Bible Study: November 20, 2024

So tonight we're going to be in Ezekiel 23 and it's another chapter where God, as I mentioned in the prayer, is chiding his people and making them aware of the sins that they have and how they have, I'll use the word disappointed, but really angered and frustrated him by the reactions that they have given to him by not being grateful for what he has done and allowing themselves to fall into idolatry. Ezekiel 23 here follows Ezekiel 22, or last week if you recall, God pretty much listed the sins of a nation that would lead it about to the brink of its extinction. If you remember in verse 4 of Ezekiel 22 it says, you have caused your days to draw near, you have come to the end of your years, and we talked about the various sins that were going on in ancient Israel and ancient Judah.

We know that those are written for us today as well as we went through and talked about the sins back then and how they relate to the things we see going on in our you know Israelite nations today as well. We're going to see the same thing here in Isaiah, or not as Isaiah, but Ezekiel 23. We have talked many times about how God in various ways gets the message across to Ezekiel of what he is going to do and then we're in this section of scriptures that's leading up to the time of the time of Christ's return and where he will reclaim the nations and bring them back to Israel.

But over and over and over again he reminds them and us, because these chapters are written for us just as much as they were written for the ancient nations back then, to turn back to him, to recognize the sins, and to paint a very vivid picture for us of how God looks at the way we handle our lives with him.

And this is a very graphic chapter when you look at it. He gave these words to Ezekiel and Ezekiel then later on repeats them to Israel. Of course they're written here for us as well. So as we go through Ezekiel 23, we're going to see some familiar themes here, but again it's a reminder that God over and over and over will give us warning and remind us turn to him. Be aware of what you are doing. Pay attention to the sins that you're committing because there will come a time when you pay and you pay dearly the consequences for the actions that we have.

So let's pick it up here in Ezekiel 23 verse 1. It says, the Lord of the Lord came again to Ezekiel saying, Son of man, there were two women, the daughters of one mother. They committed harlotry in Egypt. They committed harlotry in their youth and their breasts were there and braced. Their virgin bosom was there pressed. So we kind of see the way God is going to again in this chapter draw the sins of what Israel and Judah then and modern day Israel how he sees it.

He sees it as harlotry. And when we read about these things, it's how people lust for the idols and the ways of the world. And God just is very graphic in here. We talk about, you know, there's two women. We're going to see in verse 3 here or verse 4 that it is Israel and Judah he's talking about. And they are the daughters of one mother. That would be when the house of Israel was altogether all 12 tribes under one. Of course, they split in two with the house of Israel being under King Jeroboam when they split and Judah being under King Reoboam.

It says here in verse 3 that they committed harlotry in Egypt. What God is saying and reminding us here and reminding them is that when they were in Egypt, they were living by the ways of the world. He says here that, you know, they kind of embrace the idols in Egypt. He had to remind them of who they are. They may have known who God was during all that time, but they were embracing and worshiping some of the idols there in Egypt as well.

When they were brought out of Egypt, God wanted them to spiritually come out of Egypt as well. But we know their history. They kept looking back. They kept longing for those things in Egypt. And as we read through these things and when we see Egypt show up a few times in these chapters, we can be reminded of what, you know, God tells us and Christ tells us and the Bible tells us about coming out of the world because that's what he's saying to Egypt.

You never came out of the world. You were there in Egypt. You did all these things. You worship their guys. You became immersed in their society, even though you were slaves, just as we are. When God calls us out of the lives we live in America, Canada, Britain, Trinidad, Tobago, and the places that we Australia that we have people online with us here tonight, you know, we embrace, we live those things and we have to be conscious of less and less trusting in those idols and more and more trusting in God and coming out of the world as he as he says.

So he says in verse three here, you committed harlotry in Egypt. You were sitting back then you were looking at idols I brought you out. They committed harlotry in their youth in the young days when they were in Egypt. And then he uses these sexual connotations throughout this chapter to show how he sees and he paints the pictures of an unfaithful wife, an unfaithful wife and a harlot, you know, for it was just exactly what he says.

There he's graphic and later on there's verses are in here that you have never heard read in church. I'm going to venture to say we'll get to those in a minute. And he talks about their breasts being embraced. They were giving themselves to the people that they were lusting after. They wanted to be like them more than giving themselves and yielding themselves to God. In verse four, he gives them names. Their names he says are Ahola, the elder. That would be Israel. That was the 10 tribes that were under King Jeroboam. And that Hola, if you look in your margin, means her own tabernacle.

The kingdom of Israel when they left, when the tribes were split, you'll remember that King Jeroboam changed. He changed the holy days. He didn't want people following God anymore. He wanted a following after himself. He wanted to become God. He wanted the nation to be under him. And so God says they became their own tabernacle. They created their own religion, if you will, apart from his. But the sister, Aholaba, that name means my tabernacle is in her. It represents Jerusalem, Judah, where God's temple was. So his temple is in Jerusalem. Israel departed from him and wanted to set up their own ways and depart from him. That tabernacle, they became their own their own religion. So again, their names, Ahola, the elder and Aholaba, her sister. They were mine, God says, and they bore sons and daughters. They multiplied. You remember when they came out of Egypt, God said they had multiplied from the 70 that went into Egypt, that there were millions that came out of that. They bore sons and daughters. As for their names, he tells us exactly who they are. Samaria, which is the capital of ancient Israel, is Ahola. And Jerusalem, the capital of ancient Judah, is Aholaba. Now, as we go through this chapter, we have been in this chapter briefly not too many chapters ago. In chapter 16, God uses a similar analogy when he talks about the harlotry of Israel and Judah. And we talked about in that chapter how God brought a young babe, took care of them, raised them, clothed them, made her a beautiful woman, and then that woman turned into a harlot, forgot everything that God had given her, and betrayed him. So let's go back just for a moment and remind ourselves of what we read back in Ezekiel 16, because we have just read that God says they are mine. It's the same thing that he says here in chapter 16. As he talks about the love and the care that he gave for this people and then how they betrayed him and turned against him. In Ezekiel 16, let's pick it up in verse 6. Ezekiel 16 verse 6, it says, When I passed by you, when I passed by you and saw you struggling in your own blood, I said to you in your blood, live. It was going to die, this baby, but God said, live. Yes, I said to you in your blood, live. I made you thrive like a plant in the field. And you grew, you matured and became very beautiful. Your breasts were formed, your hair grew, but you were naked and bare.

When I passed by you again and looked upon you, indeed your time was the time of love. They had, she had matured. So I spread my wing over you and covered your nakedness.

Yes, I swore an oath to you and entered into a covenant with you and you became mine.

They were into a covenant, a marriage covenant, if you will. God betrothed that nation that he created. Remember, we talked about that many times. God says, I created you with all the miraculous births that we talked about from Abraham to Isaac to Jacob to Joseph. You became mine. I washed you in water. Yes, I thoroughly washed off your blood and I anointed you with oil. And then he talks about how he clothed them and took care of them. Verse 13, the last sentence there, you were exceedingly beautiful and succeeded to royalty. Kings came from her. If you remember Genesis 49, God said royalty, kings will come from you. Your fame went out among the nations because of your beauty, for it was perfect through my splendor, which I had bestowed upon you, says the Lord God. But then they turned against him. They looked, they looked upon themselves and thought, wow, look how great I am. Right? Reminds us of Satan. When God talks about Satan, who was by the name of Lucifer, morning star, before he became Satan and looked at himself, this was this beautiful cherub that God said, I gave you everything. I'm the one who made you. But then it all went to their head and he turned against God and here this beautiful, this beautiful nation that God created, that he blessed and adorned with everything, literally everything that they could possibly want turned against him. Verse 15, you trusted in your own beauty. You played the harlot because of your fame and poured out your harlotry on everyone passing by who would have it. And then when you go on through that chapter, you see in that chapter, like in this chapter, God says you will pay. You will pay for what, what you have done. When we sin, there are consequences and he would not be God if he didn't see that those consequences came upon us and those consequences come. Remember, because God loves us and he wants us to turn from our wicked ways back to his. Sometimes we have to go through some pain and hurt in order to see the reality and truth of who God is and turn back to him. So with that in mind, let's go back to Ezekiel 23.

Now we're going to see God again reminding the people, you turned from me. And we were in verse, we were in verse five. Ahola, remember that's Israel, the elder, the elder sister, Ahola played the harlot even though she was mine. She should have known, played the harlot even though she was mine. And she lusted for her lovers neighboring Assyrians who were clothed in purple. And then he goes through this, he goes through these descriptions that just kind of paint of the lust someone would have or a woman would have for someone as she lets her mind go there and whatever. And as we look at these things, again, as God talks about lusting for people and lovers and whatever, the things that they were lusting for as they saw in other nations, they wanted to be like them. They lusted after their gods, they lusted after the way they did things. They kind of wanted to do things the way the world did. And we have to watch out for ourselves that we don't allow those things to happen. God is very clear. We worship him. We worship him in the way that he says in the Bible, and we don't look at the world around and lust after what they did in which we had their celebrations and we could trust in all the idols that this world could throw upon us. We learned to trust in God. So, you know, there's these scriptures that are here. We could just read them. There's really no reason for me to expound on them because God's very detailed here. She lusted for her lovers, the neighboring Assyrians. Well, I will say that. Remember, Israel would look for allies. And so they wanted to chum up with the Assyrians who were the most powerful nation, and they would throw themselves at the Assyrians. But then the Assyrians turned against them, and eventually they conquered Israel. Judah, just to remind us of some history, did the same thing. They wanted to get in bed with the Assyrians, and Assyria never conquered Judah, but came close. It was only because God didn't allow it to happen. But he describes these neighboring or these nations that they wanted to get in bed with. Well, you can put it that way. Verse 6, they were clothed in purple, captains and rulers, all of them desirable young men, horsemen riding on horses.

Thus she committed her harlotry with them, all of them choice men of Assyria, and with all for whom she lusted, with all their idols, she defiled herself. She has never given up her harlotry brought from Egypt, for in her youth they had lain with her, pressed her virgin bosom, and poured out their immorality upon her. God said, you come out of Egypt, or yeah, you come out of Egypt, but you haven't had Egypt come out of you. You are still like you were in Egypt. And he would say the same about us when he says, come out of the world. Come out of the world physically we do, but that world has to come out of our hearts and minds so that we are loyal only to God and not clinging, not clinging to the world around us. And that's a lifetime, that's a lifetime of us coming out of there and giving our faith and putting our trust in God and leaving the things and the trust in this world around us. And God repeats this. They never left Egypt. They always returned to who they were as they looked at the other nations around them. And if we're not careful what we're doing, if we're not looking to God and using the Holy Spirit, he's put in us, to be aware of who we could go back to, we could go back there. Remember there's a verse, I can't recall where it is, no, it's in Hebrews 11 actually, when it's in the faith chapter, and it says, if those men of faith, if they had had a mind to go back to the way they were, if they had a mind to go back to their country, they could have gone, God will let us go back if that's what we want. If we really want to be part of the world, if we really want to be like we were before and give into our old lusts and our old weaknesses and our old faults, he'll let us do that. But hopefully we don't want that. We said when we were baptized, we put to death those old members. We don't want to go back. We want to turn away from that to the future and to the purity that God has called us to.

So he says, that's what they did. They never let go of the world. Verse 9, because they did this, God said, they became harlots. They just betrayed him and didn't follow what he was said. They weren't loyal to him. Therefore, I've delivered her into the hand of her lovers, into the hand of the Assyrians for whom she lusted. They uncovered her nakedness. They took away her sons and daughters and they slew her with the sword. They turned against her. They never loved her. She threw herself at them, but they never loved her. They just wanted to conquer her. They just wanted to take what she had and take away the promise that God had given them.

And again, when we look at ourselves, we look at the world around us and we can do, but we can look at ourselves in these verses in two and say, what does Satan want? God has given you and me promises. God has taken you and me from the world and he's given us a tremendous opportunity to become like him and promised us a future if we yield to him and give our hearts to him and follow him, what it will be. But if we let Satan, who is very determined to take away that future from us, he will do whatever it takes to have us forfeit and to commit harlotry with the world as well. Same thing. The world doesn't love us. The world would like to destroy us. We know in the end time when we look in Revelation, the beast power that's in at that time, they war against the people of God. They want to take it away just like Israel. They're enemies who they prostituted themselves with, killed them, took them into captivity, took them into captivity and took them out of their land. In verse going on in verse 10 there it says, she, Israel, became a byword among women for they had executed judgment on her. She got what she deserved, exactly what God had said, what happened to her did after many years of being worn, turned back.

They never did. When I see that word byword, it's not something that we use in our everyday language. Whenever I see byword, I think of what happened to ancient Israel and Judah. I think of God's description of Satan in Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28. He'll talk about how when Satan is cast down to earth and God executes judgment on him, how everyone will look down on him and think, who were you that ruled the nations and look what you have become.

That's the older sister, Israel here. She has become a byword among nations. She's been taken captive. She prostituted herself and it all turned on her, all turned on her in that way.

Then we go into verse 11 where God is going to talk about her younger sister, Oholaba, which is Judah. Throughout Scripture, God says you would think that what happened to Israel would have been a lesson to Judah, that she would have seen what would happen and she would certainly turn back to God and not allow herself to go down the same path. That isn't what happened to Judah. This is what the next several verses here say. It says, although her sister, Oholaba, saw this, she saw what happened to Israel. She saw that they went into captivity and lost everything that God had given them, all that adornment, all those blessings, how he had made her beautiful among the nations, but then she lost it all by her harlotry and looking at the world around.

Although she saw what happened to there, she became more corrupt in her lust than Israel did. In her harlotry, she was more corrupt than her sister's harlotry. More corrupt. It doesn't even make sense. Let's go back to Ezekiel 16 again, where we have the similar chapter.

The latter part of that chapter, we have God comparing Israel and Judah to Sodom.

Verse 49, verse 49, he says, look, this is the iniquity of your sister Sodom. Sodom grew up in that same area of the world. She and her daughter had pride. They had fullness of food, abundance of idleness. Neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. All these things that can trip us up when we think that we have everything we need and we don't need God anymore.

So, verse 50 there, it says, they were haughty. And they committed abomination before me. Therefore, I took them away as I saw fit.

Samaria, that's Israel, verse 51, didn't commit half of your sins. He's writing to Judah. But you have multiplied your abominations more than they. You have justified your sisters by all the abominations which you have done. You who judged your sisters, look down on them like, how could that have happened? Bear your own shame also because the sins which you committed were more abominable than theirs. They are more righteous than you. Be disgraced and bear your own shame because you justified your sisters. So, that's again what he's saying here. Judah, you should have looked and seen what the example was. You saw the punishment, the consequences of their sin come upon them, but you became more corrupt. And when you look at the history of Judah, you see kings, and one king in particular, King Manasseh, who was just an atrocious king. He was just atrocious, so abominable what he did that even though he repented later in life, God said, because the nation followed you, it's still going to suffer the consequences. It's still going to go into captivity. You are still going to be conquered. Let's look at this King Manasseh, Manasseh here for a moment. In 2 Corinthians, not 2 Corinthians, 2 Chronicles, 2 Chronicles 33.

33. Yeah, you see in verse 1 of 2 Chronicles 33 was this King Manasseh, a young king, verse 2, he did evil. Down in verse 6, well in verse 5, you see, he set up idols all across the nation to, of all, built altars for all the hosts of heaven. In verse 6, and he caused his sons to pass through the fire in the valley of the Son of Hinnom. He practiced sous-se, used witchcraft and sorcery, consulted mediums and spiritus. He did much evil in the sight of the Lord to provoke him to anger.

And it seems like there, let me look at my notes here for a moment. If we drop down to verse 7.

Let's look at that. Drop down to verse 10. The Lord spoke to Manasseh and his people, but they wouldn't listen. God always warns, but often we just won't listen. Therefore the Lord brought upon them the captains of the army of the king of Assyria, who took Manasseh with hooks, bound him with bronze feathers and carried him off to Babylon. Well, he did, as I said, repent and you could read through the account of Manasseh there. But God was so, so disgusted with what had gone on with King Manasseh that the nation suffered, that suffered terribly. They literally did worse than Israel. And this is what God is saying here. And then in verse 11 of Ezekiel 22. Again, this is a history of Israel and Judah, but Mark, as we'll see later on in the chapter, this is also for us today because it'll come back to Ahola and Ahola and Ahola while later, even after these two have been taken captive to give us a warning today, remembering always that Ezekiel talked to the house of Israel who had already gone into captivity. So these words we know for us today. So let's go back to Ezekiel 22. And before we do that, let's go to Jeremiah. I see something I wrote down in my notes here. Let's go to Jeremiah just so that we can see how all these prophecies tie together. Remember that Ezekiel was contemporary with Jeremiah and Daniel. Jeremiah was prophesying in Jerusalem. Ezekiel was in one of the exiles from Jerusalem in a foreign land while he was prophesying. And Daniel came out of the first one, first exile that Nebuchadnezzar and he was prophesying. But there are very similar prophecies you see. So as you read through these, you see similar things. So in Jeremiah 3, Jeremiah 3 and verse 6, yeah verse 6, Jeremiah 3 and verse 6.

Josiah, Josiah was a king, a good king after Manasseh. We were in 2 Chronicles 33. If you read on the 2 Chronicles 34 and 35, you see what Josiah had done. But the Lord here, we're seeing this in Jeremiah's time. Verse 6 of Jeremiah 3 says, the Lord said to me, this is Jeremiah in the days of Josiah the king, have you seen what backsliding Israel has done? She's gone up on every high mountain and under every green tree and there she played the harlot. And I said, after she had done these things, returned to me, but she did not return and her treacherous sister Judah saw it. Then I saw that for all the causes for which backsliding Israel had committed adultery, I had put her away and given her a certificate of divorce. She had a committed adultery. God put her away, never stopped loving her, never stopped loving her, but put her away and given her a certificate of divorce. Yet her treacherous sister Judah didn't fear, but went and played the harlot also. So it came to pass through her casual harlotry that she defiled the land and committed adultery with stones and trees. So all these idols and yet for all this, her treacherous sister Judah has not turned to me with her whole heart, but in pretense. Ah, again, they were just going through the motions sometimes. You remember when we were in the book of Isaiah, God made comments like, I hate your Sabbath because he said, you're just going through the motions. Your heart isn't with me. You aren't keeping the Sabbath because you, it is a delight to you and your heart is with me. You're doing it because it's a thing where you check off the box and say, I've done that. And here he says it again. You know, they haven't turned to me with her whole heart, but in pretense, just going through the motions, but not really meaning it. And the Lord said to me, backsliding Israel has shown herself more treacherous than treacherous Judah. Verse 14, then we got down again. You know, God keeps saying return, return, return. The prophets came, returned to God, returned to God, but people didn't listen. God is patient and God warns. He warns us today, return to him. Don't get caught up in the ways of the world. Return, verse 14, Oh backsliding children for I am married to you. I will take you one from a city and two from a family. And I will bring you to Zion and I will give you shepherds according to my heart who will feed you with knowledge and understanding. And it will come to pass when you are multiplied and increased in the land in those days that they will say no more the Ark of the covenant to the Lord.

This is talking about a future time when God brings back the people to Israel, when they do turn to him, when they have suffered the consequences of their actions and a remnant is there. And in those days, God says they will no longer, they will no longer say of the Ark of the covenant of the Lord. It shall not come to mind because their heart will be with God. In 8 inches really, it was just the Ark is there. It was God's, but when we have God's spirit, it won't come to mind anymore nor shall they remember it. And they shall finish it, for it shall not be made anymore.

The spirit, the spirit of God in us draws us to him. So again, we see this continuing thing throughout the prophecies where God keeps warning the people. So let's go back to Ezekiel 23.

And we'll read through several verses here where you see Aholaba do the same thing that Ahola did in the first verses here of chapter 23. So I'll just read through those here. Verse 12.

In verse 12 of Ezekiel 23, she now we're speaking of Judah, she lusted for the neighboring Assyrians, captains and rulers, clothed most gloriously, horsemen riding on horses, all of them desirable young men, all these idols that look so attractive, that's their story. You know, sometimes when I think of those things, it's like Christmas comes right and you have all the lights and as I drive home and now it's dark when I drive home from the office, you know, we get to see the Christmas lights and, and they are pretty as you drive along, right?

And it's like, I, you know, kids look at those things and, and it looks very alluring and, and, and all these things. And that's what God is saying here. Every, the world looks very attractive, but in it is death and misery. You turn from it and turn to the things of God. So God said she lusted for all these things. Verse 13. And I saw that she was defiled both, both Israel and Judah took the same way, but she increased her harlotry.

She looked at men portrayed in the wall, images of Chaldeans portrayed in Vermilion. And as I looked through some of the commentaries, it made, it made the comments that what is or Judah would do, they would actually paint about the Assyrians of some of their walls as they've covered some of those, those things. So God is talking about here, they did it. You could see we want to be like them. We want to be like them. Verse 15, girded with belts around their waists, flowing, flowing turbans on their heads, all of them looking like captains in the manner of the Babylonians of Chaldea, the land of their nativity.

As soon as her eyes saw them, she lusted for them and sent messengers to them in Chaldea. Well, you know, they, that's, that's what she had done. But God loved her. God loved, you know, we just read in Jeremiah, oh, God says, I still love you. I'm still married to you. Even though I've given you this certificate of divorce, you're still mine. He still loves. And I should have turned to the verse when we were in Jeremiah 33, but a few books ahead, we have the book of Amos.

Now let's look at what God says in the book of Amos here, a book written to Israel in Amos 3. And verse two, he speaks, he speaks of Israel, you know, the nation of Israel, all the house of Israel. And verse one of Amos three, it says, hear the word that the Lord has spoken against you, oh, children of Israel, against the whole family, which I brought up from the land of Egypt, saying, you only, you only have I known of all the families of the earth.

Therefore, I will punish you for all your iniquities. Because I love you, I've loved you more. And we know Israel was God's special nation. Doesn't mean that he doesn't love the rest of the earth. Jesus Christ loved all of mankind. God loves all of mankind. But there was this special nation he reserved from himself that he wanted to be in them to be an example of his way of life, a light to the world. But ancient Israel and ancient Judah failed.

And you and I had that opportunity to be that light as Jesus Christ came into the world and made possible the opportunity for our sins to be forgiven, for us to receive God's Holy Spirit to live that way of life, to show, to show, and to be that light that God says don't put under a bushel basket.

You be that model nation, you live that way of life, show the world the way that life could be, the way of life that will be when Jesus Christ returns and all the world living at that time, the people that live into it will see, here's the way of life, at least to everything we always wanted. Of all the nations on earth, God said, I loved you because he loved them.

Says I will punish you. I will punish you, not because he wants us to hurt, not because he desires us to to perish, but because he wants us to turn to him and experience everything that he has offered us. Hey, Tracy, you got a question or a comment? Yes, I do have a question. You said a minute ago, you said a minute ago that even though I gave you a decree of divorce, you're still mine. And it's all symbolic, but how does that work?

Well, he says, I mean, he gave him a certificate of divorce, they said they wanted to leave, right? So he said, fine, go out to the world. And then they were scattered among all the nations. But in the end, he's still going to bring them back. We read that over and over in the Bible. He still loves them. He's never forgotten them. Well, well, prophecies will say all these other nations might be completely destroyed. He says I will never completely destroy Israel. So, you know, divorce can happen and people can still love each other. But God says I still I still love, I still love Israel, even though they've sinned against me.

And he knows, he knows in the end, they're going to turn back to him after they go through the suffering that they go through. So Okay, I just thought how you divorce someone still be married to them.

Okay, I still see that they divorced him, they left him, but he hasn't forgotten. He hasn't forgotten his people. So okay, let's go back then to Ezekiel 23.

Okay, so we have now Judah, the Babylonians coming in, they will be the ones to conquer, they will be the ones to conquer Judah, we know. And here is as Judah sees them, they're lusting after the ways of Babylon, verse 17 of Ezekiel 23. It says then the Babylonians came to Judah into the bed of love, and they defiled her with their immorality. She was deviled by them. And then she alienated herself from them. It's like she realized that when you look back at ancient, ancient Judah, there was a time she separated themselves and they realized Babylon was an enemy. But it was too late, she had already committed harlotry with them. And God says, you alienated yourself with them, but you committed a sin with them. She revealed, verse 18. You know, in God's eyes, we reveal, we reveal our sins, we reveal our weaknesses. You know, God will reveal them to us. And if we repent of them, you know, there isn't, that's what God wants. But sometimes we don't, and we keep doing things and doing things. And then there's the revelation of these things can become apparent to other people, to the point that we suffer the consequences on it. Here, that's what happened to Israel and Judah. She revealed her harlotry and uncovered her nakedness. She did it to herself by the actions and the choices that she made. Then I, God says, I alienated myself, alienated myself from her. And as I had alienated myself from her sister, they wanted to leave. I thought, fine, go and suffer and realize and see what the world is about. You want the world, understand the world. And sometimes we may want that. And then we find out that the world is not a pleasant place. The world is a place that will eat us up and spit us out while we are trying to live God's way of life. And we realize God's way is right. Having our future, having a meaning to life, a purpose to life, knowing what his plan is and knowing that it is sure, is sure to come about as you and I are sitting here together tonight, that that's going to happen. That, that is a comforting and a settling thing that establishes us no matter what goes on in the world around us. So God says, I alienated myself from Israel. I'm alienating myself from you, Judah. The same thing he would say to us if we made the same choices and had the same attitudes toward the world that these two nations had toward the world. Verse 19, yes, she multiplied her harlotry and calling to remembrance the days of her youth. She went back to the weaknesses that she had when she was in Egypt, when she had played the harlot in the land of Egypt, for she lusted for her paramours. And I'm not going to, I'm not even going to read verse 20, right? I mean, that's probably a verse you've never heard. You can read it for yourself and see what it's like. You probably never heard that verse, but you can see how graphic God is and the, and the, the lust, the overwhelming lust that, that, that the nations had as they turned against God. Verse 21, thus you called to remembrance the lewdness of your youth.

When the Egyptians pressed your bosom because of your youthful breasts, they wanted to turn back.

Ancient Israel, when they came out of Egypt, every time they, every time they had any kind of, of situation develop, what they did is complain and say, we just want to go back to Egypt. And we could, we could find ourselves in the same way complaining, but as I mentioned in a sermon, not too long ago, well, we have to turn when we have our faith in God, turn that complaining into gratitude to him for the opportunity we have to live our way and to live his way of life and to learn the character that he wants us to have. That's where we have to be. God is teaching us. God is strengthening us. He's preparing us for what lies ahead and for the return of Jesus Christ.

Verse 22, therefore God says, again, all this lust, all this stuff that's going on with the nation there, therefore a whole of us that says the Lord God, I will stir up. I will stir up your lovers against you from whom, from whom you have alienated yourself. You, you've realized what's going on, but you are going to feel you're going to see that they don't love you. They just wanted to destroy you. And I will bring them against you from every side. The Babylonians, all the Caledonians, these, the commentaries say kind of tribes here, Peacock, Shoah, Koah, all these will come against you. All the Syrians with them, all of them, desirable young men. I had to, one of the commentaries might've been the UCG Bible commentary says, this is kind of an ironic statement for God. You know, you wanted all these people to them. They, these were these desirable idols that you had. And now they're all coming against you. Now you see what the real intent that they have is just to destroy you. All these desirable young men, governors and rulers, captains and men of renown, all of them riding on horses. And you know, I mean, we, well, verse 24, they shall come against you with chariots, wagons, and war horses with a hoard of people. They shall array against you, buckler, shield, and helmet all around. You thought they loved you. You thought they loved you, but they really didn't love you. You, they really didn't love you. They just wanted to destroy you. And you walked right into the trap by joining with them and inviting them into your life. I will delegate judgment to them and they will judge you according to their judgments. They will exact the punishment that God allows them to do on us. And that with ancient Assyria was a very cruel, we have talked about a very cruel people that was set upon Israel. A very, you know, in other places, God talks about the Gentile nations he will bring against the people. A fear, a fearsome tribe that's there. Christ talks about a great tribulation that will come that is unlike anything the world has seen before and never will see again. I will set verse 25. I will set my jealousy. I will set my jealousy against you and they shall deal furiously with you.

All these things God gave them the beauty. You can see them stripped away. They shall remove your nose and your ears and your remnant shall fall by the sword. They'll take your sons and daughters and your remnant shall be devoured by fire. It will be a miserable time all because of the choices you made in betraying God's love for you. They shall also strip you of your clothes and take away your beautiful jewelry. They lost everything. They lost everything. And when we look at the world around us, you know, today and we see how God has blessed the nations of America, England, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, all those English speaking nations that have their genesis in Abraham and the descendants of Abraham. And God richly blessed. And he said, I will bless you because as a promise he made to Abraham and you read Genesis 49 and you saved those blessings, no other combination of nations on earth in history. And someone told me that they actually fed this into chat GPT, right? Are there any two nations in history that fulfill Genesis 49 where it talks about Joseph and Jack GBT said the only two nations in all of history that ever can fulfill what those verses say are the United States of America and Great Britain. And that's when they taught it just from the Bible, just from the Bible in history. How does that prophecy?

And it's just very interesting when you use some of these things to see how it is, it spits out the reality of who God's nations are today. And God's given us all these things and yet he warns us in Deuteronomy, he warns us in all these chapters, if you turn from me, hard times are coming. In the good times, don't forget me. Turn to me, right? We're coming up on Thanksgiving here next week in America. You know, and I did a biblical worldview segment today that will air later on this week, you know, talking about talking about Thanksgiving and the gratitude and recently, you know, our newly elected president has said some interesting things about God and religion and what's missing in America today. And if he really means those things, he's very right. That is what's missing, gratitude toward God and acknowledgement of God, but acknowledgement of God in the way God says by turning to him in the Bible, doing the things and living our lives the way Christ lived, not just knowing him, but actually following him and committing ourselves to him.

And this is what happens here in verse 26. They will lose everything. When we turn from God, we lose everything and the world doesn't love us. The world doesn't love America. They love what America has, but as we read ahead in prophecy, we see the nations of Israel lose it all again.

They lose it all again. And as we read a couple of times already in Ezekiel, they will load themselves. They will load themselves when they see what they've done and how they've given it all away. Verse 27 there, they this they've lost it all. These are verses for our nations today too. Thus God says, I will make you cease your lewdness and your harlotry brought from the land of Egypt. It started there. You never came out of the world. He said, you never came totally out of the world so that you will not lift your eyes to them. And you won't remember Egypt anymore. They will go through some hard times, but in the end, good results. They turned to God and he goes, you will never be lewd again. You will never be harlots again. You will be completely loyal to me because that, that what you go through will turn to God and you will know absolutely for sure. This is the way of life and you won't remember Egypt anymore. You will always, you will only remember God and do things his way. That will be the way that you want to live your life. We can learn that without having to go through all these hard times. God says, if we just yield to him and believe what the Bible says, verse 28 for thus says the Lord God, surely I will deliver you into the hand of those you hate into the hand of those from whom you alienated yourselves. They will deal hatefully with you. They will take away all you have worked for and they will leave you naked and bare. The nakedness of your harlotry shall be uncovered both your lewdness and your harlotry. It will become known to all, it will become to known to you. You will one day recognize what you've done. God says, I will do these things to you because you have gone as a harlot after the Gentiles because you have become defiled by their idols. God says, I'm going to do it because that's what you deserve. Come out of this world. He says, come out of the world, leave it behind. First commandment, no other gods besides me.

You have walked, verse 31, in the way of your sister. Therefore, I will put her cup in your hand.

You know, we read about cups, you know, verse 32, it talks about thus says the Lord God, you shall drink of your sister's cup. I have written down on my margin their revelation 18, revelation 18 six, because again, you can see these words and these analogies that God has, they may be in the prophets of old, but they, they are there in the New Testament as well. In revelation 18, you don't need to turn there. I'll just read you. In revelation 18, it's talking about the fall of the system at the end of the age that is of Satan, that has his power of Satan, that hates the people of God, that's drunk with the blood of her saints because they hate the people of God. In verse six of revelation 18, it says, as God is, as God is about to punish her and bring down that system, render to her just as she rendered to you, and repay her double according to her works in the cup which she has mixed, mixed double for her.

That cup, we drink of that cup. If we drink of that cup, we will reap of those, that punishment, that that system, that that system will, that will experience at the hands of God.

So you're still in Ezekiel 23, I hope. Let's go on in verse 32 here. Thus says the Lord God, you will drink of your sister's cup, the deep and wide one. You will be laughed to scorn and held in derision. It contains much. Just think what's going to happen when, you know, all the, all the nations of the world, you know, they have looked at America, they've looked at Britain, they've looked at the English speaking nations of the world and think we just want what you have, right? So here in America, as our southern borders have been open, people are flooding in. Who wouldn't want to live in America? It's a land blessed and the whole world wants what we have. And it says, when we give it up, when we give it up and we haven't been thankful for it and we haven't honored the God who's given all that to us, we're going to be laughed to scorn. What's wrong with those people? What's wrong with them that they allowed all that to happen to them. They did it to themselves by lusting after what we want, we want and didn't realize we never loved them. We loved what they had and we wanted it for ourselves. Verse 33, you will be filled with drunkenness and sorrow, the cup of horror and desolation, the cup of your sister, Samaria. You will drink and drain it. You will break its shards and tear at your own breasts. For I have spoken, says the Lord God. Therefore, he says, because you've forgotten me and cast me behind your back, therefore you shall bear the penalty of your lewdness and your harlotry.

You'll pay the price, God says. And then verse 36, he turns to Ezekiel. After he's explained to Ezekiel, look at all the sins of this people that you were prophesying for. Judah, which still existed at that time, it was going to fall during the time that Ezekiel, well, I guess at the time that Ezekiel was still prophesying, but Israel had already fallen. So these words were given to him to give to us and they are. This is no different than God giving the words to Ezekiel. He's giving the words to us. And he tells Ezekiel in verse 36, son of man, will you judge Ahola and Ahola, will you look at them? Will you see the sins that they've been committing? And then he says, then declare to them their abominations. Tell them their sins. Tell them what's going on. It reminds me of what God said to Isaiah. You know, Isaiah 58 verse one, cry aloud, spare not, tell my people their sins and tell them their transgressions. Tell my people their sins at the house of Jacob, their transgressions. And so he commissions the church, preach the gospel in all nations, in all nations, preach the good news of the coming kingdom of God, preach the good news of Jesus Christ and what he did for us. But to my people, physical Israel and spiritual Israel, tell them their sins. You look at them. You look at how they're living and you make sure you warn them about what's going on, just as he had the prophets of old do. And so the church does that just that today as we fulfill his commission through the various means that he gives us to the world. As I say, think we'll see God open up more and more those ways to get that message out to the world, but also to the church because in Isaiah 58 verse one, it's my people and the house of Jacob, there's the spiritual Israel and the physical Israel is there. He says, declare to them their abominations. Verse 37, for they have committed adultery. Blood is on their hands. They've committed adultery with their idols and have even sacrificed their sons, whom they bore to me, passing them through the fire to devour them. And here in verses 37 and 38, again, we see these type sins that just anger God and the nation's punish. We talked about those in chapter 22, sacrificing their sons to Molech in the ancient times. Tantum out to abortions and what's going on today, especially as we see that sin become worse and worse and worse as some people would say, late term abortion. Just even make it, if it can be worse, sin is sin and abortion is nothing but sacrificing children as well.

They've committed adultery with their idols. They've sacrificed their sons, passing them through the fire to devour them. Verse 38, they've done this to me. They've defiled my sanctuary. They haven't come to me with honor into my congregations, giving me their heart. They profaned my Savas for they, after they had slain their children for their idols, on the same day they came into my sanctuary to profane it. And indeed thus they have done in the midst of my house. God says they did all these things. They sinned and then they come into my house and pretend they're worshiping to me, as he said, not with their hearts, not with their hearts turned to him, but just in pretense. Here I am before you. And yet they don't live their lives 24 seven in the way God called us to be. Furthermore, verse 40, furthermore, verse 40, you sent for men to come from afar. Let me see what time it is here. Yeah, we got a few minutes left here. You sent for men to come from afar. It wasn't even the people around you. You actually sent for them. You actually invited them in. You were looking for people and you set yourself up to commit this harlotry with them of alliances and whatever, and trusting in them. You sent for men to come from afar to whom a messenger was sent and there they came. And you washed yourself for them. You painted your eyes and adorned yourself with ornaments. You tried to make yourself beautiful, to seduce them and to lure them in, to have them desire you. You sat on a stately couch with a table prepared for it on what you had set in my incense and my oil.

You brought all those into my sanctuary using my things, what I had given you. And you were defiling and you were breaking your covenant with me. It's tantamount to, you know, we watch movies sometimes and you know, it's just like the worst thing you could do is if you were having an affair, you would bring your illicit lover into your own bedroom that you and your wife shared. What a travesty. What a thing that God is comparing that to here. You brought them in. You were using all of my things and, you know, committing adultery with them in my presence using my things that I had given you that I adorned you with.

Verse 42 was a multitude, right? Kind of merry. The sound of a carefree multitude was with her. And Sabaeans were brought from the wilderness with men of the common sort who put broislets on their wrists, some beautiful crowns on their heads. Then I said, considering concerning her who had grown old in adulteries, this was a mature nation. They just kept sinning. They just kept doing things against God. This mature nation had grown old in adulteries. Will they commit harlotry with her now? And she with them? Is she really going to make this mistake again after what has happened? And we find ourselves in a situation that now is talking of the future.

Ahola and Ahola Bha have already gone into captivity in the earlier parts of this chapter, but now we're talking about the future. They've already gone in. And as we moved into verse 40, we see this is a different period of time. God has set the tone differently. And in verse 44, as this ancient, this nation that's got all this stuff of God that he's blessed her with, and now she's doing making the same mistake the ancient nations made. And I asked in verse 43, will they commit adultery with her now? And she will with them? Is this really going to happen? Well, God knows what was going to happen. Yet they went into her as men go into a woman who plays the harlot. Thus they went into Ahola and Ahola Bha delude women. They prostituted themselves. Here we are talking about a future time, but righteous men, righteous men will judge them after the manner of adulteries. What does the Bible say? Is the penalty of an adulterous? They'll be stoned. They'll be stoned. And so, you know, there will be righteous who will see this and they will judge them after the manner of adulteresses and after the manner of women who shed blood, because they are adulteresses and blood is on their hands. For thus says the Lord God, bring an assembly against them. Give them up to trouble and plunder. They brought this upon themselves. They're going to have to learn the lesson and they will learn they will never be lewd again. They will see how hurtful and how awful that is that they will never do that again, as we read earlier in the chapter. The assembly shall stone them with stones and execute them with their swords. All those things that we've read about, you know, a third of the nation this, a third of the nation this, a third of the nation to that, but there's this remnant. There is this remnant that God says, I will not completely eliminate Israel. Bring up an assembly against them. The assembly shall stone them with stones, execute them with their swords, and they shall slay their sons and their daughters and burn their houses with fire. Verse 48. Why does God do that?

Yes, it's a deserved punishment. Yes, to preserve his name, because he says, if you do this, if you commit these things, if you turn away from me, this is what will happen. And God's word is sure. Thus I will cause lewdness to cease from the land. When Christ returns, the lewdness is over. When God brings Israel back to its promised land, it brings Judah back to its promised land. Israel has never returned to the promised land. Luedness will no longer be a part of it. They will have gone through the fire. They will have gone through the sword. They will have gone through the stones and everything that they brought upon themselves. And when they come back and God brings them back, I will cause lewdness to cease from the land that all women, all nations, not just Israel and Judah, but all the world may be taught not to practice your lewdness. Trust in God. No idols, no other gods. He is God the Father. He is Jesus Christ, the King of kings and Lord of lords. It will be his way that's taught. They will live by the words of the Bible that God has called you and I to live by and the nations will no longer do the things that the nations of this world do anymore. They shall repay you for your lewdness and you shall pay for your idolatrous sin. And then there's that famous verse that we've seen over and over and over that sentence in Ezekiel. Then you shall know that I am the Lord God. Well, that's a very positive verse. When we know that God is God, when we fear him in the right sense of the word and we are motivated by his Spirit that God gives us when we yield to him and are baptized, when we know he's God, then there's joy, peace, purpose of life, the whole nine yards we always talk about. And Israel at that time and the whole world will know it. So again, as we're through chapter 23, we see God again over and over. You know, Ezekiel, they say that he prophesied for 22 years during his lifetime. Some commentaries say 22 years, others say 28. So these prophecies were given over a period of time as God continued to warn, this is what's going to happen. This is what's going to happen. Turn back to me. And those words are for us as well. So let's just, we can just end there at chapter 23 and open it up for any questions, comments, or anything anyone wants to talk about.