Ezekiel 16:1-7 – Don't stay stagnant but make room for growth.

The people of Judah harbored the delusion that the temple in Jerusalem would not be destroyed. So, in Ezekiel 16-19, God through the prophet continues to give justification for why the destruction would come to pass. A rough calculation would place this message around King Zedekiah’s reign over Judah. He was placed on the by Nebuchadnezzar as the latter’s vassal king. Unfortunately, he and his ill-advised advisors were bent on rebelling against Babylon. Knowing that their folly would quickly precipitate the destruction of Jerusalem, Ezekiel gave several parables in these chapters to reveal and expose their folly. In parables, Ezekiel then showed the dismal spiritual and moral condition of Jerusalem.

Ezekiel 16 is a long chapter and impossible to see everything in one lesson. We shall take our time to slowly chew on this chapter to hear what God is saying to us through it.  In this chapter, we see two parables. The first, in verses 3-43, shows Jerusalem as an adulterous and wayward wife, and a prostitute. And the second from verses 44-63, shows Jerusalem as a fallen sister.

In verses 1-5, Ezekiel metaphorically painted Jerusalem’s sordid and dubious origin. Before Israel came into Canaan, it was the home of the Amorites and Hittites.  Jerusalem was like an unwanted child of theirs, left uncared for from birth. She was rejected and the proper care for a newborn was not accorded to her. No proper hygienic medical care was given to her. Pitifully, she was left on her own to struggle for her survival. From her inception, Jerusalem was like an unwanted, despised child.  

Then God saw her struggles and adopted her while she could barely survive. Though she was repulsive, in His mercy, God decreed that she should live. He brought life to her. And like a wanted child now, she was cultivated and flourished like a well-cultivated field. Though like a fully formed lady, she was still not yet adequately clad.

Like Jerusalem past before God adopted her up and cultivated her, we were also dead in our trespasses before Christ came to make up God’s very own. We were doomed to a damning eternity. But God who is rich in mercy with His love shown through Christ made us His own. As God’s own, we need to grow and be rightly clad spiritually. If we are to become the person God intends for us to be, we must be diligent to build godly habits and facilitate our spiritual growth. The key to facilitating spiritual growth is to be rightly clad. Since we have the privilege of being God's own, are we rightly adorning our lives with the right spiritual habits to ensure growth?