Ezekiel 20:27-32 – True worship sanctifies

In Ezekiel 20:27-32, the prophet was addressing the present generation that God had brought into Canaan. Unworthy as they were, God kept His word. Despite all that He had done for them, they also did not serve Him. Verse 27 says they blasphemed and acted treacherously against Him.  Acting as their fathers did, they served the other gods.

In God’s own words in verse 28, “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.” They went to every pagan shrine on every green hill and every green tree and participated in worshipping those pagan idols.   They had the audacity to provoke the Lord by offering sacrifices and incense to those false and foreign deities. Bluntly God told them off and called out their unfaithfulness.  They were found in “bamah” which means high place.

Rhetorically God pointed to their propensity. They had defiled themselves and played the harlot as their fathers did. They had the impudence to come and inquire of God despite all that they had done - offering sacrifices to those deities and making their children pass through the fire. God vehemently made known that He refused to entertain them for acting as the pagans did. No longer would they be the unique covenant people of God, no longer would they be guided by His Word. He even guaranteed them that their desire would come to pass. That they would be “like the nations, like the tribes of the lands, serving wood and stone.”

When the object we worship is not God, we are guilty of idolatry. Who we worship will determine our outcome. Worshiping the true God always brings about restoration, and worshiping idols brings ruin. The contrasting outcomes cannot be starker. This is what Psalm 115:8 has to say for those who indulge in the worship of idols. “Those who make them will become like them, everyone who trusts in them.” They would be like those idols, dumb and lifeless. These verses give us a very sobering reminder not to worship idols or become like them. We are called to worship God alone and in worshipping Him we find sanctification.