Misapplied Scriptures: Ezekiel 16:6

Introduction: Some folks, perhaps well-meaning, will take a verse completely out of its context in order to use the words for something much different than what was intended. This verse is one that to my knowledge has never been used as the person (L, to protect the identity) said to me many years ago.

Let’s take a look at it. First, here’s the verse from the King James Version (KJV):

Text, Ezekiel 16:6, KJV: 6 And when I passed by thee, and saw thee polluted in thine own blood, I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood, Live; yea, I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood, Live.

1 How the verse could be misapplied

Notice that I said the verse _could_ be misapplied. Many years ago, a family member had explained to me (and I was amazed at this) that if someone was bleeding badly, and there didn’t seem to be any other way to save the person’s life, then quoting this verse would make the bleeding stop. Now, I may not have had all of L’s words because I was A, young; maybe only an early teen at the time and B, I didn’t know L all that well and certainly wasn’t aware of all L knew about the Bible.

Anyway, I kept that nugget tucked away in my memory, hoping I never had to use it and fortunately I never have had to use it. I daresay it might have helped if L had told me where the verse was located but that never happened. The first time I saw these words was years later when I was reading Ezekiel for maybe the first time.

And what I found, when I found the verse, made me realize, oh, boy, something was way off.

2 How the verse should be applied

In the context, Ezekiel is in Babylon along with other Hebrew captives. These people were taken in, most likely, the second time the Babylonians carried Hebrews off to Babylon. Ezekiel made note of this in chapter 1, mentioning King Jehoiachin’s captivity; the rest of the captives weren’t taken until several years later.

While in Babylon, Ezekiel saw some admittedly strange and/or marvelous visions from the LORD. Ezekiel also delivered messages from the LORD to the Hebrews in Babylon. Chapter 16 of his book contains one of those messages.

In this message, the LORD is absolutely telling it like it is to the captives. The LORD begins the message by referring Israel (apparently the whole nation at that point) to the plight of an unwanted baby girl. In the message, the LORD compares Israel to a daughter who was never washed or bathed after birth, and was so unwanted, the baby girl was thrown out into the open field—left there to die!

Then, and here’s where the LORD uses verse 6, the LORD said He found Israel, seeing her “polluted in her own blood” and told her, Israel, twice to LIVE!

The rest of the chapter describes how Israel grew from an unwanted, abandoned baby girl to an unwanted harlot or sex worker! But at the end, the LORD gives a promise that one day all Israel would know that He is the LORD.

Conclusion:

The verse was never intended to be a vocal or verbal blood-stopping tool or device. Now, if anyone has used that verse to stop or staunch someone’s nearly fatal out-flowing of blood, well and good, but that wasn’t the intent when Ezekiel recorded the verse.

The verse was always intended to show Israel how she had started, what she had become, and what the LORD was going to do, as part of the message of Ezekiel 16. None of us have anything in and of ourselves to make us attractive to the LORD—all of us need HIM and the free gift of salvation made possible through Jesus Christ.

If you aren’t already a believer, why not accept the gift of salvation today?

Scripture quotations taken from the King James Version of the Bible (KJV)