Jerusalem - the Adulterous Wife, or Your Beauty Went to Your Head (rated R)

I read Ezekiel 16-17 and James 3 this morning. Ezekiel 16 really jumped out at me. It read like Song of Solomon at first glance. The allusion of Jerusalem as an adulterous wife was very graphic. God's chosen people living in Judah (represented by Jerusalem, the city where God chose to make it His home) was described as a mixed race abandoned girl, left to die on the open field with her umbilical cord still uncut, naked and exposed (Ezekiel 16:3-4). Yahweh (יְהֹוָה - the proper name given to God by the people of Israel then) rescued her and helped her grow until she was old enough for a love relationship with Him:
"I spread the corner of my garment over you and covered your naked body. I gave you my solemn oath and entered into a covenant with you, declares the Sovereign Lord, and you became mine."(Ezekiel 16:8)
The phrase "I spread the corner of my garment over you" (see also Ruth 3:9 the story of how Ruth and Boaz got engaged) described the covenant as a husband and wife relationship (see also gotquestions.org for further explanation).

The rest of chapter 16 went on to describe how unfaithful Israel was to her husband, Yahweh Himself. She became worst than a prostitute. Worse still,
"And you took your sons and daughters whom you bore to me and sacrificed them as food to the idols. Was your prostitution not enough? You slaughtered my children and sacrificed them to the idols. In all your detestable practices and your prostitution you did not remember the days of your youth, when you were naked and bare, kicking about in your blood." (Ezekiel 16:20-22)

Yet God was not ready to give up on her:
"I will deal with you as you deserve, because you have despised my oath by breaking the covenant. Yet I will remember the covenant I made with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish an everlasting covenant with you. ...So I will establish my covenant with you, and you will know that I am the Lord. Then, when I make atonement for you for all you have done, you will remember and be ashamed and never again open your mouth because of your humiliation, declares the Sovereign Lord." (Ezekiel 16:59-63)

I have highlighted the word covenant throughout this passage. First there was the old covenant which she broke. But God established a new covenant (an everlasting covenant) after making atonement for her sins. We now know that this is the new covenant made possible because of Jesus' death on the cross (Luke 22:20), which was also predicted by the prophet Jeremiah (Jeremiah 31:31-34).

Ezekiel 16 is not an easy chapter to read. Yet perhaps it is exactly what I need to hear today. The commentary by Longhenry has this to say:
"The sins described and the condemnation decreed because of them are not somehow unique to Ezekiel 16; they represent the consistent message of all of the prophets of that time. It is the description of Jerusalem as the abandoned child, dependent on YHWH, yet ultimately being the whore who must be condemned that is quite evocative and powerful. It is hard to get past the vulgarity that so easily offends modern sensibilities; nevertheless, sometimes it is the vulgar that makes the point and communicates the message in ways which the sensible and rational cannot. The raw emotion displayed throughout the description of the metaphor is haunting. In Ezekiel 16 we come face to face with the very hurt yet ultimately forgiving Husband, along with the wife who owes everything to Him but is more interested in everyone else until it is too late. Let us learn a lesson from the whore Jerusalem: let us not serve idols but serve the One True God who has provided us with every blessing!"

It is interesting that Ezekiel 16:63 ("when I make atonement for you for all you have done, you will remember and be ashamed and never again open your mouth because of your humiliation") ties nicely with the message in James 3:1-12. The Message translation entitled this passage "When You Open Your Mouth".
"A bit in the mouth of a horse controls the whole horse. A small rudder on a huge ship in the hands of a skilled captain sets a course in the face of the strongest winds. A word out of your mouth may seem of no account, but it can accomplish nearly anything—or destroy it! It only takes a spark, remember, to set off a forest fire. A careless or wrongly placed word out of your mouth can do that. By our speech we can ruin the world, turn harmony to chaos, throw mud on a reputation, send the whole world up in smoke and go up in smoke with it, smoke right from the pit of hell." (James 3:3-6 Msg)

Perhaps this is the area of focus I can work on today:

• Am I grateful for what God has done - since the days of my youth; since the day I was "redeemed from the pit and crowned with love and compassion" (Psalm 103:4)?
• What are the idols in my life - money, reputation, health? Do I "count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord" (Philippians 3:8-10)?
• Lord, help me to glorify you with my mouth and "Don't use foul or abusive language. Let everything you say be good and helpful, so that your words will be an encouragement to those who hear them." (Ephesians 4:29 NLT)
• AMEN!