Ezekiel 16:15-63
The Certainty of
Judgment ~ The Faithless Wife
Pray
Intro
√ The Parable of the Faithless Wife
Chapters 15-17 record 3 parables
that communicate the sin of
Parable of the fruitless vine ~ chapter 15
Parable of the faithless wife ~ chapter 16
Parable of the fierce eagles ~ chapter 17
In our last study we covered chapter 15 and the first 14 verses of chapter 16.
We left off on a good note!
But, as we read in the balance of the chapter
…instead she took all the blessings that God lavished upon her and used them in her wild pursuit of sin.
Ap. This is our story!
All of us have been…
Rescued
Cleaned up
Arrayed in royal garments
…by King Jesus!
Beware that we don’t forget from what it was that Jesus saved us lest we take His blessings and use them to serve our fleshly desires.
Ezek. 16:15 “But you trusted in your own beauty, played the harlot because of your fame, and poured out your harlotry on everyone passing by who would have it.
Ezek. 16:16 You took some of your garments and adorned multicolored high places for yourself, and played the harlot on them. Such things should not happen, nor be.
Ezek. 16:17 You have also taken your beautiful jewelry from My gold and My silver, which I had given you, and made for yourself male images and played the harlot with them.
Ezek. 16:18 You took your embroidered garments and covered them, and you set My oil and My incense before them.
Ezek. 16:19 Also My food which I gave you—the pastry of fine flour, oil, and honey which I fed you—you set it before them as sweet incense; and so it was,” says the Lord GOD.
Ezek. 16:20 “Moreover you took your sons and your daughters, whom you bore to Me, and these you sacrificed to them to be devoured. Were your acts of harlotry a small matter,
Ezek. 16:21 that you have slain My children and offered them up to them by causing them to pass through the fire?
Ezek. 16:22 And in all your abominations and acts of harlotry you did not remember the days of your youth, when you were naked and bare, struggling in your blood.
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Note the beginning
of
…she took her eyes off the Lord who saved her and became captivated by her own beauty!
Ap. Sin begins when we take our eyes off the Lord
The Devil is forever trying to arrest our attention away from Jesus and get out eyes fixed on something or someone else.
Ex. Adam and Eve
Took their eyes off of the goodness of God and fixated on the one Tree with the one fruit that He told them not to eat!
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Once she took her eyes off of the Lord she then began to take all the blessings that God gave her…
…and used them to pursue her sin!
She took off the clothes that God gave her ~ vs. 16 & 18 and used them to adorn new places of worship.
She took off the jewelry that God gave her ~ vs. 17 and used the gold silver to make idols to worship.
She took the food that God gave her ~ vs. 18 and “fed” her idols.
She took her children that God gave her ~ vs. 20-21 and burned them for her new gods.
God’s accusation then is that the Jewish people, especially
those of
…and used them to “bless” and worship other gods!
Ex. Giving your bride gifts
Only to have her sell them off on e-bay and use the money she earned to buy gifts for another man!
Ap. Protect yourself from sin
Keep your eyes on Jesus! That will keep your perspective clear and keep you from being deceived by the enticements of the Devil.
Ezek. 16:23 “Then it was so, after all your wickedness—‘Woe, woe to you!’ says the Lord GOD—
Ezek. 16:24 that you also built for yourself a shrine, and made a high place for yourself in every street.
Ezek. 16:25 You built your high places at the head of every road, and made your beauty to be abhorred. You offered yourself to everyone who passed by, and multiplied your acts of harlotry.
Ezek. 16:26 You also committed harlotry with the Egyptians, your very fleshly neighbors, and increased your acts of harlotry to provoke Me to anger.
Ezek. 16:27 “Behold, therefore, I stretched out My hand against you, diminished your allotment, and gave you up to the will of those who hate you, the daughters of the Philistines, who were ashamed of your lewd behavior.
Ezek. 16:28 You also played the harlot with the Assyrians, because you were insatiable; indeed you played the harlot with them and still were not satisfied.
Ezek. 16:29 Moreover
you multiplied your acts of harlotry as far as the land of the trader, Chaldea (
Ezek. 16:30 “How degenerate is your heart!” says the Lord GOD, “seeing you do all these things, the deeds of a brazen harlot.
√
God points out that once the Jewish people,
…their appetite for sin only multiplied!
They built shrines and altars on every street, on every hill, and in every intersection.
They adopted the gods and goddess of all the nations around
them,
In fact, they were so unfaithful to God and had so fully given themselves to the immoral and degrading behavior of these false gods…
…that even their arch-enemies the Philistines were embarrassed by the behavior of the Jewish people! (vs. 27)
You know you’ve sunk to a low level when pagans are embarrassed by the behavior of God’s people!
Ap. Our flesh cannot be satisfied
One of Satan’s slickest tricks is to suggest to us that sin will bring us satisfaction!
It’s a lie!
The reality is that our flesh is insatiable.
Once we’ve obtained what our flesh craved then we want something new, something different.
The last high will never be good enough, sin demands a better high – a different high.
Ex. Popcorn after Thanksgiving dinner
Our flesh is the same, if you try to satisfy it with sin you’ll find yourself trapped in an endless cycle until your life is consumed by…
…and filled with sin.
Ezek. 16:31 “You erected your shrine at the head of every road, and built your high place in every street. Yet you were not like a harlot, because you scorned payment.
Ezek. 16:32 You are an adulterous wife, who takes strangers instead of her husband.
Ezek. 16:33 Men make payment to all harlots, but you made your payments to all your lovers, and hired them to come to you from all around for your harlotry.
Ezek. 16:34 You are the opposite of other women in your harlotry, because no one solicited you to be a harlot. In that you gave payment but no payment was given you, therefore you are the opposite.”
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God now compares Jerusalem to an adulterous wife who had become so depraved in her behavior that she now paid strangers to have sex with her ~ a spiritual nymphomaniac!
God’s point is that not only had His people adopted the false gods of the pagan nations around them…
…they also paid these foreign nations to form unholy alliances with them.
God’s desire was to be the sole protector and provider for His people.
He didn’t (doesn’t) need any help from any other nation, or any false god to take care of His people.
But, because of a lack of faith in God the people of
Ex. King Asa ~ 2 Chron. 16
Used God’s money
~ the money in the
God wasn’t happy with Asa because all the king had to do was ask God for help…
…and God would have delivered
The point is that
…instead of looking to her “husband” ~ God.
Ap. Don’t be unequally yoked!
Paul warns us against being unequally yoked with an unbeliever in marriage (2 Cor. 6:14)…
…but the principle extends into every area of our Christian experience.
Ezek. 16:35 “Now then, O harlot, hear the word of the LORD!
Ezek. 16:36 Thus says the Lord GOD: “Because your filthiness was poured out and your nakedness uncovered in your harlotry with your lovers, and with all your abominable idols, and because of the blood of your children which you gave to them,
Ezek. 16:37 surely, therefore, I will gather all your lovers with whom you took pleasure, all those you loved, and all those you hated; I will gather them from all around against you and will uncover your nakedness to them, that they may see all your nakedness.
Ezek. 16:38 And I will judge you as women who break wedlock or shed blood are judged; I will bring blood upon you in fury and jealousy.
Ezek. 16:39 I will also give you into their hand, and they shall throw down your shrines and break down your high places. They shall also strip you of your clothes, take your beautiful jewelry, and leave you naked and bare.
Ezek. 16:40 “They shall also bring up an assembly against you, and they shall stone you with stones and thrust you through with their swords.
Ezek. 16:41 They shall burn your houses with fire, and execute judgments on you in the sight of many women; and I will make you cease playing the harlot, and you shall no longer hire lovers.
Ezek. 16:42 So I will lay to rest My fury toward you, and My jealousy shall depart from you. I will be quiet, and be angry no more.
Ezek. 16:43 Because you did not remember the days of your youth, but agitated Me with all these things, surely I will also recompense your deeds on your own head,” says the Lord GOD. “And you shall not commit lewdness in addition to all your abominations.
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This section of scripture sounds like a spiritual “Fatal Attraction”!
That is, the nations to whom
God declares that the Egyptians, Assyrians, and Babylonians
who the people of
…with now turn against her to destroy her and take what’s left of her wealth.
Note vs. 39 ~ they will leave
…naked and struggling for life!
A picture of the end result of sin ~ it will always leave you stripped of the blessings of God!
Ap. Satan’s desire for you
The latter end of
…capture them with sin and then leave them in a worse condition than when God first found us!
Ezek. 16:44 “Indeed everyone who quotes proverbs will use this proverb against you: ‘Like mother, like daughter!’
Ezek. 16:45 You are your mother’s daughter, loathing husband and children; and you are the sister of your sisters, who loathed their husbands and children; your mother was a Hittite and your father an Amorite.
Ezek. 16:46 “Your elder sister is Samaria, who dwells with her daughters to the north of you; and your younger sister, who dwells to the south of you, is Sodom and her daughters.
Ezek. 16:47 You did not walk in their ways nor act according to their abominations; but, as if that were too little, you became more corrupt than they in all your ways.
Ezek. 16:48 “As I
live,” says the Lord GOD, “neither your sister
Ezek. 16:49 Look,
this was the iniquity of your sister
Ezek. 16:50 And they were haughty and committed abomination before Me; therefore I took them away as I saw fit.
Ezek. 16:51 “
Ezek. 16:52 You who judged your sisters, bear your own shame also, because the sins which you committed were more abominable than theirs; they are more righteous than you. Yes, be disgraced also, and bear your own shame, because you justified your sisters.
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God now compares
In the sense that
To demonstrate that truth God says that people are going to
speak of
Vs. 44…
“Indeed everyone who quotes proverbs will use this proverb against you: ‘Like mother, like daughter!’
In our vernacular…
“The acorn didn’t fall far from the tree”
God’s point is that
“Thus says the Lord GOD to
That is, the people of
…so that they were indistinguishable
from the evil peoples of
In fact, God says in vs. 51-52 that
Hard to believe when we think of
Ezek. 16:53 “When I bring back their captives, the captives of Sodom and her daughters, and the captives of Samaria and her daughters, then I will also bring back the captives of your captivity among them,
Ezek. 16:54 that you may bear your own shame and be disgraced by all that you did when you comforted them.
Ezek. 16:55 When your sisters, Sodom and her daughters, return to their former state, and Samaria and her daughters return to their former state, then you and your daughters will return to your former state.
Ezek. 16:56 For your
sister
Ezek. 16:57 before
your wickedness was uncovered. It was like the time of the reproach of the
daughters of
Ezek. 16:58 You have paid for your lewdness and your abominations,” says the LORD.
Ezek. 16:59 For thus says the Lord GOD: “I will deal with you as you have done, who despised the oath by breaking the covenant.
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The Jewish people were supposed to be a light to the Gentiles.
Instead she became more corrupt than all other sinners, which became a testimony of her disgrace.
Yet, even now God hints at a future restoration as He tells
us that one day the captives of
…speaking of the
Ezek. 16:60 “Nevertheless I will remember My covenant with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish an everlasting covenant with you.
Ezek. 16:61 Then you will remember your ways and be ashamed, when you receive your older and your younger sisters; for I will give them to you for daughters, but not because of My covenant with you.
Ezek. 16:62 And I will establish My covenant with you. Then you shall know that I am the LORD,
Ezek. 16:63 that you may remember and be ashamed, and never open your mouth anymore because of your shame, when I provide you an atonement for all you have done,” says the Lord GOD.’ ”
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The chapter ends on a note of encouragement.
In spite of
Ultimately He will atone for all their sins and restore them (the nation and the city) so that He might again show them His love.
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