Ezekiel 17:20

The Bible says in Ezekiel 17:20, “And I will spread my net upon him, and he shall be taken in my snare, and I will bring him to Babylon, and will plead with him there for his trespass that he hath trespassed against me.” Bad things happened to Israel. They were attacked. They were conquered. Many were taken capture and led to Babylon. In this verse God tells the people what His purpose was in allowing all this to happen to Israel: he wanted them to learn to repent of their sins. God always forgives, but people need to repent. People need to be honest with God and say, “I have done things that I ought not to have done. Please forgive me. I want to serve you now.” But some people have to be awakened by unpleasant events, which are often the just consequences of their own actions. God organizes all these things with one message in mind: “repent, and turn to the Lord Jesus.” God puts it this way at the end of verse 20, he will “plead with him there for his trespass.”

The Bible says in Ezekiel 17:21, “And all his fugitives with all his bands shall fall by the sword, and they that remain shall be scattered toward all winds: and ye shall know that I the LORD have spoken it.” One of three things happened to the people in Israel and in Jerusalem when Babylon conquered them: some were taken captive to Babylon, some were killed in the war, and some were scattered to other places. It was a terrible result to the sins that were being committed by the children of Israel.

The Bible says in Ezekiel 17:22-24, “Thus saith the Lord GOD; I will also take of the highest branch of the high cedar, and will set it; I will crop off from the top of his young twigs a tender one, and will plant it upon an high mountain and eminent:[23] In the mountain of the height of Israel will I plant it: and it shall bring forth boughs, and bear fruit, and be a goodly cedar: and under it shall dwell all fowl of every wing; in the shadow of the branches thereof shall they dwell.[24] And all the trees of the field shall know that I the LORD have brought down the high tree, have exalted the low tree, have dried up the green tree, and have made the dry tree to flourish: I the LORD have brought down the high tree, have exalted the low tree, have dried up the green tree, and have made the dry tree to flourish: I the LORD have spoken and have done it.” God said that He was going to take a great tree, cut off the top of it, plant that little piece and make a new tree out of it. That is what He is doing with Israel right now. God not only cut off the top, He cut them down. And they are a small nation. They were a great nation at one time under King David and King Solomon, but now they are small. But in the future Israel will yet be the greatest nation on earth when King Jesus rules from Jerusalem on the throne of David. That is what God was talking about when He said in verse 23, “and under it shall dwell all fowl of every wing; in the shadow of the branches thereof shall they dwell.”

In verse 24 God is making the point that He decides which countries are great and powerful and which countries are brought down and conquered by other countries. That is because Jesus is the King of kings and the Lord of lords. He has all power. He decides who has power under Him. And He does it very easily. People plan, and fight, and lust and kill for power. But God simply speaks and one is brought down and another is lifted up. God said in verse 24, “I the LORD have spoken and have done it.”

The Bible says in Ezekiel 18:1-4, “The word of the LORD came unto me again, saying,[2] What mean ye, that ye use this proverb concerning the land of Israel, saying, The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge?[3] As I live, saith the Lord GOD, ye shall not have occasion any more to use this proverb in Israel.[4] Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sinneth, it shall die.” God told the Israelites that they would no longer be able to say the proverb that is quoted in verse 2. Of course, the reason is that they would not be living in Israel. The proverb was one they would say when things were not going too well: eating sour grapes and what that signifies. But God is telling them that the worse is yet to come. Those who are not killed will be taken captive, and those who are not taken captive will be scattered to other lands. Why would such things happen: God would either make them to happen or allow them to happen. God said, “All souls are mine.” God is interested in souls. Jesus came to save souls. The real you is your soul which exists inside your body. Your soul belongs to God. He gave you life when He put your soul into your body when you were inside your Mother’s womb. The problem that human beings have regarding the destiny of their soul is given at the end of verse 4, “the soul that sinneth, it shall die.” And everyone sins, so everyone has that terrible problem. Of course, that is why we need a Savior and why Jesus came to suffer in our place on the cross. The Israelites lived under the law and the law only brings more sins because every disobedience to the law is another sin. And did they ever sin! How blessed Christians are because we are told, “Ye are not under law but under grace.” Jesus purchased us out of the marketplace. We were slaves to sin, but now we belong to Him.

The Bible says in Ezekiel 18:5-9, “But if a man be just, and do that which is lawful and right,[6] And hath not eaten upon the mountains, neither hath lifted up his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel, neither hath defiled his neighbour's wife, neither hath come near to a menstruous woman,[7] And hath not oppressed any, but hath restored to the debtor his pledge, hath spoiled none by violence, hath given his bread to the hungry, and hath covered the naked with a garment;[8] He that hath not given forth upon usury, neither hath taken any increase, that hath withdrawn his hand from iniquity, hath executed true judgment between man and man,[9] Hath walked in my statutes, and hath kept my judgments, to deal truly; he is just, he shall surely live, saith the Lord GOD.” In these verses God is saying what He looks for in human beings, or at least what He looked for in the Old Testament, and there are definitely spiritual correlations to what God is looking for today. In verse 5 we are told to do what is right. That is fairly simple. Always do the right thing. When you have to deal with some situation in your life, let this be your guiding principle: do what is right: not what is convenient or what is profitable, but what is right. Bob Jones Sr. said, “Do right until the stars fall.” We can be sure of this: God always does the right thing in His actions and decisions and so should we.

In verse 6 God says that people should stay away from false religion. He said, “neither hath lifted up his eyes to the idols.” There are many false teachers and many false teachings. Jesus warned about “wolves in sheep’s clothing.” The way to avoid false teachers is to know the true teachings very well by reading and studying the Bible your whole life. And there is one more thing: it says “neither hath lifted up his eyes to the idols.” In other words stay away from, avoid, and do not even consider what the false teachers say.

In verse 6 right after saying to stay away from false religion, God says, “neither hath defiled his neighbour's wife.” Marital infidelity is the same as false religion: the one symbolizes the other. God created marriage and He created it to symbolize the relationship that a believer has with Him. It says in Ephesians 5:25, “Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ loved the church and gave himself for it.” By the way there is one thing worse than being unfaithful to your wife or your husband: being unfaithful to God. Sexual immorality had spread in Israel like a cancer, but they had at least one things that was worse: their own unfaithfulness to the Lord.

At the end of verse 6 God stated about a righteous man: “neither hath come near to a menstruous woman.” In the Old Testament law there were things that were considered clean, and other things were considered dirty. That is why cleansing with water was a ritual in the Old Testament law to symbolize the fact that a believer would stay away from that which was unclean. Remember when the Pharisees accused Jesus of not doing the ritual cleansing with water? It says in Mark 7:5, “Then the Pharisees and scribes asked him, Why walk not thy disciples according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with unwashen hands?” Jesus made clear what really defiles a person is not how much they wash themselves, but what is their true spiritual condition. He said in Matthew 15:17-20 in the parable of human waste: “Do not ye yet understand, that whatsoever entereth in at the mouth goeth into the belly, and is cast out into the draught?[18] But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man.[19] For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies:[20] These are the things which defile a man: but to eat with unwashen hands defileth not a man.”

In the first part of Ezekiel 18:7 God says the following is what He wants people to be like, “And hath not oppressed any, but hath restored to the debtor his pledge.” God is talking about how we treat our neighbors. Specifically, how we treat others when we have loaded them something, and they have given us something as collateral. Once they pay off the loan, you return to them the collateral. This implies that the person And it implies that the person borrowing the money is poor because who would borrow money except someone who is in desperate straits? Do not take advantage of someone just because you can. God does not like that. Jesus put it this way in what we call the golden rule: “Do unto others as you would have them to do unto you.”

Also in Ezekiel 18:7 God said that a person He approves of, “hath spoiled none by violence.” Someone who will oppress another person financially, might also use violence against them. That is what gangs do and other criminals. Beware, because any human being is capable of violence. What is the best way to avoid being a violent person: come to know the love of God in your heart through faith in Jesus Christ. Violence is not of God. Instead of harming your neighbor, God wants you to do good to them. A person like that “hath given his bread to the hungry, and hath covered the naked with a garment.” There are people in the world who are suffering. Sometimes God’s method of helping such people is to use other people to whom God has given the means. If God has given you more than you need, it is not just for your enjoyment. It is also so that you can help others.

When God said in Ezekiel 18:9, “Hath walked in my statutes, and hath kept my judgments, to deal truly,” the importance of the Word of God is shown. God’s statutes and judgments are in the Bible. That is why God gave us the Bible: so that we would know God’s will. As we understand the Gospel of Christ and the difference between the Old Testament and the New Testament, we understand the will of God more and more. Jesus said, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth from the mouth of God.” This is the will of God: that you believe on Jesus whom He hath sent.

___________________________________________________