Ezekiel 16 is pretty much a comprehensive appraisal of Israel and the reason for the coming judgment upon them. It is meant as a warning, as are all the prophets, but it is a dire warning indeed. It tells the story of Israel from God’s perspective, of how they were born of an Ammorite and a Hittite (questionable origins!) and were born into hatred, until God took care of them and clothed them – until eventually:
‘"Your fame went out among the nations because of your beauty, for it was perfect through My splendor which I had bestowed on you," says the Lord GOD. "But you trusted in your own beauty, played the harlot because of your fame, and poured out your harlotry on everyone passing by who would have it.’ (Ezekiel 16:14-15)
That first verse is such a beautiful one. They had become beautiful because of the splendour of the LORD shining through them. But instead of trusting in that eternal beauty, they trusted in their own pitiful beauty and forsook the relationship they had with the awesome God, for petty gods of the nations all around them.
How petty and demeaning we can be sometimes! We have the eternal beauty and goodness of God in our hearts and yet we turn away in search for false satisfaction in anything but God, prostituting ourselves to every thing that passes us by. And yet, just like Israel, God will not give us up for all that, for He has made a covenant with us, a new covenant, signed in His blood, and it cannot be broken.
‘Nevertheless I will remember My covenant with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish an everlasting covenant with you.’ (Ezekiel 16:60)
Let us be grateful of the faithfulness of God, and keep ourselves from false idols of the heart.
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