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.