For those who may wish to ‘study’ this chapter, the following simple resources are provided for you. Each passage has a four-Part approach to help you take in and think further about what you have read.

Warning: Because this is such a long and intense chapter, the reader should be prepared for the EIGHT studies that follow to cover it, but we hope by the end you will have found it a rewarding task to understand all that took place in this part of Israel’s history.

Origins  

Ezek 16:1-7

1 The word of the Lord came to me: 2 “Son of man, confront Jerusalem with her detestable practices 3 and say, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says to Jerusalem: Your ancestry and birth were in the land of the Canaanites; your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite. 4 On the day you were born your cord was not cut, nor were you washed with water to make you clean, nor were you rubbed with salt or wrapped in cloths. 5 No one looked on you with pity or had compassion enough to do any of these things for you. Rather, you were thrown out into the open field, for on the day you were born you were despised.

6 “‘Then I passed by and saw you kicking about in your blood, and as you lay there in your blood I said to you, “Live!” 7 I made you grow like a plant of the field. You grew and developed and entered puberty. Your breasts had formed and your hair had grown, yet you were stark naked.

A. Find Out

1. What is Ezekiel next told to do? v.2
2. How are they to be reminded of their origins? v.3,4
3. What was their plight? v.5
4. But what happened? v.6
5. How does He first picture them? v.7a
6. But how then? v.7b

B. Think:

1. How were Israel pictured before the Lord came along?
2. How did that change?
3. So what point is the Lord making?

C. Comment:

There is here a confrontation and a challenge. First of all the confrontation: face up Israel with her revolting practices for (implied) she is behaving just like any of her pagan idol-worshipping neighbours, and she needs to face up to this, if it is to change.

But then comes the challenge: think about where you’ve come from and all that has happened between you and the Lord. Start by thinking about your very origins. She came originally from the land of Canaan (were Abraham had settled), and Jebus or Jerusalem had originally had a very mixed background population (before David captured it).

The picture being conveyed is of a baby being born in very bad circumstances, and cut adrift with no one to care for it. Even from the moment of her birth (?on Mount Sinai) she was despised by everyone else. But then as she was like an infant appearing to be left to die, the Lord came along and spoke life to her and in the same way that a plant grows, so she continued to life and flourish. Indeed, changing the picture she was like a baby girl who grew into puberty and yet appeared naked, implying vulnerability. Yes, she was developing but yet she was  weak and defenceless. This is how she was in her earliest (40) years.

The point being made is that Israel came from nothing and it was only the Lord intervention (at the Exodus) that made here something and created a real nation out of her.                

D. Application:

1. We sometimes need reminding what we were like before being saved.
2. That comparison should challenge us how we are to live now.

Loved  

Ezek 16:8-14

8 “‘Later I passed by, and when I looked at you and saw that you were old enough for love, 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.

9 “‘I bathed you with water and washed the blood from you and put ointments on you. 10 I clothed you with an embroidered dress and put sandals of fine leather on you. I dressed you in fine linen and covered you with costly garments. 11 I adorned you with jewellery: I put bracelets on your arms and a necklace around your neck, 12 and I put a ring on your nose, earrings on your ears and a beautiful crown on your head. 13 So you were adorned with gold and silver; your clothes were of fine linen and costly fabric and embroidered cloth. Your food was honey, olive oil and the finest flour. You became very beautiful and rose to be a queen. 14 And your fame spread among the nations on account of your beauty, because the splendour I had given you made your beauty perfect, declares the Sovereign Lord.

A. Find Out

1. How does the Lord continue to picture their history? v.8a
2. How did He treat her? v.8b
3. How did He change her? v.9-12
4. So how did she appear to the world? v.13
5. How did that change her in the eyes of the world? v.14

B. Think:

1. How does this passage convey transformation?
2. Why did that come about?
3. So what was the ‘end product’?

C. Comment:

The picture so far of Israel’s origins, as conveyed by the Lord, has been pretty awful. She had been shown to be cast aside with no one caring for her, in fact despised, and left weak and vulnerable, with northing to commend her, but now that was all about to change.

The Lord  came to her as a lover who provided for her, covered her nakedness with His provisions for her. He completely transformed her (v.9) and dressed her with finery (v.10) and with wonderful jewellery (v.11) and all the adornments that might be seen on a bride (v.12,13) and her very lifestyle was one of great abundance and she was seen as one elevated to the highest place possible, that of a queen. Because of all this she became famous in the world (v.14a) and everyone understood this was because of the blessing of the Lord (v.14b).

Now it is quite easy to see how this accords with what happened in history. She had wandered in the desert before eventually being taken in to take the Promised Land and as the years passed, she changed from being led by judges, to being led by a prophet and then to being led by a king. Eventually, this third king, Solomon, with the blessing of the Lord on him, with the wisdom that the Lord gave him, elevated the nation to a position of immense power and riches so much so that the affluent Queen of Sheba came to visit and was, we might say today, almost blown away by his riches and his power and that also of his people (see 1 Kings 10), an exact fit to this present description.

D. Application:

1. Salvation means God takes us from being a nobody to be His child.
2. As Hs child, He blesses us with abundance.

Prostitution 

Ezek 16:15-22

15 “‘But you trusted in your beauty and used your fame to become a prostitute. You lavished your favours on anyone who passed by and your beauty became his. 16 You took some of your garments to make gaudy high places, where you carried on your prostitution. You went to him, and he possessed your beauty. 17 You also took the fine jewellery I gave you, the jewellery made of my gold and silver, and you made for yourself male idols and engaged in prostitution with them. 18 And you took your embroidered clothes to put on them, and you offered my oil and incense before them. 19 Also the food I provided for you—the flour, olive oil and honey I gave you to eat—you offered as fragrant incense before them. That is what happened, declares the Sovereign Lord. 20 “‘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? 21 You slaughtered my children and sacrificed them to the idols. 22 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.

A. Find Out

1. Of what does the Lord now accuse them? v.15
2. What 3 things had they taken to do this? v.16-18
3. How had they misused their food? v.19
4. What had they done with their children? v.20
5. How had the Lord viewed those ones? v.21
6. What had they forgotten? v.22

B. Think:

1. How had Israel ‘dressed’ themselves to sell themselves to other?
2. How had they distorted ordinary things of life?
3. What had been the peak of their horrors in all this?

C. Comment:

Having finished reminding them of their origins the Lord now confronts them with the enormity of their godless idolatry. This had been no casual thing but something they had wholeheartedly entered into, not a quick one off failing but obviously a deeply entrenched life style. The Lord leaves them in no doubt about the extent of their Sin.

Now the ‘prostitution’ that the Lord speaks of is spiritual but with physical outworkings, it was an abandoning of their spiritual life they had known with the Lord, and a linking to the religion of their neighbours or of that of literally anyone passing by who has an alternative ‘interesting’ religion to share in.

They had literally dressed up their ‘high places’, the places where they worshipped idols on the hillsides, and made them gaudy and attractive to other ‘seekers’. They added silver and gold and jewels to make the idols even more items of display, even adding their fancy clothes to dress up this false religion and, even more, using their food, spices etc. as offerings to the idols.

But then it gets worse: they had sacrificed their children to the idols like the worst of their pagan neighbours, and this was supposed to be the covenant people of God. In all of this they had completely forgotten all the things previously spoken about as part of their origins. They have fallen so far from their once glorious past.  

D. Application:

1. Apostasy starts in a small way but its decent becomes rapid.
2. The call is to remain faithful and let nothing lead us away.

Established apostasy 

Ezek 16:23-34

23 “‘Woe! Woe to you, declares the Sovereign Lord. In addition to all your other wickedness, 24 you built a mound for yourself and made a lofty shrine in every public square. 25 At every street corner you built your lofty shrines and degraded your beauty, spreading your legs with increasing promiscuity to anyone who passed by. 26 You engaged in prostitution with the Egyptians, your neighbors with large genitals, and aroused my anger with your increasing promiscuity. 27 So I stretched out my hand against you and reduced your territory; I gave you over to the greed of your enemies, the daughters of the Philistines, who were shocked by your lewd conduct. 28 You engaged in prostitution with the Assyrians too, because you were insatiable; and even after that, you still were not satisfied. 29 Then you increased your promiscuity to include Babylonia, a land of merchants, but even with this you were not satisfied. 30 “‘I am filled with fury against you, declares the Sovereign Lord, when you do all these things, acting like a brazen prostitute! 31 When you built your mounds at every street corner and made your lofty shrines in every public square, you were unlike a prostitute, because you scorned payment.

32 “‘You adulterous wife! You prefer strangers to your own husband! 33 All prostitutes receive gifts, but you give gifts to all your lovers, bribing them to come to you from everywhere for your illicit favours. 34 So in your prostitution you are the opposite of others; no one runs after you for your favours. You are the very opposite, for you give payment and none is given to you.

A. Find Out

1. How had they built up their apostasy? v.23-25
2. Which of their neighbours had they joined with? v.26
3. How had the Lord sort to curtail them? v.27
4. Who else had they turn to and joined with? v.28,29
5. How did the Lord feel because they had done what? v.30,31
6. How does He view them? v.32
7. How were they worse than ordinary prostitutes? v.33,34

B. Think:

1. What signs were there that they had ceased to be a separate, distinct holy nation?
2. What sort of religion were they enacting?
3. How does the Lord describe their fall?

C. Comment:

The condemnation of the previous paragraphs continues even more graphically here. This is not comfortable or pleasant reading and it is one of the few places that reveals the extent to which Israel (Judah) had fallen away from the Lord.

They had built established places to worship that were blatantly public (v.24,25) almost looking to enter into some more extreme pursuit of false religion. The had taken on board the Egyptian religion, and that of the Assyrians and Babylonians, despite the fact of the Lord disciplining them by having some of those people (implied) taking some of their lands (v.27).        

The Lord is outspoken as possible about their disgrace (v.30). On one had they act like spiritual prostitutes, brazenly revealing what they are like, what they are doing and what they want even more of. But it is worse than that for they do it freely and don’t get anything in return. But there is something yet even worse, because prophetic scripture often refers to the relationship they are supposed to have with the Lord as He being their husband and they being his wife  (Isa 54:5, Jer 3:14,20, 31:32) yet they have totally forsaken Him in every way possible with their idolatry and pagan worship  

D. Application:

1. Catch the sense of awfulness of this passage and mourn.
2. Realise that we can grieve the Lord by our behaviour (Eph 4:30)

Dealt with   

Ezek 16:35-42

35 “‘Therefore, you prostitute, hear the word of the Lord! 36 This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Because you poured out your lust and exposed your naked body in your promiscuity with your lovers, and because of all your detestable idols, and because you gave them your children’s blood, 37 therefore I am going to gather all your lovers, with whom you found pleasure, those you loved as well as those you hated. I will gather them against you from all around and will strip you in front of them, and they will see you stark naked. 38 I will sentence you to the punishment of women who commit adultery and who shed blood; I will bring on you the blood vengeance of my wrath and jealous anger. 39 Then I will deliver you into the hands of your lovers, and they will tear down your mounds and destroy your lofty shrines. They will strip you of your clothes and take your fine jewellery and leave you stark naked. 40 They will bring a mob against you, who will stone you and hack you to pieces with their swords. 41 They will burn down your houses and inflict punishment on you in the sight of many women. I will put a stop to your prostitution, and you will no longer pay your lovers. 42 Then my wrath against you will subside and my jealous anger will turn away from you; I will be calm and no longer angry.

A. Find Out

1. What does the Lord remind them they have done? v.35,36
2. So how will He now deal with them? v.37
3. How will He treat them? v.38
4. What will happen to them? v.39
5. What further will happen? v.40,41
6. With what outcome? v.42

B. Think:

1. How does the Lord reiterate the cause of His coming actions?
2. How will He deal with them?
3. What will be the final outcome?

C. Comment:

This almost feels like the end of the Lord’s outburst against this people, but it isn’t; there is still a lot more to come. First of all in this passage He makes quite sure they have before them the reason for His disciplining them: it is their total unfaithfulness by going after idols and foreign false religions and abandoning Hm and their covenant. (v.35,36)

Therefore in His disciplining them, He will take the very nations they have been consorting with and they will be stripped before them (v.37) (presumably reference to the coming destruction of Jerusalem.) Even as a woman convicted of adultery under the Law would face death, so will they. (v.38)

He reiterates that He will give them over to the very nations who they have been consorting with who will come in and actually destroy all signs of their idolatry, stripping away all the finery He previously referred to (v.39). Just as a guilty woman would be stoned by a mob, so they will be stoned (destroyed) by the mob of the surrounding nations coming against them (v.40) bring an end to their behaviour and stopping any possible repetition of it. (v.41). Only then will the Lord’s anger against them be sated and His wrath will abate. (v.42)

History would show all of these things happening as the Babylonians, with the encouragement of other surrounding neighbours, would invade again and bring total destruction to Jerusalem. No one could ever say they were not warned in Jerusalem and in Babylon!  

D. Application:

1. When God judges, He makes clear why.
2. Before God judge, He warns very clearly.

Wives & Sisters   

Ezek 16:43- 52

43 “‘Because you did not remember the days of your youth but enraged me with all these things, I will surely bring down on your head what you have done, declares the Sovereign Lord. Did you not add lewdness to all your other detestable practices?

44 “‘Everyone who quotes proverbs will quote this proverb about you: “Like mother, like daughter.” 45 You are a true daughter of your mother, who despised her husband and her children; and you are a true sister of your sisters, who despised their husbands and their children. Your mother was a Hittite and your father an Amorite. 46 Your older sister was Samaria, who lived to the north of you with her daughters; and your younger sister, who lived to the south of you with her daughters, was Sodom. 47 You not only followed their ways and copied their detestable practices, but in all your ways you soon became more depraved than they. 48 As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord, your sister Sodom and her daughters never did what you and your daughters have done.

49 “‘Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy. 50 They were haughty and did detestable things before me. Therefore I did away with them as you have seen. 51 Samaria did not commit half the sins you did. You have done more detestable things than they, and have made your sisters seem righteous by all these things you have done. 52 Bear your disgrace, for you have furnished some justification for your sisters. Because your sins were more vile than theirs, they appear more righteous than you. So then, be ashamed and bear your disgrace, for you have made your sisters appear righteous.

A. Find Out

1. What will the Lord do and why? v.43
2. What proverb does the Lord apply? v.44,45a
3. How does He extend such relationships? v.45b-48
4. What was Sodom’s sin? v.49,50
5. Why were they worse than Samaria? v.51
6. How did they make their other ‘sisters’ appear? v.52

B. Think:

1. How does the concept of wives & sisters speak to Israel?
2. How did they compare?
3. So what is the Lord’s conclusion?

C. Comment:

The Lord moves on in His denunciation of Israel (Judah) not by talking more abut idolatry but by comparing them to other city people groups who He refers to as wives or sisters, indicating relationships and origins.

But he starts by a general condemnation and warning, not only because of their idolatry but also because of the blatant way (lewdness) they carried it out. (v.43)

Then he quotes the well-known proverb (v.44) and says that’s what they are like. Now the concept used here of mother and daughter suggests the original Israel that came out of Egypt (the mother v.45) and then the two divided kingdoms after Solomon as two sisters, Samaria being the older one, perhaps because she was formed by the majority of the tribes (v.46). Original Israel had despised God, her husband, in the way she rebelled against Him (v.45a) and Samaria in the north and Sodom on the south acted similarly. Sodom had been rich and self-centred (v.49), yet Judah had recently acted far worse than either of other two. (v.47,48,51)

All of these cities revealed their godless propensity, turning away from God and foolishly turning to idols, yet Jerusalem had been worse than the other two, almost making them appear righteous by comparison (but of course they weren’t), almost justifying them.

Perhaps part of Jerusalem and Judah’s guilt was so much worse because they had had so many more warnings from Jeremiah and Ezekiel.

D. Application:

1. We have no excuses when God makes the truth so clear.
2. Being possessors of the Bible, we can never say we weren’t told.

Results 

Ezek 16:53-58

53 “‘However, I will restore the fortunes of Sodom and her daughters and of Samaria and her daughters, and your fortunes along with them, 54 so that you may bear your disgrace and be ashamed of all you have done in giving them comfort. 55 And your sisters, Sodom with her daughters and Samaria with her daughters, will return to what they were before; and you and your daughters will return to what you were before. 56 You would not even mention your sister Sodom in the day of your pride, 57 before your wickedness was uncovered. Even so, you are now scorned by the daughters of Edom and all her neighbours and the daughters of the Philistines—all those around you who despise you. 58 You will bear the consequences of your lewdness and your detestable practices, declares the Lord.

A. Find Out

1. What does the Lord say He will do for the others? v.53a
2. What will he also do for them, to achieve what? v.53b,54
3. What will happen in the end  to all of them? v.55
4. How had they felt about Sodom? v.56,57a
5. How had their positions been reversed? v.57b
6. How is this judgement on Jerusalem and Judah? v.58

B. Think:

1. How is the end apparently good news?
2. However what will they feel at the end of it all?
3. How will they be viewed by all the others?

C. Comment:

In the previous passage the Lord had pointed out the failure of their familial relationships to Him and to each other, in particular respect to Samaria and Sodom but now the Lord says something remarkable – and remember this is in the light of all He has said just previously about their destruction. He says that he will ‘restore their fortunes’. (v.53) Of course this does not mean He will restore all those who will die in the siege but He will restore them to a good place as people in those places. This is one of those remarkable hints (if not more than a hint!) of restoration after the siege and destruction of Jerusalem which is coming shortly.     However they will have, as the Message version puts it, to live with their shame afterwards.

The three cities are paralleled – twice. First they will all have their fortunes restored (v.53) and, second, they are all told they will return to what they were before. (v.55).

Previously they had looked down on Sodom (implied) (v.56) in their pride but now they will be disgraced they will be scorned by them (v.57) as they carry the burden of the Lord’s discipline in the coming destruction (v.58).

This passage is all about a levelling up of the three cities that the Lord had had to deal with  and although they will al eventually be restored, Jerusalem’s destruction will mean a greater shame to be borne.

D. Application:

1. With disciplinary judgment comes eventual restoration.
2. Nevertheless such judgment brings shame with it.  

Ultimate redemption 

Ezek 16:59-63

59 “‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I will deal with you as you deserve, because you have despised my oath by breaking the covenant. 60 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. 61 Then you will remember your ways and be ashamed when you receive your sisters, both those who are older than you and those who are younger. I will give them to you as daughters, but not on the basis of my covenant with you. 62 So I will establish my covenant with you, and you will know that I am the Lord. 63 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.’”

A. Find Out

1. What is God’s fundamental condemnation? v.59
2. And yet … what? v.60
3. What all-encompassing outcome will there be? v.61
4. What will be the simple outcome? v.61
5. What will the Lord do for them? v.62a
6. How will that leave them feeling? v.62b

B. Think:

1. Why have we used the phrase ‘all-encompassing’?  
2. How does the present situation contrast with the end?
3. What does this say about God?

C. Comment:

The conclusion of this long chapter is dramatic in its contrasts and has to go far further than their immediate future to cover their end-time..

The Lord still confronts their present state: they despise the Lord and have broken their covenant with Him and therefore they can expect the discipline of the Lord on them (v.59).

But, and it is a big ‘but’, the Lord will remember the old covenant they made on Sinai but, perhaps in the face of its inadequacies, will establish a new covenant and everlasting covenant, (v.60) which suggests something much greater than they have known so far.

WHEN that eventually happens, they will look back in shame as there will be a completely new coming together of all these ‘sisters’, these various expressions of the people of God. (v.61)

When this comes about they will have a new assurance that they are truly the covenant  people of God in reality (v.62). When this comes about it will be because He is able to make atonement for them, somehow paying for all their past sins (v.63) and again He says when they realise His love and activity on their behalf, they will be ashamed of the way that, throughout their history, they abused Him. These descriptions of the Lord’s activities can be nothing less than His saving work through His Son Jesus, saviour of the world – and Israel.

D. Application:

1. God’s goal is to redeem all His people.
2. Redemption follows repentance, which comes by Holy Spirit conviction.