Readings for today: Ezekiel 16-18, Psalms 35
A few weeks ago, I stood with a couple before their community of family and friends as they exchanged their marriage vows before the Lord. I encouraged them, as I always do, to live in covenant faithfulness with each other. To build the kind of deep intimacy where nothing is hidden and everything shared. To hold nothing back and have no secrets. To be naked and unashamed before the Lord as they build their life together. Of course, we all know many marriages fail to live up to this high standard. Life in this world has a way of pulling us apart even from those we love most. Pressure, distractions, not to mention the ever present corruption of sin all conspire to separate what God has joined together. The same is true in our relationship with Him.
Ezekiel 16 is one of the rawest, most graphic chapters in the Bible. It depicts God as the faithful husband who finds His bride bleeding and broken and abandoned to die in the wilderness. He raises her. Feeds her. Comforts her. Blesses her. She flourishes under His tender loving care. Eventually, He weds her in a beautiful ceremony. Covering her nakedness with His garment of love. (Think about what we read in the Song of Solomon and compare it to this chapter.) For a time, the couple is happy. She is content with her husband. But soon, she begins to take His love for granted. Her eye begins to wander. She gets distracted. She chases after other gods. She commits spiritual adultery. The revelation Ezekiel is given in this chapter are graphic because they depict the utter heartbreak and anger of God. Like any husband, He is angry and feels betrayed by His bride’s unfaithfulness. I’ve walked with many husbands and wives over the years through marital counseling and there is nothing quite like the betrayal of adultery. It is brutal and almost impossible to come back from. But Israel doesn’t just commit adultery once. She makes a pattern of it. Going from the Egyptians to the Assyrians to the Babylonians. She offers herself in covenant faithfulness to whoever seems to be the strongest and most powerful. God, her husband, will not be mocked. He judges her for her unrighteousness. He judges her for her unfaithfulness. He judges her for breaking His heart over and over again.
Like any husband, God has every right to reject Israel forever. She has broken the covenant and He could choose righteously to walk away. But God is faithful. He is faithful to His vows even when we are not. He is faithful to His promises even when we push Him away. He is faithful to His love even when we reject it. So what does God, our great Husband, do? Listen again to His words from Ezekiel 16, “For this is what the Lord God says: I will deal with you according to what you have done, since you have despised the oath by breaking the covenant. But I will remember the covenant I made with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish a permanent covenant with you. Then you will remember your ways and be ashamed when you receive your older and younger sisters. I will give them to you as daughters, but not because of your covenant. I will establish my covenant with you, and you will know that I am the Lord, so that when I make atonement for all you have done, you will remember and be ashamed, and never open your mouth again because of your disgrace. This is the declaration of the Lord God.” (Ezekiel 16:59-63 CSB) Yes, God will not give Israel a pass. He will not simply overlook her sin. But in an act of unbelievable faithfulness, He is the one who will make atonement for them. He is the one who will re-establish His covenant with them. He is the one who will bring them back into His home, back into His heart. What great faithfulness! There simply are no words.
Readings for tomorrow: Ezekiel 19-21, Psalms 36