12/28/2024 – Day 188 – Ezekiel – Chapters 19 thru 24 / Commentary : Chapter 20 – “Israel’s Rebellion”, with the resulting five ‘oath-lessons’ from the LORD.
I would like to share the five “oath-lessons” that the LORD communicated to the evil contingent of leaders through Ezekiel:
“20:1, 5-6,8 A contingent of leaders came to ‘consult the LORD’ about Ezekiel’s judgment messages. the Lord responded with five oath-lessons each containing the phrase ‘I swore to them’ (lit. ‘I lifted my hand to them.’ vv. 5-6, 15,23,28,42), signifying that God swore by His name and reputation.
First, He had sword to be their God and deliver them from Egypt (see Exodus 20:2) but both they and their fathers responded with rebellion (Ezekiel 20:5,6,8). See the following notes for the other vows in the series.
20:15 Second, the Lord swore to them in the wilderness that He would not let them enter the promised land unless they were obedient. His faithful protection (vv. 16-22, cp. Deuteronomy 8:4) was repaid by repeated rebellion.
20: 23-24 Third, the Lord swore to disperse the people because they persisted in rebellion, desecrating ‘My Sabbaths’ (vv. 13, 16, 20-21, 24). God chose 70 years for the captivity because of their repeated desecration of the Sabbath and the sabbatical year (Exodus 20: 8-11; 2 Chronicles 36:21; see five cycles of rebellion in Leviticus 26: 14-35; 2 Chronicles 36:21).
20: 28-38 Fourth, although the Lord had vowed to give them the land, the people came under judgement because once in the land, they established bamoth or high places for pagan altars. ‘What is this high place you are going to?’ is a rhetorical question, a reminder that God knew every bamah or pagan shrine they had set up. These idolatrous practices continued while the Judea’s were in exile (v. 38).
20: 39-49 Fifth, the exile was a divine judgment to purge the nation of sin (vv. 40-44), that the Lord might fulfill his vow to give them the land (v. 42). Verse 46 uses three different words for ‘south’; timanah ‘to the right,’ since directions were determined by facing east; darom ‘south’ in a geographical sense; and negev referring to the southern portion of the land. The destruction would be of such magnitude that everyone would recognize it as an act of divine judgment (vv. 48-49). (In the MT, vv. 45-49 are Ezekiel 21: 1-5).”
Soli Deo Gloria!
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Questions for fellowship generation, the lifelong sanctification process:
- What does the text reveal about God’s character?
- How has this reading generated prayer for you and/or us?
- What themes stand out to you in this bible study?
- How does our reading fit into the bigger picture (creation, the fall, restoration, etc.)?
- What verse(s) jumped out at you like never before? Is it explainable at this point?
- Do you have any questions you would like to put before the group as to how to interpret any particular verse(s) in our reading. Let scripture testify to scripture: Share with us where you sense contradiction between passages elsewhere.
- What did you find convicting and inspiring at the same time? Share with us how the Spirit of God is working within you as a messenger, both within and outside of our fellowship group.
- Share with the group how our study is calling or confirming to you a new mission to glorify God in our times.