And it came to pass in the seventh year, in the fifth [month], the tenth of the month, [that] certain of the elders of Israel came to inquire of Jehovah, and they sat before me.
Ezekiel had been in exile for years when Israel's leaders came to him for a word from God. They never got their answer — God refused to be asked, and the reason lay in their hearts.
Everything about the scene looked right, and one writer lets that appearance make its case first:
Things looked good for these men who came forward from among the elders of Israel. They came to inquire of Jehovah: was not this faith? They sat before Ezekiel: was not this the reverent humility that honours Him in His servant?
Ezekiel marks the date to the day. But the question these men came to ask never appears in the text.
We have a new date now, which is significant... Once more a delegation of elders comes to inquire of Jehovah, and once again their inquiry gets no answer — one would say it is never even spoken. Their inquiry shows what they stand for: the correct religion that the people they lead claim to hold. But God has nothing to say to them; that is, He has nothing that will answer to their expectations. They are looking for good, and He has nothing but evil to announce to them.
God's refusal turned on what He saw under the posture:
He who searches the inmost thoughts and the heart saw that there was no exercise of conscience before Him. Why answer where there is only hollowness and hypocrisy? It was beneath Him to allow such trifling any longer.
Another writer names what their hearts were set on:
They came with pious, religious pretensions. It sounded well to inquire of the Lord and seek the prophet-priest for that purpose. Their hearts were full of evil. While their lips spoke of asking the Lord, their hearts were full of idolatry. They liked idolatry.
One writer names what was missing, and what would have opened God's ear:
If there had been repentance for their sins, and brokenness of spirit, the Lord would gladly have given them His ear. But He knew their low moral condition and the hypocrisy of their approach to Him.
Instead of a reply, God tells Ezekiel to lay out the sins of their ancestors. There is a purpose in that:
At the same time it pleases Him to justify His ways. If the prophet would plead for them (or take them to task), God tells him to set their fathers' abominations before them. So God goes to the source of the mischief. The people must judge the evil not just in its effects but in its root.
That history yields one unbroken pattern, and only one thing can break it:
What is most clear here is the moral sameness of the generations which followed one another. There is a perfect monotony of evil all the way through, from the nation's birth in Egypt to Ezekiel's time. We can expect nothing else until God acts in the sovereignty of His own grace, to fulfil His promises at last despite this continuous rebellion.
The same writer hears this plea again centuries later:
We cannot help remembering how, in the Lord's time, the scribes and Pharisees pleaded in the same way as these men did — their right to be exempt from the judgment coming for their fathers' deeds. The Lord met them with this: "Thus you witness against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers" (Matthew 23:31-32).
This verse opens a long prophecy that reaches back to Egypt — and forward past the refusal:
Ezekiel 20 begins a new prophecy. With its subdivisions, it continues to the end of chapter 23... Here the Spirit traces Israel's sin again, above all its idolatry — the sin of the people as a people — from their time in Egypt. Even then they had begun with their idolatry. For His own name's sake God had brought them up from there, and given them His statutes and His sabbaths... But God comes in at the end in His own ways. He will gather them out from among the nations, and they shall understand that Jehovah has worked for the glory of His name, and not according to their wicked ways.
- Posture — They came, they sat, they looked the part. Every outward mark of seeking God was there, and none of it moved Him.
- X-ray — God reads the heart, not the visit. Where there is no exercise of conscience, He answers nothing.
- Opening — Repentance and a broken spirit would have opened His ear at once. The door was shut by their condition, not by His unwillingness.
- Root — Instead of a reply, He sends them to their fathers' sins. They must judge the evil at its source, not just in its results.
- Grace — The history shows unbroken rebellion from Egypt onward. Only God, acting in His own sovereign grace for His name's sake, can end that pattern and keep His promise.
And the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying,
Leading men of Israel come to Ezekiel to ask God a question. God does speak — but the word comes to His prophet, and the message is not the answer they came for.
One writer notes that the section opening here sets Israel's sin inside a much longer frame:
The new division opens with a full and solemn exposure of Israel's sin. It shows that sin not only in the light of Jehovah's present estimate, but in the light of His ways with them in the past and in the future. In fact, we never judge our real condition properly unless we are subject in this way to the mind and purpose of God. We must weigh where He placed us at the first. He also wants us to look on to His end, if we are to be wise as He counts wisdom. Then we feel all the better how our state matches each of them.
Everything about the visit looked commendable:
Appearances looked promising for those who presented themselves from among the elders of Israel. They came to inquire of Jehovah: was not this faith? They sat before Ezekiel: was not this the reverent humility that honours Him in His servant?
God's reply looks past the posture to what was inside them:
He who searches the inmost thoughts and the heart saw that there was no exercise of conscience before Him. Why answer where there is only emptiness and hypocrisy? It was beneath Him to allow such trifling any longer. At the same time He is pleased to justify His ways, and He directs the prophet to set their fathers' abominations before them. God goes in this way to the very source of the trouble, and the people must judge the evil not only in its effects but in its root.
One writer ties the refusal to what was missing in their approach:
The captives of Babylon were no more godly than the remnant left in the land. When "certain of the elders of Israel came to inquire of the Lord" through the prophet Ezekiel, the word of Jehovah came to him saying, "Son of man, speak to the elders of Israel, and say to them, Thus says the Lord God, I will not be inquired of by you" (Ezek. 20:1–3). Had there been repentance for their sins, and a broken spirit, the Lord would gladly have given them His ear. But He knew their low moral condition and the hypocrisy of their approach to Him.
Another writer compares this group with an earlier one who came to inquire:
These elders are not described as the same group that came earlier to inquire of the prophet, but they are met in the same way, for there is no moral difference. God will not allow any more inquiry from them. What right do they have to ask? The terms on which He alone can be with them had been set fully before them. The prophets God raised up pressed those terms on them again and again, and they broke them the whole time. Their own consciences would testify that their hearts were untrue in the inquiry itself. So there was no need to do anything but remind them of their fathers' abominations: in them they would find a mirror of their own.
The refusal is not God's last word to Israel. One reason repeats through the long history that follows, and it is why the nation still has a future:
Jehovah then recalls His ways with Israel, going back to the time of their captivity in Egypt. He also looks forward to the time when He will bring them into the fullness of the blessing He had promised, despite all they have been. The secret of God's goodness and patience lies in the words spoken four times: "But I acted for the sake of my name."
- Inquiry offered. Men in authority came to ask God a question and sat before His prophet. The outward act had every mark of faith and reverence.
- Inquiry read. God answered the heart, not the gesture. He saw no conscience at work — only emptiness and hypocrisy — and would allow no more trifling.
- Inquiry refused. The closed ear was not God's unwillingness. Had there been repentance and a broken spirit, He would have listened gladly.
- Inquiry answered anyway. Instead of the reply they wanted, God holds up their fathers' abominations as a mirror. They already knew His terms, and had broken them all along.
- Inquiry outlived. What carries the nation past this refusal is not their asking but God's own name. Four times He gives it as the reason He still acts for them.
Son of man, speak unto the elders of Israel, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah Are ye come to inquire of me? [As] I live, saith the Lord Jehovah, I will not be inquired of by you.
The elders of Israel, exiles in Babylon, sit down before the prophet as if ready to hear from God — and God's first word back is a refusal. Why turn away people who look like they are doing the right thing?
Everything about the visit looked right. Kelly names the two things in their favour:
Appearances looked promising for those who presented themselves from among the elders of Israel. They came to enquire of Jehovah: was not this faith? They sat before Ezekiel: was not this the reverent humility that honours Him in His servant?
God reads the heart, not the posture. Kelly explains why there was nothing for Him to answer:
He who searches the inner thoughts and the heart saw that there was no exercise of conscience before Him. Why answer where there is only hollowness and hypocrisy? It was beneath Him to allow such trifling any more. At the same time He is pleased to justify His ways. If the prophet would plead for them (or take them to task), God directs him to set their fathers' abominations before them. God goes to the source of the mischief, and the people must judge the evil not just in its effects but at its root.
So God does not answer their question. He sets their fathers' sins before them instead.
God had no objection to being asked. One writer names what was missing:
The captives of Babylon were no more devout than the remnant left in the land … Had there been repentance for their sins, and brokenness of spirit, the Lord would gladly have given them His ear, but He knew their low moral condition and the hypocrisy of their approach to Him.
The text never tells us what the elders wanted to ask. Grant makes that silence part of the point:
We have once more a delegation of elders coming to inquire of Jehovah, and once again their inquiry goes unanswered — they do not even speak it, one would say. They represent, as we see by their inquiry, the professed orthodoxy of the people whose leaders they are. But God has nothing to say to them; that is, He has nothing that will match their expectations. They are looking for good, and there is nothing but evil to announce to them.
God answers by retelling their history from Egypt onward. Grant sums up what that record shows:
What is most obvious here is the moral unity of the generations which followed one another. There is a perfect monotony of evil all the way through, from the nation's birth in Egypt to Ezekiel's time. We can expect nothing else until God acts in the sovereignty of His own grace, at last to fulfil His promises despite this continuous rebellion.
The closed door is not closed forever. One writer points to a phrase God repeats as He tells the story:
Jehovah then recalls His ways with Israel, going back to the time of their captivity in Egypt. He looks forward to the time when, despite all they have been, He will bring them into the fullness of the blessing He had promised. The secret of God's goodness and patience lies in words He speaks four times: "But I acted for My name's sake."
- Approach — They came to enquire and sat before God's servant. It looked like faith and reverent humility.
- Search — The One who reads the heart found no exercise of conscience there, only hollowness and hypocrisy. So He had nothing to answer.
- Silence — Their question is never even recorded. They wanted good news; God had only evil to announce.
- Mirror — Instead of a forecast He sets their fathers' sins before them. They must judge the evil at its source, not just in its effects — one unbroken monotony of evil from Egypt to Ezekiel.
- Hope — Repentance and a broken spirit would have won His ear. Even without it He acts in sovereign grace, "for My name's sake," and keeps His promise at last.
Wilt thou judge them, wilt thou judge, son of man? Cause them to know the abominations of their fathers,
The elders of Israel come and sit down in front of the prophet, waiting for a word from God. God tells Ezekiel not to answer them, but to put them on trial. Instead of a reply, God hands him a job: take them back through their family history and make them face what their fathers did.
From the outside, the visit looked exactly right.
Everything looked promising about these men who came forward from among the elders of Israel. They came to inquire of Jehovah: was that not faith? They sat before Ezekiel: was that not the reverent humility that honours Him in His servant?
God was not shutting the door on everyone who asks. He was reading what lay behind this visit.
If they had repented of their sins and come with a broken spirit, the Lord would have been glad to listen to them. But He knew their low moral condition and the hypocrisy of their approach to Him.
They were not the first group to come, and they got the same answer for the same reason:
These elders are not said to be the same group that came earlier to inquire of the prophet. But they are met in the same way, for there is no moral difference. What right have they to inquire? The terms on which He alone can be with them had been fully set before them. The prophets God raised up pressed those terms on them again and again, and they broke them the whole time. Their own consciences would witness that their hearts were untrue in the inquiry itself.
The doubled question is Ezekiel's assignment. God also tells him where to aim it.
He who searches the inner thoughts and the heart saw that there was no exercise of conscience before Him. Why answer where there is only hollowness and hypocrisy? It was beneath Him to allow such trifling any longer: "As I live, I will not let Myself be inquired of any longer by you." At the same time He is pleased to justify His ways. If the prophet would plead for them, or take them to task, God directs him to set their fathers' abominations before them. So God goes to the root of the trouble, and the people must judge the evil not just in its effects but at its root.
Two things sit side by side here. God refuses their question, yet He goes on to justify His ways. The refusal is not silence. It is a different kind of speech.
God sends them back over old history for a reason. They are meant to see themselves in it.
So the only thing needed was to remind them of their fathers' abominations: they would find in them a mirror of their own. … They were all defiled with the abominations of Egypt, and God had warned them from the start that these must be put away. Yet with His judgments on the gods of Egypt right in front of their eyes, they had not put them away.
The same plea returns centuries later, in the Gospels:
They fully represent those fathers who, as the proverb of the day put it, had set their teeth on edge. The prophet's only commission is to show them how they were repeating their fathers' abominations. We cannot help remembering the scribes and Pharisees in the Lord's time. They pleaded the same thing: that they had a right to be exempt from the judgment coming for their fathers' deeds. This is how the Lord meets them: "Thus you witness against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers" (Matt. 23:31-32).
The long history that follows has one pattern running through it — and one hope.
What is most obvious here is the moral unity of the generations that followed one another. There is a perfect monotony of evil all the way through, from the nation's birth in Egypt to Ezekiel's time. We can expect nothing else until God acts in the sovereignty of His own grace, to fulfil His promises at last despite this continuous rebellion.
- Appearance. Coming to inquire and sitting before the prophet looked like faith and humility. The outward form was faultless.
- Search. God read their inner thoughts. He found no exercise of conscience, only hollowness and hypocrisy. Their own consciences knew their hearts were untrue.
- Refusal. The closed ear was not random. If they had repented and come with a broken spirit, He would have been glad to listen.
- Mirror. God sets the fathers' abominations before them so they judge evil at its root, not just in its effects. The history is a mirror. The Pharisees later made the same plea, and the Lord refused it.
- Grace. From Egypt to Ezekiel the record is a perfect monotony of evil. Only God's own sovereign grace can break it and keep His promises.
and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah In the day when I chose Israel, and lifted up my hand unto the seed of the house of Jacob, and made myself known unto them in the land of Egypt, when I lifted up my hand unto them, saying, I [am] Jehovah your God,
The elders of Israel came to ask God a question, and He answers by taking them back centuries. He points to the day He chose their nation, swore to them, and gave them His name — while they were still slaves in Egypt, with nothing to their credit.
(Older translations read "lifted up my hand" where the ESV has "I swore," and print God's covenant name as "Jehovah" where the ESV has "the LORD.")
The history lesson that starts here is not God changing the subject. He answers the elders by showing them where their own hearts came from.
God will not allow any more questions from them. Their own consciences would show that their hearts were untrue in the question itself. So there was no need to do more than remind them of their fathers' detestable practices. In them they would see a mirror of their own. For this reason He sets the long history before them. It begins at the time God chose them and made Himself known in the land of Egypt. His purpose was to bring them out into the land He had picked for them.
God repeats the same act twice in this one verse. One writer sees the repetition as deliberate. God is pressing on them that He has bound Himself by a promise He cannot change.
See how strikingly Jehovah keeps reminding His people of His oath! He swore by Himself, since He could swear by no one greater. In that way He wanted to show even more fully that His purpose never changes. The apostle says the gifts and calling of God are not subject to any change of mind, and he says it of Israel in particular. For this very reason He judges and must judge their ways. If He did not, He would have to approve or excuse sin.
That is the balance of the whole chapter. The oath cannot be broken. That is exactly why God does not go easy on the people who carry it.
On the day God chose Israel, Israel did not stand out. One writer measures them against the Egyptians they lived among.
The Lord showed them the only way of deliverance. Yet in themselves they were no better than the Egyptians. Imagine one of them resting his hope of safety from the coming judgment on belonging to God's favoured people. He would have been mourning and burying his firstborn, right alongside the Egyptians. And if they had trusted any goodness in themselves to escape the threatened judgment, nothing could ever have sheltered them from it. At that time they were idolaters who had flatly refused to put their idols away.
God does more than act in Egypt; He gives Israel His name there. That name carries a covenant behind it.
"JEHOVAH" is the title He takes as the Deliverer of His people, on the ground of His covenant of pure and sovereign grace. Under that name He reveals Himself as the great self-existing Source of redeeming love. He makes His purposes stand, keeps His promises, and delivers His chosen people from every enemy and every evil. Israel's privilege was to stay always under the safe covering of that rich title. The title shows God acting for His own glory. He takes up His oppressed people to display that glory in them.
God did not reveal Himself to Israel in secret. He did it "in the land of Egypt" — in front of an empire that worshipped other gods. From then on, His name and this people went together in public view.
In wonderful grace, God had committed Himself to bring His people out of the land that held them captive. The honour of His great Name was bound up with what He had said He would do. And God vindicated His Name when He poured out His judgments. They fell not on Israel, who deserved them as much as the Egyptians did, but on those who had taught His people to serve their idols. Those same people would not let Israel go to worship the living and true God.
- Chosen — on the day God picked Israel, they were idolaters, no better than the Egyptians around them. The choice rested on His grace, not their worth.
- Sworn — the lifted hand is an oath. God swore by Himself, because there was no one greater, so His purpose for Israel cannot change.
- Known — He made Himself known by name: "I am the LORD your God." That is a title of covenant relationship, not just of power.
- Watched — He revealed Himself in Egypt, in full view of the nations. From that day His honour has gone with whatever He does with this people.
- Judged — because the oath stands, He must deal with their sin instead of excusing it. That unchanging promise is why He recites the long, painful history of Ezekiel 20 at all.
in that day I lifted up my hand unto them, to bring them out of the land of Egypt into a land that I had espied for them, flowing with milk and honey, which is the ornament of all lands;
Elders of Israel come to Ezekiel in exile in Babylon, and God answers by telling them their own story from the start. It opens not with their sin but with His oath in Egypt, where He promised them a land He had already picked out for them.
God binds Himself here with an oath. One commentator notes how often He comes back to it:
See how often Jehovah reminds His people of His oath! He swore by Himself, since He could swear by no one greater. He wanted to show all the more how unchangeable His purpose is. The apostle says this of Israel in particular: the gifts and calling of God are not subject to change of mind. For this very reason He judges, and must judge, their ways. Otherwise He would have to approve or excuse sin.
God did not hand Israel whatever land was free. He searched this land out for them, and Scripture gives it title after title:
"The glorious land" (Dan. 11:16, 41); "the pleasant land" (Dan. 8:9); "the glory of all lands" (Ezek. 20:6, 15); "a land flowing with milk and honey" (Ex. 3:8); "a plentiful land" (Jer. 2:7); "a land which Jehovah your God cares for: the eyes of Jehovah your God are always upon it, from the beginning of the year, even to the end of the year" (Deut. 11:12). We need not be surprised at the language, for when God chooses for His people, He always chooses the best.
Its worth is not measured by its size. Another writer puts the point in terms of maps and history books:
Canaan, a little strip of land lying along the eastern coast of the Mediterranean, with an area of eleven thousand square miles — about a third of the size of Ireland — is the centre of God's geography; and the twelve tribes of Israel are the central object of God's history.
The phrase is not only poetry. It names what the land actually produced:
Jehovah had given the children of Israel "a land flowing with milk and honey." The milk came from well-fed flocks and herds, and the honey from rich plant growth.
Israel was still holding its idols when this promise came. They were not a better class of people rescued from a worse one:
The Lord showed them the only way of deliverance. Yet in themselves they were no better morally than the Egyptians. Suppose one of them had rested his hope of safety from the coming judgment on belonging to a favoured people. He would have been mourning and burying his firstborn on the fifteenth day of Nisan, along with the Egyptians. Suppose they had trusted some goodness in themselves to escape the threatened judgment. Then nothing could ever have sheltered them. They were idolaters at that time, and they had flatly refused to put their idols away.
Four times over, this chapter gives the reason God did not drop the plan He announced here:
Jehovah then recalls His ways with Israel, going back to their captivity in Egypt. He also looks forward to the day when, despite all they have been, He will bring them into the full blessing He had promised. The secret of God's goodness and patience lies in words He speaks four times: "But I acted for My Name's sake."
The oath is not left behind as a sad memory. Near the end of the chapter God repeats it as a promise He will still keep:
"And you shall know that I am Jehovah, when I bring you into the land of Israel, into the country for which I lifted up My hand to give it to your fathers." (Ver. 41-44) They will then be accepted and know Jehovah, and God will keep the promises made to the fathers. That will happen not only in us who now believe and go to heaven at Christ's coming, but in the children of Israel on the earth. They will repent at last, and their repentance will be real only because of His mercy. He acts freely above the evil of His creatures, for His own sake. If He did not, to be a sinner would mean ruin with no remedy and no hope.
- Oath. The lifted hand means God swore, and He swore by Himself, because there was no one greater to swear by.
- Choice. He did not hand them whatever land was free. He searched this one out, because when God chooses for His people He chooses the best.
- Gift. Milk and honey mean real plenty: well-fed flocks and rich plant growth. God keeps His eye on that land all year.
- Contrast. The people who received this promise were idolaters. They refused to drop their idols, and in themselves they were no better than the Egyptians.
- Reason. The promise held for His name's sake. The same lifted hand appears again at the chapter's end, as His pledge that He will yet bring them in.
and I said unto them, Cast ye away every man the abominations of his eyes, and defile not yourselves with the idols of Egypt I [am] Jehovah your God.
While Israel was still in Egypt, God told them to give up the gods of the land that held them. He gave one reason for the command: He was their God.
The chapter reaches a long way back. One writer marks where it starts, and what moved God to act at all:
Chapter 20 is important. The earlier chapters had spoken of the sin of Jerusalem. Here the Spirit retraces the sin of Israel, and above all their idolatry, from the time of their stay in Egypt. He means the people as a whole. Already then they had begun with their idolatry. For His own name's sake God brought them up from there.
So what were these idols? Egypt's worship used sacred animals as symbols of its gods. One reference work ties one of them to a sin Israel committed later:
They also had many sacred animals, from the cat to the crocodile, which they counted as symbols of their gods. The bull Apis represented the god Osiris. The Egyptians chose it with great care and guarded it closely. Some think the memory of this Apis is what led the Israelites to choose the form of a calf for their golden idol. And Ezekiel 20:6-8 tells us that Israel had fallen into idolatry while in Egypt.
God's judgments fell on Egypt's gods while Israel watched. One commentator shows what Israel did next, and what it revealed about them:
They were all defiled with the abominations of Egypt. God had warned them from the start to put these away. Yet His judgments fell on the gods of Egypt before their very eyes, and still they did not put them away. So in Egypt itself He threatened to pour out His wrath upon them. What an inside picture of the condition of things already in the people whom His grace was taking up! Yet He had taken them up, and He still worked for His name's sake, so that His name would not be dishonoured before the nations where they lived.
The verse ends with a statement about God, not an argument about idols. One writer explains why those few words were reason enough:
"I am the LORD your God." This was to be the ground of their conduct. They were to act in a way worthy of the One who had become their God and made them His people. It was not that they were one bit better than other people. Not at all. The Egyptians or Canaanites might have thought the Israelites were setting themselves up as something superior by refusing to adopt the habits of either nation. But no; the foundation of their distinct line of conduct and tone of morality was laid in these words, "I am the Lord your God."
Israel could not worship God where they were. One writer explains what that says about Egypt:
What a character this simple fact gives to Egypt, or the world! God had no sanctuary there. The thoughts and ways of that land were so opposed to Him that He could not set His name among them. His people had to go out before they could open His temple or raise His altar. The very things Israel would sacrifice, Egypt was in the habit of worshipping. So Israel had to be separated from Egypt before they could hold their feast to the Lord.
The command names what the eyes had fastened on. The same pull works today without any statue at all:
The thoughts of men shape the natural heart. It loves, adores and worships the objects it finds in this world; and each heart has its own idol. One worships gold, another worships pleasure, another worships power. Every unconverted man is an idolater. Even converted men are not out of reach of idolatrous influences. The aged apostle made that clear when he warned, "Little children, keep yourselves from idols" (1 John 5:21).
- Egypt first. God traces the nation's failure back past Jerusalem to its first days. The idolatry was already there.
- Eyes first. God told them to throw away what their eyes had grown fond of — Egypt's animal gods, later copied in the golden calf.
- Evidence first. God's judgments had fallen on those very gods in plain sight. Still Israel kept the idols.
- God first. God gives one reason for the command: He is their God. Israel was no better than Egypt or Canaan.
- Separation first. Egypt worshipped what Israel would sacrifice. So the idols had to go before Israel could hold the feast to the Lord — and every heart still has an idol of its own.
But they rebelled against me, and would not hearken unto me none of them cast away the abominations of his eyes, neither did they forsake the idols of Egypt. Then I thought to pour out my fury upon them, so as to accomplish mine anger against them in the midst of the land of Egypt.
The elders of Israel came to Ezekiel with a question for God, and God answered with their own family history — starting back in Egypt, before the exodus. Verse 8 is the shock in that story: as God prepared to rescue His people, they were clinging to the gods He was about to judge.
The chapter opens with a question God will not answer. Their hearts were not in it. So He sends the prophet back to where the trouble began.
He who searches the deepest thoughts and the heart saw that there was no exercise of conscience before Him. Why answer where there is only hollowness and hypocrisy? ... At the same time He is pleased to justify His ways. If the prophet would plead for them (or call them to account), God directs him to set their fathers' abominations before them. So God goes to the source of the trouble, and the people must judge the evil not only in what it produced, but in where it started.
This was not ignorance. God had already shown what He thought of Egypt's gods, and His people watched Him do it — and still would not let go.
But they were all defiled with the abominations of Egypt, and God had warned them from the start that they must put these away. His judgments on the gods of Egypt were before their very eyes, and still they had not put them away. So in Egypt itself He had threatened to pour out His wrath upon them. What a picture of what was already inside the people whom His grace was taking up!
Israel was not rescued because Israel was better than Egypt.
If they had trusted in some goodness of their own to escape the threatened judgment, they could never have been sheltered from it. They were idolaters at that time, and they had refused outright to put their idols away. (Ezek. 20:6-10; Joshua 24:14.) So God showed both His faithfulness and His grace on that night, a night long to be remembered (Ex. 12:42). His faithfulness kept His word to Abraham by judging their oppressors. His grace dealt with Israel by sheltering them from the sword of the angel of death.
Their guilt was heavier than Egypt's, because of what God had given them — and they did not feel it.
They were worse than the Egyptians; they had the promises of God (Gen. 15), and were worshipping the idols of Egypt. But they did not feel their sin against God. They groaned under their taskmasters, and sighed because of their slavery.
The threat in verse 8 is real and deserved. The next verse tells us why it never fell.
God was right to be angry with His people, and He threatened to pour out His fury upon them (verse 8). Then we learn the great secret of God's patience and mercy: "But I acted for My Name's sake, so that it would not be profaned among the nations where they were living. Those nations had seen Me make Myself known to Israel, when I brought them out of the land of Egypt" (verse 9).
The fury did not vanish. God turned it elsewhere, and that too guarded the honour of His Name.
And God vindicated His Name when He poured out His judgments. They fell not on Israel, who deserved them as much as the Egyptians did, but on those who had taught His people to serve their idols, and who would not let them go to worship the living and true God.
Verse 8 sets a pattern the rest of the chapter repeats. What they kept in Egypt travelled with them.
Idolatry was no new evil among God's favoured but faithless people Israel. Ezekiel 20 traces their whole course in this respect in much detail. In Egypt, before the deliverance, they worshipped the gods around them (verse 8). They worshipped idols in the wilderness, though perhaps in secret (verse 13), and they worshipped idols in the land (verse 28).
Why did it keep repeating?
The root of their idolatrous course was that they had never in heart made a clean break from Egypt.
- Source. God refuses a hollow question. He points to where the evil began, back in Egypt — not to its effects, but to its source.
- Guilt. They sinned while God's judgments on Egypt's gods stood in plain view. That left them worse than the Egyptians, because they held the promises.
- Grace. Their rescue rested on God's word to Abraham and on sheer grace. If they had leaned on any goodness of their own, the sword would have fallen on them too.
- Name. They deserved the fury, and God threatened it. He held it back for His Name's sake, and poured it out instead on those who taught His people idolatry.
- Pattern. What they refused to cast away in Egypt showed up again in the wilderness and in the land. In heart they had never made a clean break.
But I wrought for my name's sake, that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations among whom they were, in whose sight I had made myself known unto them in bringing them forth out of the land of Egypt.
Ezekiel is speaking to the elders of Israel, exiled in Babylon. God answers them by retelling the nation's story from the start. It begins with idolatry in Egypt that deserved His fury. Verse 9 gives the reason the threatened fury never fell, and it is not a reason found in Israel at all.
The people God rescued were not innocent victims. One writer is blunt about what they actually were.
Though the Lord made known to them the only way of deliverance, they were in themselves no better morally than the Egyptians... If they had trusted in some goodness of their own to escape the judgment God had threatened, they could never have been sheltered from it. At that time they were idolaters who had flatly refused to put their idols away.
If Israel deserved what Egypt got, why did the plagues fall on one and not the other? God had already staked His own name on a promise He had made.
In wonderful grace, God had committed Himself to bring His people out of the land where they were held captive. The honour of His great Name was tied to what He had said He would do. And God vindicated His Name when He poured out His judgments. They fell not on Israel, who deserved them as much as the Egyptians, but on those who had taught His people to serve their idols and would not let them go to worship the living and true God.
The chapter returns again and again to an oath God swore. One writer marks the weight of that repetition — and then its other side.
See how strikingly Jehovah keeps reminding His people of His oath! He swore by Himself, since He could swear by no one greater, wanting to show all the more clearly that His purpose cannot change. It is of Israel in particular that the apostle says the gifts and calling of God are not subject to change of mind. For this very reason He judges and must judge their ways.
Verse 9 starts a pattern that runs through the whole chapter. God reviews the nation's record from its birth in Egypt, and the verdict never changes.
God had shown them constant grace. They constantly resisted it, and so made it ineffective. Still the purpose of that grace abides, as we see in the end here. God would not leave His gracious purpose to end in failure, whatever may be man's sin against it.
One writer finds the whole explanation in a phrase the chapter repeats:
The secret of God's goodness and long-suffering is found in the words, four times spoken, "But I acted for the sake of My Name."
The same reason appears again later in Ezekiel. Israel had shamed God's name among the nations. His answer was pity — not for them, but for His name.
He is Jehovah and He does not change; that is why they were not destroyed. Instead, He had pity for the name they had insulted, and He would sanctify it and be sanctified in them. As He says here... "I do not do this for your sakes, O house of Israel, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations to which you came."
One writer applies the same phrase to believers today.
In sovereign goodness He has blessed us. It was not because of anything in ourselves, or anything we have done. We were only sinners, cut off from God, and enemies by our wicked works. We know that He has forgiven our sins, and as it is written in 1 John 2:12, it is "for His Name's sake."
It also changes how we pray.
Not our need, great as it may be, not even repentance heartfelt and true, but the glory of God, the honour of His name... When we pray, after bringing our requests and asking a Father's forgiveness, do we really grasp what "for the sake of" or "in the name of Jesus Christ" means? Is it just a closing formula in our minds?
- Guilt — Israel in Egypt were idolaters who refused to give up their idols. They deserved judgment as much as the Egyptians did.
- Motive — God held back His fury for His name's sake. His honour was tied to the rescue He had promised.
- Oath — He had sworn by Himself, so His purpose cannot change. That same purpose is why He must still judge their ways.
- Pattern — The phrase returns four times in the chapter: grace given, grace resisted, purpose still standing.
- Ourselves — Our sins are forgiven "for His name's sake" too. So the real plea in prayer is His honour, not our need.