THE SINS OF ISRAEL AND JUDAH REPRESENTED UNDER THE FIGURE OF TWO HARLOTS. (Chap 23)
EXEGETICAL NOTES.—Samaria and Jerusalem are the capitals and representations of the two kingdoms Israel and Judah. These two cities are presented under the allegory of two harlots who are sisters, and who have practiced whoredom from the days of Egypt onwards. (Ezekiel 23:2-4.)
Ezekiel 23:1-4. The two harlot sisters are briefly described.
Ezekiel 23:2. “Two women, the daughters of one mother.” “These two cities had a common mother—the Hebrew people; regard being had to what they had become in the possession of that people.”—(Henderson).
Ezekiel 23:3. “They committed whoredoms in Egypt; they committed whoredoms in their youth.” The prophet regards this two-fold divisions of the people as dating long before the time of the separation of the kingdoms. The two kingdoms existed virtually in Egypt in the tribes of Ephraim and Judah. The origin of their idolatry is to be traced to Egypt, where all the tribes alike fell into that sin. It was in the very “youth” of the people that they had become alienated from God. “There they bruised the teats of their virginity.” “At that time Israel was still unmarried. The marriage with Jehovah took place when the covenant was made at Sinai. But she was even at that time betrothed. This is proved by what God had done to the Patriarchs, and by the circumcision to which they had submitted; and hence their unchaste conduct fell under the judgment of (Deuteronomy 22:23, &c.). Their business was to prepare themselves as a pure virgin for marriage.”—(Hengstenberg). “On account of the legitimate relation in which the nation stood to God from its very origin, namely, of a marriage covenant, the political and religious departure of both kingdoms from the principles laid down in the law, appears as wantonness (Ezekiel 16:15). Egypt was the means of exciting the first carnal impulses of the youthful people to a heathenish mode of feeling and action, whereby they were robbed of their virgin purity.”—(Lange.)
Ezekiel 23:4. “Aholah the elder.” This name signifies, Her own tent. Thus it is implied that the worship of the Samaritans was of their own invention and was never appointed of Jehovah. The northern kingdom had erected an altar of her own will (1 Kings 12:31-33). “Aholibah her sister.” The meaning of this name is, My tent is in her. Jehovah had ordained the temple-worship at Jerusalem. He had chosen Zion for an habitation to set His name there (Psalms 132:13-14). “And they were Mine.” “Previous to the apostasy under Jeroboam, Samaria, equally with Jerusalem, worshipped the true God. Their inhabitants were sons and daughters of the Lord Almighty. He never renounced His right to the Israelites as subjects of theocracy, but sent prophets to disclose His will to them and warn them against idolatry. The northern kingdom was the sphere of the special labours of Elijah and Elisha.”—(Henderson).
HOMILETICS
SPIRITUAL ADULTERY
I. It consists in forsaking the Creator to love and serve the creature. The children of Israel committed whoredoms in Egypt by worshipping its idols. They forsook their God, who had called them to love and serve Himself, and to forsake all other. Idolatry is the perversion of a true religious instinct, as lust is the perversion of a passion which should inspire the devotion of love and self sacrifice. The worship and service of the creature is unauthorised. And it also debases.
II. The sin of it is manifest from the nature of the relations in which we stand to God. “There were two women, the daughters of one mother.” God was a Father unto Israel. The people were His own peculiar heritage. By their idolatry they were bringing dishonour upon the name of God. Duties arise out of our relation to God which cannot be set aside without bringing upon ourselves the stain and the consequences of transgression.
III. In the youth of a people they are especially exposed to this sin “They committed whoredoms in their youth.” The allurements of Egyptian idolatry soon corrupted Israel in the days of her youth. Their feelings were fresh, their experience small, and the pleasures of Egypt were novel and strange. Young societies are greatly exposed to the dangerous fascinations of those by whom they are surrounded. So the early Christian Church was soon corrupted by false philosophy; and in a later age, by the seductions of wordly power and grandeur. Also, in the youth of human life, the lusts and pleasures of the world are most powerful to seduce.
IV. This sin may be prevalent amidst all the refinements of civilization. The Israelites found in Egypt an advanced civilization. Yet amidst all this were to be found the coarsest and most debasing forms of idolatry. How much grovelling and degrading superstition is still to be found in the midst of the highest civilization!
V. This sin should be denounced in plain terms. The fleshly sins, which are here used as a figure of spiritual sins, are described in plain language. They are set forth in all their naked deformity; spoken of exactly as they are. Those who counsel such sins would like (if they hear of them at all) to have their loathsomeness hidden under the veil of elegant speech. “Plain speaking is not attractive; flowery ambiguities are of the devil”—(Lange). Those who blame the prophet for his great plainness of speech should rather concern themselves with the thought of the baseness of those sins which demanded so faithful a narration and exposure. The whole of this passage teaches us that true religion leads to fellowship with God, His love and service. And all love and service inconsistent with this belongs to a class of sins which can best be described under the images of the worst and most degrading of fleshly lusts.
1. The Lord takes notice where and when those who are in relation to Him do sin. “In Egypt, and in their youth.” They sinned amidst the grand and bitter enemies of God, among Egyptians, and then when they were growing up to be a people. They should have considered what enemies the Egyptians were to their God and His worship, how odious their ways and worship were to Him. They should have walked circumspectly, so that they might have kept His name from being polluted; and likewise they, being in their youth under bondages, should have minded God’s kindnesses in preserving them, and making them to prosper. When God is beginning to show kindness to a people in misery, and raising them up to some height and greatness, and then for them to turn aside to lewdness, to superstitions, idolatrous, and heathenish practices, this God observes in a special manner, and it provokes Him greatly (Psalms 106:7). When states, cities, families, degenerate in their youth, it sorely displeases God.
2. Wheresoever a devised worship is brought in, there man’s tabernacle is set up; where true worship is advanced, there is God’s tabernacle. The ten tribes had a worship of Jereboam’s devising, like unto the worship of Jerusalem in many things; but this was Aholah, their own tabernacle. God owned it not, He was not in their assemblies, He accepted not their sacrifices, their incense was a stink in His nostrils. But Jerusalem was Aholibah, My tabernacle, there God’s own worship was set up, and so long as His worship was there, He acknowledged His tabernacle to be in her. Where His worship is, there He dwells (Psalms 68:16); and is to be seen and enquired of (Psalms 27:4).—Greenhill.