God Honors His Word, Even When We Don’t - Ezekiel 19-24

Ezekiel 20:12 (ESV)

Moreover, I gave them my Sabbaths, as a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the LORD who sanctifies them.

In this section of Ezekiel, the prophet is telling us why God is bringing another nation to carry Judah off into captivity.   The main reason is the nations continuous disobedience to God’s word.  One specific area was their failure to observe the Sabbath years.   The nation was commanded to allow the land to rest every seven years.  God had promised to give them enough in the sixth year to carry them through the seventh.   But they refused.   The above passage is a quote from this passage in Exodus:

Exodus 31:13 (ESV) “You are to speak to the people of Israel and say, ‘Above all you shall keep my Sabbaths, for this is a sign between me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I, the LORD, sanctify you.

Keeping the Sabbath was a command given to the priests.  It was their job to instruct the people:

Leviticus 19:3 (ESV) Every one of you shall revere his mother and his father, and you shall keep my Sabbaths: I am the LORD your God.

Leviticus 19:30 (ESV) You shall keep my Sabbaths and reverence my sanctuary: I am the LORD.

Because they did not keep the Sabbath and give the land rest, God would remove them from the land for the number of Sabbath years they failed to honor His command:

Leviticus 26:34-35 (ESV) “Then the land shall enjoy its Sabbaths as long as it lies desolate, while you are in your enemies’ land; then the land shall rest, and enjoy its Sabbaths. As long as it lies desolate it shall have rest, the rest that it did not have on your Sabbaths when you were dwelling in it.

2 Chronicles 36:20-21 (ESV) He took into exile in Babylon those who had escaped from the sword, and they became servants to him and to his sons until the establishment of the kingdom of Persia, to fulfill the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed its Sabbaths. All the days that it lay desolate it kept Sabbath, to fulfill seventy years.

They failed to honor Him and trust Him for seventy years of Sabbath rest, so their captivity would be for seventy years.   God gave them to the Sabbath as a sign of His covenant blessing and to make the difference than the world.   When God’s people fail to keep God’s word, God will make sure God’s word is still honored in the end.