Phillip Griffin tells a story about a man who walks into a restaurant and orders a Coke. As soon as he receives it, he throws it in the waiter's face. The waiter is ready to fight, but the man says, “Oh, I'm so sorry. I have a horrible compulsion. I can't help it. Whenever someone hands me a drink, I throw it in their face. Please, forgive me.” Then the guy says, “I'm working hard to overcome this compulsion. Would you bring me another Coke?”
The waiter says, “Do you promise not to throw it in my face?”
The guy responds, “I'm going to do everything I can not to throw it in your face. I'm working really hard to resist.”
So the waiter says, “Okay, I'll bring you another one.”
Soon the waiter comes back with another Coke, and the guy throws it in the waiter's face. The waiter says, “I thought you said you wouldn't do that.”
The guy apologizes: “Oh, this compulsion is so strong. I promise you that I will check myself into an in-patient clinic to get some help. Forgive me. I'm so sorry.”
The guy felt genuine guilt and sorrow, so he checks himself into a clinic, and for one month he gets intense psychotherapy to deal with his compulsion. When he gets out of the clinic, he goes back to the same restaurant, and he walks in and says, “I'm cured. Give me a drink.”
The waiter says, “Wait a minute. I had to change my shirt last time you were here. Are you sure you're cured?”
The guy says, “I know I'm cured. I promise.”
The waiter says, “Okay, if you're cured, I'll bring you a Coke.” And so the waiter brings him a Coke. The guy looks at it and throws it right in the waiter's face. The waiter says, “I thought you said you were cured.”
The guy says, “I am cured. I still have the compulsion, but I don't feel guilty about it anymore” (Phillip Griffin, “Broken and Repentant,” www.PreachingToday.com).
That’s the sorry state of our own culture today. Many still have the compulsion to sin. They just don’t feel guilty about it anymore. They have pushed the shame aside as they continue down the path to their own destruction.
That was Judah’s condition as the Babylonians laid siege to the city of Jerusalem and was about to destroy it nearly 600 years before Christ. God was judging them for their sin, but they had no shame about it.
So, what does God say to a culture and to a people who have lost the shame and guilt of their sin? Well, if you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to Ezekiel 16, Ezekiel 16, where God addresses such a people back then and today.
Ezekiel 16:1-5 Again the word of the LORD came to me: “Son of man, make known to Jerusalem her abominations, and say, Thus says the Lord GOD to Jerusalem: Your origin and your birth are of the land of the Canaanites; your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite. And as for your birth, on the day you were born your cord was not cut, nor were you washed with water to cleanse you, nor rubbed with salt, nor wrapped in swaddling cloths. No eye pitied you, to do any of these things to you out of compassion for you, but you were cast out on the open field, for you were abhorred, on the day that you were born (ESV).
Originally, Jerusalem was a despised Canaanite city until David made it his capital city about a thousand years before Christ. Until then, the surrounding nations treated her like an unwanted child.
You see, after a baby was born in Bible days, the midwife cut the umbilical cord. Then she washed the vernix and blood off the newborn and rubbed it with salt to dry and firm the skin. After that, she wrapped the infant in cloth for warmth and covering.
However, when Jerusalem was born, no one looked on her with pity or had compassion enough to do any of these things for her. In fact, they threw her out into the open field to die like they did to unwanted and deformed children in the ancient world (Charles Dyer, BKC, Victor Books, 1985). Then God came along.
Ezekiel 16:6-8 “And when I passed by you and saw you wallowing in your blood, I said to you in your blood, ‘Live!’ I said to you in your blood, ‘Live!’ I made you flourish like a plant of the field. And you grew up and became tall and arrived at full adornment. Your breasts were formed, and your hair had grown; yet you were naked and bare. “When I passed by you again and saw you, behold, you were at the age for love, and I spread the corner of my garment over you and covered your nakedness; I made my vow to you and entered into a covenant with you, declares the Lord GOD, and you became mine (ESV).
In Bible days, when a man spread the corner of his garment over a woman, it was a marriage proposal (Ruth 3:9). Here, God is proposing marriage to Jerusalem, pledging His love and taking her as His own bride. Then, God says…
Ezekiel 16:9-14 Then I bathed you with water and washed off your blood from you and anointed you with oil. I clothed you also with embroidered cloth and shod you with fine leather. I wrapped you in fine linen and covered you with silk. And I adorned you with ornaments and put bracelets on your wrists and a chain on your neck. And I put a ring on your nose and earrings in your ears and a beautiful crown on your head. Thus you were adorned with gold and silver, and your clothing was of fine linen and silk and embroidered cloth. You ate fine flour and honey and oil. You grew exceedingly beautiful and advanced to royalty. And your renown went forth among the nations because of your beauty, for it was perfect through the splendor that I had bestowed on you, declares the Lord GOD (ESV).
God took care of His new bride, clothing her in silk and fine jewelry, feeding her with luxurious food and wine. As a result, the once despised city became desirous and beautiful, “the talk of the town” (so to speak). She became world famous all because of the God who loved her.
Then, sadly, she forgot how much God loved her. Without shame, she turned against Him to other lovers, to idols, that abused her and brought her down, with the nations around her despising her again.
My dear friends, do you find yourself in a similar situation—abused and despised by the world? Like Jerusalem, have you forgotten how much God loves you? Then your journey back begins when you…
REMEMBER GOD’S LOVE FOR YOU.
Recall how much our Lord has done for you. Remind yourself of the many ways He has richly blessed you.
You see, God once saw you in your helpless condition—discarded by the world and left to die. “dead in your trespasses and sins” (Ephesians 2:1). That’s when He stepped into your world and demonstrated His love for you on a cross (Romans 5:8). He said to you, “Live!”, promising eternal life to anyone who believes in Him (John 3:16). Then, when you trusted Christ with your life, He made you His bride. He clothed you in His righteousness and washed you with His Word to present you “in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing” (Ephesians 5:25-27).
Have you forgotten how much God loves you? Please, if you have, bring it back to mind and let His love grip your soul.
Patti Greenman, from Saint Louis, Missouri, describes the day when her niece, Toni, turned six. Patti excitedly gave her some gifts for which she had spent extra time shopping. Two weeks later, she asked her niece if she was enjoying her birthday gifts. Patti was disappointed to learn she had decided to return some of them.
She said, “Even after my careful selection of those gifts--intended especially for her—she hadn't really appreciated them.” She asked God to help her get over her disappointment. Then she remembered some of the gifts God had given her. She said, “They were gifts that I hadn't appreciated either and wished I could have exchanged for others” (Patti Greenman, St. Louis, MO, “Heart to Heart,” Today's Christian Woman, www.PreachingToday.com).
God has given you some wonderful gifts—primarily the gift of His love. Please, take the time to appreciate those gifts so you don’t go down the same path that Jerusalem did. And if you have already started down that path, the way back begins when you remember God’s love for you. Then…
RENOUNCE YOUR UNFAITHFULNESS TO GOD.
Turn away from your infidelity and come back to the One who loved you so much. Leave your idols and return to the Lover of your soul.
God had done so much for Jerusalem and the people she represented. He told her, “I made you beautiful…
Ezekiel 16:15-22 “But you trusted in your beauty and played the whore because of your renown and lavished your whorings on any passerby; your beauty became his. You took some of your garments and made for yourself colorful shrines, and on them played the whore. The like has never been, nor ever shall be. You also took your beautiful jewels of my gold and of my silver, which I had given you, and made for yourself images of men, and with them played the whore. And you took your embroidered garments to cover them, and set my oil and my incense before them. Also my bread that I gave you—I fed you with fine flour and oil and honey—you set before them for a pleasing aroma; and so it was, declares the Lord GOD. And you took your sons and your daughters, whom you had borne to me, and these you sacrificed to them to be devoured. Were your whorings so small a matter that you slaughtered my children and delivered them up as an offering by fire to them? And in all your abominations and your whorings you did not remember the days of your youth, when you were naked and bare, wallowing in your blood (ESV).
She took what God had given her and turned it all over to idols. She even burned her children as sacrifices to the idols, all because she had forgotten how much God loves her.
Ezekiel 16:23-25 “And after all your wickedness (woe, woe to you! declares the Lord GOD), you built yourself a vaulted chamber and made yourself a lofty place in every square. At the head of every street you built your lofty place and made your beauty an abomination, offering yourself to any passerby and multiplying your whoring (ESV).
At first, Jerusalem’s citizens worshipped idols in secret, on the high places outside the city. Then, they brought their idol worship into the open, on the city streets themselves. After that, she turned to the nations around her, forming alliances with them rather than trusting God alone.
Ezekiel 16:26-29 You also played the whore with the Egyptians, your lustful neighbors, multiplying your whoring, to provoke me to anger. Behold, therefore, I stretched out my hand against you and diminished your allotted portion and delivered you to the greed of your enemies, the daughters of the Philistines, who were ashamed of your lewd behavior. You played the whore also with the Assyrians, because you were not satisfied; yes, you played the whore with them, and still you were not satisfied. You multiplied your whoring also with the trading land of Chaldea, and even with this you were not satisfied (ESV).
God feels like a jealous husband, whose wife has prostituted herself with other men without getting anything in return.
Ezekiel 16:30-34 “How sick is your heart, declares the Lord GOD, because you did all these things, the deeds of a brazen prostitute, building your vaulted chamber at the head of every street, and making your lofty place in every square. Yet you were not like a prostitute, because you scorned payment. Adulterous wife, who receives strangers instead of her husband! Men give gifts to all prostitutes, but you gave your gifts to all your lovers, bribing them to come to you from every side with your whorings. So you were different from other women in your whorings. No one solicited you to play the whore, and you gave payment, while no payment was given to you; therefore you were different (ESV).
Most prostitutes require pay before they render their services. Jerusalem, on the other hand, paid her suitors to violate her. Their idolatry was like adultery in God’s eyes, and it broke His heart.
In fact, it still breaks God’s heart today when His people turn to their idols instead of Him. It breaks His heart when believers look to their status or their wealth to get them out of some tight spots and not to Him.
Brent Curtis and John Eldredge describe this well in their book The Sacred Romance. They write:
Have you ever had to literally turn a lover over to a mortal enemy to allow her to find out for herself what his intentions toward her really were? Have you ever had to lie in bed knowing she was believing his lies and [being intimate] with him every night? Have you ever sat helplessly by in a parking lot, while your enemy and his friends took turns [taking advantage of] your lover even as you sat nearby, unable to win her heart enough so she would trust you to rescue her? Have you ever called this one you had loved for so long and asked her if she was ready to come back to you, only to have her say her heart was still captured by your enemy? Have you ever watched your lover's beauty slowly diminish and fade in a haze of alcohol, drugs, occult practices, and infant sacrifice until she is no longer recognizable in body or soul? Have you ever loved one so much that you even send your only son to talk with her about your love for her, knowing that she will kill him? All this and more God has endured because of his refusal to stop loving us (Brent Curtis and John Eldredge, The Sacred Romance, Thomas Nelson, 1997, p. 106; www.PreachingToday. com).
Please, turn away from the idols that are destroying you. Instead, turn back to the God who loves you. Please, remember God’s love for you. Then, renounce your unfaithfulness to God, and…
RECEIVE GOD’S DISCIPLINE.
Accept His judgment for your adulterous idolatry. Or as God puts it, “be ashamed and bear your disgrace” for a while.
Ezekiel 16:35-43 “Therefore, O prostitute, hear the word of the LORD: Thus says the Lord GOD, Because your lust was poured out and your nakedness uncovered in your whorings with your lovers, and with all your abominable idols, and because of the blood of your children that you gave to them, therefore, behold, I will gather all your lovers with whom you took pleasure, all those you loved and all those you hated. I will gather them against you from every side and will uncover your nakedness to them, that they may see all your nakedness. And I will judge you as women who commit adultery and shed blood are judged, and bring upon you the blood of wrath and jealousy. And I will give you into their hands, and they shall throw down your vaulted chamber and break down your lofty places. They shall strip you of your clothes and take your beautiful jewels and leave you naked and bare. They shall bring up a crowd against you, and they shall stone you and cut you to pieces with their swords. And they shall burn your houses and execute judgments upon you in the sight of many women. I will make you stop playing the whore, and you shall also give payment no more. So will I satisfy my wrath on you, and my jealousy shall depart from you. I will be calm and will no more be angry. Because you have not remembered the days of your youth, but have enraged me with all these things, therefore, behold, I have returned your deeds upon your head, declares the Lord GOD. Have you not committed lewdness in addition to all your abominations? (ESV)
The idols and nations Jerusalem turned to for help will strip here bare and destroy her.
One commentator said, “God would punish Jerusalem as women were punished who commit adultery and who shed blood. The sentence for adultery in the Old Testament was stoning (Leviticus 20:10; cf. John 8:4–5). Jerusalem’s “adultery” was her idolatry, and the punishment for idolatry was the sword (Deuteronomy. 13:12–15). [Well,] God actually employed both means of judgment—stoning and the sword—in Jerusalem’s fall (Charles Dyer, BKC).
Later in Ezekiel, as God describes the Babylonian siege of Jerusalem, He says, “Bring up a vast host against them, and make them an object of terror and a plunder. And the host shall stone them and cut them down with their swords” (Ezekiel 23:46-47).
God had said that if a city in Israel became involved in idolatry its people were to be killed by the sword and the city was to be burned (Deuteronomy 13:15–16). After Jerusalem’s fall, Babylon did in fact burn down her houses and execute judgment in the sight of many women (Ezekiel 16:41). God did what He said He would do to the city that committed adultery in her idolatry.
Now, God changes the metaphor from an adulterous wife to a rebellious child and her sisters.
Ezekiel 16:44-45 “Behold, everyone who uses proverbs will use this proverb about you: ‘Like mother, like daughter.’ You are the daughter of your mother, who loathed her husband and her children; and you are the sister of your sisters, who loathed their husbands and their children. Your mother was a Hittite and your father an Amorite.
Jerusalem acted like the pagan Hittites and the Amorites, who gave birth to her. One commentator said, “The debauchery, petty rivalries, and heartless cruelties of the Canaanite tribes were well known. Jerusalem inherited these characteristics from her “parents” and displayed them in her abandoning God and in cruelly sacrificing her own children (Charles Dyer, BKC, Victor Books, 1985).
Ezekiel 16:46-51 And your elder sister is Samaria, who lived with her daughters to the north of you; and your younger sister, who lived to the south of you, is Sodom with her daughters. Not only did you walk in their ways and do according to their abominations; within a very little time you were more corrupt than they in all your ways. As I live, declares the Lord GOD, your sister Sodom and her daughters have not done as you and your daughters have done. Behold, this was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and needy. They were haughty and did an abomination before me. So I removed them, when I saw it. Samaria has not committed half your sins. You have committed more abominations than they, and have made your sisters appear righteous by all the abominations that you have committed (ESV).
Jerusalem acted far worse than her sister cities, Samaria to the north and Sodom to the south. Now, Jerusalem’s wicked sisters received judgment for their sin: Assyria captured Samaria 125 years previously, and God rained fire on Sodom 1,500 years before that. So, Jerusalem, who was even more depraved, could not escape God’s judgment.
How then should they respond?
Ezekiel 16:52 Bear your disgrace, you also, for you have intervened on behalf of your sisters. Because of your sins in which you acted more abominably than they, they are more in the right than you. So be ashamed, you also, and bear your disgrace, for you have made your sisters appear righteous (ESV).
“Be ashamed and bear your disgrace.” Accept God’s discipline for your disobedience. It’s the only appropriate response when you have sinned against a holy God.
I think of King David when he committed adultery with Bathsheba and murdered her husband. When he confessed his sin, he said to God, “Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment” (Psalm 51:4). He accepted God’s judgment against His Sin, and that’s what you must do on your road to recovery.
In his book, The Great Work of the Gospel, John Ensor writes:
When I was a teenager, I stole a hat. What is worse, I arrived at the store with a wad of cash in my pocket. Staring at the price tag, I thought, “Hey, why should I spend my money on that hat? I can get it for nothing by pinching it, then save my money for something else.”
As I headed for the door, the store manager stopped me. I [suddenly] wished I were dead. The manager saw I was not yet a hardened criminal and sent me home with instructions to have my parents call him back with the news or he would call the police. I went home to take my lumps. To this day, I remember what my 18-year-old sister said when she overheard me confessing: “How totally embarrassing. I've got a brother who's a thief!”
She called me a thief! …
[But] becoming ashamed of what we are as a result of what we do is a good thing and a necessary part of getting real about guilt. If you commit adultery, you are an adulterer. If you lie, you become a liar. I stole, and I had become a thief. It led me to my room weeping and ashamed of myself. But that was good! Painful, but good (John Ensor, The Great Work of the Gospel, Crossway, 2006; www.PreachingToday.com).
In the same way, bearing YOUR shame and disgrace is good for YOU. It’s a necessary step in YOUR healing process.
The way back begins when you remember God’s love for you, renounce your unfaithfulness to God, and receive God’s discipline. Then and only then can you…
ANTICIPATE GOD’S RESTORATION.
Expect God to bring you back to your former glory. Look forward to a renewed relationship with the Lord and a return to His blessings on your life. That was God’s promise to Jerusalem.
Ezekiel 16:53-58 “I will restore their fortunes, both the fortunes of Sodom and her daughters, and the fortunes of Samaria and her daughters, and I will restore your own fortunes in their midst, that you may bear your disgrace and be ashamed of all that you have done, becoming a consolation to them. As for your sisters, Sodom and her daughters shall return to their former state, and Samaria and her daughters shall return to their former state, and you and your daughters shall return to your former state. Was not your sister Sodom a byword in your mouth in the day of your pride, before your wickedness was uncovered? Now you have become an object of reproach for the daughters of Syria and all those around her, and for the daughters of the Philistines, those all around who despise you. You bear the penalty of your lewdness and your abominations, declares the LORD (ESV).
Jerusalem had boasted that she was better than Sodom and Samaria, but when God uncovered her own wickedness, the nations around her despised her even more so. Even so, God promises to restore Sodom, Samaria, and Jerusalem to their former state. Evidently, when Jesus returns to rule and reign on this earth, He will raise even Sodom out of the ash heap of history and restore her to the great city she once was.
Well, let me tell you. If God can restore Sodom, He can restore you when you trust Him with your life.
Ezekiel 16:59-63 For thus says the Lord GOD: I will deal with you as you have done, you who have despised the oath in breaking the covenant, yet I will remember my covenant with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish for you an everlasting covenant. Then you will remember your ways and be ashamed when you take your sisters, both your elder and your younger, and I give them to you as daughters, but not on account of the covenant with you. I will establish my covenant with you, and you shall know that I am the LORD, that you may remember and be confounded, and never open your mouth again because of your shame, when I atone for you for all that you have done, declares the Lord GOD (ESV).
Literally, in the Hebrew, God will COVER Jerusalem’s sins. God will assuage His righteous wrath against their sin. And when He does, Samaria and Sodom will become like daughters to Jerusalem, who will overshadow them all. God will renew His everlasting covenant with Jerusalem, and they will never be ashamed again.
700 years later, the Apostle John will write, “My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world” (1 John 2:1-2).
Jesus satisfied God’s righteous wrath against your sin on the cross, so God can restore you when you put your trust in Him.
In November of 2008 one of the greatest masterpieces of the Italian Renaissance was restored to its original splendor and returned to its home at the world-renowned gallery in Florence. The Madonna del Cardellino was painted by Raphael in 1505 for the wedding of his friend, a wealthy Florence merchant. It portrays Jesus Christ's mother, Mary, with two children who are playing with a bird. The children symbolized John the Baptist and his young cousin Jesus. The gold finch bird that feeds among thorns is interpreted as representing Christ's future suffering.
But something happened to this painting. It was painted in 1505. Forty years after it was created, there was an earthquake in the house in which this painting was kept, and the painting was shattered into 17 different pieces. The wood was all smashed up into bits. So another artist took long iron nails and tried to patch the pieces together. And then he tried to paint over it to conceal the breaks and make it look whole again. But over the years, there were so many layers of paint added and so much dust and grime over this painting that the original colors, the original art, was completely obscured.
The contemporary restoration project fixed the shattered areas and removed layers of paint and dirt to get the colors back. It was a team effort. It took fifty people ten years of working on this painting, and the result is stunning. The cracks are gone. Centuries of brown film and grime are gone. The dulling veneers and patches have been stripped away, and the finished product glows with all of the deep colors: the reds, and blues, and golds of the original work of art. Given how badly damaged it was, the restoration of Raphael's painting is arguably even more amazing than the painting itself. The original was splendid, but the miracle of restoration compounds the beauty (Mary Kassian, The Genesis of Gender, www.PreachingToday.com).
Maybe, you have experienced earthquakes that have shattered you, and sin has marred the beautiful design that God created in you. You thought you could paint over and patch up the damage, but the veneers and patches you applied just made things worse.
Here’s the good news! Jesus can make all things new if you turn your life over to Him. So stop trying to fix yourself up and let Him restore you. His original work was splendid, but even more so is the miracle of restoration. Please, trust Christ with your life and let Him restore you.
The way back begins when you remember God’s love for you, renounce your unfaithfulness to God, and receive God’s discipline. Then you can anticipate God’s restoration. For your Creator is also your Re-creator (Norman Vincent Peale). Please, let Him recreate in you a masterpiece even more splendid than the original.
