Day 243—We are in the eighth month of Bible reading, with more of Israel’s history and prophecy from Ezekiel.

    Day 243 – Ezekiel 16 – 17 (Metaphors/parables about God and Israel)

Ezekiel 16. The longest chapter in Ezekiel is a sad metaphor for God’s love for Israel, her horrible abuse of that love, the consequences of her sin, and God’s eventual restoration… “that you shall know that I am the LORD.”

Again, Ezekiel is to speak to the inhabitants of Jerusalem (Judah) about her “abominations.”  She is seen as an abandoned child God finds, rescues, loves, and showers with good things. In the metaphor of a loved child and woman, the chapter covers the history of Israel from her conception, the time of the Exodus, to David’s time and the glories of Solomon’s reign. (through verse 14)

The following section pictures Israel in spiritual harlotry, copying increasingly the pagan religious practices of the Canaanites.  All God gives her, she uses to worship idols, even to sacrifice the children God gives her. The pagan countries around Israel influence her to more and more sin.  Unlike the regular payments prostitutes were paid, Israel solicits and pays for her idol “lovers.” (through verse 34)

Then comes the public shame of God’s beloved…at His own hands. Their defeat by Assyria earlier and now the coming of the Babylonian destruction reveals God’s wrath. God compares Judah to the wicked cities of Samaria and Sodom, whose judgment was great.  Judah, He says, is more corrupt than they! Now Judah and Jerusalem will “bear the penalty of her lewdness and abominations.” (through verse 59)

Verse 60 begins the glorious hope of God’s restoration, His remembering the oath/covenant he made with them. (How gracious is our God!)  He will restore Israel, not because of the good things they do, but because of His grace alone. The New Covenant is unconditional, saving, and everlasting. When He establishes this covenant with them, they will “know that I am the LORD.”  And the fact that God will “atone for you for all that you have done” speaks of the coming Messiah, and His work on the cross, by which God’s wrath on sin is satisfied.  

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Ezekiel 17. This chapter speaks about the time two years before the destruction of Jerusalem.  We’ve studied it more in detail in 2 Kings 24, 2 Chronicles 36, and Jeremiah 36, 37, and 52.  It’s a parable about the final kings who rule in Jerusalem.

The “great eagle with great wings and long pinions, rich in plumage of many colors” in verse 3 is Babylon, who will take royal captives and others, “the topmost of the cedar’s young twigs,” and carry them to a land of trade and a city of merchants.”  Some “the seed of the land” (Zedekiah etc.) he left there to be a tributary (pay tribute to Babylon).

Egypt is the other “great eagle with great wings and much plumage” who flew by.  Zedekiah turned to Egypt to help him revolt against Babylon. But it didn’t work, and the king of Babylon came and took him away. (and defeated Egypt too)

Then, the LORD Himself promises to “take a spring from the lofty top of the cedar and plant it on a high and lofty mountain of Israel.”  It will bear branches, produce fruit, and become a noble cedar.  “Under it will dwell every kind of bird. In the shade of its branches, birds of every sort will nest.” 

Here, God is speaking of the Messiah and His eventual Messianic Kingdom, where even Gentiles will live.