The Downward Spiral of a Harlot Nation Text: Ezekiel 23:11-21
Introduction: The Seduction of Idolatry
The prophet Ezekiel is given a task that would make a modern pastor blush and stammer. He is commanded by God to use the most graphic and offensive language to describe the spiritual state of God's people. He is to paint a picture of two sisters, Oholah and Oholibah, representing Samaria and Jerusalem, and portray them as insatiable, lecherous prostitutes. This is not God being crude for the sake of shock value. This is God using the sharpest knife He can find to cut through the cancerous pride and self-deception of His covenant people. They thought their sin was a small thing, a minor flirtation, a pragmatic political alliance. God calls it what it is: high-priced, gutter-level whoredom.
We live in an age that has lost its capacity for righteous disgust. We have trained ourselves to be unshockable. But the Bible is a book that is meant to shock us, to confront us, to disgust us with our sin. The central metaphor of the covenant throughout Scripture is that of a marriage. Yahweh is the husband, and His people are the bride. Therefore, the single greatest sin a covenant people can commit is idolatry, which is not just an intellectual error but is spiritual adultery. It is covenantal infidelity. It is taking the love, devotion, and loyalty that belong exclusively to our divine Husband and lavishing it on worthless, man-made idols.
In the passage before us, we see the younger sister, Oholibah, who represents Jerusalem and Judah. She saw the judgment that fell upon her older sister, Samaria, for her political and spiritual harlotries with Assyria. But instead of learning from it, she decided to outdo her. This is the nature of sin left unchecked. It is never static; it is always progressive. It is a downward spiral. Oholibah's lust, her idolatry, becomes more corrupt, more brazen, and ultimately, more self-destructive. She moves from the Assyrians to the even more distant and exotic Babylonians, driven by nothing more than pictures on a wall. This is a story about the addictive, enslaving, and ultimately nauseating nature of sin.
We must not read this as ancient history concerning people far removed from us. This is a mirror. The western church today is Oholibah. We have seen the judgments of God on other nations and other generations, and instead of repenting, we have doubled down on our worldliness. We have lusted after the political power of Babylon and the cultural prestige of Assyria. We have painted their images on our walls and sent messengers to them, begging for their approval. And the result is the same: God is disgusted. Let us therefore approach this text with sobriety, ready to see our own adulterous hearts reflected in the harlotries of Oholibah.
The Text
Now her sister Oholibah saw this, yet she was more corrupt in her lust than she, and her harlotries were more than the harlotries of her sister. She lusted after the Assyrians, governors and officials, the ones near, magnificently dressed, horsemen riding on horses, all of them desirable choice men. And I saw that she had defiled herself; they both took the same way. So she increased her harlotries. And she saw men portrayed on the wall, images of the Chaldeans portrayed with vermilion, girded with belts on their loins, with flowing turbans on their heads, all of them looking like officers, in the likeness of the Babylonians in Chaldea, the land of their birth. And she saw them and lusted after them and sent messengers to them in Chaldea. So the Babylonians came to her to the bed of love and defiled her with their harlotry. Then she became defiled by them, and her soul became disgusted with them. And she uncovered her harlotries and uncovered her nakedness; then My soul became disgusted with her, as My soul had become disgusted with her sister. Yet she multiplied her harlotries, remembering the days of her youth, when she played the harlot in the land of Egypt. She lusted after their paramours, whose flesh is like the flesh of donkeys and whose issue is like the issue of horses. Thus you longed for the lewdness of your youth, when the Egyptians handled your bosom because of the breasts of your youth.
(Ezekiel 23:11-21 LSB)
Competitive Corruption (v. 11-13)
We begin with the tragic refusal of Judah to learn from her sister's mistakes.
"Now her sister Oholibah saw this, yet she was more corrupt in her lust than she, and her harlotries were more than the harlotries of her sister. She lusted after the Assyrians, governors and officials, the ones near, magnificently dressed, horsemen riding on horses, all of them desirable choice men. And I saw that she had defiled herself; they both took the same way." (Ezekiel 23:11-13)
Oholibah, meaning "My tent is in her," which refers to the Temple in Jerusalem, had a front-row seat to the destruction of her sister Oholah (Samaria). She saw the Assyrians, whom Samaria had courted, turn on her and destroy her. The reasonable response would be terror and repentance. But sin is not reasonable. Instead of fleeing from Samaria's sin, Judah was inflamed by it. Her corruption was "more" than her sister's. This is a key principle: unrepented sin in the face of judgment only hardens the heart. When God's warnings are ignored, the heart becomes calloused, and it takes ever greater sins to produce the same thrill.
Notice what she lusted after. It was the sheer external pomp of the Assyrians. "Governors and officials... magnificently dressed, horsemen riding on horses, all of them desirable choice men." This is the lust of the eyes. She was not attracted to their virtue, their wisdom, or their righteousness. She was attracted to their swagger, their uniforms, their power, their prestige. This is what happens when God's people stop believing that He is their glory. They begin to seek glory from the world. They want to be associated with the "desirable choice men" of the age. They want a seat at the table with the powerful, the influential, the magnificent. This is the temptation to seek salvation through political might rather than through covenant faithfulness to God.
God's verdict is simple and stark: "I saw that she had defiled herself." God sees. The sin may be dressed up in the language of shrewd foreign policy or cultural engagement, but God sees the defilement, the spiritual adultery at its heart. "They both took the same way." Despite having more light, more warnings, and the very Temple of God in her midst, Judah walked down the exact same road to ruin as her apostate sister.
From Sight to Sin (v. 14-17)
Judah's lust then progresses from the nearby Assyrians to the more distant and exotic Babylonians, sparked by mere images.
"So she increased her harlotries. And she saw men portrayed on the wall, images of the Chaldeans portrayed with vermilion, girded with belts on their loins, with flowing turbans on their heads, all of them looking like officers, in the likeness of the Babylonians in Chaldea, the land of their birth. And she saw them and lusted after them and sent messengers to them in Chaldea. So the Babylonians came to her to the bed of love and defiled her with their harlotry." (Ezekiel 23:14-17)
This is a striking picture of how lust works. It begins with sight. "She saw men portrayed on the wall." This likely refers to the reliefs and carvings that decorated Babylonian palaces, depicting their military might and grandeur, which emissaries from Judah would have seen. It is pornography, but on a geopolitical scale. She saw the images, and the sight gave birth to lust. This is the progression James warns about: "each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death" (James 1:14-15).
Her lust is for the Chaldeans, the Babylonians. She is no longer satisfied with the lovers next door; she wants the ones from far away. Sin always promises something new, something more exciting. And so she takes the initiative. "She sent messengers to them in Chaldea." This is not a passive seduction; this is an active, aggressive pursuit of an adulterous relationship. She invites the very power that will eventually destroy her into her "bed of love."
The language is intentionally carnal. "The Babylonians came to her to the bed of love and defiled her with their harlotry." The political alliance is a sordid, illicit affair. And it defiles her. Alliances with the wicked always defile the people of God. We think we can use them for our own ends, but in the end, we become like them. We adopt their methods, their morals, and their gods. We cannot get into bed with Babylon without catching its diseases.
The Nausea of Sin (v. 17-18)
The inevitable result of this affair is not lasting satisfaction, but disgust and revulsion, both for the sinner and for God.
"Then she became defiled by them, and her soul became disgusted with them. And she uncovered her harlotries and uncovered her nakedness; then My soul became disgusted with her, as My soul had become disgusted with her sister." (Ezekiel 23:17-18)
Here is the bitter aftertaste of sin. The thrill is gone. The magnificent horsemen are not so magnificent up close. The bed of love becomes a place of defilement. And her soul, her very being, "became disgusted with them." Sin promises pleasure and freedom but always delivers bondage and nausea. It is like drinking seawater; it only makes you thirstier, and eventually, it poisons you. The paramour you lusted after becomes the object of your loathing. This is what happened to Amnon after he raped his sister Tamar; his hatred for her afterward was greater than the love he had professed before (2 Samuel 13:15).
As her disgust with her lovers grows, she becomes more shameless. "She uncovered her harlotries and uncovered her nakedness." She throws off all restraint. The sin that was once hidden behind the veneer of diplomacy is now out in the open. And this brazenness provokes the same reaction in God. "Then My soul became disgusted with her." The Hebrew here is very strong; it means to be alienated, to feel revulsion. God is not a stoic, impassive deity. He is a husband who has been betrayed. He feels a holy disgust, a righteous jealousy, and a deep sense of revulsion at the grotesque infidelity of His bride.
Doubling Down on Depravity (v. 19-21)
But instead of this mutual disgust leading to repentance, it leads Judah to plunge even deeper into her past sins.
"Yet she multiplied her harlotries, remembering the days of her youth, when she played the harlot in the land of Egypt. She lusted after their paramours, whose flesh is like the flesh of donkeys and whose issue is like the issue of horses. Thus you longed for the lewdness of your youth, when the Egyptians handled your bosom because of the breasts of your youth." (Ezekiel 23:19-21)
This is the insanity of a hardened heart. Disgusted with her current lovers, she doesn't return to her husband. Instead, she fondly remembers her first lovers, the Egyptians. She multiplies her harlotries by indulging in nostalgia for her original bondage. Remember, Israel's time in Egypt was not just a period of slavery; it was a time of deep spiritual compromise and idolatry (Ezekiel 20:7-8). She is longing for the "lewdness of her youth."
The language here becomes almost unbearably graphic. "She lusted after their paramours, whose flesh is like the flesh of donkeys and whose issue is like the issue of horses." God uses this shocking, bestial imagery to communicate the sheer degradation of her idolatry. She is not just unfaithful; she is debased. She is attracted to the raw, mindless, animalistic virility of pagan power. This is what idolatry does. It dehumanizes us. It reduces our spiritual affections, which were made for the transcendent God, to the level of brute beasts.
The final verse is a direct accusation. "Thus you longed for the lewdness of your youth." This was not a momentary lapse. This was a deep-seated longing, a return to her first love, which was not God, but the idols of Egypt. She wanted her "bosom handled" again. This is a picture of a people who have become so addicted to their sin that they have forgotten the love of their husband and can only remember the sordid thrills of the brothel.
Conclusion: The Disgusted God and the Defiled Bride
The central horror of this passage is not simply Judah's sin, but God's reaction to it. "My soul became disgusted with her." This is the terror that should grip us. It is a terrifying thing for a creature to be loathsome in the sight of his Creator. It is a terrifying thing for a bride to be disgusting to her husband. This is where covenant unfaithfulness leads. It leads to a place where the God who once delighted in you is now nauseated by you.
The application for the modern church should be obvious and painful. Have we not seen the magnificent horsemen of secularism, the well-dressed officials of global power, and lusted after them? Have we not sent messengers to Babylon, seeking alliances with the world, hoping its power and prestige would rub off on us? Have we not painted the images of Chaldean success on the walls of our churches, in our leadership books, and in our worship styles? And have we not been defiled? Have we not become disgusted with ourselves, and has God not become disgusted with us?
The only hope for a harlot bride is a husband who is rich in mercy. The only hope for Oholibah is the covenant love of the God she has betrayed. And this is the glory of the gospel. For God did not simply cast off His defiled bride forever. He sent His Son, the true and faithful Israel, to take the shame of our harlotry upon Himself. On the cross, Jesus was stripped naked, exposed, and shamed, bearing the curse for our spiritual adultery. He drank the cup of God's wrath, the full measure of His disgust with our sin, so that we, the guilty bride, could be cleansed.
Through the blood of Christ, God takes a filthy, disgusting prostitute and makes her a pure, spotless bride. He gives us a new heart, one that no longer longs for the donkeys of Egypt but longs for Him alone. He washes us, He clothes us in white linen, and He presents us to Himself without blemish (Ephesians 5:25-27). The warning of this passage is severe, but the grace of the gospel is greater still. Let us therefore be disgusted with our sin, let us repent of our worldly lusts, and let us flee back into the arms of the only Husband who can take our filth and give us His righteousness.