Context No. 3359 of 4322 · Ezekiel

Ezekiel 16:1-5: in context

1Again the LORD’s word came to me, saying, 2“Son of man, cause Jerusalem to know her abominations; 3and say, ‘The Lord GOD says to Jerusalem: “Your origin and your birth is of the land of the Canaanite. An Amorite was your father, and your mother was a Hittite. 4As for your birth, in the day you were born your navel was not cut. You weren’t washed in water to cleanse you. You weren’t salted at all, nor wrapped in blankets at all. 5No eye pitied you, to do any of these things to you, to have compassion on you; but you were cast out in the open field, because you were abhorred in the day that you were born.

God describes Jerusalem's beginnings with the image of an abandoned newborn. On the day she was born she was cast out into an open field, her cord uncut, unwashed, unsalted, unwrapped, with no eye pitying her enough to care for her at all. It is a picture of utter helplessness and rejection, a baby left to die, wanted by no one.

This is where the story starts, and its whole point, unfolded in the verses that follow, is God's compassion. He passed by, saw the helpless, unwanted child weltering in her blood, and said, live. The force of it depends entirely on this beginning: we were the abandoned infant, and God's love found us there, in our helplessness, not because we were lovely or wanted by anyone else. The love God shows is not drawn out by our attractiveness; it reaches down to us in our rejection and says live to the one no other eye pitied. Our whole existence before God begins with his unearned compassion.

Do I know that God's love found me in my helplessness, unwanted and unable to save myself, and said "live," rather than because of anything lovely in me?

Sources

Ezekiel 16:4: "In the day you were born your navel was not cut. You weren't washed in water to cleanse you."
Ezekiel 16:5: "No eye pitied you... but you were cast out in the open field, because you were abhorred in the day that you were born."
Ezekiel 16:6: "When I passed by you, and saw you wallowing in your blood, I said to you, Live!"