Ezekiel 20:18-26 – Stay within the boundary grace.

As God had chosen Israel as His covenant people, He told them to cast away the idols of Egypt. They were told not to have anything to do with them, but they did not obey. Not wanting to shame Himself before the eyes of the Egyptians, He led them into the wilderness to deal with them. In the wilderness, He gave them decrees and regulations to follow and the instruction to observe the Sabbath. This was to demonstrate that they were His sanctified people. They not only did not obey but also continued to serve the idols. And instead of annihilating them, God once again chose to show mercy for His name’s sake. Disappointingly the first generation failed God.  

What we see in Ezekiel 20:18-26 is God continuing to provide evidence to show the wicked tendencies of His covenant people. God had hope that the second generation of His covenant people that grew in the wilderness would fare better, but He was disappointed. In His grace, God urged them to be faithful to Him, not to follow in their father’s footsteps by dabbling and defiling themselves with idols. He admonished them to adhere to the divinely revealed statutes and decrees and to observe the Sabbath, the signs of their covenant relationship with God. If they had obeyed His instruction, God was certain that they would personally know and experience Him, as their Lord.    

Verse 21 said, “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.” They did as their fathers before they did. Not wanting to dishonor Himself before the Gentiles, again God did not destroy this second generation for His name’s sake. Instead, God swore that He would scatter them among the nations for their rebellion. They would have to contend with regulation and a culture that they would find difficult to live with. They would be influenced by practices that caused death. Practices such as child sacrifice and sorcery would lead the land into desolation.  

God’s judgment begins when He gives up on a person. Romans 1:26-32 shows us what will result to a person when that happens. First, would be the loss of objectivity.  Then the loss of all logic before the loss of a sound moral compass.   It is frightening to end up with a depraved mind doing what verses 28-32 say a depraved person will do: “things which are not proper, being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips,  slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful; and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same but also give hearty approval to those who practice them.”