ISRAEL’S APOSTACY FROM GOD (Ezekiel 16:15-34)
EXEGETICAL NOTES. Its origin and nature (Ezekiel 16:15-22); its magnitude and extent (Ezekiel 16:23-34).
Ezekiel 16:15. The apostacy of Israel is described under the image of whoredom and adultery. “Thou didst trust in thine own beauty.” The gifts of God, when they ceased to be recognised as such, became a snare. Israel prostituted them in the service of idolatry. Because of thy renown. “Teaching that the Jews had employed the renown, which through the Divine goodness they had acquired, as a means of seducing neighbouring nations to commit spiritual fornication.”—(Henderson).
Ezekiel 16:16. The “high places” were temples erected, upon heights by the side of altars (1 Kings 13:32; 2 Kings 17:29). In 2 Kings 23:7, the Jewish women are described as wearing hangings to adorn the temples of Astarte. The latter part of the verse expresses the idea that such gross abominations in Israel were altogether unparalleled in the past, as they would be in the future.
Ezekiel 16:17-19. “Images of Men.” Heb. “Of a male.” This may describe idolatry in general, and thus the word “male” would be used as corresponding with the description of Israel as an adulteress. But some expositors think that a reference is made here to a certain abominable form of idolatry. “Scholz and Hävernick understand what were worshipped in the idolatrous service of phallus, or the membrum virile, which the Egyptians regarded as the emblem of fecundity, and which is still licentiously worshipped by the Hindoos under the name of lingam.”—(Henderson).
Ezekiel 16:20-22. “To cause them to pass through the fire.” A clear reference to Moloch-worship in which children were sacrificed to the idol by burning them. “The passing through was the mode of slaying, and the devouring was the consequence of it. The idols were thought to be present in the fire.”—(Hengstenberg.)
Ezekiel 16:23-27. “An eminent place.” The Heb may be rendered a brothel, or place of prostitution. The word was so understood by the LXX. Thus figuratively the prophet describes their unholy passion for idol-worship. “The natural heights are too far for the people hungering after idols. They wish to plant idolatry in the city thoroughfare, and so build for themselves artificial heights. We must distinguish between the thought and its clothing. The thought is, that the objects of idolatry became the prime impulse of the popular life, by which is to be understood much less religious than political adultery, though both went hand in hand.”—(Hengstenberg.) “And hast made thy beauty to be abhorred.” The Heb. verb in the Piel conjugation signifies to abhor, never to cause to be abhorred. To prostitute their beauty was to show their contempt for it. By forsaking God and His Holy worship they showed how little esteem they had for the national honour. “And hast opened thy feet to every one that passed by.” “At an earlier period Israel stood, by the situation of their country, which admitted no isolation, in manifold intercourse with the world; but in the time which the prophet has in view they lay in the middle of the contending world-powers—the Asiatic and the African—and were thus in their intervening territory tempted by the force of circumstances to adultery with powerful neighbours.”—(Hengstenberg.) “The Egyptians, thy neighbours, great of flesh.” Heb. “The Sons of Egypt.” An euphemism to denote the licentious character of the Egyptian worship. “The sons of Egypt are not its gods, and therefore the reference is to political whoredom. Let it be remembered how in express terms intercourse with Egypt was forbidden to Israel, how return thither is threatened them rather as the worst punishment (Deuteronomy 28:68); and let one compare from the days of Solomon onwards (1 Kings 3:1; 1 Kings 9:16; 1 Kings 10:28; 2 Kings 18; Isaiah 30:1-33; Isaiah 31:1; Isaiah 36:6; Jeremiah 37:5; Jeremiah 37:7).—(Lange). “The daughters of the Philistines which are ashamed of thy lewd ways.” “The daughters of the Philistians are the Philistian states, corresponding to the representation of Israel as an adulterous wife. The Philistians are mentioned as the principal foes, because Israel fell completely into their power at the end of the period of the Judges (Judges 13; 1 Samuel 4); and they are referred to here, for the deeper humiliation of Israel, as having been ashamed of the licentious conduct of the Israelites, because they adhered to their gods, and did not exchange them for others as Israel had done (Jeremiah 2:10-11).—(Keil).
Ezekiel 16:28-34. “Thou hast played the whore also with the Assyrians, because thou wast unsatiable.” “Having got no satisfaction in the African, they betake themselves now to the Asiatic world-power. They long after it, and find no satisfaction even when the longing is realized.”—(Lange). “Not satisfied with adopting the idolatories of Egypt, the Jews practised those of the more distant Assyrians and Babylonians. They were perfectly insatiable in their lust. Their idolatry was an amalgamation of all the different forms which obtained in the countries around them.”—(Henderson). “How weak is thine heart.” Some render it, “Yet how languishing is thine heart.” In this sense we are to understand that sickly craving of lustful desire, which had grown into a disease. Ewald designates the expression as “a biting sarcasm; how great must be the languishing of love!” Others understand it more generally of the tendency of oft-repeated sin to weaken our moral nature. “The influence of sin on the soul is to render it morally impotent. Though it may not deprive it of the powers which are requisite to constitute man a responsible agent, it weakens his principle of action, takes possession of those powers, and forms itself into habits which the individual allows to grow upon him, so that he becomes at last insensible to the operation of the strongest moral motives.”—(Henderson). “And the contrary is in thee from other women in thy whoredoms.” Israel gave presents to its lovers, contrary to the practice of prostitutes in general. The Jews practised idolatry not from the mere love of gain, but from the gratification they found in that sin. They had arrived at that lowest stage of depravity when sin is loved merely for its own sake. “Ezekiel has thus fulfilled the task appointed him in Ezekiel 16:2, to charge Jerusalem with her abominations. The address now turns to an announcement of the punishment.”—(Keil).
HOMILETICS
ISRAEL’S APOSTACY: AN EXAMPLE OF MONSTROUS INIQUITY
I. It was the prostitution of God’s best gifts. “Thou didst trust in thine own beauty, and playedst the harlot because of thy renown” (Ezekiel 16:15). They ceased to recognise their superior endowments as the free and undeserved gifts of God’s great favour, and therefore these became a snare to them and the occasion of falling. Their iniquity was beyond that of other nations, because theirs was the sin of a people taken into special covenant with God. It is more than common iniquity—it is monstrous to turn God’s gifts into the means of sin (Jude 1:4). The sins against the clearest light are the greatest of all.
II. It took the worst possible forms.
1. They devoted all God’s gifts to idols.
(1.) The common gifts of Providence. Food of various kinds, represented by “fine flour, and oil, and honey” (Ezekiel 16:19).
(2.) Luxuries. “Jewels of gold and silver.” With these they made images to be employed in the most degrading forms of idolatry.
(3.) Even their own children. They gave them up to Moloch-worship, caused them “to pass through the fire” (Ezekiel 16:21). Such was their infatuation with this idolatry, that they silenced the common instincts of nature, and gave up their own children to the most cruel forms of death. The prophet speaks of their great sins with the utmost force of language when he calls them “abominations.”
2. They took special pains to spread idolatry. They built idol temples close to the dwellings of the worshippers, so that they might not have to seek them in distant places. They tempted others with all the wiles and artifices of wickedness, “Thou hast opened thy feet to every one that passed by” (Ezekiel 16:25). With a zeal worthy of a better cause they sought out the worst forms of idolatry among the nations of the earth—The Egyptians (Ezekiel 16:26), the Assyrians (Ezekiel 16:28), the Chaldeans (Ezekiel 16:29). They seemed bent not merely upon imitating, but even surpassing the worst abominations of the heathen around them.
3. Their lust of idolatry was insatiable. When they had gained their desire, they refused to be satisfied, and still cried out for more (Ezekiel 16:28-29). “How weak is thine heart, saith the Lord God!” (Ezekiel 16:30). Their lust was glutted until they could feel only the sickly languishing of “an imperious whorish woman.”
4. They loved the sin of idolatry for its own sake. Not for gain, but because they had a delight in it (Ezekiel 16:33-34).
5. They sinned thus grievously after due chastisement. God compares himself to a husband who endeavours by means of chastisement to induce his faithless wife to return. The supply of food, clothing, and of all the necessaries and comforts of a wife are diminished. She is even delivered over unto the will of them that hate her (Ezekiel 16:27). Such was the discipline by which the Lord sought to bring His ancient people to a sense of their folly, and to restore to them the privileges of the faithful. He did not suffer Israel to attain to that glory and power which was their sure portion had they continued to serve the Lord with a perfect heart. He allowed their enemies to triumph over them, so that they had not the undisturbed possession of Canaan. To remain unimproved under the chastisements of God, and not even to feel them, shows a heart in the last stage of hardening. “Thou hast stricken them, but they have not grieved” (Jeremiah 5:3).
I. Where God bestows choice mercies upon a people, He looks for answerable returns from them. He gave life to the Israelitish state (Ezekiel 16:6). He multiplied it as the bud of the field (Ezekiel 16:7). He loved this people, entered into covenant with them, married them unto Himself (Ezekiel 16:8). He washed away their blood, and anointed them with oil (Ezekiel 16:9). He gave them costly apparel, fine flour, honey and oil, royal dignity, special beauty, great fame and glory (Ezekiel 16:10-14); and now expected that they should have lived to Him, and improved all for the honour of His name. “But thou didst trust in thine own beauty,” etc. I looked not for this at thy hands; I looked that thou shouldst have been faithful and fruitful in all good works, and been as exemplary for holiness and justice to other nations, as I was exemplary in my mercies towards thee above other nations (Isaiah 5:2).
II. Ingratitude in God’s people is a provoking sin, and causes God to upbraid them for it. From the beginning of Ezekiel 16:6, to the end of Ezekiel 16:14, which are but nine verses, there is “I” seventeen times, and every mention of it is a matter for upbraiding unto them. When God had made Adam after His image, planted him in Paradise, given him dominion over all the creatures, for him not to obey one little command was gross ingratitude, provoked the Lord to upbraid him and punish him for it (Genesis 3) Christ upbraids Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum where His mighty works were done, because they brought not forth fruits answerable, but were impenitent and ungrateful (Matthew 11)
III. We are very apt to trust in, and be proud of, the mercies God bestows upon us. “Thou did’st trust in thine own beauty.” Those things that I gave thee to make thee beautiful, thou hast abused and put too much confidence in. The heart of man is ready to idolize every mercy God gives. There are several mercies we are apt to trust in.
1. In riches. The rich man confides in wealth as citizens do in a walled, well fortified, and well built city (Proverbs 10:15; Psalms 52:7; 1 Timothy 6:17).
2. In princes and great ones (Psalms 146:3; Isaiah 2:22; Jeremiah 17:5; Isaiah 30:3).
3. In your own natural excellencies. “Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom,” etc. (Jeremiah 9:23). “He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool” (Proverbs 28:26); the heart is the most excellent part of man (See also Proverbs 3:5).
4. In the ordinances and means of grace (Jeremiah 7:4; Jeremiah 7:14-15.
IV. Great renown, through man’s corruption, oft proves a snare, occasions great sins. God made this people above all nations, in praise, in name, in honour, that they might be a holy people unto Him (Deuteronomy 26:19). Their renown should have encouraged them unto holiness, and it was an incentive unto looseness. Solomon had great renown abroad in the nations (1 Kings 4:31); that drew the princes to bestow their daughters upon him. His name made way for unlawful marriages, and they made way for unlawful gods.
V. The most beautiful and renowned church may degenerate, apostatise, and become corrupt. This Israelitish woman was the only spouse of God. He entered into covenant with her, she became His; He put more spiritual beauty and comeliness upon her than upon all the nations, and made her renowned throughout all the world; yet she forsook God, played the harlot, prostituted herself to every idol and idolater. And now where was the Church of God? She “played the harlot with many lovers” (Jeremiah 3:1). Here was visible apostacy, visible idolatry, but no true visible Church. Neither was God without a true Church at this time. There were some godly ones in secret, who mourned for the abominations done in the city, temple, and everywhere (Ezekiel 9:4). But these lay hid, and durst not appear in the ways of worship then amongst them. So in Elijah’s days. He complained, “The children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant,” etc. (1 Kings 19:10); but God had then seven thousand in secret (Ezekiel 16:18). The true Church may be brought to such a paucity, such a lowness, that there may be no public meetings, or view thereof. The papists say their Church cannot err, especially in things necessary to salvation; and why? because it is the spouse of Christ. Was not this Israelitish Church the spouse of God? And did it not err in the great and weighty things of salvation? Did it not leave God and fall into idolatry, such practices as exclude the kingdom of heaven? What privilege hath the Roman Church more than this had? Whatever papists say or write, their Church hath trusted in her beauty, been proud of her renown, and played the harlot as notoriously as ever Jerusalem did.—(Greenhill.)