Ezekiel 16:14

New International Version

And your fame spread among the nations on account of your beauty, because the splendor I had given you made your beauty perfect, declares the Sovereign Lord.

For Meditation

Ezekiel tells how Israel rejected God after all He had done for them, its consequences, and the promise of eventual restoration (Ezekiel 16:1-63). It is painful, heart-wrenching, sad, and difficult to read. The language he employed could nauseate the average believer. His purpose was to shock us with the ugly sins of Israel. We live the same way but deny it until the Spirit God sounds it in our hearts to feel His pain over our waywardness.

In a parable, Ezekiel graphically tells the tale of an infant abandoned at birth and left to die but rescued by a passerby. The stranger rescues and eventually weds this beauty, lavishing her with precious clothes and jewelry, but she becomes unfaithful (1-13).

The parable tells the story of how God related with the Jewish people, whom He chose through Abraham and made a covenant with. He blessed them with everything that made them unique as a nation, including beauty and wealth. He talks about His wrath as a result of their idolatry, adultery, eventual defeat, exile, and restoration. 

John B. Taylor comments on verse 14 of this story:

“This verse brings the climax of God’s gracious and lavish generosity to undeserving Israel. Her life, her married status, her wealth, and her beauty are all entirely due to the Lord who chose to do this for her. She contributed no merit or worthiness of her own: it was all of grace” (Ezekiel, An Introduction & Commentary).

Grace! How amazing it is? What more could God have done for Israel?

Are believers different from the Israelites? How does God feel about our unfaithfulness? Could it be any less, considering the agony and pain Jesus suffered through to redeem us?

I do not know about you, but I see myself in this parable more than I have ever known before. My situation before Christ lucidly confronts me through this story. His love, mercy, and grace overwhelm me.

But how have I responded to this outpouring of the love of God for me? O, unfaithful Kwame Baafi! How promiscuous and defiant, just like Israel! However, as God promised to restore unfaithful Israel, I also rest on His mercy and grace to forgive me whenever I repent (1 John 1:9).

As a pastor for over twenty years, I have listened to stories like this many times. There were times I wanted to do the unthinkable to the unfaithful spouse. These stories have come from both sides in painful ways, but more from the wives. Their husbands betrayed and left them to cater to their children in single-family homes with all its negativism but for the grace of God.

Betrayal is painful. Consider how your Lord feels when you betray His trust by using His gifts for worldly purposes instead of for His kingdom and repent.

Shalom