Ezekiel 16
by Pastor David Groendyk

“Sometimes only an ‘R-rated’ sermon does justice to the outrage of sin.” So says Iain Duguid in his commentary on Ezekiel 16. This is a difficult chapter in the Bible to read because of how graphic it is, but it is necessary in order to show the full injustice and ugliness of sin. Much of Ezekiel 12–24 is filled with various analogies and metaphors about Jerusalem and their judgment. Ezekiel 16 is another one of those extended metaphors, and it also may be the most memorable.

Verses 1–58 may be called “the rise and fall of Jerusalem.” We’re told about an unwanted, abandoned child (vv. 1–5) who is brought back to life by God himself (vv. 6–7), grows and matures, and is eventually taken by the Lord to be a queen (vv. 8–14). However, the celebration and joy is quickly turned to ruin and horror as the bride uses her newfound beauty and adornments in order to prostitute herself to anyone who will take her (vv. 15–34). The only reasonable response from a just God is to strip away all the adornments that she loved so much and punish her for her unfaithfulness (vv. 35–43). As if this wasn’t enough, we learn that this sort of adultery is a family affair, Jerusalem having taken after her sisters, Samaria and Sodom (vv. 44–58). All three will be judged for their sins.

What do we take away from this vivid metaphor? There is nothing in us sinful people that makes us lovely to God. It is only out of pure pity and tender mercy that the Lord makes us live, enters into a binding covenant relationship with us, and adorns us with all good gifts. And yet even after we’ve been rescued out of our wallowing in blood, we do not stay faithful to him. We all must agree with the Lord’s assessment when he says in verse 30, “How sick is your heart!” What kind of a person would commit such shameful, ugly atrocities against someone who has done so much for them? Only someone who is totally depraved and enslaved to their sin. But the horrors of the first 58 verses of Ezekiel 16 are exceeded by the grace of verses 59–63. It’s a very short paragraph, but it ought to lift us out of our wallowing all over again! Despite all that we have done, what is the Lord’s response? To make an everlasting covenant with us (v. 60). God promises that he himself will atone for our sins (v. 63). Our outrageous sin can only be solved by the outrage of the cross—the world’s most innocent man, the One through whom all of Creation was spoken into existence, God incarnate was condemned and killed on a cross. God atones for everything we’ve ever done wrong against him, never to hold it against us again, by bearing the judgment himself. Realizing the great lengths that God has gone to in order to redeem us and the matchless price he has paid should stir us both to shame and hope—shame in looking back at what we once were, but hope in remembering what we are now. We are no longer wallowers and prostitutes; we are his glorious bride who will be presented spotless before him in heaven one day. What an amazing grace from an amazing God!