Ezekiel 16:1-7 - I said to you: "Live!"

16:1-7

Having had the vine analogy in the previous chapter, we now come to another analogy of Israel’s failure. This time Jerusalem (though it can apply to Israel as a whole) is likened to an adulterous wife. The adultery analogy is often used in the Old Testament to describe Israel’s relationship with the Lord, Hosea is perhaps the supreme example. He had to marry an adulterous wife. The analogy is used to describe the whole of Israel’s history up to this point in time, and it isn’t pretty! Indeed, we might be reluctant to read some parts out in church, though we shouldn’t be. Israel’s unfaithfulness is shocking, as is the unfaithfulness of individuals or of churches. In reading this we should remember that the focus is Israel and her history, the analogy is used to summarise that history and to bring it home to the people. 

Ezekiel is to “confront Jerusalem with her detestable practices”. There are times when churches or people need to be confronted with what we are. Israel tended to consider herself as superior to other nations, but there was no justification at all for this. So God starts by reminding them of their ancestry. Their origins came from the land of Canaan and their father was an Amorite, and their mother a Hittite. They came from the nations that they despised. 

The reference to the cord not being cut and not being washed in salt refer to birth practices in those days. There was nothing in her origins to commend Israel, she was despised and abandoned. The only reason she is anything was that the Lord saw her and proclaimed to her “live!”. God is our only source of life. So she grew and matured until she reached womanhood.