EXEGETICAL NOTES.—The spiritual adultery of Samaria with Assyria. The instrument of her punishment is that very people which she had made the object of her impure love.
Ezekiel 23:5. The Assyrians her neighbours. The word refers rather to kinsmen, rather than to those dwelling near. Asshur was brother to Arphaxad, Abraham’s ancestor (Genesis 10:22; Genesis 10:24; Genesis 11:16-26).
Ezekiel 23:6. Clothed with blue, captains and rulers, all of them desirable young men, horsemen riding upon horses. “This description given of the Assyrians contains the thought that Israel, dazzled by Assyria’s splendour, and overpowered by the might of that kingdom, had been drawn into intercourse with the Assyrians, which led her astray into idolatry. The predicate, clothed in purple, points to the splendour and glory of this imperial power; the other predicates, to the magnitude of its military force.” (Keil). We have here the ground which tempted Aholah to become unfaithful to her God. It lay in this, that the paramour Assyria came into her neighbourhood, and placed his grandeur before her. Therein lay the temptation to sue for his favour to ward off injury. The adultery has been not so much a religious as a political import. The paramour, on whose account Israel forsakes his God, is Assyria itself, not its god, though they endeavoured, no doubt from fear of the people, to make friends of its gods also.” (Hengstenberg).
Ezekiel 23:8. “Neither left she her whoredoms brought from Egypt.” This was the Apis-worship of which Israel was guilty while in Horeb. Jeroboam instituted it, thus reviving the former iniquity of the nation. The people never wholly got rid of this source of unfaithfulness brought from Egypt. Even Jehu tolerated it (2 Kings 10:31).
Ezekiel 23:10. “These discovered her nakedness.” “This denotes the ignominious treatment which Israel must suffer from Assyria, as a punishment for her revolt to Egypt. Aholah is slain with the sword: the proper substance of the people, the men fit for service, fell in the war, while the weaker portion was carried into exile.” (Hengstenberg.) “Famous among women.” “She was rendered as notorious by her punishment as she had been by her crimes. She was made an example to which an appeal could be made by other states” Henderson.
HOMILETICS
THE SIN OF SAMARIA
I. It showed the basest ingratitude. “Played the harlot when she was Mine.” God had united her to Himself, she was in living and tender relationship with Him when she basely deserted His worship and service. She was taught the true doctrine, and the right way of duty, and was supplied with means to observe both. Yet she sinned against light and privilege.
II. It showed the dangerous power of the imagination. The military organization of Assyria dazzled their imagination. The glory of the world seduces the worldly mind. “Clothed with blue, captains and rulers, all of them desirable young men, horsemen riding upon horses.” Such was the power and grandeur of Assyria. In accordance with the figure employed, those things are named which would be likely to strike the eye of a wordly minded young woman. Israel admired the political and worldly grandeur of the Assyrians, and so were seduced into idolatry. They first worshipped the power and magnificence of the nation, and then it was an easy matter to adopt the worship of their gods. The fascinations of the world is still the standing danger to purity in doctrine and worship. In all sensuous forms of religious worship there lurks this great danger, that men through admiration of the outward are led to adopt the false doctrines of which it is the vehicle.
III. It showed how inveterate are old evils. “Brought from Egypt” (Ezekiel 23:8). The old idolatry which they had learned in Egypt clung to the nation every now and then breaking out. The nation was never clearly delivered from it till after their captivity in Babylon.
IV. It was visited with exemplary punishment.
1. Those who had seduced her by their power and grandeur were made the very instruments of her punishment. She had doted on the Assyrians, and she was delivered into their hands (Ezekiel 23:9).
2. She was made a warning example to all. “Famous among women.” An example to all the other nations. They would talk of her; some of her abominable wickedness, others of her miseries, previous judgments, and calamities.
1. When people embrace false worship they are violent and strong in their affections towards it. Aholah doted upon her lovers, her heart was fired with Babylonish gods, and confidences in them.
2. What evil persons have practised in their youth that they affect in their age. Aholah had loved the Egyptian idols in her minority, and after she was grown up, those idols were not out of her thoughts. Her Egyptian lovers were still in her mind, like harlots that mind their former lovers long after they are married. What corruption gets in youth, grows up and abides; an unclean, idolatrous heart in youth, will be so in age.
3. Idolatry may continue long in a nation, but shall at least be severely punished by the Lord. Aholah had been an idolatress from her youth, and when she was grown up to some greatness, then she broke out into gross, notorious idolatry (1 Kings 12); in which she continued for upwards of two hundred and sixty years, and then the Lord plagued, yea, destroyed her, her sons and daughters. It is wisdom to cleave to the Lord and His worship, not to follow or confide in other nations, or their ways.
4. God makes places and persons remarkable by the judgments He executeth upon them. Aholah was made famous among women by those judgments He brought upon her. Aholah was Samaria, which Shalmaneser besieged three years, and then took it; and afterwards burnt it (2 Kings 17:5-6).—Greenhill.