God’s Grace –Jerusalem’s Unfaithfulness Part III The Queen Becomes a Harlot

God Summarizes The Harlot’s Sins

Ezekiel 16:35-36

³⁵Wherefore, O harlot, hear the word of Jehovah: ³⁶Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Because thy filthiness was poured out, and thy nakedness uncovered through thy whoredoms with thy lovers; and because of all the idols of thy abominations, and for the blood of thy children, that thou didst give unto them (ASV, 1901);

This begins the third section of the parable and is covered in verses 35-43. In this part of the parable the wronged husband is prepared to extract His vengeance from His faithless wife. Jerusalem the harlot is the queen that had become like a brazen prostitute who did not take any payment for her services to her lovers. She was an adulterous wife as well as a prostitute because she preferred strangers to her own husband. She had resorted to giving bribes to get the attention that earlier had been lavishly bestowed upon her by her admirers. God had tried to stop her descent into destruction but she would not listen to His warnings through His righteous prophets such as Jeremiah and Ezekiel. So now God has had enough with the harlot’s behavior. He says, “thy filthiness was poured out” indicating the summary designation of all her behavior. Interestingly the Hebrew word for “poured out” is nechoshet and is used to describe the lower part of a female’s body which has the same root of nachash the word for the serpent. Hebrew’s play on words shows the source of her wickedness, Satan. Her wickedness included:

• Exposing herself to her many lovers.
• Worshipping pagan idols instead of her genuine husband.
• Sacrificing her children to the pagan gods.

Now God, who is the faithful husband in this parable, will curse her as He had promised many years ago in His covenant with the Nation Israel:

Deuteronomy 28:15-23

¹⁵But it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of Jehovah thy God, to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes which I command thee this day, that all these curses shall come upon thee, and overtake thee. ¹⁶Cursed shalt thou be in the city, and cursed shalt thou be in the field. ¹⁷Cursed shall be thy basket and thy kneading-trough. ¹⁸Cursed shall be the fruit of thy body, and the fruit of thy ground, the increase of thy cattle, and the young of thy flock. ¹⁹Cursed shalt thou be when thou comest in, and cursed shalt thou be when thou goest out. ²⁰Jehovah will send upon thee cursing, discomfiture, and rebuke, in all that thou puttest thy hand unto to do, until thou be destroyed, and until thou perish quickly; because of the evil of thy doings, whereby thou hast forsaken me. ²¹Jehovah will make the pestilence cleave unto thee, until he have consumed thee from off the land, whither thou goest in to possess it. ²²Jehovah will smite thee with consumption, and with fever, and with inflammation, and with fiery heat, and with the sword, and with blasting, and with mildew; and they shall pursue thee until thou perish. ²³And thy heaven that is over thy head shall be brass, and the earth that is under thee shall be iron (ASV, 1901).

The Lord Will Bring The Lovers Against Jerusalem

Ezekiel 16:37

³⁷therefore behold, I will gather all thy lovers, with whom thou hast taken pleasure, and all them that thou hast loved, with all them that thou hast hated; I will even gather them against thee on every side, and will uncover thy nakedness unto them, that they may see all thy nakedness. (ASV, 1901)

All the nations will join in the plunder of Jerusalem. Even former allies like Egypt, Assyria, and the Chaldean (Babylonians) will join together with their perpetual enemies such as the Philistines to plunder Jerusalem. The Jews bonded together with these pagan nations, and assimilated their despised religious idolatry into Jehovah God’s pure relationship with them. In the Mosaic Law a harlot’s punishment is prescribed and included tearing off the clothes, public humiliation in nakedness, public trial, public stoning till death, dismemberment of the body, and burning of their house (Leviticus 20:10–12; Deuteronomy 22:22). Israel will likewise be exposed to attack without any protection.

Disgrace Will Come Upon Her

Ezekiel 16:38

³⁸And I will judge thee, as women that break wedlock and shed blood are judged; and I will bring upon thee the blood of wrath and jealousy (ASV, 1901).

Israel’s guilt is now summed up and her punishment announced. It will correspond to the sins she has committed. Her sins are made the means of her reparation. She will be punished as the adulteress she is, and condemned to public shame. Because she had openly carried out her sin, she shall be openly exposed and made a spectacle to the world. God will disgrace before the world those who exchange the offer of a relationship with God for love of the world. The Babylonians hurled stones on Jerusalem during the siege, and slew the people with the sword thereby fulfilling the Mosaic Law’s punishment of an adulteress. God clearly states “I will bring upon thee the blood of wrath and jealousy”, which represents God pouring out His jealousy on Jerusalem, by shedding the blood of his unfaithful wife, Israel, by Him, her spiritual husband.

The Harlot’s Paramours Become Her Persecutors

Ezekiel 16:39-40

³⁹I will also give thee into their hand, and they shall throw down thy vaulted place, and break down thy lofty places; and they shall strip thee of thy clothes, and take thy fair jewels; and they shall leave thee naked and bare. ⁴⁰They shall also bring up a company against thee, and they shall stone thee with stones, and thrust thee through with their swords. (ASV, 1901)

Those nations with whom she sinned become the instruments of His judgments. “Vaulted place” is the same high places that are cited in Ezekiel 16:24. The “vaulted place” is literally a fornication chamber. This is connected with the impure rites of idolatry, and spiritual fornication on the “lofty places.” During their invasions, the Babylonians treated these places as local sanctuaries, and laid them waste.

The clothes and the jewels are all outward tokens of stateliness and prosperity. They will take both clothes and jewelry from the harlot, and leave her naked. Stripped of the riches she had received from God, but had lavished upon her lusts, she should no more be able to gratify herself in this way. She had fully proved her Canaanite descent. The final punishment of stoning and being thrust through by the sword will destroy both city and kingdom and Jerusalem will be laid waste. This “stoning” and “thrusting through” will not completely annihilate the people, just Jerusalem, because other verses say the Jews will never be completely rejected by God (Leviticus 26:44-45; Jeremiah 31:35-37).

The City Will be Burned

 

Ezekiel 16:41

⁴¹And they shall burn thy houses with fire, and execute judgments upon thee in the sight of many women; and I will cause thee to cease from playing the harlot, and thou shalt also give no hire any more (ASV, 1901).

The punishment of death within the Mosaic Law was made more ceremonially severe by burning the corpse after it had been stoned or run through with a sword (Leviticus 20:14; 21:9). In a like manner, the burning of the houses can be regarded as intensifying the punishment. The judgment being executed is “in the sight of many women” refers to the many heathen nations surrounding Jerusalem, according to the description of Jerusalem, or Israel, as an unfaithful wife. It is a humiliating punishment to an adulterous woman to be exposed for this before other women. Accordingly the humiliation of Israel’s punishment will be to stand exposed in its sin before the eyes of all other nations. This is the way in which God will put an end to the fornication (“give no hire any more”), and appease His wrath and jealousy upon the harlot. It is His way to cause a person to cease to be or do anything. Since other passages discuss the burning of the city of Jerusalem, this prophecy had a literal fulfillment as well (II Kings 25:9; Jeremiah 52:13).

God’s Wrath Will End

The jealousy of the injured husband is appeased by the execution of the judgment. God had earlier declared this in chapter 5 before all the captives were in Babylon:

Ezekiel 5:13-14

¹³Thus shall mine anger be accomplished, and I will cause my wrath toward them to rest, and I shall be comforted; and they shall know that I, Jehovah, have spoken in my zeal, when I have accomplished my wrath upon them. ¹⁴Moreover I will make thee a desolation and a reproach among the nations that are round about thee, in the sight of all that pass by. (ASV, 1901)

Ezekiel 16:42-43

 ⁴²So will I cause my wrath toward thee to rest, and my jealousy shall depart from thee, and I will be quiet, and will be no more angry. ⁴³Because thou hast not remembered the days of thy youth, but hast raged against me in all these things; therefore, behold, I also will bring thy way upon thy head, saith the Lord Jehovah: and thou shalt not commit this lewdness with all thine abominations (ASV, 1901).

God, the husband of Israel, is now saying that He has been satisfied with the punishment they deserved that He personally meted out to them. The cause or source of Jerusalem’s sin was her failure to remember the Lord’s gracious favor. All her grandeur came as a result of His blessings. Therefore when she turned from Him she was cutting herself off from the only true source of blessing. He became enraged because it was Him who had raised her to greatness. As God said through Isaiah “they rebelled, and grieved his Holy Spirit: therefore he was turned to be their enemy, and himself fought against them” (Isaiah 63:10). By saying in verse 43 that “thou shalt not commit this lewdness with all thine abominations”, He is saying He will leave them with a sense of guilt that revolts and shocks them.

 

Daniel E. Woodhead