Joshua and Judges: Abrahamic Covenant and its fulfillment in the Millennium, part 5. Eze 16:6-34.

Title: Joshua and Judges: Abrahamic Covenant and its fulfillment in the Millennium, part 5. EZE 16:6-34.

 

Announcements / opening prayer:

 

 

Stage one: The Marriage Contract - Deuteronomy.

Moses took various facets of the three earlier books and presented them in the form of an ancient marriage contract.

 

We read three passages from Deu 5, 6, and 7. They revealed that God entered into a covenant with His people Israel at Mt. Sinai [Horeb]. The Jewish prophets viewed this covenant relationship as a marriage contract.

 

God announced His jealousy over His wife, Israel. In it she is warned against adultery. Since she is wed to God adultery is the worship of other gods. The warning was expulsion out of the land. The reason given is God's burning jealousy.

 

In chapter 7, He did not choose Israel as His wife due to her size, but because of His love for her.

 

Because of His love for Israel He entered into a covenant relationship with her. This covenant relationship is the marriage contract of Deuteronomy. Now Israel has an obligation, to keep His commandments, statutes, and judgments. So of what type of covenant is this marriage contract, conditional or unconditional?

 

We will see here that the conditional covenant of Moses, written as a marriage contract in Deu, does not at all abrogate the unconditional Abrahamic.

 

Israel will break this marriage contract. But that in no way nullifies the unconditional covenant given to Abraham. God is going to make a New covenant with them in which the marriage will be restored and that marriage will depend upon Jehovah alone. The New covenant is unconditional.

 

The prophets looked at the Mosaic covenant as a marriage contract.

 

Notice the vivid imagery that the prophet brings to this.

 

EZE 16:6 "When I passed by you and saw you squirming in your blood, I said to you while you were in your blood, 'Live!' I said to you while you were in your blood, 'Live!'

 

EZE 16:7 "I made you numerous like plants of the field. Then you grew up, became tall, and reached the age for fine ornaments; your breasts were formed and your hair had grown. Yet you were naked and bare.

 

EZE 16:8 "Then I passed by you and saw you, and behold, you were at the time for love; so I spread My skirt over you and covered your nakedness. I also swore to you and entered into a covenant with you so that you became Mine," declares the Lord God.

 

EZE 16:9 "Then I bathed you with water, washed off your blood from you, and anointed you with oil.

 

EZE 16:10 "I also clothed you with embroidered cloth, and put sandals of porpoise skin on your feet; and I wrapped you with fine linen and covered you with silk.

 

EZE 16:11 "And I adorned you with ornaments, put bracelets on your hands, and a necklace around your neck.

 

EZE 16:12 "I also put a ring in your nostril, earrings in your ears, and a beautiful crown on your head.

 

EZE 16:13 "Thus you were adorned with gold and silver, and your dress was of fine linen, silk, and embroidered cloth. You ate fine flour, honey, and oil; so you were exceedingly beautiful and advanced to royalty.

 

EZE 16:14 "Then your fame went forth among the nations on account of your beauty, for it was perfect because of My splendor which I bestowed on you," declares the Lord God.

 

The words of Ezekiel are the words of a wedding night (vs. 8) and the gifts from the Husband.

 

The covenant at Sinai and the relationship between Israel and Jehovah is described by the prophet in the terms of a wedding night and the beginning of marriage. It is a beautiful and prosperous beginning. It is  a beginning of power and glory. Yet being a conditional covenant, the marriage can quickly turn to turmoil and pain. I will become ugly and weak, and all because the wife of Jehovah decided to commit open and brazen adultery with many other lovers.

 

Stage Two: The Great Adultery.

Although Israel was firmly admonished to remain faithful to her Husband, she was guilty of great adultery.

 

JER 3:1 God says, "If a husband divorces his wife, And she goes from him, And belongs to another man, Will he still return to her? Will not that land be completely polluted? But you are a harlot with many lovers; Yet you turn to Me," declares the Lord.

 

JER 3:2 "Lift up your eyes to the bare heights and see; Where have you not been violated? By the roads you have sat for them Like an Arab in the desert, And you have polluted a land With your harlotry and with your wickedness.

 

JER 3:3 "Therefore the showers have been withheld, And there has been no spring rain [removal of discipline - separation]. Yet you had a harlot's forehead; You refused to be ashamed.

 

JER 3:4 "Have you not just now called to Me, 'My Father, Thou art the friend of my youth?

 

JER 3:5 'Will He be angry forever? Will He be indignant to the end?' Behold, you have spoken And have done evil things, And you have had your way." 

 

They still desired blessing from God though they took what was His and spent it on other lovers.

 

They turned to Him and called to Him while they still committed adultery with many lovers. This is so prevalent in our world. People want God's blessing while they live in the things that oppose Him. It's not that we work for blessing, for we are already blessed, it is that we abandon the blessings for something else that we may think, or may be deceived into thinking, is something better.  

 

This states that Israel was not merely guilty of a one-time adultery, but she was guilty of playing the harlot with many lovers.

 

JER 3:20 "Surely, as a woman treacherously departs from her lover,

So you have dealt treacherously with Me,

O house of Israel," declares the Lord.

 

Because of this adultery, the original marriage contract was violated by Israel.

 

JER 31:31 "Behold, days are coming," declares the Lord, "when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah,

 

JER 31:32 not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them, "declares the Lord.

 

Adultery meant that the marriage contract was null and void. Jeremiah is careful to show that the problem was not with the Husband, for God was a good Husband, the problem was with the wife who insisted on going after other gods and so became guilty of the great adultery.

 

In the prior verses was the wedding night and the marriage:

EZE 16:14 "Then your fame went forth among the nations on account of your beauty, for it was perfect because of My splendor which I bestowed on you," declares the Lord God.

 

EZE 16:15 "But you trusted in your beauty and played the harlot because of your fame, and you poured out your harlotries on every passer-by who might be willing.

 

EZE 16:16 "And you took some of your clothes, made for yourself high places of various colors, and played the harlot on them, which should never come about nor happen.

 

EZE 16:17 "You also took your beautiful jewels made of My gold and of My silver, which I had given you, and made for yourself male images that you might play the harlot with them.

 

EZE 16:18 "Then you took your embroidered cloth and covered them, and offered My oil and My incense before them.

 

EZE 16:19 "Also My bread which I gave you, fine flour, oil, and honey with which I fed you, you would offer before them for a soothing aroma; so it happened," declares the Lord God.

 

Although prostitutes generally receive money for their services, Israel paid them with the very things that her true Husband had given her. She valued her adultery above money.

 

The adultery is blatent, out in the open, and complete. They have taken many lovers and not even in secret. To what further depth of outright rejection of Jehovah than to offer His children to the false gods?

 

Furthermore, Israel's very children, who belonged to God, were sacrificed to these false lovers.

 

EZE 16:20 "Moreover, you took your sons and daughters whom you had borne to Me, and you sacrificed them to idols to be devoured. Were your harlotries so small a matter?

 

In other words, had you concluded that you had not gone far enough in worshipping these demons with God's gold, silver, bread, oil, and incense that you decided to offer God's children as well?

 

EZE 16:21 "You slaughtered My children, and offered them up to idols by causing them to pass through the fire.

 

EZE 16:22 "And besides all your abominations and harlotries you did not remember the days of your youth, when you were naked and bare and squirming in your blood.

 

The children born in Israel belong to God because He is the Husband and Father and Israel is His inheritance.

 

EXO 13:1-2

Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, "Sanctify to Me every first-born, the first offspring of every womb among the sons of Israel, both of man and beast; it belongs to Me."

 

Not only are the first-born sons His, but all those born to the Jews, and they gave them to the false gods. And it was the nations and governments of those who worshipped those idols that gave Israel the most trouble, which God gave her none, as long as she would simply walk after Him and not them.

 

EZE 16:22 "And besides all your abominations and harlotries you did not remember the days of your youth, when you were naked and bare and squirming in your blood.

 

Israel forgot the love of her youth when God first entered into the covenant relationship with her.

 

It is a great warning to us as well. Even a doctrinal believer can get so wrapped up in details and in doing that he can forget his first love. This doesn't mean that we should not do anything, not serve, not give, and not do a great job taking care of the details of life, but that in them, we should not forget that we have these things because God first loved us. We have opportunities in which to do and work because God first loved us and gave them to us. When you remember that you do and serve and do a great job taking care of the details of life with joy in your heart.

 

REV 2:2-4

'I know your deeds and your toil and perseverance, and that you cannot endure evil men, and you put to the test those who call themselves apostles, and they are not, and you found them to be false; and you have perseverance and have endured for My name's sake, and have not grown weary. 'But I have this against you, that you have left your first love.

 

Ezekiel goes on to show the lovers that Israel went after; the gods of the Egyptians, the Assyrians, and the Babylonians. The absurdity of Israel's adultery is clearly spelled out here. The foreign nations which these gods represented did the most hurt to Israel. She becomes like a battered wife who has no self-esteem and so she continues to return to the one who beats her.