If you’ve been following our SLE Bible Reading Plan then you will have noticed that we are currently reading through the prophet Ezekiel and on Friday we hit chapters 15 and 16, and coming up on Tuesday we will be looking at chapters 23 and 24.
Some of us may notice the rather graphic nature of chapters 16 and 23 in particular. God’s people are pictured as a runaway bride who commits vile acts of adultery. God’s punishment for these acts, on first reading, can cause even the matured Christian to have their stomach in a knot. It is un-jokingly not for the faint of heart.
A further problem for us is that our bible translations have actually glossed over and smoothed out what is actually even more shocking language. Some have argued that the imagery borders on pornographic, while others who disagree with that statement still acknowledge the graphic and violent nature of the imagery – so much so that it’s little wonder these chapters are noticeably absent from most children’s Bible storybooks.
The reason for such shocking language is simple: Ezekiel 16 and 23 aim to shock. The language is aimed to shock God’s covenant community – His people – into action. It is written to make known to Jerusalem her abominations and to sting the public conscience with an ugly portrayal of their true moral quality.
Jerusalem and her people are utterly corrupt in God’s sight and thoroughly deserving of their judgement.
But, and this is an important ‘but’, rising from this emotionally charged tirade is the niggling feeling that this story is incomplete. Ezekiel 23 finishes with warning that through the punishment Jerusalem will once again know that Yahweh is the Lord. Ezekiel 16 finishes with some promise of restoration:
[59] “For thus says the Lord GOD: I will deal with you as you have done, you who have despised the oath in breaking the covenant, [60] yet I will remember my covenant with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish for you an everlasting covenant. [61] Then you will remember your ways and be ashamed when you take your sisters, both your elder and your younger, and I give them to you as daughters, but not on account of the covenant with you. [62] I will establish my covenant with you, and you shall know that I am the LORD, [63] that you may remember and be confounded, and never open your mouth again because of your shame, when I atone for you for all that you have done, declares the Lord GOD.” (Ezekiel 16:59-63 ESV)
The story begs for completion.
And it’s in the New Testament that we see this hope of renewal and closure to the violence of Ezekiel 16 and 23. If Ezekiel is seeking to expose the disturbing sin of Jerusalem through his imagery, then the cross of Jesus reveals to all sin its most starkest and abominable ugliness.
The wrath of God against the sin of Jerusalem is appeased through the death of His Son.
Sometimes, however, the cross becomes so common place that churches and Christians lost its impact. Ezekiel 16 and 23 remind us how devastating sin is, how greatly God hates it, and how much more magnificent is the cross.