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One-sentence summary: The Lord compares Jerusalem to an unfaithful wife but promises to make an everlasting covenant with her.
The word of the Lord comes to Ezekiel, and He tells him to let Jerusalem know her abominations. He says she was born from Canaan. Her father was an Amorite and her mother a Hittite. On the day she was born, her naval chord was not cut. She was not washed in water or cleansed or rubbed with salt or wrapped in swaddling clothes. "No eye pitied or had compassion on [her.]" She was thrown out in the open field and hated on the day she was born. When the Lord passed by and saw her struggling in her own blood, He said, "Live!" He made her thrive like a plant in the field, and she grew and became very beautiful, like a woman, but she was still naked. Then, the Lord passed by again and saw that she was at the age where she was ready for love, and He spread His wing over her and covered her nakedness. He swore an oath to her and entered into a covenant with her, and she became His. He washed her in water and anointed her with oil and clothed her with embroidered cloth and put shoes on her feet. He clothed her with fine linen and silk and adorned her with jewelry and put a beautiful crown on her head. She ate pastries and fine flour, honey, and oil, and was exceedingly beautiful. She became royal and famous among the nations because of her beauty, because, He says, "it was perfect through My splendor which I had bestowed on you." However, she trusted in her own beauty and "played the harlot" with every passerby because of her fame. She took her beautiful jewelry and made male images and played the harlot with them. She took her garments and covered her idols with them and put the oil the Lord had given her on them. She also gave them the food the Lord had given her. She took her sons and daughters and sacrificed them to the idols. She did not remember the days of her youth when the Lord saved her. Therefore, the Lord says woe to her for building a shrine and high places to herself and multiplying her acts of harlotry. The Lord says He stretched out His hand against her and gave her up to the will of those who hate her, the Philistines. She was unfaithful with the Egyptians and Assyrians also, yet she was still not satisfied. The Lord says her heart is degenerate, doing the deeds of a "brazen harlot." However, unlike a harlot, she "scorned payment." She was like an unfaithful wife who took strangers instead of her own husband. Instead of getting paid, she actually paid her lovers to come to her; no one even solicited her. The Lord says because she poured out her filthiness and uncovered her nakedness, and because of the blood of her children which she sacrificed, He will gather her lovers, the ones she loved and hated, and will gather them all around and uncover her nakedness before them and judge her as an adulterer and murderer. Her enemies will break down her high places and throw down her shrines. They will strip her and take her jewelry and leave her naked and bear. They will pierce her with swords and stone her, burn her houses, and execute judgments on her. The Lord will make her cease playing the harlot. The Lord says she did not remember the days of her youth but agitated the Lord, so He will repay her for her deeds. The proverb will be used against her, "Like mother, like daughter." Her mother was a Hittite and her father an Amorite, and her elder sister was Samaria. Her younger sister is Sodom and her daughters. She did not walk in their ways or abominations, but "as if that was too little," became "more corrupt than they in all their ways." Not even Sodom has done like she has done. Sodom and her daughters were full of pride, food, and idleness, and did not "strengthen the hand of the poor and needy," and they committed abominations. Samaria did not commit half of her sins, but she (Jerusalem) has multiplied her abominations more than they. She has judged her sisters, but the Lord tells her to bear her own shame, because they are more righteous than she. When Sodom and Samaria return to their former state, then will Jerusalem and her daughters return to theirs. She has despised the Lord's covenant, yet He will remember it and establish an everlasting covenant with her. She will remember her ways and be ashamed. He will give Sodom and Samaria to them as daughters, but not because of His covenant. She will know He is the Lord and remember Him and be ashamed. The Lord will provide an atonement for all she has done.
The word of the Lord comes to Ezekiel again, and He tells him to tell Israel a riddle and parable. The Lord says a great eagle with large wings and pinions, very colorful, came to Lebanon and took from the cedar the highest branch. He cropped off its highest twig and set it in a city of merchants. He took some of the seed and put it in a fertile field. He placed it by abundant waters and set it like a willow tree, and it grew and became a spreading vine of low stature. It brought forth branches and put forth shoots. However, there was another large eagle, and the vine bent its root toward him and stretched its branches toward it so that he might water it. The first eagle had planted it by many waters to bear fruit and become a majestic vine. The Lord asks if it will thrive or if He will not pluck it out and let it wither. The Lord tells Ezekiel to say to the rebellious house if they know what these things mean. The King of Babylon went to Jerusalem and took its king and princes and led them to Babylon and took the king's offspring, made a covenant with him and put them under oath. He took away the mighty of the land that the kingdom might be brought low and not lifted up, but by keeping his covenant he might stand. But he rebelled and sent ambassadors to Egypt to give him horses and many people. The Lord asks if he will prosper, if he can break a covenant and still be delivered. The Lord says in the place the king dwells- who made him king and whose covenant he broke- he will die, and Pharaoh will not help him. The Lord swears that the oath he despised and covenant he broke will be recompensed on his own head. The Lord Himself will set a snare, bring him to Babylon, and try him for treason that he committed against the Lord. Those who remain will be scattered to every wind, and they will know that the Lord has spoken. The Lord will also take one of the highest branches of the high cedar and crop off from its twigs a tender One and plant it on the mountain height of Israel, and it will bear fruit and be a majestic cedar. Birds of every sort with dwell under it, and in the shadow of its branches. All the trees of the field will know that the Lord has brought down the high tree and exalted the low tree, dried up the green tree and made the dry tree flourish. Then, they will know the Lord has spoken and has done it.
Thoughts/discussion questions:
It is incredible if you think about it, all that God did for His chosen people Israel and how they were constantly unfaithful to Him. Yet He remained faithful to His covenant and gave them a Savior. Pray for Jerusalem's salvation and peace. God has not forgotten them and never will.