Israel the Unfaithful Wife

Sermon on Ezekiel 16:1-34

Introduction
If this is your first time reading Ezekiel 16, I am sure you will be quite shocked to see such “colorful” words used by Ezekiel. Words like, “abominations, abhorred, wallowing in your blood, naked and bare, whore and whorings” are pretty strong words even in the English language. Re-read v. 22 for a summary of these crude words. These words were used to shock them into listening to Ezekiel. Actually, modern translators have toned down much of it to suit our present context. Most of these original words in Hebrew were even more vulgar. It is currently rated R21 in the English language, but in the original language, it might have been classified as X-rated!

Ezekiel 16 has been described by some scholars to be “semi-pornographic”[i] containing some very graphic scenes of sexual encounters and sexual violence. Israel’s neighbors, the Egyptians, were described as lustful neighbors, while Israel was described as an adulterous, nymphomaniac whore, who, “at the head of every street… [has offered herself] to any passerby and [has multiplied her] whoring to [anyone]” (v. 25).

Ezekiel 16 has been considered to be one of the most controversial passages in the Bible. It is controversial not just because of its language but also of its portrayal of God as an angry and vindictive husband of Israel. Why would God allow Israel’s neighbors to destroy her? Does Israel’s betrayal warrant such anger and violence? These questions will be answered by the end of next week. Ezekiel 16 will be divided into two sermons. Today, we will focus on the first 34 verses which describe Israel’s waywardness in vivid details. Next week, we will explore the vivid description of God’s judgment on Israel.

Ezekiel 16:1-34 can be sub-divided into three stages of Israel’s life: 1) Israel was once an Unwanted Child: abhorred and abandoned by her parents (vv. 1-5), 2) Israel was made God’s Beloved Bride: adorned by God, adored by the neighboring nations (vv. 6-14), and 3) Israel becomes an Adulterous Wife / Whore: an abomination who spreads her legs to the passerby (vv. 15-34). To simplify further, it could be categorized by these three words: Abandoned Child, Adorned Bride, and Adulterous Whore.

1) Abandoned Child
Ezekiel begins his prophetic speech-act with Israel’s questionable origin and birth in “the land of the Canaanites”. In its literal sense, Ezekiel’s definition is correct. Jerusalem is a Canaanite city, before the conquest/migration/integration of the Israelites into the land of Canaan after the Exodus event, about 500 years ago. It is believed that Ezekiel had intentionally challenged the popular perceptions of Israel’s sacred traditions which were rooted in the call of their great ancestor Abraham from Chaldean Ur and their exodus from Egypt. Ezekiel’s version of Israel’s history was used in order to stir the hearts of the Israelites (not necessarily an accurate portrayal of history).

Here, Ezekiel mockingly reminds Israel that if you think you can go back to Abraham and the Exodus as your backing especially in all your wickedness, you are wrong! You are only an alien in the land of the Canaanites. An unwanted child born out of wedlock! Furthermore, Ezekiel describes Jerusalem with the wrong parents: an Amorite father and a Hittite mother. Strictly speaking, the city’s roots were Jebusite, not Amorite or Hittite. Here, Ezekiel is merely reflecting that the Amorites and the Hittites were “the most important preconquest inhabitants of Canaan” before Israel. “Daniel Block believes that, “In this context, “Canaanites” and “Hittites” and “Amorites” represent human depravity at its worst.” They were three of Israel’s greatest enemies but yet, here, Ezekiel paints a picture of them together with Israel as one big family.

Israel’s birth was unwanted by her own so-called parents: the Amorites and the Hittites. She was a child born out of wedlock, and was intentionally abandoned in the open field to die, “for you were abhorred, on the day that you were born. (v. 5)” The child was subjected to infanticide (killing of an infant) by her own parents. Infanticide was also used in Sparta thousands of years ago. If you remember the opening scene from the movie 300, when a new born child was born with disabilities or did not look healthy it was up to the ephors to leave the baby for dead at the mountain. Such practices were common in the old world, in various cultures, in different times.

2) Adorned Bride
According to Daniel Block, the chance of survival for the abandoned child is near impossible: “Abandoned in the open field, under the hot Palestinian sun, the baby would have died within hours.” It was precisely the sight of an abandoned baby covered in blood which caught God’s attention. God took pity on Israel when “no eye pitied you, [nor] do any of these things to you out of compassion for you…(v. 5)” When Israel was wallowing in her own blood, God says twice to Israel in her blood, “Live!” And she did. This exact expression bears deep theological meaning. Israel was given a new lease of life and she is “to enjoy life in all its fullness, good fortune, and the joy of God’s presence” (Block, p. 481). The maturation of the young maiden is described beautifully in v. 7:

7I made you flourish like a plant of the field. And you grew up and became tall and arrived at full adornment. Your breasts were formed, and your hair had grown; yet you were naked and bare.
7 我 使 你 生 长 好 像 田 间 所 长 的 ， 你 就 渐 渐 长 大 ， 以 致 极 其 俊 美 ， 两 乳 成 形 ， 头 发 长 成 ， 你 却 仍 然 赤 身 露 体 。

From an unwanted and abandoned child, Israel grew up into a beauty. A typical Disney rags-to-riches story, an ugly duckling who turned into a beautiful swan, a poor servant girl who became a princess. God saved Israel from death and brought her up as his own. When she came of age, the time for lovemaking has arrived, God saw her again and decides “to spread the corner of my garment over [her]” which literally means “and I will spread my wings over you” and covered her nakedness. According to the ancient Near Eastern custom, such a gesture signified “the establishment of a new relationship and symbolic declaration of the husband to provide for the sustenance of his future wife.” The abandoned child will hunger no more. Yahweh is her “life-saver”, “protector” and “provider”.

What follows in v. 8 is very crucial to our story, “I made my vow to you and entered into a covenant with you, declares the Lord GOD, and you became mine.” This is the basic crux of a marriage covenant which we continue to use in many wedding ceremonies today. I pledge my love and my life to you and ask for you to do the same. Once, you were abandoned and belonged to no one, but now, you are mine. You could almost imagine God singing Jason Mraz’s “I’m Yours” to her at this point in time. The one who was unloved is now loved by God himself. This covenant was made by God with Israel from the very beginning. Israel is the Chosen Nation and Yahweh is their God. It was a covenant established on the character of love. Here, Ezekiel emphasizes that the marriage covenant was entirely Yahweh’s initiative. The bride keeps silence all these while. “The young woman whom Yahweh has rescued is an innocent maiden, untainted by the lust that later consumes her” (Block, p. 484).

The prince/king/God personally washed her from her blood (likely to be from their first coitus) and clothed her in the finest garments (fine linen), adorned her with many precious gifts (gold and silver). From head (tiara) to toes, she was adorned with beautiful jewelry. Israel-the-bride was extremely beautiful and soon reached the status of a queen as portrayed by the crowning of a glorious tiara on her head at end of the coronation. Soon, she also became well-known among the nations. Her beauty was beyond description, it was “perfect through the splendor” declares the Lord God. Not only does God dress her in full glory and majesty, she is also fed with glorious and royal food (choicest of flour, honey, and oil, all of which were ingredients for her bread).

All of this bears an important reminder: “Jerusalem’s beauty was not innate, but rather, a gift, graciously bestowed on her by Yahweh” (Block, p. 485). Israel’s beauty was a reflection of God’s own splendor. We are who we are because of God.

3) Adulterous Whore
The third stage of Israel’s life-story could be described as “Love Found, Love Lost”. The abandoned-child turned adorned-bride is now an adulterous-whore. The precious gifts which were bestowed on her earlier were now used by her to make colorful shrines and images of men. You will noticed in vv. 15 onwards, the term, “you played the whore” and its derivatives “your whorings,” occurred no fewer than eighteen times. In Hebrew this phrase is described by a single word, zānâ, “to act as a prostitute.” The queen committed promiscuous acts and becomes worse than a prostitute. For even a prostitute would demand payment for her sexual services, but not Israel. She lusted after her neighbors and offered herself to them, “multiplying [her] whoring”. She was a nymphomaniac whore who will never be satisfied sexually. This imagery of sexual promiscuity with other nations is used by Ezekiel to express Israel’s political promiscuity. Instead of obeying God’s commandments, Israel has been making political deals with the Egyptians (Zedekiah’s alliance with Psammetichus II in ch. 17), the Assyrians (744-727, Ahaz became a vassal to Tigkath-pileser III), and the Babylonians (described in the passage as “the trading land of Chaldea,” which was a territory in southern Babylonia, late 8th century when Hezekiah entertained the envoys of Merodach-baldan). This political betrayal has already been explored at length in previous sermons, so I will not mention it here.

Not only did she offer her own body to them, she even offers her own children to them too. She took her sons and daughters, whom were borne to Yahweh, and sacrificed them as offering by fire to the foreign gods. She, a former victim of infanticide, is now committing the same atrocity done to her on her own children. In most cultures, children are often considered God’s greatest gifts to us parents. Here, these precious gifts have been offered as cultic sacrifices to other gods. “In Ezekiel’s mind (and Yahweh’s), the sacrificing of Yahweh’s children is the ultimate cultic crime” (Block, p. 491). An act of grace becomes a curse from God. Yahweh now describes Israel’s tainted beauty as “an abomination,” spreading her legs to the passerby at every corner of the street. The key verse in v. 22 sums up Yahweh’s anger and disappointment:

22And 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.
22 你 行 这 一 切 可 憎 和 淫 乱 的 事 ， 并 未 追 念 你 幼 年 赤 身 露 体 滚 在 血 中 的 日 子 。

Yahweh reminds Israel of her unfaithfulness. She has forgotten the days of her youth. She has forgotten about her Savior who rescued her since the days from birth as an abandoned child, gave her a royal life as queen. Even “the daughters of the Philistines, [] were ashamed of your lewd behavior” (v. 27). “No doubt Ezekiel’s audience would have been shocked, if not offended, at the implication that, in Yahweh’s eyes, Jerusalem was so depraved that even her pagan neighbors were ashamed (Block, p. 496)” God cries out in agony to Israel, his adulterous wife, “How sick is your heart” (v. 30), “who receives strangers instead of her husband! (v. 32)” This is a cry of deep sadness and anger. It is the ultimate betrayal. [pause]

Application and Conclusion:
Are we very different from Israel? Were we also once abandoned as a child? Were we not also adorned by the most precious gift of life, our Lord Christ Jesus? And yet, we have betrayed God’s trust and dishonor God in our sinful ways. Have we also been unfaithful to God? God has established a covenant also with us in the blood of Christ on the cross. We were once wallowing in our own blood of unbelief. We came to know Christ in our youth. We grew in maturity, in faith and trust in Him. Yet, we often fail to honor our side of the covenant. We have been unfaithful like Israel was unfaithful. We have lost our dignity when we betrayed our God. I hope that we will come to identify with Israel’s unfaithfulness when we come clean before God. There is no running away from God’s judgment. If you have been unfaithful, please consider the moment now to turn back to God. By our own strength, it would be an impossible task, but with the help of the Holy Spirit and Christ Jesus, we can return back to God. It is never too late.

Let us pray.

Reference:
Daniel Block, New International Commentary on the Old Testament, Ezekiel 1-24 (Eerdmans, 1998)
Robert Jenson, Brazos Theological Commentary on the Bible: Ezekiel (BrazosPress, 2009)
Walter Eichrodt, Old Testament Libray: Ezekiel – A Commentary (SCM, 1970)

Discussion Questions:
1) Is Israel’s unfaithfulness very different from our own?
2) Is it easier to see unfaithfulness in others than in yourself?

Endnotes:
[i] G. Yee, “ ’Spreading Your Legs to Anyone Who Passed’: The Pornography of Ezekiel 16,” paper presented to the Society of Biblical Literature, New Orleans, 1990, pp. 18-20.