Similar to Ezekiel 16:44-58, Ezekiel 23 is a graphic parable describing Israel and Judah's unfaithfulness to God. God is not saying that Israel and Judah literally committed harlotry with these other nations by sleeping with them, but He is using "harlotry" as a metaphor to describe their desire to be like the surrounding nations and their worship of false gods which led to their wickedness. The Bible commonly uses terminology such as "harlotry" or "adultery" as metaphors of idolatry. God is a jealous God who is in a covenant with His people, so if they worship other gods besides Him, it is "harlotry" and "adultery" in His sight.
The word of the Lord came to Ezekiel, saying that there were two women who had committed harlotry in Egypt and in their youth. They were sisters, the daughters of one mother, and their names were Oholah the older, and Oholibah the younger.
Oholah was Samaria, the capital of the northern kingdom, and Oholibah was Jerusalem, the capital of the southern kingdom. They belonged to God because they were in a marriage covenant with Him, and they bore Him sons and daughters.
Oholah means "her own tent" and Oholibah means "my tent is in her". Israel and Judah used to be one kingdom, but they divided, so the northern kingdom had her own tent or tabernacle to worship in Samaria, and the southern kingdom had her own in Jerusalem, where God's presence was at that time. God's presence had left Samaria which also lends to this symbolism of having her own tent - it wasn't God's tent where they worshipped, but her own.
"Oholah played the harlot even though she was Mine, and she lusted for her lovers, the neighboring Assyrians" (Ezekiel 23:5).
She committed harlotry with Assyria and with everyone whom she lusted for. She defiled herself with their idols. She never gave up her idolatry that she brought out from Egypt. In her youth, Egypt had lain with her and poured out their immorality upon her (Ezekiel 23:8).
[9] “Therefore I have delivered her Into the hand of her lovers, into the hand of the Assyrians, for whom she lusted" (Ezekiel 23:9).
Assyria uncovered her nakedness, took away her children and slew her with the sword. She became a proverb among women because they had executed judgment upon her (Ezekiel 23:10).
Ezekiel 23:11-21
Even though the younger sister Oholibah witnessed the harlotry of her older sister Oholah, she became even more corrupt in her lusts and harlotry than her sister was (Ezekiel 23:11).
Oholibah lusted for the Assyrians, and God saw that she was defiled. Yet she increased her harlotry and lusted after images of Chaldeans (Romans 1:23-24). She sent messengers to them to invite them into her bed (Ezekiel 23:12-16).
The Babylonians (Chaldeans) came to her and went into her "bed of love" and defiled her with their immorality. She was defiled by them and alienated herself from them because they had defiled her (Ezekiel 23:17).
Oholibah revealed her harlotry and uncovered her nakedness, therefore God said, "I alienated Myself from her, As I had alienated Myself from her sister" (Ezekiel 23:18).
Yet Oholibah multiplied her harlotry, causing God to remember her harlotry with Egypt in the days of her youth. Because she lusted for lovers who were already married, and who had sexual members like those of donkeys and horses, she desired the lewdness of her youth, when the Egyptians pressed her youthful breasts (Ezekiel 23:19-21).
Ezekiel 23:22-35
Because of Oholibah's harlotry, God was giving her over to her lovers (her enemies) in judgment. He was going to provoke them to come against her, and bring them against her from every side (Ezekiel 23:22).
God said that He would delegate judgment to her lovers, and that they would judge her according to their judgements (Ezekiel 23:24). God was giving Jerusalem's enemies the authority to judge her, using the standards and the means in which they use to judge.
God was going to set His jealousy against Jerusalem, and her lovers were going to deal furiously with her (Ezekiel 23:25). God was jealous because of His people's idolatry, therefore they were going to deal with His fury.
After her lovers dealt with her, God would make her stop her lewdness and harlotry that she brought with her from Egypt, so that she would no longer indulge in the idolatry of her lovers, and so she would forget Egypt (Ezekiel 23:26-27). It seems apparent that the Hebrews participated in the worship of Egypt's gods while they dwelt there, and they continued to worship those gods even after God brought them out. God said that He would cause her to stop her idolatry and forget Egypt.
He would cause her to stop her idolatry by giving her into the hands of the lovers whom she hates; those whom she alienated herself from. (She alienated herself from them after they defiled her - Ezekiel 23:17). God promised that He was going to deliver her into the hands of those she hates (Ezekiel 23:28).
Her lovers were going to do hateful things to her, take away all that she worked for, and leave her naked and bare. They were going to uncover the nakedness of her harlotry and her lewdness (Ezekiel 23:29).
Once again God said that He was going to do these things to Jerusalem because of her unfaithfulness to Him,
[30]"I will do these things to you because you have gone as a harlot after the gentiles, because you have become defiled by their idols. [31]You have walked in the way of your sister; therefore I will put her cup in your hand.’
Judah's fate was going to be the same as that of her sister, Israel's. She was going to drink her cup because they had forgotten God and cast Him behind her back. Therefore God was going to cause them to bear the penalty of her lewdness and harlotry (Ezekiel 23:32-35).
Ezekiel 23:36-39
God asked Ezekiel to judge both Oholah and Oholibah, and then instructed him to declare their abominations to them. He wanted Ezekiel to do this because they had committed adultery and blood was on their hands. They had committed adultery with foreign idols and sacrificed their sons whom they had bore to God, by burning them as an offering to their gods. And worse than that, they had defiled His sanctuary and profaned His sabbaths. They did this by sacrificing their children on the sabbath, and on the same day, they went into the sanctuary to profane it. They had conducted this evil in the midst of God's house, and therefore their children's blood was on their hands (Ezekiel 23:36-39).
I would like to point out two things here:
1. Speaking of blood being on their hands, the Jews in Jesus's day willingly and gladly accepted Jesus's blood being on their hands and the hands of their descendants when they cried out for him to be crucified (Matthew 27:24-25). They were obliged to take the responsibility for killing Jesus. Having blood on their hands is consistent with Israel's history throughout the Bible, and is an abomination to God and a cause of His judgement which came upon them in 722 B.C., 586 B.C., and 70 A.D.
2. It is common today for Christians to teach and believe that in the end times, the Antichrist is going to stand in the rebuilt Jewish temple and proclaim that he is God. It is taught that this is the "abomination of desolation" which the prophet Daniel speaks of. It is believed that there could not be a more despicable abomination than a godless person, or even Satan, to proclaim that he is God while standing in the Jewish temple. This is thought to be the ultimate unspeakable, detestable act that one could commit in God's sight; this is THE thing that is going to cause Jesus to finally return to earth to go to battle against Satan and evil.
To contrast this popular view, I would like to point out the frequency that God uses the term "abomination" throughout the Bible when speaking of the detestable acts and practices of both Israel and Judah. God uses this term often throughout Ezekiel alone, and the "abominations" which they practiced in their society and in the temple are recorded in several places all throughout the Bible.
In the passage above, God said that it was worse in His sight that Israel was defiling the sanctuary of the temple and profaning His sabbaths, than offering their children to false gods alone was. Israel was murdering their children, which God said were bore to Him, and offering them as a sacrifice to the Canaanite god, Molech, on the sabbath. Then afterwards, on the same day, they would go to the temple of God to worship Him. This was an abomination to God.
I suggest that it is more of an abomination in God's sight that Israel defiled the temple and profaned the sabbath by the acts they conducted in it, which God describes as "detestable" and "wicked", than it is if someone stands in a future rebuilt Jewish temple saying that they are God, even if it is Satan or someone inhabited by him. The reason is because, a future rebuilt Jewish temple is meaningless and blasphemous to God because He did away with the temple and the sacrificial system when He sent Jesus. There is not a need to offer animal sacrifices to Him any longer, and to do so is a rejection of Jesus, and God's atonement for man's sin. For Satan to stand and proclaim that he is God in a rebuilt Jewish temple that is no longer relevant, and which symbolizes a religious system that already denies Jesus would not be an abomination to God, however God's people reinstituting the offering of animal sacrifices in a Jewish temple would be.
Ezekiel 23:40-49
In addition to the abominations described in Ezekiel 23:36-39, God said that both sisters, Oholah and Oholibah, had invited men from afar to come to her, and they came. She washed and adorned herself for them. She sat on a stately couch with a table on which she set God's incense and oil (Ezekiel 23:40-41).
A multitude of men were with her, including Sabeans from the wilderness, as well as common men. They adorned them with bracelets on their wrists, and put beautiful crowns on their heads (Ezekiel 23:42).
God, describing Israel as "her who had grown old in adulteries", asked, "Will they commit harlotry with her now, and she with them?" (Ezekiel 23:43).
The answer is given in the following verse, "Yet they went in to her, as men go in to a woman who plays the harlot; thus they went in to Oholah and Oholibah, the lewd women" (Ezekiel 23:44).
The sisters would be judged by righteous men as adulteresses, and as women who shed blood, because they were adulteresses and blood was on their hands (Ezekiel 23:45).
Under the Mosaic law, the penalty for both adultery and murder was death. Therefore, Oholah and Oholibah were deserving of death under God's just law. God does not want anyone to die, but if they are unfaithful to Him, and refuse to repent as Oholah and Oholibah did, they are deserving of death (2 Peter 3:9; Luke 13:3).
God ordered an assembly of nations to be brought against the sisters, and that they be given up to trouble and plunder. The assembly would stone them, and slay them and their children, and burn their houses with fire. By doing such, God would cease all lewdness from the land, and all women would be taught not to practice their lewdness. The assembly would repay them for their lewdness, and the two sisters would pay for their idolatrous sins. Then the sisters shall know that God is the Lord God (Ezekiel 23:46-49).
These events, orchestrated by God, were coming quickly. The next chapter, Chapter 24, begins Babylon's siege of Jerusalem, which Ezekiel had been warning them of.
No comments:
Post a Comment