Ezekiel 20:23-26
“Also I swore to them in the wilderness that I would scatter them among the nations and disperse them among the lands, because they had not observed My ordinances, but had rejected My statutes and had profaned My Sabbaths, and their eyes were on the idols of their fathers. “I also gave them statutes that were not good and ordinances by which they could not live; and I pronounced them unclean because of their gifts, in that they caused all their firstborn to pass through the fire so that I might make them desolate, in order that they might know that I am the LORD.'”
This passage portrays a critical point regarding why Israel was taken into captivity. There is no doubt Israel was a religious people. Yet, notice the emphasis on the personal pronoun “My.” Their source of values was not God. Realizing the source of any given value or moral standard will go a long way toward determining its rightness and therefore its effectiveness.
Romans 6:15-19 says, “What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be! Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone, as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness? But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed, and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification.
The source of a person’s values will determine their righteousness or their sinfulness. In addition, then, the source of the values to which a person submits will also establish who is the sovereign in their life and of whom they is a servant. The Israelites of Ezekiel 20 apparently could, in all sincerity and with a clear conscience—and perhaps even with fervency—sacrifice their firstborn to Moloch! This is a vivid example of how twisted a person’s thinking and conscience can become by believing a corrupt source.
