Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: Because you have forgotten me and cast me behind your back, you yourself must bear the consequences of your lewdness and whoring.”
This verse is God's verdict on Jerusalem, spoken just after He describes a cup she must drink. The reason He gives is a broken relationship: she had put Him out of mind, so she must carry the weight of her own conduct.
Two sisters, one sin
The chapter runs on a picture of two women who stand for the two halves of the divided nation. Their names carry the point.
Arno Clemens GaebeleinIn chapter 23 Samaria and Jerusalem appear as two sisters, Oholah and Oholibah, in their godless relationship with Assyria and Chaldea. Oholah means "her tent." Oholibah means "my tent is in her." The second name shows that the true sanctuary was in Judah. This long chapter sets out the sins and foulness of both, and the punishment they deserved.
This verse speaks to the sister who had God's house inside her borders. Her privilege did not soften her sentence.
William KellySo the judgment of favoured Judah would even go beyond that of Samaria, since her guilt was greater. They must drain the dregs, grind the broken pieces with their teeth, and tear their own guilty breasts.
Casting God behind the back
The phrase is not unique to Ezekiel. God brought the same charge against King Jeroboam, and one writer shows what the picture means.
H. L. RossierTo Jeroboam He says, "But you have done evil above all who were before you and have gone and made for yourself other gods and metal images, provoking Me to anger, and have cast Me behind your back" (v. 9). Jeroboam had done without God and despised Him as a useless object. And is it any different today? Man treats God as a "negligible quantity." He pushes Him out of his life, casting Him behind his back so that he never has to see Him again. In front of him he keeps his own plans, his ambition and his well-being. He does not think about what he has cast behind. But the moment will come when, like Jeroboam, he must turn round and meet face to face the God he counted as nothing.
So the sin named in this verse runs deeper than a broken rule. It is a settled way of living as if God were not needed.
Reaping what was sown
"Therefore bear" is the language of harvest. The conduct behind it was Judah's forbidden dealings with the nations around her.
W. T. P. WolstonEzekiel 23 sets out the sins of Samaria (Israel) and Jerusalem (Judah) in the most serious terms. In each case the ground of Jehovah's judgment is their unlawful relations with the nations, which He had forbidden... They were to reap what they had sown.
The same writer turns this rule on the reader's own life.
W. T. P. WolstonAll that came upon them was the fruit of their own doing. "Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life" (Gal. 6:7-8). We cannot sow a handful of seed without the crop it produces coming up. If sorrow and trial come, what is it? It is the fruit of some seed we sowed years and years ago, when we were away from the Lord.
Severity with a purpose
The chapter ends at judgment. But one commentator asks what the severity was meant to produce.
Numerical Bible NotesYet on God's part all this severity is not mere judgment. The effect, as He puts it here, is to end Oholibah's lewdness and to make the things that once attracted her disgusting to her. A person must come to himself before he can come to God, and this is the process God was now taking Israel through... But the cup must still be drained to its bitter dregs.
The image reversed
The same picture appears elsewhere in Scripture, with God doing the casting. What He puts behind His back is not a person but sin.
F. B. HoleStill he knew that God had cast all his sins behind His back. God does not move in circles. He moves straight forward through the eternal ages. So what He casts behind His back stays there for ever.
Summary
- Forgotten. The charge is not a list of offences. God had slipped out of mind, and behaviour followed.
- Discarded. To cast God behind the back is to treat Him as useless. Plans and ambition stay in front, and He stays out of sight — until the day a man must turn and face Him.
- Favoured. Judah held the sanctuary. Her guilt ran past her sister's, and so did her judgment.
- Borne. The harvest belongs to the sower. Seed planted years ago, in a time of drifting, still comes up.
- Reversed. The sinner casts God behind his back. God casts sin behind His back — and what goes there is gone for ever.