Ezekiel 20:27, commentary and pictures

God charged Ezekiel as son of man to tell the house of Israel that their fathers had blasphemed Him by trespassing against Him in rebellion and turning from His worship to idolatry.
That trespass began with persistent breaking of the Sabbath in the wilderness from the proving over the manna onward, so widespread with other sins that the generation that left Egypt was shut out of the promised land, and continued in sacrifices on high places and idol worship after Israel entered the land.
The same joining of idolatry with trampling the Sabbath and turning to pagan times brought trouble, dispersion, captivity, exile, and the destruction of Jerusalem before the Babylonian captivity.
The chapter shows the Sabbath to be the sign of the living God and the seal of His law, given so Israel might know the Lord who sanctifies and redeems them, teaching that obedience and righteousness are the way of life while disobedience and sin bring death.
God left this Dark Age of the Jewish era on record to warn later peoples, for history repeats itself, and departing from Him leads men to give false worship and religious names to what is not His, so that calling Sunday the Sabbath does not make it the Sabbath.

Words and Historical Setting

Therefore, son of man, speak to the house of Israel with the declaration that their fathers blasphemed God by committing a trespass against Him through rebellion, turning from His worship to idolatry and forgetting His Sabbath. The trespass introduces the account of their sacrifices at high places and their worship of idols after entering the land. Their own idolatrous practices, not God's good commandments, were the offense.

The trespass included general and persistent violation of the Sabbath during the forty years in the wilderness. The fall of the manna began God's proving of them whether they would walk in His law and keep His Sabbath, and that proving continued through the whole forty years, during which they to a very alarming extent kept violating it. Their idolatry and Sabbath-breaking were widespread with other sins, so that the generation that came out of Egypt was excluded from the promised land because of its rebellion. Moses' words on the Sabbath at the close of Deuteronomy 5 were his final appeal to that rebellious Sabbath-breaking people to honor God from gratitude for deliverance. The same pattern of idolatry joined with Sabbath desecration brought the people into trouble and dispersion and exile. When the Jewish church apostatized it trampled on the Sabbath and turned to pagan times, giving very little regard to the Sabbath, and Jerusalem was destroyed as a consequence before the Babylonian captivity.

The verse stands in the first twenty chapters of Ezekiel, belonging to the warnings uttered before the destruction of Jerusalem. That setting was Ezekiel's ministry among the captives in Babylonia while Jeremiah prophesied in Jerusalem. That part of the book is occupied with correction, denunciation, and reproof, whose lesson is that sin must be forgiven or it will be consumed. The fathers' unfaithfulness cited in the verse was later invoked when Sabbath profanation was confronted, as Nehemiah invoked their example of unfaithfulness.

Sabbath Doctrine and Warning

The chapter sets forth the importance of the Sabbath and reveals God as Sanctifier and Redeemer. Obedience and righteousness are the way of life, while disobedience and sin bring death as their consequence. The Sabbath is the sign of the living God and the seal of His law, the only one of the ten commandments that points out who made the law. It is a sign between God and Israel forever, and true Israel are the people of God in every age. Forever cannot be limited, because God is one of the parties, so the sign lasts as long as He exists and as long as His people exist, to be kept to all eternity and in the new earth in commemoration of His creating heaven and earth.

The Sabbath was made to Israel as a sign in order that they might know the Lord who sanctifies them and know that their God is the Creator. It was not enjoined upon them and imposed as a sign on account of their unrighteousness and that of their fathers. It was a sign between God and Israel because Israel was then the only people on earth acknowledging the Creator while the nations worshiped false gods. The sign expressed faith in the God who made heaven and earth in six days, rested the seventh day, and hallowed it in memory of that work. The trespass charged was general and persistent violation of the Sabbath during the forty years in the wilderness, beginning with the proving over the manna whether they would walk in His law and keep His Sabbath and continuing through the whole forty years to a very alarming extent, with the words on the Sabbath at the close of Deuteronomy 5 as the final appeal to that rebellious Sabbath-breaking people to honor God from gratitude for deliverance. God solemnly enjoined Sabbath observance through the prophets and did not lightly esteem it.

The verse records the Dark Ages of the Jewish era, when apostasy in idolatry prevailed, the faithful were persecuted, and the result was captivity. God warns later peoples by such examples left on record, history repeating itself, written for learning and for admonition upon whom the ends of the ages are come. It stands as the Jewish-era parallel to the Christian-era Dark Ages when the apostate church persecuted and slew the conscientious. Departing from God leads people to give false worship and religious names to practices that are not His, so that calling Sunday the Sabbath does not make it the Sabbath.