Ezekiel 20:27 - Meaning and Application

The prophet continues the story of Israel’s rebellions, to deepen their shame and show their guilt more clearly. He says they kept on sinning after they were settled in Canaan. God had warned them many times, yet they still insulted him and kept committing the same sin against him (Ezekiel 20:27). It is a serious thing when people refuse to learn from the harm sin has already done to others before them. That kind of refusal is itself a form of blasphemy, because it treats God’s judgments as if they mean nothing.

God had kept his promise and brought them into the land he had sworn to give them. Their unbelief and disobedience delayed that promise, but they did not cancel it. They had often been very close to destruction in the wilderness, yet they still reached Canaan in the end. Even God’s people reach heaven through many dangers, because their sins and sinful hearts are so strong. It is a wonder of mercy that they are saved at last.

But they broke God’s command by their shameful idol worship. He had told them to destroy every sign of idolatry, so they would not be tempted to turn from his sanctuary. Instead, they grew attached to those places. On every high hill and under every thick tree, they offered sacrifices there, as if those places were fit for worship. They gave what should have been offered only on God’s altar, and in doing so they brought him great offense (Ezekiel 20:28). Their sacrifices cost them something, but because they were offered in the wrong place and in the wrong way, they became an abomination to the Lord.

They kept doing this even after repeated warnings (Ezekiel 20:29). God spoke to them through his prophets and made them think about where they were going and what they were doing. He asked, in effect, what they found so attractive in those high places that they would leave the worship he required. Those places had a heathen origin, and the sacrifices there were really offered to demons, not to God (Deuteronomy 32:17). Why would Israel leave the fountain of life for broken cisterns, and choose what God forbids over what he commands and accepts?

Yet the name Bamah, meaning “high place,” remained. They would keep their own way, no matter what God or his prophets said. They were tied to their high places, and even in the best reigns those places were not fully removed. The sin and the sinner are hard to separate.

The same stubborn love of idolatry still ruled the next generation, too (Ezekiel 20:30). Ezekiel must ask the present house of Israel, some of whose elders were sitting before him, whether they were just as polluted as their fathers had been. After all God had said through many prophets, and after all he had done through repeated judgments, would they still take no warning? Would they keep committing the same hateful sins their fathers committed? They were bent on going back to those old sins. They offered gifts on the high places and made their sons pass through the fire, either in action or in desire and intent. In this way they kept on as idolaters even to that day.

These elders seem to have been planning some kind of compromise with the surrounding nations. They wanted to keep their hearts for the God of Israel while also bowing their knees to the gods of the people among whom they lived, hoping for better treatment and more safety. God tells the prophet to warn them that they will gain nothing from either side.

They will gain nothing from asking the Lord’s prophets for guidance in private, because God refuses to answer those who are still attached to idols (Ezekiel 20:31). He says plainly, as surely as he lives, that he will not be inquired of by them. He had already said this before, and he repeats it because it is just and final. They must not imagine that their questions honor him, or that they can expect peace from him while they are still in league with their idols. No one gets real benefit from religion unless the heart is fully sincere. There can be no sweet fellowship with God in worship unless we are inwardly honest with him.

They will also gain nothing by conforming outwardly to the practices of their neighbors (Ezekiel 20:32). What they thought was clever policy in a hard time would not help them at all. They may have reasoned, “We will be like the heathen. We will join them in worshiping their gods, even if we do not really believe in them. Then we will be accepted as one of the local families, and people will forget we are Jews.” But God says that plan will fail. Their neighbors may refuse to let them share in their worship, or, if they allow it, they will think worse of them for it. They will see them as fake and untrustworthy, because they have been false to their own God and dishonest with others. There is nothing to be gained by sinful compromise, and the worldly plans of hypocrites will not help them.

Only integrity and uprightness can preserve people and recommend them to both God and man. A life that is honest and straight gives a person true strength and standing. God values such character, and people also respect it.