Ezekiel 23:9-13: in context

In the allegory of the two unfaithful sisters, God tells how the first, Oholah, standing for Samaria, was handed over to the judgment her unfaithfulness earned, becoming a byword. And then the pointed detail: her sister Oholibah, standing for Jerusalem, saw this, saw the judgment that fell on her sister for these very sins, and yet became even more corrupt, going the same way despite the warning written in her sister's ruin. She saw what happened, and did not learn.

The tragic folly Ezekiel names is that Oholibah saw her sister's downfall and did worse anyway. The judgment that fell on Samaria was a clear warning, a visible example of where these sins lead; Jerusalem saw it plainly. And rather than learn from it, rather than be turned from the same path by the sight of where it led her sister, Jerusalem plunged in more deeply, becoming even more corrupt. She had the warning before her eyes and did not heed it. There is a searching lesson here about learning from the downfall of others. God often sets before us, in the lives and fates of others, warnings of where certain paths lead. We see people ruined by their sins, by greed, by unfaithfulness, by pride, by folly; we see the consequences written plainly in their downfall. And these are meant to be warnings to us, examples of where the same paths would lead us. These things happened to them as examples, Paul says of Israel's failures, and were written for our instruction. The wise learn from them; the prudent sees danger and takes refuge, warned by what befell others. But like Oholibah, we can see the downfall of others and fail to learn, go the same way despite the warning, as though we would somehow escape the consequences that ruined them. We watch someone destroyed by an affair, a greed, an addiction, a pride, and walk the same road ourselves, unwarned by their ruin. This is folly, and Ezekiel names it. The downfall of others is a mercy to us if we heed it, a warning of where the same path leads. To see the consequences of sin in another's life and be turned from that path is wisdom; to see it and go the same way anyway, imagining we will escape, is the folly of Oholibah, who saw her sister's ruin and did worse. The wise let the warnings written in others' downfall teach them; and the fate of those ruined by the very sins that tempt us is meant to turn us from the path that ruined them, before we follow them into the same ruin.

When I see others ruined by their sins, by greed, unfaithfulness, pride, or folly, do I heed the warning written in their downfall and turn from the same path, or do I, like Oholibah who saw her sister's ruin and did worse, go the same way anyway, imagining I will escape the consequences that destroyed them?