Ezekiel 16

Introduction

In the chapters we studied last week, the Lord instructed Ezekiel to prophesy against the false prophets who were saying ‘peace’ to the people when there was no peace with God. And instead of warning the people about their sins and telling them to turn from them. the false prophets were encouraging the people to keep sinning. So, Ezekiel was to prophesy against them. And the Lord instructed Ezekiel to prophesy against the elders who came to Ezekiel, presumably for a word from the Lord, but whose hearts were far from the Lord. Instead of being whole-heartedly devoted to the Lord, they were worshipping false gods and idols. And so, in last week’s chapters, Ezekiel was to prophesy against false prophets and false gods.

Then the Lord once again announced what he was going to do to Jerusalem. Ezekiel was to make clear that the judgment which was going to fall on the city and its people was inescapable. Even if Noah and Daniel and Job were living in the city, the presence of those righteous men would not prevent the Lord from pouring out his wrath on the city. Jerusalem had become like the wood of a vine tree which is good for nothing except to be burned. And so, the Lord was going to set fire to Jerusalem. He was going to send the Babylonians to destroy it.

That’s what last week’s chapters were about. And at one point, the Lord addressed those people who were already living in exile and who were thinking to themselves that the Lord was being unduly harsh to the people in Jerusalem. They were thinking: Surely things in Jerusalem can’t be as bad as the Lord was saying? Surely the Lord is being unfair to them? Isn’t he being a bit too harsh to them? And so, the Lord announced that some of the people living in Jerusalem will be spared. The rest will be killed by famine or by the sword or by plague. But some will be spared and they will be taken away into exile.

And when they’re brought to Babylon, those who had already been in exiles for years will see that everything the Lord said about the people of Jerusalem was true. The people who were living in exile will see the conduct and the actions of the people from Jerusalem and they’ll be consoled or reassured about the disaster which the Lord was bringing on the city, because they’ll see just how wicked the people have become. They’ll see that God was not exaggerating when he said they had become evil. The people living in exile will see that the Lord was right about the people in Jerusalem. They will see how the people in Jerusalem were guilty of doing detestable things. And the people living in exile will understand that God did not punish the people of Jerusalem without cause.

And today’s chapter — chapter 16 — is making a similar point. Today’s chapter is letting us see Jerusalem from God’s perspective. When God looked on the people of Jerusalem, this is what he saw. This is how they appeared to him. And how did they appear to him? From God’s point of view, they were like a woman who spurned the kindness of her husband and who gave herself over to prostitution. And so, instead of being whole-heartedly devoted to the Lord, the people went after other gods. And instead of relying on the Lord for safety, they relied on pagan nations. Instead of being like a faithful wife, they were like a woman who was prepared to sleep with anyone and everyone.

It’s a shocking chapter. And it’s not the kind of thing we expect to find in the Bible. You won’t find it in any children’s Bible. And one of the commentators quotes Charles Spurgeon who apparently said that a minister can scarcely read it in public. Fortunately, the NIV has softened the language and has removed some of the coarseness of the original. But it’s still not what we’re used to reading in the Bible.

However, as I’ve said when we’ve been faced difficult passages before, these chapters are part of God’s word, which God has given to us for our good. As Paul wrote to Timothy: all Scripture is breathed out by God and is useful for teaching and rebuking and correcting and training in righteousness. And Paul then went on to say to Timothy: ‘Preach the word’. Timothy was a young minister and Paul was giving him advice. And his advice was that all of Scripture is from God and it’s useful for us; and therefore preachers should preach it.

Moreover, our church’s Confession of Faith says about Holy Scripture that we should receive, believe and obey it because it is the word of God. And that means we should receive, believe and obey this chapter because it is the word of God which God has given to us for our good. So, instead of being put off by it, we should trust that our Heavenly Father knows what is good for us; and we should rely on his Spirit to help us to benefit from this chapter.

The chapter can be divided into three main parts. In the first part — verses 1 to 34 — the Lord brings charges against Jerusalem. In the second part — verses 35 to 52 — Jerusalem is sentenced. And in the third part — verses 53 to 63 — the Lord holds out hope to his people.

Verses 1 to 34

In verse 1 the Lord commands Ezekiel to confront Jerusalem with her detestable practices. Now, Ezekiel is living among the exiles. He’s hundreds of miles away from Jerusalem. And so, while this is a message about Jerusalem, it’s for the people who were already living in exile in those days. The Lord is letting them know what the people of Jerusalem are like and what they’ve done and why he’s going to destroy them. And he’s going to destroy them because of their detestable practices or because of their abominations. And when the Lord refers here to their detestable practices or their abominations, he means all the ways they have been unfaithful to him; and instead of trusting in him, they have trusted in false gods and pagan nations.

And in the following verses, the Lord brings charges against them. But he does so by telling a story about a girl. And the girl in the story represents Jerusalem. According to the Lord in verse 3, this girl’s ancestry and birth were in the land of the Canaanites. The Canaanites, of course, were the pagan nations who were living in the Promised Land before the Lord gave the land to his people. And they were known for their wickedness. Instead of worshipping the Lord, they worshipped false gods and idols. Instead of doing what was right, they did what was evil. And here’s the Lord saying that the people of Jerusalem are like a girl who came from the Canaanites. He says that this girl’s father was an Amorite and her mother was a Hittite. The Amorites and Hittites were some of the nations who were known collectively as the Canaanites. So, the people of Jerusalem might like to think that they came from Abraham and Sarah and that their background was a noble one. They might have boasted about their ancestors. But the Lord is saying that their ancestors were wicked pagans. And in a sense this was true, because Jerusalem existed as a city long before the Israelites lived there. But I think that what the Lord also means is that the people of Jerusalem had become like the Canaanites. The Canaanites were their spiritual parents, because the people of Jerusalem were just like them.

And the Lord goes on to tell the story of how, when this girl was born, she was abandoned by her parents. Now, remember that he’s really talking about Jerusalem. But he’s comparing the city to a girl and he’s making the point that Jerusalem didn’t have much going for it until the Lord chose Jerusalem as his dwelling place. So, this girl, when she was born, was abandoned by her parents. They didn’t cut off her umbilical cord; and they didn’t wash her after her birth; they didn’t rub her with salt, which they must have done in those days with newborn babies; and they didn’t wrap her in cloths. So, no one cared for her when she was born. No one had compassion on her. Instead this girl was thrown into a field and left there to die. No one wanted her. Jerusalem was once nothing.

But then in the story, the Lord passed by and he saw this abandoned baby who was about to die. And he spoke to her and said to her: ‘Live!’ And the Lord enabled her to live so that she grew up and developed. With the help of the Lord, she began to flourish and she became beautiful. Once she was abandoned and was about to die. Now she had become beautiful.

And later, the Lord passed by again and he saw that she was now old enough for love. That is, she was now old enough for marriage. She was no longer a child, but an adult. And so, he spread his garment over her, which not only covered her nakedness, but in those days it meant you were proposing marriage. Think of the story of Ruth and how Ruth asked Boaz to spread the corner of his garment over her. Ruth was making clear to Boaz that she wanted him to marry her. And so, the Lord was prepared to marry the girl in this story, who is now an adult.

He therefore entered into a covenant of marriage with her, binding himself to her with a promise. And the Lord took care of her, bathing her and washing her and putting ointment on her. He clothed her in an expensive dress and put leather sandals on her feet and dressed her in fine linen and costly garments. He adorned her with jewellery and placed a crown on her head. And so, he made her a queen. And since the Lord is really talking about Jerusalem, we can take it that he’s thinking of the way Jerusalem prospered in the days of Solomon, when there was so much gold in the land that silver was regarded as nothing. And people came from far away to see the splendour of Jerusalem. It was once a small, forgotten city, but now it was like a bejewelled queen and it was admired by everyone. As the Lord says in verse 14, her fame spread among the nations on account of her beauty. And the splendour which the Lord gave Jerusalem made her beauty perfect. It was the Lord who had beautified her. It was the Lord who made Jerusalem great.

But, the Lord says in verse 15, she trusted in her beauty and used her fame to become a prostitute. She lavished her favours on anyone who passed by. She took some of the garments the Lord had given her and she made high places, where she carried on her prostitution. And she took the gold he gave her and she made idols from it. And she took the oil and incense and the food which the Lord had given to her and she used it in the worship of these idols. And, of course, we read in 1 and 2 Kings how the people did precisely these things. God had blessed them with an abundance of good things for them to enjoy, but they used God’s gifts to them to worship idols, which they made with the silver and gold the Lord had supplied.

In verse 20 the Lord says she took her sons and daughters and sacrificed them to her idols. And we know that from time to time the people did sacrifice their children to Molech. And the Lord says in verse 22 that they did not remember the days of her youth, where she was naked and bare. In other words, she did not remember with gratitude what God had done for her, rescuing her from the field where she was left to die and making her a queen. The people of Jerusalem did not remember with gratitude all that the Lord has done for them. Instead of worshipping him, they went after these false gods and idols.

And in addition to all your other wickedness, the Lord says in verse 23, you built a mound for yourself and you made a lofty shrine in every public square, where she practised her prostitution with other nations. And the Lord mentions Egypt and the Philistines and the Assyrians and Babylonia. And in this part of the chapter, he’s referring to the political alliances which the king and the people made with other nations. When enemies attacked them, instead of looking to the Lord for help and protection, they looked to the pagan nations to rescue them. We read about these alliances when we worked our way through 1 and 2 Kings. And these alliances never worked out for Jerusalem. Do you remember how they had to strip the temple of its gold and silver to pay the nations for their help? And the other nations ruled over them.

And so, the Lord calls Jerusalem an adulterous wife in verse 32. She prefers strangers to her own husband. That is, they looked to foreign nations instead of to the Lord. And then he says in verse 33 that Jerusalem is unlike a prostitute. Jerusalem is unlike a prostitute because a prostitute is paid for her services, whereas Jerusalem gave gifts to the nations. No one had to run after her. On the contrary, she ran after her lovers and she was prepared to pay them instead of receiving payment. And so, Jerusalem ran after the pagan nations and gave away her treasures to them.

Verses 35 to 52

That’s the Lord’s charge against Jerusalem. Jerusalem was like an unfaithful wife. Jerusalem was like a prostitute. She prostituted herself with anyone who passed by, worshipping false gods and trusting in pagan nations. And in verses 35 to 52 the Lord sentences Jerusalem. This is what he is going to do to Jerusalem and the people who lived there.

He says in verse 36 — and he’s continuing to compare Jerusalem to a prostitute — that because she has poured out her wealth or her lust and exposed her nakedness in her promiscuity, and because of all her detestable idols, and because she sacrificed her children, the Lord is going to gather all her lovers. That is to say, he’s going to gather the nations against her. And he’s going to strip her in front of them so that they will see her nakedness. In other words, he’s going to humiliate Jerusalem and cover the people with shame. And he means the shame of defeat. He’s going to bring against Jerusalem the blood vengeance of his wrath and jealous anger. The punishment for adultery in those days was death. And so, the Lord was going to execute Jerusalem for her spiritual adultery by handing Jerusalem over to her lovers, the other nations, who will tear down her mounds and her lofty shrines and they will strip her and stone her and cut her to pieces with swords. And they’ll burn down her houses and they’ll inflict punishment on her. So, the Lord is going to send the nations to destroy Jerusalem. And in this way, he will put an end to her prostitution. And when that happens, the Lord’s wrath against Jerusalem will subside and his jealous anger will turn away from her. He will be calm and no longer angry.

And the Lord summarises what he will do in verse 43: because Jerusalem did not remember the days of her youth, when God took her and was kind to her, and because she enraged the Lord with all of these things, he will surely bring down on Jerusalem what she has done.

And he quotes a proverb which applies to Jerusalem: ‘Like mother, like daughter.’ Jerusalem came from the Canaanites: the Amorites and the Hittites. And she’s just like them, because they too were wicked and they did detestable things. And then the Lord says that she has sisters and she’s just like them. Who are her sisters? Samaria, which was the capital of the northern kingdom of Israel. And the people of Israel were unfaithful to the Lord and worshipped idols. So, Jerusalem is just like Samaria. And her other sister was the city of Sodom, which was famous in the Bible for the detestable things they did. And in verse 47 the Lord says that Jerusalem walked in their ways. In fact, Jerusalem became more depraved than Samaria and Sodom. You were worse than them, he says. They were the two ugly sisters in this story. But Jerusalem is not like Cinderella, because Jerusalem was worse than her ugly sisters. And so, Jerusalem should be ashamed. That is, the people in Jerusalem should be ashamed because of how low and wicked they have become.

Verses 53 to 56

In this first part of today’s chapter, the Lord brought charges against Jerusalem. In the second part of the chapter, he sentenced her to death. And now we come to the third and final part of today’s chapter, where the Lord holds out hope to his people.

The Lord announces in verses 53 to 55 that he will restore the fortunes of Sodom and her daughters; and he will restore the fortunes of Samaria and her daughters; and he will also restore the fortunes of Jerusalem. So, although they all deserve to be condemned by the Lord, the Lord announces that a time will come when they will be restored. In other words, there will be a time when they will experience God’s salvation. And it’s likely that, when he refers to Samaria and Sodom, he’s thinking of people who are not Jews. In other words, he’s thinking of Gentiles. There will come a time when the Lord will save, not only the Jews, but Gentiles too. The Lord is referring to what was going to happen after Christ’s death and resurrection, when the Lord Jesus commanded the apostles to go and make disciples of all nations. Salvation is no longer for the Jews only, but it’s for Gentiles too. In fact, it’s for everyone who trusts in Christ the Saviour.

So, that’s something for the future. But then the Lord returns to the present in verses 56 to 59 where he says the people of Jerusalem will be despised by pagan nations like Edom and the Philistines for their wickedness. There was a time when the people of Jerusalem despised the people of Sodom because of their wickedness. But the Lord now says that the other nations will despise Jerusalem because of their wickedness. And he says that Jerusalem will bear the consequences of her lewdness and her detestable practices.

So, the Lord will deal with Jerusalem as she deserves, because she despised God’s oath by breaking the covenant. He’s referring to the covenant they made with one another at Mount Sinai in the days of Moses. But the people had broken the covenant by their waywardness. They did not walk in his ways or do his will as they said they would. And so, he’s going to punish them for breaking the covenant.

But it’s not going to end there. It’s not going to end there, because look now at verse 60, where there’s a ‘yet’. Yet, says the Lord, he will remember the covenant he made with them in the days of their youth. So, they might have forgotten the covenant they made with the Lord at Mount Sinai, but he has not forgotten it.

And then he goes on to refer to another covenant: to an everlasting covenant which he will establish with them. And it’s likely that he’s referring to the covenant which the Lord mentions in Jeremiah 31, where he announced that he will make a new covenant with his people, which will not be like the old covenant which they broke. In this new covenant, the Lord promises to put his law in their minds and to write it on their hearts. And so, it would be better than the old covenant, because the old covenant was written on stone tablets, whereas this new covenant will be written on their hearts. And, as the Lord has already revealed to Ezekiel in chapter 11, he will also renew their hearts and he will fill the people with his Spirit to enable them to keep his laws and to do his will.

And, according to the Lord in Jeremiah 31, the new covenant will also better than the old covenant, because the Lord promises to remember their sins no more. Under the terms of the old covenant, God commanded them to offer animal sacrifices whenever they did wrong. However, everyone knew that the blood of bulls and goats could not really take away the guilt of their sin. The blood of an animal could not really make up for what they had done wrong. In fact, those sacrifices were only a reminder to them that they were sinners who needed forgiveness from God. But under the terms of the new covenant, God promised that he would forgive his people completely for what they had done wrong. He would forgive them completely and he would remember their sins no more and he would never ever bring up their sins and he would never ever demand any further payment from them for what they had done wrong. And so, the new covenant was going to be so much better than the old covenant.

That’s what God revealed about the new covenant in Jeremiah 31. And here, in Ezekiel 16, God revealed that he’s going to punish his people for their wickedness. However, he’s not going to destroy them completely. Instead he’s going to establish this new, everlasting covenant with them.

And then in verse 61 he anticipates a time when the Jews in Jerusalem will welcome their sisters. And when he mentions their sisters, he’s probably thinking of the Gentile nations again. So, he’s anticipating a time when Jews and Gentiles will join together to worship him.

And at the end of verse 61, he says that when the Gentiles come to the Jews to worship the Lord, it won’t be on the basis of the covenant which God made with the Jews at Mount Sinai. Under the terms of that covenant, they all had to be circumcised; and they all had to keep the Old Testament purity laws and the food laws; and they all had to offer animal sacrifices to God. That’s what the Lord required from them under the terms of the old covenant. But here’s the Lord saying to his people through Ezekiel that the time is coming when Gentiles will turn to God, but they won’t have to keep all those Old Testament ceremonial laws. That is to say, they won’t have to become Jews in order to receive God’s salvation.

The Lord was announcing through Ezekiel the extension of God’s kingdom throughout the nations after Christ’s death and resurrection and ascension. And the way into God’s kingdom is not by becoming a Jew, but it’s by trusting in Christ the Saviour for forgiveness and peace with God. God was going to set aside the old covenant, because he was making a new covenant.

And as part of the new covenant — which has been put into effect by the death of Christ on the cross — God promises to make atonement for his sinful people throughout the world. And so, the Lord mentions atonement in verse 63. To make atonement means two things: it means to wipe clean and it means to pay a ransom. And when Christ died on the cross, he gave up his life as the ransom to pay for all that we have done wrong. And because of his death on the cross, we are cleansed from the guilt of our sin. The stain of our sin is washed away for ever because of Christ who died for us. And God will therefore remember our sins no more. He won’t bring them up. He won’t punish us for them. Christ has paid for them all with his life and we have been cleansed and forgiveness.

And the Lord says at the end of verse 63 that his wayward people will remember and be ashamed. He means they will remember how they have sinned against the Lord. They will remember their guilt and shame and all the things they have done wrong and all the ways they have offended the Lord. They’ll remember their sins and they won’t open their mouths to make excuses.

So, they will acknowledge that they’re guilty sinners who deserve to be condemned. And that’s what we’re to do, which is why when we gather in church every Sunday, we bow before the Lord and we confess that we’re sinners who sin against him continually. We don’t ignore our sins and we don’t treat them as if they’re unimportant. We openly acknowledge our sinfulness and all the ways we fall short of doing our Father’s will. We confess our sins because we know that our sins are offensive to God. We confess that just as the people of Jerusalem were unfaithful, so we have been unfaithful, because we have put others things before the Lord and we haven’t loved, trusted and worshipped him above all other things. We confess that instead of seeking first his kingdom, we have been self-seeking and selfish and we have put ourselves first of all. We confess that instead of trusting in his unfailing love, we have doubted his love and we have been anxious about many things. And so, we come to church and we confess that we too are sinners and we deserve to be condemned.

But as well as confessing our guilt, we also give thanks to God because of his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. We know we’re sinners who deserve to be condemned. But we also know that Christ bore our sins on the cross and he suffered the punishment we deserve to make peace for us with God.

And when Christ comes again in glory and with power, the whole church — consisting of believing Jews and believing Gentiles — will be presented to Christ in the new heavens and earth as a radiant bride, without stain or wrinkle or any other moral blemish, but holy and blameless. We’ll be perfectly restored by the Holy Spirit into what we were always meant to be. And when that day comes, we’ll live happily ever after with Christ our Saviour who loved us and who gave up his life for us to make us his holy bride. And because God will make us perfectly holy in the new creation to come, then we’ll never ever turn away from the Lord. We’ll never even think of turning away from him. Instead we’ll gaze upon him and we’ll be enthralled by his glory and his goodness and we’ll love him for ever and for ever.