John Calvin Commentary Ezekiel 20

Here he does not narrate a vision but an event that really happened. It is a simple historical narrative, stating that some of the elders of Israel were chosen to interrogate him. We know this to be customary; and when God separates His people from the profane nations, He opposes His prophets to the soothsayers, magi, augurs, and astrologers.

For God says that the Gentiles inquire about what concerns them in various ways, and so interrogate their deities; but He prescribes to the chosen people only one method. As Moses says, I will raise for them a prophet from the midst of their brethren (Deuteronomy 18:18). This means they need not wander about like the wretched Gentiles, lacking counsel, going first to their soothsayers, then to magi, and then to astrologers—there is no end to these practices. But, as God says, "I will meet them by My prophets, who will always exist among the people."

In this sense Ezekiel says, that the elders of Israel came to consult God. The verb, דרש, deresh, properly signifies “to seek,” but it is used here to mean “to consult” or “inquire into,” as in many other places. Now it is not surprising that the elders came by common agreement to the Prophet, for the Israelites were already worn out by prolonged weariness and thought that they had almost perished during their long exile.

But there was another reason: false prophets, as we saw, were tickling the ears of the simple by daily offering them some new hope. Therefore, since they were agitated between hope and fear, and the devil scattered false prophecies that distracted the minds of the common people, it is probable that the elders of Israel came (or were sent) to inquire about either the prosperous or disastrous outcome of their captivity.

Therefore, they came to the prophets. Ezekiel says, it happened in the seventh year—that is, after the captivity of Jehoiakim. They reckoned the years from that change, and rightly so, for such a remarkable act of God’s vengeance ought to be constantly remembered. There was also another reason: God had given some hope of restoration.

The reckoning of the years, then, which the Israelites dated from Jehoiakim’s exile, had a twofold purpose: first, that God’s judgment might remain fixed in their minds, and second, that they might nevertheless refresh their spirits with hope for good. Thus, as often as they marked the first year or the second, it was as if they kept before their eyes that slaughter by which God showed Himself to be grievously offended.

But for another reason, they ought to cheer their spirits with good hopes. For if the kingdom had been utterly abolished and no promise had been added to lighten their sorrow, that reckoning would have been unnecessary, since in a state of desperation, people do not count the years. However, when seventy years were set, they nourished and cherished hope in this way, because they renewed the memory of their liberty, which had been promised to them through the prophet Jeremiah (Jeremiah 25:12–13 and Jeremiah 29:10).

Now, therefore, we understand why Ezekiel simply says the seventh year; he also mentions the day and the month.

Now, the phrase I have noted contains some useful instruction: the elders of Israel came to consult God and sat before the Prophet.

We see, then, concerning outward forms, that they followed what God had commanded in His law. Lest you should say, Who shall ascend above the clouds? Who shall descend into the abyss? Who shall cross the sea? The word is ever there, in your heart and in your mouth (Deuteronomy 30:12–14; Romans 10:6–8).

Therefore, since God in some way presented Himself whenever He instructed His servants by the spirit of prophecy, when the elders of Israel came to the Prophet, they are said to have come to God Himself. This is because God was unwilling to utter His own oracles either from heaven or by means of angels; instead, He appointed His servant through whom He would speak, and told him what he should say.

From this we gather that our faith is not rightly founded unless we listen to God alone, who alone deserves and claims us as His listeners. But at the same time, we must note that faith was joined with humility and modesty.

Therefore, if anyone desires to ascend to the clouds to inquire what God will answer, he departs far from Him, although he pretends to approach Him. This moderation must be observed: our faith should acquiesce in the authority of the one God and not be carried here and there by the will of men.

And yet, it should not object to hearing God speak through His servants, but should calmly submit to the prophets.

Here the Prophet is ordered to blame those elders, although they pretended to exceptional piety in inquiring of him: God says that they did not come with a right disposition. Many translate it differently—if I shall be found, or be entreated by you, or if I shall answer. Thus they understand the word, דרש, deresh, in a double sense: in the first clause, as meaning to seek or interrogate; but when "as I live, etc." is added, they do not understand the word to mean “to be sought” or “to be interrogated,” but “to answer” or “be entreated.” But this seems far-fetched, and in Ezekiel 14:3, a phrase quite similar to this was explained. From this we may gather that God is inveighing against the people’s hypocrisy rather than rejecting them and refusing to answer.

In that passage, the Prophet said that the elders came to consult him, as if they were his best disciples. But because Ezekiel might be deceived by that deceptive appearance, God confronts him and says, "Do you think that they come to inquire of me? They are fixed upon their idols, for their heart is towards them, and they raise their eyes to their own abominations": As I live, if they seek me, says he; that is, it is easy to convict them of bad faith when they come humbly to inquire of you.

For if they truly and sincerely sought me, they would renounce their idols and would no longer partake of their abominations; but they do not repent and remain obstinate in their wickedness. It is certain, therefore, that they are by no means sincere: there is no reason why you should delay them or trouble yourself about them, since their conduct is mere pretense.

So, therefore, in this passage God pronounced through his Prophet, Are you come to seek me?—that is, to consult me. I will not be inquired of by you, says he: the reason is because, as we saw in Ezekiel 14, they always remained the same. Since they were therefore at the greatest distance from God and remained wrapped up in their own abominations, their seeking God was only deceptive.

The conclusion is that God rejected them because, though they pretended to have a holy zeal, they were still perverse in their disposition. Hence, God refuses to act as a teacher towards them since they did not come to learn: this is one point. He then says, If I shall be inquired of by you.

And because their hypocrisy was disguised by various pretenses, God swears that their disposition was perverse, and that they did not come with pious and holy motives, and were neither teachable nor obedient, nor desirous of making progress, and therefore were unworthy of having him as their teacher. Now let us continue.

The context flows very well if we accept this interpretation: that God swears that the Israelites did not come with the intention of being subject to His prophet and of modestly submitting to his instructions. If this interpretation is agreeable, it is fittingly added, shall you judge them? That is, will you spend your breath arguing with them?

He means that they are to be dismissed rather than instructed, as Christ says, You shall not cast pearls before swine (Matthew 7:6). And we know what God pronounces: My Spirit shall not always strive with man, because he is flesh (Genesis 6:3). He now means that there was no need for any dispute, since there was no basis for continuing it. So, in this passage, since the Prophet was dealing with men completely hardened, who never listened to wise counsel, nor obeyed any admonitions, nor were softened by any chastisement, he therefore adds, shall you judge them? Some, indeed, coldly and blandly explain this as taking away the role of a judge, since God desires them to be called to repentance rather than to be condemned.

But here judging encompasses all reproaches and threats. On the whole, since they acted deceitfully and had no intention of submitting to God, hence he uses this bitterness: What! Are they worthy of your judging them? That is, of your contending with them? For the prophet’s duty is to argue with sinners, to threaten them, and to summon them to God’s tribunal.

God, therefore, pronounces them unworthy of such disputation, because they are not only deaf but also hardened by utter obstinacy. Now, therefore, we understand the meaning of the words, will you judge them? will you judge them? The repetition is emphatic, so that God may strongly express the obstinacy of that incorrigible people.

He afterwards adds, If this is to be done, then show them the abominations of their fathers. God here mitigates the harshness he had used and, by way of a correction, offers a reason for it: namely, that he may try for once whether or not they are curable. If, then, they are to be judged—that is, if he chooses to enter into any dispute and to argue with them—he says that he should begin not with them, but with their fathers.

God wishes them to be judged not only on account of the wickedness of a few years, but because even before they were born, their fathers were obstinately attached to their abominations. In short, God shows that the wound was deep and could not be cured unless the hidden poison was carefully examined, which otherwise would cause putrid matter, from which inflammation would eventually arise.

For many think that they have properly discharged their duty when they have only lightly probed their wounds. But sometimes it is necessary to penetrate to the innermost parts, as the people had not only provoked God lightly and for a short time, but their impiety had been growing for ages, and their sins had become a kind of inheritance to them. Since, then, this hidden poison existed, which could not be cured either easily or by any slight remedy, God therefore orders them to begin with their fathers: Show them, therefore, the abominations of their fathers.

God confirms what I said before: that the Jews were not to be reproved for only recently beginning to sin. It was not enough to bring recent offenses before them; but God orders the Prophet to begin with their fathers, as if He had said that the nation was abandoned from the very beginning, as Stephen rebukes them: Uncircumcised in heart, you still resist the Holy Spirit, as your fathers always did (Acts 7:51).

And Christ had said the same thing before: You fill up the measure of your fathers (Matthew 23:32). We also know how frequently rebukes of this kind occur in the Prophets. God therefore says that from the time when He chose the seed of Israel, He had experienced both the wickedness and obstinacy of the people. For He says that they were not led astray by either error or ignorance, but because they were unwilling to hear, when they were repeatedly admonished about their duty.

Therefore, three things are to be noted:

1. The people were bound to God, since He had freely adopted them. God here commends His gracious election, together with the unique benefits He had bestowed on that people.

2. He not only took them to Himself once, but He also showed them what was right, so that they could not go wrong, except knowingly and willfully.

3. They rebelled purposely because they would not listen. If they had been left at a crossroads, their error would have been excusable if they had turned to the left instead of the right. But if God by His law shone so clearly before them that He was prepared to direct them straight to the goal, and they still turned aside, then their stubbornness and rebellion are plainly revealed.

This is the meaning.

Now as far as words are concerned, He says, that He had chosen Israel. But election, as I have already briefly mentioned, is opposed to all merits: for if anything had been found in the people that would cause them to be preferred to others, it would be improperly said that God had elected them.

But since all were in the same condition, as Moses says in his song (Deuteronomy 32:8, 9), there was room for God’s grace, since He separated them from others of His own accord. For they were just like the rest, and God did not find any difference between them. We see, then, that they were more sacredly bound to God, since He had joined them to Himself freely.

He now adds, that He lifted up His hand to the seed of Jacob. Lifting up the hand seems to be taken here in different senses. Since it was a customary way of swearing, God is sometimes said to lift up His hand when He swears. This expression is indeed problematic, since lifting up the hand is not fitting for God: for we lift up the hand when we call upon God as a witness, but God swears by Himself and cannot raise His hand above Himself.

But we know that He uses expressions according to common human customs; therefore, there is nothing absurd in this phrase, He lifted up His hand, that is, He swore. Hence, if we may explain it so, this was a confirmation of the covenant, when God, by interposing an oath, promised to be Israel’s God.

But since He shortly afterwards adds, that He was known, the other sense fits quite well, as it refers to the benefits He had bestowed upon the people. And truly, experiential knowledge is intended, since God genuinely proved Himself to be trustworthy and thus demonstrated His own power in preserving the people.

Therefore, I said that "to lift up the hand" is to be understood in various ways in this chapter. If we read the two clauses together, I lifted up My hand to the seed of the house of Jacob, and was made known to them, then "lifting up the hand" will truly imply a display of power. That has also been said through a simile. However, soon after, "lifting up the hand" must be understood as swearing, by the rhetorical figure called catachresis, which is the use of a word in a different sense, and yet there is no absurdity in it.

I have raised My hand, therefore, to the seed of the house of Jacob, saying, I Jehovah am your God (Ezekiel 20:5).

We see, then, that God raised His hand to ratify the covenant which He had made. For when He declares Himself their God, He binds them to Himself, claims them for His special people, and thus confirms His covenant. But at the same time, He had raised His hand or arm by so many miracles performed in liberating the people.

He says, in that day I raised My hand to, or towards them, to bring them out. Again, raising the hand refers to God’s power, since He brought them out by an extended arm from that wretched slavery. Since, therefore, He raised His hand in this way, He acquired them as His own possession, so that they would no longer be their own masters, but belong entirely to Him.

He afterwards adds other benefits, since He not only rescued them from the tyranny of Pharaoh, but brought them into a land flowing with milk and honey, which He had chosen for them. We see how briefly God elaborates on that remarkable benefit which He had bestowed upon His people.

Not only was He their Redeemer, but He also sought out a place for them to live that was not only suitable but also abundant in resources, for this phrase is common enough with Moses: In that same day in which I led them out of Egypt, I brought them into a land, the desire of all lands. This means a land that is desirable and superior to all other lands.

It is true, indeed, that other lands were no less fruitful. However, God, in praising the land of Canaan this way, considers it as clothed and adorned by His generosity. But there was no region under heaven comparable to the land of Canaan in one respect: namely, God’s choosing it as His earthly dwelling place. Since the land of Canaan excelled all others in this regard, it is deservedly called "the desire of all lands," or desirable beyond all lands.

Another clause now follows: that God instructed the Jews in piety and drew them away from all the idolatries to which they had been devoted. Instruction therefore came first, which showed them the right way of salvation and called them back from their superstitions. The meaning is that when God adopted the people, He gave them the rule for living a godly life, so that they should not be tossed about here and there, but have a goal to which they might direct the whole course of their life.

I said, therefore, to each of them: this seems more emphatic than if He had spoken to all indiscriminately and generally. But this personal invitation should penetrate more deeply into their minds, when He speaks to each individually, just as if He said, let each of you cast away your abominations, and not pollute himself anymore with the idols of Egypt.

When therefore God thus bound them to Himself, He shows that He could not be rightly worshipped by them unless they renounced their idolatries and shaped their whole life according to the rule of His law. He calls their alluring idols "defilements" or "idols of the eyes." But we know that the Prophet often speaks this way, so that unbelievers might reflect on their idols.

Hence it is just as if God called them back from all the wiles of Satan by which they were lured, and were so devoted to them as to have their eyes exclusively fixed on them. He speaks by name of the idols of Egypt, from which it easily appears that they were corrupted by depraved desires, so as for the most part to worship the false gods of Egypt.

Yet they knew they were chosen by the true God and boasted in circumcision as a symbol of their separation from all nations. Although they wished to be thought distinguished on the one hand, they afterwards prostituted themselves so as to differ in nothing from the Egyptians. We see then that the desire for piety was almost extinct in their hearts, since they had so defiled themselves with the superstitions of Egypt.

So that He might retain them better, He says at the same time that He was their God. For without this principle, people are tossed here and there, for we know that we are lighter than vanity. Therefore, the devil will always find us vulnerable to his deceptions unless God keeps us to our duty, until He appears to us and shows Himself as the only God. We see then the necessity for this remedy—namely, the knowledge of the true God—so that people might not be carried away by idolatries. The third point will follow later, and we will explain it in due course.

Prayer:

Grant, Almighty God, since You have once stretched out Your hand to us by Your only-begotten Son, and have not only bound Yourself to us by an oath, but have sealed Your eternal covenant by the blood of the same, Your Son: Grant, I pray You, that we in return may be faithful to You, and persevere in the pure worship of Your name, until at last we enjoy the fruit of our faith in Your heavenly kingdom through the same Christ our Lord. Amen.

[Exposition continues from previous day's lecture]

In the last lecture, I began to explain the eighth verse, where God complains that He was provoked by the children of Israel when He had begun to extend His hand to free them. He says, then, that they had rejected His grace. But at the same time, we see that all excuse of ignorance was removed, because unless Moses had encouraged them to good hope, they would have pretended to be so deserted for two centuries that they had hoped in vain for God's help.

But since Moses was a witness of their redemption, therefore their ingratitude was all the more inexcusable, since they were unwilling to embrace the message which they had so greatly desired. Nor are Moses' words empty, that they often cried out in their afflictions.

Although their outcry was turbulent, yet they doubtless remembered what they had heard from their fathers: that the end of those troubles was near, for which God had set an appointed time. But this passage expresses more than Moses relates, who simply says that because they saw themselves treated too harshly, they were worn out and disheartened, hence those complaints: You have made our name to stink before Pharaoh: God shall judge between you and us: Judea you gone from us (Exodus 5:21).

We do not then clearly gather from Moses that they were rebels against God because they had not cast away their idols and superstitions; but the likely conjecture is that they were so rooted in their filth that they pushed away God’s helping hand. And truly, if they had promptly embraced what Moses had promised them in God’s name, the accomplishment would have been more prompt and swift; but we may understand that their sloth was the obstacle to the working of God’s hand in their favor and to the actual fulfillment of His promises.

God indeed had to contend with Pharaoh, that His power might be more evident; but the people would not have been so tyrannically afflicted unless they had closed the door to God’s mercy. They were, as we have said, immersed in their defilements from which God wished to draw them away.

He now accuses them of ingratitude, because they did not cast away their idols, but obstinately persisted in their habitual and customary superstitions. He speaks of the time of their captivity in Egypt, and this passage assures us that while there they were infected and polluted by Egyptian defilements. For the contagion of idolatry is astonishing: since we are all naturally inclined to it, as soon as any example is offered to us, we are pulled in that direction by a violent impulse.

It is not surprising then that the children of Israel became polluted by the superstitions of Egypt, especially as they lived there as slaves and were eager to please the Egyptians. For if they had been treated generously, they might have lived freely according to their own customs. But since they were not free and were oppressed as slaves, it happened that they pretended to worship the gods of Egypt according to the will of those by whom they saw themselves oppressed. And not only did they sin by pretending, but it is probable that they were impelled by their own lusts as well as by fear, for it will soon be evident that they were too inclined to impiety of their own accord.

On the whole, Ezekiel here testifies that they were rebels against God, because they did not listen to God by casting away the idols of their eyes, that is, the worship to which they were too attentive, nor did they desert the idols of Egypt. When he speaks of the idols of their eyes, we gather what I have mentioned: that they were not driven to idolatry by fear and necessity, but by their own depraved appetites. For unless they had been passionately devoted to Egyptian superstitions, Ezekiel would not have called them idols of the eyes.

Hence by this word he means that they were not only superstitious through obedience to the Egyptians, but were spontaneously inclined towards them. Besides, when he adds the idols of Egypt, he points out as the cause of their corruption their living under that tyranny, and their being forced to endure many hardships, since slavery commonly draws with it pretense.

It now follows, And I said I would pour forth, that is, I determined to pour forth. God here indicates that He was inflamed with anger, and unless they showed respect for His name, He would not have withdrawn His hand from the vengeance for which it was armed and prepared.

We know that this is not literally true of God; rather, it is the language of accommodation. This is because, first of all, God is not driven by vengeance in a human sense, and secondly, He does not decree what He might later retract. Since these things are not consistent with God's nature, similes and accommodation are used.

Whenever the Holy Spirit uses these forms of speech, let us learn that they refer more to the situation being described than to God's actual nature. God resolved to pour out His anger; that is, the Israelites had so deserved it through their crimes that it was necessary to execute punishment upon them. The Prophet simply means that the people’s disposition was so sinful that God’s wrath would have been poured out, unless He had been restrained by some other reason. I have already mentioned the obstacle: He had regard for His honor, lest it should be profaned.

I have decreed, therefore, to pour forth My burning fury upon them in the midst of the land of Egypt. Some translate this as "to consume them," but improperly, for the word, כלה, keleh, means to fill up or accomplish, as well as to consume. But although God sometimes says that He uses up all His weapons or scourges in the punishment of people's sins, yet it is not appropriate to apply this meaning to His wrath itself.

Hence another sense will fit better: namely, that God decreed to pour out His wrath until He satisfied Himself. For here, as we have said, He takes on the character of an angry man, who cannot calm his mind except by satisfying it through inflicting punishment, for anger is usually inexhaustible. But God on the whole here expresses that such was the enormity of their wickedness that the Israelites deserved destruction through the outpouring of God’s wrath and the filling up of the measure of His indignation; and that in the midst of the land of Egypt, because they had shown themselves unworthy of His redemption, and hence they deserved to perish in the midst of the land of Egypt. But He later added—

Here God indicates that He was restrained for one reason only from entirely blotting out so ungrateful and wicked a nation: specifically, because He saw His own sacred name would be exposed to the Gentiles as a laughingstock. He teaches, therefore, that He spared them and temporarily suspended His severity, being motivated more by concern for His own glory than by pity for them.

Therefore, by the phrase I did it, we should understand what will be explained more clearly later. The meaning is that He abstained from the final act of vengeance for the sake of His name, so that it would not be profaned among the Gentiles. Although God here declares that He was concerned more for Himself than for them, there is no doubt that He spared them because He saw that they could not otherwise be preserved except by His pardoning them, even in such hardness and obstinacy. And certainly, God’s glory and the salvation of the Church are almost inseparably united.

When I speak of the salvation of the Church, I do not include all those who claim to be its members, but I refer only to the elect. Therefore, since God had adopted that nation, He had to preserve the remnant in safety; otherwise, His truth would have failed, and thus His name would have been much more severely profaned.

From this we can gather that whenever God pardons us, though He considers Himself and wishes in this way to exercise His mercy, His pity towards us is also a reason for His pardoning us. But when He says that He has withdrawn His hand from vengeance out of concern for His own glory, He in this way further humbles the pride of this nation, since, whenever He had pity on them, they thought it was a concession to their own worthiness and merits.

The Prophet, therefore, shows here that they were rescued from destruction while they were still in the land of Egypt for no other reason than God’s unwillingness to expose His name to the contempt of the nations. He says, therefore, in the eyes of the Gentiles, among whom they were, referring not only to the Egyptians but to others as well.

Yet the question arises, in what sense does he add, a little later, that he was known to them? For up to that point, He had given no demonstration of His power among the Gentiles. He had testified by two miracles that Moses would be the agent in their redemption (Exodus 4:2 and following). Afterwards, Moses approached Pharaoh himself; there God displayed the signs of His power, which rightly frightened all the Egyptians, but His fame had not yet reached other nations.

But this knowledge should not be simply restricted to past time, for God only means that He had already begun to show, by clear and remarkable proofs, that Moses was chosen, by whose hand He intended to redeem His own people.

Therefore, since God had already displayed those remarkable signs, He says that He was known to those nations—not that His fame had reached them, but because He Himself had gone there, so that the event could not remain hidden, and everyone would know that miracles had been performed by the hand of Moses, making it evident that He wished to claim the Israelites as His own.

Now, therefore, we understand in what sense Ezekiel says that God was known. Some explain this in a relative sense, as follows: "I was known to them" (meaning the Israelites) "in their eyes" (meaning the Gentiles). But this interpretation seems forced to me, for in my opinion, the word “their” in the Prophet’s language is unnecessary here.

He simply means that God was revealed in the eyes of all the nations in leading them forth. This phrase shows the kind of knowledge intended, since God showed His power in liberating the people through remarkable miracles.