Chapter 7
by John Greene
Ezekiel 23:22-24
22 Therefore, O Aholibah, thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Behold, I will raise up thy lovers against thee, from whom thy soul is alienated, and I will bring them against thee on every side: 23 the Babylonians and all the Chaldeans, Pekod and Shoa and Koa, [and] all the Assyrians with them; desirable young men, governors and rulers all of them, princes and men of renown, all of them riding upon horses. 24 And they shall come against thee with weapons, chariots, and wagons, and with a company of peoples; they shall set themselves against thee with buckler and shield and helmet round about; and I will commit the judgment unto them, and they shall judge thee according to their judgments.
Aholibah is now going to face the consequences of her sin here on earth, but please understand God's heart which is found in the last verse. The judgment is not for destruction, it is for repentance! Verse 49 says, "And they shall recompense your lewdness upon you, and ye shall bear the sins of your idols; and ye shall know that I am the Lord Jehovah." Read the last part again, "and ye shall know that I am the Lord Jehovah." This is said differently by the Apostle Peter in His second Epistle, Chapter 3, verse 9, "The Lord is not slack concerning His promises, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance."
God will remove His hand of protection, desiring that the results of our sin, the ugliness and filth will cause us to see sin as He sees sin, a filthy rotten rebellion to His love. Sin is the rejection of Jesus in our lives, Aholibah says no to Jesus and yes to sin. Ironically, sin was the reason for Jesus' death on Calvary's tree! As this rejection is taking place, God lets our sin to return and bite us! This is what is happening to Aholibah! "Therefore, O Aholibah, thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Behold, I will raise up thy lovers against thee." The chasing of her lovers, the flesh of Aholibah doting upon whatever walked and had a "penis" will be sin, but the judgment is her lovers rejecting her and tossing her aside. The devil does this everyday!
Look at the "rock and roll" star, and the promiscuous "movie" star, they rise to the "top", yet they die horrible deaths of drug overdoses (the thing that brought them pleasure kills them) or they die of aids or some other tragic death brought on by their sins that rose up and slew them. This is a proverb! The devil makes sin look and smell appealing and once he has you, then he wrinkles you up like a piece of paper to be thrown into the trash. You see, once the devil has you, then he is finished with you and discards you like the trash he believes you to be from the beginning. Not so with Jesus!! Jesus knows that despite you filthy sin, He can take a ruined life from the trash heaps of society, and make it "NEW"!! This is His desire for Aholah and Aholibah!
"From whom thy soul is alienated" is an often overlooked phrase. I think back at my old life and the emotions that I had. They weren't good old days because since being born again, I have been able to honestly look back with the Bible as my guide and see the horrible life that I had and the mercy of God at work keeping me from killing myself. I don't know how many times I was in a drunken stupor and realized that I was driving or had been driving! How many times I had mixed drugs and alcohol and still awoke the next day!! But, when I think about the emotions that I had, I remember realizing the horror of my position that I was destroying my life, yet I felt hopeless as well as helpless to do anything about it. I hated my sin in which I had taken pleasure. I just couldn't get free! My soul was alienated from my sin, but my flesh craved and desired my sin. This is a lie of the devil.
The results of Aholibah's sin is "and I will bring them against thee on every side: 23 the Babylonians and all the Chaldeans, Pekod and Shoa and Koa, [and] all the Assyrians with them; desirable young men, governors and rulers all of them, princes and men of renown, all of them riding upon horses. 24 And they shall come against thee with weapons, chariots, and wagons, and with a company of peoples; they shall set themselves against thee with buckler and shield and helmet round about; and I will commit the judgment unto them, and they shall judge thee according to their judgments."
Aholibah's sin causes judgment, but it isn't God's judgment on Aholibah as it is God's judgment of sin that is supposed to cause Aholibah to repent of her sin. Does she? No!! All of her lovers come back to her with all of their weaponry and war powers to destroy her. This is the same judgment on earth for sin that Adam and Eve received. It is at death and the white throne that will come some time later in eternity that will bring the spiritual judgment of sin.
Paul exhorts us to accept Jesus while He is calling, while The Father is drawing us to Him, while The Spirit of God is convicting us of sin. We are to face the truth of our sin. We must face the truth. We can not confuse one earthly consequence with God's spiritual judgment. We aren't talking about rewards, we are talking about where we will spend eternity and with whom we will spend eternity. God is serious.
Will we respond to God's call? Jesus is soon coming and we are still letting those under sin's judgment to think that they are okay and on their way to heaven. Eternity in hell is a long time. Should we play games with people's lives attempting to avoid confrontation rather than lovingly face the issues with God's Word that godly sorrow may produce repentance and freedom in Jesus? Amen, let's preach the Word!
Ezekiel 23:25-28
25 And I will set my jealousy against thee, and they shall deal with thee in fury; they shall take away thy nose and thine ears; and thy residue shall fall by the sword: they shall take thy sons and thy daughters; and thy residue shall be devoured by the fire. 26 They shall also strip thee of thy clothes, and take away thy fair jewels. 27 Thus will I make thy lewdness to cease from thee, and thy whoredom [brought] from the land of Egypt; so that thou shalt not lift up thine eyes unto them, nor remember Egypt any more. 28 For thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Behold, I will deliver thee into the hand of them whom thou hatest, into the hand of them from whom thy soul is alienated;
Ezekiel 23:29-31
29 and they shall deal with thee in hatred, and shall take away all thy labor, and shall leave thee naked and bare; and the nakedness of thy whoredoms shall be uncovered, both thy lewdness and thy whoredoms. 30 These things shall be done unto thee, for that thou hast played the harlot after the nations, and because thou art polluted with their idols. 31 Thou hast walked in the way of thy sister; therefore will I give her cup into thy hand.
God will set His jealousy against the sinner and the ungodly. For a minute think about the three people that Peter mentions in His first Epistle in chapter 4. There are the righteous who are scarcely saved, and the sinner who is absolutely not saved, and the ungodly who remain in their sin but think they are saved. Hebrews tells us that God is a consuming fire, and several Psalms reveal God as a jealous God. He wants all of us, not 42% nor 68% neither 95%, but He wants 100%. Yet, He honors our wishes and desires to the point that the Aholibahs and the like become down trodden and bound up in their sin and God says, "And I will set my jealousy against thee!" The Lord's hand of protection and favor is removed and the consequences of our sin return to chastise us.
"And they shall deal with thee in fury; they shall take away thy nose and thine ears; and thy residue shall fall by the sword: they shall take thy sons and thy daughters; and thy residue shall be devoured by the fire. 26 They shall also strip thee of thy clothes, and take away thy fair jewels." God isn't just whistling Dixie, here. God is serious when He says things especially about the judgment of sin. God means what He says, but we twist and water down what He says. Listen, we succeed and are victorious when we tell it the way it is. God has judged sin and tells Aholibah the way it is, but He is loving and caring the whole time. When we preach the uncompromised Word, it is the way it is, we don't have to delude ourselves that talking about the horrors of sin is not loving. I just heard the other day that when you preach against sin, you are condemning and that couldn't be of God. Take a look at what God says!
Look, "they shall deal" and "they shall take away" and "they shall take" and "they shall also strip thee" and "and take away" are the phrases of God used for Aholibah! Should I begin to walk a life similar to Aholibah, I beg of you to plead with me to the point of offending me with The Word, to see my sin. Cause me to recognize it in order that I repent and be restored back into a right relationship with God and my fellow believers in God. I want to make heaven my home and some two minute hissy fit won't keep me from my relationship with Jesus Christ!
"27 Thus will I make thy lewdness to cease from thee, and thy whoredom [brought] from the land of Egypt; so that thou shalt not lift up thine eyes unto them, nor remember Egypt any more. 28 For thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Behold, I will deliver thee into the hand of them whom thou hatest, into the hand of them from whom thy soul is alienated; 29 and they shall deal with thee in hatred, and shall take away all thy labor, and shall leave thee naked and bare; and the nakedness of thy whoredoms shall be uncovered, both thy lewdness and thy whoredoms." The only way that God can heal our sin is by opening the wound that was covered over by the ways of the world such as denial and even ignoring it. God must go back to the beginning and reopen that wound and heal it with truth, His Word and only His Word is truth. When sin is healed with the proper balm or ointment, then it is part of a testimony, no excess baggage to deal with, just a brand new skin that is part of the new man. This is why the sin that we once found alluring and attractive is used to bring the recognition of that sin.
Religion tries to cover the wound with works. Religion tries to point to background, even other cause to blame instead of the truth. Sin must be faced as sin. It is sin, and sin destroys lives. We can't let people deny their sin or give people the impression that they will make heaven no matter what sin is in our lives. Religion will come to God in so many ways, but with God there is no religion only relationship: and the relationship is either good or bad depending on if we come to God His way through His Son, Jesus Christ.
Someone attempting to cover their sin through religion or denial or ignoring it will go through God's process. His process is simple; sine has consequences and they will come to light. One may do something in secret, but the truth is still the same, and God wants all of us to come to repentance, no matter who we are as we have previously discussed. God loves everyone of us so that when we get into sin, should we reject all the early attempts of God to bring us to repentance, then the consequences of sin will still be there to tell us that it was surely sin. The major problem becomes a little harder to deal with; now, we have many complications to deal with, but good godly counseling will deal with all of the ramifications one at a time until all of the sins are dealt with The Word and healing is complete. We mustn't let pride stop us from being healed.
God completes the judgment of Aholibah with these Words: "30 These things shall be done unto thee, for that thou hast played the harlot after the nations, and because thou art polluted with their idols. 31 Thou hast walked in the way of thy sister; therefore will I give her cup into thy hand." Aholibah refused to take to heart the example of Aholah and chased after every sin that she was so involved with. The harsh judgment on Aholah would be upon Aholibah. Aholah knew better, but Aholibah had a greater responsibility because not only did she know better because of God, but she knew better because of what she saw happen with Aholah her sister! So God says, "Therefore will I give her cup into thy hand." She will drink the same bitter judgment!!
"32 Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Thou shalt drink of thy sister's cup, which is deep and large; thou shalt be laughed to scorn and had in derision; it containeth much. 33 Thou shalt be filled with drunkenness and sorrow, with the cup of astonishment and desolation, with the cup of thy sister Samaria. 34 Thou shalt even drink it and drain it out, and thou shalt gnaw the sherds thereof, and shalt tear thy breasts; for I have spoken it, saith the Lord Jehovah."
This is sin, but for all those that think that this is some metaphor or symbolic slap on a hand, think again! For those that preach that these two women are in heaven because they trusted in Christ's blood, think again. If someone is trusting in Jesus' blood, then that person has a truthful relationship with Him, not a game, not a legalistic point, not even some dramatic plea for clemency, but a genuine relationship where the horror of sin and the fear of God is in their heart; so they love Jesus in sincerity! God's judgment isn't a mere slap and minute loss of reward, it is eternal damnation with the devil and all other who refuse to accept Jesus as Lord.
Aholibah "shalt drink of thy sister's cup, which is deep and large; thou shalt be laughed to scorn and had in derision; it containeth much. 33 Thou shalt be filled with drunkenness and sorrow, with the cup of astonishment and desolation, with the cup of thy sister Samaria." We just can't water down the truth. Aholibah and all that fit her position (which are many) will drink the cup of judgment filled "with drunkenness and sorrow, with the cup of astonishment and desolation" but that isn't all! They "shalt be laughed to scorn and had in derision!"
Keep in mind that all this is because of our hard hearts. The Holy Spirit, way back in the beginning whispered encouragement and love. He spoke of life and how He would lead and guide our life into truth and righteous-ness; but the rejection of Him and His warnings allowed our hearts to get hard, so when sin came knocking we jumped right into it with both feet!
Aholibah's situation is extreme, but not hopeless. A relationship with Jesus is only repentance away! Wow, just think about that for a moment. As evil as some lives may have become, as sin stained as many are, they can be made white as wool the moment we repent of our sins and let God wash them all away.
This is a lot to think about when we look at the lives that surround as and even when we think of our own lives. I have had the honor of ministering to inmates in State prisons for a few years, and I have seen the glory of God come upon the repentant murders, the rapists, and the child molesters alike. I know from these times that God is no respector of persons neither is He looking at any sin that is so bad that He wont forgive, but the truth is we must ask for forgiveness and go and sin no more. Repentance does mean changing the mind, so we must change our mind about our sin. This is why religion covers up and complicates the issues. Let's get right with Jesus and encourage all the Aholibahs out there to get right with Jesus!
The power of Jesus' blood has remained and will never lose its power! It is only with genuine repentance that His blood is initiated into action to purge away sin. This is why a simple prayer means nothing unless it is genuine and true. Aholibah will drink from the same cup as Aholah did, but the results need not be the same. God divorced Israel, but because of His covenant with David we see many that have followed Him throughout the centuries from the tribe of Judah.
John Greene