““But you thought your fame and beauty were your own. So you gave yourself as a prostitute to every man who came along. Your beauty was theirs for the asking. You used the lovely things I gave you to make shrines for idols, where you played the prostitute. Unbelievable! How could such a thing ever happen? You took the very jewels and gold and silver ornaments I had given you and made statues of men and worshiped them. This is adultery against me! You used the beautifully embroidered clothes I gave you to dress your idols. Then you used my special oil and my incense to worship them. Imagine it! You set before them as a sacrifice the choice flour, olive oil, and honey I had given you, says the Sovereign LORD. “Then you took your sons and daughters—the children you had borne to me—and sacrificed them to your gods. Was your prostitution not enough? Must you also slaughter my children by sacrificing them to idols? In all your years of adultery and detestable sin, you have not once remembered the days long ago when you lay naked in a field, kicking about in your own blood. . .On every street corner you defiled your beauty, offering your body to every passerby in an endless stream of prostitution.”
Ezekiel 16:15-22, 25 NLT
I mean, one thing I’ve realised about the word of God is when God is angry, or upset, or frustrated, or being just… He lists. God goes in with emphasising His point. He lets us know exactly how He feels and He is justified in doing so.
When we think about what adultery is in God’s eyes it causes us to have a greater revelation on the depth of this type of sin which separates us all from God. The wife (we) was literally unloyal, unfaithful and openly parading herself in an ungodly manner! Even after all the great and faithful husband did, she still left her well-kept nest and flaunted the things HE gave her to those who do not deserve it.
This passage describes exactly how it is between God and us. Our relationship with Him is flawed at our own fault. It shows in the most blunt and explicit way exactly what we’ve done in this generation and the past (judging on the signs of the times, my personal opinion is – we’re getting worse. *sings* Oooohh, how I have heard the word narisisstic being used sooo much about this generationnnnn *sings*).
WE LOVE OURSELVES! It’s written all over our everyday indulgences. American pastor, Francis Chan, has been referring a lot to the fact that we even create pages for ourselves so that everyone can know more about: meeeee!!!!! And it is so true! We are so self-involved!
But where is our love for God??? Where is our selfless love?
And what about the marriage convenant? The fusion of both man and wife, God and His people? (You can read the marriage description here).
We’ve neglected it, we’ve gone far astray, and we’ve prostituted it else where. This is what this scripture is about. In today’s world, the love that God gives us, we give it away by idolising our careers, money, status. The love that He lavished over us we squander by loving the trends, the “in things”, popular culture – in one season, gone the next (then what?). The love God pours out to us, we pour on worthless, broken and pointless relationships, material things and treasures of this world.
How many of us know about loyalty? What does it mean to be faithful to something or someone?
God calls us unfaithful in this passage and in many other places across scripture because He has the right to! He never left! We dare not call Him the unfaithful one! WE are the ones who have gone astray, and by His grace alone He calls us back… The outstretched arm in Exodus 6:6, the willing hand He uses to heal the lepros man Matthew 8:3, His mighty hand showing to all that His love endures forever, Psalm 136:12.
The Unfaithful Wife Now Lives because of what Jesus did on the cross! He stretched out His arms on the cross, carrying our heavy sins, which cursed His body and suffocated Him. He became the High Priest with direct access to God, bridging the gap between us and Him. We are alive because of His sacrifice! We live because He still draws us near, filthy though we are, His blood washes us clean. We have the chance, by His grace, to be faithful now because of Christ. We have the choice now not to sin because sin does not rule us anymore, we now are governed by grace.
Let us not prostitute ourselves anymore.
Run back to the One Who saved you when you were wretched and kicking about in your own blood.
Gayle
the essence of her being... 