EXEGETICAL NOTES.—The sin of the first generation of Israelites in the wilderness: yet the Lord did not make an end of them.
Ezekiel 20:11. “And I gave them My statutes, and showed them My judgments.” This was a general expression for the law which was delivered to them. “God gave laws at Sinai to the people whom He had brought out of Egypt, through which they were sanctified as His own people, that they might live before God.”—(Keil.) “Which if a man do, he shall even live in them.” He who obeyed God’s laws would find them tend “unto life” (Romans 7:10; Romans 10:5). The life which comes of obedience was not mere existence, but prosperity and blessedness, both bodily and spiritual, temporal and eternal (Deuteronomy 4:1; Matthew 19:17; Exodus 20:12, etc.). The leading through the wilderness served to test their obedience.
Ezekiel 20:12. “I gave them my Sabbaths.” “God concludes the directions for His worship by urging upon the people in the most solemn manner the observance of His Sabbaths, and thereby pronounces the keeping of the Sabbath as the kernel of all divine worship. And, as in that passage (Exodus 31:13), we are to understand by the Sabbaths the actual weekly Sabbaths, and not the institutions of worship as a whole, so here we must retain the literal signification of the word. It is only of the Sabbaths occurring every week, and not of all the fasts, that it could be said that it was a sign between Jehovah and Israel. It was a sign, not as a token, that they who observed it were Israelites, but that they might know that Jehovah was sanctifying them, namely, by the Sabbath rest—as a refreshing and elevation of the mind, in which Israel was to have a foretaste of that blessed resting from all works to which the people of God was ultimately to attain. It is from this deeper signification of the Sabbath that the prominence given to the Sabbaths here is to be explained, and not from the outward circumstance that in exile, when the sacrificial worship was necessarily suspended, the keeping of the Sabbath was the only bond which united the Israelites, so far as the worship of God was concerned.”—(Keil). The weekly pause in the midst of earthly labour was a “sign” of the spiritual work which God was performing among His obedient people; a “sign” also that they were sanctified, were set apart from all other nations, as that day was from the rest of the week.
Ezekiel 20:13. “They walked not in My statutes, and they despised My judgments.” Historical examples of Israel’s rebellion against God’s commandments in the wilderness are given in Exodus 32:1-6; Numbers 25:1-3; and of the desecration of the Sabbath in Exodus 16:27; Numbers 15:32. “My Sabbaths they greatly polluted.” “History records nothing of an external violation of the Sabbath during the journey through the wilderness. Numbers 15:32, where the man who gathered wood on the Sabbath was brought before the congregation, and stoned by them after formal sentence, is rather a proof that in this respect they were not wanting in zeal. But the prophet, in accordance with Isaiah 58:13-14, and with Moses himself, who commanded to sanctify the Sabbath, to consecrate it in every respect to God, and withdraw it wholly from the region of self-interest, of personal sinful inclination, according to which the festival cannot possibly be observed with indolent repose, forms a deeper and more spiritual idea of the Sabbath. ‘Thou shalt cease from thy doing, that God may have His work in thee,’ in this sense the truly God-fearing only can celebrate the Sabbath; so that all that in the books of Moses attests the want of true godliness among the people in the wilderness, involves at the same time the charge of desecrating the Sabbath.”—(Hengstenberg).
Ezekiel 20:14. “But I wrought for My name’s sake.” “For His name’s sake God destroys not the people; but He excludes the present generation from the possession of Canaan, in just retribution for that which they have practised against Him. To this just retribution points the—‘And I also’ (Ezekiel 20:15). It depends on the will of every one what position he will take towards God; but he must be prepared for this, that his act will be attended with a corresponding Divine act.”—(Hengstenberg.)
Ezekiel 20:15. “Yet, also, I lifted up My hand unto them in the wilderness.” The lifeing up of God’s hand signifies the Divine oath (Numbers 14:28-30; Psalms 106:26).
Ezekiel 20:16. “Their heart went after their idols.” The idolatries of the children of Israel during their wanderings in the desert are referred to by the prophet Amos, and in St. Stephen’s speech (Amos 5:25-26; Acts 7:42-43).
Ezekiel 20:17. “Mine eye spared them from destroying them, neither did I make an end of them in the wilderness.” Though the generation that sinned in the desert perished, yet God did not give the whole of the people over to the destruction which they deserved. The “hand” of righteous anger was lifted to smite, but the “eye” of gracious pity restrained it.
HOMILETICS
THE SIN OF THE FIRST GENERATION OF THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL IN THE WILDERNESS (Ezekiel 20:10-17)
I. It was a sin aggravated in its character.
1. They sinned after a great deliverance. In Egypt they were persecuted and held in cruel bondage. They learned to worship the gods of the nation which ruled over them (Joshua 24:14). But they were brought out of that land by the manifest power of God, and were thus delivered both from bodily and spiritual slavery.
2. They sinned after special means had been used to preserve their spiritual character as the elect of God.
(1). They had a clear revelation of God’s law. God had given them His “statutes,” and showed them His “judgments.” The observance of these would have been their peace, happiness, and salvation. (Ezekiel 20:11.) For the law of God tends to “life” (Romans 7:20.) It is true that the law would give the knowledge of sin (Romans 3:20), yet that knowledge ought to have brought them to confess their sins and to seek forgiveness through the blood of the atonement. They had to render obedience not to a blind power, making in some way for righteousness, but to a living will,—to the one true God who was merciful and desired their salvation.
(2.) They were placed in circumstances favourable to the spiritual life. God had brought them out from the bondage and seductive civilization of Egypt and had led them into the wilderness (Ezekiel 20:10). The seclusion of the desert was favourable to contemplation,—to seriousness of character. They would have a time to reflect upon God’s loving kindness in redemption. Obedience would have given them the means of making a great history (Exodus 19:3-9). Placed in such outward conditions as would naturally have the effect of leading them to cast themselves upon God’s care and governance, and delivered from the corrupting influences of the world, they had the most favourable opportunity for becoming a spiritual people.
(3.) They had the ordinance of the Sabbath. The Sabbath was given to them as a “sign” and to promore the holiness of the nation (Ezekiel 20:12). For this intermission of earthly work was a pledge of that work which God was carrying on amongst His obedient people (Exodus 31:13). It was a sign that God sanctified the people, that He separated them from the rest of the world, and that He would bring them, at last, to their quiet inheritance of rest. To keep the Sabbath with due regard to its spiritual significance was truly to fear and to serve God. But they rebelled against God in the wilderness, they polluted His Sabbaths (Ezekiel 20:13). In the pollution of the Sabbath there was a special danger to their religious life. For if that sacred day was not piously observed, it only exposed them the more to strong temptation. If it was not occupied with thoughts of God, it laid their souls open to the incursions of every evil thought. Some of the early Christian writers charge the Jews of their time with spending their Sabbaths in licentiousness. Thus Israel had superior religious advantages in the wilderness, but idolatry was in the heart of the people. The corruptions of Egypt clung to them (Ezekiel 20:16).
II. It was a sin which was visited with a fitting punishment. A punishment, not only in degree, but also in kind. They polluted God’s Sabbaths, and He would not bring them to the land of rest. His plan concerning them was to lead them to the land of their inheritance, where they might dwell in peace and safety. But all revolt from God must be followed by darkness and disorder, by a disarrangement of all those good things which He has prepared for us.
III. Their sin did not altogether shut out God’s mercy. They were not all destroyed in the wilderness as they deserved. God has an “eye” of pity which arrests His “hand” of righteous anger.
Here a difficulty ariseth. In Ezekiel 20:6 it is said that God had lifted up His hand, and so sworn to bring them out of the land of Egypt into the land of Canaan; and here it is said He hath lifted up His hand to the contrary. It seems that here is one oath against another. And in Numbers 14:34, God acknowledges His breach of promise, for He saith, “Ye shall know my breach of promise.” I have promised and sworn to bring you into the land of Canaan, but you have so sinned against and provoked Me that I will not do it, yea, have sworn you shall not enter into my rest (Psalms 95:11). This difficulty is removed by considering that God did not make His promise or swear to those individual men that were kept out of Canaan, that they should be brought into it, for if it had been so God had forsworn Himself; but His promise and oath was that the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob should be brought into it (Genesis 12:17; Genesis 13:15; Genesis 15:18; Genesis 24:4; Genesis 50:24; Deuteronomy 34:4); and their seed was brought into the promised land (Joshua 1:2; Joshua 4:1; Joshua 14:1; Joshua 24:13); and so God’s promise and oath were kept. Those He swore against were those that murmured against Him, even all from twenty years old and upwards, except Caleb and Joshua, whose carcases fell in the wilderness (Joshua 5:6). As for Numbers 14:34, God’s breach of promise is, in the original, by frustration: you looked certainly to have entered into Canaan, but for your murmuring and unbelief I have frustrated your expectations. Or thus, you think My oath cannot be true, because of a former oath, and that the words I have uttered will prove false; but you shall know whether my words and oath be false or not. [The Revised Version (1885) has, “And ye shall know my alienation,” with the rendering in the margin. “The revoking of my promise.”]
“Flowing with milk and honey, which is the glory of all lands.” Of these words hath been spoken largely in Ezekiel 20:6. They are repeated here to show the ingratitude of the people, that were not affected with this land, which was a second Paradise, but despised it, and raised an ill-report upon it; as also to show what they lost in being kept out of it, and their folly in preferring Egypt before it.
1. Men’s sins disappoint them of choice mercies. Yea, mercies promised, expected, and near at hand. God had promised them Canaan, they were near unto it (Numbers 13), expected to go in and possess it; but God would not bring them into the land because they despised His judgments, walked not in His statutes, but polluted His sabbaths.
In Hebrews 3:19, it is said, “They could not enter in because of unbelief;” and Psalms 106:24, “they despised the pleasant land, they believed not His word.” It was their sins kept them back from so great, so near, so longed-for a mercy. Such is the malignity of sin that it drives mercies back when they are at the door, and blocks up the passage, that none for the future may issue forth towards us. God can hear and help; “but your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid His face from you, that He will not hear” (Isaiah 59:1-2); your sins stand like a trap-wall, a mighty mountain, between Him and you; they have cramped His will, so that though He can, yet He will neither hear your prayers nor help your persons. It is sin that keeps mercy from us. (Jeremiah 5:25).
2. When the heart is carried out after unlawful things, then the ways and ordinances of God are neglected, slighted, and profaned (Ezekiel 20:16). Their idols had stolen away their hearts from God. They had whorish hearts, and whorish eyes which went after their idols, and made them depart from God. David advised men not to set their hearts upon riches (Psalms 62:10); they will then be their idols, and make them forget God and His ways, and do those things which will profane His ordinances. Look well to your hearts, and let not them carry you away (Job 15:12).
3. When sinners provoke God into ways of destruction, He doth not utterly destroy them, but shows some pity and mercy. “Nevertheless mine eye spared them from destroying.” God did destroy many of them in the wilderness; three thousand upon their making the calf (Exodus 32:28); twenty-four thousand upon their committing whoredom with the daughters of Moab (Numbers 25:9); much people by fiery serpents upon their murmuring (Numbers 21:6); Korah, Dathan, and Abiram were swallowed up of the earth, and all theirs, and the two hundred and fifty men that offered incense were consumed by fire (Numbers 16:32-35); fourteen thousand seven hundred were destroyed by the plague (Ezekiel 20:49); and many by the Amorites in Seir (Deuteronomy 1:44). Yet all were not destroyed; God did not make an end of them in the wilderness, He did not consummate and perfect His wrath upon them. Though men have sinned much, yet God hath an eye to spare and a heart to pity. If He should punish and destroy none, He would be thought to be like unto sinners (Psalms 50:21); if He should destroy all, He would be thought to be cruel; to show, therefore, that He is a just God, He cuts off some; and to show He is a merciful God, he spares some.—(Greenhill.)