Ezekiel 20:33 - Meaning and Application

The plan now forming among the elders of Israel was that, since the people were scattered among the nations, they should drop their special identity and copy the people around them. But God had already said that this plan would not succeed (Ezekiel 20:32). Here he explains how he will stop it.

They wanted the families of Israel to blend with the families of other lands. In the end, though, the wicked Israelites, even after their compromises, will not blend into the prosperity of those nations. Instead, they will be set apart for destruction. Idolatrous Israelites, who turned away from God, will be punished sooner and more severely than idolatrous Babylonians, who never knew the way of righteousness. We should read this and tremble. The sentence is sealed with an oath that cannot be taken back: “As I live, says the Lord God, I will deal with you in this way.”

They thought they could make both Jerusalem and Babylon their friends by wavering between two loyalties. But God says neither place will be a refuge for them. Babylon will not protect them, nor will any of the lands of the nations. God will remove his protection from them, and then no ruler, no people, and no place can shelter them. God had once been Israel’s King, and if they had stayed loyal, he would have ruled them with gentle care for their good. But now he says, with a strong hand and with fury poured out, “I will rule over you” (Ezekiel 20:33). The same power that should have guarded them will be used to destroy them.

There is no escaping God’s rule. He will govern either with the golden scepter of grace or with the iron rod of judgment. Those who will not come under the power of his grace will be forced to feel the weight of his anger. When God is angry with them, they may think they will vanish into the crowd of the nations where they are scattered. But they will be disappointed. He says, “I will gather you out of the countries where you are scattered” (Ezekiel 20:34). Like rebels chased down after a battle, they will be hunted out from every place where they had tried to hide, and brought together for the sword of justice.

They will be brought into “the wilderness of the peoples” (Ezekiel 20:35). This may mean Babylon, which is called a wilderness elsewhere (Ezekiel 19:13), the “desert by the sea” (Isaiah 21:1), or some other place that, though full of people, will feel like a wilderness to them. There God will deal with them face to face, just as he dealt with their fathers in the wilderness of Egypt (Ezekiel 20:36). There their bodies will fall, and there he will swear that they will never return to Canaan, just as he had sworn about their fathers that they would not enter the land. He will punish their breaking of his law with the same fear and majesty that marked the giving of that law at Sinai.

God has a rightful case against people who turn away from him, and he will find both the time and the place to deal with them. Even in the middle of the nations, he can make a wilderness for that purpose. Israel, for its part, will be no better shelter for them than Babylon was. Their place among God’s people will not help them in the life to come any more than their agreement with idolaters helps them in this life. They will not stand in the assembly of the righteous any more than in the company of evil-doers.

A day is coming when God will draw a clear line between the precious and the worthless. He will make them pass under the rod, as a shepherd counts and marks his sheep when he tithes them (Leviticus 27:32), so he can tell which belong to him. He will notice each one carefully, one by one, and bring them into the bond of the covenant (Ezekiel 20:37). That means he will test them and judge them according to the terms of his covenant, showing the difference between the blessed and the cursed. Or this may point to those who repented and changed their ways. He will bring them under the rod of affliction, do them good through it, and then restore them to the bond of the covenant. He will be their covenant God again and use them once more as heirs of promise.

He will separate the wicked from among them (Ezekiel 20:38). “I will purge out from among you the rebels,” he says, “those who have been a grief and a shame to you, and who have brought all these troubles on you by their rebellions.” God’s judgments will find them out, and calling themselves Israelites will not save them. They will be brought out of the countries where they lived as sojourners, but they will not find the rest they had hoped for there. They will not enter the land of Israel, and they will not enjoy the rest God promised to his people. Godly people may suffer the same worldly troubles as the wicked, but the wicked will have no share with the godly in the heavenly Canaan. It will be part of that blessedness that the tares are separated from the wheat and the chaff from the grain (Ezekiel 13:9).

These idolaters of the house of Israel were trying to worship both God and their idols, thinking they could please both. God strongly rejects that in this verse (Ezekiel 20:39), just as Elijah did when he said, “If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal is God, follow him.” If they wanted to serve their idols, they could do so and take the result. But then they must not pretend to belong to God or claim to honor him, while they pollute his holy name with their gifts at his altar. Spiritual judgments are the hardest judgments to bear.

Two such judgments are threatened here against those who wanted to divide their loyalty between the God of Israel and the gods of the nations. First, they would be handed over to the service of their idols. God says to them, with biting irony, “Since you will not listen to me, go on and serve your idols. Do it now, if you think it will help you, and keep on doing it after that.” They would continue in that path. Ephraim is joined to idols, so let him alone. Let him follow his own course and see what he gains in the end. Those who think sin will serve their interests will find, in the end, that sin has made them its servants.

Second, they would be shut out from God’s service and from fellowship with him. “You shall not pollute my holy name with your empty offerings” (Isaiah 1:11). They brought gifts with their hands as though they honored him, but their hearts carried idols too. In that way they only polluted him, and he would no longer allow it (Amos 5:21, Amos 5:22). Those who profane God’s house are rightly kept out of it.

He will also separate them to himself again. He will gather them in mercy from the countries where they were scattered, and they will stand as examples of mercy. The stubborn and unrepentant were gathered as vessels of wrath (Ezekiel 20:41).

Not one of God’s jewels will be lost in the trash of this world.

He will bring them back to the land of Israel, the land he promised to their fathers. Their loss of the land does not cancel their right to it. It is still the land of Israel, and God will safely bring them back there (Ezekiel 20:42).

He will also restore his worship among them. He will set up his sanctuary on his holy mountain, here called the mountain of the height of Israel. Mount Zion was not one of the tallest mountains, but the temple there was one of Israel’s highest honors. Those who kept their integrity and would not serve idols in other lands will return to their blessing and worship the true God in their own land: all of them in the land will serve me. This shows that a people’s true happiness, and a sure sign of good for them, is a growing desire to serve God.

God had forbidden idolaters to bring gifts to his altar, but he will now require offerings and firstfruits from these people and accept them (Ezekiel 20:40). He does not accept what he has not asked for, but he is pleased with what is done according to his commands. He will receive them with their sweet aroma, or “pleasing rest” (Ezekiel 20:41), because their worship will be truly acceptable to him. But to hypocritical worshipers he says, “I will not smell your sacrifices” in your solemn gatherings.

He will also give them real repentance for their sins (Ezekiel 20:43). When they see how gracious God has been to them, they will be humbled by his kindness and ashamed of their poor treatment of such a good God. There, on my holy mountain, when you again enjoy its blessings, you will remember the ways you defiled yourselves. The more we are close to God’s holiness, the more clearly we see how hateful sin is. There you will loathe yourselves in your own sight. True gospel repentance makes people despise their sins and humble themselves, as Job did (Job 42:5-6).

He will also give them knowledge of himself. They will know by experience that he is the Lord, a God of mighty power and overflowing goodness, kind to his people and faithful to his covenant, his binding promise with them. Every favor we receive from God should draw us into a closer knowledge of him.

He will do all this for his own name’s sake, even though they do not deserve it and have done evil (Ezekiel 20:44). He has worked with them, that is, worked for them and in their favor, and even with their own efforts, for they were doing what they could. He did it purely for the sake of his own name. His reasons came from himself alone. If he had dealt with them according to their wicked ways and corrupt deeds, even though they were the better and sounder part of the house of Israel, he would have left them scattered and lost with the rest.

Instead, he recovered and restored them for the sake of his own name, not only so it would not be polluted (Ezekiel 20:14), but also so he might be shown as holy among the nations (Ezekiel 20:41), that is, so he might make his own holiness known. It is God’s work to glorify his own name. He does good for his people so that he may be praised for it, so he may show that he is a God who forgives sin and keeps his promises, and so their neighbors may also notice him, as they did when God restored Zion’s fortunes (Psalm 126:3). Then the nations said, “The Lord has done great things for them.”