And thou didst take thy fair jewels of my gold and of my silver, which I had given thee, and madest to thyself images of males, and didst commit fornication with them.
Ezekiel 16 tells the story of Jerusalem as an abandoned baby whom God washed, clothed and crowned as His bride. Verse 17 shows what she did with the wedding gifts: she took the gold and silver He gave her and made idols out of them.
Jerusalem shaped her idols out of gifts that came from God's own hand. One writer explains why that makes this sin so ugly.
Jerusalem's unclean idol worship went beyond anything before it or after it. And this is what marked it: she squandered all the countless favours of her divine husband on the filthy idols of the nations. Her Maker was her husband.
Even her beauty was borrowed. The earlier verses of the chapter say plainly where it came from:
"I decked you also with ornaments, and I put bracelets on your hands, and a chain on your neck. And I put a jewel on your forehead, and earrings in your ears, and a beautiful crown on your head. So you were adorned with gold and silver… And your renown went out among the nations for your beauty, for it was perfect through the splendour that I had put on you, says the Lord God." (Ezek. 16)
The chapter traces the fall back further than the idols. The root is what she thought of herself while she wore God's gifts.
Next comes the story of Israel's failure. Sadly, all her privilege and wealth of blessing became only one thing for her: the means of a deeper and more fatal downfall. It is traced here to its root — to their self-confidence. Even those who owe everything to grace alone can still be full of self-confidence! And we may build ourselves up just as Israel did, on privileges only God's grace could have given us. We take the glory that belongs to God and dress ourselves with it.
The phrase "images of men" is unusual. One writer takes it as idols made to order, and sees the same habit in corrupt Christianity.
The corrupt Church has done the same. Out of her silver and gold she has made what is spoken of right here, the "image of men" — men not as they are, but as she would have them. The result is sham Christians made by ritual, decorated with spiritual blessings dragged down to their lowest. But wherever the heart departs from God, it will decorate what it seeks with imaginations of its own. It conjures up wild visions that only show it has lost all good sense. The false becomes the true, and so the true becomes the false.
Verse 17 is not the bottom. The chapter moves on from idols of gold to children sacrificed to them, and one writer traces the same drift inside a believer.
A people mad about their idols sacrificed the children truly born to God among Israel — the remnant He owned as His… If we had eyes to read such things on a smaller scale, how often would we find the same thing in ourselves? The impulses and purposes the Spirit gives birth to within us are sacrificed in the same way to self-will — the self-will that even a Christian may follow after its idols. In all this, as with Israel, God's grace and the rescue His grace worked must first be forgotten in practice. The way runs downhill.
The chapter does not end in ruin. The same God who lists every misused gift keeps His promise.
In Ezekiel 16 God reminds Jerusalem of His dealings in grace. She had been in misery and degradation, and He had washed her, anointed her, and made her beautiful. But she used all His favour in the service of idols, and to gain the support of Egypt and Assyria. She had played the harlot, and would be treated as one. God made her own lovers carry out His just judgment on her. Despite this, His oath and covenant of promise (see Ezek. 16:8) would yet be made good (Ezek. 16:62-63).
- Given — the gold and silver were never Jerusalem's own. God gave them, and the Giver was her husband.
- Grasped — the fall starts with self-confidence. We build ourselves up on privileges only grace could give, and wear God's glory as our own.
- Reshaped — the "images of men" are men not as they are, but as the maker wants them. A heart that leaves God dresses up what it wants with its own imaginations until the false becomes the true.
- Downward — verse 17 is not the floor. Children are sacrificed next, and the same drift sacrifices what the Spirit begins in a believer.
- Kept — judgment came through her own lovers. Yet God's covenant in verse 8 stands, and He will make it good.
And thou tookest thine embroidered garments, and coveredst them; and thou didst set mine oil and mine incense before them.
In this chapter God speaks as a husband whose bride has betrayed Him. Everything named here — the embroidered clothes, the oil, the incense — He had given her, and she takes it all and lays it before man-made images.
Jerusalem was not poor. Every favour she owned came from one giver.
It is a sorrowful picture, and no less true for being sad. The beauty of Jerusalem was there for every passer-by... Her idolatrous uncleanness went beyond anything before it or after it. And this was the mark of it. Her divine husband — for that is what her Maker was to her — had given her countless favours, and she wasted every one of them on the filthy idols of the nations.
This chapter is about Jerusalem, and about how God had dealt with her. The same gifts also bought her political alliances.
In reading Ezekiel 16 remember that Jerusalem is the subject, not Israel. And the subject is not redemption, but God's dealings. He gave life to what was in misery and had no beauty. He cleansed it, adorned it, and anointed it. But Jerusalem used everything Jehovah had given her to serve her idols, and to buy the help and the favour of the Egyptians and the Assyrians. She never had any idea of independence — of standing alone, leaning on Jehovah.
The many-coloured clothing was not ordinary fashion. One writer reads it as a picture of the whole system of worship God had given Israel.
The clothing of "embroidered work" (literally, "many-coloured work") points to the elaborate ceremonies of their religion. In them, though under a veil, all the grace of God was there for them, as far as it could be expressed at that time. What a weaving together of shapes and colours we find there, once we see what it pictures!
So the garments thrown over the idols were the forms of God's own worship, draped over something else.
Notice the word "my": God still calls the oil and the incense His own. In the worship He had commanded, incense carried a set meaning.
How hateful it must have been to the Lord when an action that expressed joy in the Lord Jesus was used in idol worship... Incense spoke of the merits of Christ. Drink offerings spoke of the joy found in the life and death of the Lord Jesus. Yet the people burned incense to idols and poured out wine to them. By doing so they professed that they had come to know merits belonging to false gods, and that they had found joy in a rite which was really the worship of demons — little as they knew it.
This did not begin with the idols. It began with a change in how she saw herself.
Next comes the story of Israel's failure. Sadly, all her privilege and all her wealth of blessing became for her only the means of a deeper and more deadly fall. Here it is traced to its root: their self-confidence... And we may build ourselves up just as Israel did, on privileges that only God's grace could have given us — so taking the glory that is His due and dressing ourselves in it!
The same movement is put even more simply elsewhere: it started with pride, and "Jerusalem did not acknowledge the giver."
God judged her for this. But the chapter does not end there.
But she had used all His favour to serve idols, and to get the support of Egypt and Assyria. She had played the harlot, and would be dealt with as one. The very lovers she had courted carried out God's just judgment on her. Despite this, He would still make good His oath and covenant of promise.
- Gift. God gave everything named in this verse — clothes, oil, incense. The sin was not in owning them but in where she took them.
- Giver forgotten. The fall is traced to one root: self-confidence in a people who owed everything to grace.
- Gift misdirected. She laid before idols the things that carried God's own meaning. A rite that expressed joy in Him became the worship of demons.
- Gift traded. The same favours bought the support of Egypt and Assyria, instead of her standing alone and leaning on God.
- Grace holds. Judgment came through the very lovers she had courted. Yet God's oath and covenant of promise to her would still be made good.
And my bread which I had given thee, the fine flour and the oil and the honey wherewith I fed thee, thou didst even set it before them for a sweet savour thus it was, saith the Lord Jehovah.
Ezekiel 16 tells Jerusalem's story as a picture. She is an abandoned newborn whom God rescued, raised, dressed and married. Verse 19 is the sharpest point of the charge. She took the very food He fed her and laid it before idols as an offering. God calls it "my bread that I gave you."
Earlier in the chapter, God lists the fine flour, oil and honey among the things He supplied to a people who had nothing of their own. One writer sees in that food how God keeps alive a creature who cannot keep itself:
Then God adds the very thing by which He sustains a creature so dependent on Him: "You ate fine flour and honey and oil." Even in the wilderness He gave them the bread from heaven. It was not only angels' food, as the common version puts it, but "the food of the mighty" (Psalm 78:25) — the food that makes mighty. How ready we are to think that once we are Christians the kind of food we take does not much matter. How little we realise our dependence on the word of God.
"Fine flour" is the end of a long process — threshing, grinding, sifting. One writer follows that work through to where the finished flour ended up:
If we go further, we find more work is needed. Grain must be crushed for bread — it has to be ground, and that was weary work, especially for women. "Take the millstones and grind meal." We cannot stop there either. To separate the bran from the flour you need a fine sieve. The sifting at last brings out "the fine flour" with which God so abundantly fed Israel. Israel gave that flour to her idols (Ezekiel 16:19), and it also appears as a special item in the merchandise of Babylon (Revelation 18:13).
In the verses just before, one word keeps repeating: My gold, My silver, My oil, My incense, My bread. Nothing she gave the idols began with her, and one commentator measures how far the ingratitude went:
The idolatrous uncleanness of Jerusalem went beyond anything before it or after it. And this was its mark: her Maker was her divine husband, and she squandered all the countless favours He gave her on the filthy idols of the nations.
The account of her sin does not begin with the idols. It begins with her confidence in her own beauty, and with someone she left out:
Next comes the dark picture of Jerusalem's prostitution, set against this beautiful background of Jehovah's love and mercy. It stands for her wicked idolatries. It all started with pride (verse 15). Jerusalem did not acknowledge the giver. Instead of worshipping Him, they set up the high places and went along with all the wicked Canaanite practices.
The offence is not that she ate or enjoyed the food. It is that she gave it the treatment reserved for God. One writer draws the same line with perfume:
Among the Jews there were fragrant ointments that people could use on themselves or give to their friends. That was neither unusual nor unlawful. But there was also one special mixture of precious ointment. God had kept it back for His own service, so perfuming anyone else with it was sacrilege. In the same way, there are proper degrees of love that we may have for others. But one special strain of love belongs to God. Give it to a creature and it is idolatry. Give it to Him and it is worship.
One writer describes what the natural heart does with a blessing it takes outside God's presence:
Grace gives us blessings. If we carry them out of God's presence to enjoy them there, instead of using them in communion with Him, the result will be corruption in greater or less measure. The flesh can use nothing for God. It lavishes His gifts on its idols; for it loves its idols, but is hostile to God.
The warning reaches past Israel, and past material gifts:
Israel is the example of misusing earthly favours: they poured out on the altars of Baal what God had given them. The Church provides a proof of the abuse of spiritual gifts. That sinners should abuse His gifts is not surprising; but that saints should misuse His greatest favours shows up in a strong light what man really is.
- Gift — The fine flour, oil and honey were God sustaining a creature who could not keep herself alive. She had earned none of it.
- Giver — The slide began not with the idols but with pride: "Jerusalem did not acknowledge the giver."
- Diversion — One strain of love belongs to God alone. Give it to a creature and it is idolatry. Give it to Him and it is worship.
- Scale — She squandered every favour of her divine husband on the idols of the nations. His best provision became an idol's offering, and later Babylon's merchandise.
- Mirror — The flesh "can use nothing for God." Israel misused earthly mercies, and writers warn that saints can misuse greater ones.
And thou didst take thy sons and thy daughters, whom thou hadst borne unto me, and these didst thou sacrifice unto them, to be devoured. Were thy whoredoms a small matter,
Ezekiel 16 tells Jerusalem's life story the way God tells it. She was an abandoned baby whom He rescued, washed, clothed and married. Now the charge moves past the gifts she misused, to the children themselves — and God calls them His.
Everything the city spent on idols came out of God's hand first:
It is a sad picture, and it is as true as it is sad. The beauty of Jerusalem was on offer to every passer-by... Jerusalem's idol worship was filthier than anything before it or after it. And this was its mark. Her Maker was a husband to her. Yet she took all the countless gifts He gave and wasted them on the filthy idols of the nations.
The slide had a starting point, and it was pride:
Against this beautiful background of Jehovah's love and mercy, the next thing written is the dark picture of Jerusalem's prostitution, a symbol of her wicked idolatry. It all started with pride (verse 15). Jerusalem did not acknowledge the giver.
God does not call the children Jerusalem's own. He calls them children born to Him. He uses the same wording later in Ezekiel, and adds one more detail: the same people walked from the fire straight into His sanctuary:
Scripture records of Israel that they "caused their sons, whom they bore to Me, to pass through the fire for them, to devour them... for when they had slain their children to their idols, then they came the same day into My sanctuary to profane it." Ezek. 23:37, 39.
Some readers have softened "pass through the fire" into a mere ceremony. One writer rejects that, and sets what the idols demanded beside what God had asked for:
Some have argued from the words "passing through the fire," here and elsewhere, that the children were not burned. But this looks like a well-meant attempt to soften how wicked the act was. It was the fullest profanation of the name of Israel's God, though not the only one. Jehovah accepted a sheep or an ox, or even a much smaller sacrifice; Satan under these names demanded their sons.
The verse ends by asking whether her whorings were too small a thing. To the adultery she now added blood. Commenting on the parallel passage in Ezekiel 23, one writer separates the two counts:
Adultery and blood are both in the charge against them here. Their idolatry held both: unfaithfulness to God, and making their sons pass through the fire to their idols to be devoured... They were not simply the victims of others. Others did not merely tempt them; they themselves did the tempting... They dressed up in the ornaments God had given them, to welcome the men who corrupted them!
One writer takes the burning of Judah's children in the fire of the idol Molech and brings it home to parents today:
One of the first steps in this downward path was the burning of the little ones of Judah in the fire of Molech. What a fearful thought for a parent's heart! A believer's backsliding and worldliness today may, unless grace prevents it, sacrifice his children to everlasting burnings!... I believe we cannot turn one step away from God without affecting our children. In such a case it is no use to pray for their conversion. It only hardens their hearts, if we ourselves are leading them into the paths of Satan.
The same worldliness can come with prayer attached:
Do you argue that it is not really for yourself? But you have a son or daughter, and you want them to have a good place in the world. You have given that up for yourself — but there are the children! This is often how the worldliness of a parent's heart shows itself. It is not the earnest desire for the child to be in Christ, and God's own child. The practical aim first is to secure a good place in the world, though they pray that the child may be saved too.
- Given. Everything Jerusalem had came from her Maker. Her beauty and His countless gifts were His before they were hers.
- Forgotten. The ruin began with pride, not with the fire. She stopped acknowledging the giver, and then spent His gifts anywhere she liked.
- Borne to Him. The children belonged to God in the same way. They were born to Him, so handing them over was one more gift turned away from its Owner.
- Devoured. Reading "pass through the fire" as a harmless ritual softens what happened. God asked for a sheep; the idols demanded sons.
- Repeated. The same pattern runs today. A parent's step away from God, or the wish to win a child a good place in the world, still decides where the children go.
that thou didst slay my children and give them up in passing them over to them?
Ezekiel 16 is God's case against Jerusalem, told as a story: He rescued an abandoned baby girl, raised her, and married her, and she gave it all to idols. Verse 21 is where the charge reaches its worst — God calls the murdered children His own.
This verse only lands when you see what came before. God had given Jerusalem everything she then spent on idols.
And what was the return? "But you trusted in your own beauty and played the whore because of your renown." It is a sorrowful picture, and every bit as true as it is sad. The beauty of Jerusalem was for every passer-by. The idolatrous uncleanness of Jerusalem went beyond anything that had been or was to be. And this was the mark of it. Every one of the countless favours from her divine husband — for that is what her Maker was to her — she squandered on the filthy idols of the pagan nations.
This was no one-off outrage in Israel's history. One writer also weighs how literally to take the words.
This verse 21 is only one of many solemn bans on a horror. It lasted right down to Josiah's days, and Ahaz was a well-known patron of it long before. Some have argued from the words "passing through the fire," here and elsewhere, that the children were not really burned. But this looks like a well-meant effort to soften the reality of the wickedness. It was the fullest, though not the only, way of profaning the name of Israel's God. The LORD accepted a sheep or an ox, or even a much smaller offering; Satan, under these names, demanded their sons.
The ceremony looked like devotion. One writer asks what the parent actually wanted.
People spoke of this as a sacrifice. But the practice did not come from unselfish love for Molech. It came from the selfish evil of wanting to get rid of a child. How evil it is today that many want to get rid of a child before it is born! Molech was an image with its arms stretched out. People placed their children in those arms while a fire burned underneath. Then drums and noisy music drowned out the cries of the child as it burned to death. So this religious wickedness treated the torture and murder of an unwanted child as something sacred.
God's answer matched the crime. He made the place of the fires the place where the killers fell.
On the heights of Topheth, in the valley of the son of Hinnom, they had burned their children as a sacrifice to Molech. The days were now coming when that same place would become the place of slaughter. The corpses of the people would then be food for the beasts of the earth; they would lie there unburied. Such was to be Jerusalem's rejection and judgment.
The pattern did not stop with Israel. One writer follows it into church history, and then closer still.
A people mad about their idols sacrificed the children really born to God among Israel — the remnant He owned as His. And who does not know that the blood of God's saints has been poured out like water, for refusing to give divine honour to a piece of magically transformed bread? If we had eyes to read such things on a smaller scale, how often would we find the same thing in ourselves? The impulses and purposes the Spirit gives birth to in us are sacrificed in the same way — to the self-will that, even in a Christian, can go after its idols.
The chapter does not end at the fire. The same God who lists these crimes binds Himself to restore the guilty city.
Jerusalem is now rightly condemned and humbled. Even so, God will act in full grace towards her. He will re-establish her, remembering His love and His covenant. She will never be restored on the old ground, and neither will Samaria or Sodom. But the grace shown to her will be enough to bring them back too. It is the sovereign grace of redemption and pardon, which is in no way the covenant of Jerusalem under the law. Her mouth will be shut at the thought of all the grace of God who will have pardoned her.
- His gift. Every beauty Jerusalem owned came from God's hand — including the sons and daughters she bore to Him.
- His children. God calls the murdered infants My children. They were born to Him, and handed to the idols instead.
- His rival. The LORD asked for a sheep; the idol asked for a son. What looked like worship was Satan's price, and the parent's own wish to be rid of the child.
- His judgment. Topheth, where the children burned, became the place of slaughter, and the killers lay there unburied.
- His grace. After the verdict, God still binds Himself to restore her. The ground is sovereign pardon, not the old covenant, and her mouth is stopped at such mercy.