Picking up where we left off in Ezekiel, we learned back in November that God continued to pursue Israel, even in the midst of judging them for their detestable pagan practices. God offered new birth through covenant relationship with them.
In the next part of this chapter, Ezekiel painted quite a word picture of mankind’s often typical relationship with God.
“‘But you trusted in your beauty and used your fame to become a prostitute. You lavished your favors on anyone who passed by and your beauty became his. You took some of your garments to make gaudy high places, where you carried on your prostitution. You went to him, and he possessed your beauty. You also took the fine jewelry I gave you, the jewelry made of my gold and silver, and you made for yourself male idols and engaged in prostitution with them. And you took your embroidered clothes to put on them, and you offered my oil and incense before them. Also the food I provided for you—the flour, olive oil and honey I gave you to eat—you offered as fragrant incense before them. This is what happened, declares the Sovereign Lord’ (Ezekiel 16:15-19).
- Israel trusted in the beauty and splendor God had given them, instead of trusting in God.
- They used God’s gifts to woo other nations into spiritual adultery with them, chasing after what they desired more than the Lord, the Holy God of Israel.
- They took what God had given them and used it for pagan worship practices.
- They took treasures from God and made idols out of them.
- Israel offered God’s good gifts as sacrifices to pagan gods.
*What does it look like to trust in God’s gifts rather than the Giver?
*How might we offer God’s good gifts to an idol or the world’s false gods?
“‘And you took your sons and daughters whom you bore to me and sacrificed them as food to the idols. Was your prostitution not enough? You slaughtered my children and sacrificed them to the idols. In all your detestable practices and your prostitution you did not remember the days of your youth, when you were naked and bare, kicking about in your blood’ (Ezekiel 16:20-22).
- God said they sacrificed their children to idols to be devoured (NASB), or consumed.
- This could be literal, given pagan worship practices at that time.
- It could be spiritual, in leading spiritual sons or daughters astray with false teaching.
- It could be figurative: offering or surrendering children to anything valued more than God.
- Think about that one for a moment.
- In all of this, they chose not to remember the filth God rescued them from.
- Imagine that. It’s good to not become mired down in the muck of our past, but also good to remember the depravity God rescued us from.
“We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way;
and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:6).
“What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Romans 7:24-25)
*How do we see similar depravity practiced today?
*How does the world devour or consume people?
*How might we protect our children and set them aside for God?
“‘Woe! Woe to you, declares the Sovereign Lord. In addition to all your other wickedness, you built a mound for yourself and made a lofty shrine in every public square. At every street corner you built your lofty shrines and degraded your beauty, spreading your legs with increasing promiscuity to anyone who passed by. You engaged in prostitution with the Egyptians, your neighbors with large genitals, and aroused my anger with your increasing promiscuity” (Ezekiel 16:23-26).
- God declared woe to Israel.
- He listed more sins they committed against the Lord:
- Building high places of pagan worship on every corner.
- Offering their lives to any who passed by.
- Chasing after what the world claims to offer.
- Aligning with those who do not worship the One True God.
- Specifically, in these verses, Israel’s idolatry provoked God to anger.1
*How do we find ways to turn “at every street corner” from worshiping God?
*In what ways do we offer our lives to whatever passes by in this world?
So I stretched out my hand against you and reduced your territory; I gave you over to the greed of your enemies, the daughters of the Philistines, who were shocked by your lewd conduct. You engaged in prostitution with the Assyrians too, because you were insatiable; and even after that, you still were not satisfied. Then you increased your promiscuity to include Babylonia, a land of merchants, but even with this you were not satisfied (Ezekiel 16:27-29).
- God judged Israel by reducing their rations (NASB) – that which God allotted to them.
- He gave them over to their enemies, who were shocked by Israel’s depraved behavior!
- Seeking earthly gain from Egypt was not enough.
- Israel sought what they could gain from Assyria.
- Their appetite for worldly things was still not satisfied.
- They sought wealth from Babylon and still weren’t satisfied.
- Israel had an insatiable desire to follow foreign gods.2
*How does this mirror our culture today?
“How languishing is your heart,” declares the Lord God, “while you do all these things, the actions of a bold-faced harlot. When you built your shrine at the beginning of every street and made your high place in every square, in disdaining money, you were not like a harlot”
(Ezekiel 16:30-31, NASB).
- God declared Israel exhibited no strength of character when they chased after pagan gods.
- The word picture here is “the hearts of His people pining away because they have committed spiritual harlotry.”3
- They scorned whatever they might have received in these sinful relationships and transactions.
David certainly knew the effect of sin on one’s physical and heart health.
“For my life is spent with sorrow
and my years with sighing;
My strength has failed because of my iniquity,
and my body has wasted away” (Psalm 31:10 NASB)
“My life is consumed by anguish
and my years by groaning;
my strength fails because of my affliction,
and my bones grow weak” (Psalm 31:10 NIV)
*How might we experience the effects of sin in our lives?
‘You adulterous wife! You prefer strangers to your own husband! All prostitutes receive gifts, but you give gifts to all your lovers, bribing them to come to you from everywhere for your illicit favors. So in your prostitution you are the opposite of others; no one runs after you for your favors. You are the very opposite, for you give payment and none is given to you’ (Ezekiel 16:32-34).
- God clearly judged them for spiritual adultery.
- They preferred pagan gods to the One True God who chose them for Himself.
- Rather than receiving gifts from pagan nations, they offered gifts for the pagans to bring their detestable practices into Israel.
- God pointed out that no one sought Israel for what they might offer.
- It’s as if they begged their enemies to bring wickedness to their nation.
- God pointed out their utterly foolish behavior.
- Ezekiel recorded God’s description of a completely wayward path, one that doubles back on itself and makes no sense.
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding;
in all your ways submit to him,
and he will make your paths straight” (Proverbs 3:5-6).
*In what ways do we commit spiritual adultery?
*How do people today offer pagan gods gifts to bring their wickedness into our lives?
*How might the proverb quoted above help us leave a wayward path and follow God?
- Warren Baker, D.R.E., Eugene Carpenter, Ph.D. The Complete WordStudy Dictionary: Old Testament. (Chattanooga, TN: AMG Publishers, 2003) 518-519
- Ibid., 1096
- Ibid., 69