Dwell in the Word
“‘But she carried her prostitution still further. She saw men portrayed on a wall, figures of Chaldeans portrayed in red, with belts around their waists and flowing turbans on their heads; all of them looked like Babylonian chariot officers, natives of Chaldea. As soon as she saw them, she lusted after them and sent messengers to them in Chaldea.’”
Today’s Text: Ezekiel 23:1-21 (Living Life Daily Devotional)
The metaphorical imagery of prostitution may not startle readers that much today. We have been so desensitized by the sexual revolution and the entertainment industry. There are, in fact, many movies that have glamorized prostitution and even made it out to be a noble vocation and industry. That is probably because the prostitutes themselves never produce those movies—but it is rather the consumers of prostitution who produce those movies.
But how would the original readers have responded to this text? We have to keep in mind that this passage is a summary explaining why God’s covenant blessings and inheritance was lost by God’s covenant people—a covenant that had taken about 1,000 years to fulfill since the days of Abraham (at least in terms of full and peaceful possession of the promised land).
We have to keep in mind also that this chapter contains a monologue of the LORD speaking to Ezekiel. It was His covenant and His sovereign plan that was disrupted by the disobedience of Israel and Judah.
In other words, the imagery of prostitution in this prophecy is meant to affect the original readers like a punch to the groin, like needles in the eyes. Whatever is the most loathsome, repulsive thing that you would want to avoid, this passage is meant to make us feel as if we have just come face-to-face with that thing.
And yet, the people of Israel not only did not avoid what must be the most detestable of all outcomes, they pursued it as if it was for their good.
Why do we not trust the word of God? Why do we think and act and feel as if the word of God has to conform to our worldview, rather than the other way around?
And it’s not as if the word of God promises that obedience to the word will result in abject suffering—suffering because of sin, yes, but not abject suffering. The word of God promises that a society that lives in obedience to the word will experience shalom.
The foolishness of humanity practically proves that the word of God is true.
I was watching a Q&A with Carl Sagan (an atheist), and someone asked him about the reality of meaninglessness without God. Sagan didn’t really answer the question but just asked, “What do you mean by ‘god’?” And his main point was that religion deflects all human responsibility to care for one another and care for this world (which was pretty much Karl Marx’s objection to religion). Carl Sagan basically believed that he was an enlightened human being, and that if everyone thought like him, the world would be as perfect as it could be—except for death and disease and natural disasters.
Sagan’s positive view of himself (disguised as a positive view of humanity) is greatly misguided. Once we can see the sin in ourselves, the foolishness of humanity (beginning with, and especially, our own) becomes quite apparent. And with that understanding, our need of a Savior.
And yet, that biblical understanding does not deflect our responsibility at all to care for one another and care for this earth. In fact, our Christian faith should give us the motivation, the inspiration, and the ability (power) to care for one another and to care for this earth—not because we are so enlightened, but for the glory of God, which is ultimately for our good.
Father, You know all things and You are sovereign over all things. Our own vision and understand are so limited. But help us stay BASIC in our thinking. Help us not to trust in our own understanding about anything, but to trust in Your word alone and to dwell in Your word alone. In Jesus’s name.
