Ezekiel 20:4-12 - Confront them with their detestable practices

20:4-8

This refusal of God to let them inquire of Him was not a capricious act, and He will now tell them why. The upshot of all this was that the elders needed to listen to God’s word and to obey it. So God tells Ezekiel to confront them with their “detestable practices”. There are times when people need to be confronted with their sin. The beginning is that God chose Israel. Jesus reminded His disciples that He chose them, they did not choose Him (John 15:16). We need to have a right view of things, a right view is always a God-centred view, not a man-centred one. When God chose them He declared that He would bring them out of captivity in Egypt and take them to a land “flowing with milk and honey”. We all know that, but then see what God also said to them. He commanded them to get rid of their vile images, which they had set their eyes on. Israel was involved in idol worship in Egypt. Indeed, she was infected with idol worship. She needed to be purified. Salvation is not just a matter of being taken out of a situation, or of being forgiven. It involves being purified, and that is the consistent teaching of the Bible, Old and New Testament.

20:9-12

We learn more about the exodus here. The Israelites came out of Egypt, but had not got rid of their idols. They even hankered after the idols of Egypt. We need a change of heart, not just a change of circumstances. This change of heart is something that we will hear much more of later on in Ezekiel. So God would pour out His wrath on them. We then read why He still brought them out of Egypt, it was for the sake of His Name. Again, we will hear more of this later in Ezekiel. God did not want His name to be profaned in the eyes of the world. For He had revealed Himself to Israel in the sight of the world. Likewise, God has created the church in the sight of the world. So the church should be very wary whenever it rebels against God. So God led them into the wilderness and gave them His Law. The giving of the Law was an act of grace on God’s part. He showed them how to live, and gave them His Sabbaths. The Sabbaths were a sign that the people were holy, a people set apart for God.