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In Christ, Mark
In Christ, Mark
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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
The Lord said to me: “Son of man, will you judge Oholah and
Oholibah? Then confront them with their detestable practices, for they have
committed adultery and blood is on their hands. They committed adultery with
their idols; they even sacrificed their children, whom they bore to Me, as food
for them. They have also done this to Me: At that same time they defiled My
sanctuary and desecrated My Sabbaths. On the very day they sacrificed their
children to their idols, they entered my sanctuary and desecrated it. That is
what they did in My house.”
“They even sent messengers for men who came from far away,
and when they arrived you bathed yourself for them, applied eye makeup and put
on your jewelry. You sat on an elegant couch, with a table spread before it on
which you had placed the incense and olive oil that belonged to Me.”
“The noise of a carefree crowd was around her; drunkards
were brought from the desert along with men from the rabble, and they put
bracelets on the wrists of the woman and her sister and beautiful crowns on
their heads. Then I said about the one worn out by adultery, ‘Now let them use
her as a prostitute, for that is all she is.’ And they slept with her. As men
sleep with a prostitute, so they slept with those lewd women, Oholah and
Oholibah. But righteous judges will sentence them to the punishment of women
who commit adultery and shed blood, because they are adulterous and blood is on
their hands.”
“This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Bring a mob against
them and give them over to terror and plunder. The mob will stone them and cut
them down with their swords; they will kill their sons and daughters and burn
down their houses.”
“So I will put an end to lewdness in the land, that all
women may take warning and not imitate you. You will suffer the penalty for
your lewdness and bear the consequences of your sins of idolatry. Then you will
know that I am the Sovereign Lord.”
Ezekiel 23:36-49
This ends today’s
reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
Today, we finish Ezekiel 23, a chapter that has presented us
an interesting parable presented by God, one in which he used two sisters to
frame the sins of His people in the kingdoms of Israel and Judah, and the
associated judgment that came from those sins, a judgment that we will see
today was completely justified and righteous. Look at these concluding verses:
The Lord said to me:
“Son of man, will you judge Oholah and Oholibah? Then confront them with their
detestable practices, for they have committed adultery and blood is on their
hands. They committed adultery with their idols; they even sacrificed their
children, whom they bore to Me, as food for them. They have also done this to Me:
At that same time they defiled My sanctuary and desecrated My Sabbaths. On the
very day they sacrificed their children to their idols, they entered my
sanctuary and desecrated it. That is what they did in My house.”
“They even sent
messengers for men who came from far away, and when they arrived you bathed
yourself for them, applied eye makeup and put on your jewelry. You sat on an
elegant couch, with a table spread before it on which you had placed the
incense and olive oil that belonged to Me.”
“The noise of a
carefree crowd was around her; drunkards were brought from the desert along
with men from the rabble, and they put bracelets on the wrists of the woman and
her sister and beautiful crowns on their heads. Then I said about the one worn
out by adultery, ‘Now let them use her as a prostitute, for that is all she
is.’ And they slept with her. As men sleep with a prostitute, so they slept
with those lewd women, Oholah and Oholibah. But righteous judges will sentence
them to the punishment of women who commit adultery and shed blood, because
they are adulterous and blood is on their hands.”
“This is what the
Sovereign Lord says: Bring a mob against them and give them over to terror and
plunder. The mob will stone them and cut them down with their swords; they will
kill their sons and daughters and burn down their houses.”
“So I will put an end
to lewdness in the land, that all women may take warning and not imitate you. You
will suffer the penalty for your lewdness and bear the consequences of your
sins of idolatry. Then you will know that I am the Sovereign Lord.” Ezekiel 23:36-49
To recap, the two sisters, Oholah and Oholibah, represented
Samaria and Jerusalem which symbolized the people of God in the northern and
southern kingdoms. The sins they had committed were identified through the
charges of detestable practices that God levied against the sisters. They
included:
1. Adultery.
The Israelites had been commanded to have no other gods
before God (Exodus 20:2-3) and yet they willingly and willfully worshiped pagan
gods and idols. Their spiritual infidelity toward God was the major issue He
had with them.
2. Child sacrifice.
When the Israelites chose to adopt the worship practices of
other cultures, that sin in and of itself led to other horrific transgressions
to include offering up their own children as sacrifices to the false gods and
idols. In other words, the people of a very alive God turned away from Him to
gods and idols that were dead and put their children to death, stealing away
their lives. These were children that did not belong to them but to God and so
essentially the Israelites were murdering God’s children, amplifying the
magnitude of their sin. This is why God proclaimed that blood was on the hands
of His people.
3. Desecration of God’s temple.
Through our study of the Old Testament up to this point, we
know for a fact that the Israelites got to such a place of disregard and
disrespect unto God that they performed their idol worshiping within God’s
temple, defiling His sanctuary. The devotion they were to show to God was
instead given to false gods.
4. Spiritual prostitution.
Just as a prostitute sells herself off for sexual profit,
the Israelites had sold their souls away, giving their full pleasure to other
gods and idols. There was no decency left in the way they worshiped and sin had
taken over from obedience to God and His word.
In the end translation, nothing God had appointed as sacred
and holy was held that way by the peoples in Israel and Judah. Lewdness had
become the lifestyle of the day over righteousness as the Israelites showed no consideration
or reverence for God or anything they received from Him to include a special
place of worship and the blessing of children.
Obviously, God was not going to stand for such behavior from
a people He had been faithful to, a people He had delivered from trouble time
and time again, a people He had protected and provided for, a people to whom He
had given a land where they could live as His people and He their God. And so He
took action in the form of righteous judgment which included bringing a mob
against His people and giving them over to terror, plunder, death, and
destruction.
We know this happened as the Assyrians attacked the northern
kingdom of Israel before setting their sights on the south and Judah. The
Babylonians would enter the scene and finish what the Assyrians finished in the
south, eventually completely destroying Judah and Jerusalem before taking any
Israelites who survived into a seventy year exile in Babylon. These nations
were the instruments of God’s righteous judgment against His people, a judgment
that had one specific purpose:
“I will put an end to
lewdness in the land, that all women may take warning and not imitate you. You
will suffer the penalty for your lewdness and bear the consequences of your
sins of idolatry. Then you will know that I am the Sovereign Lord.”
God’s righteous judgment of His people was not just intended
to teach them a lesson. There was a bigger picture involved here. For God
wanted to send a message to all other nations that He would not tolerate such
sinful behavior from anyone. The Israelites were punished for their disrespect
and disregard; the same would happen to any other nation who followed suit.
The question becomes, “How many nations really paid
attention and changed their ways?”
Unfortunately, if we’re really honest with ourselves, the
answer is that not many. In fact, history bears out the fact that many other
nations after Israel and Judah underwent God’s righteous judgment and I’m afraid
that will continue to happen until the day when Jesus returns, a day of final
judgment where all people will be held accountable for the way they lived. It
will be the ultimate righteous judgment because those judged will have had the
chance to be saved. Out of His love for His people, God provided that
opportunity through His Son Jesus, who He offered as a sacrifice to cover all
transgressions, a Lamb of God who took away the sins of anyone who would
profess their faith and trust in Him as Savior.
So before we move on from this chapter, God would ask each
of us to examine ourselves spiritually and see if we have been unfaithful to
Him in any way. If so, He would ask us to repent, return to Him, and recommit
ourselves fully to His word, will, and way. He would also expect us to receive
His Son Jesus as Savior if we had not already done so.
To do these things would bring us back into a proper
relationship with God and do so with the added bonus of having found our
salvation.
To choose sin and spiritual adultery will only leave us no
better than Oholah or Oholibah, putting us on the road to God’s righteous
judgment.
Amen
In Christ,
Mark
PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.
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