Sermon Tone Analysis

Ezekiel 16:15-22

Playing the Whore

 

You trusted in your beauty and played the whore because of your renown and lavished your whorings on any passer-by; your beauty became his.

You took some of your garments and made for yourself colourful shrines, and on them played the whore.

The like has never been, nor ever shall be.

You also took your beautiful jewels of my gold and of my silver, which I had given you, and made for yourself images of men, and with them played the whore.

And you took your embroidered garments to cover them, and set my oil and my incense before them.

Also my bread that I gave you—I fed you with fine flour and oil and honey—you set before them for a pleasing aroma; and so it was, declares the Lord God.

And you took your sons and your daughters, whom you had borne to me, and these you sacrificed to them to be devoured.

Were your whorings so small a matter that you slaughtered my children and delivered them up as an offering by fire to them?

And in all your abominations and your whorings you did not remember the days of your youth, when you were naked and bare, wallowing in your blood.[1]

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ugene Peterson captures the raw power of Ezekiel’s words.

Your beauty went to your head and you became a common whore, grabbing anyone coming down the street and taking him into your bed.

You took your fine dresses and made “tents” of them, using them as brothels in which you practiced your trade.

This kind of thing should never happen, never.

And then you took all that fine jewellery I gave you, my gold and my silver, and made pornographic images of them for your brothels.

You decorated your beds with fashionable silks and cottons, and perfumed them with my aromatic oils and incense.

And then you set out the wonderful foods I provided—the fresh breads and fruits, with fine herbs and spices, which were my gifts to you—and you served them as delicacies in your whorehouses.

That’s what happened, says God, the Master.

And then you took your sons and your daughters, whom you had given birth to as my children, and you killed them, sacrificing them to idols.

Wasn’t it bad enough that you had become a whore?

And now you’re a murderer, killing my children and sacrificing them to idols.[2]

Such unadorned language is no doubt shocking to some.

However, Ezekiel writes in an earthy, pointed, plain fashion.

In light of contemporary “entertainment” that floods our living rooms and fills our ears, I doubt that his words are terribly distressing in themselves.

Nevertheless, there are undoubtedly individuals that wonder at the language, especially when it is read in a service of worship.

Perhaps it is because we have a  paucity of prophetic preaching that unvarnished language shocks sensibilities and grates on our ears.

Perhaps it is because the pulpit ministry has become a caricature of biblical teaching that strong words appal.

Whatever the reason for being startled by the clear words of Scripture, God delivers a pointed warning to the people bearing His Name through Ezekiel’s cutting words.

We will do well to hear what Ezekiel is saying and to take heed to his words.

Whereas the writers of the Old Testament speak of “playing the whore” or speak of “whoring” over one hundred times, Ezekiel is especially unrelenting and incessant in applying this opprobrium to Israel.

Thirty-one times in the Book that bears his name, thirteen times in this immediate chapter before us today, the prophet accuses God’s holy people of “playing the whore.”

He was unhesitating in describing their unfaithfulness to God as “whoring.”

Perhaps if our nation had had such a plainspoken prophet in years gone by, we would not witness the descent into the unrighteousness that marks us as a nation today.

Perhaps it is not too late to be confronted by the divine call to righteousness.

Perhaps some will hear what God says through His prophet.

Ezekiel is addressing Israel.

He addresses the nation as though she were a beautiful woman.

The prophet tells how God passed by and saw her when she was but an infant—a newborn exposed to die; but God intervened and commanded life for her.

The nation grew and prospered, and God saw that she had become a beautiful young woman.

He bathed her, clothed her, and adorned her with gold and with jewels.

God fed her and fêted her, and she became a beautiful young woman—a princess.

However, Israel, depending upon her beauty alone, forgot God’s mercies and also forgot her own dysfunctional roots.

The words of the wise man could have readily been applied to the nation at the time Ezekiel confronted the wayward people.

Like a gold ring in a pig’s snout

is a beautiful woman without discretion.

[*Proverbs 11:22*]

 

Indeed, Israel was without discretion; she was not chaste.

She began to lavish her love on strangers.

Her beauty became an instrument of wickedness used to allure others into deep immorality.

Her jewels and precious metals were spent for idolatrous purposes, and even her food was used to entice others to join her in her immorality.

Were all this immorality somehow insufficient to merit God’s wrath, she did one thing further that God found abhorrent.

She sacrificed her children for her own pleasure.

She slaughtered her own babies, even burning them as offerings to her own perverted wickedness.

In all this, Israel did not remember when she was nothing, threatened with death in her weakness and in her powerless state.

Perhaps Canadians will do well to consider that God’s condemnation of ancient Israel could apply equally to us.

We have enjoyed God’s richest blessings, and we have utterly prostituted His grace and goodness.

Consider, then, the Word of God.

It is “Right to Life” Sunday throughout North America.

The churches of the United States and Canada, especially the evangelical churches, hold this Sunday as a day to contemplate the precious nature of human life and to remember the teaching of the Word of God concerning the way in which we are to view human life.

In light of our propensity to rid ourselves of inconvenience through killing the elderly, the sick, the unborn, we will do well to think of God’s wrath displayed against spiritual whores.

The Nation was Rushing into Idolatry — Ezekiel condemns Israel for acting like a whore.

The charge arises from idolatry that had so thoroughly infiltrated the nation that even the religious leaders were unaware of what was happening.

They were worshipping success and the “good life” instead of looking to the Living God.

Throughout the wilderness wanderings, Moses warned Israel against deserting the Faith of the Living God.

When Israel was being readied to enter into the Promised Land, Moses warned them not to forget God.

The passage recording Moses’ words is somewhat extended, but it is worth reading in its entirety.

/Take care lest you forget the Lord your God by not keeping his commandments and his rules and his statutes, which I command you today, lest, when you have eaten and are full and have built good houses and live in them, and when your herds and flocks multiply and your silver and gold is multiplied and all that you have is multiplied, then your heart be lifted up, and you forget the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, who led you through the great and terrifying wilderness, with its fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty ground where there was no water, who brought you water out of the flinty rock, who fed you in the wilderness with manna that your fathers did not know, that he might humble you and test you, to do you good in the end.

Beware lest you say in your heart, “My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.”

You shall remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your fathers, as it is this day.

And if you forget the Lord your God and go after other gods and serve them and worship them, I solemnly warn you today that you shall surely perish.

Like the nations that the Lord makes to perish before you, so shall you perish, because you would not obey the voice of the Lord your God/ [*Deuteronomy 8:11-20*].

Superficially, it seems almost impossible that people who had witnessed God’s mighty deliverance would ever forget Him.

Israel had witnessed unimaginable power exercised on their behalf.

They had seen the world’s sole superpower divinely defeated.

They had been supernaturally fed in the wilderness and experienced such divine provision that even their shoes and clothing did not wear out.

However, surfeited by God’s goodness, people tend to become complacent and presume against grace.

As Moses delivered one of his final prophecies to the people he had led through the wilderness, he included the warning that follows.

Jeshurun grew fat, and kicked;

you grew fat, stout, and sleek;

then he forsook God who made him

and scoffed at the Rock of his salvation.

They stirred him to jealousy with strange gods;

with abominations they provoked him to anger.

They sacrificed to demons that were no gods,

to gods they had never known,

to new gods that had come recently,

whom your fathers had never dreaded.

You were unmindful of the Rock that bore you,

and you forgot the God who gave you birth.

[*Deuteronomy 32:15-18*]

 

The people of God had witnessed God’s goodness; they had seen His power revealed for their benefit.

They had been divinely protected against assault by enemies.

Despite this divine favour, they began to trust in their beauty and renown instead of looking to the God who had protected them throughout the years of their existence.

Israel forsook God; they forgot the Lord.

What does it mean to “forget God?”  When we are no longer thankful, we have forgotten God [e.g.

*Romans 1:21*].

When our gifts fail to honour Him as the Giver of every good and every perfect gift [e.g.

*James 1:17*], we have forgotten God.