:~: Ezekiel 16 :~:

It is absolutely mind-blowing to read the Old Testament, to peruse through all of the books and see how sinful people were even then... even in the beginning. We look at the world around us, and sin is obvious almost everywhere we turn. It was this way then, too, and God's chose 'people' were the worst! Today as I was reading Ezekiel, I came across chapter 16. Now, this chapter *really* opens your eyes to how sinful they were. Two allegories are used in this chapter to represent their sin towards God. God declares at the beginning of this chapter how abhorred Jerusalem was when He found them. No one pitied them. No one had any compassion on them. But God passed by them and declared, "'Live!' I said to you in your blood, 'Live!'" He showed them love. God compares them then to a young woman. God blessed her with bracelets, fine linen and silk, and earrings. He anointed her with oil, and He gave her food for she hungered greatly. But this wasn't enough for this young woman. She only loved God while she needed Him, as many of us do today and as Jerusalem did long ago. She trusted in her beauty and played the whore. She also made herself idols with the silver and gold the Lord gave to her. "Yet you were not like a prostitute, because you scorned payment. Adulterous wife, who receives strangers instead of her husband! Men give gifts to all prostitutes, but you gave your gifts to all your lovers, bribing them to come to you from every side with your whorings. So you were different from other women in your whorings. No one solicited you to play the whore, and you gave the payment, while no payment was give to you; therefore you were different" (Ezekiel 31b-34). Because of this great sin, God declared that she would be punished lest she turn away from her sin, which she (Jerusalem) would not. We know this from the *many* prophets who went to speak the Word of the Lord, but they still would not repent. The next allegory is this.. (better to type than me explain)... "Behold, everyone who uses proverbs will use this proverb about you; 'Like mother, like daughter.' You are the daughter of your mother, who loathed her husband and her children; and you are the sister of your sisters, who loathed their husbands and their children. Your mother was a Hittite and your father an Amorite. And your elder sister is Samaria, who lived with her daughters to the north of you; and your younger sister, who lived to the south of you, is Sodom with her daughters. Not only did you walk in their ways and do according to their abominations; within a very little time you were more corrupt than they in all your ways." Wow! Isn't that mind-blowing? Jerusalem was *more* sinful than all the pagan nations surrounding it. It was more sinful because they knew God. God made himself known to them, but all they did was turn their faces. Their ears would not hear their God because they rejected Him! They knew that the Almighty God was there, but they still made their own hand-made and man-made idols. That just astounds me. That just proves that even if we do see God or hear the Lord or prophets come to speak what the Lord has spoken to them, we will still not believe because we are a stubborn people. We are a rebellious house. The nations around them didn't know God, so they had a smaller sin than Jerusalem. "As I live, declares the Lord God, your sister Sodom and her daughters have not done as you and your daughters have done. Behold, this was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and needy. They were haughty and did an abomination before me. So I removed them, when I saw it. 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. Bear your disgrace, you also, for you have intervened on behalf of your sisters. Because of your sins in which you acted more abominably than they, they are more in the right than you. So be ashamed, you also, and bear your disgrace, for you have made your sisters appear righteous. I will restore their fortunes, both the fortunes of Sodom and her daughters, and the fortunes of Samaria and her daughters, and I will restore your own fortunes in their midst, that you may bear your disgrace and be ashamed of all that you have done, becoming a consolation to them. As for your sisters, Sodom and her daughters shall return to their former state, ad Samaria and her daughters shall return to their former state, and you and your daughters shall return to your former state. Was not your sister Sodom a byword in your mouth in the day of your pride, before your wickedness was uncovered? Now you have become an object of reproach for the daughters of Syria and all those around her, and for the daughters of the Philistines, those all around who despise you. You bear the penalty of your lewdness and your abominations, declares the LORD." We know that Samaria and Sodom were both very rebellious, sinful, and unbelieving nations. But Jerusalem was *more* sinful than they? Yes. Ezekiel, in the first allegory, equates idolatry with adultery. We see by these verses that if God can restore Jerusalem, a nation that has fallen so far, He can restore anyone. Ezekiel doesn't just end this chapter here. God does become angry with our sin, but He also loves  us, especially when we come to Him and repent of all our iniquities. "For thus says the Lord God: I will deal with you as you have done, you who have despised the oath in breaking the covenant, yet I will remember my covenant with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish for  you an everlasting covenant. Then you will remember your ways and be ashamed when you take your sisters, both your elder and your younger, and I give them to you as daughters, but not on account of the covenant with you. I will establish my covenant with you, and you shall know that I am the Lord, that 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" (Ezekiel 44-63). "When I atone for you for all that you have done." That verse right there is proof that we cannot by our own reason or strength or any good works become righteous. We are not saved by anything that we do. We cannot do *anything* except believe in Jesus Christ. It is through Him, not us! No amount of good deeds can atone our sins. "For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast" (Ephesians 2:8-9). When we go back and read the Old Testament, in general, we learn that these books were not just recorded for the enjoyment of the history aspect and all, but it was recorded that we might see the sins they committed and learn from them. They were learned them from experience, but we learn now through their example. "Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did" (1 Corinthians 10:6). Yet, you look around at the world and see that we have not learned anything since then. Everyone is still committing the same sin today. Pray for the world. While we are still on this earth, serve others and tell people of the salvation we receive through Christ.