Ezekiel 16, 1-14. Again the word of the Lord came
unto me, saying, Son of man, cause Jerusalem to know her abomination,
and say, Thus saith the Lord God unto Jerusalem, Thy birth,
thy nativity is of the land of Canaan. thy father an Amorite,
thy mother a Hittite. And as for thy nativity, in the
day that you were born, your navel was not cut, neither was
thy washed in water to supple, thou was not salted at all, nor
swaddled at all, None, I pitied thee to do any of these things
unto thee, to have compassion upon thee, but thou wast cast
out in the open field to the loathing of thy person in the
day that thou wast born. And when I passed by thee, I
saw thee polluted in thine own blood, and I said unto thee,
when thou wast in thy blood, Live, yea, I said unto thee,
when thou wast in thy blood, live. I have caused thee to multiply
as the bud of the field. Thou hast increased, and waxen
great. Thou art come to excellent ornaments. Thy breast are fashioned, thine
hair is grown, whereas thou wast naked and bare. When I pass by
thee, looked upon thee, behold, thy time was the time of love. And I spread my skirt over thee,
and covered thy nakedness. Yea, I swear unto thee, and entered
into a covenant with thee, saith the Lord God, and thou became
as mine. Then washed I thee with water.
Yea, I thoroughly washed away thy blood from thee, and I anointed
thee with oil. I clothed thee also with broader
work, shod thee with badger skin. I girded thee about with fine
linen, and I covered thee with silk. I decked thee also with
ornaments. I put bracelets upon thine hand,
a chain on thine neck, and I put a jewel in thy forehead, earrings
in thine ears, and a beautiful crown upon thine head. Thus was thou decked with gold
and silver, and thy raiment was of fine linen and silk and broadered
work. Thou didst eat fine flour and
honey and oil. Thou wast exceedingly beautiful,
and thou didst prosper into a kingdom. And thy renown went forth among
the heathen for thy beauty, for it was perfect through my calmliness
which I put upon thee, saith the Lord." Now isn't that an
imaginative picture? Here's a picture that we can
see easily in our mind. First let me say that there are
several ways In the Scripture, both of the Old and of the New
Testament, that express the relationship between God and His people, they
give us a picture of that intimate union and communion that exists
between God and His people. And in each related picture,
it allows us a clear picture of each one, God and his people. I'll only mention some in passing. There is that relationship of
shepherd and of sheep, this one Old and New Testament. We, the
chief of his pasture, he the great shepherd. Secondly, the
New Testament has him as the head and we as the member. Christ is the head of the church
and we are the members. set in our place. Thirdly, there
is that one of foundation and building, that our Lord is that
unshakable foundation of rock, and that the people of God are
built upon that foundation and therefore have union with Him.
Again, there is the potter and the clay in the Scripture. He
is the great, wise potter. We are the clay. He mows us and
He makes us into what He would. Then there's the vine and the
branches in John chapter 15 of His gospel, where life is communicated
out from the vine into the branches, even as we receive our life from
Him. And then, of course, there is
that of husband and wife. And we see this also, both in
the Old Testament and in the New Testament, that Israel was
called the spouse, or the wife, of Jehovah, and the church is
the bride of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so it is that God and Christ
are portrayed in the Scripture as the shepherd, the head, the
foundation, the potter, the root, and the husband. And the people
of God are portrayed under the answering symbol of sheep, of
members, of living stones, and so on. Now, in this passage from
Ezekiel chapter 16, as John Gill observed, it represents the Jewish
nation under the image or the likeness of a little female infant
who began life as an unwanted and a deserted child. A cursed
birth she had, no one wanted her, and she was thrown out into
the open field. But God is portrayed as the good
man who came by, looked upon her in mercy, preserved her life
that she die not until she came to maidenhood, and then, beloved,
took her even as his wife. He entered eternal covenant with
his people, that is, for their wifehood. Now, before we open
up these very amazing things here, let us see how chapter
16 begins. Again, the word of the Lord came
unto me. Or, as we might say, another
time, the word of the Lord came unto me. On another occasion,
the word of the Lord came unto me." Looking back to chapter
15, we see the prophet had spoken of Jerusalem, and there he used
the simile of a useless barren, fruitless fig tree which was
committed to be burning, fit for nothing but to be burned.
But in chapter 16, the image is changed. It is that of an
outcast little female infant who eventually, by God's mercy,
becomes the very wife or spouse or covenant people of Jehovah. Now, we basically see her in
this chapter under four figures. We certainly do not have time
to look at them all. First of all, she is there as
a deserted infant. She is not swaddled. She's not
washed. She's not clothed. She's not
taken care of, just like at birth, just thrown out. Secondly, we
see her as, or under the metaphor of an adolescent, that God preserves
her, keeps her alive, and she grows to adolescence. Thirdly,
we see her as the wife or the covenant people of Jehovah. And fourthly, we see her as the
horribly, horribly unfaithful spouse or wife or people of Jehovah. Now, the purpose of this prophecy
is very clearly stated here in verse 2. Son of man, cause Jerusalem
to know her abomination. It is the task of the prophet
of God to cause them to see, to know, to hear, to recognize
their abomination. Again, as Nathan came to David,
pointed them out and said, Thou art the man. Now, the prophet
of God here wants to make a catalog of their sin. He wants to lay
bare their sins before their eye, show them wherein they had
transgressed against their covenant God, and he wants to reckon up
their abomination. and to leave nothing hidden out
of their sight, but to bring it all out into the open. Now, maybe one would think, surely,
surely they knew how sinful they were, surely they knew that they
were not doing that which they were supposed to do, and surely
they knew that they were unfaithful unto God. But it is possible. to be so blinded to one's very
own sin that they do not see the wickedness of their very
own sin. Consider, for example, the book
of Malachi, the last one in the Old Testament, where to every
charge that the prophet lays against them, They say, where
in have we done so and so? Consider Isaiah 58 and verse
1. Cry aloud, spare not, lift up
thy voice like a trunk. show my people their transgression,
and the house of Jacob their sin. Thus, Ezekiel is given the
commission to lay bare or open the sins of the people before
them." Now, notice, to set their sins in their proper order or
proper light, to make them appear in their true colors, and as
they really were in the sight of God, the prophet rehearses
two things as a prelude, as a reminder of their sin. Number one, he
reminds them of their origin. He reminds them of their beginning. He reminds them of what they
were by nature. even as Paul reminded the Ephesians,
ye were by nature Gentiles in the flesh. Now, the second thing
that the prophet does is he reminds them of the mercy, of the goodness,
of the grace, and the wonderful work of God that was bestowed
upon them. We notice their origin in verse
3 through verse 6. Now, were these a noble people?
Did they descend from a noble race? Were they a very excellent-breeded
people and a people of grandeur, a grand race that all might admire,
God might covet? Were they by nature, by birth,
a righteous and a good people? Nay, because in verse 3 through
5, He likens them to one of ill breeding and birth. He speaks
of their birth and their nativity. They were descended from a cursed
people in a cursed land. Nativity here refers to their
lineage, or family, or offspring. or the native country of their
birth, their issue or their kindred. Now, do we wonder why the prophet
does not make the connection between them and Abraham, as
they often would do, and the covenant with him? For the Jews
would plead this. We be Abraham's children. We
are in the covenant with Abraham. Sarah and Abraham seem to have
been Chaldeans and not Hittites or Amorites, though they were
idolaters before God called them and made covenant with Abraham. Calvin says that these things
are said as metaphors, that by their sin They were unworthy
in every way of being called the children of Abraham, much
less the children of God. We find John the Baptist doing
the very same thing to the Jews in Matthew, the third chapter.
But then let us remember, the prophet speaks not so much to
individuals, each one individually, but he speaks to the greater
or the gathered body of the nation. He speaks to the people as a
whole in this discourse. And in verse 4 and 5, there is
the clearest picture painted that one might paint. using the
metaphor or a figure of speech consisting in a most pitiful
portrayal of their origin and of their past. Here's the picture,
a newborn little Baby girl, and at birth nothing is done to help
her or to make her healthy. She's cast out into the open
field. Nothing that is usually done
for the newborn is done unto her. For example, the navel cord
was not cut and tied, just left as it was. She was not washed
to cleanse away the blood of her birth. She was not shaped
and formed to give her calmliness. She was not salted or swaddled
to have any wounds that she might have to be healed over. And in
verse 5, to add insult to injury, none eye pitied thee or showed
any compassion unto them. They were loath. They lay out
in the open field, naked and bloody. and any that passed by
pitied them not at all." Now, you know, this is something that
we can get our mind's eye on because almost every week or
every month we have a case in Houston that we see on the news,
a newborn baby. Dumped somewhere, put on a doorstep,
left somewhere for somebody else to find, put in a cardboard box
and sit somewhere where someone would find them. Sometimes, though,
in a trash bin and in a dumpster where the ants and the mosquitos
began to attack that little old infant. It means that they were
not wanted. by the one that gave them birth,
and when they survived, many times many rushed to adopt such
a one. Now the point is, if not found,
if not cared for, if not fed, if not medicated, they would
certainly die. And much more, those who saw
their plight had no pity. None had compassion upon them. None would help them. They were
like the priest and the Levite who saw the wounded man and walked
by on the other side of the street rather than help him. They were
a loathsome sight, this little infant. A metaphor of an infant
there. None pitied them." Can we, I
think, agree this refers to the infancy of Israel, perhaps down
in Egypt. A little baby, as it were, portrays
in metaphor their beginning when Israel was but a small people,
when they were but one house. In verse 6, God expresses how
He had been their preserver. He likens himself in that verse
to one passing by like a good Samaritan. There she lay by the
wayside, trodden underfoot, passed by, still with blood unwashed,
the filth of the field cleansing unto her, no clothes upon her
to protect her, and worst of all, exposed to death, and yet
helpless and weak. When it seemed that death would
be absolutely imminent, God passed by, and He looked upon them with
mercy. Not beautiful did He see her,
not desirable, but polluted in her blood. God, even when they
lay polluted in their blood, said unto her, Leo, this expresses
the fact that they owed their very existence to God. He preserved
them. He's the one that saved them
from extinction. It would seem a stretch, I guess,
to make the word live, to signify regeneration here in verse 6. Rather, it was the Lord preserving
them and saving them from extinction. This was an act of free and sovereign
mercy toward them as a people. Not any worth in them, none at
all. Moses reminds the people in Deuteronomy
7, I think it is verse 6 through verse 8, what they were. You
were not the most. You were not the most powerful.
The Lord did not set His love upon you because you were, but
because He would love you. And in verse 7, continuing, not
only did God preserve them from death when they were there at
death's door, but see how in verse 7 of our text, He speaks
in a twofold way of their increase. First, by the actual thing and
then in view of the metaphor as a little female infant. Notice, I have caused you to
multiply as the bud, like the grass of the field in growing
season, so that you have prospered, you have become many, you have
become great in number. You know, when Jacob's family
was brought down into the land of Egypt, they were but seventy
in number. When Joseph sent for his father
and the house, seventy souls were all that came down into
Egypt. That's in Exodus 1 and verse
5. And when they had been in Egypt
a while, Exodus 1 and 7, the children of Israel were fruitful
and increased abundantly and multiplied and waxed exceedingly
mighty, and the land was filled with them. In Exodus 1 and 12,
the more they were afflicted, the more they multiplied, the
more that they grew, in spite of the fact they were afflicted
They were forced to perform rigorous tasks. They were under bondage
and under slavery. The midwives of Egypt were ordered
to kill all little boy babies that were born under them, Exodus
1, 15 through 22. But in Ezekiel 16, verse 7, and
the last part, the prophet reverts back to the metaphor in describing
them. Thy breasts are fashioned, your
hair is grown." This is a modest euphemism, of course, for the
arrival of purity, when a young maiden is transformed into a
beautiful young woman. most notably by taking on the
characteristics of a woman. And it stands opposed to, whereas
you were naked and bare. No more. I find agreement with
those expositors who apply this to her prepubescence art as a
figurative expression of one not yet ready. for marriage. Then, verse 8, the Lord passes
by again, and using the figure of her ready now for marriage,
He again looks upon her or looks upon them as a people. No longer is she a pitiful little
infant laying helpless out in the field, and no longer is she
an under-aged maid. But according to the metaphor
used by the prophet, that time was the time of love. She had
reached that time. She had become ready for marriage,
to keep to the metaphor. when a young woman is become
ready for marriage and conjugal love. But God does not portray
Himself here as a lustful man with the feelings of a young
man. But he is likened here to a redeemer. He is a spiritual
husband who at the time of love, I spread my skirt over you. This immediately reminds us,
I imagine, of Ruth requesting such from Boaz on the threshing
floor in the book of Ruth chapter 3 and verse 9. Spread thy skirt
over me," Ruth besought Boaz, whether as a sign of betrothal
or as a sign of covering or of protection or a combination of
all three. Boaz spread his skirt over Ruth. In Ezekiel 16 and 8, I spread
my skirt, some prefer wings, over you and I covered your nakedness. Now, our focus on the last part
of verse 8, and let's look at it again. I covered thee, yea,
I swear unto thee, I entered into covenant with thee, and
thou becamest mine. Yea, I swear unto you. I made a sworn oath unto you,
that you are my people. I bound us together by an oath
of swearing, and I entered into covenant with you." God took
them as his covenant people, which he expresses here under
the euphemism of marriage, which is a very good picture. I have
no doubt that they are right who see this as being what transpired
yonder at Mount Sinai, for it was at Mount Sinai answering
the figure of the marriage rite here in Ezekiel's prophecy. Let us not forget that in addition
to portraying his relationship to the people as that of a marriage,
of a husband and a spouse, he also holds it forth under the
figure of adoption. In Exodus 4 and verse 22, Israel
is my son. Paul writes in Romans 9 and verse
4, to whom pertains the adoption, that is, to Israel. But in Ezekiel
16, the imagery of marriage is used to describe the covenant
between God and His people. He speaks of a husband and of
one who would be a bride or a wife. And look what he said, you became
mine. Oh, how many young husbands have
I heard when the marriage ceremony was over say, she's mine now. And God said to them, you became
mine. You are my peculiar. You are
my special people. Exodus 19, 5, a particular treasure
unto me above all people on the face of the earth. Everyone has
memories of their wedding day. And if you read Deuteronomy 4,
7 through 13, from Moses' exhortation to the people, I won't turn there
now, but how beautiful is the metaphor there. Just think of
all the peoples that God might have chosen. Just think of all
the nations that were mightier than the house of Jacob. They
were more in number. They were more refined. They
were more cultured. And yet He pitched upon the house
of Israel for the family of Jacob. He entered into covenant with
them. He owned them as His covenant people. He delivered them out
of their bondage. Furthermore, in verse 9 through
14 of our text, God reminds them how He graciously endowed them. how fully and wonderfully He
blessed them, He provided for them, He met their needs, He
gave them everything to make them comfortable, beautiful and
happy. He graciously endowed them, He
richly and plentifully endowed her as tokens of expression. of his love and tokens that she
is the people or bride of Jehovah. Verse 9, he cleansed her, he
washed away the blood of her filth, he anointed her with oil
as a bride adorned for her husband. Then in verse 10, All manner
of finery for her to dress in was provided by her. There was
brodered work, there was fine needlework, there was footwear,
there was elegant badger skins for this young one to wear, fine
linen as a girdle, garments of silk, expensive and exquisite. is the way the Father dressed
her up. Verse 11 goes on to mention ornaments,
bracelets for the wrists, chain or necklace for the neck to wear
that she might have. Verse 12, a jewel for her forehead. earrings for her ears, a beautiful
crown to put upon her head. Now, verse 13 and 14 is sort
of a summation of the many gifts and the many blessings that God
had bestowed upon her as His wife or as His covenant people. Gold and silver ornaments, the
finest in clothing, an exquisite diet, the best of all there was
to eat, to drink and to wear. The result, in verse 13, the
last part, you were exceedingly beautiful. You prospered into
a kingdom. Verse 14, the fame of her beauty
was known among the heathen. Far and wide it was known these
were the people of God. This is the wife of Jehovah. God put his glory in and with
his covenant people by the bestowing of many gifts, the holy ordinances,
and just statute. She was known as the wife of
Jehovah, or if you please, as the people in covenant with God,
the covenant people. And this was a reminder unto
them None of their renown, none of their beauty, none of their
decorations or their excellencies or their comeliness, none of
it was any of their doing. Their graces were not by their
own strivings. These things did not come by
their own efforts. They had not made themselves
to differ from the other. The whole of their covenant status
was owing to the good, sovereign pleasure of the holy God of heaven. They had not chosen God, He had
chosen them. They had not come to God, He
had come to them in their misery. He had passed by their bed of
death and delivered them from what would have been a horrible
end. Just think, consider, let it
be in our mind as we see it on the news here. Consider a deserted,
unwanted infant, and from that to the wife of Jehovah. Suppose one of these little old
girl babies found in the garbage can or the dumpster should grow
up to become the wife of the richest man in the world from
the dumpster to the palace. So it was with this people from
a deserted, despised, helpless, dirty infant in a field to becoming
the covenant people of God. Now the infant pictures Number
one, our natural state. Here is a picture of all by nature. We're all unclean at our birth. Secondly, our subjection unto
death. We would all perish except for
the goodness and the grace of God. Thirdly, our weaknesses
or our helplessness, except God help us. Who else is there to
help us? This is not the end of the prophetical
discourse. It is only the prelude in order
that he might expose their horrible unfaithfulness. And that's done
in verse 15 through verse 52. And if you read that over and
over, Are they guilty? Sin after sin have they committed. The metaphor has played out in
our society both common and familiar. A woman of meager means marries
a wealthy man, is providentially and bountifully dressed in finery,
drives a new car, lives in a fine home, shops at chariots, and
to become then a trampy vixen. It has occurred more than once. This section is one of the most
chastising in all of the scripture, comparing idolatry to harlotry. For idolatry is spiritual whoredom."
Look at verse 15, they played the harlot. Verse 16, played
the harlot. Verse 26, committed fornication. Verse 28, played the whore. Verse 32, committed adultery. Verse 35, oh harlot. It is scathing, as says Jeremiah
3 and 1, thou hast played the harlot with many lovers, Ezekiel
16 and 15 said, on every one that passed by. Ezekiel 16 and
25 said, Thou hast opened Thy feet to every one that pass by. The picture is that of an immoral,
promiscuous harlot, which is how they repaid God's kindness
unto them. Still, in Ezekiel 16, 60 through
63, God will remain true unto His covenant. He will not cast
them off. He is an unchanging God, Malachi
chapter 3 and verse 6. So we have a great picture here,
first of depravity, then of God's wonderful and sovereign mercy. Now let's make these applications
in closing. This nation is in some way a
type and a reflection of individuals. who were born in sin and shapen
in iniquity, sure to be swallowed up in death, except the sovereign
God pass by and regenerate them and impart spiritual life unto
them, wash us from our sin in the own precious blood of the
Lamb, clothe us in the righteousness of Christ, and bestow upon us
a bountiful diary of His grace, many goodnesses, many gifts and
many presents, how this magnifies our unfaithfulness. Often God
shows us the horror of our sin. by comparing the bounty of His
grace. Oftentimes, He brings us to conviction
of our sin by causing us to remember how gracious and how good has
He been, how Christ loved us and died for us. How have we
repaid the lover of our soul? How have we repaid? An old-time
writer penned these words, quote, My soul has been the unfaithful
spouse of God, unquote. And I think all could probably
say that at one time or another. It is my soul that has been the
unfaithful spouse of Jehovah. What begins in grace ends in
grace. And that's because God is ever
faithful. He keeps covenant. He recovers
His people. He keeps up the work in them.
He draws them back. He puts fresh grace into their
soul. He is an ever faithful God to
His covenant, to His Word, and to His purpose. And that is a
blessing unto us to think upon it.