IN THE SEVENTH YEAR, in the fifth month on the tenth day, some of the elders of Israel came to inquire of the LORD, and they sat down in front of me.
2Then the word of the LORD came to me: 3“Son of man, speak to the elders of Israel and say to them, ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Have you come to inquire of me? As surely as I live, I will not let you inquire of me, declares the Sovereign LORD.’
4“Will you judge them? Will you judge them, son of man? Then confront them with the detestable practices of their fathers 5and say to them: ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: On the day I chose Israel, I swore with uplifted hand to the descendants of the house of Jacob and revealed myself to them in Egypt. With uplifted hand I said to them, “I am the LORD your God.” 6On that day I swore to them that I would bring them out of Egypt into a land I had searched out for them, a land flowing with milk and honey, the most beautiful of all lands. 7And I said to them, “Each of you, get rid of the vile images you have set your eyes on, and do not defile yourselves with the idols of Egypt. I am the LORD your God.”
8“ ‘But they rebelled against me and would not listen to me; they did not get rid of the vile images they had set their eyes on, nor did they forsake the idols of Egypt. So I said I would pour out my wrath on them and spend my anger against them in Egypt. 9But for the sake of my name I did what would keep it from being profaned in the eyes of the nations they lived among and in whose sight I had revealed myself to the Israelites by bringing them out of Egypt. 10Therefore I led them out of Egypt and brought them into the desert. 11I gave them my decrees and made known to them my laws, for the man who obeys them will live by them. 12Also I gave them my Sabbaths as a sign between us, so they would know that I the LORD made them holy.
13“ ‘Yet the people of Israel rebelled against me in the desert. They did not follow my decrees but rejected my laws—although the man who obeys them will live by them—and they utterly desecrated my Sabbaths. So I said I would pour out my wrath on them and destroy them in the desert. 14But for the sake of my name I did what would keep it from being profaned in the eyes of the nations in whose sight I had brought them out. 15Also with uplifted hand I swore to them in the desert that I would not bring them into the land I had given them—a land flowing with milk and honey, most beautiful of all lands—16because they rejected my laws and did not follow my decrees and desecrated my Sabbaths. For their hearts were devoted to their idols. 17Yet I looked on them with pity and did not destroy them or put an end to them in the desert. 18I said to their children in the desert, “Do not follow the statutes of your fathers or keep their laws or defile yourselves with their idols. 19I am the LORD your God; follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. 20Keep my Sabbaths holy, that they may be a sign between us. Then you will know that I am the LORD your God.”
21“ ‘But the children rebelled against me: They did not follow my decrees, they were not careful to keep my laws—although the man who obeys them will live by them—and they desecrated my Sabbaths. So I said I would pour out my wrath on them and spend my anger against them in the desert. 22But I withheld my hand, and for the sake of my name I did what would keep it from being profaned in the eyes of the nations in whose sight I had brought them out. 23Also with uplifted hand I swore to them in the desert that I would disperse them among the nations and scatter them through the countries, 24because they had not obeyed my laws but had rejected my decrees and desecrated my Sabbaths, and their eyes lusted after their fathers’ idols. 25I also gave them over to statutes that were not good and laws they could not live by; 26I let them become defiled through their gifts—the sacrifice of every firstborn—that I might fill them with horror so they would know that I am the LORD.’
27“Therefore, son of man, speak to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: In this also your fathers blasphemed me by forsaking me: 28When I brought them into the land I had sworn to give them and they saw any high hill or any leafy tree, there they offered their sacrifices, made offerings that provoked me to anger, presented their fragrant incense and poured out their drink offerings. 29Then I said to them: What is this high place you go to?’ ” (It is called Bamah to this day.)
30“Therefore say to the house of Israel: ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Will you defile yourselves the way your fathers did and lust after their vile images? 31When you offer your gifts—the sacrifice of your sons in the fire—you continue to defile yourselves with all your idols to this day. Am I to let you inquire of me, O house of Israel? As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign LORD, I will not let you inquire of me.
32“ ‘You say, “We want to be like the nations, like the peoples of the world, who serve wood and stone.” But what you have in mind will never happen. 33As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign LORD, I will rule over you with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm and with outpoured wrath. 34I will bring you from the nations and gather you from the countries where you have been scattered—with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm and with outpoured wrath. 35I will bring you into the desert of the nations and there, face to face, I will execute judgment upon you. 36As I judged your fathers in the desert of the land of Egypt, so I will judge you, declares the Sovereign LORD. 37I will take note of you as you pass under my rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant. 38I will purge you of those who revolt and rebel against me. Although I will bring them out of the land where they are living, yet they will not enter the land of Israel. Then you will know that I am the LORD.
39“ ‘As for you, O house of Israel, this is what the Sovereign LORD says: Go and serve your idols, every one of you! But afterward you will surely listen to me and no longer profane my holy name with your gifts and idols. 40For on my holy mountain, the high mountain of Israel, declares the Sovereign LORD, there in the land the entire house of Israel will serve me, and there I will accept them. There I will require your offerings and your choice gifts, along with all your holy sacrifices. 41I will accept you as fragrant incense when I bring you out from the nations and gather you from the countries where you have been scattered, and I will show myself holy among you in the sight of the nations. 42Then you will know that I am the LORD, when I bring you into the land of Israel, the land I had sworn with uplifted hand to give to your fathers. 43There you will remember your conduct and all the actions by which you have defiled yourselves, and you will loathe yourselves for all the evil you have done. 44You will know that I am the LORD, when I deal with you for my name’s sake and not according to your evil ways and your corrupt practices, O house of Israel, declares the Sovereign LORD.’ ”
Original Meaning
AFTER FIVE CHAPTERS of largely pictorial speech—proverbs, riddles, parables, and laments—the prophet returns to the language of straightforward history. This change is marked by a renewed interaction between the prophet and his public. In Ezekiel 15–19, the word of the Lord comes to the prophet unsought, though in some cases in response to sayings that had become common currency among God’s people. Now, however, the prophetic speech is triggered by an attempt on the part of the “elders of Israel” to inquire of the Lord, as in Ezekiel 14.
The “elders of Israel”1 were the lay leaders of the exilic community (see Jer. 29:1), and they appear at key points of Ezekiel’s indictment of the people (Ezek. 8:1; 14:1; 20:1). In each case, the charge leveled against the elders is secret idolatry (8:11; 14:3), a sin they share with the people at large. The very ones who once led the people in receiving a foretaste of the pouring out of the Spirit (Num. 11:24–25) now lead the people in their spiritual adultery.2
It is now the summer of 591 B.C. The elders have assembled before Ezekiel in order to “inquire of the LORD” (Ezek. 20:1). Now, as a life-stance, “inquiring of the LORD” or “seeking the LORD” would have been commendable; indeed, in Amos 5:4 the Lord addresses the house of Israel in precisely those terms: “Seek me and live.” But as Amos goes on to point out, seeking the Lord can never be simply one part of a broadly based religious strategy. Seeking the Lord is, by definition, exclusive: To seek the Lord means not to seek the calf idols of Bethel (Amos 5:5). But this is precisely where the elders fail the test. Because they are involved in the idolatrous practices of their ancestors, the Lord will not answer them.3 The door is so firmly closed in their faces that the prophet does not even bother to record the substance of their request. They might just as well not have said a word. In fact, they may not even have reached the point of framing their question before they are cut off. It is not what they ask that the Lord finds unacceptable but who they are.4
Yet (perhaps surprisingly) the chapter does not end here. Although the Lord will not answer them in terms of what they are seeking, he has a message for them to hear, addressed directly to their sin (Ezek. 20:4–5; cf. 14:4). Ezekiel is called to join God in judging the elders by confronting them with their sin. He is to present to them a history of Israel from God’s perspective. That is, it is a history that focuses not on Israel’s history of cultural and political achievements but rather on their history of idolatry. Ezekiel is to confront the elders with “the detestable practices of their fathers” (20:4).5
The way in which Ezekiel challenges the elders with Israel’s history has more than a little in common with chapter 18. It is essentially a story of three consecutive generations, with intended application to the present generation. The choice laid before each generation is obedience to the Lord’s life-giving laws (Ezek. 20:11, 21; cf. 18:9) or death-dealing disobedience (20:23–25; cf. 18:13). The three generations Ezekiel chooses here for his case study are the generation who lived in Egypt at the time of the Exodus (20:5–10), the desert generation (vv. 11–15), and their children (vv. 18–23). Each generation’s history is presented as a six-stage cycle:6
(1) The Lord’s self-revelation (vv. 5–6, 11, 18–19)
(2) A challenge to exclusive devotion (vv. 7, 12, 19–20)
(3) Israel’s rebellion (vv. 8, 13, 21)
(4) The threat of the Lord’s wrath (vv. 8b, 13b, 21b)
(5) Wrath limited/deferred for the sake of the divine name (vv. 9, 14, 22)
(6) Act of limited judgment (vv. 10, 17, 23)
According to this schema, each new generation is confronted for itself with a fresh revelation of the Lord. To each comes the gracious self-announcement “I am the LORD” (20:12, 20, cf. v. 5). The basis for this self-revelation is not Israel’s merit but divine election and a covenant oath sworn by God to bring them to the Promised Land (Ezek. 20:5).7 His care for them was demonstrated in “searching out”8 the perfect location for them to inhabit, “a land flowing with milk and honey, the most beautiful of all lands” (20:6). But this decisive act in Israel’s history required a response on the part of Israel of exclusive devotion to the Lord. To the first generation, it meant getting rid of their vile images and the idols of Egypt (20:7).9 To the second generation, it meant obeying the Lord’s decrees and laws given at Sinai (20:11–12).
Of these decrees, Ezekiel singles out for particular mention the Sabbath law. The Sabbath was foundational to the Israelite view of sacred time and community. In Exodus 31:16–17, the Lord said to Moses:
The Israelites are to observe the Sabbath, celebrating it for the generations to come as a lasting covenant. It will be a sign between me and the Israelites forever. . . .
With its regular one day in seven observance, the Sabbath cut across the nature-based calendars of the pagans, which revolved solely around phases of the moon and agricultural seasons. Instead, it called God’s people to march to the beat of a different drum, as a mark of submission to their covenant overlord.10 It was a sign of their liberation from bondage (for slaves are not in control of their schedule) but also a sign of their distinctiveness from other nations who had not been similarly redeemed. To profane the Sabbath was thus to abandon an essential element of their distinctiveness as the people of the Lord and to attempt, in effect, to “become like the nations around us.” It is to refuse to follow the example that God himself set in Genesis 2:1–4. This same requirement (“Follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. Keep my Sabbaths holy”) is reiterated to the next generation as well (Ezek. 20:18–20).
But Israel’s consistent response to this gracious self-revelation was rebellion. Three times that rebellion is detailed, not simply in general terms but specifically as the failure to keep themselves distinct in the terms of the requirements of stage (2) of the cycle (20:7, 12, 19–20). Three times the Lord threatened11 to pour out his wrath on them once and for all, destroying them utterly. Yet each time he held back his hand, not because such a judgment was in any sense undeserved, but for the honor of his name, lest the nations around Israel read her destruction as the Lord’s inability to protect his own (cf. Num. 14:15–16).
Nonetheless, in each case limited judgment does fall: First-generation Israel exits Egypt and finds itself not in a beautiful land flowing with milk and honey but in the desert (Ezek. 20:10). The next generation does not inherit the Promised Land either but are doomed to die in the desert (20:15). The third generation not only fails to inherit the Promised Land but will be scattered among the nations (20:23). The upraised hand, swearing on oath to bring the chosen people into the land of promise (20:5), now becomes an upraised hand swearing on oath that this generation shall never enter (20:15), and finally swearing that they will rather go into exile (20:23). The unfaithful elect experience the covenant curses, not the covenant blessings.
In addition, in place of God’s good decrees and statutes (20:11), this generation is handed over to “not good” statutes, laws that led not to righteousness and life but to defilement and death (20:25).12 These “not good” statutes meant not only death for them but death for their firstborn sons, offered up in the fire to Molech.13 The end point of Israel’s story is thus the utter reverse of the goal at the beginning. Israel, the Lord’s “firstborn son” (Ex. 4:22), was to be freed from Egypt so that he could offer pure worship in the Promised Land (4:23). But through their rebellion the Israelites instead end up sacrificing their own firstborn sons in the pursuit of defiled worship, with the threat of inevitable exile hanging over them like a Damoclean sword.
To this threefold cycle of gracious election, rebellion, and limited judgment, a coda is added in Ezek. 20:27–29, briefly bringing the story up to date. Lest anyone should argue that Ezekiel is raking up old history long forgotten, he replies that the history of Israel’s occupation of Canaan is similarly depressing. Their ongoing love affair with the high places and their defiled worship proves that they are under God’s judgment, even in the sworn land of promise (20:28), down to this very day (ʿad hayyôm hazzeh, the last words of 20:29). Today is, after all, Ezekiel’s interest, as the repetition of the phrase in 20:31 makes clear. Israel’s present is exactly the same as Israel’s past: vile images, child sacrifice, and idolatry (20:31). Surely Israel is a rebellious house, not just in times past but in the present, as the Lord had made clear to Ezekiel in 2:3. Such people need not expect any reply to their attempts to inquire of the Lord (20:31).
But what should they expect from the Lord? The answer given in 20:32–44 may surprise us, though it is already implicit in the account Ezekiel has given of Israel’s history. God will act, not to destroy his people utterly but rather to fulfill his original purposes in election: to establish a purified people to worship him (20:40–41). He will do this through a new exodus, not because of any merit on Israel’s part but for the sake of his own name (20:44).
This answer, as we have said, is already implicit in Ezekiel’s rendering of history. The reason for the focus on the generations around the Exodus rather than the generation of the patriarchs or those during the occupation of the land now becomes clear. There is an analogy to be drawn between the Exodus/desert generation and his own. The present position of the exilic generation in the six-part cycle of sin and judgment is (6): Israel’s rebellion has led to a limited judgment on the Lord’s part—specifically, the scattering among the nations, mentioned in 20:23. But as the three-generation cycle makes clear, (6) can never be the end of the story! God’s people cannot be destroyed completely, not because they do not deserve it but because God has staked the reputation of his own name on the covenant promises made to them. He may and indeed does chastise them and judge them, but he can never abandon them utterly. His divine nature requires faithfulness to his promise, even in the face of unrelenting human sin (cf. Hos. 11:8–11).
Therefore, there must necessarily be a new act of salvation on God’s part, a new exodus. Israel cannot be abandoned to “be like the nations, like the peoples of the world, who serve wood and stone,” as the elders had thought (Ezek. 20:32)! Whether that thought is one of desire (“We want to be like the nations . . .”)14 or of despair (“We are become like the nations . . .”)15 is not really the issue; rather, the focus is on the impossibility of such a thing happening for God has staked his reputation on them (cf. 36:22–23).
Divine election cannot be revoked; the Lord will reign over them (Ezek. 20:33). The echoes of 1 Samuel 8 are not coincidental. There, too, the people had sought to become “such as all the other nations” by having a king (8:5), which is interpreted as a rejection of the Lord’s reign over them (8:7). They are warned of the real consequences of their choice (8:11–18), yet ultimately their election is not revocable. They do not, indeed cannot, become like the nations around them: instead, even their rebellious wish for a monarchy is subsumed in the providence of God. The Lord himself gives them the kings of his own choosing, good and bad, to prepare the way for the coming of the King of kings.
Similarly, the message of God’s kingship exercised in a new exodus is not necessarily good news. Yes, his reign comes with a mighty hand and outstretched arm, as in the first exodus (Deut. 4:34 and frequently); yes, he will bring them out of the nations and gather them just as he once brought them out of Egypt (Ezek. 20:34). But in addition, his reign comes with outpoured wrath. Just as the unfaithful Israelites were brought up out of Egypt only to die in the desert, so too the regathered Israel will be purged in the “desert of the nations” (20:35). There God will meet with his people “face to face,” just as he met with Moses “face to face” in the tent of meeting (Ex. 33:11).
But this face-to-face meeting will not be that of two friends, as it was with Moses, but rather a meeting of personal judgment. The use of the Niphal of šāpaṭ underlines the legal nature of this encounter.16 God will go to court against the rebels among his people, singling out the transgressors from the faithful just as a shepherd counts and separates his sheep by passing them one by one under his rod (Ezek. 20:37).
The application to the present generation comes in 20:39. The choice is, in one sense, theirs to make. They may go and serve their idols, if they wish. But they must remember this: that God’s purpose in the election of Israel will stand. A time is coming when in place of the profane worship offered on every high hill and under every leafy tree there will be pure worship offered in the one true place, God’s holy mountain, the high mountain of Israel (20:40).
This looks forward in seed form to the full description of the renewed Israel at worship on a high mountain in chapters 40–48. The positive result of the new exodus will be pure worship offered by a purified people, in whom the Lord’s holiness is publicly displayed to the eyes of the nations. There the oath made in Egypt (20:5) will be fulfilled (20:42), and there the remnant who survived the desert judgment—not on merit but by grace—will appreciate the immensity of their own sin and the faithfulness of God to his covenant promises (20:44). The future for Israel depends entirely on God and his commitment to his Word. But those who refuse to trust God to fulfill his promises and instead have turned their backs on him will never enter the new Promised Land.
Bridging Contexts
CONTEMPORARY CHOICES. In a world of disposable relationships, it is hard for us to grasp the meaning of a covenant bond. We live increasingly in a culture where people change spouses like former generations used to trade in their cars—whenever they start making noises we don’t care for, or after three to five years, whichever comes sooner. As a culture, we tend to make and break friendships frequently, as we or our friends move on to new places or as we grow apart from one another. As a culture, we are inclined to abandon the older generation to nursing homes when they become too much of a burden to us. The idea of sticking with a long-term relationship through thick and thin is, if not yet utterly foreign to our experience, at least becoming a rarity. We are, after all, the consumer generation; we tend to view people as products—commodities to be used as long as they meet our needs and fulfill our desires, but always likely to become obsolete or superseded by a “new and improved” product.17
This attitude has filtered through into our understanding of religion. Thus, we do not have a lifetime commitment to one church or even to one denomination, but change our churches whenever we find one that better meets our needs. According to George Barna, in the near future “people will no longer have a single church home but multiple church homes. On any given Sunday they will wake up and choose a particular church which they feel will meet the needs they feel most keenly that morning.”18
This attitude holds true not merely of one’s choice of church but across religions as well. Perhaps as never before people are “choosing their religion,” not on the basis of whether the religion is “true” or “false” but whether that particular religious perspective “works for them.” In the marketplace of religious ideas, all perspectives are regarded as being equally valid; may the best marketer win!19
The one nonnegotiable in this process, from a contemporary perspective, is personal choice.20 As the bumper sticker expounds it: “Attend the church or synagogue of your choice this week!” Which church or synagogue most fully expounds the truth about God is apparently not an issue; for many, it is not even a relevant question. The important factor is that this is the religion and church that you have chosen.
Not our choice but the Lord’s. It is hard to imagine a viewpoint more radically different from that of Ezekiel 20. For Ezekiel, what is definitive is not Israel’s choice but the Lord’s choice. Israel in the past had frequently, even invariably, chosen wrongly. “Attending the church or synagogue of their choice” had led to worshiping idols in Egypt and the pagan gods and goddesses in the land of Canaan. Such idolatrous worship frequently had the marketing edge on true worship. People voted with their feet in favor of the false rather than the true. Yet even though the people were unfaithful, God remained faithful to his covenant promises and his own character. God could not walk away from Israel like a manufacturer who simply discontinues an unprofitable or defect-prone line and retools a product to meet the demand of changing times.
The one nonnegotiable for Ezekiel, therefore, is God’s choice: Israel’s “choice” only occurs in the context of their prior chosenness as the covenant community. They can choose to fulfill their calling, to be a blessing and so to receive life. Or they can choose to rebel against that calling, seeking to be free of that chosenness like the nations around them, and face the consequences. If they choose to be like the nations, by God himself (note the oath formula of 20:33) there will be hell to pay. God’s judgment will certainly fall on those who choose the false worship over the true. The salvific event of a new exodus will bring nothing but judgment for them, just as the first exodus led to judgment in the desert for a whole generation. Yet, in spite of that, God’s salvation purposes are unshakable: He will establish his chosen ones not in the “church of their choice” but in the holy mountain of his choosing, the new city of God (20:40).21
Contemporary Significance
THE WORLD REVOLVES around God. John Corrie identifies the following trends as typical of postmodern culture:
It is a culture characterized by freedom of choice in which we are invited to “pick’n’mix” our own philosophy of life. Furthermore . . . it is hedonistic and materialistic; it generates a breakdown of respect for authority, confusion on moral absolutes and a fierce individualism which destroys community values. It is a culture in search of meaning, significance and purpose, since it breaks down any unified sense of reality, creating anonymity and atomization.22
Ezekiel has some hard words for such a generation that has institutionalized and glorified rebellion under the banner of “choice.” It summons a people who think that the world revolves around themselves to a Copernican change in their thought: We are called to accept the truth that the world rather revolves around God.
But what are the implications for us, who are called to proclaim the gospel in this culture? We need to remind people that what matters is not what we think about God but what he thinks of us.23 I once met a woman who told me that she kept a Bible and literature from Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses alongside her child’s bed so that when he grew up he could choose for himself what to believe. Such a view is frequently regarded as highly enlightened in our day and age, where everything is tolerated except intolerance.24 Ezekiel would not have been greatly surprised by such a view, for already in his day people sought to match the “enlightened attitudes” of those around them. He has another word for it than broad-mindedness, though: For him, it is rebellion against the one true and living God.
The true nature of rebellion. Rebellion is never simply against an abstract conception of God, however, but against the personal God of grace. Satan always seeks to persuade us, as he did our first parents, that God is a harsh taskmaster who will exploit us and abuse us if we allow him, and that he seeks to deny us things that are good (Gen. 3:1).25 The reality is exactly the opposite, for them and for us. God had made a perfect world for Adam and Eve to live in and placed them in the most perfect spot within it, a paradise. Their area of personal freedom was large; the restriction minuscule. Yet being deceived into reading that minuscule restriction as bondage, they gave in to Satan’s temptation, only to discover too late what true bondage was.
Similarly, God came to Israel in the midst of their miserable bondage and offered them the way to the total freedom of pure worship. He promised them not just any land but a beautiful land for their own (Ezek. 20:6). Only the very best would do for God’s people. They, however, sought only half-freedom. They wanted freedom from the unpleasant circumstances of their sin and from its messy complications, but not freedom from the sin itself. They would rather keep their idols and perish in the desert than enter the Promised Land without them.
So also in our day many seek meaning, significance, and purpose—but only on their own terms. Spirituality is a growth market. We are surrounded by a generation of seekers, who assume that God can be found whenever and wherever they choose to seek him. For them, “seeking” is another word for “shopping.” But, as the elders discovered, God is not a cosmic merchandiser, for whom “the customer is always right.” It is possible, indeed inevitable, that the determinedly open-minded seeker will not find an answer from Israel’s God.
A downward spiral. What is more, left to itself rebellion naturally heads into a downward spiral. From Adam to Cain is only one generation, but in that time we move from humankind having to be talked into sin by Satan (Gen. 3:1) to humankind unwilling to be talked out of sin by God (4:6–7). By the time we arrive at Lamech, seven generations from Adam, we have already reached the poetic glorification of gratuitous violence, a kind of primeval version of “gangsta rap” (4:23–24). Not even the cosmic judgment of the Flood can reverse the downward trend of sin.
So too for Israel. As the generations pass, Israel’s idolatry goes from bad to worse, moving from idolatry in Egypt and disobedience to God’s life-giving law in the desert, to culminate in perverse obedience to laws and statutes that lead to death, even to the sacrifice of their firstborn children. What then shall we say of our own era, in which idolatry is not so much tolerated as celebrated? The cover of a New Age mail order catalog declares as their slogan, “Live fully; laugh often; love all ways; look within.”26 The biblical command to love always (Eph. 5:2) is now enculturated as the injunction to “love all ways.”
But at the same time as our society embraces a tolerance that freely encompasses even the intolerable, we also see the growth of death-giving statutes. The idea of euthanasia is finding growing acceptance in this country, as in many others around the world.27 At present, it operates around the fringes of legality, but its supporters continue to press for legal recognition. We too have adopted our own form of child sacrifice, slaughtering countless unborn babies on the altars of the secular gods of convenience and comfort, of reputation and respectability.28
We find ourselves today, then, perhaps more clearly than our parents did, in the midst of a society that is in headlong rebellion against God and is reaping the fruits of that rebellion in seared consciences and irrationally self-destructive behaviors. We live in the midst of a society of adults and children suffering the traumatic effects of broken relationships, in some cases ending up in alcohol and drug addiction as a means of deadening the pain of their deep sense of rejection and alienation. Others have buried themselves in their work and career, seeking some kind of significance for their lives. Thus far Ezekiel’s words address us clearly.
Implications of rebellion for contemporary society. What, then, are the implications of Ezekiel 20 for such a generation? Two things come across clearly in this chapter. (1) On the one hand, rebellion will inevitably be punished. Israel can never simply choose to be like the nations and thus remove herself from God’s authority. There are only two choices for Israel: She can choose to accept her election and live on the basis of God’s laws, or she can rebel as she has so often before and face the consequences of certain death. Likewise, our generation needs people within the covenant community who are prophetically willing to call a spade a spade, to call sin sin, to speak of death and hell and the judgment to come. We need to confront the socially acceptable idols of comfort and success and career progress, which many in our churches attempt to combine with a commitment to Christ, as well as the more blatantly pagan idolatries.
We need to confront in our own hearts the continual temptation to remake our understanding of God into a comfortable reflection of our own image instead of submitting unreservedly to his self-revelation in Scripture. It is not a comfortable message to proclaim in an age that calls idols of wood and stone “different paths to God” and the high places “the church of your choice.” But God has not changed and the reality of his wrath must be recognized. Otherwise, we are simply deceiving ourselves and those around us with lies about God.
(2) On the other hand, Ezekiel 20 should also fill Christians with profound optimism. For it asserts that, come hell or high water, with or without the help of his church, God’s kingdom will come. His purposes in election are so sure that not even Israel’s continual history of sin can thwart them. Though in the providence of God his first exodus did not bring to fruition his purpose of a pure, worshiping people, the second exodus will.
What, however, is this second exodus of which Ezekiel speaks? In some postexilic literature the return to Judah under Cyrus is portrayed as a second exodus,29 yet the tone of partial fulfillment predominates in these books. Those who participated in the return were well aware of how far short it fell of the extravagant language of the prophets. It is more of a first stage in the second exodus that the exodus itself. Not until Jesus comes proclaiming the good news of liberation does the exodus start in earnest (Luke 4:18–19). Yet, as Ezekiel makes clear, the goal of the second exodus, like that of the first exodus, is not simply liberation. This is the problem with much liberation theology. Though the exodus from Egypt is proclaimed as the paradigm,30 the goal of that exodus is lost from view. The people are redeemed and purified from Babylon and Egypt so that they can worship. The goal of exodus, indeed of all salvation, is a purified people worshiping the one true God.
Ezekiel describes that pure worship in typical Old Testament terms: sacrifices offered in a restored temple. But even though at the return to the land the temple was rebuilt and sacrifices were offered, something was still missing. The fulfillment of Ezekiel’s worship, as for all Old Testament worship, is found in Jesus Christ, who affirmed to the woman of Samaria a new era of worship. In this new era, people will worship neither on Mount Gerizim nor in Jerusalem, nor even on Ezekiel’s high mountain, but in spirit and in truth. With the coming of Jesus, as the mediator of the new covenant, the true “new age” of worship has dawned, the age of the worship of the redeemed community in the presence of God himself (Heb. 12:22–24).