Ezekiel 23

When we talk about Ezekiel’s “graphic” sermons, this one is near the top.  What a picture God has painted to make clear that Judah and Jerusalem deserve God’s fury.  Not only have they been obstinate by ignoring the warnings of Scripture (Ch. 22); they have ignored what happened to the northern kingdom of Samaria when they followed their own way into idolatry.  The picture God uses is of two prostitute sisters.

·        23:1-4: Who are these sisters? Oholah, meaning her own tabernacle, is Samaria who from the start established her own idolatrous religion around the gold calves of Dan and Bethel.  Oholibah, meaning my tabernacle is in her, is Jerusalem where God had His dwelling at the Temple of Solomon.

·        23:5-21: What had these sisters done?  Oholah had lusted after the Assyrians, seeking military help from them and seeking to link their economies.  She did this instead of trusting God.  Thus she was given into the hand of the Assyrians some one hundred years before.  Oholibah became even more corrupt.  Ignoring the judgment of Oholah she lusted also for the Assyrians and then the Babylonians, hanging on to an unfaithfulness that extended back to the days in Egypt (v3,8,19-21,27). 

·        23:22-35: What would happen to Oholibah?  Like Oholah, her lovers would become her tormentors.  God would use Babylon, as He was in the process of doing, to judge adulterous Jerusalem.  The bottom line sin is profoundly described in v35: “Because you have forgotten Me and cast Me behind your back.”  His people had placed Him in that place behind the back that is unreachable.  Thus they would pay the penalty!

·        23:36-49: What were the abominations of Oholah and Oholibah?  God calls on Ezekiel to specifically declare the abominations that characterized their relationship with God.  They profaned the place they were to meet with God by both sacrificing their children in the idolatrous fires and then coming to the Sanctuary to worship on the same day (v36-39).  Then they adorned themselves and invited the nations to be their lovers (v40-44).  Thus the judgment would be appropriate under the law for adulteresses (v45-49).  The one positive is that the lewdness would cease from the land.

Friend, the picture is graphic because all other strong warnings have been ignored.  God seeks to get their attention.  What can we say of ourselves?  In what ways do we profane the holy?  Are we professing believers who are trusting in untempered mortar to build a wall of protection for our lives?  Do we lust after things, pleasure or power in an attempt to find satisfaction in our souls (1 John 2:15-17)?  Have we forgotten God and cast Him behind our backs?  Are we ignoring His attempts to get our attention?