His Faithful Bride

His Faithful Bride
Ezekiel 16

Last week we were in Ezekiel 15, where God likened Israel to a Vine to show the kind of relationship that He wants to have with His people.
We saw the cross reference in John 15 that presented in a bit more positive light, the same truths and some practical instruction for having a fruitful relationship with God.

Today we are in the longest chapter of Ezekiel's prophecy and one that causes the reader to cringe again and again while reading through it.

The 16th chapter of Ezekiel is one a few chapters in scripture that I could not read in its entirety in mixed company.
Its truths are powerful and poignant for every Christian, but its pithiness is clearly not designed for public reading.
We can and should, however, summarize the main lessons of this, the longest chapter of Ezekiel and take God's challenge to heart.
The shocking presentation of the truths in Chapter 16 is meant to cause the reader to grimace in disgust at the sinfulness of Israel in Ezekiel's time.
It is also important that we apply these truths to our own lives and grimace in disgust at our own sinfulness and allow Him to bring us back to Him again.

Let us read the first few verses by way of introduction to the passage and then we will read a few verses throughout the chapter to grasp the gist of God's complaint against Israel and against us when we are unfaithful to Him.

READ TEXT
Eze 16:1 ¶ Again the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
2 Son of man, cause Jerusalem to know her abominations,
3 And say, Thus saith the Lord GOD unto Jerusalem; Thy birth and thy nativity is of the land of Canaan; thy father was an Amorite, and thy mother an Hittite.
4 And as for thy nativity, in the day thou wast born thy navel was not cut, neither wast thou washed in water to supple thee; thou wast not salted at all, nor swaddled at all.
5 None eye pitied thee, to do any of these unto thee, to have compassion upon thee; but thou wast cast out in the open field, to the lothing of thy person, in the day that thou wast born.
6 ¶ And when I passed by thee, and saw thee polluted in thine own blood, I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood, Live; yea, I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood, Live.

PRAY

The passage we have read tells us about the beginning of Israel's relationship with God.
It is an unusual love story that mirrors that of God's relationship with us.
Israel is shown here as unlovely from the beginning.
> Born of questionable lineage
> Unclean and rejected
> Destined for death
> BUT GOD saw her and had mercy and gave her life.

The Bible says, that we too are sinful from our birth.
Ps 51:5 Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.
Ro 5:12 Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:
Ro 5:8 But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
Joh 5:24 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.

So the parallel is clear, like Israel, we were unlovely and rejected, destined for death and destruction, lying in our own filthiness BUT GOD saw us and had mercy on us.

In verse 8 a culturally significant turn of phrase is used.
Eze 16:8 Now when I passed by thee, and looked upon thee, behold, thy time was the time of love; and I spread my skirt over thee, and covered thy nakedness: yea, I sware unto thee, and entered into a covenant with thee, saith the Lord GOD, and thou becamest mine

When a man was to marry a woman he would offer his hand to her in marriage by taking his outer robe and covering her with it.
This is the spreading of his skirt over her.
It implied that She was to be cared for as if she was a part of his own body and flesh - indeed such is the responsibility of a husband for his wife.

The spreading of His skirt over Israel is a beautiful picture of how God promised, covenanted, to care for Israel as a bride.
She was unclean and lowly but God would wash her and anointed her with privilege.
Eze 16:9 Then washed I thee with water; yea, I throughly washed away thy blood from thee, and I anointed thee with oil.

She was poor and unclothed, BUT GOD covered her with the finest apparel.
Eze 16:10 I clothed thee also with broidered work, and shod thee with badgers' skin, and I girded thee about with fine linen, and I covered thee with silk.

She was destitute and starving, BUT GOD lavished her with the finest jewelry and fed her with the finest foods and she did prosper into a wonderful kingdom.
Eze 16:11 I decked thee also with ornaments, and I put bracelets upon thy hands, and a chain on thy neck.
12 And I put a jewel on thy forehead, and earrings in thine ears, and a beautiful crown upon thine head.
13 Thus wast thou decked with gold and silver; and thy raiment was of fine linen, and silk, and broidered work; thou didst eat fine flour, and honey, and oil: and thou wast exceeding beautiful, and thou didst prosper into a kingdom.

She became known as beautiful among the heathen and gained a reputation for loveliness.
Eze 16:14 And thy renown went forth among the heathen for thy beauty: for it was perfect through my comeliness, which I had put upon thee, saith the Lord GOD.

So the parallel with our relationship with God continues.
We were as unlovely a bride as Israel here, and God saw us and loved us, choosing us to be his bride.
He adorned us with garments of his own righteousness and lavished jewelry of blessings upon us.
He washed us from our sins and made us worthy of Him.
Eph 5:25 Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;
26 That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,
27 That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.

It was not by our own loveliness that we became His bride, He had mercy upon us.
Tit 3:5 Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;

We too will be crowned by our husband:
2Ti 4:8 Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.
Jas 1:12 Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.

We have seen how all of Israel's loveliness as a bride of God was due to His love for her.
So our own loveliness is due to Christ's love for us.
He has made us into what we are, and all we have we owe to Him.
He is our faithful husband and we, His faithful bride to be.

Here is where the chapter takes a turn for the worse, for Israel did not stay pure and holy as the bride of God.
Once again, Israel's mistakes and abominations only mirror our own as we too have been unfaithful to our faithful husband, Jesus Christ.
Eze 16:15 ¶ But thou didst trust in thine own beauty, and playedst the harlot because of thy renown, and pouredst out thy fornications on every one that passed by; his it was.

The list of God's complaints against His bride takes up the major portion of the chapter.
It is as crude and distasteful as Israel's sin's against her faithful and perfect husband.
Let us highlight just a few and notice that, once again, Israel was no more unfaithful than we have been to Jesus since He saved us and clothed us in his robes of righteousness.
Verse 15 shows that pride was the beginning of Israel's fall and is often the beginning of our own decline away from God.
Pr 16:18 ¶ Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.
1Co 10:12 Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.

Verses 16 through 30 reveal a nation enamored with the trapping of this world.
She wants to have everything that everyone else has and forgets the value of what God has given her.
She squanders her beauty and her blessings for cheap thrills and her purity for the pleasures of sin.
She becomes trapped in a snare of sin that is self perpetuating.
In Verse 31, we find she is not profiting from her wickedness, she is paying for it and paying a high price.
Eze 16:31 In that thou buildest thine eminent place in the head of every way, and makest thine high place in every street; and hast not been as an harlot, in that thou scornest hire;
32 But as a wife that committeth adultery, which taketh strangers instead of her husband!

So we, when we leave our true love for God and dabble in the sins of the flesh and in the attractions of the world, we end up paying to be defiled.
It was never our intention to be this way.
We thought we could profit from the deal with sin but we always end up paying so much more and getting nothing but filthiness in return.

There is a sad entry in verse 36 that shows when we sin it is not at our own expense alone - our children pay the price as well.
Eze 16:36 Thus saith the Lord GOD; Because thy filthiness was poured out, and thy nakedness discovered through thy whoredoms with thy lovers, and with all the idols of thy abominations, and by the blood of thy children, which thou didst give unto them;

The language is crude by so is our sin when we leave the side of our Faithful Husband, Jesus, and dabble in the things of this world.

Verses 37-40 show that even the world becomes disgusted with God's bride when she is so full of uncleanness.
So you will find that the world will use you up and cast you aside.
Verse 41 finds Israel at the rock bottom.
Used up and filthy, cast aside and hated by the world with which she flirted.

Have you ever wondered how God feels toward us when we drift away from Him and play the harlot with the world?
When we have squandered all that made us lovely and when the world has thrown us aside, used and rejected?

This is where the defiled person is usually convinced that God is more angry than ever, but verse 42 shows us different.
Eze 16:42 So will I make my fury toward thee to rest, and my jealousy shall depart from thee, and I will be quiet, and will be no more angry.

The next several verse show that Israel was to pay a high price indeed for her sin, but it is the consequences of her sin that God allows to come upon her, it is not a rain of judgment from Him.

So we must realize that when we find ourselves at the bottom of that pit which we have ourselves digged, we have many a price to pay, but God is ready to have us back.

Some of those consequences are listed in the next verses:
Eze 16:51 Neither hath Samaria committed half of thy sins; but thou hast multiplied thine abominations more than they, and hast justified thy sisters in all thine abominations which thou hast done.
Our testimony is gone, sinners use us to excuse their own sin.

These verses remind us of how far we have gone and how it has impacted the world around us.

The darkness of Israel's downward spiral into unfaithfulness and sin is broken by God's mercy in Verse 60
If we had an honest show of hands this morning to see who has been unfaithful to God since being chosen to be His bride, every hand would go up.
Do you realize that not once has He been unfaithful to us?
Eze 16:60 ¶ Nevertheless I will remember my covenant with thee in the days of thy youth, and I will establish unto thee an everlasting covenant.
61 Then thou shalt remember thy ways, and be ashamed, when thou shalt receive thy sisters, thine elder and thy younger: and I will give them unto thee for daughters, but not by thy covenant.
62 And I will establish my covenant with thee; and thou shalt know that I am the LORD:
63 That thou mayest remember, and be confounded, and never open thy mouth any more because of thy shame, when I am pacified toward thee for all that thou hast done, saith the Lord GOD.

Through it all, God has remained faithful.
We have a powerful promise in the book of I John.
1Jo 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

He is faithful!

How faithful have you been as his bride?
Let us determine now that we will be a faithful bride.
We will not give ourselves to every passer by for we belong to Jesus.

If you find yourself this morning cast aside by the world, know this, if you have never been born into His family, He is ready to take you in and clothe you and cleanse you today.

If you have just drifted away from His side and you have defiled your life with the sin of the flesh and the world, know this, you are no more unlovely than the day He saved you, and He made a promise on that day to be faithful.
Won't you just come back to Him?