May 4, Ezekiel 20
”Son of man, speak to the elders of Israel, and say to them, Thus says the Lord GOD, is it to enquire of me that you come? As I live, declares the Lord GOD, I will not be inquired of by you. Will you judge them son of man, will you judge them? Let them know the abominations of their fathers.” - Ezekiel 20:3-4
The word incorrigible is an adjective that means "not able to be corrected, improved or reformed." Chapter 20 reads like an illustration of what it means for a nation to be incorrigible.
When the elders came again to Ezekiel to inquire of the LORD, God told Ezekiel that he would not allow them to ask him about anything. Instead they got a strong and bitter history lesson about the nation's failure throughout the generations of its history to remain faithful to God. The two words of the definition that don't fit the case of Israel well are “not able." Israel's awful rebellion and disobedience was not rooted in their inability to do what God commanded. It was their stubborn unwillingness to obey that caused their serial apostasies.
When I write or speak about Israel's perpetual idolatry, I usually trace it in their history back to the golden calf at Mt. Sinai. But this chapter informs us that their sinful tendency to look away from God and look to idols really went back farther than Sinai. When they were still slaves in Egypt, they were enamored with the Egyptian's idols and imitated their pagan rituals. Aaron probably got the idea to make the idol in the shape of a calf from what they had seen (and done) in Egypt.
The generations and locations changed, but the people of Israel continued to stray from their benevolent God. They broke the covenant and turned to worthless idols. At Sinai, in the wilderness, and even after they entered their promised land in Canaan, the Israelites were lured by their lusts into worshiping the contemptible idols of the Gentiles around them. God mercifully spared them many times. He did it for the sake of his name. He did not want the pagans to misinterpret Israel's sudden destruction as evidence that their God was unable to protect them. If this chapter shows how ugly repetitive sin really is, it also shows how patient and long suffering God is with weak, bumbling humans, even ones who know better and don't do better.
Truly, they were incorrigible. They deserved death again and again. But because of God's oath to Abraham, God restrained himself from pouring out the deserved dose of his wrath on the nation of Israel for centuries.
Another frightening fact besides the gravitational pull of temptation is here. God also hardens men and women in their disobedience after they harden their own hearts and refuse to hear warning and correction. God multiplied their transgressions and intensified their sinful behavior after they demonstrated that they were not going to listen or repent.
Finally the wrath came, first on Israel, and just over a century later, on Judah. Many Israelites died, many more were taken as captives. God destroyed their cities and scattered their people among the nations. God's patience finally ran out. All the curses he had promised finally came. The house of David and the nation of Israel were no more.
When Ezekiel told the people this, they pretended that the prophets' words were veiled parables. They didn't want to hear or know anything about what God said. Their inquiry was a mocking hypocrisy. People who knew and rejected what God had plainly told them didn't really want to hear anything from God.
This is not a very encouraging chapter. We marvel at Israel's stubborn disobedience and marvel more at God's forbearance for so long. But delayed judgment does not mean that judgment isn't coming. When we sin, we need to remember the sad state of Israel in their last days as they suffered the wrath of God. Delayed judgment will come. Let's be quick and humble to turn to God. We do not want and cannot afford to be hardened in our disobedience. Remember that sin, all sin, any sin, our sin, is an affront to the divine and perfect holiness of God.
Copyright © 2024 by Michael B. McElroy. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Today in God's Word—May 2024
East Tallassee Church of Christ
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