NOTES for Eze 20:1-49
In the pages of Scripture, we often encounter a narrative being interrupted by a reminder of events whose meaning has already been revealed on earlier pages. This time too, the prophetic discourse contains an account of the exodus from Egypt. One might ask why it is necessary to repeat a story everyone knows again and again. But the past is alive, and without it we cannot understand the meaning of what is happening today. At every new stage, we comprehend anew what once happened and enabled us to draw a lesson for the present and the future.
The history of the relationship between the Lord and the people passes once again before Ezekiel's listeners, and once again the prophetic account recalls the people's constant violation of faithfulness to the Covenant. The same thing repeats from age to age, yet nothing brings successive generations of sinners to their senses as they stubbornly seek new but essentially identical trouble for themselves.
We are not surprised that the Lord just as constantly warns of responsibility for what has been done, but then, unexpectedly, we hear Him promise not to deal with people according to their evil ways and corrupt deeds. We find it hard to understand the nature of His mercy; we rejoice in it, but to appreciate it we must remember that we do not deserve it at all. Incomprehensible is the love of the Lord, Who does not allow the calamities that we ourselves bring upon ourselves through our deeds to fall upon us.