Ezekiel 20:26, commentary and pictures

God gave Israel up to their own desires and left them to pollute themselves in their own idolatrous gifts after they hated His good laws, not creating the evil but allowing them to reap the consequences they chose. Their gifts were heathen offerings in which they caused all that openeth the womb, even the firstborn, to pass through the fire in child sacrifice, bringing death and desolation that they might know that He is the LORD. The statutes that were not good and whereby they should not live were heathen statutes and perversions of law opposed to the life-giving ten commandments, not a Gospel ordinance nor the ceremonial law. The chapter sets forth the Sabbath as the sign made to Israel that they might know the LORD who sanctified them and know Him as Creator, and their broad polluting and trampling of it in the wilderness and before the Babylonian captivity showed disloyalty that turned by natural consequence to Baal and sun worship, dumb idols, and the host of heaven. Proper keeping of that memorial of creation and of deliverance from Egypt and from sin would have saved them from idolatry, but for their stiff-necked profanation judgment fell for centuries in desolation, dispersion, and the destruction of Jerusalem.

Wording and Historical Setting

To pollute them in their own gifts means to give Israel up to their own desires and let them have their own way after they hated God's good laws, leaving them to pollute themselves. God did not create this evil or give it for their good, but allowed them to have the consequences of the evil they chose. Their gifts were idolatrous offerings, specifically the heathen rite of causing all that openeth the womb, including the firstborn, to pass through the fire in child sacrifice. The statutes that were not good and the judgments whereby they should not live are heathen statutes, rites of heathen worship, and perversions of law that came in among Israel, directly opposed to the life-giving ten commandments. They were not a Gospel ordinance and not part of the ceremonial law, and the polluting in gifts describes an additional act, not the adding of the ceremonial law itself. Their end is death and desolation, brought so that they might know that He is the LORD.

The verse stands in Ezekiel 20 to 22 as a prophetic warning of correction, denunciation, and reproof uttered before the destruction of Jerusalem, rehearsing Israel's wilderness history. It belongs to the exile and dispersion, to the pattern of idolatry and Sabbath desecration that led to dispersion. It belongs to Israel's Dark Ages of apostasy when the faithful were persecuted and which ended in captivity, and specifically to the period before the Babylonian captivity. This includes the forty years in the wilderness while God proved the people by the fall of manna for six days and its cessation on the seventh. It carries the lesson that sin must be forgiven or it will be consumed.

Sabbath, Apostasy, and Judgment

Ezekiel 20 sets forth the importance of the Sabbath by connecting dreadful curses with disobedience to it. The Sabbath was made a sign to Israel in order that they might know the LORD who sanctified them and know their God as Creator. It was not enjoined upon them as a sign on account of their unrighteousness and that of their fathers.

The chapter rehearses Israel's wilderness history and shows Israel's disloyalty in failing to keep the Sabbath. They broadly polluted the Sabbath during the forty years in the wilderness, along with committing idolatry, and their disobedience led to the generation brought out of Egypt being barred from entering the promised land. They violated the Sabbath to a very alarming extent during those forty years while God was proving them by the fall of manna for six days and its cessation on the seventh. Before the Babylonian captivity the nation had gone into idolatry and gave very little regard to the Sabbath.

The execution of the Sabbath-breaker therefore does not show that the people generally kept the Sabbath strictly. His act was deliberate, presumptuous contempt for God's law. In apostasy Israel forgot their Saviour and profaned the day of His sacred rest. They turned from God, forgot His Sabbath, fell into idolatry, trampled the Sabbath and turned to pagan times, with Jerusalem destroyed as a consequence.

They forsook God for Baal and sun worship and profaned His Sabbath, for forsaking God for rites that appealed to the sensual nature led by natural consequence to Sabbath breaking. Because they refused to worship God He gave them over to idolatry, including worship of the host of heaven and images representing heavenly bodies, including dumb idols. When they turned to sun worship they also transgressed God's Sabbath. Proper keeping of the Sabbath would have saved them from idolatry, because the Sabbath is the memorial of God in creation and in redeeming Israel from Egypt and in saving them from their sins.

The Sabbath was made at creation as a memorial of creation and was given as a sign between God and Israel because Israel was the only people on earth that acknowledged the Creator, expressing faith in Him against false gods and in six-day creation and His rest on the seventh. Moses' words about the Sabbath were his final appeal to gratitude in that rebellious people for deliverance from Egypt, not proof that the Sabbath began at the Exodus or commemorates it. For this stiff-necked profanation the verse shows one of the most pronounced judgments of God that fell upon Israel for centuries while they existed as a nation. It brought desolation, dispersion, and the destruction of Jerusalem, and this earlier Sabbath profanation and judgment shows that Sabbath-breaking was not a new offense in Nehemiah's day.