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Context No. 1594 of 4322 · Ezekiel

Context · Reflection

Ezekiel 23:14-21: in context

14“She increased her prostitution; for she saw men portrayed on the wall, the images of the Chaldeans portrayed with red, 15dressed with belts on their waists, with flowing turbans on their heads, all of them looking like princes, after the likeness of the Babylonians in Chaldea, the land of their birth. 16As soon as she saw them, she lusted after them and sent messengers to them into Chaldea. 17The Babylonians came to her into the bed of love, and they defiled her with their prostitution. She was polluted with them, and her soul was alienated from them. 18So she uncovered her prostitution and uncovered her nakedness. Then my soul was alienated from her, just like my soul was alienated from her sister. 19Yet she multiplied her prostitution, remembering the days of her youth, in which she had played the prostitute in the land of Egypt. 20She lusted after their lovers, whose flesh is as the flesh of donkeys, and whose issue is like the issue of horses. 21Thus you called to memory the lewdness of your youth, in the caressing of your nipples by the Egyptians because of your youthful breasts.

This passage belongs to Ezekiel's deliberately shocking allegory of two sisters whose idolatry is portrayed as sexual unfaithfulness. In the section here, the sister representing Jerusalem is said to have seen images of the Chaldeans portrayed on a wall, handsome figures in their finery, and to have lusted after them at the mere sight, sending for them. The imagery is graphic and disturbing, meant to convey the ugliness of a people's spiritual unfaithfulness; and beneath the shocking picture lies a pattern worth seeing about how illicit desire takes hold.

The passage traces a progression that begins with the eyes: she saw the images and lusted after them, and then sent for them. Desire was kindled by what she looked at; seeing led to lusting, and lusting led to pursuit. The whole ruinous chain started with the eyes, with looking at what stirred forbidden desire. There is a pattern here that the graphic imagery is meant to drive home, and it is one of the abiding truths about temptation: what we look at shapes what we desire, and what we desire drives what we do. The eyes are the doorway; feed them on what kindles illicit desire, and the desire grows and pushes toward action. Ezekiel's picture is of a woman inflamed by images on a wall, but the pattern is universal and, in an age saturated with images, more relevant than ever. We are surrounded by images crafted to stir desire, and the passage's warning is to guard the eyes, because seeing kindles wanting and wanting drives doing. The place to resist a temptation is often at the eyes, before the looking has kindled the desire; once desire is inflamed by what we have gazed at, it is far harder to master. To guard what we look at, to turn the eyes away from what stirs forbidden desire rather than feeding on it, is to cut temptation off near its root. She saw, and lusted, and sent; and the whole descent began with the seeing. What we allow our eyes to dwell on is not a small thing; it shapes our desires, and our desires shape our lives.

Do I guard what I allow my eyes to dwell on, recognizing that seeing kindles desire and desire drives action, or do I feed my eyes on images that stir forbidden longing and then wonder why the desire grows, when the place to resist is often at the eyes, before the looking has done its work?

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