Commentary - Ezekiel 16:60-63

Bird's-eye view

In this breathtaking conclusion to one of the most graphic and searing chapters in all of Scripture, God pivots from a detailed prosecution of Israel's covenant whoredom to an astounding declaration of unilateral, sovereign grace. Having meticulously detailed Jerusalem's origin as an abandoned infant, her glorious adornment as Yahweh's bride, and her subsequent, grotesque spiritual adultery with every passing pagan power, the Lord pronounces a sentence that seems to be one of utter ruin. But precisely at the moment of final condemnation, God declares His intention to do the impossible. He will remember His covenant, the one Israel so thoroughly defiled, and on the basis of that memory, He will establish a new, an everlasting covenant. The purpose of this stunning grace is not to let Israel off the hook, but rather to bring her to a state of true, shame-faced repentance. The final result will be that Israel, silenced by the sheer magnitude of God's atoning grace, will finally know that He is Yahweh. This is the gospel in all its scandalous glory, shining brightest against the black velvet of total depravity.

This passage is a microcosm of God's entire redemptive plan. It demonstrates that salvation is never a cooperative venture between a holy God and a pretty-good people. It is always and only a work of divine rescue, where God acts alone to save a people who have done everything in their power to damn themselves. The foundation of our security is not our faithfulness, but His. The goal of His grace is not simply our happiness, but our holiness and His glory. And the proper response to such a radical atonement is not strutting pride, but a silent, astonished, and grateful shame that gives way to worship.

Outline

Context In Ezekiel

Ezekiel 16 is the longest chapter in the book, and it serves as a detailed, allegorical history of Jerusalem's relationship with Yahweh. The prophet, ministering to the exiles in Babylon, is tasked with confronting them with their own abominations, lest they think their current predicament is some kind of divine accident. The chapter traces Jerusalem from her pagan origins (v. 3), to God's gracious choice of her as an abandoned infant (vv. 4-7), to His covenant marriage with her, lavishing her with royal splendor (vv. 8-14). This is followed by a brutal depiction of her descent into spiritual harlotry, surpassing even the Canaanites, the Samaritans, and the Sodomites in her lust for idols (vv. 15-52). A judgment of humiliation is pronounced (vv. 35-43). The passage immediately preceding our text declares that Jerusalem's sin is so profound that she makes her wicked sisters, Sodom and Samaria, look righteous by comparison (vv. 51-52). It is out of this context of total, inexcusable, and unparalleled depravity that the promise of verses 60-63 explodes with such shocking and unexpected grace.

Key Issues

Grace Against a Black Backdrop

To understand the force of this passage, we must first be unflinching in our assessment of what comes before it. God, through Ezekiel, has just spent fifty-nine verses painting a portrait of Israel that is utterly damning. She is not a well-intentioned bride who made a few mistakes. She is a depraved harlot who took the very gifts her husband gave her and used them to pay her lovers. She was not seduced; she was the aggressor, paying others to sin with her. She even sacrificed her own children in the fire to her idols. There are no mitigating circumstances. There is no "on the other hand." The prosecution has rested, and the evidence is overwhelming. The verdict is guilty on all counts.

And it is precisely at this point, when all human hope is extinguished, that God says, "Nevertheless." This is one of the great "but God" moments of Scripture. Human logic would demand, "Therefore, you are utterly consumed." But covenant logic, gospel logic, says, "Nevertheless, I will remember." This is not God overlooking sin. It is God overcoming sin. The grace promised here is not cheap grace; it is grace that is glorious precisely because the sin it must conquer is so monstrous. The blacker the sin, the brighter the grace.

Verse by Verse Commentary

60 “Nevertheless, I Myself will remember My covenant with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish an everlasting covenant with you.

The word Nevertheless is the hinge upon which this entire chapter, and indeed all of redemptive history, turns. It is the sovereign interruption of the expected consequence. Israel had forgotten her covenant, but God will not. When God "remembers" His covenant, it is not that it had slipped His mind. It is a covenantal term meaning He is now going to act publicly on the basis of that covenant's promises. And notice the emphasis: I Myself will remember. This is a unilateral action. God is not responding to their repentance; He is acting in a way that will create their repentance. He grounds His future action not in their present performance, which is execrable, but in His past commitment, made "in the days of your youth" at Sinai. And this remembrance will lead to something new: He will establish an everlasting covenant. This is not a different covenant in substance, but the same covenant of grace brought to its ultimate, unbreakable, and final form in the person and work of Jesus Christ.

61 Then you will remember your ways and feel dishonor when you receive your sisters, both your older and your younger; and I will give them to you as daughters, but not because of your covenant.

Here we see the intended effect of God's grace. It is only Then, after God has acted, that "you will remember your ways." God's grace precedes and enables man's repentance. And this remembrance will not produce pride, but profound dishonor, or shame. This is not the cringing shame of someone afraid of being caught, but the godly shame of a beloved child who has grievously wounded a loving father. The occasion for this shame will be an act of astounding grace: God will take her "sisters," the pagan nations (represented by Sodom) and the apostate kingdom (represented by Samaria), and give them to Jerusalem as daughters. This is a picture of the Gentile mission of the church. Jerusalem, the mother church, will see the nations brought into the family of God. But this great blessing will not come "because of your covenant," meaning, it will not be a reward for Israel's covenant-keeping, which was non-existent. It will be a sheer gift of God, based on His new covenant work.

62 Thus I will establish My covenant with you, and you shall know that I am Yahweh,

God repeats His central promise for emphasis. I will establish My covenant with you. This is the bedrock. All of salvation rests on God's determination to make and keep His covenant promises. The ultimate purpose of this entire redemptive drama is theological. It is so that "you shall know that I am Yahweh." To "know" Yahweh is not simply to have intellectual information about Him. It is to know Him in a deep, personal, experiential way, acknowledging His character as the faithful, promise-keeping, sin-forgiving, sovereign Lord of all. Israel's harlotry was a failure to know Him; His atoning grace will be the ultimate lesson that teaches them His name.

63 so that you may remember and be ashamed and never open your mouth anymore because of your dishonor, when I have atoned for you for all that you have done,” declares Lord Yahweh.

This final verse is pure gospel. The ultimate goal of God's grace is a people who are humbled into silence. They will remember their sin, be rightly ashamed of it, and as a result, they will never open your mouth anymore. This is not the silence of sullenness, but the silence of awe. All boasting is excluded. All self-justification is stripped away. All excuses are rendered moot. What silences the redeemed sinner? It is the fact that God Himself has provided a full and complete atonement "for all that you have done." The word for atonement here is kaphar, the classic term for covering sin, the word at the heart of the Day of Atonement. When a sinner truly grasps that God has, at His own cost, covered every last filthy sin, the only possible response is to fall on one's face in silent, grateful adoration. The declaration is sealed with the full authority of the covenant God: "declares Lord Yahweh." This is not a possibility; it is a divine decree.

Application

This passage is a potent antidote to every form of self-righteousness that plagues the human heart and the Christian church. We are all, by nature, that faithless bride. We have all taken the good gifts of God, life, health, money, talent, family, and prostituted them in the service of our idols. Our righteousness is a filthy rag, and our best efforts at covenant-keeping are shot through with sin. If our hope rested on our ability to be faithful to God, we would be utterly without hope.

But our hope does not rest there. It rests on God's "Nevertheless." It rests on His determination to remember and establish His covenant, not because of us, but in spite of us. This is the covenant sealed in the blood of Jesus. He is the faithful Israel who kept the covenant perfectly, and on the cross, He bore the shame and the curse for our covenant-breaking harlotry. God's atonement for us in Christ is total and complete.

The proper response to this grace is not to swagger, but to be silenced. Do you want to know if you have truly grasped the gospel? Ask yourself if it has shut your mouth. Has it stripped you of all your excuses, all your what-abouts, all your attempts to make yourself look just a little bit better than the next guy? True grace makes a man ashamed of his sin, not in a way that drives him to despair, but in a way that makes him marvel at the love of his Savior. It is a shame that is simultaneously humbling and liberating. We are great sinners, but we have a great Savior. And when we finally see that, we have nothing left to say, and everything to sing.