Ezekiel 20:10

"So I caused them to go forth out of the land of Egypt, and brought them into the wilderness. And I gave them my statutes, and showed them mine ordinances, which, if a man do, he shall live in them. Moreover also I gave them my sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am Jehovah that sanctifieth them. But the house of Israel rebelled against me in the wilderness; and they walked not in my statutes, and they rejected mine ordinances, which, if a man keep, he shall live in them; and my sabbaths they greatly profaned. Then I said, I will pour out my wrath upon them in the wilderness, to consume them. But I wrought for my name's sake, that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations, in whose sight I brought them out. Moreover I sware unto them in the wilderness, that I would not bring them into the land which I had given them, flowing with milk and honey, which is the glory of all lands; because they rejected mine ordinances, and walked not in my statutes, and profaned my sabbaths: for their heart went after their idols. Nevertheless mine eye spared them, and I destroyed them not, neither did I make a full end of them in the wilderness."

ISRAEL REBELLED AGAINST GOD IN THE WILDERNESS

"Sabbaths, a sign between me and them ..." (Ezekiel 20:12). Behold here the true status of the sabbath. It was never given to all mankind, but to Israel only, as a sign between them and God. It was not revealed to Adam, who never heard of it, but to Moses (Nehemiah 9:13).

"Their heart went after their idols ..." (Ezekiel 20:16). The martyr Stephen mentions Israel's worshipping the host of heaven (Acts 7:42) during the period of their wilderness wandering.

"Their heart went after their idols ..." (Ezekiel 20:16). "Israel in Canaan might have deserved this sweeping condemnation, but not Israel in the wilderness; because only two outbreaks of idolatry are recorded, namely that of the Golden Calf (Exodus 32), and that at Baal-Peor (Numbers 24-25)."[11] Such a comment is incorrect, because it is founded upon the false notion that Numbers records all that Israel did during the forty years of their sentence of waiting to enter Canaan. As a matter of fact, very little of what Israel did during that generation is recorded; because any significance of what that evil generation did was lost in their rebellion against God. And the very few instances where such details as the Golden Calf and the fiasco at Baal-Peor are mentioned, they are reported only, "For our information upon whom the ends of the ages have come" (1 Corinthians 10:11). The total history of all of Israel's wickedness would probably have required a dozen volumes the size of the Biblical Numbers! Thus, there is no reason whatever to accept a comment that questions the blame here laid by God's prophet upon Israel. All of the incidents actually reported of that forty-year period in the wilderness probably took place in a time period of a few weeks or months, there being no effort whatever to provide a full history of that lost four decades.