15"‘But you trusted in your beauty and used your fame to become a prostitute. You lavished your favors on anyone who passed by and your beauty became his.
16You took some of your garments to make gaudy high places, where you carried on your prostitution. You went to him, and he possessed your beauty.
- P66
22In all your detestable practices and your prostitution you did not remember the days of your youth, when you were naked and bare, kicking about in your blood.
23"‘Woe! Woe to you, declares the Sovereign Lord. In addition to all your other wickedness, - P66
28You engaged in prostitution with the Assyrians too, because you were insatiable; and even after that, you still were not satisfied.
29Then you increased your promiscuity to include Babylonia, a land of merchants, but even with this you were not satisfied.
- P67
33All prostitutes receive gifts, but you give gifts to all your lovers, bribing them to come to you from everywhere for your illicit favors.
34So in your prostitution you are the opposite of others; no one runs after you for your favors. You are the very opposite, for you give payment and none is given to you.
- P67
Jerusalem trusts in her beauty and becomes unfaithful. She offers her adorn-ments to idols and builds high places to engage in prostitution. She sacrificesher children and fails to remember the misery of her youth. - P67
In His anger, theLord reduces her territory and gives her over to her enemies, but she actsworse than a prostitute, paying lovers instead of receiving payment. - P67
God accuses Jerusalem of squandering His gifts to pursue adulterous relationships and, in doing so, mocking His love. Even more horrifically, she engages in child sacrifice, killing God’s own children. What makes this even more tragic is that Jerusalem is not unaware that this is sin because she was once a victim of the same abuse. She has forgotten what it was like to be mistreated, and in her forgetfulness, became the very thing she was rescued from. - P68
When we forget the depths from which God saved us, we are at risk of reverting to our sinful ways. When we begin to take His grace for granted, we may even perpetuate the very evils we once suffered. - P68
Ezekiel bluntly portrays Jerusalem as a promiscuous spouse, not merelyfor shock value, but to highlight the depth of betrayal and heartbreak Godexperiences. Marriage is meant to be a covenant of mutual self-giving, andthere is nothing more unsettling than witnessing a relationship where onepartner exploits the other‘s love. Yet we so often do so in our relationshipwith the Lord. - P68
While God gives endlessly out of His abundant grace, weoften take His blessings and spend them trying to win the world‘s approval.
Like Ezekiel‘s prophecies, our reflection on such a betrayal should stir inus a holy discomfort at how easily we abuse the love God so freely offersus, not so we will wallow in self-condemnation, but so we will runback toGod in repentance. - P68
Faithful God, I thank you for Your unfailing love. Even though I constantly fall short and so easily get entangled by the same sins, You are a gracious Father who leads me back to You. Keep my heart so that I will always remain in Your love. In Jesus’ name, amen. - P69
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