The Bible Recap - Day 243 (Ezekiel 16-17) - Year 5

Starting point is 00:00:00 Hey Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble, and I'm your host for the Bible recap. Today in Chapter 16, God tells Ezekiel an extended metaphor about his relationship with Israel. And while the overall point of the metaphor is clear, every commentary I read cautioned against getting into the weeds with this metaphor, simply because every comparison breaks down at some level. So we'll just look at it to the lens of regular glasses, not a microscope, because that's how most metaphors and parables are intended to be received.

Starting point is 00:00:36 So here's what we're looking at. Israel is an abandoned orphan, unloved and left to die. But then someone, the king of the universe, by the way, rescues this orphan and nurses her back to health. He uses 19 verbs to describe all he does for the orphan when he rescues her. I passed by you, I saw you, I said to you, live, I made you flourish, I spread the corner of my garment over you. I covered your nakedness, I made my vow to you. I entered

Starting point is 00:01:05 into a covenant with you. I bathed you with water. I washed off your blood. I anointed you with oil. I clothed you with embroidered cloth. I shot you with fine leather. I wrapped you in fine linen. I covered you with silk. I adorned you with garments. I put bracelets on your wrists and a chain on your neck. I put a ring on your nose and earrings in your ears and a beautiful crown on your head. I bestowed splendor on you. But eventually she loves the King's gifts more than the King himself. And because of his care for her, she's beautiful. So she trusts in her beauty to get her whatever she wants. She uses all the King's gifts to lure in other lovers. She makes idols out of them. And in a devastating turn of events, she forgets that she was once the helpless child who

Starting point is 00:01:51 was rescued, and she ends up sacrificing her own children. Her idolatry becomes unsatisfying, but instead of turning away from it, she dives in deeper. Idolatry always demands more, making us needier and more frantic and insecure. She goes from being a prostitute who receives gifts from her lovers, to one who is so desperate for love and security that she gives them gifts to keep them around. In verse 41, God says he's about to put a stop to it all. His judgment for her sins will bring him to a screeching halt. He says her sins are

Starting point is 00:02:25 even worse than those of Sodom and Gomorrah. And notice what God says was the root of Sodom's big problem? We tend to only pay attention to how their problem manifested in one specific way, but as always, God gets down to the heart of the issue. So what was the heart of Sodom's issue? In verses 49-50, God says, Behold, this was the guilt of yourom's issue? In verses 49 to 50, God says, Behold, this was the guilt of your sister Sodom. She and her daughters had pride, excess of food and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and needy.

Starting point is 00:02:56 They were haughty and did an abomination before me, so I removed them. God addresses their other sins elsewhere in scripture like in Genesis 19 and Jude 1, 7, and he doesn't ignore their sexual sin here either. He addresses the abomination they did, but he attaches their actions to their attitudes, to their pride and arrogance. God is always digging deeper, and of course, that pride and arrogance manifested in other areas besides their sexual sin.

Starting point is 00:03:22 And God points those out here too. He had given them so much, but they lived in luxury without caring for the poor and needy. And in the midst of all this, God says Jerusalem is worse than Sodom, and He promises to punish her for her sin, a punishment that looks a lot like death. But, he still promises to restore her fortunes in the future.

Starting point is 00:03:44 In chapter 17, we read a parable. That would normally call for glasses, but let's put down our glasses and pull out some binoculars because this one's about a bird. God says a big eagle, who is King Nebi of Babylon, plucks up a chute like a tiny vine, and drops it down again and it grows into a tall vine. The chute is King Chin, the one who surrendered to King Nebi, was captured and then provided for all the days of his life. We read that story in 2nd King's 24 and 25. So we can see how the imagery fits. The eagle plucking

Starting point is 00:04:15 up a shoe, then dropping it down and having it grow tall. Then King Nebi does a little more gardening, planting King Zedakaya in Judah to handle things. But unlike the first fine, King Chin, kings et acai reaches out to a different eagle, Egypt, who happens to be flying overhead. Kings et acai is hoping to be plucked up and transplanted, but instead, he'll just wither and die. Egypt is not God's appointed eagle.

Starting point is 00:04:40 God promised all of this a long time ago. He sent Jeremiah to warn the kings of Judah to surrender to Babylon if they wanted to survive. It sounds completely illogical, but it was his plan. And only King Chin followed the plan, albeit probably out of fear, not surrender. Everyone else looked for a different escape route than the one God commanded, and they got what God promised, judgment and exile. But God kept his promise to bless, too. King Chin thrived, even amidst half-hearted obedience, because God is merciful. God wraps up the parable by saying, he himself will plant a sprig on the lofty mountains of Israel,

Starting point is 00:05:18 and it will grow up into a cedar that will bear fruit and make shade and be a home for all kinds of birds. This is a reference to the Messiah and the coming kingdom. And God promises his prophecy will be fulfilled. My God shot today was at the end of chapter 16, right after God reprimands Israel for playing the whore and being worse than Sodom. Israel has despised God and broken the covenant. And do you know what his response is? He leans in. He broadens and widens and deepens his relationship

Starting point is 00:05:50 with his people by expanding the covenant. They broke the conditional covenant, so he made an eternal one. They've forgotten the covenant, but he says he will remember it. They've sinned against him, and in verse 63, he says, he will atone for their sins. He will cover the cost himself.

Starting point is 00:06:07 Do you see him tipping them off to the plan for the arrival of Jesus on the scene here? This has been his plan all along to restore his people to himself. God's excessive love is shocking and craze-inducing. He's where the joy is. This is the last day to become a recaptain in time to access this month's bonus material. Each month, we release special bonus content to our recaptains. For the month of August,

Starting point is 00:06:36 we've got my personal scripture memorization method. If you're a recaptain at the bonus content to your or higher, you should have already received access to this in your account. But if you are not yet a recaptain and this resource sounds exciting to you, become a recaptain by the end of today and you'll be able to access it. Check out the recaptains page on our website, thebibelrecapt.com, or click the link in the show notes. Recently, I got to hang out on the Wally show with Wayfm. We did a fun interview where they put my Bible knowledge to the test, and also, we got

Starting point is 00:07:07 to find out who my Bible crush is. If you want to find out, text Crush to 919-799 to watch the video, or click the link in the show notes. you

The Bible Recap - Day 243 (Ezekiel 16-17) - Year 5

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