Wilt thou judge them, son of man, wilt thou judge them? cause them to know the abominations of their fathers:
God charges the prophet to judge Israel by confronting the people with the abominations of their fathers, in a message of warning and reproof before judgment falls on Jerusalem. Those abominations were idolatry and Sabbath-breaking, from making the calf in the wilderness and taking up the tabernacle of Moloch and the star of Remphan to polluting the Sabbath through the forty years in the wilderness and trampling it until Jerusalem was destroyed. The Sabbath at issue is the sign between God and his people that they might know him as Creator and Sanctifier, given not because of their unrighteousness but because they alone acknowledged the Maker of heaven and earth. Its importance is shown in that God joins great promises to keeping it and dreadful curses to breaking it, and solemnly enjoins it through the prophets as his enduring institution from creation to the final rest.
Context and Ancestral Sins
Ezekiel 20:4 stands in chapters 1 to 24 giving prophetic warning before the destruction of Jerusalem, and in chapters 1 to 32 occupied with correction, denunciation, and reproof. It means that sin must be forgiven, or it will be consumed. The verse commands judging Israel by causing them to know the abominations of their fathers, confronting them with the sins of their ancestors. That confrontation is part of God's appeal to His people, recounting the conduct that led to exile, including idolatry and Sabbath desecration which brought their troubles upon them. In that appeal the importance of the Sabbath is set forth.
The abominations of the fathers were making a calf in the wilderness and offering sacrifice to the idol and rejoicing in the works of their own hands. They were taking up the tabernacle of Moloch and the star of Remphan, figures made to worship them. Because they refused to worship God, God turned and gave them up to worship the host of heaven and figures made to represent the heavenly bodies. The chapter shows that Israel broadly polluted the Sabbath during the wilderness years, including the generation that came out of Egypt, and continued to violate the Lord's Sabbath to a great extent during the forty years in the wilderness. Idolatry and Sabbath-breaking were among the sins for which that generation was excluded from the promised land. This history explains why the Sabbath-breaker in Numbers 15 cannot be treated as evidence that the people generally kept the Sabbath with exceptional strictness.
The chapter shows that Israel wandered from God, forgot His Sabbath, and turned to idolatry. Before the Babylonian captivity the nation went into idolatry and gave very little regard to the Sabbath. When the Jewish church apostatized, it trampled the Sabbath, turned to pagan times, and brought Jerusalem's destruction as a consequence. The chapter records the Dark Ages of the Jewish church, a time of apostasy in idolatry when the faithful were persecuted and judgment fell in the captivity of the Jews. That time parallels the Dark Ages of the Christian church when the apostate church persecuted and slew the conscientious.
Sabbath Sign and Apostasy
Ezekiel 20 presents the Sabbath as a sign between God and Israel given in order that they might know the Being who sanctified them, that is, might know their God as the Creator. It was not enjoined upon them and imposed as a sign on account of their own unrighteousness and that of their fathers. It was a fitting sign because Israel was the only people on earth who acknowledged the Creator. The sign expressed faith that God made heaven and earth in six days and rested on the seventh and hallowed it in memory of that work, not in memory of the flight out of Egypt, while the same chapter records Israel's persistent violation of the Sabbath during the forty years in the wilderness.
The Sabbath is the sign of the living God and the seal of his law, the only commandment of the ten that points out who made the law. It is a sign between God and Israel forever, where Israel means the people of God in every age. Forever cannot be limited here because God is one of the parties, so the sign lasts as long as he exists and as long as his people exist. The seal is to be restored to the law now, when men call to seek familiar spirits, in the sealing of the servants of God with the sign of the living God just before the day of wrath. To all eternity God's people will commemorate God's act of creating the heavens and the earth by observing the Sabbath in the New Earth.
Disobedience to the Sabbath brings dreadful curses, revealing the importance of the Sabbath, for God joins large promises to obedience and dreadful curses to disobedience. The verse stands in the unbroken line of the Sabbath from creation through the old dispensation, affirmed by Jesus as made for man, kept according to the commandment, recognized after the cross, and reaching to the final rest, proving the Sabbath remains God's institution founded in man's need. The Father most solemnly enjoined observance of the Sabbath in the prophets, proving that the Father did not lightly esteem the Sabbath from the sanctification of the rest-day in Paradise onward. Jesus in healing on the Sabbath was therefore only following the example of the Father from the beginning and not disregarding the Sabbath. In connection with Nehemiah's warning, the call to show Israel the abominations of their fathers points to the example of earlier generations who profaned the Sabbath and brought God's judgment upon Israel and Jerusalem.
God charges the prophet to judge Israel by confronting the people with the abominations of their fathers, in a message of warning and reproof before judgment falls on Jerusalem. Those abominations were idolatry and Sabbath-breaking, from making the calf in the wilderness and taking up the tabernacle of Moloch and the star of Remphan to polluting the Sabbath through the forty years in the wilderness and trampling it until Jerusalem was destroyed. The Sabbath at issue is the sign between God and his people that they might know him as Creator and Sanctifier, given not because of their unrighteousness but because they alone acknowledged the Maker of heaven and earth. Its importance is shown in that God joins great promises to keeping it and dreadful curses to breaking it, and solemnly enjoins it through the prophets as his enduring institution from creation to the final rest.
Context and Ancestral Sins
Ezekiel 20:4 stands in chapters 1 to 24 giving prophetic warning before the destruction of Jerusalem, and in chapters 1 to 32 occupied with correction, denunciation, and reproof. It means that sin must be forgiven, or it will be consumed. The verse commands judging Israel by causing them to know the abominations of their fathers, confronting them with the sins of their ancestors. That confrontation is part of God's appeal to His people, recounting the conduct that led to exile, including idolatry and Sabbath desecration which brought their troubles upon them. In that appeal the importance of the Sabbath is set forth.
The abominations of the fathers were making a calf in the wilderness and offering sacrifice to the idol and rejoicing in the works of their own hands. They were taking up the tabernacle of Moloch and the star of Remphan, figures made to worship them. Because they refused to worship God, God turned and gave them up to worship the host of heaven and figures made to represent the heavenly bodies. The chapter shows that Israel broadly polluted the Sabbath during the wilderness years, including the generation that came out of Egypt, and continued to violate the Lord's Sabbath to a great extent during the forty years in the wilderness. Idolatry and Sabbath-breaking were among the sins for which that generation was excluded from the promised land. This history explains why the Sabbath-breaker in Numbers 15 cannot be treated as evidence that the people generally kept the Sabbath with exceptional strictness.
The chapter shows that Israel wandered from God, forgot His Sabbath, and turned to idolatry. Before the Babylonian captivity the nation went into idolatry and gave very little regard to the Sabbath. When the Jewish church apostatized, it trampled the Sabbath, turned to pagan times, and brought Jerusalem's destruction as a consequence. The chapter records the Dark Ages of the Jewish church, a time of apostasy in idolatry when the faithful were persecuted and judgment fell in the captivity of the Jews. That time parallels the Dark Ages of the Christian church when the apostate church persecuted and slew the conscientious.
Sabbath Sign and Apostasy
Ezekiel 20 presents the Sabbath as a sign between God and Israel given in order that they might know the Being who sanctified them, that is, might know their God as the Creator. It was not enjoined upon them and imposed as a sign on account of their own unrighteousness and that of their fathers. It was a fitting sign because Israel was the only people on earth who acknowledged the Creator. The sign expressed faith that God made heaven and earth in six days and rested on the seventh and hallowed it in memory of that work, not in memory of the flight out of Egypt, while the same chapter records Israel's persistent violation of the Sabbath during the forty years in the wilderness.
The Sabbath is the sign of the living God and the seal of his law, the only commandment of the ten that points out who made the law. It is a sign between God and Israel forever, where Israel means the people of God in every age. Forever cannot be limited here because God is one of the parties, so the sign lasts as long as he exists and as long as his people exist. The seal is to be restored to the law now, when men call to seek familiar spirits, in the sealing of the servants of God with the sign of the living God just before the day of wrath. To all eternity God's people will commemorate God's act of creating the heavens and the earth by observing the Sabbath in the New Earth.
Disobedience to the Sabbath brings dreadful curses, revealing the importance of the Sabbath, for God joins large promises to obedience and dreadful curses to disobedience. The verse stands in the unbroken line of the Sabbath from creation through the old dispensation, affirmed by Jesus as made for man, kept according to the commandment, recognized after the cross, and reaching to the final rest, proving the Sabbath remains God's institution founded in man's need. The Father most solemnly enjoined observance of the Sabbath in the prophets, proving that the Father did not lightly esteem the Sabbath from the sanctification of the rest-day in Paradise onward. Jesus in healing on the Sabbath was therefore only following the example of the Father from the beginning and not disregarding the Sabbath. In connection with Nehemiah's warning, the call to show Israel the abominations of their fathers points to the example of earlier generations who profaned the Sabbath and brought God's judgment upon Israel and Jerusalem.