Reasoning Through the Bible
Taking a cue from Paul, Reasoning Through the Bible is an expository style walk through the Scriptures that tells you what the Bible says. Reviewing both Old and New Testament books, as well as topical subjects, we methodically teach verse by verse, even phrase by phrase.
We have completed many books of the Bible and offer free lesson plans for teachers. If you want to browse our entire library by book or topic, see our website www.ReasoningThroughTheBible.com.
We primarily do expository teaching but also include a good bit of theology and apologetics. Just like Paul on Mars Hill, Christianity must address both the ancient truths and the questions of the people today. Join Glenn and Steve every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday as they reason with you through the Bible.
Reasoning Through the Bible
S17 || God's Graphic Rebuke of Israel || Ezekiel 16:35-63 || Session 17
Prepare for a raw and unflinching look at divine disappointment as we explore one of Scripture's most graphic passages in Ezekiel 16:35-63. Using the powerful metaphor of marriage betrayed, God confronts Israel's spiritual unfaithfulness with language that still startles readers today.
The discussion opens by examining God's portrayal of Israel as a beautiful bride who degenerates into a shameless prostitute—but one who remarkably pays her lovers rather than receiving payment. This shocking imagery represents Israel's eager adoption of pagan worship practices, including the horrific sacrifice of their children to foreign gods like Molech. As Glenn and Steve carefully work through the text, they reveal how Israel's failure to drive out the Canaanites led to their corruption by the very practices God had warned against.
What makes this passage particularly devastating is God's declaration that Israel acted "more corruptly" than places like Sodom and Samaria—cities synonymous with wickedness. The conversation explores why Israel bears greater responsibility: they possessed God's law, experienced His deliverance, and knew His presence, yet willfully turned away. This principle carries profound implications for formerly Christian nations today that have abandoned their spiritual heritage.
Just when the message of judgment seems overwhelming, a dramatic shift occurs in the final verses. God unexpectedly promises to remember His covenant and establish an "everlasting covenant" with Israel. The teachers carefully analyze this reference to what theologians identify as the New Covenant, connecting it to passages in Jeremiah 31, Hebrews 8, and Hebrews 10, while exploring its implications for both Israel and the Church.
This episode powerfully demonstrates how Scripture uses provocative imagery to convey spiritual truths about covenant faithfulness, the consequences of idolatry, and God's redemptive purposes that persist even through judgment. Despite Israel's profound unfaithfulness, God's commitment to His promises remains unshaken—offering hope to all who have strayed from His path.
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May God Bless you!! - Glenn and Steve
Today, in Ezekiel, chapter 16, we're going to be reading a very descriptive passage. We're in a section of the Word of God where the descriptions are of how God treated Israel, what he did for her and how she then reacted. God described Israel as a baby. And he found this baby that had been abandoned, it had not been taken care of. And he found this baby that had been abandoned, it had not been taken care of. He cleaned it off, raised it up to marriable age, talked about how beautiful she was.
Speaker 1:Today we're going to get into the section where, in the description, israel turns in to a very lewd prostitute. We're in a section of the Word of God that's very expressive, it's very emotional, it's very graphic. So we're going to read a lot of this, simply because the language here is so profound. Again, the literary style is just quite important. The Bible, yes, is a historical book, yes, it's the Word of God, but it's also just very expressive literature. That's what we're going to hear today. We're going to see what God thinks of Israel's idol worship. He describes it as he would a prostitute. Again, remember last time there was this very loving child that the father loved, raised the child up to a very beautiful marriable age provided a lot of great things for this bride, and today we're going to see what happened to this bride and how she responded to the love of the Father. Steve, can you read in Ezekiel, chapter 16, and start at verse 35 and read down to 59? Therefore.
Speaker 2:O harlot, hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord God, because your lewdness was poured out and your nakedness uncovered through your hollertrees with your lovers and with all your detestable idols, and because of the blood of your sons, which you gave to idols. Therefore, behold, I will gather all your lovers with whom you took pleasure. Behold, I will gather all your lovers with whom you took pleasure, even all those whom you loved and all those whom you hated. So I will gather them against you from every direction and expose your nakedness to them, that they may see all your nakedness. Thus, I will judge you like women who commit adultery or shed blood are judged, and I will bring on you the blood of wrath and jealousy. I will also give you into the hands of your lovers and they will tear down your shrines, demolish your high places, strip you of your clothing, take away your jewels and will leave you naked and bare. They will incite a crowd against you and they will stone you and cut you to pieces with their swords. They will burn your houses with fire and execute judgments on you in the sight of many women. Then I will stop you from playing the harlot and you will also no longer pay your lovers. So I will calm my fury against you and my jealousy will depart from you, and I will be pacified and angry no more, because you have not remembered the days of your youth, but have enraged me by all these things. Behold, I in turn will bring your conduct down on your own head, declares the Lord God, so that you will not commit this lewdness on top of all your other abominations.
Speaker 2:Behold, everyone who quotes Proverbs will quote this proverb concerning you, saying Like mother, like daughter. You are the daughter of your mother, who loathed her husband and children. You are also the sister of your sisters, who loathe their husbands and children. Your mother was a Hittite and your father an Amorite. Now your older sister is Samaria, who lives north of you with her daughters, and your younger sister, who lives south of you, is Sodom, with her daughters. Yet you have not merely walked in their ways or done according to their abominations, but, as if that were too little, you acted more corruptly in all your conduct than they. As I live, declares the Lord Sodom, your sister and her daughters have not done as you and your daughters have done.
Speaker 2:Behold, this was the guilt of your sister, sodom. She and her daughters had arrogance, abundant food and careless ease, but she did not help the poor and needy. Thus, they were haughty and committed abominations before me. Therefore, I removed them when I saw it. Furthermore, samaria did not commit half of your sins, for you have multiplied your abominations more than they.
Speaker 2:Thus, you have made your sisters appear righteous by all your abominations which you have committed. Also, bear your disgrace in that you have made judgments favorable for your sisters Because of your sins, in which you acted more abominately than they. They are more in the right than you. Yes, be also ashamed and bear your disgrace in that you made your sisters appear righteous.
Speaker 2:Nevertheless, I will restore their captivity, the captivity of Sodom and her daughters, the captivity of Samaria and her daughters, and, along with them, your own captivity, in order that you may bear your humiliation and feel ashamed for all that you have done. When you become a consolation to them, your sisters, sodom with her daughters, and Samaria with her daughters, will return to their former state, and with you, your daughters will return to their former state, and with you, your daughters will also return to your former state, as the name of your sister, sodom, was not heard from your lips in your day of pride before your wickedness was uncovered. So now you have become the reproach of the daughters of Edom and of all who are around her, of the daughters of the Philistines, those surrounding you who despise you. You have borne the penalty of your lewdness and abominations the Lord declares For. Thus says the Lord, god, I will also do with you as you have done, you who have despised the oath by breaking the covenant.
Speaker 1:With this. Again, it was very descriptive passage. He's describing the actions of the people of Israel as if they were an adulterous bride that had not only been adulterous but turned into a prostitute. And, as we saw in the earlier sections, this particular prostitute isn't even really in the business. This prostitute is paying the customers instead of the other way around, and it's because the idol worship that they were doing included sex worship and it also included child sacrifice. We see back in verse 36,. It says because of the blood of your sons, which you gave to idols.
Speaker 1:What had happened in the history of Israel is that when they came into the land after wandering in the wilderness for 40 years, they were supposed to get rid of all the Canaanites, and the Canaanites had been practicing child sacrifice, they practiced sex worship and all these abominations. God said get rid of them. They will not listen, so we're going to destroy these people. And, of course, modern skeptics and critics think they knew better than God and say that God should not have commanded Joshua and the Israelites to get rid of all of the Canaanites. It seems that the ancient Israelites agreed with the modern skeptics because they didn't do it and they didn't follow God's commands. Here by the time we get down to Ezekiel. It's not the case that the good of the people of Israel had influenced the evil Canaanites. It was the other way around. The evil Canaanites had influenced Israel to the point that Israel was now sacrificing their children to the idols. And if you want to see how graphic it is, look up what happened when they sacrificed their children to the heated arms of the idol Molech. The other thing is they would have open sex worship and it was destroying the nation With this.
Speaker 1:God says in verse 35 of this chapter that he will allow foreign countries to come in and invade Jerusalem to expose the people bare. The enemies will tear down the shrines, kill many people and burn the city. That's what he's telling them. The Israelites had wanted to commune with the gods of these foreign nations, these idols. So Yahweh says you want to commune with those gods. I'm going to let you have them until you're sick of them.
Speaker 1:The people that are for these idols are going to come in and destroy your country, destroy your cities. They're going to come in and destroy your country, destroy your cities. They're going to have their way with you. And then, in verse 41, after the enemies come in and defeat Jerusalem. God will stop them from playing the harlot, stop them from worshiping idols with these foreign nations. He speaks about these foreign nations and actually gives specifically in these passages, several countries. If you remember, when we were reading, he mentioned the Amorites, the Hittites, he mentioned the Samaritans, he mentioned the people of Sodom, the Edomites and the Philistines. With this, steve, first question is what do we think of when we first read these very graphic descriptions of the destruction? And secondly, does God know about and give prophecies about countries outside of Israel?
Speaker 2:First thing I think about after reading that was that God is turning them over to themselves. He's completely letting them reap what they had sowed in their abominations before God with all the idol worship. It wasn't just the idol worship. You mentioned some other things there that were detestable child sacrifice, lewd acts of worship, those type of things. He has more of an expectation out of Israel. As you mentioned, they were supposed to be a model to all the other nations as to who Yahweh was and the relationship that he would have with them, but yet what they've done is they have just turned into the other nations themselves. This is a great disappointment. You can feel that in what God is saying here, you have done so much of a disappointment to me by not doing what I have asked you to do and in fact doing the opposite and being like all the other nations, that I'm going to treat you like all the other nations. Yet, even though they themselves were not worshipers of me or did abominable things in front of me, you're even worse than them because you did at one time have a relationship with me. I have protected you. I've given you judges in times whenever you needed them. I brought you out of Egypt On and on different things that he has done for the nation of Israel to protect them and to guide them, to give them guidance through prophets, and he gave them the ordinances and statutes that they were to keep. He's telling them you are even worse than these other nations. Why? Because they're not believers in me. You were once believers in me and we have this covenant of the law that has been given to you and also an unconditional covenant that was given with your forefather, abraham, Isaac and Jacob. God is just really disappointed and really angry with them through here Now.
Speaker 2:The second part of your question was does God speak about other nations? He does that through here. He first mentions the Hittites and the Amorites. He mentions Sodom and Gomorrah and the other sister cities on the plain. He mentions the Philistines over on the east coast and he then finally mentions Edom, who was down in the south.
Speaker 2:Through mentioning all those other nations or kingdoms, he's covering all of the area, from the north to the south, to the west, to the east of Israel, all these other nations that were there in the land, and he's condemned them. And what happened to Sodom Sodom was taken out and the different things that were talked about through the conflicts, the judges with Philistines and the things that happened with Edom and on and on and on, that God happened to provide for Israel. So, yeah, god does talk about other nations and he's not happy with them because they're not worshipers of him or followers of him, but yet he's really taking it out on Israel because they have just disappointed him and, through their actions, have just made him angry. So, in essence, he's just turning them over to themselves and he's going to treat them just like all the other nations.
Speaker 1:What he says in this section that we just got through reading it is quite a graphic section and it does indeed speak to and against many of these foreign nations, so that we can tell from this that God does communicate to and with nations outside of Israel. He knows what countries are doing. It's his world, he's in control. And what he's saying is I'm going to take these other nations and let them come in and attack you Again. Look at verse 37. I will gather all your lovers with whom you took pleasure. Those are these idols from these other nations, even all those whom you loved and all those whom you hated. So I will gather them against you from every direction. And Now, steve, that's very harsh.
Speaker 2:Do we have a God that sometimes says harsh things? I'm going to abolish all this idol worship that you've been doing Once and for all. This is going to be dealt with, but it's going to be dealt with a way that the other countries are going to be the ones that discipline you, the ones that you brought to the dance, so to speak. Those are the ones that are going to turn against you and those are the ones that are going to end up disciplining you, and from that, you're going to come to a point where one thing is going to be for sure Idle worship and things like that are no longer going to be something that you're going to turn to.
Speaker 1:So these foreign nations will not be able to appear before God and say we didn't know, simply because the prophet gets the message to them. No one can get to God at the end and say you didn't tell me, I never knew, because everyone will be without excuse. That's what it tells us over in the book of Romans. Then, at the end of verse 47, and, steve, you mentioned this a minute ago God tells them that you acted more corruptly in all your conduct than they. And what was especially egregious, as you well pointed out, was Israel had the law, they had a right relationship with God. At one point, they knew better, they had many blessings that were revealed to them through the covenants and the law and the prophets the prophets and therefore it's especially egregious when Israel, of all people, started going after these pagan religious practices, and especially because it was Israel and they acted even more corruptly than they. It reminds me of countries such as ours that once was heavily Christian but now is in many ways worse than the most pagan of nations that's ever lived, and the people that had more light will be judged more heavily. That's why he's judging and so strict here is because Israel, of all people, knew better, but yet they're acting worse. And that's the same that is happening with some of our former Christian nations that used to know better, but now they are as debased as any countries on earth. Now it speaks of Sodom and Sodom's sin. If we look at verse 49, it speaks Behold, this was the guilt of your sister, sodom. She and her daughters had arrogance, abundant food and careless ease, but she did not help the poor and needy. Thus they were haughty and committed abominations before me. Therefore, I removed them. Now there are people that like to take passages like this and try to wipe out the idea that the Sodomites were judged because of sexual sins. The people today that really want to embrace sexual sins and sexual abandonment go to passages like this and try to say well see, they don't think Sodom was judged because of sexual sins or any sort of abominations, but it was because of not being hospitable, not giving away food when they should have and not being nice.
Speaker 1:My friend, a closer inspection of the Word of God will reveal something very different. First of all, in verse 50, the word abomination. There is the same word for all the other worst abominations that are used, including homosexual acts. Sodom, specifically, was mentioned in other places in the Bible as having sexual sins, specifically Jude, verse 7 and Genesis 19.8. And then here in Ezekiel 16.49, it does not say that Sodom's sin was only in hospitality. It mentions in hospitality, but that wasn't the only cause. It was not mere inhospitality that increased God's anger. It was indeed what the other passages claim, which was gross sexual sins.
Speaker 1:Then in verse 51, it says Israel was more sinful than Samaria. Israel acted so bad that it made the pagan nations look righteous. Verse 59, if we look there, god says that Israel has broken the covenant. This would be the Mosaic covenant, because the Mosaic covenant was dependent upon the Jewish people obeying the Mosaic law. Mosaic covenant was dependent upon the Jewish people obeying the Mosaic law Makes that very clear in Deuteronomy, chapter 31. Since they broke it, god was punishing them. Israel could not break the Abrahamic covenant simply because that was a unilateral promise made by God that was not dependent on Israel's obedience. Up to now, god has had a, again, very graphic, very expressive condemnation of Israel's sin and described it in some detail. He turns a little bit of a corner here and in verses 60 to 63, he talks about a new covenant. This is a dramatic shift from what he has been talking about in the previous parts of the chapter. So it's quite amazing. Steve, can you read Ezekiel 16, verses 60 to 63?
Speaker 2:Nevertheless, I will remember my covenant with you in the days of your youth and I will establish an everlasting covenant with you. Then you will remember your ways and be ashamed when you receive your sisters, both your older and your younger, and I will give them to you as daughters, but not because of your covenant. Thus, I will establish my covenant with you and you shall know that I am the Lord, so that you may remember and be ashamed and never open your mouth anymore because of your humiliation, when I have forgiven you for all that you have done. The Lord God declares.
Speaker 1:So it says in this passage that we just read I will remember my covenant with you in the days of your youth, steve. What covenant is he talking about there?
Speaker 2:Well, Glenn, we know that the covenant that's spoken of in verse 60 is not the same covenant that's spoken of in verse 59. Because in 59, it says that they broke that covenant. Because in 59, it says that they broke that covenant, and in verse 60, he says I will remember my covenant with you in the days of your youth and I will establish an everlasting covenant with you. Well, the covenant that God is talking about here is the covenant of Abraham. He says I'm going to remember that covenant. It's not the same one that's spoken of in verse 59, because he's already stated you broke that covenant, so it's got to be a different covenant that he's remembering in verse 60. And I believe that's the Abrahamic covenant that he's talking about there, that he's going to remember. And because he has remembered that Abrahamic covenant, he is now going to establish a new covenant with them, and that's what he's talking about in verse 60.
Speaker 1:One of the major themes in the book of Ezekiel is that in the midst of God's wrath and condemnation and judgment, there is a new covenant. That's what he's speaking about here and it's of major importance simply because, again, so much of the book is about God's wrath and judgment that the new covenant really stands out as a bright and shining point. He says here in the end of verse 60, I will establish an everlasting covenant with you, and then he goes on to talk about some of the things. You're going to remember your ways and be ashamed. So this covenant is going to be an everlasting covenant.
Speaker 1:The idea of a new covenant that God's going to make is mentioned in several places in Scripture. We've already seen it, if you've been with us in Eiel, chapter 11, verses 18 to 20. It's also mentioned twice later in this book in Ezekiel 36, verses 26 to 28, and again in Ezekiel, chapter 37. The most prominent place that the new covenant is mentioned is probably Jeremiah 31, verse 31, simply because that verse is quoted over in the New Testament in Hebrews, chapter 8 and again in Hebrews, chapter 10. Hebrews 8 and chapter 10 both quote Jeremiah 31. Hebrews applies this new covenant to the church, so we can draw some very large and dramatic and very important conclusions from this new covenant. He says in all of these places in the Old Testament that this new covenant is going to be made with Israel. So therefore, the new covenant is with Israel, because it says so, but the church has been grafted into that according to, again, the book of Hebrews, chapter 8 and 12. Steve, that's a quite profound concept is it not?
Speaker 2:I think it is Glenn. This isn't the only place in Ezekiel that he's going to mention this covenant and we'll probably get into more details whenever he comes up again later in the book. But this is something that we can't say I think was brought about when they returned from their exile from Babylon, because when we get into the New Testament and the conflict that Jesus has with them, they're not talking about any type of new covenant. They're arguing with Jesus. In fact, jesus is rebuking them because of the ways and traditions that they have that they think supersedes the law of Moses. This is something that has not happened yet. Like I said, we'll talk about it in more detail when we get into it later in this book.
Speaker 2:But sometimes people want to put into a category that a lot of things that prophets say were fulfilled when they came back from Babylon All different types of things. Oh, that was fulfilled whenever the people came back from it. He regathered them. That's when they came back from Babylon. This is not one of those. This is not something that was fulfilled whenever they returned from Babylon. This is still something yet to happen with the nation that's who he's saying he's going to make an everlasting covenant with is the nation.
Speaker 1:And the reason we can know that there's clues in here why that's the case. Twice, in this little four-verse section, he talks about how you will remember your ways and be ashamed. He talks about how you will remember your ways and be ashamed. Well, the nation of Israel has not up to now remembered their ways of rejecting the Lord Jesus Christ and rejecting God and all these passages in the Old Testament and been ashamed of that. They have fallen into making their religion a tradition and they hold on to their traditions and they continue to reject the Lord Jesus. The other reason in here is it gives us a clue In the middle of verse 63, never open your mouth anymore because of your humiliation when I have forgiven you for all you have done. And the word forgiven there in our New American Standard in many of the other English translations uses the word atonement or atoned for all that you have done. Well, of course, steve, where is the point in biblical history where we are atoned for all?
Speaker 2:that we have done, it's through the atonement that Jesus made with his death, burial and resurrection. That's where our sins are covered there. That is the time whenever we in our era have the covering for Jesus, but not also in our era, but also for the sins formerly done as well. That's mentioned in Romans 3, verses 24 to 26. Romans, chapter 3, verses 24 to 26,. The once and for all atonement for mankind was made with Jesus at the time of his death, burial and resurrection.
Speaker 1:Verse 63 talks about the time when all of the sins were atoned for. It also mentions twice in this little passage that you're going to realize how you used to think and be ashamed of that, and so therefore it does not fit of the time of the Maccabees, when Israel returned from Babylon. It does not fit in the church, simply because, again, if we look at verse 61 in this passage talks about these other groups of people. You receive your sisters, both your older and your younger, and I will give them to you as daughters, but not because of this covenant. Well, it had already told us earlier in the chapter who that is. It's the people from Sodom and these other groups that were just mentioned. There was not a time when the Jews reconciled with the Samaritans. Just look at how the Jewish nation viewed the Samaritans in the first century, when Jesus came, they had not reconciled with the Samaritans. So therefore, the only way we can make this fit into some sort of time in history or some sort of allegorical application to the church, the only way we can make that fit is to just skip over parts of it and not deal with it. So if we look at what it actually says, then we are forced into a position that it means exactly what it says which is going to make a new covenant with the nation of Israel. Which he's going to make a new covenant with the nation of Israel.
Speaker 1:Jeremiah 31 says specifically it is a new covenant with Israel. Now, hebrews, as we just said chapter 8 and chapter 10, take that and apply it to the church. We take it that it is indeed through Jesus Christ that these will be filled and at some point in the future we're going to have the Jewish nation be reconciled to Jesus Christ. At that point they will remember their past sins and be ashamed that they had rejected their Messiah for as long as they had. Then they will reconcile and that day it will be a glorious day. They will reconcile with the other peoples that they've separated from all these years. The Lord is going to ensure.
Speaker 1:It says in this passage that the relationship between these estranged people groups will be restored. And the end of verse 63, god says at that time he will forgive them of all they have done. Again, that is for atonement. To wrap this up, steve, does this seem unusual to you that in the midst of this book, and if we look at it as a whole. There's large sections of God pouring out His wrath and God pouring out judgment on a disobedient people. Over and over again he lists off their sins and all the times Again this graphic depiction of this beautiful bride becoming this ugly prostitute. Yet right in the midst of that he says I'm going to make a new covenant and I'm going to reconcile with you. And it's sort of a dramatic bright spot in the midst of a ugly passage. Do you find that surprising?
Speaker 2:in the midst of a ugly passage. Do you find that surprising? I don't with God, because it shows his character, his mercy, his grace and his honesty, truthfulness and his commitment. He has made this commitment with the nation of Israel and with Abraham, and he's going to follow through with it. So this is a time period whenever they have done the destable things. He's taken action to get that corrected, but yet he's telling them I am still going to love you and I'm still going to establish a new covenant with you and I'm going to make these things come to a point where you are going to remember me and remember your ways and you're going to be sorrowful for all of that that you've done. No, not surprising at all. Just like he has done with us, in that he has come himself in the form of a man so that he could be the satisfactory sacrifice. That's how loving our God is.
Speaker 1:That brings us to the end of chapter 16. And we'd ask you to come back next time. We're going to see chapter 17, a couple of eagles that are going to do some tree planting. So we're going out to the woods next time and we'll reason through that as we continue to work through the book of Ezekiel.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much for watching and listening. May God bless you.
