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Daily Devotions

Ezekiel

Ezekiel 
Day 
Day 203

"Do not walk in the statutes of your fathers"

Text: Ezekiel 20:18

THE NEXT GENERATION

The Lord went on to address the next generation. The first generation that came out of Egypt did not enter into the Promised Land. How would the second generation fare?

“But I said to their children in the wilderness,
‘Do not walk in the statutes of your fathers,
nor observe their judgments,
nor defile yourselves with their idols.
I am the LORD your God:
Walk in My statutes, keep My judgments, and do them;
hallow My Sabbaths,
and they will be a sign between Me and you,
that you may know that I am the LORD your God.'”
Ezekiel 20:18-20

1. Their children in the wilderness.

a) The context suggests the Lord was speaking to the next generation.

b) The first generation had failed to enter into Canaan because it chose to disregard and disobey God.

c) God gave the second generation the opportunity to benefit from the errors and sins of their fathers.

2. God’s instructions.

a) They were warned not to walk in the statutes of their fathers.

i) They had formed their own statutes.

ii) But these were not the statutes God had given them.

b) They must not observe the judgments of their fathers.

i) The previous generation made up their own judgments.

ii) They were not God’s judgments.

iii) The new generation must not make the same error of rejecting God.

3. “The Lord your God”

a) The new generation must seek to acknowledge God as their Lord.

b) They must cultivate faith in Him.

c) They must walk in the covenant of the Lord their God.

4. The covenantal laws of God.

a) The statutes of God were given that Israel might walk in them.

b) They must ever seek to keep His judgments and do them.

c) The Sabbaths were a special sign from God to Israel.

i) That they were His people.

ii) They must seek to be holy.

iii) They must appreciate the sanctity of the Sabbaths.

d) By keeping the laws of God will they truly know the Lord!