I would never want to be called any kind of harlot, especially one like this one — a wife who loathed her husband and left his embrace for many lovers. A wife who paid her lovers to help themselves. A mother who hated her children and put them to death for foreign gods. 

With this scorching word picture in Ezekiel 16, God rebuked His chosen people, Israel, for turning away from His love in the late 500s B.C.. As a nation, she had experienced nothing but tenderness from her Lord:

• When she was abandoned, He had compassion on her and made her prosper (vv. 6-7).
• When it was her time for love, He washed her and entered into a marriage covenant with her (vv. 8-9). 
• He dressed her in colorful, embroidered linen and silk and put porpoise leather sandals on her feet (v. 10).
• He adorned her with gold and silver jewelry and a gorgeous crown (vv. 11-12).
• He fed her with the finest honey, oil and wheat (v. 13). 

With such lavish attention, Israel grew exceedingly beautiful. She became royalty! (v. 13)

Her downfall

She was cleansed, clothed and crowned, but she didn’t act like it! She became more corrupt than the countries around her. She made actual idols with her jewelry and decorated them with her costly fabrics. She burned her fine food for fragrant offerings to the idols. She even sacrificed her children to them. Forsaking the living God who had raised her above all other nations, she defiled every single gift He had given her (vv. 15-34).

How could Israel possibly have plunged from the heights of God’s favor to such extreme lows of spiritual adultery and physical idolatry, including the murder of her children? God spelled it out:

• “You trusted in your beauty and played the harlot because of your fame”¹ (v. 15). 
• “You did not remember the days of your youth, when you were naked and bare and squirming in your own blood” (v. 22).
• “How languishing is your heart while you do all these things, the actions of a domineering harlot (v. 30).

Pride in her gifts, her fame. Forgetting the nakedness and poverty of her past. A sick heart. Doing things her way, no matter the cost to others. 

Could I be like her?

Of course I would never fall into these evil ways. But there are many similarities to my story. First, when I came to know Christ, these things became true of me:

God gave His utmost for my highest: His only Son died on the cross that I, the sinful one, might wear robes of righteousness. A better rags to riches story has never been written — or lived.

So, after being loved, washed (forgiven), dressed and raised up by Christ, do I profane His gifts? Turn from Him to welcome other “lovers”?

I’m reminded…

When I was a new believer, I was ravenous for God’s Word. As a not-very-busy receptionist at a summer job, I read the Bible all day long. A co-worker asked, “Are you a law student?” because of the “thick book” I was constantly reading. My father asked, “Couldn’t you be more of a companion?” because I read the Bible as he drove us to and from work as well. As I read, God’s Word began to change me, little by little, for the better.

But one day, I thought, “I can’t go on this way. I have to read other things.” And I did. I am still hungry for God’s Word, and I love to study it every day, but I don’t read it every possible moment the way I did at first. How quickly, today, I can lapse into unprofitable screen time if I am not careful. I wonder how different I would be if I had continued devouring God’s Word every day, every minute I could.

How is my heart today?

Do I take credit for my talents and position, forgetting who gave them to me?

Do I forget that when Jesus rescued me I was a sad and foolish young woman with low self-esteem? That my choices were leading down a slippery slope to a very different kind of life?

Do I toy with self-indulgence here and there, to my own defeat rather than pleasure?

Do I manipulate, or insist on my own way?

Sometimes.

To be clear, since I came to know Jesus as a teenager, I have enjoyed many years of precious fellowship with Him. He warms my heart every day with His joy. I see how He is orchestrating everything in my life for my good. He is doing more than I can ask or think in the lives of my loved ones and even in me. I have grown in many ways. His love, and the wisdom I find in His Word, give me peace.

Even so, I am a work in progress. I know I could take better advantage of God’s wonderful gift, the self-control of the Holy Spirit. Why don’t I? I would say: pride, forgetfulness, willfulness, selfishness. 

Ouch. That sounds way too much like the harlot.

The joyful ending

Thankfully, God was ready to help the harlot, and He is ready to help me. Later in Ezekiel 16, He says to Israel: I will remember My covenant with you. I will make an everlasting covenant with you! … you shall know that I am the Lord, so that you may remember and be ashamed … when I have forgiven you for all that you have done” (vv. 60-63).

And He does the same with me. When I confess my sin, He forgives me every time (1 John 1:9). He invites me to be filled again with His Holy Spirit (Ephesians 5:18). He gives me power to be faithful, and to turn back to Him again when I start sliding the harlot’s way.

So, by faith:

• I will keep “short accounts” with my God — confessing my sins specifically, quickly, and continually², keeping my heart tender toward Him.
• As I continually appropriate the power of the Holy Spirit, I will choose more and more to get rid of my “lovers” — the selfishness and self-indulgence that subtly tempt in different areas.
• I will remember: I have been cleansed, clothed and crowned! Memorizing, studying and applying His Word every day — refusing to be distracted as I meet with Him — will help me live more and more like the royal woman He has made me to be.
• I will keep growing up in all aspects into Christ. His name for all of us who believe is a loving, intimate one: Bride. One day we will be “the Church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing … holy and blameless” (Ephesians 5:27). Until that day, I want to walk in a manner worthy of my Bridegroom.

Will you join me?

¹Bible quotations NASB1995 throughout. ²https://www.placefortruth.org/blog/keeping-short-accounts

Jewelry Photo by Vaibhav Nagare on Unsplash; Crown Photo by Khyta on Unsplash; Fabrics Photo by Prince Abid on Unsplash.

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If you haven’t yet come to know Jesus, don’t wait to investigate His love for you. Life is too short to live without Him. Please: enjoy His love in this life and forever. Read About “The Nearness of God” or see everyperson.com for more information. You can also read my story of coming to faith in Christ in: How My Song Began.