Jerusalem’s Harlotry

Ezekiel 16:15–30
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How, many people probably wouldn’t mind being identified with their occupation; Charlie the Truck driver, Wade the Electrician, Brenda the Nurse, Chris the Teacher. I guess that’s not a bad way to be remembered. Unless, of course, you have a less than desirable occupation. … More

Harlotry

It seems that Israel devoted her beauty and blessings to other lovers, the neighboring nations and their pagan idols (vv. 15-19). She sacrificed her own children to these gods, and forgot all that the true God had done for her (vv. 20-22). She gave herself over to a series of liaisons, political alliances and mingling of faiths, with Egypt, Philistia, Assyria and Babylon (the Chaldeans). There were platforms for idol-worship, like beds, in every square and at the end of every road (vv. 23-30).

In verse. 15 we read ‘But’ and there follows a description of mankind’s total ingratitude and rebellion against his God. As God views all this, his reaction to people in sin is ‘How weak-willed you are’ (v. 30), or, as the New King James Version renders it, ‘How degenerate is your heart.’ The problem is a person’s heart. It is degenerate, weak, stubborn and rebellious.

Our sins are the evidence of our heart condition. Sin always brings pain; it appears to be enjoyable but it always ends in unhappiness. Sin brings breathlessness, an absence of the life-giving breath of the Holy Spirit. Sin renders us unable to do the things we were created for; to love and serve God. If a heart specialist told you that you had a serious heart condition, you would be a fool to ignore it. What is your reaction to God’s diagnosis of your heart? Do you take it seriously?

Application

God is a jealous God and He wants to me my first love. That is why I must never let anything crowd out my time and devotion to Him and to His Word.

Ezekiel 16:15-30 (English Standard Version)

"But you trusted in your beauty and played the whore because of your renown and lavished your whorings on any passerby; your beauty became his. You took some of your garments and made for yourself colorful shrines, and on them played the whore. The like has never been, nor ever shall be. You also took your beautiful jewels of my gold and of my silver, which I had given you, and made for yourself images of men, and with them played the whore. And you took your embroidered garments to cover them, and set my oil and my incense before them. Also my bread that I gave you--I fed you with fine flour and oil and honey--you set before them for a pleasing aroma; and so it was, declares the Lord GOD. And you took your sons and your daughters, whom you had borne to me, and these you sacrificed to them to be devoured. Were your whorings so small a matter that you slaughtered my children and delivered them up as an offering by fire to them? And in all your abominations and your whorings you did not remember the days of your youth, when you were naked and bare, wallowing in your blood. "And after all your wickedness (woe, woe to you! declares the Lord GOD), you built yourself a vaulted chamber and made yourself a lofty place in every square. At the head of every street you built your lofty place and made your beauty an abomination, offering yourself to any passerby and multiplying your whoring. You also played the whore with the Egyptians, your lustful neighbors, multiplying your whoring, to provoke me to anger. Behold, therefore, I stretched out my hand against you and diminished your allotted portion and delivered you to the greed of your enemies, the daughters of the Philistines, who were ashamed of your lewd behavior. You played the whore also with the Assyrians, because you were not satisfied; yes, you played the whore with them, and still you were not satisfied. You multiplied your whoring also with the trading land of Chaldea, and even with this you were not satisfied. "How sick is your heart, declares the Lord GOD, because you did all these things, the deeds of a brazen prostitute...."

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