And I said unto their children in the wilderness, Walk not in the statutes of your fathers, neither keep their ordinances, nor defile yourselves with their idols.
This chapter takes Israel back through their own history — Egypt, the wilderness, the land. Verse 18 is where God turns from the generation that fell and speaks to their children, offering a fresh start to people whose parents had handed them idols.
God had already marked out these children. He did it at the very moment He sentenced their parents to die in the desert.
God had kept careful note of the ways of His people. He said to Moses, "None of the men who have seen My glory and My signs, which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and yet have put Me to the test these ten times and have not obeyed My voice" (Num. 14:22). Then He passed His sentence: "Your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness." And He added: "But your little ones, who you said would become a prey, I will bring in, and they shall know the land that you have rejected" (verses 29–31). These "little ones" are those of whom Jehovah speaks in Ezekiel 20:18.
The warning is not cold. God had just held back from destroying the nation. Now He reaches for the children Himself, and names what had ruined their parents.
God had been ready to bring that generation into the land He had promised them. But He could not. Their hearts were still set on the idols they had seen Him strike down blow after blow. What use is a convinced mind when the heart has chosen to go astray! God's eye had spared them, so He did not destroy them or make a full end of them in the wilderness. Once again He took their children by the hand, saying: "Do not walk in the statutes of your fathers, nor keep their rules, nor defile yourselves with their idols: I am Jehovah your God." … They again refused the statutes that their own consciences approved. They profaned the sabbaths, the sign of the rest He wanted for them.
The verse sets one word against itself. There are "statutes" belonging to the fathers, and there are statutes belonging to God — and the children are told to leave the first and take the second.
Jehovah felt deep compassion. But He must still assert His authority, the rightness of His judgments, and the special value of His sabbaths, in His dealings with them.
The same pattern runs through the whole chapter: a warning given, a warning ignored, and God acting on a motive found in Himself rather than in them.
But Israel had rebelled against God in the wilderness, and even then He had thought to destroy them. But He spared them, warning at the same time their children also, who nevertheless followed their fathers' ways. Still, for His name's sake, God withdrew His hand on account of the heathen in whose sight He had brought the people up from Egypt.
The next verses say plainly how they answered. The fresh generation turned out to be the old one over again.
Jehovah calls this second generation to give up the ways of their fathers and to walk in His ways. Sadly, they were just like their fathers. The Lord has to say of them, "But the children rebelled against Me. They did not walk in My statutes and were not careful to obey My rules" (Ezek. 20:21).
Kelly names the one thing that kept the nation alive: "The children in the wilderness were as bad as their fathers who fell. Nothing but His own care for the name they profaned stood between Israel and destruction" (William Kelly).
The command still bites today. It cuts at any way of life we keep only because someone handed it down to us. Writers note how comfortable that is, and what it costs.
It is always easier to follow tradition than the written word of God. Doing so does not exercise the conscience, and it saves us the difficulty — sometimes a serious one — of giving reasons for what we do. It is enough that we have been brought up from infancy to believe and practise certain things, and to walk in a certain path. If it was right and good for our elders, why not for us? … What has been handed down from father to son may not be bad in itself. It may even have been good, at least for its time. But it sets up a false standard and a human authority in the soul. Even if that authority does not deny the authority of the word of God, it will certainly put it in second place.
- Spared — these children are the "little ones." God promised to bring them into the land while their parents' bodies fell in the desert.
- Summoned — He takes them by the hand and names the break He wants: their fathers' statutes, rules and idols, all left behind.
- Standard — in place of their fathers' ways God presses His own authority, His judgments and His sabbaths, the sign of the rest He wanted for them.
- Stubborn — the children answered just as their parents had. A new setting does not change a heart.
- Sustained — what kept Israel standing was not their answer but God's care for the name they had profaned.
I [am] Jehovah your God walk in my statutes, and keep mine ordinances, and do them;
Ezekiel 20 opens with Israel's elders coming to ask God for a word. Instead of an answer, they get their own family history read back to them — Egypt, the wilderness, the land. Verse 19 sits in the wilderness part of that history. There God turns from the generation that fell and speaks fresh terms to their children.
The men in front of Ezekiel were the recognised leaders, and God's refusal to be consulted by them is followed by a long recital of what their fathers did.
What right do they have to inquire of Him? He has set fully before them the terms on which He alone can be with them. The prophets God raised up pressed those terms on them again and again, and all that time they broke them. Their own consciences would witness that their hearts were untrue in the inquiry itself. So there was nothing to do but remind them of their fathers' evil ways: they would find in them a mirror of their own.
Who are the "children" God speaks to here? God had already marked them out when their parents were sentenced.
God had noted the ways of His people with care. He said to Moses that all those men had seen His glory and His miracles in Egypt and in the wilderness, and had still put Him to the test ten times and had not obeyed His voice (Num. 14:22). Then He passed sentence: their dead bodies would fall in that wilderness. But He added that He would bring in the little ones they had said would become a prey, and they would know the land they had rejected (verses 29–31). These "little ones" are the ones Jehovah speaks of in Ezekiel 20:18.
Why did God speak fresh terms to a second generation at all? And why does He ask for walking, and not only for agreement?
God had been ready to bring that generation into the land He had promised them. He could not, because their hearts were still set on the idols they had seen Him strike blow after blow. How useless that a man's mind should be convinced when his heart is deliberately astray! God's eye spared them, so He did not destroy them or make a full end of them in the wilderness. Once again He took their children by the hand.
That short sentence is not an aside before the commands. It is the ground they stand on.
Jehovah had brought them into a certain relationship with Himself, and that relationship had its own privileges and responsibilities. "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 any better than other people. By no means.
So what are these statutes for, and what do they say about the God who gave them?
It is not of His miracles that He speaks here, but of the statutes and judgments which He had given them, which pointed to the way of life. His sabbaths were the seal on all these, a sign between God and them of the rest which He designed for them. He was not a hard taskmaster, but their gracious Deliverer.
How did this generation answer, and why did the nation survive?
Jehovah was moved with compassion. But He had to assert His authority, the rightness of His judgments, and the special value of His sabbaths, as between Him and them. In vain! The children in the wilderness were as bad as their fathers who fell. Only His own care for the name they profaned stood between Israel and destruction.
- Mirror — The elders wanted a word about their future. God held up their fathers' record, so they would see their own faces in it.
- Children — The new word goes to the children of the generation that fell — the "little ones" God promised to bring in.
- Ground — "I am the LORD your God" comes first: the relationship is the reason for the conduct, not a reward for it.
- Life — The statutes He asks them to walk in pointed to the way of life; the Giver is their Deliverer, not a hard taskmaster.
- Name — The children answered like their fathers. Only God's care for His own name kept the nation from destruction.
and hallow my sabbaths; and they shall be a sign between me and you, that ye may know that I [am] Jehovah your God.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
And the children rebelled against me they walked not in my statutes, neither kept mine ordinances to do them, which if a man do, he shall live by them; they profaned my sabbaths and I said I would pour out my fury upon them, to accomplish mine anger against them in the wilderness.
In this chapter God retells Israel's history, from their birth as a nation in Egypt down to Ezekiel's own day. Here He turns to the second generation in the wilderness, the children of those who fell, and asks whether they were any different.
The people in this verse are not the generation that came out of Egypt. They are its children. God spoke to them directly and told them to break the family pattern.
Jehovah calls this second generation to renounce the ways of their fathers and to walk in His ways. Sadly, they were just like their fathers. The Lord has to say of them, "But the children rebelled against me. They did not walk in my statutes and were not careful to obey my rules." The rebellion of Korah, and the murmuring that followed, with the divine judgments that came of it in Numbers 16, was probably the responsibility of the first generation. But the judgments of the fiery serpents in Numbers 21, and of Baal-peor in Numbers 25, certainly involved the second generation.
The same failure repeats. One writer reads the whole national story as a single unbroken line.
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. Nothing else can be expected until God acts in the sovereignty of His own grace, and at last fulfils His promises despite this continuous rebellion.
These rules carried life for whoever kept them. The offer was real, and so was the condition.
While in Egypt, and until Israel took up the law, God had dealt with His people in grace. But at the foot of Sinai they bound themselves in a covenant of blood to keep every commandment of the law. They did not realise their own weakness and sinful state. If they had kept the law, they would have lived. By breaking it they brought themselves under the curse attached to it. The law they could not keep fully exposed their ignorance of themselves and their self-will.
One writer finds a second sense in the same phrase.
Sin is present everywhere, so the covenant of law had no life in it. Yet there is another sense in which we should understand the words "by which, if a person does them, he shall live." There is really a path of life, though grace alone can put us in it or keep us there. Eternal life and disobedience are in fact opposites. The gospel does not alter this: grace fully affirms it.
The verse names the Sabbaths alongside the statutes. One writer explains what they sealed.
He does not speak here of the miracles and deliverances He had worked for them, but of the statutes and judgments He had given them, which pointed to the way of life. His sabbaths were the seal on all these, a sign between God and them of the rest He designed for them. He was not a hard taskmaster but their gracious Deliverer. He would always point them to that rest, for themselves and even for their cattle. It recalled the rest at creation, when God was satisfied with the perfect goodness of all that He had made, and He Himself rested.
The verse ends with God saying He would pour out His wrath in the wilderness. They deserved the threat. Nothing in the people themselves stopped it.
The Lord felt compassion, but He must assert His authority, the rightness of His judgments, and the special value of His sabbaths, as something between Him and them. It was all in vain! The children in the wilderness were as bad as their fathers who fell. Only His own care for the name they profaned stood between Israel and destruction.
- Children — God told the second generation to drop their fathers' ways. They repeated them instead.
- Continuity — From Egypt to Ezekiel's day the record shows a "perfect monotony of evil." No new generation broke it.
- Conditions — The statutes promised life to whoever kept them. Israel could not keep them, so the curse fell instead.
- Covenant sign — The Sabbaths they profaned sealed the whole system. They marked the rest God intended, and recalled His own rest at creation.
- Cause of mercy — Nothing in the people held back the wrath. Only God's care for His own name stood between them and destruction.
But I withdrew my hand, and wrought for my name's sake, that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations, in whose sight I had brought them out.
Elders of Israel come to ask God for a word. Instead He gives them a long review of their history — Egypt, the wilderness, the land. Verse 22 sits at the low point of it. God had said He would pour out His fury on a second rebellious generation. Then He stopped.
The phrase at the heart of this verse is not said only here. One writer treats it as the thread that holds Israel's whole history together:
Jehovah then looks back over His ways with Israel, right back to their captivity in Egypt. He also looks ahead. Despite all they have been, He will bring them into the full blessing He had promised. The secret of God's goodness and patience is found in the words, spoken four times, "But I worked for My Name's sake."
The people spared here are not the generation that left Egypt. They are their children. God told these children not to copy their fathers. They did it anyway.
Jehovah felt compassion for them. But He had to assert His authority, the rightness of His judgments, and the special value of His sabbaths, as between Him and them. In vain! The children in the wilderness were as bad as their fathers who died there. Only one thing stood between Israel and destruction: His own care for the name they profaned.
God gives His reason: what the watching nations would think. Israel was the one nation on earth that carried any witness to Him.
They again refused the statutes which commended themselves to their consciences. They profaned the sabbaths, the sign of the rest He wanted for them. Even before they reached the land, He had to threaten them with wrath again. Love and pity held that wrath back from a people who were to carry His name before the nations. For how could He destroy the only thing that remained as a witness at all?
The turn in the verse is sudden. God gives no reason found in the people; He falls back on something in Himself.
He spoke of judging them. But He retreated at once into Himself, saying, "I withdrew my hand, and worked for my name's sake." … And then He worked for His name's sake by bringing them to His holy mountain. When grace had triumphed where evil was, they would "know the Lord." It is grace reigning through righteousness, and mercy rejoicing against judgment, that gives the true knowledge of God — "They shall know the Lord."
In the very next verse God says He will scatter them among the nations. Mercy held back the sword. It did not cancel His righteous dealing with them.
In mercy He withdraws the hand He had lifted in judgment. He considers how their enemies would view the destruction of His people. But He is not only merciful; He is also righteous. Because of their rebellion He said, "I lifted up my hand to them also in the wilderness, that I would scatter them among the nations, and disperse them through the countries" (verse 23).
Writers draw a line from this phrase straight to the New Testament. There God forgives on the same basis.
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 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."
The same basis also keeps a believer step by step afterwards:
And we have not only received the forgiveness of our sins in this way. Our feet are also kept in the same way as we pass through the wilderness. We read, for example, in Psalm 23: "He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake." That is, God has undertaken everything for us on the same ground on which He forgave our sins. The motive for all His acts of grace and love, for His unchanging attitude, for His watchful care and protection, is Christ, and not ourselves.
- Rebellion. God warned this generation not to follow their fathers. They did it anyway. Nothing in them explains why His hand stopped.
- Restraint. God withdrew the sword, not for anything in Israel, but because He "retreated into Himself" and worked for His own name's sake.
- Reason. His name rested on this people. Destroying them would have destroyed the only witness to Him among the nations.
- Righteousness. Mercy spared them, yet righteousness still scattered them. The same hand that dropped the sword swore to scatter them among the nations.
- Result. The same ground reaches us. God forgives our sins and keeps our feet "for His name's sake." The motive is Christ, not us.
I lifted up my hand also unto them in the wilderness, that I would scatter them among the nations, and disperse them through the countries;
In this chapter Ezekiel retells Israel's history — how God chose the nation, brought them out of Egypt, and met rebellion at every stage. Here the same raised hand that swore to give them a land swears to take them out of it, which raises a question: how can an oath of blessing and an oath of scattering belong to the same God?
The lifted hand in this verse is the sign of an oath. One writer points out how often the chapter 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, to show how unchangeable His purpose is. It is of Israel that the apostle says the gifts and calling of God are never taken back. For this very reason He judges and must judge their ways.
The same hand had already been raised over Israel for mercy and goodness. Here God raises it for the opposite purpose, and one writer points to when this happened and to the earlier books that had warned of it.
But the same hand He had raised over the family of Jacob for mercy and goodness, He now raised over them in the wilderness. This was before they had even entered the land of Canaan. He swore that He would scatter them among the nations and spread them through the countries. Compare Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28, 32.
God holds His hand back for the sake of His own Name. That mercy does not cancel the sentence, and one writer sets the two side by side.
In His purposes of grace, God tied the honour of His own Name to the blessing of His people. Not even the wickedness of Israel could turn Him from what He had planned and set His hand to do. He lifts His hand in judgment, then in mercy holds it back, because He weighs how their enemies would read the destruction of His people. But He is not only merciful. He is also righteous, and because of their rebellion He swore in the wilderness that He would scatter them among the nations and spread them through the countries.
When the time came to carry out the threat, the prophet Amos pointed back to the wilderness as the cause.
When it became a question of carrying out the long-suspended threat, Amos is explicit that the captivity and dispersion of the people came on them because of their idolatrous rebellion against Jehovah in the wilderness. "Did you bring to Me sacrifices and offerings during the forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel? … Therefore I will send you into exile beyond Damascus, says Jehovah, whose name is The God of hosts." (Amos 5:25-27)
God swore the oath in the desert. The scattering came much later, and the gap itself is part of the lesson.
God draws back the hand that holds the sword. Then He raises the hand that swears, and His voice announces His judgment on their sins. He did not carry out that sentence at once. In His patience He waited more than 800 years before He scattered His rebellious people among the nations. All through that time they provoked Him almost without a break, and again and again He stepped in with mercy to keep them.
Later in the chapter God promises to bring them back from the nations He scattered them among. He gives the reason for gathering them as plainly as the reason for scattering them.
"And you shall know that I am Jehovah, when I have dealt with you for My name's sake, not according to your wicked ways, nor according to your corrupt doings, O house of Israel, says the Lord Jehovah." … God will then accept them, and they will know Jehovah. He will keep the promises made to their fathers, to the people of Israel on the earth. They will repent, and their repentance will be real only because of His mercy. He acts freely, above the evil of His creatures, for His own sake. Without that, a sinner would be ruined beyond remedy or hope.
- One hand. One hand is raised over Israel all through this chapter — to choose them, to promise them good, and here to scatter them.
- Sworn, not merely said. God swears by Himself, because there is no one greater. The purpose that never changes secures His gifts, and it also means He judges their ways.
- Held back. He holds His hand back for the sake of His Name. He weighs how their enemies would read their ruin. Merciful, and still righteous.
- Delayed, not dropped. The sentence spoken in the desert waited more than 800 years. They kept provoking Him. He kept rescuing them.
- Lifted again to gather. The hand that scattered them is the hand that brings them back — not for their corrupt ways, but for His own Name's sake.
because they performed not mine ordinances, and rejected my statutes, and profaned my sabbaths, and their eyes were after their fathers' idols.
The verse before this gives God's sentence in the wilderness: He would scatter His people among the nations. This verse gives the reason — three broken duties, and a fourth charge that reaches past what they did to what they wanted.
One writer sets the sworn scattering beside its grounds, and follows it through to what God gave them over to:
In the wilderness He had already warned them that He would scatter them among the nations (Leviticus 26, Deuteronomy 32). They had polluted the sabbaths of the Lord and gone after the idols of their fathers. So they would be polluted in their own gifts, and be slaves to the idols they had loved, so that the Lord might make them desolate.
The charge of profaning the sabbaths only lands if we know what a sabbath was. One writer traces it back to God's own rest at creation:
He speaks here of the statutes and judgments which He had given them, which pointed to the way of life. His sabbaths were the seal upon all these, a sign between God and them of the rest which He designed for them. He was not a hard taskmaster, but their gracious Deliverer. He would always point them to the rest — for themselves and even for the cattle with them. That rest was the memorial of the creation rest, when God was satisfied with the perfect goodness of all He had made, and He Himself rested.
The last charge is the sharpest. It traces their conduct to what they wanted, not to what they failed to understand:
God had been ready to bring that generation into the land He had promised them. He could not, because their hearts were still after the idols they had seen Him strike blow after blow. How useless it is to convince a man's mind while his heart deliberately goes astray!
The same writer adds that their own consciences approved those statutes: "They again refused the statutes which commended themselves to their consciences." Nobody argued them out of obedience. They wanted something else.
Centuries passed between that oath in the wilderness and the day the sentence fell:
If God withdraws the hand with the sword, He raises the hand that swears, and His voice pronounces His judgment on their sins as their Ruler. He did not carry out the sentence He pronounced in the wilderness at once. In His long-suffering, He waited more than 800 years. Only then did He scatter His rebellious people among the nations and disperse them through the countries.
One writer points to Amos, who gives the same cause for the captivity:
When it became a question of carrying out the long-suspended threat, Amos is explicit. The captivity and dispersion of the people came upon them because of their idolatrous rebellion against the Lord in the wilderness.
Verses 25 and 26 have puzzled readers for centuries. The same writer explains what God gave them over to, and why:
The statutes that were not good, and the ordinances by which they could not live, are not God's own statutes. That reading would make Scripture hopelessly obscure, and God the author of evil. They mean the bitter bondage of His people to the corrupt and destructive rules of the nations around them. So, if they polluted God's name and sabbaths, He polluted them in their gifts. That is how deep Israel had fallen in departing from the true God.
- Sign. The sabbaths they profaned were God's seal on His gifts — a sign of the rest He designed for them. He was their Deliverer, not a taskmaster.
- Sight. The root charge is where their eyes rested. Their fathers' idols held the heart. A convinced mind is useless while the heart deliberately goes astray.
- Sentence. They rejected His statutes and profaned His sabbaths, so God swore in the wilderness to scatter them among the nations.
- Slowness. God waited more than 800 years before He carried that sentence out. His long-suffering delayed the judgment; it did not cancel it.
- Symmetry. They polluted God's name and sabbaths. He polluted them in their gifts and left them to the idols they had loved.
And I also gave them statutes that were not good, and ordinances whereby they should not live;
God says that He Himself gave Israel "statutes that were not good." At first hearing, that sounds as though God authored their ruin. Commentators call this one of the hardest lines in the book. Everything turns on what those statutes are, and in what sense God gave them.
The puzzle is old. One writer answers it from the way God governs. He owns the punishment even when the tool He uses is nothing like Him.
People have found verse 25 difficult for as long as anyone can remember — writers on the Bible as well as readers of it. But the solution lies in a simple principle. In His government God punishes His guilty people as they deserve, and He calls those punishments His own, even when the instruments He uses are completely foreign to His mind and heart. This is true even of the Holy One of God, of Christ Himself. When He was given up to complete rejection and suffering at the hands of men, He too is said to have been struck by God. (Psalm 69; Zechariah 13)
Some read the verse as God's verdict on His own law. One writer rejects that outright, and points to Paul, who defends the law even while showing how miserable a person is under it.
It is a great and serious mistake to think that the statutes that were not good, and the rules by which they could not live, are God's own statutes, the ones they were bound to obey. That would make Scripture hopelessly obscure, and God the author of evil. It is not so. Whatever the outcome may be for the sinner, the apostle works hard to defend the law as holy, just and good in itself. He does it in the very place where he proves how miserable even a converted soul is under law, struggling after good and against his own evil. So the Jewish prophet and Paul do not contradict each other. Those who apply the words "statutes that were not good" to God's law have misunderstood the question at issue.
If not God's law, then whose? The next verse answers, with its children passed through the fire.
The real reference is to the bitter bondage of His people to the corrupt and destructive customs of the surrounding nations — even to the ruin of their homes, and the cruel handing over of their firstborn to Moloch. So, if they defiled God's name and sabbaths, He defiled them in their own gifts. That is how far Israel had sunk in turning away from the true God. Verse 26 leaves no doubt in my mind about the real force of verse 25.
Moloch, the god of the Ammonites, was worshipped with more than symbolic ritual:
This is the fire-god, "the abomination of Ammon." The Israelites sacrificed their children to this idol. Passing their children through the fire might seem to mean that they were dedicated to the idol by being passed quickly through a fire without being burnt. That may have been done, but some passages do not allow that meaning. Of the Canaanites it is said that they burned their sons and their daughters in the fire to their gods.
God's own law was never the problem. One writer traces the change back to Sinai, where Israel took the covenant on themselves.
While in Egypt, and until Israel undertook to keep the law, God had dealt with His people in grace. But at the foot of Sinai they bound themselves in a covenant of blood to keep all the commandments of the law. They did not realise their own weakness and sinful state. Had they kept the law, they would have lived. In breaking it they brought themselves under the curse attached to it. The law they could not keep exposed their ignorance of themselves and their self-will.
Their refusal was not for lack of knowing better. So God handed them over to what they had already chosen.
How useless it is for a man's mind to be convinced while his heart is deliberately astray! They again refused the statutes their own consciences approved. Since they had rejected His statutes, and their eyes were on their fathers' idols, He had to "give them" — as He puts it here in strong language — give them over to "statutes that were not good and rules by which they could not have life." That is, He gave them over to the statutes of the nations around them. We see it at once when He adds that He defiled them with their own gifts, in that they made every firstborn pass through the fire — the firstborn the Lord had set apart for Himself.
- God gave good. The statutes He handed Israel were statutes to live by. Had they kept them, they would have lived.
- They gave them back. They refused commands their own consciences approved — a heart problem, not a knowledge problem.
- God gave them up. He let them fall under the corrupt customs of the nations around them. He calls those punishments His own, though they were foreign to His mind.
- They gave their children. The horror of verse 26 — firstborn devoted to Moloch — is what settles the meaning of verse 25.
- God is not the author of evil. To read "statutes that were not good" as God's own law makes Scripture obscure and God the source of evil. His law is holy, just and good.
and I defiled them by their own gifts, in that they devoted all that opened the womb, that I might make them desolate, to the end that they might know that I [am] Jehovah.
God answers Israel here by retracing the nation's story from Egypt onward. The hardest words in that review are these. He says He defiled His own people through the gifts they brought Him — their firstborn children. Readers have struggled with that line for centuries.
The verse sits inside a long indictment that begins with Israel's idolatry in Egypt and ends with the sentence passed on them.
The earlier chapters had spoken of the sin of Jerusalem. Here the Spirit retraces the sin, and especially the idolatry, of Israel — that is, of the people as a people — from the time of their stay in Egypt… They had polluted the sabbaths of Jehovah and gone after the idols of their fathers. So they would be polluted in their own gifts, and be slaves to the idols they had loved, so that the Lord would make them desolate.
Verse 26 explains verse 25, and verse 25 is the knot. One commentator unties it with a rule of God's government.
Some have found difficulty in verse 25… But the solution rests on a simple principle. In His government God chastens His guilty people in return for their sin, and He calls the scourges His own. He does this even when the instruments may be wholly foreign to His mind and heart… It is a great and serious mistake to think that the statutes which were not good, and the ordinances by which they could not live, mean God's own statutes, which they were bound to obey. That would make Scripture impossible to understand, and God the author of evil.
So the statutes that were not good are not God's own law. They are the rules Israel took instead.
The true reference is to the bitter bondage of His people to the corrupt and destructive rules of the surrounding nations. Those rules ruined their households. They went as far as the most cruel devotion of their firstborn to the idol Moloch.
The children named in this verse already had an owner. From the night of the Passover, every firstborn in Israel belonged to God.
The blood at the Passover saved the firstborn of Israel. But those it redeemed belonged to God in a special way. "Sanctify to Me all the firstborn, whatever opens the womb… is Mine" (Exodus 13:2). So the firstborn was not merely redeemed from death, it was bought for God.
What Israel did with those children shows how far they had fallen. Some soften the phrase about passing through the fire, but the texts will not allow it.
Passing their children through the fire might suggest that people only dedicated them to the idol, moving them quickly through a fire without burning them. That may have happened, but some passages do not allow that reading. Of the Canaanites it says, "they have burned their sons and their daughters in the fire to their gods" (Deut. 12:31). And of Israel it says they "caused their sons, whom they bore to Me, to pass for them through the fire, to devour them."
God's handing people over to what they chose is itself a judgment. But it is never His first move.
This hardening comes before destruction. But it comes only after man's sin has ripened. God endures the vessels of wrath, fitted for destruction, with great patience… "Whom He will He hardens" is surely true. But He wills to show His wrath in this way, by hardening, only in the case of those He has endured with much patience.
God did not leave the threat as a threat.
The Jews had become completely unfaithful, instead of living as people under the government of God should. They had made their children pass through the fire to Moloch, and had worshipped idols. Because of this, God could no longer identify Himself with the nation. He rejected them. He took away His throne from Jerusalem, and handed the rule of the world to the Gentiles.
The chapter does not end at desolation. The same God who scattered them promises to gather them.
When God calls Israel back from among the nations, He will bring them into the wilderness before they enter the land. There they will pass "under the rod," and He will bring them again into covenant relationship with Himself. But it will be a new covenant.
The verse ends by naming God's purpose: that they would know Him. That day changes what Israel thinks of itself, and what it thinks of why God acted.
Israel will know that He is Jehovah when He has done all these things according to His promises. They will loathe themselves, and will understand that Jehovah has worked for the glory of His name, and not according to their wicked ways.
- Ransom. The Passover bought every firstborn in Israel for God. They were His before anyone offered them anywhere else.
- Refusal. The statutes that were not good are not God's law. They are the pagan customs Israel preferred, down to burning their children to Moloch.
- Retribution. God calls the scourge His own act, though He is nothing like the instrument He uses. Read any other way, Scripture would make God the author of evil.
- Restraint removed. Hardening comes before destruction. It comes only after long patience with a sin already ripened.
- Restoration. The throne did leave Jerusalem. Yet the same chapter promises a gathering back, under the rod, into a new covenant — and then Israel will know He is the LORD.