God Judges Israel

Sermon on Ezekiel 16:35-63

Introduction
In last week’s sermon, we explored at some length about how Israel became unfaithful metaphorically in three stages of her life: from an abandoned child, to an adorned beauty, and finally into an adulterous whore. There are still some unanswered questions from today’s passage in Ezekiel 16:35-63. The language remains crude and vulgar. The description of Israel’s sentence and punishment went up a notch.[i] What is going to happen to Israel? Why would God allow Israel’s neighbors to destroy her? Does Israel’s unfaithful (or betrayal) warrant such anger and violence? Ezekiel 16 is indeed a very difficult passage to understand and more so to preach from. I do confess that it has been the most challenging of all my preparation in preaching to date. But do be patient as we work through these questions in today’s sermon.

God declares his judgment against Israel
In Ezekiel 16:35-63, God continues his charges against Jerusalem/Israel. God sums up his sentence against Israel in just one verse (v. 36):
36Thus says the Lord GOD, Because your lust was poured out and your nakedness uncovered in your whorings with your lovers, and with all your abominable idols, and because of the blood of your children that you gave to them”

God sentences her lover-turn-adulterous whore, Israel, on four specific charges: 1) your lust (or sexual passion) was poured out[ii], 2) your nakedness[iii] (Heb. lit. “genitals”) uncovered, 3) idolatry, and 4) child sacrifices.

Because of Israel’s unfaithfulness, God will gather all her lovers against her. And since she has uncovered her nakedness to them, God will continue to uncover her nakedness to them (v. 37). If you persist in sinning against God, God will allow you to persist in sin even further (a form of poetic justice). Some of us may be quite uncomfortable with such thoughts about God. How could God allow us to persist in sin? This is not a general statement about God, but should only be used specifically in our passage today. Sometimes, God does send his angels to stop us from committing certain sins. Sometimes, God uses our conscience to remind us. But there are times when God will not stop us from sinning but in fact, gives us over to wickedness, and “hardened our hearts” to repentance, as seen in King Saul and also in Ezekiel 16.

God’s judgment on Israel in Ezekiel 16 is metaphorical
It is important for us to recognize that God’s rhetorical judgment against Israel in Ezekiel 16 is metaphorical. It should not reflect the reality of God’s judgment for those who committed adultery. Let me make it clear that God and the Bible does not condone any form of sexual violence[iv]. Simply put, Ezekiel 16 should not be used to justify capital punishment in adultery cases. Ezekiel 16 stem from a deep hurt of betrayal of the marriage covenant between Israel and God. “If the text had begun at v. 36 one might understandably have accused God of cruelty and undue severity. But the zeal of his anger is a reflex of the intensity of his love” (Block, p. 504). God should not be understood as an abusive husband bend on revenge but rather a pitiful forlorn lover who was shamed by his wife’s unfaithfulness.

A slice of life in those times
The violence portrayed in Ezekiel 16 is a reflection of the times in which they lived in. “The images of violence, bloodshed, vengeance, and terror are not concoctions of Ezekiel’s normative theological reflection, but the realities within which he is living!” (Smith-Christopher, “Ezekiel,” p. 149)[v]. These were the realities of punishment for adultery as practiced in the ancient world. It does not mean that God condones this form of punishment for Israel then or for us Christians today. There are also no actual accounts of public stripping and adultery-related stoning recorded in the Bible. Stephen’s stoning in Acts 7:54-60 was on account of blasphemy (Acts 6:11). Nowhere else in the Bible do we see such graphic scenes of sexual violence (one more in Ezekiel 23)? In fact, punishment for adultery in the Levitical laws (Lev. 20:10 and Deut. 22:22-24)[vi] is stoning for both involved parties. But in the Ezekiel 16 (and also in John 8), only the adulteress alone was accused, reflecting a male-dominated-chauvinistic society. Surely the adulteress could not have been committing adultery alone? Adultery laws in traditional Judaism apply equally to both parties but in practice, very often, only the women were punished.

Hosea’s prostitute wife, Gomer, and Yahweh’s adulterous wife, Israel
In many ways, the unfaithful wife in Ezekiel has been compared with the unfaithful wife of prophet Hosea. It is very likely that Ezekiel has adequate knowledge of Hosea’s marriage to his prostitute wife, Gomer, about 200 years ago. Gomer reflected Israel’s adulterous relationships with foreign polytheistic gods. “The relationship between Hosea and Gomer parallels the relationship between God and Israel. Even though Gomer runs away from Hosea and sleeps with another man, he loves her anyway and forgives her”.[vii] In Hosea, the purpose of public stripping of one’s wife garments represents a divorce ritual rather than public humiliation as those practiced in some ancient Asian cultures. Just as the spreading and covering of one’s garment over a woman is a symbol of marital commitment, the opposite of it, the public stripping of one’s wife garment symbolized a divorce of marital responsibility; a custom alluded to in Hos. 2:2-3:

2 Plead with your mother, plead—
for she is not my wife,
and I am not her husband—
that she put away her whoring from her face,
and her adultery from between her breasts,
3 or I will strip her naked
and expose her as in the day she was born,
and make her like a wilderness,
and turn her into a parched land,
and kill her with thirst. (NRSV)

God gathers Israel’s lovers against her
However, in Ezekiel 16, the public stripping of Israel appears more like public humiliation rather than a divorce ritual. God will judge Israel as one who has committed adultery and gather her lovers and have them strip her in public for the rest of the women (v. 41) to see, “as a discouragement to others, no doubt” (Joyce, p. 133). On the surface, God seems not ready to forgive Israel’s unfaithfulness but instead punishes her through public humiliation and allows her lovers to stone her and cut her up into pieces with their swords (vv. 40-41). Daniel Block believes that “Yahweh’s actions are intended not only to shame Jerusalem but also to declare her destitute condition when divorced from him. Her fate or fortunes have come full circle” (Block, p. 502). She is now on her own, no longer under the care of Yahweh. Her unfaithfulness will return to haunt her. She suffers on account of her own sinfulness.

According to the Levitical laws, the judgments of God are just and in keeping with the offence. The principle of judgment is fully warranted, the punishment is rightly meted out. “Jerusalem had bared her body to all passersby. Now God provides her with all the exposure she wants, and more. If she wants to be a public spectacle, he offers his aid. Naked he had found her; naked he would leave her. The hell that awaited her was not the creation of some demonic force or external power, but of her own making” (Block, p. 504).

God’s punishment as reformative, rather than retributive
One verse which troubled me in my preparation has been v. 42. After the judgment ordeal God declares, “So will I satisfy my wrath on you, and my jealousy shall depart from you. I will be calm and will no more be angry.” Does this verse mean that the punishment of Israel was solely for the satisfaction of God’s wrath? This seems like a weak justification of God’s judgment on Israel. If this was so, Yahweh would not appear to be very different from other foreign gods who demanded the same satisfaction over their wrath. I think that such conclusion would be too narrow a view of God’s judgment. Rather, I would agree with Daniel Block that Yahweh’s “primary aim is to put a stop to all of Jerusalem’ harlotrous ways” (Block, p. 503). It is not a justification, but rather to reform Israel’s waywardness. In a way, the principle of punishment is not seen, as retributive, but rather, reformative. The punishment is not the end of judgment, but rather a means to restoration.

Israel will be restored
Even though the wise will say to Israel, “Like mother, like daughter,” the sins of Israel is strictly of her own generation. Her daughters may follow in the footstep of her mother, but each generation is responsible for their own sins. In an awkward family portrait, Israel is portrayed here as worse than her sisters, Samaria and Sodom, both of which were well known to be idolatrous and adulterous. “Samaria has not committed half your sins. You have committed more abominations than they, and have made your sisters appear righteous by all the abominations that you have committed” (v. 51). Such a statement will no doubt cause Israel to jump! You are slutty than your slutty sisters!

Even though Israel has not remembered the covenant with Yahweh, Yahweh will still keep to his side of the covenant, “I will remember my covenant with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish for you an everlasting covenant” (v. 60). This is Ezekiel’s message to the unfaithful Israel. Even though you have shamed your husband, he will continue to love you. God’s love for Israel is established in an everlasting covenant! What a relief! At the climax of the disturbing scenes of violence, God throws a life-line to Israel. All is not lost. Israel will be restored. In the most painful ordeal of judgment, there is a glimpse of hope. There is forgiveness. God does not give up on Israel. Such is the tough love of God!

62I will establish my covenant with you, and you shall know that I am the LORD, 63that you may remember and be confounded, and never open your mouth again because of your shame, when I atone for you for all that you have done, declares the Lord GOD." Ezek. 16:62-63

Application and Conclusion: Forgiveness is the basis for repentance[viii]
Has the understanding of adultery change in the NT? Do you remember the story in John 8:2-10 about a group of Jewish leaders who brought a woman caught in adultery to Jesus. They asked Jesus, “Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. 5Now in the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?” This was a test in order for them to have some charges to bring against Jesus. Instead of answering them immediately, “Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground” (John 8:6)[ix]. Not getting a reply from Jesus prompted them to ask him again the same question. Jesus stood up and said to them, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.” This is the turning point in the story. Jesus bent down and wrote on the ground a second time. But it was not what was written which turned away the crowd, but it was this powerful statement of judgment. They heard these powerful words of self-judgment before judging others which cause them to turn away. Alone with the woman, Jesus stood up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”[x] She said, "No one, Lord." And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more” (John 8:10-11).

Jesus does not condone the sin; neither does he condemn the sinner. What joy! What a gospel of grace!

11th century Jewish philosopher Moses Maimonides wrote, “It is better and more satisfactory to acquit a thousand guilty persons than to put a single innocent one to death.”[xi]

These wise words are most definitely worthy of remembering. It is true to most degree. But God works on a totally different level of understanding when it comes to judgment and atonement. He chose rather to put an innocent man on the cross for the sake of the whole world living in sin. To God, it is better and more satisfactory for one to die than for all to perish. God’s redemptive acts continue from the OT to the NT and to us today.

When God punishes us, very often he carries the burden of people’s wrongdoing instead. Yahweh’s undertaking to carry people’s sin does not exclude also punishing them. They are not mutually exclusive. “Israel’s ongoing story will presuppose that carrying the people’s wrong doing is not conditional on their first having repented. If anything, the logic works the other way round: “I am carrying your wrongdoing: Now are you prepared to turn back to me?” This is explicit when Yahweh declares, “I am wiping away your acts of rebellion like thick cloud, your failing like thunder cloud. Now turn to me, because I am delivering you” (Isa. 44:22). Forgiveness is the basis for repentance, not the other way round. (Goldingay, p. 14)” We can only repent and turn back to God when God has forgiven us. And he already has in Jesus Christ.

I hope that we will now have a better understanding on God’s judgment. In Ezekiel 16, its language is purely metaphorical but God’s judgment is real. Even though the reality of the world does practice such acts of violence in cases of adultery, it is not an accurate reflection of how God punishes people who committed adultery, as demonstrated also by Jesus in John 8. God’s judgment is not retributive, an eye for an eye, but rather, reformative, to put a stop in our sinful ways and repent. God’s judgment leads to restoration. God’s judgment is to reconcile us back to God in the everlasting covenant first established with Israel and now with us in the blood of Jesus Christ.

Let us pray.

Reference:
Daniel Block, New International Commentary on the Old Testament, Ezekiel 1-24 (Eerdmans, 1998)
John Goldingay, Key Questions about Christian Faith (Baker, 2010)
Paul M. Joyce, Ezekiel: A Commentary (T&T Clark, 2009)
Robert Jenson, Brazos Theological Commentary on the Bible: Ezekiel (BrazosPress, 2009)
Steven Tuell, New International Biblical Commentary: Ezekiel (Hendrikson, 2009)
Walter Eichrodt, Old Testament Library: Ezekiel – A Commentary (SCM, 1970)

Discussion Questions:
1. How has your understanding of God’s judgment change after reading Ezekiel 16?
2. Have you ever experience God’s forgiveness before repentance?

[i] Some scholars have described this passage to be like a very disturbing scene of gang sexual assault. “How can one justify Ezekiel’s rhetorical portrayal of Yahweh as an abusive husband who humiliates his wife by stripping her naked and encouraging others to gang-rape her?” (Block, p. 467)
[ii] According to Paul M. Joyce, Ezekiel: A Commentary, this may be an allusion to female ejaculation.
[iii] The Hebrew term lit. means “genitals”. According to Tuell, “Ezekiel” p. 105, this has implication of incestuous relationships in Lev. 18 and 20.
[iv] Especially gang-rape and all related sexual violence.
[v] Steven Tuell, New International Biblical Commentary: Ezekiel, p. 104
[vi] According to the Levitical Law, both the adulterer and the adulteress must be put to death for committing sexual immorality. Legal procedures for proceeding with the punishment require “the testimony of two witnesses of good character for conviction. The defendant also must have been warned immediately before performing the act.”
[vii] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hosea
[viii] “The Hebrew verb slh, “forgive” never occurs in Ezekiel.” (Joyce, p. 135)
[ix] For centuries, scholars have debated on what exactly did Jesus write on the ground in John 8:2-10? No one knows for absolute certainty. Some say, he may have quoted the exact law from Lev. 20:10, thereby asking for the other adulterous party to be charged as well. Maybe Jesus was asking for the presence of the two witnesses to the act of adultery? In the context of Jesus’ reply, that no one is without sin, maybe he was writing on the ground the individual sin committed by each accuser against their names. Jesus did not intend for us to know what was written. It is best we do not speculate.
[x] With reference to Matt 7:1-3, 1 "Judge not, that you be not judged. 2 For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. 3Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?”
[xi] Moses Maimonides, Sefer Hamitzvot, Negative Commandment no. 290. (source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stoning#cite_note-5)