Ezekiel 20:45

Ezekiel 20:45 says, Moreover the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, This was a separate message from what God had been saying to Ezekiel.   

Verse forty-six adds, Son of man, set thy face toward the south, and drop thy word toward the south, and prophesy against the forest of the south field;  Ezekiel was told by God that he was to look to the south and prophesy to the forests there.  Matthew Henry says that this next few verses might have fit better into the beginning of the next chapter since they don’t relate back to the previous verse, but as I have said before, Ezekiel did not put in the chapters, but they came later.  This forest to the south that is referred to is Judah and Jerusalem, which were south of Babylon, so this prophesy was to them.  Lost people today may be as numerous as trees in a forest, but God’s word will always come to them at some point in their lives, beginning with His call to accept His gift of salvation.  Matthew Henry said they were called a forest because the people of Israel were like trees that didn't bear fruit. They had stopped being God’s people in anyway other than in name.   If someone calls themselves a Christian, or if we as a nation call ourselves a Christian nation but are no different than lost people, then we will stop bearing fruit for God and will become useless to Him.

Verse forty-seven continues, And say to the forest of the south, Hear the word of the Lord; Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I will kindle a fire in thee, and it shall devour every green tree in thee, and every dry tree: the flaming flame shall not be quenched, and all faces from the south to the north shall be burned therein.  God said for Ezekiel to tell the people that God was going to burn down this useless forest.  The nation of Isreal was no longer living by their covenant relationship with God, so He was going to burn them up.  If we have not entered into a covenant relationship with God, all our works will one day be burned up, and we will be sent away to everlasting punishment in the fires of hell.  

Verse forty-eight states, And all flesh shall see that I the Lord have kindled it: it shall not be quenched.  God said that everyone would see that He had kindled this fire and that no one could quench it. When a person goes away to everlasting punishment in the fires of hell, no one will be able to quench that fire.   

Verse forty-nine adds, Then said I, Ah Lord God! they say of me, Doth he not speak parables?  The people that Ezekiel was prophesying to would not understand that he was speaking about them, but would ask if he was speaking a parable, because of their spiritual lack of understanding or because they had no respect for Ezekiel.  Many people today refuse to acknowledge the truth of God’s word because they do not have a covenant relationship with Him and have no respect for preachers or even individual Christians when they share the gospel with them.

Ezekiel 20:37

Ezekiel 20:37 says, And I will cause you to pass under the rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant:  God said that since the people of Israel would not worship Him when He had given them all they needed and even blessed them with more, that now He was going to allow them to pass under the rod of correction.  He was going to do this so that they might once again return to their covenant relationship with Him and remain true to it.  As Christians, if we allow sin back into our life, God will remove His protective hand from us during that time and we may suffer in the world because of it, but even if we don’t, we will suffer spiritually and God will always be calling us back to our covenant relationship with Him.  I believe this also applies to us as a nation.  If we profess to be a Christian nation but reject God’s laws, He may allow us to feel the rod of correction. 

Verse thirty-eight adds, And I will purge out from among you the rebels, and them that transgress against me: I will bring them forth out of the country where they sojourn, and they shall not enter into the land of Israel: and ye shall know that I am the Lord.  God said He would purge those who were not obedient to Him and refused to return to obeying Him out of the nation of Israel and they would not return to the promised land, the land that God had given them.  He said when He did this that they would know that He is God.  One day, everyone is going to know that God is God, but for too many it will be too late for them to accept God’s gift of salvation and enter the spiritual promised land of heaven.   

Verse thirty-nine continues, As for you, O house of Israel, thus saith the Lord God; Go ye, serve ye every one his idols, and hereafter also, if ye will not hearken unto me: but pollute ye my holy name no more with your gifts, and with your idols.  God then told the people of Israel to go and serve their false gods, but when they did so to not pollute His Holy name by pretending to be following Him.  Though God will allow us to follow false gods today, even while professing to be a part of His people, He also warns us to not do this and continue to profess to be a part of His people, which would profane His name.  

Verse forty states, For in mine holy mountain, in the mountain of the height of Israel, saith the Lord God, there shall all the house of Israel, all of them in the land, serve me: there will I accept them, and there will I require your offerings, and the firstfruits of your oblations, with all your holy things.  God said that when all the house of Israel served Him and they offered their offerings to Him that He would then accept their offerings and that He would also require their offerings from them.  They could not buy God’s blessings with offerings given for the wrong reasons nor especially to the wrong god when they were not living in accordance with their covenant relationship with Him, and neither can we.  First, they had to repent and start living in accordance with God’s word and their covenant relationship with Him, and today we must first repent and establish a covenant relationship with God, and then He will accept our offerings to Him.  God did not say that once the covenant relationship was reestablished that they would then be free from bringing their offerings, but that He would require them it of them Today, we are still to obey God’s commandments about bringing our offerings to Him, beginning with offering ourselves as a living sacrifice to Him.  If we do that, then we will realize that everything we are or have already belongs to Him.   

Verse forty-one adds, I will accept you with your sweet savour, when I bring you out from the people, and gather you out of the countries wherein ye have been scattered; and I will be sanctified in you before the heathen.  God said that when the people of Israel returned to their covenant relationship with Him that He would return them from all the places that they had been scattered and bring them back to their land and that they would be sanctified before the heathen. As Christians, we are not all going to gathered to one place here in the world, but wherever we are, we should be spiritually sanctified, or set apart, from the heathen, or lost people, so that God will be glorified.  The only reason the people of Israel were spiritually better than anyone else was because of their covenant relationship with God and the same is true of Christians today.  

Verse forty-two continues, And ye shall know that I am the Lord, 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.  God said that when He brought them back by faith that He was God. that they would need to acknowledge that He is God.  In order for us to be a part of God’s kingdom, we must first acknowledge that He alone is God, and one day He will call us home to heaven.   

Verse forty-three states, And there shall ye remember your ways, and all your doings, wherein ye have been defiled; and ye shall lothe yourselves in your own sight for all your evils that ye have committed.  God said that when this happened that the people of Israel would loathe themselves for the sins they had committed. I believe that once we accept Jesus Christ as our personal Savior and Lord that we should loathe our sinful nature that we were living by before so that we do not allow the sins we committed before to come back into our life, but we are also to live as forgiven people and not let our past define who we are now.   

Verse forty-four adds, And ye shall know that I am the Lord when I have wrought with you 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.   God said this restoration was not going to happen because of their wicked ways but according to His mercy instead.  Nothing we do other than accepting Jesus Christ as our Savior and Lord is going to save us, and God will never accept us if we try to come to Him by our wicked ways, which would be anything other than accepting His gift of salvation.