The haunting allegory found in Ezekiel 16 reveals one of Scripture's most graphic depictions of spiritual unfaithfulness. God portrays Jerusalem as an abandoned infant He rescued, cleaned, and raised to become a beautiful bride – only to have her turn to prostitution with pagan gods using the very gifts He had lavished upon her.
We explore this powerful metaphor that uses emotionally charged language to describe Israel's spiritual adultery. The nation had taken God's generous provisions – fine clothing, jewelry, oil, and food – and redirected them toward idol worship, building pagan shrines "on every street corner." Unlike typical prostitution where payment is received, Israel was so eager to sin that they paid to do so, revealing the depths of their spiritual corruption.
Most disturbing is God's condemnation of child sacrifice, where Israelites offered their own children to pagan deities like Molech. This horrific practice represented the ultimate betrayal of God's covenant and shows how far God's people had fallen from His commands. We draw a sobering parallel between ancient child sacrifice and modern abortion practices, challenging listeners to consider whether today's society stands on any higher moral ground than ancient Israel.
The passage raises profound questions about God's patience and judgment. After centuries of prophetic warnings, Israel reached a tipping point where God "delivered them to their enemies" – language similar to Romans 1 where God "gives people over" to their sinful desires. This withdrawal of divine restraint represents God's final judgment on persistent, unrepentant sin.
For believers today, Ezekiel 16 serves as both warning and invitation. We examine how easily we too can redirect God's blessings toward modern idols of comfort, wealth, status, and pleasure. As 1 John 2:15-16 warns: "Do not love the world or anything in the world... the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world."
Let this powerful chapter challenge you to examine your heart, identify competing loyalties, and renew your commitment to wholehearted devotion to God alone. Share this episode with others struggling with divided spiritual loyalties.
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May God Bless you!! - Glenn and Steve
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
In Ezekiel, chapter 16, god gives a very graphic
description of finding a baby,and it was lost and abandoned
and had come from a very badplace.
God picks it up, cleans it off,raises it up into a beautiful
bride, and he gives a verybeautiful description of this
(00:43):
young woman.
That is a symbol for the cityof Jerusalem.
God had raised it up tomarrying age and it was a very
beautiful place.
And if you were with us lasttime, we talked about how
beautiful Jerusalem was in itsheyday.
Today, on Reasoning Through theBible, we're going to learn the
(01:04):
next very descriptive part ofhow God describes how far astray
that Jerusalem had gone.
It started out as a verybeautiful bride that God had
raised up.
Now we're going to see thedisobedience and how ugly the
disobedience is.
We are in Ezekiel, chapter 16,and we're going to start at
(01:27):
verse 15.
So if you have your copy of theWord of God, turn there.
Steve, can you read from verse15 to 21?
Speaker 2 (01:33):
But you trusted in your beauty and played the
harlot because of your fame, andyou poured out your horatries
on every passerby who might bewilling.
You took some of your clothes,made for yourself high places of
various colors, and played theharlot on them, which should
never come about nor happen.
(01:55):
You also took your beautifuljewels, made of my gold and of
my silver, which I had given youand made for yourself male
images that you might play theharlot with them.
Then you took your embroideredcloth and covered them and
offered my oil and my incensebefore them, also my bread which
(02:18):
I gave you, fine flour, oil andhoney which I fed you you would
offer before them for asoothing aroma.
So it happened, declares theLord God.
Moreover, you took your sonsand daughters, whom you had
borne to me, and sacrificed themto idols to be devoured.
Were your harlotries so small amatter?
(02:40):
You slaughtered my children andoffered them up to idols by
causing them to pass through thefire.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
Those of us that are conservative believers in the
Bible, we hold to theinspiration of Scripture, but
one of the areas that we'reoften guilty of stepping over is
the literature value of theWord of God.
This chapter chapter 16, isreally just fine high literature
(03:08):
.
He gives very descriptivelanguage.
It's very interesting the wayGod describes what happened to
Jerusalem with a mix ofdescriptive language and reality
.
He communicates some veryimportant concepts but does so
with very beautiful words, veryemotional words.
(03:29):
These are very ugly emotionalwords.
He describes Israel as havinggrown up as a beautiful woman
and then turning into a harlot,a prostitute, saying that she
used the nice clothing that Godhad provided her to be a
prostitute upon.
Jerusalem took the fine thingsthat God had given her and used
(03:54):
it in a bed of prostitution.
Israel took the expensivejewelry that God provided and
made sexual images out of themand used them in her
prostitution.
Modern society is not the firstto go crazy over sex.
Pagans worship sex as well assome established religions do.
(04:16):
There's some Hindu images thatare specifically built around
male images, just like isdescribed here in Ezekiel 16.
The ancient Israelites weretaking the wealth that God
provided them and using it tomake expensive sex objects and
using it as a prostitute wouldSteve?
(04:37):
It's just a very uglydescription of how far they had
gone.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
It is, and we're using the word Israelites as the
nation itself.
It's the combined nation ofIsrael, Even though it had been
split into two, into northernkingdom of Israel and the
southern kingdom of Judah.
We're using it in this sessionand on other sessions as the
combined nation itself andtalking about it.
(05:02):
So, Glenn Glenn, as we see inthis part here is that the
nation of Israel has beenunfaithful through the centuries
to God and now it's getting toa point where, as we've
mentioned before, he's going totake the final action for the
destruction of Jerusalem, butit's also a picture of that.
(05:23):
He's just had enough with theunfaithfulness with this nation
of Israel.
Speaker 1 (05:28):
Look at verse 18 again.
He says that he had given themthese fine cloths, these
embroidered cloths.
Verse 18 says you took yourembroidered cloths and covered
them these were the shrines andthe idols and offered my oil and
my incense before them and theidols, and offered my oil and my
incense before them.
(05:48):
So imagine they had madeshrines out of these objects,
this expensive cloth, anexpensive embroidered cloth that
God had provided them.
They were worshiping the clothand using it as a shrine.
Worst of all, they sacrificedtheir own children to the pagan
idols.
Look at verse 20.
Moreover, you took your sonsand daughters whom you had born
(06:08):
to me and sacrificed them to theidols to be devoured.
They had actually gone to thepoint where they were
sacrificing their own childrento an idol.
This was some sort of twistedpagan idea of fertility, and
it's so awful.
You remember, satan is there tosteal and to kill and to
destroy.
(06:28):
One of the criticisms in ourday is that how harsh God was to
command Joshua to go out anddestroy all of the Canaanites.
Well, we don't have to guess atwhat happens if you don't
follow through with that command.
Because Joshua didn't followthrough with that command, at
least the people under himdidn't, and they didn't go out
(06:49):
and destroy all of theCanaanites.
They left many of them.
Here we have, many centurieslater.
What we have is that, insteadof Israel influencing the
Canaanites for good, theopposite happened.
Canaanites had influencedIsrael for evil, to the point
now that Israel had taken upthese pagan practices of not
(07:13):
only the sex worship, not onlyof the worship of objects.
But here they are actuallymurdering their own babies
before these idols.
If they had done what God hadcommanded them to do back in
Joshua's day, which was todestroy all the Canaanites, it
would have saved lives here andit would have kept the
(07:34):
Israelites from adopting thesehorrible pagan practices.
Israel had begun to kill theirown children in sacrifices to
pagan statues, and in verse 21,god says the children belong to
him, they were mine, you borethem to me, he says.
Yet the people of Israelsacrificed them to another God.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
Steve, was God justified in his anger and his
fury?
He absolutely was, and what hemeans.
There were these children thatwere born to him.
Remember?
The firstborn were to bededicated to the Lord and they
were to go and give a sacrificeon behalf of them from their
harvest or from their cattle orwhatever it might be that they
(08:20):
had.
Here he is.
He's saying is that the onesthat were supposed to be devoted
to me.
You took them and you devotedthem to a false God.
Not only that, but you'vedevoted them directly.
The devotion to me was to bedone through a sacrifice of
something else, but no, whatyou've done is you actually
(08:43):
sacrificed your child itself.
Now, glenn, think about that.
Think about how far someone hasto fall into pagan worship of
other gods to take their ownchild and sacrifice them to that
God.
I mean, that really gives me apicture of how far they had gone
(09:05):
.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
If we remember what we read in the previous sessions
, god was saying through Ezekielto the Jewish people I'm going
to use the sword, I'm going touse disease, I'm going to use
famine and I'm going to use allof this to destroy many of you
because of all these horriblepractices.
Destroy many of you because ofall these horrible practices.
(09:28):
If we ask the question howcould people get so wicked as to
sacrifice their own childrenand why would God get so severe
in his response?
Well, god had told them wayback at the beginning, in
Deuteronomy, chapter 28, he saysif you disobey, I will curse
you, and he laid out specificthings he would do to them.
So they knew from the verybeginning this is what God is
(09:51):
going to do.
Steve, we asked that question.
What just screams out of us isthat how, how could people get
so wicked as to sacrifice theirown children?
How could people get so wickedas to kill their own children?
What I think of is that in ourday, how could we get so wicked
(10:13):
that we sacrifice our ownchildren?
Because we can't sit here andsay that we're more
sophisticated and we're moreeducated after two or three,
4,000 years of history, thatwe're any better, because in
thousands of years we're moreeducated after two or three,
four thousand years of historythat we're any better, because
in thousands of years we're nobetter, for people in our day
sacrifice their own childrenthrough abortion.
(10:34):
The fact that we find themention of abortion in church
uncomfortable tells us thatwe're equally depraved as these
ancient Israelites.
If we ask ourselves how howcould they get so evil?
Well, it's when we ignore Godand we allow sin and we're not
(10:57):
close to his teachings and weget so focused on ourselves that
we lose track of what we'redoing.
Steve, we are no better thanthe people of ancient Israel.
Speaker 2 (11:06):
And that question of how could the people allow it?
You have this vision in yourmind of them taking these
children up to this idol andputting them on this idol and,
like you said, it would havebeen heated up to the point this
idol to Molech that it justscalded the children.
Now, in some cases, maybe thechild had been killed before
(11:28):
that, before they put it onthere, but nevertheless the
child is dead and the peopleallowed that to happen.
The mothers or the fathersallowed them to do it and were
fully behind it.
And he asked the question whydidn't somebody stand up and say
wait a minute, this isn't theway that we're supposed to
(11:48):
follow God, this isn't even theGod that we're supposed to
follow.
Now, I'm sure that there werepeople that did that and they
just maybe didn't mention it.
They just stood by and watchedit and they might have said,
well, I'm not going toparticipate in that, I'm going
to continue to follow Yahweh.
But it had gotten to a pointwhere not enough people had
(12:09):
stood up to stop the practiceand it had continued.
I encourage people if you havenever seen a video of an actual
abortion there are ones that arethere Go to a pro-life site and
there will be videos showingwhat happens during an actual
abortion.
(12:29):
If you've never seen that andyou're pro-abortion, I challenge
you to go watch and see whatactually takes place when an
abortion happens.
If you still come out of thatand you're pro-abortion, then I
submit to you you're in the samecategory as these people in
(12:49):
that day and age that weretaking their own children and
sacrificing them, and also ofthe same people in this day and
age that here we're talkingabout, of Ezekiel, that stood by
and let those people sacrificetheir children on that altar and
said nothing about it, maybeturned around and said, well,
I'm not going to do that, butthey didn't stand up or didn't
(13:11):
say anything about it.
And, glenn, you made a goodpoint about it in that when
churches bring up the subjectand people squirm in their
aisles associated with it, thenthat's a problem.
And it's so much of a problemthat I think modern day churches
don't even address the subjectvery often in their messages, if
(13:35):
not at all, maybe once a yearduring pro-life week or
something like that, but otherthan that they don't even
mention it.
And it's an abomination to theLord that the church, the body
of Christ, should be standing upin union with and crying out
and saying this is wrong.
We need to stop this.
Speaker 1 (13:54):
One of the ways we can stop it is doing what
churches should be doing, whichis reaching out to women in need
and helping them with theirphysical needs, their financial
needs and their family needs andtheir housing needs and all of
the daily activities, which isone of the things that drives
part of the problem withabortion.
That is really the solution isto go help women in need and not
(14:17):
just curse the darkness.
Moving on in this chapter, godcontinues with this very
descriptive, very emotionallygripping description of the
horribleness of the people ofIsrael.
I'm reading, starting in verse22.
Besides all your abominationsand harlotries, you did not
remember the days of your youthwhen you were naked and bare and
(14:41):
squirming in your blood.
Then it came about after allyour wickedness.
Woe to you, declares the Lord,god that you built yourself a
shrine and made yourself a highplace in every square.
You built yourself a high placeat the top of every street and
made your beauty abominable.
Steve, he gives a very graphicdescription here.
(15:02):
First of all, what is a highplace?
Speaker 2 (15:10):
A high place is where they would go and build their
altars to these false gods.
It would literally be on ahilltop or a mountaintop.
It would be a place where allthe other surrounding city or
people that were in the valleywould be able to see.
It was up on a high place wherethey could look up and see the
(15:33):
activity that was taking placethere and also that it was a
place of worship.
It was a way to call the peopleto an area to worship these
false gods, because everybodyknew where it was in the
community.
It was on a high place.
Speaker 1 (15:48):
They would build shrines.
They would put a place there,usually on a hill, a place to
overlook.
People would be drawn to thisliterally higher place, but it
was the place you'd put a paganstatue.
You'd put a statue there andbuild a shrine.
So that's what he's talkingabout, and in verses 24 and 25,
the Lord condemns them forputting these shrines and these
(16:09):
statues in the public square andon every street.
It says they were totally givenover to false worship.
Even today, if we travel aroundsome cultures and some cities,
they put shrines and statues onpublic streets and on the hills,
and God condemns this practicethe idea of putting a shrine
(16:31):
with an object that you wouldpray in front of.
Well, these people were doingthe same things as what happens
in many of our places today.
There's something about thehuman nature that wants some
object in front of us to pray infront of.
God condemns this practice.
It was in the Ten Commandmentsto not make images and not bow
(16:53):
down to them, and it was acategorical do not make images.
The only image that was in theOld Testament tabernacle was
behind the veil in the temple.
The average person couldn't goin there, only the priests saw
it and it was like one day ayear.
It wasn't something you boweddown in front of, although the
(17:15):
people were prevented from that.
God made it quite clear do notbuild statues, do not make
images, do not bow to them, donot pray to them.
And here they had done it.
On every street corner they hadput an image some side of a
statue, everywhere.
In verse 27, it gets veryinteresting.
(17:37):
God uses the language, says hedelivered them up to their
enemies.
Romans chapter 1 uses similarlanguage of people being so
sinful that God removes hiscommon grace, removes his
influence from them and givesthem over to their own passions
and their own sin.
Steve, is it possible to be sofar into sin that God stops
(18:03):
trying to bring us back?
Speaker 2 (18:05):
It says that he'll walk away from them.
Earlier in these verses in theprevious chapters, he says you
separated yourself from me,therefore I'm going to separate
myself from you.
So absolutely.
We're told throughout Scripturethat at some point God gets to
a point where he has over andover again come to people, said
(18:30):
that he wants them to return tohim, and when they get to a
point that they don't do it, atsome point he then walks away
from them or at least turnsthemselves over to themselves.
Is the way it's put in RomansThinking themselves to be wise,
they exchanged a lie for thetruth and God ends up turning
(18:51):
them over to their own reparatemind.
So my advice is is if you'restill feeling the tug of
conviction on your heart, todayis the day of salvation.
Don't continue to resist God'spull and His draw to Him,
because the more you resist, themore of a callous you build up
(19:14):
on your heart and at some pointin time might be a day whenever
God says that's it, I'm going toturn you over to yourself, and
then you won't have peoplecoming to you, talking to you,
drawing you to God, giving youthe message or the gospel of the
good news.
That's where the nation ofIsrael finds themselves at this
(19:34):
time.
Glenn, he says enough is enough.
The final straw is going tohappen with the city of
Jerusalem.
It's going to be sacked andyou're going to stay in
captivity for a period of 70years.
Speaker 1 (19:47):
Next, god continues with this very graphic, very
descriptive, very emotionaldescription of the lost state of
Jerusalem.
I'm reading, starting in verse30.
How languishing is your heart,declares the Lord God, while you
do all these things, theactions of a bold-faced harlot
(20:08):
when you built your shrine atthe beginning of every street
and made your high place inevery square in disddaining
money.
You are not like a harlot.
You, adulterous wife who takesstrangers instead of her husband
, men give gifts to all harlots,but you give your gifts to your
lovers to bribe them to come toyou from every direction for
(20:30):
your harlotries.
Thus you are different fromthose women in your harlotries
in that no one plays the harlotas you do, because you give
money and no money is given toyou.
Speaker 2 (20:42):
Thus you are different, or them being
unfaithful if they happen to bemarried to a spouse, they
receive payment from the personthat is coming to them, but
Israel did just the opposite,through this allegorical tale of
(21:05):
them being a harlot to pagangods.
They used their wealth to goout and worship the pagan gods
While they're a harlot.
They're actually paying forthis harlotry to take place,
which is the opposite from theway harlotry usually takes place
(21:25):
.
Speaker 1 (21:25):
All prostitutes are in business.
If they're anything, they're inbusiness.
They want to get paid for whatthey do.
It would be crazy for aprostitute to pay the customers.
That's not the point of thebusiness here.
The Lord is saying that no onecame to you and paid you,
influenced you to go worship theother gods.
(21:46):
You were doing just theopposite.
Instead, israel approached theother gods and gave offerings to
them.
Steve, you used the wordallegory.
Some of this is allegorical,some of it's not.
Some of these idol worships hadjust blatant sex worship.
They were actually doingexactly this.
Literally, they were going inprostituting their women and
(22:09):
even the men too, and paying todo so.
They were paying the offeringsto these idols and doing sex
worship in front of theseshrines.
It was as bad as it could get.
Steve, if we ask the question,what is the lesson for us?
Hopefully, nobody in ourlisteners are doing these exact
(22:30):
same things today, but I thinkif we're honest with ourselves,
we can admit that we can bedrawn away towards idols.
If we're honest with ourselves,our hearts can be drawn away as
well.
I know I am.
I'm reminded of that oldChristian hymn that says Prone
to wander, lord, I feel it Proneto leave the God I love.
(22:52):
Then it goes on to say Lord,please take my heart and seal it
and protect it.
So that should be all of ourprayer, should it not?
Because we know that we'resusceptible to wander.
Sometimes there's been cases,I'll confess here, I've sought
out places to go sin that's asbad as these people.
So it's easy for us to sit heretoday and be hypocritical and
(23:16):
point fingers at these ancientIsraelites, and it's something
else entirely to live arighteous life today.
How should we take this downand apply it to our lives today.
Speaker 2 (23:28):
The lesson that we can learn from that, glenn, I
think is best summed up over in1 John.
Starting in 1 John 2.15, itsays Do not love the world nor
the things in the world.
If anyone loves the world, thelove of the Father is not in him
, for all that is in the worldthe lust of the flesh and the
(23:49):
lust of the eyes and theboastful pride of life is not
from the Father but is from theworld.
It says that in 1 John 2.15 and2.16.
That's the enticement that wehave today is the world and all
the sin.
I think, glenn, can be boileddown to one of those three
(24:10):
things the lust of the flesh,the lust of the eyes and the
boastful pride of life.
Eyes and the boastful pride oflife that's the enticement of
the world that wants to lead usaway from Jesus Christ and we
need to guard against that.
Our flesh is tied to this world.
We need to always renew ourmind, learn about God, stay in
(24:33):
his word, get into a goodBible-believing church that
preaches the word of God and getinto a small group that has
teachers that teach the word ofGod and resist the devil, resist
these lusts and the pride oflife that it mentions over here
in 1 John.
That's the protection that wehave, as Paul puts on it.
(24:56):
Put on the armor of God everyday, put on Christ every day.
That's the way that we protectourselves from getting to the
point of what Israel did thesepeople of the nation of Israel
during Ezekiel's time.
We need to protect ourselvesfrom that and not be enticed by
(25:18):
it and pulled into it.
Resist the devil and he willflee from you.
Speaker 1 (25:22):
In these passages we've been reading, it has God
giving a very severecondemnation and pouring out of
his judgment wrath on theancient Israelites.
If we hold ourselves up to this, mirror us today in the church
age, would God punish?
Of course he's not.
Speaker 2 (25:48):
God is a God who doesn't change.
God is still a jealous God, ashe told Moses on Mount Sinai not
to worship other gods.
Because I'm a jealous God.
He's still a jealous God.
He doesn't want his creation togo off and worship other false
gods.
And it has always been acuriosity to me, glenn, as to
(26:12):
what did these false gods holdthat kept the people going back
and worshiping them, going backover and over again?
You've mentioned it in some ofour earlier sessions.
God had had enough of this, andit took this captivity in
Babylon to break them from idolworship.
When they came out from theexile of Babylon, to come back
(26:34):
into the land, they were nolonger idol worshipers.
That's at least one thing thatthey were broken from.
But look at what it took tobreak them.
So, no, we don't want to get toa point where God has to do
something drastic in our livesin order to break us from a
habitual sin that we have.
(26:56):
If we know that the sin ishabitual, we need to put it
aside.
Earlier in the earlier chapter,he said that these sins that
they were doing was right therein their face.
It was something that was rightin front of them.
It was a stumbling block tothem.
So no, god's the same God todayas he was then, and we're still
human beings.
(27:16):
We have the grace of JesusChrist and belief in him that we
know about today.
They still had belief throughfaith, just like we have beliefs
in faith, but we're both stillhuman beings, just like they
were.
And like I just read, we needto resist this world because
(27:36):
we're tied to it, but God is notgoing to let us off the hook
because we're on this side ofthe cross.
He's still the same God todaythat he was then.
Speaker 1 (27:46):
These great lessons back in these passages that are
so ignored.
These lessons are so valuablefor us and they're so current,
so up-to-date, and we get such ablessing from learning them.
I think it can help us in ourspiritual walk and I trust that
you would believe that as well.
We're going to continue toreason through this.
(28:09):
The book of Ezekiel has many,many wonderful things yet to
tell us as we continue to reasonthrough the Bible.
Speaker 2 (28:16):
Thank you so much for watching and listening, as
always.
May God bless you.
In Ezekiel, chapter 16, god gives a very graphic
description of finding a baby,and it was lost and abandoned
and had come from a very badplace.
God picks it up, cleans it off,raises it up into a beautiful
bride, and he gives a verybeautiful description of this
(00:43):
young woman.
That is a symbol for the cityof Jerusalem.
God had raised it up tomarrying age and it was a very
beautiful place.
And if you were with us lasttime, we talked about how
beautiful Jerusalem was in itsheyday.
Today, on Reasoning Through theBible, we're going to learn the
(01:04):
next very descriptive part ofhow God describes how far astray
that Jerusalem had gone.
It started out as a verybeautiful bride that God had
raised up.
Now we're going to see thedisobedience and how ugly the
disobedience is.
We are in Ezekiel, chapter 16,and we're going to start at
(01:27):
verse 15.
So if you have your copy of theWord of God, turn there.
Steve, can you read from verse15 to 21?
Speaker 2 (01:33):
But you trusted in your beauty and played the
harlot because of your fame, andyou poured out your horatries
on every passerby who might bewilling.
You took some of your clothes,made for yourself high places of
various colors, and played theharlot on them, which should
never come about nor happen.
(01:55):
You also took your beautifuljewels, made of my gold and of
my silver, which I had given youand made for yourself male
images that you might play theharlot with them.
Then you took your embroideredcloth and covered them and
offered my oil and my incensebefore them, also my bread which
(02:18):
I gave you, fine flour, oil andhoney which I fed you you would
offer before them for asoothing aroma.
So it happened, declares theLord God.
Moreover, you took your sonsand daughters, whom you had
borne to me, and sacrificed themto idols to be devoured.
Were your harlotries so small amatter?
(02:40):
You slaughtered my children andoffered them up to idols by
causing them to pass through thefire.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
Those of us that are conservative believers in the
Bible, we hold to theinspiration of Scripture, but
one of the areas that we'reoften guilty of stepping over is
the literature value of theWord of God.
This chapter chapter 16, isreally just fine high literature
(03:08):
.
He gives very descriptivelanguage.
It's very interesting the wayGod describes what happened to
Jerusalem with a mix ofdescriptive language and reality
.
He communicates some veryimportant concepts but does so
with very beautiful words, veryemotional words.
(03:29):
These are very ugly emotionalwords.
He describes Israel as havinggrown up as a beautiful woman
and then turning into a harlot,a prostitute, saying that she
used the nice clothing that Godhad provided her to be a
prostitute upon.
Jerusalem took the fine thingsthat God had given her and used
(03:54):
it in a bed of prostitution.
Israel took the expensivejewelry that God provided and
made sexual images out of themand used them in her
prostitution.
Modern society is not the firstto go crazy over sex.
Pagans worship sex as well assome established religions do.
(04:16):
There's some Hindu images thatare specifically built around
male images, just like isdescribed here in Ezekiel 16.
The ancient Israelites weretaking the wealth that God
provided them and using it tomake expensive sex objects and
using it as a prostitute wouldSteve?
(04:37):
It's just a very uglydescription of how far they had
gone.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
It is, and we're using the word Israelites as the
nation itself.
It's the combined nation ofIsrael, Even though it had been
split into two, into northernkingdom of Israel and the
southern kingdom of Judah.
We're using it in this sessionand on other sessions as the
combined nation itself andtalking about it.
(05:02):
So, Glenn Glenn, as we see inthis part here is that the
nation of Israel has beenunfaithful through the centuries
to God and now it's getting toa point where, as we've
mentioned before, he's going totake the final action for the
destruction of Jerusalem, butit's also a picture of that.
(05:23):
He's just had enough with theunfaithfulness with this nation
of Israel.
Speaker 1 (05:28):
Look at verse 18 again.
He says that he had given themthese fine cloths, these
embroidered cloths.
Verse 18 says you took yourembroidered cloths and covered
them these were the shrines andthe idols and offered my oil and
my incense before them and theidols, and offered my oil and my
incense before them.
(05:48):
So imagine they had madeshrines out of these objects,
this expensive cloth, anexpensive embroidered cloth that
God had provided them.
They were worshiping the clothand using it as a shrine.
Worst of all, they sacrificedtheir own children to the pagan
idols.
Look at verse 20.
Moreover, you took your sonsand daughters whom you had born
(06:08):
to me and sacrificed them to theidols to be devoured.
They had actually gone to thepoint where they were
sacrificing their own childrento an idol.
This was some sort of twistedpagan idea of fertility, and
it's so awful.
You remember, satan is there tosteal and to kill and to
destroy.
(06:28):
One of the criticisms in ourday is that how harsh God was to
command Joshua to go out anddestroy all of the Canaanites.
Well, we don't have to guess atwhat happens if you don't
follow through with that command.
Because Joshua didn't followthrough with that command, at
least the people under himdidn't, and they didn't go out
(06:49):
and destroy all of theCanaanites.
They left many of them.
Here we have, many centurieslater.
What we have is that, insteadof Israel influencing the
Canaanites for good, theopposite happened.
Canaanites had influencedIsrael for evil, to the point
now that Israel had taken upthese pagan practices of not
(07:13):
only the sex worship, not onlyof the worship of objects.
But here they are actuallymurdering their own babies
before these idols.
If they had done what God hadcommanded them to do back in
Joshua's day, which was todestroy all the Canaanites, it
would have saved lives here andit would have kept the
(07:34):
Israelites from adopting thesehorrible pagan practices.
Israel had begun to kill theirown children in sacrifices to
pagan statues, and in verse 21,god says the children belong to
him, they were mine, you borethem to me, he says.
Yet the people of Israelsacrificed them to another God.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
Steve, was God justified in his anger and his
fury?
He absolutely was, and what hemeans.
There were these children thatwere born to him.
Remember?
The firstborn were to bededicated to the Lord and they
were to go and give a sacrificeon behalf of them from their
harvest or from their cattle orwhatever it might be that they
(08:20):
had.
Here he is.
He's saying is that the onesthat were supposed to be devoted
to me.
You took them and you devotedthem to a false God.
Not only that, but you'vedevoted them directly.
The devotion to me was to bedone through a sacrifice of
something else, but no, whatyou've done is you actually
(08:43):
sacrificed your child itself.
Now, glenn, think about that.
Think about how far someone hasto fall into pagan worship of
other gods to take their ownchild and sacrifice them to that
God.
I mean, that really gives me apicture of how far they had gone
(09:05):
.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
If we remember what we read in the previous sessions
, god was saying through Ezekielto the Jewish people I'm going
to use the sword, I'm going touse disease, I'm going to use
famine and I'm going to use allof this to destroy many of you
because of all these horriblepractices.
Destroy many of you because ofall these horrible practices.
(09:28):
If we ask the question howcould people get so wicked as to
sacrifice their own childrenand why would God get so severe
in his response?
Well, god had told them wayback at the beginning, in
Deuteronomy, chapter 28, he saysif you disobey, I will curse
you, and he laid out specificthings he would do to them.
So they knew from the verybeginning this is what God is
(09:51):
going to do.
Steve, we asked that question.
What just screams out of us isthat how, how could people get
so wicked as to sacrifice theirown children?
How could people get so wickedas to kill their own children?
What I think of is that in ourday, how could we get so wicked
(10:13):
that we sacrifice our ownchildren?
Because we can't sit here andsay that we're more
sophisticated and we're moreeducated after two or three,
4,000 years of history, thatwe're any better, because in
thousands of years we're moreeducated after two or three,
four thousand years of historythat we're any better, because
in thousands of years we're nobetter, for people in our day
sacrifice their own childrenthrough abortion.
(10:34):
The fact that we find themention of abortion in church
uncomfortable tells us thatwe're equally depraved as these
ancient Israelites.
If we ask ourselves how howcould they get so evil?
Well, it's when we ignore Godand we allow sin and we're not
(10:57):
close to his teachings and weget so focused on ourselves that
we lose track of what we'redoing.
Steve, we are no better thanthe people of ancient Israel.
Speaker 2 (11:06):
And that question of how could the people allow it?
You have this vision in yourmind of them taking these
children up to this idol andputting them on this idol and,
like you said, it would havebeen heated up to the point this
idol to Molech that it justscalded the children.
Now, in some cases, maybe thechild had been killed before
(11:28):
that, before they put it onthere, but nevertheless the
child is dead and the peopleallowed that to happen.
The mothers or the fathersallowed them to do it and were
fully behind it.
And he asked the question whydidn't somebody stand up and say
wait a minute, this isn't theway that we're supposed to
(11:48):
follow God, this isn't even theGod that we're supposed to
follow.
Now, I'm sure that there werepeople that did that and they
just maybe didn't mention it.
They just stood by and watchedit and they might have said,
well, I'm not going toparticipate in that, I'm going
to continue to follow Yahweh.
But it had gotten to a pointwhere not enough people had
(12:09):
stood up to stop the practiceand it had continued.
I encourage people if you havenever seen a video of an actual
abortion there are ones that arethere Go to a pro-life site and
there will be videos showingwhat happens during an actual
abortion.
(12:29):
If you've never seen that andyou're pro-abortion, I challenge
you to go watch and see whatactually takes place when an
abortion happens.
If you still come out of thatand you're pro-abortion, then I
submit to you you're in the samecategory as these people in
(12:49):
that day and age that weretaking their own children and
sacrificing them, and also ofthe same people in this day and
age that here we're talkingabout, of Ezekiel, that stood by
and let those people sacrificetheir children on that altar and
said nothing about it, maybeturned around and said, well,
I'm not going to do that, butthey didn't stand up or didn't
(13:11):
say anything about it.
And, glenn, you made a goodpoint about it in that when
churches bring up the subjectand people squirm in their
aisles associated with it, thenthat's a problem.
And it's so much of a problemthat I think modern day churches
don't even address the subjectvery often in their messages, if
(13:35):
not at all, maybe once a yearduring pro-life week or
something like that, but otherthan that they don't even
mention it.
And it's an abomination to theLord that the church, the body
of Christ, should be standing upin union with and crying out
and saying this is wrong.
We need to stop this.
Speaker 1 (13:54):
One of the ways we can stop it is doing what
churches should be doing, whichis reaching out to women in need
and helping them with theirphysical needs, their financial
needs and their family needs andtheir housing needs and all of
the daily activities, which isone of the things that drives
part of the problem withabortion.
That is really the solution isto go help women in need and not
(14:17):
just curse the darkness.
Moving on in this chapter, godcontinues with this very
descriptive, very emotionallygripping description of the
horribleness of the people ofIsrael.
I'm reading, starting in verse22.
Besides all your abominationsand harlotries, you did not
remember the days of your youthwhen you were naked and bare and
(14:41):
squirming in your blood.
Then it came about after allyour wickedness.
Woe to you, declares the Lord,god that you built yourself a
shrine and made yourself a highplace in every square.
You built yourself a high placeat the top of every street and
made your beauty abominable.
Steve, he gives a very graphicdescription here.
(15:02):
First of all, what is a highplace?
Speaker 2 (15:10):
A high place is where they would go and build their
altars to these false gods.
It would literally be on ahilltop or a mountaintop.
It would be a place where allthe other surrounding city or
people that were in the valleywould be able to see.
It was up on a high place wherethey could look up and see the
(15:33):
activity that was taking placethere and also that it was a
place of worship.
It was a way to call the peopleto an area to worship these
false gods, because everybodyknew where it was in the
community.
It was on a high place.
Speaker 1 (15:48):
They would build shrines.
They would put a place there,usually on a hill, a place to
overlook.
People would be drawn to thisliterally higher place, but it
was the place you'd put a paganstatue.
You'd put a statue there andbuild a shrine.
So that's what he's talkingabout, and in verses 24 and 25,
the Lord condemns them forputting these shrines and these
(16:09):
statues in the public square andon every street.
It says they were totally givenover to false worship.
Even today, if we travel aroundsome cultures and some cities,
they put shrines and statues onpublic streets and on the hills,
and God condemns this practicethe idea of putting a shrine
(16:31):
with an object that you wouldpray in front of.
Well, these people were doingthe same things as what happens
in many of our places today.
There's something about thehuman nature that wants some
object in front of us to pray infront of.
God condemns this practice.
It was in the Ten Commandmentsto not make images and not bow
(16:53):
down to them, and it was acategorical do not make images.
The only image that was in theOld Testament tabernacle was
behind the veil in the temple.
The average person couldn't goin there, only the priests saw
it and it was like one day ayear.
It wasn't something you boweddown in front of, although the
(17:15):
people were prevented from that.
God made it quite clear do notbuild statues, do not make
images, do not bow to them, donot pray to them.
And here they had done it.
On every street corner they hadput an image some side of a
statue, everywhere.
In verse 27, it gets veryinteresting.
(17:37):
God uses the language, says hedelivered them up to their
enemies.
Romans chapter 1 uses similarlanguage of people being so
sinful that God removes hiscommon grace, removes his
influence from them and givesthem over to their own passions
and their own sin.
Steve, is it possible to be sofar into sin that God stops
(18:03):
trying to bring us back?
Speaker 2 (18:05):
It says that he'll walk away from them.
Earlier in these verses in theprevious chapters, he says you
separated yourself from me,therefore I'm going to separate
myself from you.
So absolutely.
We're told throughout Scripturethat at some point God gets to
a point where he has over andover again come to people, said
(18:30):
that he wants them to return tohim, and when they get to a
point that they don't do it, atsome point he then walks away
from them or at least turnsthemselves over to themselves.
Is the way it's put in RomansThinking themselves to be wise,
they exchanged a lie for thetruth and God ends up turning
(18:51):
them over to their own reparatemind.
So my advice is is if you'restill feeling the tug of
conviction on your heart, todayis the day of salvation.
Don't continue to resist God'spull and His draw to Him,
because the more you resist, themore of a callous you build up
(19:14):
on your heart and at some pointin time might be a day whenever
God says that's it, I'm going toturn you over to yourself, and
then you won't have peoplecoming to you, talking to you,
drawing you to God, giving youthe message or the gospel of the
good news.
That's where the nation ofIsrael finds themselves at this
(19:34):
time.
Glenn, he says enough is enough.
The final straw is going tohappen with the city of
Jerusalem.
It's going to be sacked andyou're going to stay in
captivity for a period of 70years.
Speaker 1 (19:47):
Next, god continues with this very graphic, very
descriptive, very emotionaldescription of the lost state of
Jerusalem.
I'm reading, starting in verse30.
How languishing is your heart,declares the Lord God, while you
do all these things, theactions of a bold-faced harlot
(20:08):
when you built your shrine atthe beginning of every street
and made your high place inevery square in disddaining
money.
You are not like a harlot.
You, adulterous wife who takesstrangers instead of her husband
, men give gifts to all harlots,but you give your gifts to your
lovers to bribe them to come toyou from every direction for
(20:30):
your harlotries.
Thus you are different fromthose women in your harlotries
in that no one plays the harlotas you do, because you give
money and no money is given toyou.
Speaker 2 (20:42):
Thus you are different, or them being
unfaithful if they happen to bemarried to a spouse, they
receive payment from the personthat is coming to them, but
Israel did just the opposite,through this allegorical tale of
(21:05):
them being a harlot to pagangods.
They used their wealth to goout and worship the pagan gods
While they're a harlot.
They're actually paying forthis harlotry to take place,
which is the opposite from theway harlotry usually takes place
(21:25):
.
Speaker 1 (21:25):
All prostitutes are in business.
If they're anything, they're inbusiness.
They want to get paid for whatthey do.
It would be crazy for aprostitute to pay the customers.
That's not the point of thebusiness here.
The Lord is saying that no onecame to you and paid you,
influenced you to go worship theother gods.
(21:46):
You were doing just theopposite.
Instead, israel approached theother gods and gave offerings to
them.
Steve, you used the wordallegory.
Some of this is allegorical,some of it's not.
Some of these idol worships hadjust blatant sex worship.
They were actually doingexactly this.
Literally, they were going inprostituting their women and
(22:09):
even the men too, and paying todo so.
They were paying the offeringsto these idols and doing sex
worship in front of theseshrines.
It was as bad as it could get.
Steve, if we ask the question,what is the lesson for us?
Hopefully, nobody in ourlisteners are doing these exact
(22:30):
same things today, but I thinkif we're honest with ourselves,
we can admit that we can bedrawn away towards idols.
If we're honest with ourselves,our hearts can be drawn away as
well.
I know I am.
I'm reminded of that oldChristian hymn that says Prone
to wander, lord, I feel it Proneto leave the God I love.
(22:52):
Then it goes on to say Lord,please take my heart and seal it
and protect it.
So that should be all of ourprayer, should it not?
Because we know that we'resusceptible to wander.
Sometimes there's been cases,I'll confess here, I've sought
out places to go sin that's asbad as these people.
So it's easy for us to sit heretoday and be hypocritical and
(23:16):
point fingers at these ancientIsraelites, and it's something
else entirely to live arighteous life today.
How should we take this downand apply it to our lives today.
Speaker 2 (23:28):
The lesson that we can learn from that, glenn, I
think is best summed up over in1 John.
Starting in 1 John 2.15, itsays Do not love the world nor
the things in the world.
If anyone loves the world, thelove of the Father is not in him
, for all that is in the worldthe lust of the flesh and the
(23:49):
lust of the eyes and theboastful pride of life is not
from the Father but is from theworld.
It says that in 1 John 2.15 and2.16.
That's the enticement that wehave today is the world and all
the sin.
I think, glenn, can be boileddown to one of those three
(24:10):
things the lust of the flesh,the lust of the eyes and the
boastful pride of life.
Eyes and the boastful pride oflife that's the enticement of
the world that wants to lead usaway from Jesus Christ and we
need to guard against that.
Our flesh is tied to this world.
We need to always renew ourmind, learn about God, stay in
(24:33):
his word, get into a goodBible-believing church that
preaches the word of God and getinto a small group that has
teachers that teach the word ofGod and resist the devil, resist
these lusts and the pride oflife that it mentions over here
in 1 John.
That's the protection that wehave, as Paul puts on it.
(24:56):
Put on the armor of God everyday, put on Christ every day.
That's the way that we protectourselves from getting to the
point of what Israel did thesepeople of the nation of Israel
during Ezekiel's time.
We need to protect ourselvesfrom that and not be enticed by
(25:18):
it and pulled into it.
Resist the devil and he willflee from you.
Speaker 1 (25:22):
In these passages we've been reading, it has God
giving a very severecondemnation and pouring out of
his judgment wrath on theancient Israelites.
If we hold ourselves up to this, mirror us today in the church
age, would God punish?
Of course he's not.
Speaker 2 (25:48):
God is a God who doesn't change.
God is still a jealous God, ashe told Moses on Mount Sinai not
to worship other gods.
Because I'm a jealous God.
He's still a jealous God.
He doesn't want his creation togo off and worship other false
gods.
And it has always been acuriosity to me, glenn, as to
(26:12):
what did these false gods holdthat kept the people going back
and worshiping them, going backover and over again?
You've mentioned it in some ofour earlier sessions.
God had had enough of this, andit took this captivity in
Babylon to break them from idolworship.
When they came out from theexile of Babylon, to come back
(26:34):
into the land, they were nolonger idol worshipers.
That's at least one thing thatthey were broken from.
But look at what it took tobreak them.
So, no, we don't want to get toa point where God has to do
something drastic in our livesin order to break us from a
habitual sin that we have.
(26:56):
If we know that the sin ishabitual, we need to put it
aside.
Earlier in the earlier chapter,he said that these sins that
they were doing was right therein their face.
It was something that was rightin front of them.
It was a stumbling block tothem.
So no, god's the same God todayas he was then, and we're still
human beings.
(27:16):
We have the grace of JesusChrist and belief in him that we
know about today.
They still had belief throughfaith, just like we have beliefs
in faith, but we're both stillhuman beings, just like they
were.
And like I just read, we needto resist this world because
(27:36):
we're tied to it, but God is notgoing to let us off the hook
because we're on this side ofthe cross.
He's still the same God todaythat he was then.
Speaker 1 (27:46):
These great lessons back in these passages that are
so ignored.
These lessons are so valuablefor us and they're so current,
so up-to-date, and we get such ablessing from learning them.
I think it can help us in ourspiritual walk and I trust that
you would believe that as well.
We're going to continue toreason through this.
(28:09):
The book of Ezekiel has many,many wonderful things yet to
tell us as we continue to reasonthrough the Bible.
Speaker 2 (28:16):
Thank you so much for watching and listening, as
always.
May God bless you.
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