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Context No. 76 of 4322 · Ezekiel

Context · Reflection

Ezekiel 20:1-7: in context

1In the seventh year, in the fifth month, the tenth day of the month, some of the elders of Israel came to inquire of the LORD, and sat before me. 2The LORD’s word came to me, saying, 3“Son of man, speak to the elders of Israel, and tell them, ‘The Lord GOD says: “Is it to inquire of me that you have come? As I live,” says the Lord GOD, “I will not be inquired of by you.”’ 4“Will you judge them, son of man? Will you judge them? Cause them to know the abominations of their fathers. 5Tell them, ‘The Lord GOD says: “In the day when I chose Israel, and swore to the offspring of the house of Jacob, and made myself known to them in the land of Egypt, when I swore to them, saying, ‘I am the LORD your God;’ 6in that day I swore to them to bring them out of the land of Egypt into a land that I had searched out for them, flowing with milk and honey, which is the glory of all lands. 7I said to them, ‘Each of you throw away the abominations of his eyes. Don’t defile yourselves with the idols of Egypt. I am the LORD your God.’

It is the seventh year of the exile, and some of the elders of Israel come to sit in front of Ezekiel and inquire of the LORD. This was normal practice. You went to a prophet, you asked, you received a word. This passage is the answer they get instead.

As I live, says the Lord GOD, I will not be inquired of by you. The consultation is refused outright. Then God tells Ezekiel to judge them, and the way he does it is to make them face their own history. Instead of answering the question they came with, he takes them back to Egypt, to the day he chose Israel and swore to them, and to the command he gave then: each of you throw away the detestable things your eyes are set on, and do not defile yourselves with the idols of Egypt.

The rest of the chapter walks through generation after generation refusing that one instruction. The elders came for guidance on what to do next, and were handed an account of what they had always done. Sometimes the honest answer to a new question is an old pattern. What am I asking for direction about, when I already know the thing I have never once put down?

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