Ezekiel 23:11 - Meaning and Application

The prophet Hosea had once seen that the two tribes, Judah and Benjamin, kept much of their loyalty when the ten tribes had already turned away. He even warned Judah, “Though you, Israel, play the prostitute, let not Judah offend” (Hosea 4:15). But that faithfulness did not last long. Through bad marriages between David’s family and Ahab’s family, Baal worship had entered Judah, though reforming kings later drove it out again.

At the time the ten tribes were taken away, during Hezekiah’s reign, Judah was still in a fairly good state. But in Manasseh’s reign, soon after Judah had seen Israel’s destruction, Judah became even more corrupt than Israel had been in its love of idols, as Ezekiel 23:11 says. Instead of learning from Israel’s ruin, Judah seemed to grow worse because of it. As if offended that the Lord had broken Israel apart, Judah grew cold toward him and toward his worship.

This is a warning to all who do not learn from God’s judgments on others. If we see where sin leads, and still treat sin lightly, we should expect God’s judgments on ourselves. Worse still are those who become more sinful because they should have become wiser. Their sinful desires are stirred up by the very thing meant to restrain them.

Jerusalem became worse in her unfaithfulness than her sister Samaria had been. This had already been said before, “Samaria has not committed half your sins” (Ezekiel 16:51). Jerusalem, which had once been a faithful city, became like a prostitute (Isaiah 1:21). She first grew attached to the Assyrians, forming alliances and joining in their worship.

She began admiring their leaders and officers, praising them as better men than anyone Israel had produced. Their rich clothing, their skill on horseback, and their handsome appearance captivated her. She preferred what was foreign and looked down on her own people. Even her own religion seemed plain and unattractive beside the fancy and colorful worship of the nations.

Then she went on to the Chaldeans, the Babylonians. Even King Hezekiah showed a weakness in this direction when he proudly displayed all his treasures to the king of Babylon’s envoys (Isaiah 39:2). Judah’s desire only grew stronger. She admired the Babylonian captains, allied herself with that kingdom, and even brought their images, altars, and temple patterns into Jerusalem for use in worship.

In this way she polluted herself with her unfaithfulness (Ezekiel 23:17), and she exposed how deeply she loved idolatry (Ezekiel 23:18). When she grew tired of the Chaldeans, as Jehoiakim and Zedekiah did in breaking with them, she turned her mind toward Egypt. She admired the Egyptians, wanted their protection, and joined with them in their idol worship too (Ezekiel 23:20). Egypt seemed wise, rich, and strong, and because Judah loved idols so much, Egypt looked more desirable than any other nation.

So Judah called to mind the days of her youth, the shameful things of her early years (Ezekiel 23:19, 21). Sometimes she took pleasure in those memories. When she began to trust Egypt, she likely thought of the old friendship between them, as if she still longed for the food of Egypt, or more likely for the idol worship she had learned there. She remembered the old worship of the golden calf, with all its music and dancing, and hoped to return to that sin again.

That is why repeated memories of former sins can become a new sin. If people think back on old wickedness with pride or delight instead of shame and sorrow, they only strengthen their corrupt hearts. They are, in effect, going back to their own vomit. Even worse, God remembers such sins against them. He had already said he would deal with them for the golden calf, that idol from Egypt (Exodus 32:34), and now their new alliance with Egypt brought that sin back before him.

This adulterous city kept changing lovers. First she longed for the Assyrians, then she thought the Chaldeans were finer, and later she turned to the Egyptians as stronger and more useful. This shows the foolishness of sinful desire. When fleshly lusts are fed, they become restless and hard to satisfy. They want variety, and what they loved one day they hate the next.

It also shows the foolishness of idolatry. If one god is not enough, then a hundred will not be enough either. Idol worship always reaches for more, because it never finds rest. It also shows the failure of trusting in human help. We go from one power to another and are disappointed in all of them. We can only rest when the God of Israel becomes our help.

So the faithful God rightly gave this faithless city a bill of divorce. His jealousy soon exposed her shame, because he saw that she was defiled and spoiled, and he saw that both sisters had taken the same path, with Jerusalem becoming worse than Samaria.

If we stretch out our hand to a false god, will not God search it out? Yes, he surely will. And when he has uncovered it, can he be pleased with it? No, he cannot (Ezekiel 23:18). Then his heart turned away from her, just as it had from her sister. How could the pure and holy God keep delighting in such a sinful people?

Sin turns God’s mind away from the sinner, and rightly so, because sin is the sinner’s own mind turned away from God. But woe, and many times woe, to those from whom God’s mind has turned away. If he turns from someone, he will also turn against that person.