A Harlot, Whore and Prostitute (Ezekiel 16)

Big idea: God blesses you with every possible blessing under heaven, but you use and abuse his blessing for yourself like a brazen prostitute!

"But you trusted in your beauty and played the whore..." (Eze 16:15, ESV).

In this one chapter (16), Israel is called a harlot, whore or prostitute some 21 times, and together with sexually explicit verbal graphics (Ez 16:25, 26, 36) is jarring and highly disturbing. Yet in all her promiscuity she was never "satisfied" (Ez 16:28-29). Ezekiel wants it to be very clear that Israel does not stand accused of just a single act of adultery (which is bad enough), but of prolonged, addictively repeated, insatiable promiscuity with multiple partners. It is an explicit and terrible indictment of "unrestrained nymphomaniacal adventures."

1. The rescue: grace and generosity (1-14).
1. Grace (1-7): God delivers the infant from its bloody death and decrees that it shall live -- though nothing in the condition of the infant deserved or compelled the gift of life.
2. Generosity (8-14): God adds an outpouring of generosity -- in addition to pure grace.
2. The response: ungrateful and unnatural (15-34).
1. Religious prostitution (16-22).
2. Political prostitution (23-34).
3. The repudiation: terrifying and terminal (16:35-43; 23:22-49).
4. Two ugly sisters (16:44-63; 23:1-49).
• The surprise of restoration (16:53-63).

The lurid allegories of Ezekiel 16 and 23 must qualify as the chapters in the Bible (2nd perhaps only to the genealogies in 1 Chronicles) least likely to be read aloud in church and preached from. They are long, lewd and their language is graphically pornographic. They evoke images of the most vulgar sexual depravity and the most horrendous graphic violence. They are in short shocking.

Shocking is also what they were intended to be when they emerged from the mouth of this young son of a priest, who must himself have been utterly appalled at what he was being given to say as God;s spokesman. Would the holy God want me to use such sexually vulgar language?? It is difficult to imagine Ezekiel pouring out this torrent of prophetic lewdness (prurience) without excruciating embarrassment and abhorrence.

Ezekiel claimed that his lips had never been defiled by unclean food (Eze 4:14). What must it have felt like to have his lips defiled by such unclean language? Especially if his wife was listening. Most English translations tone down the offensive coarseness of some of the original expressions of sexual lust and obscene behavior used in these chapters. If they offend our eyes and ears today -- we who are accustomed to a barrage of such language and images in the media -- what must they have done to Ezekiel's first hearers in their own language?

This is not a matter of gratuitous bad taste, or evidence of some sick perversion to add to the catalogue of Ezekiel's other alleged personality disorders. Rather, these are deliberate shock tactics on a scale probably unsurpassed in the entire Bible (the whole arsenal of prophetic assault and battery weapons).

So what was the shock intended to achieve? In the early years of the exile, Ezekiel's contemporaries were for the most part still convinced that they were being treated unfairly by God. Their story was not ending the way it should. They were supposed to be the elect people of God who had given them guarantees at several points in their glorious past and that he would always defend them. What had happened now must be some kind of temporary setback, a mere technical hitch in the divine management of affairs, which God will soon correct.

Thus, Ezekiel's ultimate purpose was to bring the exiles to recognize the truth about their sad situation and thus drive them to genuine repentance. That was impossible as long as they cherished false ideas about their past as well as their present. And it was doubly difficult as long as there was still hope because Jerusalem was still standing. Somehow Ezekiel had to get across the certainty that Jerusalem was doomed, and that such a fate was utterly deserved, fully explicable and long overdue. He had already acted out this message with great personal suffering for over a year (ch. 4-5). He had exposed what was going on in the heart of Jerusalem itself (ch. 8). But still the people clung in hope to their glorious history. So Ezekiel will revisit that history and retell the story in a thoroughly revisionist way...by choosing the literary device of allegory -- that is a deliberately constructed story in which it is clearly understood by teller and hearer alike that the language is symbolic and refers to some reality other than the characters and plot of the allegory itself.

Ezekiel's shocking allegory is the dynamite necessary to explode a whole set of false religious assumptions -- like demolishing an unsafe building and clearing the site before any reconstruction can be planted. He goes back over Israel's history to show that it constituted one long story of God's grace -- from its earliest beginnings to the present day -- only to be followed by Israel's repeated rebellion, followed by declared but suspended punishment.

Ezekiel's attempts here are not just fairy stories. What he is daring to touch here is the grand national epic of Israel, the story above all stories by which they understood themselves and the rest of the world. As human beings we live by stories -- the grand ones such as Israel's, by which we have received our cultural identity and our basic assumptive worldview, and the lesser ones that tell us who we are in our own smaller context of family and society. You don't tamper with the stories without upsetting people!

Israel knew their story more than most. Their whole sense of identity and their whole understanding of the world and the universe was dependent on the way they understood God to have acted in the past. At the time of the late monarchy, that story of Israel was that Israel was indestructible, Jerusalem was inviolable, the covenant was unbreakable and that all would be well, come hell or Nebuchadnezzar. But Ezekiel dares to tell the story that demands a very different ending -- all will NOT be well. Jesus did the same with the parable of the tenants in the vineyard, by giving the story of Israel a very different flavor and with a very different and unfavorable ending from the official version. This galvanized those determined to do away with him (Mt 21:33-46). You cannot tamper with stories and get away with it!

• What are some (false) assumptions that we might have about ourselves or our church?

• Do you have any false assumptions about yourself (or your church), which you cannot bear to hear, and adamantly refuse to hear about?
  

Unbelief is the mother of every anxiety

The ever quotable Augustine

Heart of Flesh (Ezekiel 36:26)

"I will sprinkle clean water on you and you will be clean. From all your defilement and from all your idols I will cleanse you. I will give you a new heart; I will implant a new spirit within you. I will remove the stone heart from your body; I will give you a heart of flesh. I will implant my Spirit within you. I will cause you to walk in my decrees, so you will diligently observe my laws. ... You will be my people, And I will bet your God" (Ezekiel 36:25-28).

What will God do for his people?

1. Cleanse (25). God will purify Israel of its defilement ('to be clean" repeated 3x). This cleansing mixes the metaphors of priestly cleansing rituals and blood sprinkling ceremonies. It is God's direct cathartic actions, removing the defilement caused by the people's idolatry and other violations of God's covenant. In this context it is not simply an external ceremonial cleansing accompanying the internal renewal (26-27) but a wholesale cleansing from sin performed by God, a necessary precondition to normalizing the spiritual relationship between God and his people.
   
2. Replace (26). God will remove Israel's fossilized heart and replace it with a sensitive fleshly organ (Eze 11:19). Heart (leb) and spirit (ruah) represent the person's internal locus of emotion, will and thought. Like Jesus (Mt 15:17-20), Ezekiel recognized the problem of rebellion and sin against God to be more deeply ingrained than mere external acts. Ezekiel describes the heart as stone, which speaks of coldness, insensitivity, incorrigibility, and even lifelessness (Nabal in 1 Sam 25:37). Ezekiel knew this well having had to deal with the obduracy of his people from the time of his call (2:4-11; 3:4-11).  But God has been struggling with this problem for centuries. The present solution is more radical than the circumcision of the heart (Dt 30:6-8). The only answer is the removal of the petrified organ and its replacement with a warm, sensitive and responsive heart off flesh. Concomitant with the heart transplant, God will infuse his people with a new spirit, his Spirit. Seemingly the juxtaposing of ruah and leb suggests that they are synonymous. However the synonymity is seldom exact in Hebrew parallelism. Here the new heart is given to the Israelites, but the spirit is placed within them. The provision of the new heart involves the removal of the hard heart and its replacement with a heart of flesh, the source of which is unspecified. But the new spirit placed within is identified as God's ruah (27), which animates and vilifies the recipients. The subject, not developed here is afforded full blown exposition later (37:1-14). 
   
3. Walk and act (27). God will cause his people to be obedient to himself. "I will make that you walk in my statutes and observe my covenant standards and act [accordingly]." God will no longer gamble with Israel as he did in old times, and Israel rebelled against him; in the future--no more experiments! God will put his spirit into them, he will alter their hearts (and minds) and make it impossible for them to be anything but obedient to his rules and his commandments. The declaration abandons all hope that Israel, in her present condition, can achieve the ideals of covenant relationship originally intended by God. The status quo can be altered only by direct divine intervention.
   
4. Renew (28). God will renew his covenant with his people. Ezekiel climaxes God's restorative with the announcement of the fulfillment of God's ancient ideal: a transformed people living in their homeland, covenantally related to their divine Lord. Jeremiah and Ezekiel obviously have the same covenant renewal in mind (Jer 31:33). But what Jeremiah attributes to the divine Torah, Ezekiel ascribes to the infusion of the divine ruah. With the restoration of these relationships, not only have ancient Near Eastern perceptions of normal relations among deity, people, and land been satisfied; but God's name has also been sanctified and his own ancient ideal for the nation is finally achieved.
   

The only solution for the fallen human race is a fundamental cleansing, a heart transplant, an infusion of the divine Spirit. It is tempting to imagine that social ills can be healed by economic, social, educational and political programs or regime change. But Ezekiel's radical theocentricity finds the answer in God alone. Yes, efforts to advance and improve social must be lauded. But to propose these as the answer for a person's needs without reference to the fundamental problem--the depravity of the human soul--is to continue the idolatry of the Israelites. What is needed in our day is a dramatic reversal and return to the biblical heart imagery, and to a recognition that the required transformation can be achieved only by the gracious act of God. Only God can remove our hearts of stone and give us hearts of flesh; new life comes only by the infusion of his Spirit.

The future of Israel rests in the eternal immutable promises of God. In 586 BC the nation saw all their hopes and aspirations dashed. To the exiles all God's promises regarding their status as his covenant people, their title to their ancestral homeland, the right of the Davidic dynasty to rule, and the residence of God in Zion seemed in vain. But Ezekiel reassures his people that God has not forgotten his covenant; the ancient promises still stand. Therefore, the population must be regathered, their hearts transformed, and their community returned to the homeland, there to

God is Fair in His Judgments (Ezekiel 16-19)

• An unfaithful and promiscuous wife (Ezekiel 16).
  
• Judgment based on sins of the present, not the past (Ezekiel 17). Eagle, ceders and a vine.
• Basic common sense responsibility (Ezekiel 18). Each individual is responsible for himself/herself. The accountability of the individual.
  
• The end of an era: the Davidic dynasty (Ezekiel 19).

Ezekiel 16. Having likened Israel as a bad vine (Ezekiel 15), it is almost as if Ezekiel heard someone say that it was not fair since Israel was the chosen vine, and thus God should care for her. Ezekiel answered through an allegory that God had always and continually cared for Israel (Ezekiel 16). Having found her as a castaway infant, God rescued, wooed, married and adorned her. But she became unfaithful. As a harlot, she prostituted herself with other nations in following after their gods as her lovers. Throughout her history she had rebelled against God. Her wickedness had become even worse than that of Sodom and Samaria before her. Therefore, God was perfectly just in bringing judgment upon her. He promised at her birth that she would be judged if she disobeyed His covenant with her (Leviticus 26, Deuteronomy 30). Though the situation looks extremely bleak at this point, God reminded the exiles that He would be faithful to His promise of restoration in the future (Deu 30), just as He would be faithful to His threats of judgment.

Ezekiel 17. In light of the allegory of Ezekiel 16, one might have complained that the present generation was being judged for Israel's past rebellions. So Ezekiel presented a riddle which emphasizes that the rebellion of the present generation against God was by seeking security and help from Egypt (Ezekiel 17). There is no hope in seeking help from Egypt nor in following Zedekiah. There is only a hope in the restoration of God's kingdom and His righteous King, the Messiah. Zedekiah would fall, and the remnant would be scattered.

Ezekiel 18. Ezekiel treats another prevalent major misconception. "Are we judged because of our father's sins?" Ezekiel refutes this by emphatically stating that each man or woman is responsible for his or her own deeds. It is the principle of individual responsibility. Each individual is responsible for themselves as to whether they would live or die. A person lives or dies according to their own decision to obey or disobey God's ways (Dt 30:15-20). But God declares that is is His desire that everyone lives. This is why He gave the Law. It is so that everyone would know how to live as God meant life to be lived. If one lives according to the righteous ways of God, they would be declared righteous and live. But if they disobeyed God's righteous ways and broke the covenant, God promised that they would die as a result of their unrighteous deeds.

The penalty here was physical death, not eternal death. One's eternal salvation was not the issue. Eternal salvation was by faith in the Messiah in OT times, just as it is today. Salvation was never attained by keeping the stipulations of the Law, nether then nor now. The Law of Moses/Mosaic covenant demonstrated how one who already had entered into a relationship with God was to continue to live.

Ezekiel 19. The section (Ezekiel 12-19) concludes with a final dirge/funeral lament for the recent rulers of Judah: Jehoahaz and Jehoiachin/Jehoiakim. The genuine rules were gone. They last one was Josiah. Since the ruler Jehoiachin was already exiled in Babylon (597 BC), the peopole were not to look to unofficial rules such as Zedekiah. Judgment was imminent.

Alexander, Ralph. Ezekiel. Moody Bible Institute, 1976.

Exile, False Prophets and Idolatry (Ezekiel 12-15)

Sign of the Siege (Ezekiel 12)

1. Judgment is greatest for those with the richest spiritual tradition. Those with no ears or eyes may be forgiven for their indifference or oblivion. But in the face of God's lavish expressions of covenant grace and patience, the refusal to hear and see not only results in the further dulling of the senses; sooner or later the door of divine mercy will slam shut.
2. God's word must be understood on God's terms. Like Ezekiel's audience we are often tempted to adjust divine revelation to suit our desires, rather than letting it shape us. By clever rationalization we transform messages of reproof and correction into illusory promises of hope.
3. In the face of calamity God remains sovereign over history. When things fall apart we may despair that God is no longer in control. But his hand is present even in the direst circumstances. The goal of his discipline, as well as his benefactions, is that all may:
1. acknowledge their sinfulness,
2. confess his righteousness, and
3. submit to his lordship.
4. Judgment is always just in God's system of justice. Sodom and Gomorrah's violent end was on account of their own brutality (Gen 18:20; 19:24-25). But the Judge of all the earth (Gen 18:25) plays no favorites. When the land is filled with violence once again, it must be emptied, irrespective of the identity of its inhabitants. The coming judgment on Jerusalem serves as a solemn warning to those who call themselves his people, or consider themselves cultured but express their disrespect for God through violent and inhuman conduct.
5. Even in times of crisis people may live under the illusion that all is well. Eating and drinking are necessary for physical health. But God taught his people during their years of wondering, which Jesus reminded the devil that people do not live by bread alone (Dt 8:3; Mt 4:4). Life is found not merely in physical sustenance but in following the example of Ezekiel -- finding nourishment in the revelation of God and living by it. To those who do so, God pronounces the sentence of life; those who refuse face the sentence of death.
6. The certainty of the fulfillment of God's word is based on the person and character of God (12:21-28). The challenges of arrogant and rebellious people will not change the fact that when God speaks he acts. Within a few years of this utterance the cynics would be silenced by the terrible truth of his word. Also, God's method of reckoning time is different from ours, and we may be much nearer the day than we realize.

Counterfeit Prophets (Ezekiel 13)

13:1-16 serves as a warning to all who would claim to be spokespersons for the living God by identifying the marks of a counterfeit. What do false Bible teachers characteristically do and who are they?

1. They claim divine authority, even when they speak only from their own inspiration. Their perspective was simply private opinion that was politically motivated to gain the approval and control of their audience. Expert training, oratorical gifts, a charismatic personality, long tenure and a wealth of experience may qualify one to lecture or perform or entertain, but these aptitudes alone do not authorize one to stand behind the pulpit. The message of those who claim to speak for God must have his signature. Does our proclamation declare the message of God as revealed in the Scriptures?
2. They proclaim messages that people want to hear, especially when the truth is painful. For the exiles and the Jerusalemites no word would have been more welcome and at the same time more deadly than to hear that all was well. Reassurances of well being serves neither the community nor individuals in moral and spiritual decline. For many the illusion becomes the reality. They live in the land of "all is well" even when nothing is.
3. They are more interested in their own status than in the welfare of the community. They are like jackels (Eze 13:4), scavenging among the ruins for personal advantage, capitalizing on the calamity of others. Frauds assume no responsibility for the fate of the people; they look out only for themselves.
4. They pass away. Only the word of the Lord endures (Isa 40:7-8) and achieves its life-giving objectives (Isa 55:10-11).
5. They stand under the judgment of God. One who is self-inspired to claim to speak for God is the height of arrogance, and to seduce gullible people with flattering words or threats is utter folly. But God is not mocked. What leaders sow, that they will reap.
6. They occupy positions of power but they will answer to God for the manner in which they exercised their authority. The leadership exercised by the women (13:17-23) was reprehensible in two ways: their motives were parasitic, and their methods were sinister. They were interested only in their own status. Such problems continue to plague the community of faith. Men and women enter the ministry of the church, driven more by a hunger for power than passion for the people, and they exercise power in ways often indistinguishable from the world outside. But the kingdom of God is offered to the meek, not to the arrogant and self-assertive. Whoever would truly be a leader at all must be a servant of all.
7. They exploit the vulnerable especially in times of crisis. Difficult experiences may leave one doubting God's presence and power. Peter personalizes the power behind evil, describing him as an adversary, the devil, prowling around like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour (1 Pet 5:8). But the believer must know that God has provided all the resources needed to resist the malevolent world (Eph 6:11-12). Ultimately, the kingdom of light and life will triumph over the kingdom of darkness and death (Jude 24-25).

Idolatry Condemned (Ezekiel 14:1-11)

1. Idolatry is a matter of mind/heart (Eze 14:2). God is directing his charges against his people not at images but at the deluded hearts and minds that have been seduced or deceived. True religion is essentially a matter of the heart (Dt 6:5; 10:12, 20). Thus, we are always to search our hearts (Ps 139:23), circumcise our hearts (Dt 10:16; 30:6; Rom 2:29) and to guard our hearts (Prov 4:23). 
2. Syncretism is always a threat. Ezekiel's compatriots--as they have been doing throughout their history--are "hopping between two opinions" (1 Ki 18:21). Externally, their appearance before the prophet and their inquiry appears commendable (Eze 14:1). But internally, their hearts were not centered nor focused on God. They may camouflage their hypocrisy and deceive humans, but they will not escape the scrutiny of God (Eze 14:2-4).
3. God does not respond to those who demonstrate no covenant faithfulness in their daily lives. To receive a favorable answer from God one must come with sincerity, honesty and on his terms, which includes his exclusive right to one's devotion (Eze 14:5). God tolerates no rivals.
4. Positions of privilege do not bring immunity from prosecution (Eze 14:9-10), but impose even greater accountability before our God and Judge. The prophet's task is to announce the truth and to call people to repentance for their sin (Eze 14:6), not to satisfy their lusts with false assurances of peace. True leaders are known by the divine authority of their message (Eze 14:4a, 6a), not by the popularity of their pronouncements. Thus, leaders who acquiesce before the flattery and seduction of hypocritical inquirers become accomplices in their crimes and receive the same punishments (Eze 14:10).
   
5. God is gracious and merciful to all who repent of their sin. Warnings of imminent judgment are often veiled signs of divine mercy. God's appeals to repentance offer specific hope of finding a sensitive ear with him. But the cry for mercy must be combined with a commitment to a new way of life (Eze 14:5, 11). 
6. In judgment God is not arbitrary, capricious, moody nor random. God's responses to human sin are consistent with his immutable character, and they have as their goal the transformation of sinful human beings into a covenant people, pure and exclusive in their devotion to him (Eze 14:5, 11).

Judgment will not be averted by the righteous few (Ezekiel 14:12-23)

1. Each person is responsible for his or her own welfare (Eze 14:14, 16, 18, 20). Children may not bank on the piety of their parents, nor an entire church depend on one or two righteous persons. However, there is hope and mercy for all who are righteous by God's standards, even for those who appear to be outsiders to the community of faith.
2. God is just in all his ways. The carnal mind struggles with the justice of God in the face of human tragedy. But the eyes of faith will recognize behind all tragedies the hand of God. God's people recognize that he does not operate arbitrarily or without cause. His actions are always according to his immutable principles of justice and righteousness. If people experience his wrath, it is because the wages of sin is death (Rom 6:23).

A metaphor (Ezekiel 15)

1. The claim to divine election is no substitute for covenant faithfulness. Israel's false claim to security is based on their being the royal vine, the privileged people of God. However, they must respond to the call of this high role with willing obedience to the divine King who has called them to himself. Grace places high demands on its recipients. Unless one matches one's claims with adherence to his will, one may well wake up one day to the reality that far from being his or her protector and patron, God has actually become the adversary (Eze 15:5).
2. The judgment of those who do not match profession with faithfulness is severe. Jesus likewise warns his disciples to bear the fruit of obedience to God (Jn 15:1-2, 6, 8-17).

Ezekiel 8-24 Outline

Ezekiel's Vision of God's Departure from the Temple in Jerusalem (Ezekiel 8-11)

1. Preamble to the first temple vision (8:1-4).
2. The abominations in the temple (8:5-18).
3. God's response to the abominations in the temple (9:1-11).
4. The burning of Jerusalem and God's departure from the temple (10:1-22).
5. The pot of stew (11:1-13).
6. The gospel according to Ezekiel (11:14-21).
7. Epilogue to the temple vision (11:22-25).

Prophecies of Woe against Israel (Ezekiel 12-24)

1. Signs of the Times (12:1-20)
   
1. Packed for exile (12:1-16).
2. A pantomime of horror (12:17-20).
2. Prophecy -- True and False (12:21-14:11)
1. Two oracles against cynics (12:21-28).
2. Two oracles against counterfeit prophets (13:1-23).
3. The oracle against prophetic abuse (14:1-11).
3. The High Price of Treachery (14:12-15:8)
1. A lecture on divine justice (14:12-23).
2. A metaphor on divine judgment (15:1-8).
4. The Adulterous Wife: Trampling Underfoot the Grace of God (16:1-63)
1. The call for Israel's arraignment (1-3a).
2. The indictment of Jerusalem (3b-34).
3. The sentencing of Jerusalem: The Ssuspension of grace (35-43).
4. Like mother, like daughter: Jerusalem's disqualification from grace (44-52).
5. The double ray of Hope (53-63).
5. Messages of Sin and Retribution (17-22)
1. The eagle and the vine: A fable (17).
2. Disputing the justice of God (18).
3. A "lament" for the Davidic dynasty (19).
4. Rewriting sacred history (20).
5. The avenging sword of God (21).
6. O Oholah! O Oholibah! (23)
1. The introduction of the accused (1-4).
2. The historical background of the case (5-35).
3. The case against Oholah and Oholibah (36-49).
7. The Boiling Cauldron (24:1-14)
1. Preamble (1-3a).
2. The popular saying (3b-5).
3. The dispute (6-8).
4. The counterthesis (9-13).
5. Conclusion (14).
8. The End of an Era (24:15-27)
1. The end is prefigured: The death of Ezekiel's wife (15-24).
2. The end is in sight (25-27).

New Bible Commentary

• Jerusalem's idolatry and its punishment (8-11).
• An acted message: exile foretold (12:1-16).
• An acted message: Israel to tremble (12:17-20).
• Prophecy will be fulfilled ... and fulfilled soon (12:21-25, 26-28).
• Condemnation of false prophets and prophetesses (13).
• Condemnation of idolatry (14:1-11).
• Judgment on Israel will not be averted by the righteous few (14:12-23).
• Jerusalem the useless vine (15).
• Jerusalem the unfaithful and promiscuous wife (16).
• Eagles, cedars and a vine -- a political parable (17).
• The accountability of the individual (18).
• Lament for the princes of Israel (19).
• Israel's persistent rebelliousness (20:1-44).
• Judgment by fire (20:45-49).
• Judgment by the sword (21:1-7).
• The sword is sharpened (21:8-17).
• The sword of the king of Babylon (21:18-32).
• The sin of Jerusalem (22:1-16).
• The smelting of Israel (22:17-22).
• Injustice in the land; corruption at every level (22:23-31).
• Oholah and Oholibah -- adulterous sisters (23).
• The parable of the pot: Jerusalem beseiged (24:1-14).
• The death of Ezekiel's wife and the significance of his grief (24:15-27).

References:

1. Block, Daniel I. The Book of Ezekiel Chapters 1-24, NICOT (New International Commentary on the Old Testament). Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1997.
2. Wright, Christopher J.H. The Message of Ezekiel, BST (Bible Speaks Today). IVP, Downers Grove, IL, 2001.
3. McGregor, L. John. Ezekiel, New Bible Commentary, IVP, Downer's Grove, IL, 1994.