Ezekiel 16:15

Ezekiel 16:15 says, But thou didst trust in thine own beauty, and playedst the harlot because of thy renown, and pouredst out thy fornications on every one that passed by; his it was.  Matthew Henry says that this turning away from God and worshipping false gods began toward the latter part of Solomon’s rein and continued through the captivity of Israel.   God now begins to speak of the iniquities of the people of Israel after He had redeemed them and made them a very prosperous nation.  They became unfaithful to God by chasing after other gods and seeking their own glory and pleasure.  As Christians, we should never allow anything to become more important to us than God.  

Verse sixteen adds, And of thy garments thou didst take, and deckedst thy high places with divers colours, and playedst the harlot thereupon: the like things shall not come, neither shall it be so.  God said that the people of Israel had adorned high places with colors to worship them instead of worshipping Him, for which He said they played the harlot.  They had been in a marriage relationship with God, but they were not true to Him.  As followers of Christ, we are referred to as the bride of Christ, which I believe means that we should be totally devoted to Him as He will be to us.   

Verse seventeen continues, Thou hast also taken thy fair jewels of my gold and of my silver, which I had given thee, and madest to thyself images of men, and didst commit whoredom with them,  God said that they had taken His jewels, gold and silver that He had given them and turned them into idols.  We may sometimes lose sight of the fact, but everything belongs to God, and as Christians, we should never turn the things God blesses us with into something we worship.  They began to act out of pride of who they were materially as a nation more than they did out of an attitude of gratitude and obedience to God.  We can sometimes become the same way individually and as a nation, taking more pride in where we were born and feeling superior to others because of it, but one day all that we have put our faith in other than God will be destroyed.   

Verse eighteen states, And tookest thy broidered garments, and coveredst them: and thou hast set mine oil and mine incense before them.  God said that the people of Israel took their embroidered garments and made them into things to worship and then poured His oil and His increase out before these idols.  God was the one responsible for all their success, but instead of worshipping Him, they were worshipping idols and using what was God’s to do it.  Once more, we need to remember that everything already belongs to God and we should never make what God blesses us with into an idol.   

Verse nineteen adds, My meat also which I gave thee, fine flour, and oil, and honey, wherewith I fed thee, thou hast even set it before them for a sweet savour: and thus it was, saith the Lord God.  God continued by saying that the food that He had blessed them with was being used in the worship of idols as well.  It is not just the jewels, silver, and gold that we should see as belonging to God, but everything needed to live.  The meat and bread that the people had belonged to God and were things that He blessed them with, just as we should understand today.   

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.