Ezekiel 20:15-16
“So I also raised My hand in an oath to them in the wilderness, that I would not bring them into the land which I had given them, ‘flowing with milk and honey’, the glory of all lands, because they despised My judgements and did not walk in My statutes, but profaned My Sabbaths; for their heart went after their idols.”
Ezekiel 20:15-16 refers to a historical situation that shows idolatry’s deceptive nature. These verses summarize that Israel went into captivity and were scattered primarily as the result of idolatry and Sabbath-breaking. As they were breaking those commands, did they believe that doing so would take them into captivity? Probably not, but we can believe it because God records it for our admonition! It is interesting that idolatry and Sabbath-breaking are linked, because the breaking of either leads directly to the breaking of the other.
Many prophets witnessed against the Jews, but no lasting repentance occurred. A key to understanding why nothing changed is found in Ezekiel 20: 6-7 in the phrase, “provoke Me to anger with the works of your hands.” “Works of your hands” indicates concepts, ideas, and notions developed from their own minds, not from the Creator’s. He refers, of course, to their idolatry. The deceptive nature of idolatry and Sabbath-breaking is such that their damaging effects are more subtle than other sins’ effects. The pains of the penalties usually come so much later that most are unable to connect the true spiritual cause with the individual’s or culture’s moral and spiritual degeneracy.
If one lies, steals, or commits murder, the effects are almost always immediately evident, but this is not so with idolatry and Sabbath-breaking. With those who do not know God, breaking the first commandment leads to breaking the fourth. However, with those who know the God’s truths, breaking the fourth commandment can easily lead to breaking the first.
The Bible reveals that the effect of breaking the first commandment is to break the second, and eventually all the other commandments (James 2:10). In practical experience, this happens because, once a person is no longer responding to the Creator God’s values, someone or something else has to be put in His place. Man will worship something, and that something is more often than not, himself and his own creations.
