Ezekiel 16:6

Ezekiel 16:6 says, And when I passed by thee, and saw thee polluted in thine own blood, I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood, Live; yea, I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood, Live.  God said that when He passed over the people of Israel, He saw them polluted by their own blood.  This is a reference to when the people of Israel were held captive in Egypt and were helpless to escape by their own power.  They were looked down on and helpless to free themselves from captivity and doomed to die that way, but God said to them, ”Live.”  It was by His grace that He was going to restore them and not because they had earned it.  While we are captives to sin and under the death penalty for our sins, God looks down on us with mercy and calls us to live forever with Hiim because of His grace and not because of our worthiness.  

Verse seven adds, I have caused thee to multiply as the bud of the field, and thou hast increased and waxen great, and thou art come to excellent ornaments: thy breasts are fashioned, and thine hair is grown, whereas thou wast naked and bare.  God said He had caused the nation of Israel to grow and that He had blessed them materially, even in captivity which might not have been evident until they followed Him out of captivity by faith.  They had been naked and bare before, but now they were clothed.  As followers of Christ, before we accepted Him as our Savior and Lord, we were spiritually in captivity to sin and without hope, but God in His mercy redeemed us to new life when we accepted Jesus Christ, and He has done the same for everyone if they only put their faith in Him.   

Verse eight continues, Now when I passed by thee, and looked upon thee, behold, thy time was the time of love; and I spread my skirt over thee, and covered thy nakedness: yea, I sware unto thee, and entered into a covenant with thee, saith the Lord God, and thou becamest mine.  God said when He passed over them that He did so with love and compassion.  Then, they entered into a covenant relationship with Him, and they became His and He covered them with His protection.  When God passes over us in love and compassion, which I believe He does with each individual, He calls us to a covenant relationship with Him by accepting His gift of salvation and when we accept Jesus Christ as our Savior and Lord, which is the only way to salvation, He covers us spiritually with His protection, so there is never a need to fear anything in this world anymore,  We are forever His by faith.   

Verse nine concludes, Then washed I thee with water; yea, I throughly washed away thy blood from thee, and I anointed thee with oil.  God said He washed the people with water and made them completely clean and then He anointed them with oil.  We are actually washed clean spiritually by the blood of Christ, but once we accept Him as our Savior and Lord, we are anointed by the Holy Spirit, which is much greater than oil or anything else will ever be.   

Ezekiel 16:1

Ezekiel 16:1 says, Again the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,  Ezekiel said God sent another message for Him to share with the people of Israel.  As stated before, as He did with Ezekiel, God will continue to speak to us as followers of Christ, and then we need to share His word with those around us.   

Verse two adds, Son of man, cause Jerusalem to know her abominations, God told Ezekiel that he was to make the abominations of the people of Israel known to them.  Matthew Henry points out that Ezekiel was in captivity in Babylon at this time and Jeremiah was in Jerusalem, and Jeremiah had a message of comfort for the people there, and Ezekiel had a message of conviction of their sins.  They did not see themselves as rivals, but both were proclaiming the word that God gave them.  Preachers today may have messages that are different than what other preachers are preaching, such as one may be pointing to the comfort that believers have even in the midst of adversity and another maybe pointing out the need to repent for sins that have come into the lives of believers.  Still, as long as they are both proclaiming the word that God gives them, they will never be rivals.  I know that preachers also preach to call the unsaved to salvation, but when comparing them the Ezekiel and Jeremiah who were speaking to the people of Israel, then we would be looking at the massage of preachers to people Christians.

Verse three continues, And say, Thus saith the Lord God unto Jerusalem; Thy birth and thy nativity is of the land of Canaan; thy father was an Amorite, and thy mother an Hittite.  Ezekiel was to tell the people that they were born in the land of Canaan but that their father was an Amorite and their mother a Hittite.  The people of Israel did not just suddenly appear when God called Abraham into a covenant relationship with Him, but they were born as a part of another group of people.  We as Christians were not just born as a  part of God’s kingdom, but wherever we are from in the world, when we accept Jesus Christ as our Savior and Lord, we become a part of God’s kingdom.  Matthew Henry points out that they often looked to other nations for security instead of having destroyed them all as God commanded.  Once we are a born-again believer, we need to destroy all of the things that might lead us away from God and should never look to the powers of this world for protection.   

Verse four states, And as for thy nativity, in the day thou wast born thy navel was not cut, neither wast thou washed in water to supple thee; thou wast not salted at all, nor swaddled at all.  God said that the nation of Israel had been like a new-born baby who was not cared for by the people of the world.  They could no longer depend on other people to care for them but must depend on God alone.  When we accept Jesus Christ as our personal Savior and Lord, we are born again as a newborn baby in Christ, and we can no longer look to people of the world to be our source of nurturing spiritually, but we must look to God alone.   

Verse five adds, None eye pitied thee, to do any of these unto thee, to have compassion upon thee; but thou wast cast out in the open field, to the lothing of thy person, in the day that thou wast born.  God said that no one cared for the people of Israel when they were first called to be a new nation under God, but instead they were cast out in the open field where they would have died if they had been depending on people of the world to keep them safe.  He also said that other people loathed the people of Israel.  We know that the people of Israel were often looked on with contempt and that the people of the world tried to kill or enslave them.  As followers of Christ, we should not expect the people of the world to keep us safe, but we should look to God alone.  As a matter of fact, we may find that those who do not believe in God will often want to kill or at least enslave us.  This should never stop us from putting our faith in God and proclaiming His word to the world.   

Ezekiel 15:6

Ezekiel 15:6 says, Therefore thus saith the Lord God; As the vine tree among the trees of the forest, which I have given to the fire for fuel, so will I give the inhabitants of Jerusalem.  God said just as He had given the worthless vines to be burned, He would do with the people of Israel, because they had refused to put their faith in Him and therefore had become worthless to Him.  If we do not accept Jesus Christ as our Savior and Lord and thereby refuse God’s gift of salvation, we will always be worthless to Him and will one day be sent away to burn in the fires of hell.  Though today many people don’t want to believe in hell even if they profess to believe in God, God's word tells it is real and that this is the place that all who do not accept His gift of salvation will sent to forever.   

Verse seven adds, And I will set my face against them; they shall go out from one fire, and another fire shall devour them; and ye shall know that I am the Lord, when I set my face against them.  God said that when He sent His punishment on Israel, there would be no escape.  They would escape one fire only to find themselves in another one.  When God sends people away to everlasting punishment, there will be no way to escape.  When this happened, the people would know that He is God.  Those who refuse to acknowledge God in this life will acknowledge Him one day, but there will be no way to escape the everlasting punishment that they will be sent away to, which is why it is so important that we acknowledge Jesus Christ as our Savior and Lord when He calls us to salvation, and He will call everyone to salvation.  He will never force any to accept His gift of salvation though, and if they are sent away to everlasting punishment, it will be because they chose to go there.  

Verse eight continues, And I will make the land desolate, because they have committed a trespass, saith the Lord God.  God said He was going to make the land of Israel desolate because the people had committed a trespass against Him and would not come to Him by repenting and putting their faith in Him.  Since it says a trespass and not trespasses, I believe that this refers to the fact that they did not believe in Him and put their faith in Him.  I do know that the sin that will send everyone to hell is not putting their faith in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord.