“Therefore, son of man, speak to the house of Israel, and tell them, ‘The Lord Yahweh says: “Moreover, in this your fathers have blasphemed me, in that they have committed a trespass against me. For when I had brought them into the land which I swore to give to them, then they saw every high hill, and every thick tree, and they offered there their sacrifices, and there they presented the provocation of their offering. There they also made their pleasant aroma, and there they poured out their drink offerings. Then I said to them, ‘What does the high place where you go mean?’ So its name is called Bamah to this day.” ’
“Therefore tell the house of Israel, ‘The Lord Yahweh says: “Do you pollute yourselves in the way of your fathers? Do you play the prostitute after their abominations? When you offer your gifts, when you make your sons pass through the fire, do you pollute yourselves with all your idols to this day? Should I be inquired of by you, house of Israel? As I live, says the Lord Yahweh, I will not be inquired of by you!
“ ‘ “That which comes into your mind will not be at all, in that you say, ‘We will be as the nations, as the families of the countries, to serve wood and stone.’ As I live, says the Lord Yahweh, surely with a mighty hand, with an outstretched arm, and with wrath poured out, I will be king over you.
John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv27–32 He now descends to the wickedness of the people,…
He now descends to the wickedness of the people, by which God was provoked after they had taken possession of the land of Canaan, since they despised God after being so carefully warned. He complains, therefore, that this was very disgraceful, since, after he had put them in possession of the land of promise, they had never desisted from purposely insulting him. This disgrace was intolerable, since he had profited nothing by them in the wilderness: this witnessing was sufficiently serious to stir them up. “Walk you not in the decrees of your fathers: I am your God, observe you my law.” Since. therefore, God drew them under obedience to himself, what a mark of pride it was not to attend to that witness-bearing, but to pursue their own mad career? In truth, the crime was the more atrocious when at length they entered the land of Canaan, and had obtained so many victories, that they did not learn by experience how God declared his pourer for the very purpose of binding them closer to himself. For the numerous benefits which God had conferred upon them were but so many bonds by which they were bound more closely to him. This expostulation, then, is not in vain, when he reproaches them by saying, when they dishonored me, or rebelled against me. This was not a single crime, or simple perfidy, but a continual delight in wantonly insulting him; for גדף, gedef, signifies to reject, treat contumeliously, or disdain. God, therefore, by this word wishes to express the deliberate insolence of the people, while they rose so wickedly against him as if they would spit in his face. The full meaning is, that they were not only breakers of treaties and rebels when they contaminated the land of Canaan with their superstitions, but were so petulant that they professedly threw scorn upon God.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv28–32 Not only in the wilderness, when I brought them…
Not only in the wilderness, when I brought them out of Egypt, but since I placed them in this land: which declareth how prompt man’s heart is to idolatry, seeing that by no admonitions he can be drawn back.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv27–33 Eze 20:27 Therefore, son of man, speak unto the…
Eze 20:27 Therefore, son of man, speak unto the house of Israel, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Yet in this your fathers have blasphemed me, in that they have committed a trespass against me.
Ver. 27. Your fathers have blasphemed me.] Because they trembled not at my judgments while they hung in the threatenings, but went on wilfully in their wickedness, putting it to the venture. This is a kind of blasphemy. Compare Num 15:30-31. This is a sin scarce to be expiated with any sacrifice: such a sinner must be cut off.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv27–33 Since all this evil and wicked carriage in Egypt…
Since all this evil and wicked carriage in Egypt and in the wilderness is too true, and cause of a Divine wrath against them, go on; tell what the deportment of those was whom I brought into the land.
Unto the house of Israel; to those elders that were now come to him, that they might tell others at Jerusalem.
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Yet; or further yet, beside all the rest, this is added by them.
Blasphemed me; profanely and frowardly lessened my mercy, my law, my worship, cast a reproach upon it all, as less desirable than that of their own; theirs more august and stately, more taking and pleasing: or thus reproached my wisdom, as if it needed their additions to complete religion and Divine worship; or reproached my bounty, as if not I, but their idols, gave them what they enjoyed, as Hos 2:5,7,8; the word speaks a reproach and blasphemy that comes from a heart full of enmity, as where it is used, Num 15:30; 2Ki 19:22; Psa 44:16; Isa 37:23; 43:28; they spitefully reproached.
Committed a trespass against me; grievously sinned, as the phrase is rendered, Eze 14:13; what this was in particular the next verse will account to us.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On vv27, 33 Here the prophet goes on with the story of…
Here the prophet goes on with the story of their rebellions, for their further humiliation, and shows,
I. That they had persisted in them after they were settled in the land of Canaan. Though God had so many times testified his displeasure against their wicked courses, "yet in this (that is, in the very same thing) your fathers have blasphemed me, continued to affront me, that they also have trespassed a trespass against me," Eze 20:27. Note, It is a great aggravation of sin when men will not take warning by the mischievous consequences of sin in those that have gone before them: this is blaspheming God; it is speaking reproachfully of his judgments, as if they were of no significancy and were not worth regarding. 1. God had made good his promise: I brought them into the land that I had sworn to give them. Though their unbelief and disobedience had made the performance slow, and much retarded it, yet it did not make the promise of no effect. They were often very near being cut off in the wilderness, but a step between them and ruin, and yet they came to Canaan at last. Note, Even God's Israel get to heaven by hell-gates; so many are their transgressions, and so strong their corruptions, that it is a miracle of mercy they are happy at last; as hypocrites go to hell by heaven-gates. The righteous scarcely are saved. Per tot discrimina rerum tendimus ad coelum - Ten thousand dangers fill the road to heaven. 2. They had broken his precept by their abominable idolatries. God had appointed them to destroy all the monuments of idolatry, that they might not be tempted to desert his sanctuary; but, instead of defacing them, they fell in love with them, and when they saw every high hill whence they had the most delightful prospects, and all the thick trees where they had the most delightful shades (the former to show forth their pompous idolatries, the latter to conceal their shameful ones), there they offered their sacrifices and made their sweet savour, which should have been presented upon God's altar only. There they presented the provocation of their offering (Eze 20:28), that is, their offerings, which, instead of pacifying God, or pleasing him, were highly provoking-sacrifices which, though costly, yet being misplaced, were an abomination to the Lord. 3. They obstinately persisted herein notwithstanding all the admonitions that were given them (Eze 20:29): "Then I told them, by my servants the prophets, told them where the high place was, to which they went; nay, I put them upon considering it, and asking their own consciences concerning it, by putting this question to them, Which is the high place whereunto you go? What do you find there so inviting that you will leave God's altars, where he requires your attendance, to frequent such places as he has forbidden you to worship in? Do you not know that those high places are of a heathenish extraction, and that the things which the Gentiles sacrificed they sacrificed to devils and not to God? Did not Moses tell you so? Deu 32:17. And will you have fellowship with devils? What is that high place to which you go when you turn your back on God's altars? O foolish Israelites, who or what has bewitched you, that you will forsake the fountain of life for broken cisterns, that worship which God appoints, and will accept, for that which he forbids, which he abhors, and which he will punish?" And yet the name is called Bamah unto this day; they will have their way, let God and his prophets say what they please to the contrary. They are wedded to their high places; even in the best reigns those were not taken away; you could not prevail to take away the name of Bamah - the high place, out of their mouths, but still they would have that in the place of their worship. The sin and the sinner are with difficulty parted.
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II. That this generation, after they were unsettled, continued under the dominion of the same corrupt inclinations to idolatry, Eze 20:30. He must say to the present house of Israel, some of whose elders were now sitting before him, "Are you polluted after the manner of your fathers? After all that God has said against you by a succession of prophets, and done against you by a series of judgments, yet will you take no warning? Will you still be as bad as your fathers were, and commit the same abominations that they committed? I see you will; you are bent upon returning to the old abominations; you offer your gifts in the high places, and you make your sons to pass through the fire; either you actually do it or you do it in purpose and imagination, and so you continue idolaters to this day." These elders seem now to have been projecting a coalition with the heathen; their hearts they will reserve for the God of Israel, but their knees they will be at liberty to bow to the gods of the nations among whom they live, that they may have the more respect and the fairer quarter among them. Now the prophet is here ordered to tell those who were forming this scheme, and were for compounding the matter between God and Baal, that they should have no comfort or benefit from either. 1. They should have no benefit by their consulting in private with the prophets of the Lord; for, because they were hearkening after idols, God would have nothing to do with them (Eze 20:31): As I live, saith the Lord God, I will not be enquired of by you. What he had said before (Eze 20:3), having largely shown how just it was, he here repeats, as that which he would abide by. Let them not think that they honoured him by their enquiries, nor expect an answer of peace from him, as long as they continued in love and league with their idols. Note, Those reap no benefit by their religion that are not entire and sincere in it; nor can we have any comfortable communion with God in ordinances of worship unless we be inward and upright with him therein. We make nothing of our profession if it be but a profession. Nay, 2. They should have no benefit from their conforming in public to the practice of their neighbours (Eze 20:32): "That which comes into your mind as a piece of refined politics in the present difficult juncture, and which you would be advised to for your own preservation, and that you may not by being singular expose yourselves to abuses, it shall not be at all, it shall turn to no account to you. You say, 'We will be as the heathen, we will join with them in worshipping their gods, though at the same time we do not believe them to be gods, but wood and stone, and then we should be taken as the families of the countries; they will not know, or in a little while will have forgotten, that we are Jews, and will allow us the same privileges with their own countrymen.' Tell them," says God, "that this project shall never prosper. Either their neighbours will not admit them to join with them in their worship, or, if they do, will think never the better, but the worse, of them for it, and will look upon them as dissemblers, and not fit to be trusted, who are thus false to their God, and put a cheat upon their neighbours." Note, There is nothing got by sinful compliances; and the carnal projects of hypocrites will stand them in no stead. It is only integrity and uprightness that will preserve men, and recommend them to God and man.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv27–33 Therefore, son of man, speak unto the house of…
Therefore, son of man, speak unto the house of Israel, and say unto them,.... The elders of Israel, Eze 20:1; who came in the name of the whole body, and represented them, and by whom the following message is sent unto them; or the prophet by them might speak unto them, as he is ordered:
thus saith the Lord God, yet in this your fathers have blasphemed me; besides what they did in Egypt, and in the wilderness, when they were come into the land of Canaan, such was their ingratitude, that to all the rest they added this wickedness, to sacrifice to other gods on every high hill, and in all thick trees; which was a blaspheming the name of God, and casting reproach upon him:
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in that they have committed a trespass against me; idolatry is meant, described in Eze 20:28; and which they committed, not through ignorance and weakness, but voluntarily, against light and knowledge; and obstinately, notwithstanding all the remonstrances made unto them, and cautions, exhortations, and reproofs given them.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv29, 31, 32 What - What mean you that you go to…
What - What mean you that you go to the high place? What do you find so inviting there, that you will leave God's altar, where he requires your attendance, to frequent such places as he has forbidden you to worship in? Bamah - That is, the high place.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv29, 31, 32 Verse 29. What is the high place] מה הבמה…
Verse 29. What is the high place] מה הבמה mah habbamah, "what is the high place?" What is it good for? Its being a high place shows it to be a place of idolatry. I called it במה bamah, to mark it with infamy; but ye continue to frequent it, even while it is called במה bamah, to the present day!
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv27, 30, 33 Eze 20:27-29. Therefore, son of man, speak, &c. —…
Eze 20:27-29. Therefore, son of man, speak, &c. — Here the prophet proceeds with the story of their rebellions for their further humiliation, and shows that they persisted in them after they were settled in the land of Canaan. Thus saith the Lord, Yet in this, &c. — Or, Moreover in this, your fathers have blasphemed me — Have dishonoured me in acting contrary to my commandments. For when I had brought them into the land, &c. — As soon as they were settled in the land promised to Abraham and his seed; then they saw every high hill, &c. — When they saw the high hills and shady groves, they made choice of them as proper places whereon to erect altars for the worship of idols. The Jews were wont to offer sacrifices upon mountains or high places to the true God before the temple was built, 1Ki 3:2; 1Ki 3:5. And this custom was afterward, permitted by godly kings, who were zealous in putting down all sorts of idolatry, 1Ki 15:14; and 1Ki 22:43; 2Ch 33:17. But by degrees those places became appropriated to idolatrous worship, and upon that score are severely condemned. There they presented the provocation of their offering — There they presented the offerings whereby they provoked me. This, being distinguished from their sacrifices already mentioned, is to be understood of their meat-offerings, of which see the note on Lev 2:1. These were especially styled offerings of a sweet savour. Then I said, What is the high place whereunto ye go? — What mean you that you go to the high place? What do you find so inviting there, that you will leave my altar, where I require your attendance, to frequent such places as I have forbidden you to worship in, and which I will avenge? And the name thereof is called Bamah — That is, the high place; unto this day — “Notwithstanding my reproof, the name continues, and the practice, unto this day.” So Bishop Newcome, who adds, “It may be doubted whether the last six (Hebrew words) of this verse have not been taken into the text from the margin, where they anciently stood as a note.” “All the old versions have this verse, which yet seems out of its place here. If the verse should stand, it relates to something not to be explained now.” — Secker.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv27, 32 The probation in the land of Canaan from their…
The probation in the land of Canaan from their entry to the day of Ezekiel.
Eze 20:27
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Yet in this - It was an aggravation of their guilt that they defiled with idolatry the land given them for their glory.
Eze 20:29
Bamah - The Hebrew word for “high place.” Another instance of the perversion of God’s laws. When the Israelites first entered Canaan they were to set up the “tabernacle” on a “high place,” and upon this and upon no other they were to worship Yahweh (1Sa 9:12 ff; 1Ki 3:4). But the Israelites followed the custom of the country, and set up idol-worship on every high hill, and the word “high place” (“Bannah,” plural “Bamoth”) became a by-word (compare “Bamoth-Baal,” Jos 13:17). “Bamoth” occurs on the Moabitic stone, which records the erection of high places in honor of Chemosh. The name “Bamah” was thus a brand of the divine displeasure, and a memorial of the people’s guilt.
Eze 20:30, Eze 20:31
The present state of the people. Those who came to inquire were the representatives of the whole people though belonging to the exiles.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv29, 32, 33 Called high. Hebrew, "Bamah," (Haydock) out of contempt. (Calmet)…
Called high. Hebrew, "Bamah," (Haydock) out of contempt. (Calmet) --- The Jews were so much attached to the high places, that they called the altar of the Lord by the same name. Thus heretics are convicted by the very names they use, calling sacrifice service, &c. (Worthington)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv27–33 The next period, namely, that which followed the settlement…
The next period, namely, that which followed the settlement in Canaan: the fathers of the generation existing in Ezekiel's time walked in the same steps of apostasy as the generation in the wilderness.
Yet in this--Not content with past rebellions, and not moved with gratitude for God's goodness, "yet in this," still further they rebelled.
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blasphemed--"have insulted me" [CALVIN]. Even those who did not sacrifice to heathen gods have offered "their sacrifices" (Eze 20:28) in forbidden places.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv27, 28, 29, 31, 32, 33 27. A trespass — Rather, unfaithfulness. The most awful…
27. A trespass — Rather, unfaithfulness. The most awful blasphemy is seen, not in word, but, as here, in indifference and irreverence (Num_15:30).
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv27–33 27. Yet in this] i.e. the following act, Eze_20:28,…
27. Yet in this] i.e. the following act, Eze_20:28, cf. Eze_23:38.
have blasphemed] Past tense: blasphemed … they committed. The blasphemy is not in words, but in high-handed disregard of his commands, Num_15:30.
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27–29. The people on their entry and in their abode in Canaan.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv27, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33 (27) Your fathers have blasphemed me.—The fourth period of…
(27) Your fathers have blasphemed me.—The fourth period of Israelitish history, though actually far the longest, is very briefly passed over (Eze_20:27-29). It includes the whole period of the settlement in Canaan, from the conquest to the prophet’s own time, and was marked by the same characteristics as before. The particular way here specified by which they blasphemed was by the erection of idolatrous altars on every high place.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv27, 28, 29, 30, 32, 33 Vers. 27-31. The memory of offences in the land…
Vers. 27-31. The memory of offences in the land of promise.
Notwithstanding the variety of incident and circumstance in the history of the chosen people, there was much sameness in their experience, in their discipline, in their errors and faults. This may account for the brevity with which the later epochs of national history are treated by the prophet in this passage. Yet there is a consciousness on his part of the aggravation of Israel"s guilt which is apparent in the tone of this portion of this remarkable chapter.
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I ISRAEL"S REBELLION AND IDOLATRY WERE AGGRAVATED BY THE FACT THAT THEY WERE PERSISTED IN NOTWITHSTANDING PAST ADMONITION AND CORRECTION.
II ISRAEL"S REBELLION AND IDOLATRY WERE AGGRAVATED WHEN THEY OCCURRED IN THE LAND OF PROMISE.
III ISRAEL"S REBELLION AND IDOLATRY WERE AGGRAVATED BY THEIR COEXISTENCE WITH THE SANCTUARY OF JEHOVAH.
IV ISRAEL"S REBELLION AND IDOLATRY WERE AGGRAVATED BY THEIR JUXTAPOSITION WITH THE PURE SERVICES AND FESTIVALS OF THE TRUE RELIGION.
V ISRAEL"S REBELLION AND IDOLATRY WERE AGGRAVATED BY THE FACT THAT THE CHOSEN PEOPLE ADOPTED THE RELIGION AND THE PRACTICES OF MORALLY INFERIOR RACES.
VI ISRAEL"S AGGRAVATED REBELLION AND IDOLATRY PREVENTED THEIR REPRESENTATIVES FROM ENJOYING THE FAVOUR AND RECEIVING THE RESPONSE OF THE LORD. T.
Vers. 27-29. God, and Israel in Canaan.
son of man, speak unto the house of Israel, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God," etc. We have here
I GREAT KINDNESS GRACIOUSLY CONFERRED. "I had brought them into the land which I lifted up mine hand to give unto them.
1. The Lord gave Canaan unto them, and brought them into it. "He gave them the lands of the nations; and they took the labour of the peoples in possession"; (Psa_105:44) "And when he had destroyed seven nations in the land of Canaan, he gave them their land for an inheritance". (Act_13:19) Look at the taking of Jericho as an illustration of this. It was not by human strategy or strength that they obtained the city, but by Divine interposition. And this land was a desirable possession. (cf. Num_13:27; Deu_8:7-9 Deu_11:10-12; and see our notes Eze_19:10)
1. The Lord brought them into Canaan in fulfilment of his promise. "The land which I lifted up mine hand to give unto them." The lilting up of the hand is the gesture of the oath, or solemn promise. Notwithstanding the rebellions of those to whom the promise was given, and the difficulties in the way of its fulfilment, he made his promise good. His faithfulness and his power guarantee the performance of his word. Here we have ground for confidence in him. (cf. Num_10:13:19; Mat_24:35; 1Pe_1:25)
2. The Lord brought them into Canaan of his own unmerited favour. Though not expressed, this is clearly implied here. (cf. Deu_7:6-8 Deu_9:4-6) God"s kindness to us has been great and undeserved. Who can count the multitude of his mercies, or estimate their preciousness? "The Lord hath dealt bountifully with us.
II GREAT KINDNESS BASELY REQUITED.
1. By worshipping in prohibited places. "Then they saw every high hill, and all the thick trees, and they offered there their sacrifices," etc. (ver. 28). The margin of the Revised Version presents a more striking signification and a darker guilt. "They looked out for every high hill," etc. Their conduct in this respect was a perversion of a Divine law. "When the Israelites first entered Canaan, they were to set up the tabernacle on a high place, and upon this and. upon no other they were to worship Jehovah. This was the high place. (1Sa_9:12, etc.; 1Ki_3:4) But the Israelites followed the custom of the country, and set up idol worship on every high hill, and the word "high place" (bamah), or in the plural "high places" (bamoth), became a byword. (comp. bamoth Baal," Jos_13:17) ("Speaker"s Commentary"). This was distinctly forbidden to the Israelites. (Deu_12:1-14)
2. by worshipping prohibited objects. They offered sacrifices to idols. This fact is not explicitly stated in our text; but it is implied in the charge of blasphemy preferred against them, and in the expression," the provocation of their offering.
(1) As to their blasphemy. The attempt "to combine God and idols in one"s religion is blasphemy." It involves a fearful disparagement, if not the despising, of the Lord Jehovah.
(2) The expression, "the provocation of their offering," indicates the offerings made to idols whereby they provoked God to anger. (cf. Deu_32:16, Deu_32:17; 1Ki_14:22) "It was an aggravation of their guilt that they not only were idolaters, but defiled with their idolatry the land which was given them for their glory." It was perverting the gracious gift of God to his deep dishonour. (cf. Jer_2:7) How often have the good gifts of God been thus perverted! Genius and power, rank and riches, have frequently been used for selfish and sinful purposes. And in this and other ways the kindness of God to man is often basely requited still.
III A SINFUL PEOPLE DIVINELY INTERROGATED. "Then I said unto them, What is the high place whereunto ye go?" Revised Version, "What meaneth the high place?" etc. This inquiry seems to be designed:
1. To awaken their serious reflection. It was fitted for this. Perhaps it would lead the idolatrous people to ask themselves, "What meaneth the high place whereunto we go?" Earnest interrogation might lead to profitable consideration.
2. To lead to their recognition of their folly. Serious reflection could hardly fail to reveal to them the foolishness of idolatry. What benefit, could they derive from it? What could their idols do for them? How unreasonable that reasonable beings should pay homage to things of wood and stone!
3. To lead to their recognition of their sin. Their idolatry involved the breach of the most sacred and solemn obligations. It was a transgression of an oft-repeated command of God. Great was both the folly and the sin of the Israelites in this. (cf. Jer_2:11-13) This inquiry might lead them to perceive and to feel these things. The Most High frequently interrogates sinful men in order to lead them to reflection and reformation. (Eze_18:31; Jer_2:5 Jer_4:14) "Not wishing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
IV A SINFUL PEOPLE PERSISTING IN SIN NOTWITHSTANDING DIVINE INTERROGATION. "And the name thereof is called Bamah unto this day." The name was continued, and. the people persisted in the practice of idolatry despite the remonstrances of the Lord. Even under the most faithful and godly kings the high places were not taken away until Josiah entered upon his great reformation. (2Ch_34:3) It is difficult to eradicate sins in the case of individuals, when the sins have had time to strike their roots deeply in the heart and life. "Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil." It is even more difficult to eradicate the widespread, long continued, deep-rooted sins of a community or a nation.
Facilis descensus Averni. Sed revocare gradum, superasque wadire ad auras Hic labor, hoc opus est. (Virgil.) W.J.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On v32 We will be as the heathen.
Eze_20:32
We will be as the heathen.
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The paganism of the heart
I. As an evil to which the godly are liable.
1. The force of early habits. The spirit of self-indulgence and sensualism was the first spirit that animated us all. Its death requires time. Hence in unguarded moods it comes up again.
2. The force of social influence. In our industries, recreations, our literature and institutions, the spirit of Paganism breathes in all, and it tends to possess us of itself.
3. The force of satanic agency. The devils great wish is that men should endeavour to get their bread--their happiness--out of stones.
II. As an evil against which the godly should struggle.
1. By the growth of heavenly sentiments.
2. By closer fellowship with the Divine.
3. By a moral conquest over spiritual foes.
4. By a translation into the heavenly world. (Homilist.)
A vain imagination
The Jewish people had grown tired of Jehovahs service. Whatever its advantages and its righteousness, it was irksome, tedious, and severe. Other nations had not the same restrictions and the same punishments. Look, they said, at the people who serve idols, they have no law to fetter their inclinations and limit their pleasures, while on every side we are hedged in and forbidden and punished heavily if we transgress. Let us give up Jehovahs service and be as other nations are, do as they do, and find the same freedom and enjoyment. All this is very natural, and is constantly recurring. Many feel as the Jews felt. Religions ways have become tiresome to them. They compare their lives with the lives of men of the world, and they seem to suffer from the comparison. We meet with the same thing in the realm of intellectual experience. Men give up religion, they tell us, to escape from the mental anxieties that have troubled them; to escape from the strife of sects, the clamour and conflict of opinions. The vanity of such a spirit and of such conduct is the subject of the text. It shall not be at all. Utter disappointment is almost inevitable. Why?
I. Because the thought of their minds is opposed to the principles of their nature and the facts of their history. The Jewish people spoke in denial and forgetfulness of their own condition. They assumed what was impossible, namely, that they could dismiss and annihilate all the past, and bow down before gods of wood and stone, and enter upon a course of unregulated enjoyment, with a satisfaction equal to theirs who had never known Jehovah and His holy law. It could not be. There is no river of forgetfulness in which men can bathe. We may think as they did, but it shall not be at all, for--
1. We have an enlightened conscience, and that will prevent it. What others call pleasure would be to us sin--sin against God.
2. We have the memory of better things, and that will prevent it. The heathen knew nothing better than his heathenism. The Jew could look back, was often compelled to look back, upon much that made his fallen position hateful. We turn from religion, but bitter memories remain to us.
3. We bring to it the knowledge of Divine truth, and that will prevent it. Truth once imparted and received cannot be wholly lost. It will live, and often present itself to trouble the soul. This applies specially to those who turn to superstitious courses. There is something significant in the expression to serve wood and stone. It seems to intimate that to the Jew, with his knowledge, the gods of heathenism could never be anything better. A man who loses his sight by disease or accident can never equal in cheerfulness and in free unembarrassed movement a man who was born blind. No more can those who have known religious truth and religious experiences be equal with those who have never risen above the world, and whose lives throughout have been shadowed by error and falsehood.
II. Because it is subject to the counteracting operations of the great God. There are two ways in which God defeats the thought of their minds.
1. By His correcting providences. The afflictions, losses, bereavements, sorrows of life.
2. By His pursuing love. By His Spirit making memory a living picture of the better past.
Learn--
1. The weakness and littleness of fallen human nature. Men who have tested the heavenly manna can yet turn from it to the coarsest food.
2. The safeguards against such a spirit. Ponder the truth here asserted. Patient, earnest work; the cultivation of a cheerful, joyous frame; the glorious future.
3. The folly and evil of such conduct. And if it has been yours, come back to Christ at once. (William Perkins.)
Men endeavouring to be like the heathen
I. The illustration of the text on the history of the people. The Israelites had the most distinguished privileges. No other nation had a history like theirs. It was the history of Divine interpositions, manifestations, and revelations. No other nation had such statutes and laws. They had heard the blast of the trumpet which no earthly lips could have blown. No other nation had such songs; they were the odes in which they rehearsed in their homes and in the sanctuary Gods wonderful dealings with their race, so that the history of the past was perpetuated. God had a local residence in their midst. He had His palace and His court. The symbol of the Divine presence dwelt between the outstretched wings of the cherubim, and as the worshipper bowed down he could almost see the veil of the temple wave, as if by the presence of Him who dwelt in the Holy of Holies. The God of Israel had His altars and sacrifices, His ministers and priests. Other nations had their gods, but they had never at any time heard their voice; there had been no manifestations of their power and glory. Others nations had their sacrifices, but no fire had ever come down from heaven on their altars. Idolatry was perpetuated by the heathen; they made no change in their gods. It mattered not how uncouth and grim the idol, it was not exchanged for another. It mattered not how revolting and debasing the superstition, it was perpetuated. The Israelites sought to extinguish the last ray of Divine light, to obliterate the last traces of the Divine law, to silence the faint echoes of the Divine voice which yet lingered around them. They sought to become as the heathen, and as the families of the countries, that worshipped wood and stone. But God said, That which cometh unto your mind shall not be at all. He interposed to prevent this fearful consummation. He visited them with chastisement upon chastisement. The Jews are the aristocracy of Scripture without their coronets. They are like a river running through the deep sea, but never mingling with its waters. They are yet separate and distinct, thus proving the truth of the text.
II. The application of the great principle contained in the text to yourselves. Our privileges are greater than those of the Israelites, so that we may even say that the past had no glory by reason of the glory that excelleth. There has been a manifestation of God; but it has been in the flesh. There has been a sacrifice for sin, of which all other sacrifices were but the prefiguration. There has been a diviner Pentecost; for the Holy Ghost rent the heavens and came down. There has been a more glorious Gospel; for we have a Gospel of facts. The truth is the highest and divinest power in the world, and has authority over men. All human laws and polities may change, the world may be burnt up to its last cinder, the heavens may pass away with a great noise; but the truth is eternal--it can never pass away. It is the light; it illumines or blinds: it is the fire; it softens or hardens: it is the power that saves or destroys; it is either life unto life or death unto death. Men cannot believe the truth if they have never heard it; but we cannot justify our unbelief through our want of acquaintance with the truth. With what authority it comes to us! The truth overawes you, and, unconsciously it may be, you do partial homage to it, but you have no true affinity with it; your heart returns no response to its voice; you do not want to believe. There is an awful power in man by which lie comes into collision with God, by which he puts an affront on the truth, and refuses to believe or obey it. Men would change all things, they would change the true into the untrue. The truth is as though it were untrue to them. They would have no law with its majestic sanctions and awful penalties. They would have no everlasting distinction between right and wrong. They would have no Gospel with its Saviour and its Cross--with its blessed words of promise and of hope for guilty men. Mans unbelief is his protest against truth. It is the manifestation of the disloyalty of his whole nature to the truth. Men may let go their hold on the truth, but the truth does not let go its hold on them. If a man has stood on an exceeding high mountain, and has seen the grand panorama unfold itself to his view, can he ever forget it? If he has seen the sea when the tempest has passed over it and the floods have lifted up their hands, can he ever forget it? And can a man who has heard the truth ever forget it? It is graven on his memory as in characters of eternal fire--he can never divest himself of the associations and recollections of truth. God interposes to prevent the utter apostasy of nations and of men. And I will bring you into the wilderness of the people, etc. We have been brought into the wilderness--into the scene of utter desolation--we have been stript of everything, and in fearful silence God has come to us and pleaded with us. And what has been the character of His pleadings? Has He upbraided us--has He threatened us with terrible punishment? We were silent, and we heard Him say, Come now, and let us reason together. We had no excuses, no arguments, but to our utter amazement He said, Though your sins be as scarlet, etc. Or we have been sent into captivity, a foe mightier than the Chaldean has led us away, and there in the deep degradation and fearful servitude of sin, our eyes have been opened to our folly and wickedness. We have thought of the past, and its remembrance has awakened the bitterest regrets. Our responsibilities are proportionate to our privileges. (H. J. Boris.)
Religious obligations irrevocable
It is taken for granted by many that persons are not under any obligation to act religiously if they do not profess to be religious. Some such thought as this came into the minds of the people to whom the text refers. They disliked the service of the God of Israel, and thought they should get free from it by laying aside the name and profession of Israelites, and by becoming like the heathen. What base ingratitude was this. The Lord had separated them, in order that they might be His own peculiar people; and as such He had wrought for them the greatest wonders, and enriched them with the highest privileges (Isa_5:1; Deu_4:32; Rom_9:4; Exo_4:22). The thought was ungrateful, deeply ungrateful; but it was as foolish as it was ungrateful. It was utterly vain, for it could not be realised. They could not reduce themselves to the exact level of the heathen; they might become idolaters; but it was impossible for them to be as the Gentiles in respect to their responsibilities. And should the like thought come into the mind of any Christian--should he wish to make no profession of religion, but to be on a level with a mere natural man, to have no higher calling, no greater duties, no mightier obligations; he must be taught the vanity of such a wish; he must be told that the thing cannot be. No, we are in covenant with Christ, bound by the terms of that covenant, and we cannot, if we would, free ourselves from them. We are members of His Church, and not mere natural men, left to the light of reason and the promptings of human passion; and therefore as members of His Church, and not as mere natural men, we shall be judged. And if such a thought on our part is as vain as it was on the part of the Jews, is it not on our part equally ungrateful? We can look back on a series of mercies, more wonderful than that which marked out the history of Israel. We have been redeemed at a more costly price than that which redeemed their lives from destruction in the land of Egypt; we have been baptized with a holier baptism than that which they received in the cloud and in the sea; more heavenly food has been offered for our support than the manna on which they fed in the wilderness; a richer stream follows us in our journey than that which flowed from the rock in Horeb; and a far more glorious inheritance awaits us than their promised land, which flowed with milk and honey. Is there nothing in all tiffs to bind us in willing subjection to our Master and only Saviour Jesus Christ? (G. Bellett.)
The impossibility of becoming as the heathen
There is, perhaps, no subject on which has been lavished so much of lofty thought and splendid expression as on the immortality of the soul, considered as an article of what is called natural theology. And yet we must feel that these endeavours to establish the immortality of the soul apart from the Bible are at best unsatisfactory: they rather leave its immortality as a splendid conjecture than place it as an established fact. The soul may be capable of an immortality, but God may not choose to allow it to be immortal. He formed it; He can annihilate it. Who can tell? how can reason inform us whether He will be pleased to extinguish the soul at or after death, or whether He will permit and appoint it to burn forever as a spark from Himself? It is here that we are in darkness without the Bible; it is here that natural theology must give place to revealed. Reason shows us that the soul may live forever; Scripture alone certifies us that the soul shall live forever, even as Scripture alone instructs us how the soul may be happy forever. For a moment, and as introductory to our text, we would comment on one species of argument which has been freely adduced in support of the immortality of the soul, but which, however it may dazzle the imagination, possesses, we suspect, but little real strength. It is often confidently said that the soul shrinks from annihilation as from that which it instinctively abhors--that it loudly lifts up its voice against the notion of perishing with the body, and, by the earnestness with which it craves immortality, attests in a measure that it is not to die. We altogether question this. So far from a natural shrinking from annihilation, we believe that as to the great mass of men we might rather assert the natural wish for annihilation. I do not know why all men should shrink from the supposition of the souls perishing with the body; I see the strongest reasons why they should incline to the supposition, and wish even if they cannot prove it to be true. There are crowds of genuine Christians who virtually go far beyond the Israelites, whose wicked wish or purpose is recorded in our text. The Israelites longed to be as the heathen, as the families of the countries, to serve wood and stone. The people, you see, had so sinned against God, and they held His service in such utter loathing, that they would have been glad to forget it altogether, and to diminish their responsibleness by lapsing into the ignorance of actual idolaters. But this it is which God assures them can never be. Having known the true God, it was impossible they could be dealt with as though they had never known any but the false god. Wilful ignorance can never put a man in the same position as unavoidable ignorance; and if you attend to the statements of Scripture you will see that we are to be reckoned with hereafter for every talent committed to our care. Whether we have misused it, or whether we have let it go idle, the mere fact that we had it is to constitute an important item in our future account. Born in a Christian country, baptized with Christian baptism, placed under a Christian ministry, we are all immeasurably removed from unavoidable ignorance. Take a number of colonists,--transfer them to some distant land, where there are no temples but those of false gods: the colony thus transplanted may learn the ways of the heathen, adopt their superstitions, and bow at their altars; but think ye that therefore the birth and the baptism and the Christian institutions retain no effect? The heathen may teach the colonists their vices, and even convert them to their superstitions, and men who left their own country with some sense of awe of the God of their fathers may utterly forget Him in the strange land to which they have wandered for a home, in place of endeavouring to make Him known to their new and ignorant associates; they may dishonour His name by even exceeding the heathen in licentiousness, teaching and being taught new forms and measures of iniquity; but this is the sum of the change which can be wrought; there is no possibility of the colony getting rid of that vast and portentous accountableness which has been fastened on itself by its adhesion to Christian privileges and Christian rites. Will you say there is nothing in this supposed case of a colony to touch your own case? You are never likely to desire or design, you may tell me, what has been imagined. Not so; for we would now observe that it is no uncommon hope, that of wilful ignorance passing for unavoidable ignorance, and no uncommon endeavour that of occupying the position of those who have fewer moral advantages than ourselves. Take a very common instance. How many keep away from the sacrament of the Lords supper because secretly conscious that the receiving it pledges them to increased holiness of life, and certainly hoping that their sins will be more excusable whilst they do not partake of so solemn an ordinance! They neglect the holy communion, partly at least under the notion that the sins which they love and do not wish to abandon are less criminal and less dangerous in non-communicants than in those who obey Christs dying command--This do in remembrance of Me. But what is this, if not almost literally what was meditated by the Israelites in our text? Here is the hope, on the part of those who know of the sacrament, of being dealt with as those who never heard of the sacrament. Preposterous hope! It is the Israelite thinking that he may be as the heathen. He dies innocently who dies in actual want; he dies by suicide who starves himself with a meal within reach. That which cometh into your mind shall not be at all, that ye say, We will be as the heathen. There is, we believe, a yet more common endeavour to the getting rid of the responsibility which results from the possession of opportunities and advantages. Think ye not that many a man avoids reading the Bible, and putting himself in the way of knowing the exact truth in regard of his spiritual condition, under the impression, perhaps hardly acknowledged even to himself, that he is safer in his ignorance--that he shall escape with a lighter judgment if he remain uninformed as to his precise danger and duty? What gains he, what can he gain, by his wilful, his premeditated ignorance? Does he think--can he be so infatuated as to think--that truth, to which he shuts his eyes, is the same thing, the same in its accusing power, the same in its condemning power, as truth which has never been revealed? Does he think, can he think, that by living in a darkened room--a room which he has shut up and darkened of his own will and by his own act--he will have no more to answer for than those to whom God has never vouchsafed the beauty and the magnificence of the sunshine? Vain thoughts! vain thoughts! Know all of you, that live you may as those who shall perish at death, but judged you must be as those who were told their immortality. Live you may as pagans--judged you must be as Christians. Never can you pass the broad line of separation between the wilful and the unavoidable. Since, then, we must be judged as Christians, shall we not strive that we may be accepted as Christians? If an unimproved privilege must be an everlasting burden, here is fresh motive to the endeavouring so to use it that it may prove an everlasting blessing. (H. Melvill, B. D.)
Our obligation to serve God
I. We cannot, if we would, escape from the service of God. We are now, as Israel of old, instructed in His will by His word. If we dislike what we there learn to be our duty, there is no help for it. It will continue to be our duty nevertheless; and we shall be made to answer for non-performance. We may, by carelessness, or obstinate rejection of the Word, very much confuse our recollection of what we already know, and shut ourselves out from the attainment of any further knowledge; but we shall never be able to make our minds quite like a sheet of blank paper, clear from any notion of religion. The behaviour and conversation of his neighbours, the very sight of the house of prayer, which he has studied Gods commandments, he knows well enough that he has offended against them in many and glaring instances. He may keep them at bay when he is in high health and spirits, when his affairs prosper, and when he is surrounded by companions, ready to encourage him in his impiety. But what will he do when infirmity or sickness comes upon him? when misfortune has deprived him of all the worldly goods wherein he trusted; and when his friends have either deserted him, or been taken from him by some such visitation as shall make him tremble for his own safety? In times like these he will feel that. God is ruling over him with fury poured out. It will be well if he has grace to seek for refuge from that wrath where refuge may be found, through faith, attended by repentance and amendment of life. Gods dispensations will all be good to those that use them rightly; they will all be evil to those that do not receive them as from His hand. His chastisements will become mercies to those who undergo them with a penitent and obedient heart; His gifts will be turned into curses to those that revel in them without acknowledging the Giver.
II. All these evils are entirely brought upon men by their own hardness of heart. Will it be said that men ought to have had a choice whether they would have a revelation made to them or no; and that, not having been allowed such a choice beforehand, they ought now to be permitted to renounce religion if they please, and become unbelievers? That would be to pronounce the most precious gift that God has ever made to mankind, a gift purchased by the blood of His Son, to be of no value. The very desire of such liberty is a sin of the deepest dye. It is a refusal of the advice and admonition of God, and amounts to charging Him with folly and tyranny, as though He gave us commands not calculated for our benefit. For if we believe that His laws are for our good, how can we doubt that it is good for us to know them and to de them? And nobody does doubt it, but they whose hearts are enslaved to sin, and alienated from all that is holy and upright and godly. The wish, then, to be released from the obligation of Gods laws is practical atheism.
III. The impossibility of withdrawing from the obligations which our Christian covenant imposes on us need not alarm any truly pious mind. God will judge the heathen as well as us His chosen people; and though He will require more of us than He will of them, in just proportion to our greater advantages, yet the knowledge and power communicated to us more than compensate for the greater perfection and precision of the work expected from us. We have served a regular apprenticeship of Christian education; the designs and will of God, our employer, are fully made known to us; and we may seek for instruction from Him at any time in His Word, and for assistance from His Holy Spirit. It is no more than justice that much should be required of us, to whom so much has been given. (J. Randall, M. A.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On vv27, 30 EXEGETICAL NOTES.—Israel continued to commit these sins in Canaan…
(Eze_20:27-29)
EXEGETICAL NOTES.—Israel continued to commit these sins in Canaan also, and still refuses to give them up.
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Eze_20:27. “Yet in this your fathers have blasphemed Me, in that they have committed a trespass against Me.” The prophet is addressing the people of his own time, and boldly charges them with committing the same sins as their fathers in the land of Canaan. The sin of the children of Israel in Canaan took a worse form than their sin in the wilderness. It was a more open affront to God, for they deliberately “blasphemed” His name. They rejected Him contemptuously when they left that one place which He selected “to put his name there,” and chose places of their own, offering sacrifice “on every high hill.” They did dishonour to the Holy Place.”
Eze_20:28. “They saw every high hill, and all the thick trees, and they offered there their sacrifices, and there they presented the provocation of their offering: there also they made their sweet savour, and poured out there their drink offerings.” The stricter designation of blasphemy follows in this verse, after it was designated in general at the close of Eze_20:27. “The provocation of their offering” the offerings to idols, whereby they provoked the anger of God; comp. Deu_32:16-17, “They provoked Him to jealousy with strange (gods); with abominations they made Him indignant. They sacrificed to lords which were not God, to gods whom they knew not.” God says to them in the tone of reproach (1Ki_9:13), “What is the high place whereunto ye go?” (Eze_20:29): How can ye, instead of seeking Me in My true sanctuary, turn to these miserable places, with their miserable gods? And yet these are named high places unto this day, in the sense of sanctuaries, and with the notion that they have something peculiar about them.”—Hengstenberg. The repetition of the word “there” three times seems to be an echo of Deu_12:5-7, “Unto His habitation … thither … thither … “there” (Eze_20:40).
Eze_20:29. “And the name thereof is called Bamah unto this day.” “Bamah,” a Hebrew word, signifying High-Place. The tops of high hills were used by the heathen for idolatrous worship; and, in consequence, Moses interdicted the use of them even for the worship of the true God (Deu_12:1-5).
HOMILETICS
(Eze_20:27-29.)
I. The nature of the sin of blasphemy. “Your fathers have blasphemed Me” (Eze_20:27). This was the “trespass” which they committed against Jehovah. The essence of blasphemy consists in contempt of God; in deliberately disobeying His commands, especially as to worship. For surely God has the absolute right to lay down the manner in which He shall be approached served, and adored. He appointed the Holy Place for His worship, but Israel served their own Gods in places of their own appointing. When once God has spoken clearly, all mere will-worship is of the nature of blasphemy.
II. Blasphemy is ever the sin of the unregenerate heart. We speak especially of those who have the advantages of a Divine revelation, and who have means therefore for knowing the mind and will of God. Those who have no means of knowing God cannot consciously blaspheme Him
1. The unregenerate heart may recognise the idea of God, and the duty of worship. The Israelites of the prophet’s time felt that they must worship some divinity. They must have a religion. But
2. The unregenerate heart, though it pretends to a religion, leaves out the true essentials of it. And what are these? A recognition of God’s supreme authority as a righteous Ruler, a Saviour from sin, and a Sanctifier. Such men are ready to “recognize the idea of God,” but under the pretence of a lofty philosophical religion they practically deny God’s authority, they destroy the foundations of all truth in belief and worship. Sinful man, even when he holds by some prime necessity of religion, is ever prone to exalt his own mind and will.
3. The unregenerate heart has a natural preference for a burdensome and difficult religion. Israel was not satisfied with worshipping God in His holy temple, but preferred travelling great distances and climbing the high hills. Man is ever ready to “do some great thing.” God’s way is too simple for him. There is something in human nature which is flattered by difficult demands.
III. The sin of blasphemy especially interferes with God’s gracious purposes for mankind. God chose His ancient people that through them all the families of the earth should be blessed. Salvation is of the Jews. Israel was becoming like the heathen, whereas it was God’s purpose that the heathen should become like Israel. Thus by their idolatry and even blasphemy, the chosen people were working against the gracious purposes of the Most High. All manner of blasphemy against God, whether arising from intellectual pride, or superstition, or will-worship hinders the progress of His kingdom.
(Eze_20:27)
“Have blasphemed Me.” The Hebrew word signifies, to revile with words, to reproach, and blaspheme. To blaspheme is to hurt the name or fame of any, and is a kind of evil speaking, derogating from the glory of God. God’s glory or name in itself is inviolable, but blasphemy doth what it can to violate it Blasphemy consists—
1. In attributing to God what is not congruous to Him. As to say. He is the author of sin; He sees not, He hath forsaken the earth (Eze_8:12); He is like unto man (Psa_50:21).
2. In detracting from Him what belongs unto Him. As to deny His providence, His omniscience, His omnipotence, as, “can He provide a table in the wilderness?” (Psa_78:19); If He should make windows in heaven could this thing be? (2Ki_7:2).
3. The doing of such things as cause God’s name to be blasphemed. As, “The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you.” As there is practical atheism, so there is practical blasphemy (Tit_1:16). “In that they have committed a trespass against Me.” The doubling of the word in the Hebrew notes the greatness of their sin, and progress in their wickedness. They sinned not ignorantly, or of common infirmity, but with a high hand. They spake against the true worship of God, and practised contrary thereunto. Wilful sinning is a reproaching of God, and provokes Him greatly. “They have committed a trespass against Me.” They have spoken against My worship, and run out to other ways which I forbade them. Other sins they have committed which I could have winked at, but when they sin wilfully, despising Me, My laws, My worship, they reproach, blaspheme, provoke Me so, that they shall hear of it. Son of man, go and speak to the house of Israel; go and tell them how they have dealt with Me, and how I take it. Such sins deserve death (Num_15:30). “The soul that doeth ought presumptuously, whether he be born in the land, or a stranger, the same reproacheth the Lord.”The Hebrew word here rendered “reproacheth” is the same as that rendered “blasphemed” in Eze_20:27. For he that reproacheth the Lord blasphemes Him, and he that blasphemes Him reproacheth Him: they are joined together (2Ki_19:22). There was no mercy for those who sinned in that manner (Heb_10:26-27). Many commit such trespasses in these days, by speaking against providence, ordinances, Scriptures, angels, Christ, God himself; and so sin away mercy and their own souls at once. David prayed that God would keep him back from “presumptuous sins” (Psa_19:13); and we have need to do it, for there is that in our natures which carries us on strongly towards them. Solomon saith, “Happy is the man that feareth always; but he that hardeneth his heart”—that presumeth, that is wilful, pertinacious—“shall fall into mischief,” into mischievous sins, into mischievous judgments.—(Greenhill.)
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On v27 Israel’s Behavior In Canaan And The Lord’s Sentence
Israel’s Behavior In Canaan And The Lord’s Sentence
v. 27. Therefore, son of man, speak unto the house of Israel, represented by the elders who had come to inquire of the Lord, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God, Yet in this, or, "In this again," your fathers have blasphemed Me, holding Him up to mockery and derision, in that they have committed a trespass against Me, becoming guilty of faithlessness and treachery.
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v. 28. For when I had brought them into the land, for the which I lifted up Mine hand to give it to them, promising it to them by a solemn oath, then they saw every high hill and all the thick trees, places which were commonly devoted to idolatrous worship by the heathen, and they offered there their sacrifices, and there they presented the provocation of their offering, for their sacrifices continually provoked the Lord to anger, since they were made contrary to His command and will; there also they made their sweet savor, said here of all burnt offerings, and poured out there their drink-offerings, thus including all bloody and unbloody sacrifices in their heathenish worship. This was the principal transgression of the entire people of Israel after they had reached the Land of Promise.
v. 29. Then I said unto them, What is the high place whereunto ye go? And the name thereof is called Bamah, that is, height, unto this day. In spite of the Lord’s remonstrance, Israel and Judah continued to regard the high places as places of worship, persisting in their idolatrous treachery to the very last.
v. 30. Wherefore say unto the house of Israel, namely, the generation then living, Thus saith the Lord God, Are ye polluted after the manner of your fathers? in being guilty of the same idolatry as that which brought God’s wrath upon Israel in the first centuries of its national existence. And commit ye whoredom, spiritual adultery, after their abominations?
v. 31. For when ye offer your gifts, as described above, when ye make your sons to pass through the fire, ye pollute yourselves with all your idols, even unto this day; and shall I be enquired of by you, O house of Israel? whose representatives were even then sitting before the prophet. As I live, saith the Lord God, I will not be enquired of by you, he would give them no hearing until they had done away with the wickedness which was now charged against them.
v. 32. And that which cometh into your mind, what they were now deliberately planning to do, shall not be at all, shall not come to pass, that ye say, We will be as the heathen, as the families of the countries, amalgamating with them in every respect, losing their identity as a separate people altogether, to serve wood and stone, and thus become the equal of the heathen also in this respect. It was an exclamation, partly of stubbornness, partly of despair, which they here uttered. Therefore the Lord gives them a fitting answer.
v. 33. As I live, saith the Lord God, surely with a mighty hand and with a stretched-out arm, by applying His almighty power, and with fury poured out will I rule over you, asserting His sovereign right over them in spite of their resistance;
v. 34. and I will bring you out from the people and will gather you out of the countries wherein ye are scattered, with a mighty hand and with a stretched-out arm and with fury poured out, so that they would have to acknowledge the rule of God, unwilling though they were.
v. 35. And I will bring you into the wilderness of the people, the spiritual wilderness which characterizes the great mass of the world, with its heathenism and wickedness, and there will I plead with you face to face, bringing the matter to an issue as in a court of law.
v. 36. Like as I pleaded with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, upon the occasion of the giving of the Law, Deu 5:4, so will I plead with you, saith the Lord God. Cf Num 17:5-6.
v. 37. And I will cause you to pass under the rod, as a shepherd does with his sheep, in order to determine their number and thus to prepare their benefits, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant, His chastising having prepared the way to a true sorrow;
v. 38. and I will purge out from among you the rebels, those who persisted in their opposition to His guidance and rule, and them that transgress against Me, those who were guilty of apostasy and treachery; I will bring them forth out of the country where they sojourn, the land of their exile, and they shall not enter into the land of Israel, not partake of the blessings of the Lord’s covenant; and ye shall know that I am the Lord, in His summary judgment upon the apostates. But now comes the Messianic promise to shed light into the intense darkness of faithlessness, rebellion, and idolatry.
v. 39. As for you, O house of Israel, those whom the Lord desires once more to gather as His Church, thus saith the Lord God, in an admonition calling them to repentance, not without a mixture of holy irony, Go ye, serve ye every one his idols, for open idolatry is better than hypocrisy, and hereafter also, if ye will not hearken unto Me, since it is easier to deal with downright opponents of the truth than with such as are enmeshed in dead orthodoxy; but pollute ye My holy name no more with your gifts and with your idols, with hypocritical worship, with abominable sacrifices which they brought under the guise of true worship.
v. 40. For in Mine holy mountain, in the mountain of the height of Israel, saith the Lord God, in the Zion of the New Testament, there shall all the house of Israel, all those who belonged to the true, the spiritual Israel, all of them in the land, serve Me; there will I accept them, as His children by faith, and there will I require your offerings and the first-fruits of your oblations with all your holy things, that is, the worship which is done in spirit and in truth.
v. 41. I will accept you with your sweet savor, the believers themselves being a’ sweet odor in the nostrils of Jehovah with the incense of their faith, when I bring you out from the people and gather you out of the countries wherein ye have been scattered, this being used in general for the separation of the believers from the great mass of those who are enemies of God; and I will be sanctified in you before the heathen, for the very existence of the Church of Christ serves to spread the glory of God’s holy name.
v. 42. And ye shall know that I am the Lord, Jehovah, the everlasting God of the covenant, when I shall bring you into the land of Israel, into the country for the which I lifted up Mine hand to give it to your fathers. The return of Israel to the Land of Promise after the Babylonian Exile was a guarantee of the greater and more wonderful restoration of God’s kingdom through the Messiah.
v. 43. And there shall ye remember your ways and all your doings wherein ye have been defiled, in true sorrow over their past wickedness; and ye shall loathe yourselves in your own sight for all your evils that ye have committed; for such is the nature of true repentance.
v. 44. And ye shall know that I am the Lord, the one and only true God, when I have wrought with you, in effecting their deliverance, for My name’s sake, not according to your wicked ways, nor according to your corrupt doings, O ye house of Israel, saith the Lord God. That is the remarkable, the marvelous thing about the dealings of God with men, that He does not deal with us according as we have deserved, but according to his grace and mercy in Jesus Christ.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv27, 30, 33 What is this high place where you bring offerings…
What is this high place where you bring offerings there?
Yahweh asks this question in order to rebuke the people. AT: "This is not a high place where you are to bring offerings!" (See: Rhetorical Question)
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the name is called Bamah
The name "Bamah" means "high place," a place for worshiping idols. This can be stated in active form. AT: "people have called that place Bamah" (See: Active or Passive)
translationWords
blasphemy
betray
sacrifice
provoke
incense
drink offering
high place
name
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv27, 32 20:27-31 Once in the Promised Land, Israel continued to…
20:27-31 Once in the Promised Land, Israel continued to blaspheme and betray the Lord. Their idolatry and wickedness continued to Ezekiel’s day. Such apostate people would receive no answer from the Lord.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.