Image: "Not A Lady", 2010, Bamf, Canada, original image: Robert Van Devender
Ezekiel 15:6–7 “Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: ‘Like the wood of the vine among the trees of the forest, which I have given to the fire for fuel, so I will give up the inhabitants of Jerusalem; 7 and I will set My face against them. They will go out from one fire, but another fire shall devour them. Then you shall know that I am the LORD, when I set My face against them.
Ezekiel 16:9–10 “Then I washed you in water; yes, I thoroughly washed off your blood, and I anointed you with oil. 10 I clothed you in embroidered cloth and gave you sandals of badger skin; I clothed you with fine linen and covered you with silk.
Ezekiel 16:30 30 “How degenerate is your heart!” says the Lord GOD, “seeing you do all these things, the deeds of a brazen harlot.
Ezekiel 16:43 Because you did not remember the days of your youth, but agitated Me with all these things, surely I will also recompense your deeds on your own head,” says the Lord GOD. “And you shall not commit lewdness in addition to all your abominations.
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(note on the image. These little ground squirrels were brazen little pests. They were so used to being fed by the tourists that they would crawl up your leg, climb on your head, and eat anything that looked tempting. This lady had sat down to look at the view and this little hussy climbed into her purse.)
I cannot imagine anyone not having some acquaintance with the play/movie "My Fair Lady" built off Bernard Shaw's original play "Pygmalion". The storyline follows the project of Prof. Harry Higgins to take a destitute young girl out of the London Slums and by using scientific techniques, transform her into a lady with impeccable manners. The play is a happy thing and everybody falls in love at the end and the poor little flower girl becomes "well-to-do" and lives happily ever after as Prof. Higgins's faithful wife.
God uses a somewhat similar metaphor for His relationship to Israel in chapter 16. Here he speaks of finding her as a castaway, unwanted baby, discarded by her "trashy" parents and lying in her own filth in a field. He tells of how He took her and washed her and tended her needs and then departed for a time. But then, upon coming back to check on her, He found her as a beautiful young woman, ready for marriage. In His infinite love and compassion, He took her as His wife and showered her with riches and privilege. It was truly a "rags to riches" storyline. But unlike the movie, there was no happy ending.
Unlike Eliza Doolittle, Israel, as God's wife, did not prove herself grateful. She came to despise her Husband and wilfully sought out other lovers. She was not even a prostitute... she was worse. She paid them rather than the opposite. In today's culture of depravity, such a story would cause people to shake their heads in sympathy for the husband but it wouldn't go much farther than that. Today there would be no general sense of outrage... the husband would be encouraged to divorce his wife but inflicting bodily harm or death on her would be out of the question. Not so in ancient times. Such brazen sexual sin would have created a clamor for retribution. Only the most loving of husbands (e.g. Mary's husband Joseph) could take it in stride and seek out his wife to restore her.
But Israel's Husband did not rush to vengeance. He was longsuffering, sending many messages to His wife pleading for her to return. But there came a time when patience ran out. She had sacrificed her own children... God's own children... to bloodthirsty foreign gods. She had provoked His wrath for so long and so often, that He declared (16:42-43) that now He would "recompense your deeds on your own head." But notice carefully that in God's long term plans, even this was so that she would turn from her "abominations." Though she was more wicked than Sodom itself, He would not banish Her forever. He would "deal with" her for despising "the oath and breaking the covenant" (16:59), yet He (vs 62) would again "establish" His covenant with Her. His amazing, transforming love would be so powerful that she would, on that day, "remember and be ashamed", but the effect would be that she would never again "open" her mouth. In other words, all haughtiness would be driven from her personality. She would be humbled in repentance and rejoice in the mercy she was shown... all of this would come about when she recognized that He, her Husband, had made "atonement" for her sins.
I doubt seriously that "My Fair Lady" would have sold as many tickets as it did if this storyline had been told. It might have furnished some other playwright with sufficient insight to tell an entirely different story but I doubt many audiences would have loved it.
But every Christian does.
This is the story of every fallen sinner who, through the mercy of God, is awakened to his own shame. This is the story of every Spirit-filled congregation who becomes the Bride of Christ. Their great love for their Husband is that of a fallen woman for whom full atonement has been made for her sins. She recognizes and rejoices in Her high privilege and status, but there can be no arrogance or pride in her manner. Truly, before the overwhelming evidence of His love, all she can do is "shut her mouth" and weep with joy. This same idea brought a young woman to the Savior's feet as He reclined at dinner one evening. She bathed his feet with her tears and dried them with her hair. When questioned about this, Jesus said that she loved much because she had been forgiven much. This is the story,... the Good News of Ezekiel 15.
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