Year 2, Week 19, Day 5 Bible Reading Observations

Year 2, Week 19, Day 5

I have a brief observation for today’s reading of Ezekiel 23.

Today’s reading continues the Book of Ezekiel. Today’s reading proceeds further into the first segment of Ezekiel (chapters 1-24), which is a series of prophecies about impending judgment on the people of Judah for their persistent disobedience to the LORD. Today’s reading has some similarities with Ezekiel 16 in that both involve stories whose point become indictments against Jerusalem who is likened as an adulterous woman. The language from today’s reading is even more graphic and therefore filled with even more emotional intensity as it illustrates Jerusalem’s unfaithfulness. Ezekiel 23 is the story of two unfaithful sisters: “The word of the LORD came to me: “Son of man, there were two women, the daughters of one mother. They played the whore in Egypt; they played the whore in their youth; there their breasts were pressed and their virgin bosoms handled” (Ezekiel 23:1-3). The two sisters symbolize Samaria, the capital of the Northern Kingdom of Israel, who had been destroyed in 722 BC, and Jerusalem, the Southern Kingdom of Judah, whose destruction would soon occur in 586 BC: “Oholah was the name of the elder and Oholibah the name of her sister. They became mine, and they bore sons and daughters. As for their names, Oholah is Samaria, and Oholibah is Jerusalem” (Ezekiel 23:4).

One of the things that struck me from today’s reading was the tragic reality that Jerusalem and Judah was too severely blind to learn from the demise of Samaria and Israel: “Her sister Oholibah saw this, and she became more corrupt than her sister in her lust and in her whoring, which was worse than that of her sister. She lusted after the Assyrians, governors and commanders, warriors clothed in full armor, horsemen riding on horses, all of them desirable young men” (Ezekiel 23:11-12). Oholibah is charged with repeating the same things that her older sister had done: “Oholah played the whore while she was mine, and she lusted after her lovers the Assyrians, warriors clothed in purple, governors and commanders, all of them desirable young men, horsemen riding on horses” (Ezekiel 23:5). Samaria’s lustful interest in establishing a protective alliance with Assyria as well as reliance upon Assyria’s gods was spiritual adultery in that Samaria’s political alliance was a clear rejection of trust in the LORD. The notion of spiritual adultery as idolatry was a problem that went at least back to the Israelites time in Egypt: “She did not give up her whoring that she had begun in Egypt; for in her youth men had lain with her and handled her virgin bosom and poured out their whoring lust upon her” (Ezekiel 23:8).

Samaria was judged for her adulterous ways: “Therefore I delivered her into the hands of her lovers, into the hands of the Assyrians, after whom she lusted. These uncovered her nakedness; they seized her sons and her daughters; and as for her, they killed her with the sword; and she became a byword among women, when judgment had been executed on her” (Ezekiel 23:9-10). The LORD gave the Northern Kingdom over into the hands of her lovers, the Assyrians, and they destroyed her. The things that attracted Samaria to the Assyrians were used against her. Israel actually gained nothing and lost everything—her sons and daughters were seized, and she was killed with the sword she thought would protect her. Israel’s demise and the reasons for her demise were well known.

However, Judah did not seem to make the connection. The prophet Jeremiah lamented the same failure to learn from the Northern Kingdom: “Have you seen what she did, that faithless one, Israel, how she went up on every high hill and under every green tree, and there played the whore? And I thought, ‘After she has done all this she will return to me,’ but she did not return, and her treacherous sister Judah saw it. She saw that for all the adulteries of that faithless one, Israel, I had sent her away with a decree of divorce. Yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear, but she too went and played the whore” (Jeremiah 3:6b-8). While it wasn’t the Assyrians she lusted after, Judah had her eye on Babylon: “But she carried her whoring further. She saw men portrayed on the wall, the images of the Chaldeans portrayed in vermilion, wearing belts on their waists, with flowing turbans on their heads, all of them having the appearance of officers, a likeness of Babylonians whose native land was Chaldea” (Ezekiel 23:14-15). And when she was not satisfied by the Babylonians, Judah lusted after Egypt: “Yet she increased her whoring, remembering the days of her youth, when she played the whore in the land of Egypt and lusted after her lovers there, whose members were like those of donkeys, and whose issue was like that of horses. Thus you longed for the lewdness of your youth, when the Egyptians handled your bosom and pressed your young breasts” (Ezekiel 23:19-21).

Judah’s lovers would be turned against her and she would face a fate similar to her older sister: “Therefore, O Oholibah, thus says the Lord GOD: “Behold, I will stir up against you your lovers from whom you turned in disgust, and I will bring them against you from every side: the Babylonians and all the Chaldeans, Pekod and Shoa and Koa, and all the Assyrians with them” (Ezekiel 23:22-23a). And while her lovers would be the instruments, it would be the hand of the LORD issuing a just judgment: “You have gone the way of your sister; therefore I will give her cup into your hand…“You shall drink your sister’s cup that is deep and large; you shall be laughed at and held in derision, for it contains much; you will be filled with drunkenness and sorrow. A cup of horror and desolation, the cup of your sister Samaria; you shall drink it and drain it out, and gnaw its shards, and tear your breasts” (Ezekiel 23:31-34).

What struck you in today’s reading? What questions were prompted from today’s reading?

Pastor Joe