In Ezekiel 16 God compares His relationship to His people as a marriage. God takes care of the woman in the analogy from the time she is an infant providing everything for her until she becomes His bride, yet she commits adultery then turns to prostitution. It applies to Judah and most specifically to Jerusalem and was fulfilled in Ezekiel’s time. It compares the infant in the analogy to the first century church and the falling away of the church today, ultimately leading to comparing the prostitute in the analogy to the false church of the last days. God uses the sexual graphic details so we could better understand this analogy.
Ezekiel
16:15-19
"'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. Such things should not happen, nor should they
ever occur. 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 fine flour, olive oil and honey I gave you to eat-- you offered as
fragrant incense before them. That is what happened, declares the Sovereign
LORD.
The
woman has taken all the things that have been lovingly provided for her and
turns them into something corrupt.
Ezekiel
16:20
"'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?
The
question is answered in the following. No, her prostitution was not enough.
Ezekiel
16:33
Every prostitute receives a fee, but you give gifts to all your lovers,
bribing them to come to you from everywhere for your illicit favors.
She
was worse than a prostitute receiving a fee. She was bribing her lovers to come
to her. This prophetic analogy will be applied later to the apostate and false
church actively working against the basic foundations of the Christian
faith. Even today, many churches entice people to come luring them in
with everything but the gospel. This begins the falling away that
precedes the Day of the Lord and God's wrath.
However,
as always, God gives us this promise.
Ezekiel
16:63
Then, when I make atonement for you for all you have done,
you will remember and be ashamed and never again open your mouth because of
your humiliation, declares the Sovereign LORD.'"
Praise God, He made atonement for us through Jesus!
But prior to that promise, God declares, "I will remember the
covenant I made with you in the days of your youth..."
The covenant made "in the days of your youth" reminds
us of the early church and the Followers of the Way. Oh, how far we have
strayed from the ways of The Way!
In Ezekiel 18 reference is made to a proverb that the people were quoting.
"The fathers eat sour grapes and the children's teeth are set on
edge."
They were simply blaming their ancestors for their current situation.
Saying in effect that they were suffering from the sins of their
forefathers.
Jeremiah 31:29-31
In those days they shall not say any more, The fathers have eaten sour
grapes, and the teeth of the sons are dull. But every man shall die in
his iniquity. Every man who eats the sour grapes, his teeth will be dull.
Behold, the days come, says Jehovah, that I will cut a new covenant with
the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah,
Things
change after Jesus.
The
last verses today contain an admonition to repent, turn away from our offenses,
and get a new heart and a new spirit. And maybe go back to the ways of
The Way?
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