Seder 117: Ezekiel 20:25---What Do You Mean, "Statutes that were not good..."?

 Ezekiel 20 takes place "in the seventh year, in the fifth month, on the tenth day of the month."  Commentator Ralph Alexander (EBC) estimates that this date is in July or August of 591 BC.  At this point come elders of Israel came to Ezekiel to "inquire of the Lord" (verse 1).  Alexander speculates that they may have been wondering whether the Egyptians would be able to deliver them from Nebuchadnezzar's dominance.  

Whatever the question, God refuses to dignify it with an answer.  Through Ezekiel, he reminds them of Israel's long history of rebellion,  going all the way back to the nation's sojourn in Egypt.  It is revealed, for example, that one reason for that length of that sojourn was the sin of idolatry (verses 7-8).  

Israel's disobedience, God declares, continued during its wilderness years.  As a result, "I gave them statutes that were not good and rules by which they could not have life" (verse 25).  

What does God mean here?  Sadly, as commentator Daniel Block explains, there have been Christian interpreters, starting with Justin Martyr in the second century (see Dialogue with Trypho, chapters 18-22), who gave an antinomian reading of this verse. By this reading, God gave Israel "bad laws" after the sin of the golden calf as a punishment.  

An examination of Ezekiel 20 shows some immediate problems with this sort of interpretation.  Whatever these "bad laws" were, they did not include the Torah revealed at Sinai, which was a blessing intended to lead to abundant life (see Lev 18:5, quoted in verses 11, 13, 21).  Also, they were given a generation later, to the children of those who were rescued from Egypt (verse 21).  

There seems to be a clue to the meaning of verse 25 in the frequent references to idolatry in the prophecy, including child sacrifice (verse 26; see e.g., Lev 18:21).  God may mean in verse 25 that he "gave Israel over" to such practices to allow them to suffer the consequences and be brought to repentance.  That is the kind of interpretation given by, for example, Walter C. Kaiser in Hard Savings of the Bible.  This kind of language is used in a number of places in the Bible (Ps 81:12; Acts 7:42; Ro 1:24-25).