44 lines
2.3 KiB
Markdown
44 lines
2.3 KiB
Markdown
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title = "Ezekiel 23:1–21"
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date = "2023-04-30"
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### [Read the passage.](https://biblia.com/bible/esv/Ezekiel23.1-21)
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I have heard that in Rabbinical traditions, students of the Torah were not
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allowed to study Ezekiel until they were eighteen years old, or possibly even
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thirty. It would not surprise me if this chapter is part of the reason. There
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is even more sexual imagery than we have yet seen in this book, and it is meant
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to evoke disgust and horror.
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The allegory describing Israel as an unfaithful woman chapter 16 is expanded to
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call Samaria and Jerusalem two sisters, Oholah and Oholibah. Each city was the
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capital of its kingdom and thus stands in for its nation as a whole. The
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infidelity, immorality, and prostitution of these two sisters should be
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understood as idolatry and trusting in the security of foreign alliances
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instead of trusting in the provision and protection of the Lord their God. But
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also literal prostitution as well, on an individual level. Cult prostitution,
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or religious sexual ceremonies, were also prevalent throughout the ancient
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world. One could then call this whole chapter a double _entendre_, though it's
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the sexual meaning that is obvious here and the political one that is "hidden".
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Oholah and Oholibah learned their immoral ways in Egypt, where the Israelites
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certainly participated in the religious rites of the land they lived in, before
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the Lord brought them out. Oholah did not give up these ways when she split
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from her sister, and gave herself to the Assyrians, a powerful, attractive
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neighbor. She thought her attentions and her bed would garner respect and
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protection, but the opposite occurred. The Lord stirred up the Assyrians and
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they captured her children and killed her. Thus the northern kingdom of Israel
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fell and was no more.
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Oholibah saw all this happen, and knew the reaons for it, and leaned in harder
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anyway. She lusted after the Assyrians too, and also the Babylonians, and when
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she grew tired of them, turned her attention back to the Egyptians she had once
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been enslaved to. Everything Oholah had done, Oholibah did worse. The Lord
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turned away in disgust, and still the spiral downward in depravity continued.
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* * *
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Forgive us our unfaithfulness, when we seek our own pleasure over and against
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Your commands, the commands that bring us life and happiness.
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