John Calvin Commentary Ezekiel 20:5-8

"and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: In the day when I chose Israel, and sware unto the seed of the house of Jacob, and made myself known unto them in the land of Egypt, when I sware unto them, saying, I am Jehovah your God; in that day I sware unto them, to bring them forth 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. And I said unto them, Cast ye away every man the abominations of his eyes, and defile not yourselves with the idols of Egypt; I am Jehovah your God. But they rebelled against me, and would not hearken unto me; they did not every man cast away the abominations of their eyes, neither did they forsake the idols of Egypt. Then I said I would pour out my wrath upon them, to accomplish my anger against them in the midst of the land of Egypt." — Ezekiel 20:5-8 (ASV)

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—