Ezekiel 20:33

Ezekiel 20:33 says, As I live, saith the Lord God, surely with a mighty hand, and with a stretched out arm, and with fury poured out, will I rule over you:  God said that as surely as He lived that He would rule over the people of Israel with a mighty hand and a stretched out arm.  The people of Israel thought that the best way to survive and prosper was to adopt the ways and gods of the Babylonians, but God told them this was not to happen.  They had not responded to God when He had blessed them with everything that they needed, so now He was going to allow them to feel the oppression of those that they had put their faith in.  Anyone who professes to be a Christian but follows the way of the world instead of following God’s commandments will one day feel God’s punishment because of their disbelief.   

Verse thirty-four adds, 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.  God said that they were not without hope though if they would turn to Him, but that while He would deliver them, He would rule over them by His power, and they would feel His wrath on their actions instead of feeling His kindness that they had felt when they were obedient too Him.  God will not allow those who are followers of Christ to sin and not one day be held accountable for it even though they are forever saved.  We must take sin seriously and cannot just adapt the ways of the world as our guide.   

Verse thirty-five continues, And I will bring you into the wilderness of the people, and there will I plead with you face to face.  God said He would bring them into the wilderness and plead with them face to face.  God may allow us to feel His wrath if we are not obedient to Him and allow us to suffer in the wilderness, which is where the people of Israel were before they entered the promised land by faith, but He will then plead with us face to face.  Even when we are disobedient to God, especially before we accept Jesus Christ as our personal Savior and Lord, God is going to plead with each of us individually to accept His gift of salvation and come out of the wilderness of sin and into His kingdom.  If we are Christians and stray away into the wilderness of sin, once more He will call us individually to return to Him.   

Verse thirty-six continues, Like as I pleaded with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so will I plead with you, saith the Lord God.  God said that He would plead with them just as He had with their fathers in the wilderness when the left Egypt.  He didn't force them to remain true to Him then, and He was not going to force the people of Israel to be true to Him now, but until they did, they would still be in the wilderness of sin.  God is still going to call us to put our faith in Him, but He will never force us to.  The choice is always up to each individual. 

Ezekiel 20:27

Ezekiel 20:27 says, 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.  God told Ezekiel to tell the people of Israel that when they turned away from worshipping Him and started worshipping other gods when they were called His people that they blasphemed His name.  This was a trespass against God, since they were claiming to have a right to be called His people and live in the promised land when they were not living up to their part in the covenant relationship with Him.  Those who profess to be Christians today and worship other gods instead of worshipping God alone blaspheme the name of God and will one day be held accountable for their sins.   

Verse twenty-eight adds, For when I had brought them into the land, for the which I lifted up mine hand to give it to them, then 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.  God said He gave them the land and yet they began to worship the gods of others instead of worshipping Him, and they even offered sacrifices on every high hill and in every thick growth of trees claiming that they were to God, but they did not offer them according to what God had told them to do.  They were supposed to destroy all these places of false worship, but they begin to be devoted to them instead.  As followers of Christ, we are supposed to destroy everything that comes between God and us, and if we begin to adore them instead, we bring dishonor to God.  When a person has the choice between accepting God’s gift of salvation or following the gods of this world and choose the gods of this world, they are not a part of God’s kingdom, no matter where they were born or who their parents might be.  We may give a lot to God and think that will save us, but if we do not live by faith in Jesus Christ alone, our offerings will do us no good. 

Verse twenty-nine continues, Then I said unto them, What is the high place whereunto ye go? And the name whereof is called Bamah unto this day.  God then asked the name of the high place that the people of Israel went to worship, but He already knew.  God just wanted each person to acknowledge that they knew what they were doing. They were worshipping at sites where the Gentiles offered sacrifices to false gods and even leaving the name of one of these false gods in place and were pleased with themselves for doing so.  As Americans, we live in a land known as a Christian nation, but if we begin to do things that are against God’s will, then we are worshipping at the altar of a false god.   

Verse thirty states, Wherefore say unto the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord God; Are ye polluted after the manner of your fathers? and commit ye whoredom after their abominations?  God asked the people of Israel who were alive then if they followed the ways of their fathers when they were disobedient to Him and followed other gods.  The same question applies to those who profess to be Christians today. 

Verse thirty-one continues, For when ye offer your gifts, 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? As I live, saith the Lord God, I will not be enquired of by you.  God continued to point out the ways that the people of Israel were sinning against Him.  God said that they shouldn’t be deceived by thinking that He was going to hear their inquiries to Him when they were worshipping other gods.  When we come to Jesus Christ for salvation, we will be forgiven and God will hear our prayers.  Those who haven’t may call out to Him for help in times of trouble, but He will not answer if they haven’t accepted His gift of salvation. 

Verse thirty-two concludes, And that which cometh into your mind shall not be at all, that ye say, We will be as the heathen, as the families of the countries, to serve wood and stone.  God said that what they thought was going to happen when they worshipped these false gods was not going to happen.  They thought that if they worshipped the gods of the Gentiles that they would find peace with them.  Some people today may think if they just go along with what the world teaches instead of putting their faith in God that they can to find peace and prosperity, but they will never find true peace.  They may have temporary peace with the world, but they will never have the everlasting peace of God. 

Ezekiel 20:21

Ezekiel 20:21 says,  Notwithstanding the children rebelled against me: they walked not in my statutes, neither kept my judgments to do them, which if a man do, he shall even live in them; they polluted my sabbaths: then I said, I would pour out my fury upon them, to accomplish my anger against them in the wilderness.  The people of Israel thought that they were above other people simply because they were born in Israel.  God said that they had been above other people spiritually because of their covenant relationship with Him, but now they had turned away from following His laws and keeping His sabbath holy.  There are people today in America who believe that they are superior to all other people simply because they were born in America, and some take this thought even further by believing that they are superior to even other Americans because they were born into a particular ethnic group.  When they believe this, they have already turned away from God’s law.  God said He would pour out His fury on the people of Israel because of their disobedience, and I believe that even if we profess to be a Christian nation that God will never bless us if we don’t put our faith in Him and obey His commandments.   

Verse twenty-two adds, Nevertheless I withdrew mine hand, and wrought for my name's sake, that it should not be polluted in the sight of the heathen, in whose sight I brought them forth.  God said He didn’t destroy the people of Israel because if He had, after He had just delivered them, so that His name would not be polluted among the heathen that they now dwelled amongst.  If we profess to be a Christian nation but continue to disobey His commandments He will remove His protective hand from us, even if He doesn't just destroy us.   

Verse twenty-three continues, I lifted up mine hand unto them also in the wilderness, that I would scatter them among the heathen, and disperse them through the countries;  Instead of bringing the nation of Israel together into the promised land and keeping them there, because of their disobedience, God said He allowed them to be scattered through the heathen and dispersed to all countries.  We cannot believe that God is going to always protect us as individuals or as a nation if we do not obey His laws.  First, we must acknowledge that He alone is God, and then we must love our neighbor as ourselves, and we have been told that our neighbor includes everyone that we come into contact with and not just those who are like us by ethnic group or by the country that they were born in.   

Verse twenty-four states, Because they had not executed my judgments, but had despised my statutes, and had polluted my sabbaths, and their eyes were after their fathers' idols.  God said this was happening because the nation of Isreal overall had not obeyed His laws, had polluted His sabbaths, and had started to worship the idols that their fathers had worshipped.  God will never allow even those who profess to be Christians to not be held accountable for their actions one day, whether He scatters them throughout the world today or not.   

Verse twenty-five adds, Wherefore I gave them also statutes that were not good, and judgments whereby they should not live;  Though this seems to say that God gave them statutes that were not good and judgments that could not bring them life spiritually, I believe that it means that God allowed them to choose these things. I don't believe God will ever call us to follow any laws that are bad, but He will allow us to choose to obey those that are.   

Verse twenty-six continues, And I polluted them in their own gifts, in that they caused to pass through the fire all that openeth the womb, that I might make them desolate, to the end that they might know that I am the Lord.  God said He allowed this to happen so that they would know that He is God.  He had placed the nation of Israel in the promised land so that they would live as His people and reach the rest of the world and call them to Him, but they had turned away from Him, so they were once again going to be scattered throughout the land,  If we as people of America are to be a Christian nation, we can never believe that we are somehow morally superior to other people, but  we must obey God's commandments so that we can be a shining light of His love and we must reach out to all other people with His love.