Like the sacred trust of a marital relationship, God expected Israel to keep that trust they had with Him. Unfortunately, Israel chose to break that trust. Jerusalem had been depicted as an adulterous, unfaithful wife. She broke all decorum and prostituted herself uncontrollably with foreign nations. Blatantly she had violated the instruction to maintain her exclusive relationship with the Lord. Her people even had the gall to assimilate into their worship all kinds of pagan gods and all kinds of atrocious religious practices. They had totally regarded God.
As adultery was a crime punished by death, the spiritual adultery of Jerusalem would also bring about her destruction. As a jealous husband who would take corrective action against His unfaithful wife, God also would take corrective action against Jerusalem and Judah. Here in Ezekiel 16:35-43, God described how He would punish Jerusalem. But before He described what would happen to Jerusalem, He reiterated why her punishment was necessitated. He said in verses 36-37, “Because your lewdness was poured out and your nakedness uncovered through your harlotries with your lovers and with all your detestable idols, and because of the blood of your sons which you gave to idols….” These were the reasons why she would be severely punished.
In verses 38-43, God then revealed how Jerusalem would be punished and by whom. In those days, an adulteress would be stripped naked and publicly paraded before she was stoned to death. For her spiritual adultery, Jerusalem and Judah would be severely punished. She would be treated like how an adulteress would be treated. Jerusalem would be stripped bare and plundered and violated. Sadly, the people God would use to execute the judgment would be both the people she loved meaning the Egyptians, and the people who hated her, the Babylonians. God would allow these foreign armies to devastate the city, the temple, and the people. He was bent on correcting her stupidity so that she could no longer play the harlot nor pay her lover. Only after Jerusalem had experienced her calamity would God’s anger be appeased.
Israel had forgotten where she came from and how graciously God had nourished and cared for her. Ungratefully, she bit the hand that fed her. Herein are the lessons for us. Do not spurn the love God has shown us. Let that love He had showered upon us be the catalyst to build a faithful relationship and walk with Him. Don’t be a person who in the abundance of His providence forget the source of his or her blessings. Don’t be like the prodigal son who only wants the father’s goods but not the father. Instead let us love Him in the way He desires us to do so – to love Him with the whole heart, mind, soul, and strength.
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