What does this Verse Mean?

[Bulldog]

Ezekial 20:25

Wherefore I gave them also statutes [that were] not good, and judgments whereby they should not live;

This would seem to suggest that God did something that was not good.

 

[EdmundBlackadderTheThird]

No man could live by the Law, you have to look at the whole passage in context. Verses 1-32 explain it, especially 21-26. It refers to a punishment, which is never good for the punished except that they learn discipline. It is speaking to Israel as a nation and what God gave them was not good for them, the Law was a ministry of death and gave sin power according to Paul. Look at Abraham, he believed and it was counted unto him as righteousness. Israel had rebelled and God gave them what they deserved, it was not good for them, but it testified to Christ and his coming. It was a shadow of what was to come. There are plenty of times God does things that are not considered good by the people He does them to or for. Take the quail instead of manna incedent, everyone who ate was stircken with a plague before they could even swallow.

 

[countrymousenc]

Here's how the verse reads in NKJV (with verse 24):

24. "because they had not executed My judgments, but had despised My statutes, profaned My Sabbaths, and their eyes were fixed on their fathers' idols.
25. "Therefore I also gave them up to statutes that were not good, and judgments by which they could not live;

Sounds like a reference to God putting Israel under the rule of another nation, with different laws than theirs. The passage, beginning several verses earlier, refers to God giving them His statutes (laws) which they did not obey. For their disobedience, He gave them over to other laws.