Ezekiel 16:30-34: a reflection

30“‘“How weak is your heart,” says the Lord GOD, “since you do all these things, the work of an impudent prostitute; 31in that you build your vaulted place at the head of every way, and make your lofty place in every street, and have not been as a prostitute, in that you scorn pay. 32“‘“Adulterous wife, who takes strangers instead of her husband! 33People give gifts to all prostitutes; but you give your gifts to all your lovers, and bribe them, that they may come to you on every side for your prostitution. 34You are different from other women in your prostitution, in that no one follows you to play the prostitute; and whereas you give hire, and no hire is given to you, therefore you are different.”’

This is a hard and deliberately shocking passage, part of an extended portrait of Israel's unfaithfulness pictured as a wife who has betrayed her husband. Set aside the disturbing imagery, and notice one strange, telling detail the passage points out: Israel's pursuit of false gods was so eager that, unlike a prostitute who is paid, she paid her lovers, bribing them to come. Her idolatry was so consuming that she spent herself, at cost to herself, in pursuit of what would harm her. There is something irrational and self-destructive in it: paying for one's own ruin.

Notice the strange truth the passage exposes: sin can make us pursue, at cost to ourselves, the very things that harm us. Israel did not merely stumble into idolatry; she pursued it eagerly, spending herself for it, chasing what would destroy her. This is a picture of how sin works: it can captivate us so that we willingly spend ourselves, at real cost, in pursuit of what harms us, paying, as it were, for our own ruin.

That is a searching picture of sin's grip, but the larger message of Ezekiel 16 is even more striking: God's persistent love for such an unfaithful people. Despite the depth of Israel's betrayal, God's covenant love did not finally let her go; the same chapter ends with God's promise to remember his covenant and atone. Recognize how sin can make you spend yourself for what harms you, chasing at real cost what will destroy you. But recognize, too, the astonishing persistence of God's love, which pursues even the unfaithful. Turn from the self-destructive pursuit of what harms you, and turn to the God whose love, astonishingly, does not let you go even when you have been unfaithful.

Lord, this hard passage exposes a strange truth: that sin can make us pursue, at cost to ourselves, the very things that harm us, spending ourselves for our own ruin. Search me for that self-destructive pursuit, the ways I chase, at real cost, what will destroy me. Open my eyes to the irrationality of sin, and turn me from spending myself for what harms me. And thank you for the even more astonishing truth: that your love for your unfaithful people does not finally let them go. Despite the depth of our betrayal, your covenant love pursues us and atones. Turn me from the self-destructive pursuit of what harms me, and draw me to you, whose love does not let me go even when I have been unfaithful. Thank you for so persistent a love.