Reasoning Through the Bible
Taking a cue from Paul, Reasoning Through the Bible is an expository style walk through the Scriptures that tells you what the Bible says. Reviewing both Old and New Testament books, as well as topical subjects, we methodically teach verse by verse, even phrase by phrase.
We have completed many books of the Bible and offer free lesson plans for teachers. If you want to browse our entire library by book or topic, see our website www.ReasoningThroughTheBible.com.
We primarily do expository teaching but also include a good bit of theology and apologetics. Just like Paul on Mars Hill, Christianity must address both the ancient truths and the questions of the people today. Join Glenn and Steve every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday as they reason with you through the Bible.
Reasoning Through the Bible
S21 || What Happens When God Gives Us What We Want || Ezekiel 20:9-44 || Session 21
What happens when God's chosen people continually reject His goodness? Ezekiel 20 delivers a striking revelation as Israel's leaders approach the prophet seeking divine guidance, only to receive a history lesson they never expected.
God takes us on a journey through Israel's repeated pattern of rebellion, systematically listing His countless blessings—bringing them out of Egypt, giving His statutes, establishing the Sabbath as a sign between them—followed by their persistent disobedience. Three times God declares He resolved to pour out His wrath, yet each time He relented "for the sake of my name."
The haunting refrain throughout this passage reveals Israel's continual attraction to idolatry despite witnessing divine power firsthand. More disturbing still is their adoption of child sacrifice from surrounding pagan cultures—the very practices God had commanded them to destroy. When rebellion persists long enough, God eventually "gives them over" to harmful desires, withdrawing His restraining hand.
This ancient message speaks powerfully to our modern context. Have our churches grown dangerously comfortable with God, presuming upon His grace while ignoring His commands? The relationship God desires—portrayed throughout Scripture as a marriage covenant—demands genuine fidelity, not casual disregard.
The ultimate answer to this cycle appears not in Ezekiel's time but centuries later when God Himself enters human history through Jesus Christ. Rather than sending another prophet, He becomes the final word—offering Himself as the sacrifice that breaks the cycle of rebellion and judgment.
Whether you're a longtime believer or simply curious about biblical prophecy, this exploration of Ezekiel 20 offers profound insights into God's character, human nature, and the dangerous territory we enter when we persistently choose our own way over His.
Listen now to discover timeless wisdom from this often-overlooked passage, and consider what it means for your own relationship with God.
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May God Bless you!! - Glenn and Steve
We have in the Bible times where people would go and ask God questions, but he does not give them the answer that they would like to have heard. That's what we're going to see today In Ezekiel, chapter 20,. The leaders of Israel went to the prophet Ezekiel asking for a word from God. God basically says I'm not going to answer your question. What I will do is remind you of all of the good things I did for you. I'm going to remind you of all of the things that you responded and disobeyed. That's what we're going to see today. We're going to again see wave after wave of the goodness of God and the disobedience and evilness of people. That is one of the themes, not only in Ezekiel but throughout the Bible, is that we are weak and fallible and we disobey God, and God is good over and over again For us in the church age, we know the truth in the sense that we can fall at Jesus' feet and get forgiveness. Know the truth in the sense that we can fall at Jesus' feet and get forgiveness. The people of Israel are a demonstration for us in how people that don't fall at the feet of the Lord God and ask forgiveness what happens to them If you have your Bibles open to the book of Ezekiel, chapter 20, and we're going to read, starting in verse 9.
Speaker 1:And as we read this, I'm going to ask the audience to think of two things. There's one list of things in this that is all of the things that God did for Israel. That was good. He lists off many things. He also lists off things that Israel did in response, which was all disobedience. Think of those two things and we'll discuss them afterwards. But, steve, can you start at Ezekiel 20, verse 9, and read down through verse 29?
Speaker 2:But I acted for the sake of my name, that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations among whom they lived, in whose sight I made myself known to them by bringing them out of the land of Egypt. I took them out of the land of Egypt and brought them into the wilderness. I gave them my statutes and informed them of my ordinances, by which if a man observes them, he will live. Also, I gave them my Sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them that they might know that I am the Lord who sanctifies them. But the house of Israel rebelled against me in the wilderness. They did not walk in my statutes and they rejected my ordinances, by which if a man observes them he will live, and my Sabbaths they greatly profaned. Then I resolved to pour out my wrath on them in the wilderness, to annihilate them. But I acted for the sake of my name, that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations before whose sight I had brought them out. Also, I swore to them in the wilderness that I would not bring them into the land which I had given them, flowing with milk and honey, which is the glory of all lands, because they rejected my ordinances and as for my statutes, they did not walk in them. They even profaned my Sabbaths, for their heart continually went after their idols. Yet my eye spared them rather than destroying them, and I did not cause their annihilation in the wilderness. I said to their children in the wilderness Do not walk in the statutes of your fathers or keep their ordinances, or defile yourselves with their idols. I am the Lord, your God. Walk in my statutes and keep my ordinances and observe them. Sanctify my Sabbaths, and they shall be a sign between me and you that you may know that I am the Lord, your God. But the children rebelled against me. They did not walk in my statutes, nor were they careful to observe my ordinances, by which, if a man observes them, he will live. They profaned my Sabbaths. So I resolved to pour out my wrath on them, to accomplish my anger against them in the wilderness. But I withdrew my hand and acted for the sake of my name, that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations in whose sight I had brought them out. Also, I swore to them in the wilderness that I would scatter them among the nations and disperse them among the lands because they had not observed my ordinances, but had rejected my statutes and had profaned my Sabbaths, and their eyes were on the idols of their fathers.
Speaker 2:I also gave them statutes that were not good and ordinances by which they could not live, and I pronounced them unclean because of their gifts, in that they caused all their firstborn to pass through the fire so that I might make them desolate, in order that they might know that I am the Lord. Therefore, son of man, speak to the house of Israel and say to them Thus says the Lord God. Yet in this your fathers have blasphemed me by acting treacherously against me. When I had brought them into the land which I had swore to give them. Then they saw every high hill and every leafy tree, and they offered there their sacrifices, and there they presented the provocation of their offering. There also they made their soothing aroma, and there they poured out their drink offerings. Then I said to them what is the high place to which you go? So its name is called Bama to this day.
Speaker 1:In that section God went to great lengths to describe all of the good things he did for them. He also went to great lengths to describe how Israel responded to each of those good things. If I were to make a list of again all the things in there, first of all, that God did that was good, where he provided for Israel. He says in there that they brought them out of Egypt to a land flowing with milk and honey. He mentions that a couple of times verse 6 and verse 28. And, steve, that land there was indeed flowing with milk and honey. It was a very prosperous land was it not?
Speaker 2:It was prosperous. In fact, it was so prosperous when they first went over there and Moses sent out 12 spies that there were these huge grapes clusters that had to be carried on poles between two men. That was just an example. Of course, they rejected that and they had that story of them not going into the land at that time. But yes, it was prosperous and it was something that had been given to them, the things that God had actually promised to them when he says here if you'll follow in those statutes and ordinances so that you might live we mentioned a couple sessions ago that this went back to Deuteronomy, that this went back to Deuteronomy and that the living there didn't have to do with salvation.
Speaker 2:It had to do with living long in the land itself. Every time we saw that mentioned I think it was three times what we just read there if you would obey the statutes and ordinances, you might live in the land. That's why they didn't do it. They disobeyed. Therefore, now we find themselves being finally exiled off into Babylon. The whole nation itself, judah itself, is the last bastion of the great nation of Israel. Now we find them. They're only a few years away from Jerusalem being destroyed and the temple being destroyed.
Speaker 1:What else do we see here that God did for them? Verse 9, god says I made myself known to them, and verse 11, gave them my statutes. Just those things by themselves are a great blessing, are they not the commands of God? If we live by them and think of it, the creator of the universe appeared and revealed himself to the nation of Israel.
Speaker 2:Such great blessing. As we pointed out in the last session of what we read, he recounted taking them out of the land of Egypt. What went with that? All of those miracles that happened with it. You're exactly right. He showed who he was to the people. You would think that that would last from generation to generation to keep them to want to obey the statutes and ordinances that he gave to them, but for some reason they kept wanting to get pulled back into the world.
Speaker 1:He mentions three times in here in the section we just read that he brought them out of Egypt. Plus, as you said, he mentioned it in our last session. Over and over again he mentions I am the one that brought you out of Egypt. This was a major, major event in the history of Israel. It's hardwired into their history. Even today, the Passover ceremonies every year mentioned that he brought them out of Egypt. This is a major theme and it has theological implications as well. He mentions the Sabbath in there as well. That's another on this list of good things. Why is it that the Sabbath is a good thing for?
Speaker 2:people Because it's a day of rest. It's a day whenever they were to reflect on God and the things that he had done for them and provided for them. Along with it, there were other types of Sabbaths they would let the land lay fallow every seven years where you know it was crop rotation and things like that. There was not just them as people, but also for their livelihood and for their land. Sabbath rest is a good thing.
Speaker 1:Another thing on the list of good things that God did is sanctify them. He says at the end of verse 12, he sanctified them. Sanctification just means to set people apart. This was a special people set apart for his purpose, and to be set apart for God's purpose and to have God set you apart, that is such a great blessing. We can take comfort today, can we not, of being sanctified. All of us are given a purpose in the body of Christ, that each of us has a thing that we are to do that is special to God. We can serve Him and glorify His name. We are sanctified if you're a child of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1:It says in verse 14, quote I acted for the sake of my name, which he's referring there to relenting from punishing them for disobedience. And he relented because of my name, which what he's speaking there is because of the promise that he made. Because of my name means because of the promise that he made. Because of my name means because of the things that he had promised in his name. He promised Abraham to keep this people in the land and to give them the land. He told Abraham go out and look at the stars of the sky that you would be a great blessing. He didn't destroy them because of his promise that he made to Abraham Verse 17, he spared them rather than destroying them in the wilderness when they disobeyed. And then, in verses 18 to 20, he reminded the following generation to reject idols and follow God. Steve, this is all very good things that God had given his people.
Speaker 2:He says there that he didn't annihilate them because of the other nations. See, that was the a-main purpose of him creating this nation of Israel. It was something that he created out of nothing. He didn't take a person from another nation and continue that nation. He took a person and created a new nation, one that was his own, the nation of Israel. And the purpose for that, one of the purposes, was for them to show the one true God, the interaction between them and him.
Speaker 2:He remembers here, I think three times, where he was going to annihilate them, but he didn't do it because he says what would that show to the other nations? And if you remember the story when he went to that, they came out and they had the cold and the calf, while Moses was up there on the mountain receiving the Ten Commandments. He tells Moses your people down there have created a golden calf and are down there worshiping it and actually giving credit to that golden calf for bringing them out of Egypt. I'm going to destroy them and start over with you, moses and Moses, that was his argument for God. No, lord, don't do that, because what will all the other nations say? They'll just say that you brought them out here to destroy them.
Speaker 2:God didn't do that. Them out here to destroy them. God didn't do that and he continued there with them, but that is what he's telling them. I didn't do it because of the other nations. I'm doing this. I'm remembering the covenant I made with you. I'm remembering because you're my people, I'm your God and your purpose. One of them is to show the other nations who I am, and you've been doing it poorly, but yet that is one of your purposes.
Speaker 1:So in this section there's the long list that we just gave of God's blessings, his promises, the good things that God did to them. Back through the same section, interspersed in, there is another long list of Israel's response, which is disobedience and disbelief. Steve, what do you notice in these passages of how did Israel respond to all these good things that God gave?
Speaker 2:them. They continued to rebel against him and they continued to not follow the ordinances and to not follow the statutes and not to honor the Sabbath. So God goes to the next generation and tells them don't do what your fathers have done, Don't rebel against me. But yet that generation does the same thing. So they just continue to not follow God and obey him. So that why? So that they could live a long life in the land. That was the payoff for obeying God. They didn't do it, they just continued to rebel over and over again.
Speaker 1:They rebelled, it says in verse 8. They also did not cast away the Egyptian idols. He mentions that in here. They rebelled against me verse 13. They says four times in that section that they did not walk in my statutes and they rejected my ordinances. They profaned the Sabbath he says that three times and profaning the Sabbath again. The Sabbath was there because of God. It was not just a day of physical rest, but it was there for worshiping the Lord. When they profane the Sabbath, they're doing things that God had said not to. They're going out, ignoring God specifically so they can go out and do other work or whatever it says. They continually went after idols is the language here. Idols and pagan sacrifices are mentioned eight times in this chapter. Steve, did they have a problem with idols?
Speaker 2:They absolutely had a problem with idols. It was their downfall from the very beginning. As you mentioned, they brought them out of Egypt and brought them with them and continued to bring them all through their travel through the wilderness. Even though he was the wisest man, because he had asked for wisdom from God, he actually expanded the kingdom through alliances with outside countries and marrying the princesses from those outside nations and bringing them in. And what did he do? He allowed them to bring their idols in and to set up worship centers of their gods and, instead of being an influence on the other nations, he allowed them to be an influence on the nation of Israel. It's just again a sad situation, one that, for some reason, they just continued to disobey God, rebel against him, as pointed out the very first chapter of Ezekiel. Here God says I'm sending you to an obstinate and stubborn people.
Speaker 1:God very clearly gave his blessings and demonstrated his power and gave his ordinances to the generation that came out of Israel. He mentions here that he also repeated them to the following generations. How did Israel respond? Verse 21,. And so they were no better than the first generation.
Speaker 1:Many of us can say that we sin just like our parents did and their parents before them. Look at verse 26. It says there it caused your children to pass through the fire. Well, that is child sacrifice. They had even adopted child sacrifice as a pagan religious practice. They would sacrifice their first child with the view that the idol would give them fruitful and have many other children. That is so wrong, so evil. Back in Joshua's day, god had sent prophets to Canaan and they wouldn't listen. He finally sent Israel in to wipe them out. Israel failed to do so. They didn't obey God and didn't kill all the Canaanites. So here, by the time we get to Ezekiel's day, the evil of the Canaanites had rubbed off onto the people of Israel so that they had adopted child sacrifice. It's just a horrible thing. Verse 27, blasphemy and treachery. Steve, how far from God they had gotten.
Speaker 2:They had gotten really far. You mentioned blasphemy. I think, glenn, in our age we mentioned this in our last session that they maybe got comfortable with God, that he was there, that he was merciful and that he had protected them in various ways. Maybe somehow they got in their head that, oh, we can do these pagan things and yet God is still going to protect us, which is odd. As you mentioned, child sacrifice to another God. How in the world would you think that the Creator, yahweh, the God of Israel, would overlook that and not punishment?
Speaker 2:But in our day, glenn, I think that possibly that our churches today, in our churches, they've gotten too comfortable with God and think that God is going to overlook the blasphemous things they do, the mocking of him through the sermons that they preach, the making fun of him, his ways and his statutes and ordinances from the standpoint of things that he's told us to do to follow the law of Christ, and to think that God is going to overlook it.
Speaker 2:The so-called preachers that get up and give false prophecies and do things and are just really charlatans, stealing money from the people through the things that they say and telling of trips that they've made to heaven and that they're throwing their arm around Jesus and that God and Abraham even come up to them and ask them for advice on what to do.
Speaker 2:I mean, these are all things that I have heard just in the last few months through these various different preachers from various different denominations and different things that they're doing and bringing the world into their worship services, things like that.
Speaker 2:The only thing I can think of Glenn is that they've just gotten too comfortable with God and they think that God is going to overlook this stuff. But he's not going to overlook it and for even some of these so-called preachers, their consequence is going to be when they meet Jesus, he's going to say depart from me, for I never knew you. They're going to say but wait a minute, lord, I would cast out demons. Your name I gave to the poor, I did this, I did that. And he's going to say depart because I never knew you. It's going to be a rude awakening for them, but I think there's a parallel between our modern day and what was going on with Israel at that point in time getting too comfortable with God and not realizing that there's going to be consequences. God won't be mocked, he won't be made fun of and there's going to be consequences.
Speaker 1:In this section that we just read. In Ezekiel, chapter 20, god repeatedly listed off all of the good things he had done for them, and he even said I repeated it to the next generation and they disobeyed as much as the first one. The issue is still here today. He has repeated it to us. He even put it in a book so that we could learn it and not lose it. We end up with the same problem. We have churches that ignore God's commands, ignore God's ways, that think that their own passions and their own decisions know better, and they ignore God's commands. We've all been guilty of this to one degree or another and we really, really need to take His word seriously and bend our will to his. We all go astray if left to ourselves. If we're deciding for ourselves what's right and wrong, then we're just as guilty as the people in Ezekiel's day.
Speaker 1:Notice, in this passage he lists off why he acts. Why does he act? Verse 9,. I acted for the sake of my name. Verse 14, I acted for the sake of my name Verse 22,. But I withdrew my hand and acted for the sake of my name. God was acting because of the promise he had made earlier to Abraham. He said I used my name to make a promise to Abraham that I would keep this people. Therefore, I will. But also note the times when God says what he will do. He says I did this for the sake of my name. But verse 8, I resolved to pour out my wrath, accomplish my anger against them. Verse 13 and verse 21, I resolved to pour out my wrath on them.
Speaker 1:What God is saying in this passage is that the generation that came out of Egypt was disobedient. God reminded the next generation to avoid the problems of the first one. The next generation disobeyed just as much as their fathers did. God was very patient and gave them many blessings, but they turned to pagan idols. The New Testament represents our relationship with God as a bride, steve. Here's the question. Since God desires a love relationship, how serious is our disobedience? Today? We can look back under the law. He had all these commands 600 plus commandments in the Mosaic law and prophets over and over, and Israel disobeyed. It was very clear disobey this command and you'll receive this punishment. In our day, we have a love relationship with God through the Lord Jesus Christ. What happens in our day if we are doing the same things as the ancient Israelites saying oh, we're the covenant people, therefore we can just go do all that we want. What would happen in a husband-wife relationship if one of them just callously disregards the love relationship?
Speaker 2:That's how God described it. His relationship with Israel was Israel was his wife and that they had gone off and played the harlot. Not only just played the harlot, but they were actually paying the foreign countries to come in so that they could be a harlot to them. Again, it's a slap in his face, so to speak, for him for somebody to have that loving relationship that he describes there in an anthropomorphic way of a wife and a bride of Christ. Then for that entity to go off and worship other gods and do other things, it's a picture of one that's betraying the trust of a fellow loved one and betraying the love that has been shown by the other loved one and the disregard for what the other one has done for them. As I mentioned before, we need to be careful in our day and age to not become too comfortable with God and thinking that God's going to overlook many of the things that I think modern day churches are doing.
Speaker 1:The overall big picture in the book of Ezekiel and the message is really not over yet, we'll get to it in future chapters is this very graphic, very blunt story of God saying message from God saying look, I'm going to send Babylon in and many people are going to be burned with the city they're going to be destroyed, we're going to take away the kings, we're going to tear down the walls of the city, you're going to destroy the temple. All this very graphic, horrible description. Well, what would happen if God didn't do that, if God would have said, okay, I'm just going to allow the idol worship to continue, I'll keep sending prophets forever. What would be the case? What would have that said one to the person of God? What would it have done with the actual sin in?
Speaker 2:Israel. God, sending the prophets in, shows the love that he has for them, that he is trying to get them back on the right track over and over again. As we've pointed out, Jeremiah and Daniel are contemporaries of Ezekiel. We see God working in various ways with the nation of Israel. Jeremiah is staying there in the land itself of Jerusalem and the temple area, pleading with the people that are there you need to repent and return to God. Ezekiel is there with the exiles and doing the same thing, telling them actually you need to settle in here because you're here because of the things that you've done, but of course, you're going to have a chance to repent and once again worship God whenever he puts you back into the land. We have Daniel actually working with the Gentile nations, in that he's in Nebuchadnezzar's court. So we see God working in different ways with different prophets in order to convey his love and desire for his creation, both the nation of Israel itself and for the Gentile nations. As Daniel again is working with Nebuchadnezzar and other Persian kings that come along.
Speaker 2:I think it's just a picture of God wanting the people to do the right thing. If he didn't do that, then they would just continue doing what they're doing because they're already continue doing it, even though he sends the prophets him, because they're already continue doing it, even though he sends the prophets, but yet it's a wake-up call every time where they're to realize what they need to do. Ultimately, Glenn, what does he do? He comes himself in Jesus Christ and he walks among his creation and he gives himself as a satisfactory sacrifice for his creation. That's the ultimate thing. Many people say that Jesus was a prophet. No, he was more than a prophet. He's God himself that came to die and be resurrected, to give his life to pay the price, the sin debt, for the people of the world.
Speaker 1:If we ask the question what would have happened if God would have just ignored these disobedient people and allowed them to keep going? Because what he actually did was finally, as the book of Ezekiel says, send in Babylon to have mass death. It killed many of the people, destroyed things, displaced people. What would have happened if God hadn't done that? Well, we don't have to guess. That's what happened for many centuries since he first gave the commands, back in Moses' day. They continued child sacrifice, which means the murder would have continued. If God hadn't have dealt with that, then God would have been guilty of ignoring evil and not dealing with it, and they would have continued to reject the one true God that gave them all the benefits. They would have continued to refuse to give the worship that he is quite worthy of, which is a high crime. Lastly, as we wrap up the session for today, there's one apologetic question I think we can cover. Verse 25 says I also gave them statutes that were not good and ordinances by which they could not live. So the question then comes in is how could that be God give them things they couldn't do? Well, what he's saying here is that, similar to what the NIV says, which quote gave them over to statutes that were not good.
Speaker 1:One of the themes it's not only here but throughout Scripture is that if we rebel long enough, then God will remove His Spirit, he will withdraw His common grace, he will withdraw His drawing back to the moral ways and give them over to what their hearts desired, which was to follow pagan morality. We can get to a point where God gives us up and stops drawing us towards the good by which they could not live Just means I'm giving them over to things. You won't survive if you keep doing this. You won't live if you keep doing this pagan morality. That's where our culture is today, is it not? We can just see, within one or two generations, god has withdrawn a lot of his hands and our culture is going to hell in a handbasket, doing everything that people's hearts desire.
Speaker 2:That's a dangerous place to be in, whenever God just turns you over to yourself. Over in Romans, it says that the people exchanged the truth for a lie and mocked God, and so God just turned them over to their selves, to their ways that they wanted to do. That's a dangerous place to be in, whenever God just turns away and says OK, I've tried to make you several times become a believer in me. You don't want to do that? Therefore, I'm just going to let you off and do what you want to do. That's what he just got through saying here that he did with Israel.
Speaker 1:Well, stop today because of time. Oh, these passages back here, these long ignored passages back in Ezekiel. How beneficial they are and how valuable they are, and we will continue. This is a hard lesson, but it's so rich and so valuable for us. We'll continue to reason through that next time.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much for watching and listening. May God bless you.
