50 lines
2.6 KiB
Markdown
50 lines
2.6 KiB
Markdown
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title = "Ezekiel 20:1–32"
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date = "2023-04-20"
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### [Read the passage.](https://biblia.com/bible/esv/Ezekiel20.1-32)
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It has now been almost a year since Ezekiel was taken to Jerusalem in a vision
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to see the abominations the people were doing there, and the desctruction the
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Lord caused there. (_ch. 8_) The date given in chapter 20 means the tenth of
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Ab, which corresponds to August, 591 <span style="font-variant-caps:
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small-caps">b.c.</span> Interestingly, this is precisely five years before
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Ezekiel's vision is fulfilled, and the Babylonians sack Jerusalem for real. I
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don't think this is more significant than a coincidence, but it is nice to know
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that we can date things this accurately even so long ago.
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On this date, the elders of Israel again come to Ezekiel to inquire something
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from the Lord. However, because of the sins Israel has committed, the Lord
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refuses to answer their question. Instead, He reviews Israel's history of
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idolatry, which persisted throughout their entire time as a nation. While they
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lived in Egypt they worshipped the Egyptian idols, so the Lord told them to
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cast them away when He brought them out. He gave them His Law and statutes,
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representend in this text as the Sabbath, which should have brought them life,
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but they profaned and disobeyed them.
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After an entire generation of Israelites died in the wilderness outside the
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Promised Land, the Lord charged their children not to walk in the ways of their
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fathers. But they failed and continued in the same sins. Every time the Lord
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describes the failure of the people, He threatens to wipe them out completely
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in judgement, but then He relents because His name would be profaned among the
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nations. Instead He judges them with exile and scattering them away from the
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land, as Moses predicted before they ever entered the Promised Land.
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Israel had even gone so far as to pervert the statutes the Lord had given them.
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Back when He made the covenant with Israel, He told them to devote their
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firstborn children as holy to the Lord, but they should use an animal as a
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substitute sacrifice, because God has never actually wanted us to sacrifice our
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children to Him. Somehow Israel forgot that last part, and offered their
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children up as burnt offerings, possibly to Yahweh, but definitely to the
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Caananite god Molech.
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The Lord lists all these things and presents His case against the elders of
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Israel. They, representing the whole nation, persist in idolatry still, so they
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have no grounds to inquire what the Lord wants them to do. They have already
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been told and don't do it now, so why should they hear more?
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* * *
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How great is your patience and long-suffering, O God, to deal with sinners like
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us.
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