that He’s giving us. And pretty soon, they didn’t see the blessing of the manna.
They didn’t see the miraculous ability of this manna to meet and sustain their needs. And sometimes we can do the same thing. Well, when they did that, they began to grumble and mumble, and say they wanted more, and we need meat.
So God brought them quail. But then, even after He brought them the quail, the grumbling and the mumbling didn’t stop, and they were ungrateful. And if you remember, there came a point in time where they grumbled and mumbled so much that the Lord said He was going to destroy them.
And He went to Moses, and He talked to Moses, and He said, I’m going to destroy this people, and I will raise up another seed out of your descendants, and they’ll be my new people. And I’ll get rid of these. What did Moses say to him? Moses said, Don’t do that, Lord.
Lest your name, lest your name be violated amongst the heathen. And they say that He only brought these people out into the wilderness to destroy them, and to leave them here. And so God’s attitude was, this is a deserved judgment, but instead what He did is He says, But I wrought for my name’s sake that it should not be polluted before the heathen, in whose sight I brought them out.
And so He had brought them out in the sight of the Egyptians. He brought them into the wilderness where there were other tribes of people around there that saw what God was doing. And He said, Lest my name be polluted or violated in the eyes of these other people, I will not bring this judgment upon them.
Yet also I lifted up my hand unto them in the wilderness, that I would not bring them into the land which I had given them, flowing with milk and honey, which is the glory of all lands, because they despised my judgments, and walked not in my statutes, and polluted my Sabbaths, for their heart went after idols. You see what the problem is? The problem is they continue to worship their own gods. And they don’t see the power and the authority of the Lord.
They don’t see His mercy. They don’t see His love. They don’t see His deliverance.
Instead they view Him as being someone who is not worthy of their praise and so they still continue to worship their idols. And if you remember one of the incidents that happened when they were getting the law, when Moses was getting the law. Remember what happened with Aaron.
Moses was up in the mountain and he wasn’t coming down and the people said, Moses must have died. And they went to Aaron and they said, Moses isn’t going to come back and we need someone, a God to lead us. And you know what they built? They had Aaron.
They brought all the gold that they had to Aaron. Their gold earrings, their gold jewelry, the gold pieces they had. And Aaron melted it down and he formed it into a calf.
Now there’s something that’s very significant about that. And also you can go a few hundreds of years later when the nation of Israel was split into Judah and Israel. Jeroboam took and did something very similar for the northern kingdom of Israel.
They worshipped calves. They worshipped the idol of a cow. And that was one of the idols of Egypt.
It was one of the main idols of Egypt. And so they went and had Aaron take them and build an idol that was tied to Egypt and the world. That God had delivered them out of and said, we will worship this.
And then not only did they worship that, but you remember when Joshua and Aaron came down from the mountain, there was really horrible things going on in the camp. And Joshua heard all the noise and it was disgusting things that the people were involved with. And he said, there’s war in the camp.
There must be war in the camp because I hear all the noise. Well, there was war. It was a spiritual war.
And at the heart of it was Satan stealing the hearts of the people. They were beginning to worship him doing very sexual things and other kinds of things around this idol and worshipping it. And so Moses when he saw that, remember he took the law and he broke it.
And it was really a sign of what they had done. They’d broken the law before they were even given it.
The Next Generation Rebels (20:17–26)
17 Nevertheless mine eye spared them from destroying them, neither did I make an end of them in the wilderness. 18 But I said unto their children in the wilderness, Walk ye not in the statutes of your fathers, neither observe their judgments, nor defile yourselves with their idols:
And He gave the same promises to their children. And He said, But don’t be involved with worshipping the idols of your parents.
I am the Lord your God; walk in my statutes, and keep my judgments, and do them; 20 and hallow my sabbaths; and they shall be a sign between me and you, that ye may know that I am the Lord your God. 21 Notwithstanding the children rebelled against me: they walked not in my statutes, neither kept my judgments to do them, which if a man do, he shall even live in them; they polluted my sabbaths: then I said, I would pour out my fury upon them, to accomplish my anger against them in the wilderness.
And yet instead of choosing to obey God when He laid this challenge before them, they immediately disobeyed and rebelled against Me. They walked not after My statutes, neither kept My judgments to do them, which a man do. He shall even live in them.
22 Nevertheless I withdrew mine hand, and wrought for my name’s sake, that it should not be polluted in the sight of the heathen, in whose sight I brought them forth. 23 I lifted up mine hand unto them also in the wilderness, that I would scatter them among the heathen, and disperse them through the countries; 24 because they had not executed my judgments, but had despised my statutes, and had polluted my sabbaths, and their eyes were after their fathers’ idols. 25 Wherefore I gave them also statutes that were not good, and judgments whereby they should not live; 26 and I polluted them in their own gifts, in that they caused to pass through the fire all that openeth the womb, that I might make them desolate, to the end that they might know that I am the Lord.
And again, He does the same thing with the children. They are worthy of His judgment. They’re worthy of Him bringing judgment against them.
And He doesn’t do it. He doesn’t destroy them as a people. But instead He says, I will not pollute My name.
I’ve made promises. I’ve given them, revealed to them My word, My Sabbaths. I’ve shown them who I am and revealed to them how they are to walk and live with Me.
And I will not pollute My name before the heathen. Because the nation of Israel is to be a light to the world. I lifted up Mine hand unto them, also in the wilderness, that I would scatter them amongst the heathen and despise them through the countries.
Because they had not executed My judgments but had despised My statutes and had polluted My Sabbaths and their eyes were after their father’s idols. Wherefore I gave them also statutes that were not good and judgments whereby they should not live. And I polluted them in their own gifts in that they caused to pass through the fire all that opened the womb that I might make them desolate to the end that they might know that I am the Lord.
Now what is He saying here? Well, what happened is they continually rebelled against Him to the point that He says okay, that’s what you want. I will give you these things. I will make these the new statutes by which you live and I’ll allow you to see where they take you.
You don’t want to walk in My Sabbaths. You don’t want to walk according to My law. You don’t want to walk in fellowship with Me.
You don’t want to live. I’ll give you statutes that you have and allow you to see where they take you. Well, where did they take them? Well, what they did is they began to not only worship idols, but they began to worship the gods of the heathen around them, the Canaanite gods.
And you will see when they came into the land that what they did is they began to worship the god of Moloch. They began to worship the god of Ashtoreth. They began to worship the god of Baal.
And these gods demanded as part of their worship human sacrifice. And they began to sacrifice the thing that should have been most dear to them, their own children. And they would place their children in the arms of Moloch.
They led a fighter in this god and had his arms stretched out. And they placed their children to die in the arms of this pagan god. And the Lord is saying, see where this is taking you.
You said you want to worship these idols. You want to worship these gods. Well, this is where it takes you.
It takes you to death because these are the gods of death. These demons lead you nowhere but to death. Satan, as Jesus said, was a murderer from the beginning and a liar, the father of lies.
And he had lied and deceived these people into thinking that it was better to worship idols and ultimately the false gods of the Canaanites in their own land than it was to worship the true and the living God when God offered them life and these gods led to death. And so we see that that’s exactly what God does as part of their judgment against them. And he says,
Idolatry in the Promised Land (20:27–32)
27 Therefore, son of man, speak unto the house of Israel, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God; Yet in this your fathers have blasphemed me, in that they have committed a trespass against me. 28 For when I had brought them into the land, for the which I lifted up mine hand to give it to them, then they saw every high hill, and all the thick trees, and they offered there their sacrifices, and there they presented the provocation of their offering: there also they made their sweet savour, and poured out there their drink offerings. 29 Then I said unto them, What is the high place whereunto ye go? And the name thereof is called Bamah unto this day. 30 Wherefore say unto the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord God; Are ye polluted after the manner of your fathers? and commit ye whoredom after their abominations? 31 For when ye offer your gifts, when ye make your sons to pass through the fire, ye pollute yourselves with all your idols, even unto this day: and shall I be enquired of by you, O house of Israel? As I live, saith the Lord God, I will not be enquired of by you. 32 And that which cometh into your mind shall not be at all, that ye say, We will be as the heathen, as the families of the countries, to serve wood and stone.
And so this is the answer that the Lord gives through Ezekiel to these elders that come.
He gives them the whole history right up to when they were taken into captivity. It’s been the same throughout the generations that they continued to walk in disobedience. God did not judge them in the way that He would have judged them had He not given promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that will be fulfilled.
And that He said that He had come and that out of them, through the law and through the sacrifice, it was pointing to the fact the Messiah would come and His promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that through them the whole world would be blessed would come when the Redeemer, the Messiah, came. And He wasn’t going to allow these people to fall and cause that promise to not happen. And so He said, I will not judge you the way that I should because of My word that I have given and I do not want the heathen to despise My name.
Well, is God done with Israel? That’s the question. And that’s probably a big question after Ezekiel got done sharing all of this history of the nation including their own history because this had been the problem if you look at the last portion that we read there that was exactly what Judah had been doing prior to Nebuchadnezzar taking them captive back to Babylon. They’d been building high places they’d been worshipping false gods they had idols they hid them in their homes when Josiah had brought reform to the nation and caused the temple to be cleansed and sanctified they despised it all and hid idols in their home and the minute Josiah was gone and his sons and grandson came to power they brought out the idols and were back at it again.
So is God done with Israel? That’s the question because there’s a lot of people today and a lot of people in the church that say God is done with Israel. The answer is no.
I’ve made promises. I’ve given them, revealed to them My word, My Sabbaths. I’ve shown them who I am and revealed to them how they are to walk and live with Me.
And I will not pollute My name before the heathen. Because the nation of Israel is to be a light to the world. I lifted up Mine hand unto them, also in the wilderness, that I would scatter them amongst the heathen and despise them through the countries.
Because they had not executed My judgments but had despised My statutes and had polluted My Sabbaths and their eyes were after their father’s idols. Wherefore I gave them also statutes that were not good and judgments whereby they should not live. And I polluted them in their own gifts in that they caused to pass through the fire all that opened the womb that I might make them desolate to the end that they might know that I am the Lord.
Now what is He saying here? Well, what happened is they continually rebelled against Him to the point that He says okay, that’s what you want. I will give you these things. I will make these the new statutes by which you live and I’ll allow you to see where they take you.
You don’t want to walk in My Sabbaths. You don’t want to walk according to My law. You don’t want to walk in fellowship with Me.
You don’t want to live. I’ll give you statutes that you have and allow you to see where they take you. Well, where did they take them? Well, what they did is they began to not only worship idols, but they began to worship the gods of the heathen around them, the Canaanite gods.
And you will see when they came into the land that what they did is they began to worship the god of Moloch. They began to worship the god of Ashtoreth. They began to worship the god of Baal.
And these gods demanded as part of their worship human sacrifice. And they began to sacrifice the thing that should have been most dear to them, their own children. And they would place their children in the arms of Moloch.
They led a fighter in this god and had his arms stretched out. And they placed their children to die in the arms of this pagan god. And the Lord is saying, see where this is taking you.
You said you want to worship these idols. You want to worship these gods. Well, this is where it takes you.
It takes you to death because these are the gods of death. These demons lead you nowhere but to death. Satan, as Jesus said, was a murderer from the beginning and a liar, the father of lies.
And he had lied and deceived these people into thinking that it was better to worship idols and ultimately the false gods of the Canaanites in their own land than it was to worship the true and the living God when God offered them life and these gods led to death. And so we see that that’s exactly what God does as part of their judgment against them. And he says, Therefore the Son of Man speak unto the house of Israel and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God, Yet in this your fathers have blasphemed me in that they have committed a trespass against me.
For when I had brought them into the land for which I lifted up mine hand to give it to them, then they saw every high hill and all the thick trees and they offered there the sacrifices and there they presented the provocation of their offering. There they also they made their sweet savor and poured out their drink offerings. And what he’s saying is they went into the high places they set up the same worship that the pagans did and that’s the worship they did instead of doing what God called them to do.
Then I said unto them, What is the high place whereunto ye go? And the name thereof is called Bama unto this day. Wherefore, say unto the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord God, Are ye polluted after the manner of your fathers and commit ye whoredom after their abominations? For when ye offer your gifts, when ye make your sons to pass through the fire, ye pollute yourselves with all your idols even unto this day. And shall I be inquired of by you, O house of Israel? As I live, saith the Lord, I will not be inquired by you.
And that which cometh into your mind shall not be at all that ye say. We will be as the heathen, as the families of the countries to serve wood and stone. And so this is the answer that the Lord gives through Ezekiel to these elders that come.
He gives them the whole history right up to when they were taken into captivity. It’s been the same throughout the generations that they continued to walk in disobedience. God did not judge them in the way that He would have judged them had He not given promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that will be fulfilled.
And that He said that He had come and that out of them, through the law and through the sacrifice, it was pointing to the fact the Messiah would come and His promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that through them the whole world would be blessed would come when the Redeemer, the Messiah, came. And He wasn’t going to allow these people to fall and cause that promise to not happen. And so He said, I will not judge you the way that I should because of My word that I have given and I do not want the heathen to despise My name.
Well, is God done with Israel? That’s the question. And that’s probably a big question after Ezekiel got done sharing all of this history of the nation including their own history because this had been the problem if you look at the last portion that we read there that was exactly what Judah had been doing prior to Nebuchadnezzar taking them captive back to Babylon. They’d been building high places they’d been worshipping false gods they had idols they hid them in their homes when Josiah had brought reform to the nation and caused the temple to be cleansed and sanctified they despised it all and hid idols in their home and the minute Josiah was gone and his sons and grandson came to power they brought out the idols and were back at it again.
So is God done with Israel? That’s the question because there’s a lot of people today and a lot of people in the church that say God is done with Israel. The answer is no.
This had been the problem, if you look at the last portion that we read there, that was exactly what Judah had been doing prior to Nebuchadnezzar taking them captive back to Babylon. They’d been building high places, they’d been worshipping false gods, they had idols, they hid them in their homes. When Josiah had brought reform to the nation and caused the temple to be cleansed and sanctified, they despised it all and hid idols in their homes.
And the minute Josiah was gone and his sons and grandsons came to power, they brought out the idols and they were back at it again. So is God done with Israel? That’s the question. Because there’s a lot of people today and a lot of people in the church that say God is done with Israel.
The answer is found in the last portion of this chapter and we’re going to quickly try to get through it. It says, And I live, saith the Lord God, surely with a mighty hand and with a stretched out arm, with fury poured out will I rule over you. And I will bring you out from the people and will gather you out of the countries wherein ye are scattered with a mighty hand and with a stretched out arm and with a fury poured out.
And I will bring you into the wilderness of the people and there will I plead with you face to face. So God reemphasizes the fact that they’re going to be scattered amongst the nations. They’re going to be scattered amongst all the people because of their continual lack of trust and faith and desire to worship God, the one who had created them as a people and the one who had made promises to their fathers.
And he says this is what’s going to happen. I’m going to scatter you amongst the nations. But the problem is you’re not going to be an invisible people once you get there.
Now a lot of people go well how come the Jewish people just didn’t disappear? The final dispersion of the Jewish people prior to them coming back into the land and beginning to establish a new nation of Israel in 1948 was in 70 AD when the Romans dispersed them amongst the nations. They took them to Rome and sold them into slavery. They were taken to all nations all over the world and they had no land of their own, even though their land was still there for them because God had promised it to them.
Well what does God say about that? Like as I pleaded with your fathers in the wilderness in the land of Egypt, so will I plead with you, saith the Lord God. And I will cause you to pass under the rod and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant. And I will purge out from among you the rebels and them that transgress against me and I will bring them forth out of the country where they sojourn and they shall not enter into the land of Israel and ye shall know that I am the Lord.
As far as you, O house of Israel, thus saith the Lord God. Go ye, serve ye every one of his idols, and hereafter also, if ye will not hearken unto me, but pollute ye my holy name no more with your gifts and with your idols. For in my holy mountain, in the mountain of the height of Israel, saith the Lord God, there shall all the house of Israel, all of them in the land, serve me there and I will accept them and there will I inquire, require your offerings and the first fruits of your oblations with all your holy things.
Now that tells you one thing. God is going to, if some do not want to come back, he’s saying, well you’ll be judged. But I’m going to call you back.
I’m going to bring you back out of this being dispersed amongst the nations. I’m going to bring you back and when I bring you back, there’s going to be something that’s unique happening. I’m going to change your heart and transform your vision so that you can see and you desire me once again.
I will accept you with your sweet savor when I bring you out from the people and gather you out of the countries wherein I have scattered and I will be sanctified in you before the heathen. And you shall know that I am the Lord when I shall bring you into the land of Israel and into the country for which I lifted up my hands to give it to your fathers and there you shall remember your ways and all of your doings whereof you have been defiled and you shall loathe yourselves in my own sight for all your evils that you have committed. Now this is exactly what God is in the process of doing today.
In 1948, Israel became a nation never before in the history of the world that the people who have been separated from their land for thousands of years come back into the land and a nation that had not been a nation for literally 2,000 years came back in and was a nation once again. And then since then, God has been bringing more and more people back into Israel. One of the things you’re seeing happen in our world today is anti-Semitism is rising and one of the things you’re hearing the people of Israel cry out to the Jews around the world, come back to Israel, you do not have to fear if you live here.
Right now they’re telling the Jews of Europe, of England, of France, of Germany where persecution is becoming really great again, synagogues are being burned, Jews are being beaten. Anti-Semitism is rising. They’re saying, come back to Israel and people are.
You’re seeing in America anti-Semitism rising. You have people that once said they were for Israel are now very anti-Semitic. There’s podcasters that are just becoming vile and they’re supporting those that are the enemies of God and the enemies of Israel and denying the fact that the Jews have any right to the land.
They have great influence over a number of people, these podcasters that are saying this. I can foresee that the day is coming where the Jews will be leaving America to go back to Israel and they already have to a certain extent. God says it’s going to happen and when they get there, they’re going to begin to see the power of the Lord.
And you shall know that I am the Lord when I have wrought with you for my name’s sake, not according to your wicked ways nor according to your corrupt doings, O ye house of Israel, sayeth the Lord. God’s going to say it’s not because you’re such wonderful people. And there’s those people who say, well, God’s done with the Jews because look at how wicked they are.
Ezekiel just laid out the whole path of wickedness that they’ve traveled. But God says I’m not done with you because my name’s at stake. And my name amongst the heathen is at stake.
And I said you were going to be the tool I would use to speak and touch the hearts of the heathen. And I will do that. And so I’m bringing you back, not because you’re so wonderful, but because I’m your God.
Now, he goes on and he says,
45 Moreover the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, 46 Son of man, set thy face toward the south, and drop thy word toward the south, and prophesy against the forest of the south field; 47 and say to the forest of the south, Hear the word of the Lord; Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I will kindle a fire in thee, and it shall devour every green tree in thee, and every dry tree: the flaming flame shall not be quenched, and all faces from the south to the north shall be burned therein. 48 And all flesh shall see that I the Lord have kindled it: it shall not be quenched.
49 Then said I, Ah Lord God! they say of me, Doth he not speak parables?
Now it’s interesting, there’s three things that God’s spoken of that are going to happen. The first thing is, he’s never going to let them be permanently taken by the Gentiles and become Gentiles. And the Jews never could become Gentiles.
No matter how much they tried to assimilate into Gentile culture, they couldn’t do it. Fiddler on the Roof, the fiddler says, What is the great privilege of being a Jew? All I am is persecuted. What joy is in that? Well, the thing is, he couldn’t assimilate.
Because God made them a distinctive people and kept them distinctive. The second thing that we see is that he would regather them from their captivity and set them for a judgment before him. You see that in verse 37.
And he’d purge the rebels from them. You see that in verse 38. So if there’s those that will not desire to see him, he’s going to purge them from him.
And those that will come back, they eventually will turn to him and it tells us what happens in the book of Revelation when he says, they will look upon him whom they pierced and cry out and realize he is their Messiah. And that day is coming. And we’re already seeing, if you look and listen to some of the ministries that are ministering to the gospel to Israel today, you’ll see that more Jews are coming to the Lord Jesus and acknowledging him as Messiah than have ever done it probably since the beginning of the church.
And it’s amazing what’s happening through these ministries. I can’t speak and tell you exactly what things they’re doing because there are people in the land that would attempt to stop them, if I told you. But there’s many ways they’re ministering to the Jewish people.
Getting complete Bibles, Old and New Testaments, what we call the Old Testament, which would be the Jewish scriptures and the New Testament, which they would call the Christian scriptures. They’re getting the whole Bible into the hands of Jews, into the hands of Jewish soldiers. And many of them are coming to know Christ.
And there’s many other things that they’re doing to minister to them. And then the third thing it says, when they are restored in Israel, they will no longer serve idols but worship the Lord in holiness. That’s already beginning to happen.
Even though there are many Jews that are still involved in paganism, the worship of the idols that their fathers worshipped isn’t the same. They’re still caught up in paganism, some of them, but as I mentioned, many are turning to Christ. And we’re seeing a desire for knowing more about their God.
This last, since Hamas attacked Israel in October a few years ago, a couple of years ago, we see one of the things that’s happened is the soldiers are going with scriptures when they go into the field. The soldiers are going and having times of prayer. They’re taking prayer shawls so they can pray.
You never saw that before. And even though the majority of them still don’t have an understanding of Jesus the Messiah, you see their hearts turning towards the God of their fathers. And God isn’t done with them.
And He won’t be done with them until one day the whole nation will be saved. This is Ezekiel’s outline when they said, inquire of the Lord for us, will you? But God wanted them to understand what’s the problem. The problem was their heart.
The problem was their desire to worship idols. The problem was them. It wasn’t God.
And they were in Babylon because of the hardness of their hearts. And Ezekiel laid it out, but God’s not done with you yet. And God’s not done with Israel yet.
And anyone who says He is, hasn’t read the scripture. Let’s just close in prayer. Lord, I pray that you just speak to us through your word tonight.
We thank you for the fact that you aren’t done with Israel. You’ll fulfill your promises. And you will allow the heathen to see you at work in the midst of your people.
And the people that you called out in the nation that you formed will be a light amongst the Gentiles. And the day will come where people will run to find a man who is a Jew so they can understand the scriptures better. That day is spoken of in your word.
And Lord, I pray that you would just go with us and help us to walk in faithfulness and not be caught up in the idolatry of the generation in which we live and be influenced by it. But rather may we walk in your holiness and walk in obedience to your word. We pray in Jesus’ name.
Amen.
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: 34 and I will bring you out from the people, and will gather you out of the countries wherein ye are scattered, with a mighty hand, and with a stretched out arm, and with fury poured out. 35 And I will bring you into the wilderness of the people, and there will I plead with you face to face. 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. 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 among you the rebels, and them that transgress against me: I will bring them forth out of the country where they sojourn, and they shall not enter into the land of Israel: and ye shall know that I am the Lord.
39 As for you, O house of Israel, thus saith the Lord God; Go ye, serve ye every one his idols, and hereafter also, if ye will not hearken unto me: but pollute ye my holy name no more with your gifts, and with your idols. 40 For in mine holy mountain, in the mountain of the height of Israel, saith the Lord God, there shall all the house of Israel, all of them in the land, serve me: there will I accept them, and there will I require your offerings, and the firstfruits of your oblations, with all your holy things. 41 I will accept you with your sweet savour, when I bring you out from the people, and gather you out of the countries wherein ye have been scattered; and I will be sanctified in you before the heathen. 42 And ye shall know that I am the Lord, when I shall bring you into the land of Israel, into the country for the which I lifted up mine hand to give it to your fathers. 43 And there shall ye remember your ways, and all your doings, wherein ye have been defiled; and ye shall lothe yourselves in your own sight for all your evils that ye have committed. 44 And ye shall know that I am the Lord, when I have wrought with you for my name’s sake, not according to your wicked ways, nor according to your corrupt doings, O ye house of Israel, saith the Lord God.
Similar Theme Unfaithfulness
Warnings for Disbelief