Ezekiel 20:24
“because they had not executed my ordinances, but had rejected my statutes, and had profaned my Sabbaths, and their eyes were after their fathers’ idols.”
What does Ezekiel 20:24 mean?
God is describing why He withdrew His favor from Israel: they ignored His laws, turned away from His instructions, disrespected the Sabbath rest He had set apart for them, and kept chasing after the false gods their ancestors had worshipped. It's a pattern of deliberate rejection rather than honest confusion, where each generation mimicked the spiritual mistakes of the one before. The sadness in this verse comes from God watching His people repeatedly choose things that would hurt them instead of accepting the life and freedom He offered.