The first fourteen verses of Ezekiel chapter 16 tell an extremely lovely story! It is discussed in our previous lesson, in some detail. But … it’s the next nineteen verses that hold our attention now. Not a lovely story!

The Jewish Nation (technically Judah but called Israel occasionally as well), after being the recipient of all God’s lavish love and provision … TURNED against her Lord!

Forsook His tender care, rejected His Love … and rushed headlong into sin, idolatrous sin, adulterous sin!

Here are some facts …

The Beauty God gave her … she ungratefully claimed as her “own!” And used it to “lure” foreign lovers into her life! This refers to both false gods and goddesses … and the religious prostitution such debauchery included. “But thou didst trust in thine own beauty, and playedst the harlot because of thy renown, and pouredst out thy fornications on every one that passed by; his it was.” God talking in Ezekiel 16:15, where “renown” is the good reputation God had bestowed upon His people. Look at that clause: “His it was!”

Furthermore, Judah took the precious clothes God had showered upon her and used them in idol worship! “And of thy garments thou didst take, and deckedst thy high places with divers colours, and playedst the harlot thereupon.” Verse 16, sin gone rampant!

Everything God had shared with Judah … she prostituted to idol worship! Look at the list, of God’s composing: “Thou hast also taken thy fair jewels of my gold and of my silver, which I had given thee, and madest to thyself images of men, and didst commit whoredom with them, and tookest thy broidered garments, and coveredst them: and thou hast set mine oil and mine incense before them. My meat also which I gave thee, fine flour, and oil, and honey, wherewith I fed thee, thou hast even set it before them for a sweet savour: and thus it was, saith the Lord GOD.” Verses 17-19, God keeping “score.” Everything from jewelry to fancy coats to olive oil and incense! Even her food, fine flour and such! All offered in idol worship!

Maybe verses 20 and 21 are even worse. Child sacrifice! “Moreover thou hast taken thy sons and thy daughters, whom thou hast borne unto me, and these hast thou sacrificed unto them to be devoured. Is this of thy whoredoms a small matter, that thou hast slain my children, and delivered them to cause them to pass through the fire for them?” Babies, burnt alive to a heathen fiend! And Israel did this, Why? To be just like the other nations around her! Peer pressure? Note God Almighty just called them (the slain little ones) “My children.”

How soon Judah “forgot” God and His Kindness! (God knows when we do not remember Him!) “And in all thine abominations and thy whoredoms thou HAST NOT REMEMBERED the days of thy youth, when thou wast naked and bare, and wast polluted in thy blood.” Verse 22, go back and read yesterday’s lesson if you are not familiar with the story. God saved Judah’s life, rescued her!

Scripture continues, Ezekiel right now merely being the recorder: “And it came to pass after all thy wickedness, (woe, woe unto thee! saith the Lord GOD;) that thou hast also built unto thee an eminent (high, lifted up) place, and hast made thee an high place in EVERY STREET. Thou hast built thy high place at EVERY HEAD OF THE WAY.” Idol worship in every street, verses 23-25. Pervasive heathenism!

A “word picture” now, perhaps graphic, but true. “Thou (Judah) hast opened thy feet to every one that passed by, and multiplied thy whoredoms.” God knows all our doings!

Then God “lists” her lovers, the nations from whom Judah has imported her numerous gods and goddesses and vile practices. In verse 26 the “Egyptians.” In verse 27, the “Philistines.” God suggests that the Judahites were so filthy that “the Philistines are ashamed of thy lewd way.”

Wow!

Then the “Assyrians,” verse 28. “Thou hast played the whore also with the Assyrians, because thou wast unsatiable; yea, thou hast played the harlot with them, and yet couldest not be satisfied.” She could not stop from sinning! Reminds me of 2nd Peter 2:14, “Having eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease from sin; beguiling unstable souls.”

In verse 29, Israel infamously sinning “from Canaan to Chaldea!” Hundreds of miles!

In verse 30 God calls her “bossy, controlling, assertive!” Read it: “How weak is thine heart (includes the mind and will), saith the Lord GOD, seeing thou doest all these things, the work of an imperious (domineering) whorish woman.”

Wow!

Then in verses 31-34 God notices that Judah (who has so flagrantly played the harlot) does not even expect money for her fornications! (Like a “normal” harlot would do!) No … Israel pays her lovers to be wicked with her! Verse 33 is representative: “They give gifts to all whores: but THOU givest thy gifts to all thy lovers, and HIREST them, that they may come unto thee on every side for thy whoredom.” Plain, but it’s God’s Vocabulary.

So sad … such dirty acts from one whom God so loved and protected through her early years of (national) life. Jehovah God’s “wife” behaving in such a way! See if you can hear God’s “broken heart” in this verse, 32. “But (Judah conducts herself) as a WIFE that committeth adultery, which taketh strangers instead of her husband!”

But do not worry.

God will judge her for her sins. Remedially, at that!

That, in fact, is tomorrow’s lesson.

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

I have through the years preached the first 14 verses of Ezekiel chapter 16, several times I recall. But today’s swath of that chapter, verses 15-34, never! So, I have learned this morning! (Well, I pre-studied it late last night after I had preached.) I speak merely for myself … this Ezekiel study is quite profitable in at least two ways. I am being challenged to live more godly … and I am simultaneously learning the Scriptures!

Let me hear from ya’ll occasionally, too!

 

 

Yes, in Ezekiel the shortest chapter (15) is juxtaposed to its longest chapter (16), an unusual situation. From an empty, fruitless vine … to a poor sinful woman! Yet both Units describe the horrors of sin!

And chapter 16 also tells a story, on top of the heavy theological freight it carries! Yes, it truly has a “plot.” A “trajectory,” revealing all the “ups” and “downs” in the life of the Nation of Judah, of Israel.

Today we can only discuss the first part of the chapter, essentially the first 14 verses. (Then things take a turn for the “worse!” To be studied tomorrow, Lord willing.)

A “word picture” reigns again! (I read one published preacher/teacher late last night who called Ezekiel the Prophet the “master of metaphor!”)

Verses 1 and 2 answer the basic questions; “Who, Where, Why,” etc.

“Again the word of the LORD came unto me, Ezekiel, saying, Son of man, cause Jerusalem to know her abominations.” Wow, the word “abominations” (in the plural) occurs in our chapter 8 times! And in the singular (“abomination”) one more time! It means a “thing disgusting” to God! That makes the Lord “sick!” That God literally “hates!”

Now, we already know the “tone” of the chapter.

Yet it starts “sweetly,” and could have stayed that way … had Jerusalem only obeyed God.

Next, the Jews’ “background,” as a nation mind you. “And say, Thus saith the Lord GOD unto Jerusalem; Thy birth and thy nativity is of the land of Canaan; thy father was an Amorite, and thy mother an Hittite.” Verse 3, referring to the lifestyle of Abraham’s clan prior to his meeting God, his salvation. He was a rank “heathen!” Think: “Ur” of the Chaldees.

Let me insert Joshua 24:2 here. “And Joshua said unto all the people, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood in old time, even Terah, the father of Abraham, and the father of Nachor: and they served other gods.” Wow, proof.

However, there are other Bible scholars who feel God may be using holy “sarcasm” here. As in: “Jerusalem, they way you’re living you must be a blasphemous Canaanite, without knowledge of God! Surely you have the worst lineage, most wicked, in all creation!”)

Either way, verses 4-5 continue with the biography. God to Judah: “And as for thy nativity, in the day thou wast born thy navel was not cut, neither wast thou washed in water to supple thee; thou wast not salted at all, nor swaddled at all. None eye pitied thee, to do any of these unto thee, to have compassion upon thee; but thou wast cast out in the open field, to the lothing of thy person, in the day that thou wast born.”

Talk about “no man cared for my soul!” (David’s lament in Psalm 142:1 … “I looked on my right hand, and beheld, but there was no man that would know me: refuge failed me; no man cared for my soul.” So sad.)

No one loved Judah, as a baby. At her birth, no one cut her umbilical cord! Or bathed her messy little body! Nor salted (to remove wrinkles, they believed) and wrapped her little body, for warmth and security!

She was, in fact, thrown out into an open field, abandoned to die! (Many thousands of little girls were treated this way in antiquity! They wanted BOYS, back then.)

But … God entered the picture! “And when I passed by thee, and saw thee polluted in thine own blood, I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood, Live; yea, I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood, Live.” Verse 6, wonderful! And when God says, “LIVE,” mark it down … something comes alive! In fact, He says it twice in this single verse!

I am right now thankful for the day He said to my lost soul, “LIVE!” The day He saved me, the day I trusted Him to wash away my sin via the precious Blood of Jesus!

But God is not though … watch with me as this little “girl” grows to maturity, a picture of Jerusalem and her people. “I (the Lord) have caused thee to multiply as the bud of the field, and thou hast increased and waxen great, and thou art come to excellent ornaments: thy breasts are fashioned, and thine hair is grown, whereas thou wast naked and bare. Now when I passed by thee, and looked upon thee, behold, thy time was the time of love; and I spread my skirt over thee, and covered thy nakedness: yea, I sware unto thee, and entered into a covenant with thee, saith the Lord GOD, and thou becamest mine.” Verses 7-8, quite beautiful wording of a sensitive subject, I think.

God watched her grow into a (beautiful) young woman!

And when she reached the age of marriage, God proposed to her!

To spread a skirt (robe) over an eligible young lady meant to take her under your wings, protection, provision! (Think Boaz and Ruth here!) Gives new meaning to Psalm 91:4, in my heart. “He shall cover thee with his feathers, and UNDER HIS WINGS shalt thou trust: his truth shall be thy shield and buckler.” The Lord, my Husband!

Wow!

Now in verses 8-16 God gives an overview. What He’s done for Jerusalem, even down to her wardrobe! “Then washed I thee with water; yea, I throughly washed away thy blood from thee, and I anointed thee with oil. I clothed thee also with broidered work, and shod thee with badgers’ skin, and I girded thee about with fine linen, and I covered thee with silk. I decked thee also with ornaments, and I put bracelets upon thy hands, and a chain on thy neck. And I put a jewel on thy forehead, and earrings in thine ears, and a beautiful crown upon thine head. Thus wast thou decked with gold and silver; and thy raiment was of fine linen, and silk, and broidered work; thou didst eat fine flour, and honey, and oil: and thou wast exceeding 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 comeliness, which I had put upon thee, saith the Lord GOD.”

Clean!

Anointed!

Shoes!

Quality clothes!

Splendid (royal) diet, food!

Pristine reputation!

Sheer beauty!

How GOOD God was to his people!

Folks, all this is a “picture” of what God did for us when he saved our lost souls!

I’m “Shouting,” at least down inside … as I sit at this keyboard this morning.

God’s Grace!

What an example!

The Lord willing, more tomorrow, Ezekiel 16. But the story “turns” next, you’ll soon see. Oh, how we ought to hate sin, its devastating effects.

 

The Bible regularly uses the word picture of a “vine” to depict people, or groups of people. Both the Old Testament and the New do so, involving numerous speakers, particularly our Lord Jesus. (Think John 15:1 here. “I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman.” A good example!)

Well, in Ezekiel’s shortest chapter (Ezekiel 15, with only 8 total verses) the “vine” metaphor is again used. With the little nation of Judah being the “focus.”

(By the way, sometimes the “vine” picture is positive. At other times negative. In Isaiah 5:2 Israel is called God’s “choicest vine!” But in Hosea 10:1 she is an “empty vine!” Wow!)

So … how does Ezekiel (really, the Lord) here characterize Judah?

Let’s see.

We begin with an analogy, a comparison, between grape vines and tree limbs!

“And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, Son of man, What is the vine tree more than any tree, or than a branch which is among the trees of the forest?” Ezekiel 15:1-2, the beginning of the brief Sermon!

With notes: “And the word of the LORD came unto me (this clause is found 49 times in Ezekiel, I just counted), saying, Son of man (93 times I count God calls Ezekiel by this name), What is the vine tree (the branches of the grape vine) more than any tree (bigger, more substantial trees), or than a branch (limb) which is among the trees of the forest?”

See the comparison? Frail vines to heavy limbs!

Next, God immediately answers His Own question: “Shall wood be taken thereof (of the grape vine) to do any work? or will men take a pin (peg) of it to hang any vessel (pot, pan as in the kitchen) thereon? Behold, it is cast (hurled) into the fire for fuel (for warmth); the fire devoureth both the ends of it, and the midst of it is burned. Is it meet (suitable) for any work?” Ezekiel 15:3-4, with an implied response, “No!”

Oh, did you notice this vine is never associated with any “fruit?”

No sweet “grapes!”

This (Judah) is now an unprofitable vine, fruitless vegetation. Fit for nothing but fuel in the fire! (Back to John 15, and Jesus. “If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.” Verse 6)

Wow!

Ezekiel, really God, continues: “Behold, when it was whole, it was meet for no work: how much less shall it be meet yet for any work, when the fire hath devoured it, and it is burned?” When just ashes, verse 5.

Then, the application, divinely spoken: “Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; AS the vine tree among the trees of the forest, which I have given to the fire for fuel, SO will I give the inhabitants of Jerusalem.” Verse 6 … as the doomed grape vine … so the people in Jerusalem!

(And Ezekiel is not even in Jerusalem. As you know he is being held captive in Babylon, hundreds of miles away. But he is still telling his little congregation about the coming awful judgment on their compatriots in their nation’s precious Capital City! What a burden he had for the children of Abraham.)

In reality, we know that letters were exchanged regularly between the Jews already in Babylon and the hold-outs back in Jerusalem. In fact, we have one such letter Jeremiah wrote (under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit) to the colony of Jews in Babylon! See Jeremiah 29:1.

Then God continues, verse 7: “And I will set my face against them; they shall go out from one fire (the 606 BC deportation), and another fire (the 597 BC deportation) shall devour them.” But ultimately there were three such disastrous deportations, the last (in 586 BC) being by far the most fierce, most destructive.

I find the chapter’s final verse amazing. What God had to do to the Jews to place them in a position of “knowing” His Glory: And ye SHALL KNOW that I am the LORD, WHEN I set my face against them. And I will make the land desolate, because they have committed a trespass, saith the Lord GOD.” Verse 8, the chapter’s conclusion. If God’s “goodness” will not bring the Jews to repentance … maybe God’s “severity” will do so!

“Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the GOODNESS of God leadeth thee to repentance?” Romans 2:4, Paul to the Jews!

But by Romans 11:22 … “Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell (the Jews), severity; but toward thee (Gentiles), goodness!”

Then immediately a warning to us Gentiles: “IF thou CONTINUE in his goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off.” Romans 11:22, the last clause.

God’s judgment, another whole chapter in Ezekiel about that amazing phenomenon! I close today with Psalm 36:6 … “Thy righteousness (God) is like the great mountains; THY JUDGMENTS ARE A GREAT DEEP.”

Deep indeed!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

 

That’s a strange title for a lesson, “Hypocrites at Church.” But in reality that’s what Ezekiel chapter 14 depicts, in its first paragraph anyway.

Read with me the first five verses. “Then came certain of the elders of Israel unto me, and sat before me. And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, Son of man, these men have SET UP IDOLS IN THEIR HEART, and put the stumblingblock of their iniquity before their face: should I be enquired of at all by them? Therefore speak unto them, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Every man of the house of Israel that SETTETH UP IDOLS IN HIS HEART, and putteth the stumblingblock of his iniquity before his face, and COMETH TO THE PROPHET; I the LORD will answer him that cometh according to the multitude of his idols …” And answer, God sure did!

Note first of all that Israel still had a King! One named “Jehoiachin” who was then in prison in Babylon. And yet again one back in Jerusalem, “Zedekiah!” But God recognized neither of these sinful “failures.” They are basically “out of the picture.” Wicked leadership does NOT favorably impress God!

Instead of “Kings” (Royalty) the “elders” of Israel seem to be her leaders.  (Bureaucrats!) “Zaqen” in Hebrew means “old men, aged ones,” and once “senators.”

And of all things, they (these elders) came to see the Prophet!

Why not consult one of their many new-found gods or goddesses?

Apparently, they wanted the semblance of “going to the Lord,” going to “His Man,” going to “Assembly!” (To Church, we’d say today.)

But look … “Then came certain of the elders of Israel unto me, and sat before me. And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, Son of man, these men have set up their IDOLS in their heart ….”  God certainly knew what was lodged deep within their hearts and minds and spirits!

The clause “put the stumblingblock of their iniquity before their face” means the idols they love will make them “stumble, fall” any day now!

And these men are “seeking” God? God wondered too! “Should I be enquired of at all by them?”

God is not obligated to hear the prayers of an unrepentant, rebellious wicked man or woman!

Yet, surprisingly, God does (in a way) answer them!

But not with good news! Not with acceptance … until they repent!

Also notice in verse four that God says they have a “multitude” of idols! “Rob” in Hebrew means “many, abundant, plenty.” Lots of them!

Most Preachers in America likely speak each Sunday to some who “ritually” go to Church, “habitually” … but have wicked imaginations in their hearts! I wonder if we make God sick, too?

God to this crowd: ““Repent, and turn yourselves from your idols; and turn away your faces from all your abominations.” Verse 6, where “repent” has the idea of doing a 180 degree reversal!

And if not … “I the LORD will answer him by myself: and I will set my face AGAINST that man, and will make him a sign and a proverb, and I will CUT HIM OFF from the midst of my people; and ye shall know that I am the LORD.” Wow, verses 7 and 8.

God hates hypocrisy!

But there is another truth I see!

Astounding, too.

“And if the prophet be deceived when he hath spoken a thing, I the LORD have deceived that prophet, and I will stretch out my hand upon him, and will destroy him from the midst of my people Israel.” Verse 9, where clearly a “false prophet” is in view. Some of them had erred so very far from the truth, that God had “turned them over” to accepting lies, to believing the lies they preached! (God doing this to hard-hearted, apostate sinners is seen 3 times in Romans 1, the last half of the chapter!) And remember 2 Thessalonians 2:11, which will (at least) occur during the Tribulation: “And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie.” Wow!

One translation of “deceive” (“pathah” in Hebrew) is “to make silly!” The root idea behind the verb is “to be spacious, open, wide!” Too liberally minded, willing to accept too many “options” regarding God’s Word? Too “loose” with the Bible?

Frightening!

Look here too! The prophet who misleads a people … will face the very same judgment as the people who have followed his lies!  “The punishment of the prophet shall be EVEN AS the punishment of him that seeketh unto him.” Verse 10, identical!

Lastly today … the Lord uses the name of three of his most faithful prayer warriors! Specifically … “Noah and Daniel and Job!”

In essence God says that things are so bad in Israel (Judah) now … that even these 3 men’s prayers could not spare the people! “Though these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it (Jerusalem), they should deliver but their own souls by their righteousness, saith the Lord GOD.” Verse 14, amazing!

Then God ends the sad chapter by adding a word of grace! Verse 22, God to Ezekiel: “Yet, behold, therein shall be left a REMNANT that shall be brought forth, both sons and daughters: behold, they shall come forth unto you, and ye shall see their way and their doings: and ye shall be comforted concerning the evil that I have brought upon Jerusalem, even concerning all that I have brought upon it.”

Thank God for the “few” who stay faithful!

What a chapter!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

 

Ezekiel chapter 13 consists of 23 verses of “warning!”

Particularly directed at the “clergy!”

Preachers (or so-called preachers) who have drifted far from God.

The chapter divides itself into two halves, against (preaching) men who lie about God. And against (preaching) women who lie about God!

These two sections are demarcated by the word “woe!”

“Thus saith the Lord God; WOE unto the foolish PROPHETS, that follow their own spirit, and have seen nothing!” Ezekiel 13:3, with the exclamation point being in the King James Text!

Then: “Thus saith the Lord God; WOE to the WOMEN that sew pillows to all armholes, and make kerchiefs (veils) upon the head of every stature to hunt souls! Will ye hunt the souls of my people, and will ye save the souls alive that come unto you?” Ezekiel 13:18, “tools” of astrology, spiritism!

Every study Bible I have consulted labels this chapter as “Warnings against False Prophets.”

The word “woe” (“hoy” in Hebrew) means “Alas, Ah!” Words expressing surprise, shock … at coming judgment! (Jesus Himself used this term many times.)

I find verse 8 typical, especially depicting God’s Attitude toward this crowd. “Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Because ye have spoken vanity, and seen lies, therefore, behold, I am against you, saith the Lord GOD.”

Particularly note those words, “I AM AGAINST THEE.”

Contrast with this Paul’s great statement: “If GOD BE FOR US, who can be against us?” Romans 8:31

Wow!

Why is God this angry? “Because they have seduced my people, saying, Peace; and there was no peace.” Verse 10, where “seduced” means “to cause to go astray.”

One of the main messages of these lying prophets was that Jeremiah was wrong, and Ezekiel. God was NOT going to allow Babylon (or any other Nation) to attack Israel. Only PEACE was in her future!” So they said. (No wonder they are held in ridicule now! Babylon did attack, within six years of their “ministries.”)

Then the girls, women: “Likewise, thou son of man, set thy face against the DAUGHTERS of thy people, which PROPHESY out of their own heart; and prophesy thou against them.” Verse 16, ever notice how many times in the Bible women preachers lead God’s people astray? Often!

Preaching “out of their own hearts!”

Not preaching “the Word of the Lord!”

The “pillows” and “kerchiefs” both deal with “spells” and “incantations” and “ritual worship.” Bluntly, worshipping the devil! “Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against your pillows, wherewith ye there hunt the souls of men.”

They are a very long way from worshipping Almighty God “in spirit and in truth!”

God here says He is going to STOP this crowd!

“Because with lies ye have made the heart of the righteous sad, whom I have not made sad; and strengthened the hands of the wicked, that he should not return from his wicked way, BY PROMISING HIM LIFE (NO ATTACK FROM ANY ENEMY): therefore ye shall see no more vanity, nor divine divinations: for I will deliver my people out of your hand.” Verses 22-23, they have produced exactly the “opposite” effect God’s true Servants desire!

God wants the righteous to be “joyful!”

And God desires the “hands of the wicked” to weaken and fail!

Plus … the verb “deliver” (“snatch, rescue”) means God is going to intervene and expose these liars for what they actually are. These last two verses imply God can “cut off” even their false visions!

Yes, God is indeed Lord over all!

Even the demons!

What a chapter.

— Dr. Mike Bagwell