Things started out really rough for her. Her father was an Amorite, and her mom was a Hittite; and she was born in the land of the Canaanites. On the day she was born she wasn’t washed or swaddled; she was cast out and deserted in an open field. She wasn’t just abandoned, she was abhorred.
Then… He was passing by, and He saw her. She was wallowing in her own blood, and He LOVED her! He adopted her! And He made her flourish. She grew up and became tall and arrived at full adornment. Her breasts were formed, her hair was long; yet she was still naked and bare.
Then… one day He looked at her, and behold, she was at the age for love! So He spread the corner of His garment over her and covered her nakedness (#Boaz&Ruth!). He made vows to her and entered into a covenant with her; and she became His beloved! He anointed her with oil, and He clothed her with embroidered cloth and fine leather. He wrapped her in fine linen and covered her with silk. He adorned her with ornaments and bracelets and necklaces; and He gave her a nose ring and earrings. And she ate wonderful foods, like finely-floured breads with oil and honey! And she grew exceedingly beautiful and advanced to royalty; and her renown went forth among the nations!
But she became enamored with her own image, and she grew evermore addicted to the promotions and popularity of the world around her. She gave little-to-no attention to her Husband; and she gave up on even attempting gratitude for His UNCONVENTIONAL WAYS. She invested her wholehearted attention and energy into superficial comforts, privileges, and prosperity. In other words, she played the whore with the world’s fancies and fixations. She was incessantly preoccupied with the ‘next new thing’, and making superficial adjustments to her image; and she became irritable with her Husband for being dim and detached when it came to the pleasures and protocols of the world. She lived to indulge in the commodities and fashions of the here and now. Moreover, she trained her sons and daughters in the doctrines of superficiality and short-lived satisfactions. She sacrificed her children to the gods of consumerism and craving. She felt no conviction for any of this, and she did not remember the days of her youth or anything of her Husband’s mercy.
She built, decorated, expanded, and furnished a vaulted chamber where she multiplied her whoring. Yet she was never satisfied.
“How sick is your heart,” declared her Husband. “You are like a brazen prostitute. Yet you’re not like a prostitute, because you scorn payment. Adulterous wife, who receives strangers instead of her husband! Men give gifts to all prostitutes, but you have given 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.”
“Therefore, O prostitute, I will give you into the hands of your ‘lovers,’ and they shall throw down your vaulted chamber. 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. 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 your Husband.”
“Thus says your Husband: 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. I will establish My covenant with you, and you shall want Me; and you will 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 your Husband.”
*Musings and verbatim excerpts from Ezekiel 16.
If this isn’t the Western/American “church”, I don’t know what is…eye-opening and a clear call to remember our “roots” in Jesus!