The Harlot's Gilded Couch: Covenant Infidelity and the Seeker-Sensitive Soul Text: Ezekiel 23:40-42
Introduction: The Covenant and Its Counterfeits
The prophet Ezekiel is not a man for the faint of heart. God did not send him to soothe, but to shock. He is not a court chaplain whispering pleasantries into the king's ear; he is a spiritual field surgeon performing a radical amputation without anesthetic. And nowhere is his language more graphic, more intentionally offensive to our delicate modern sensibilities, than in this chapter. He describes the covenant people of God, Samaria and Jerusalem, as two sisters, Oholah and Oholibah, who have become shameless, lecherous prostitutes. They have taken the covenant love of their husband, Jehovah Himself, and cheapened it, prostituting themselves to every passing pagan empire.
This is not just a metaphor; it is the central metaphor of the entire Bible. God's relationship with His people is a marriage covenant. He is the faithful husband; we are the bride. When we are faithful, we experience all the blessings of that union: protection, provision, identity, and intimacy. When we are unfaithful, when we go chasing after other gods, we are not merely breaking a rule. We are committing adultery. We are playing the harlot. And God, as the wronged husband, is filled with a holy and righteous jealousy.
We live in an age that wants to domesticate this jealousy, to turn the consuming fire of God's love into a pilot light. We want a God who is a cosmic therapist, not a cuckolded husband. But Ezekiel will not allow it. He rubs our noses in the filth of our infidelity. He wants us to see our sin for what it is: not just a mistake, not just a poor choice, but a grotesque betrayal of the most intimate relationship in the universe. The modern evangelical church, particularly in the West, needs to hear this message with stark clarity. We think this is just about ancient Israel and their crude idols of wood and stone. But the human heart is an idol factory, as Calvin said, and it has only gotten more efficient in its production methods. Our idols are more sophisticated, more subtle, but they are just as damning. We have traded Baal and Molech for the gods of comfort, relevance, entertainment, and cultural acceptance. And in our desperation to woo the world, we have decorated ourselves, painted our eyes, and set up a couch for lovers, just like Oholibah.
This passage is a graphic depiction of the covenant people of God dolling themselves up to attract illicit lovers. It is a picture of a church that has forgotten her husband and is trying to make herself attractive to the world. It is a warning against spiritual prostitution in all its forms, from the most blatant paganism to the most subtle seeker-sensitive compromise.
The Text
“Furthermore, they have even sent for men who come from afar, to whom a messenger was sent; and behold, they came, for whom you bathed, painted your eyes, and decorated yourselves with ornaments; and you sat on a splendid couch with a table arranged before it on which you had set My incense and My oil. The sound of a multitude at ease was with her; and drunkards were brought from the wilderness with men of the common sort. And they put bracelets on the hands of the women and beautiful crowns on their heads.”
(Ezekiel 23:40-42 LSB)
The Seductive Preparation (v. 40)
We begin with the harlot's eager preparation for her lovers.
"Furthermore, they have even sent for men who come from afar, to whom a messenger was sent; and behold, they came, for whom you bathed, painted your eyes, and decorated yourselves with ornaments;" (Ezekiel 23:40)
Notice the initiative. The harlot is not passively waiting; she is actively soliciting. "They have even sent for men who come from afar." This is not a momentary lapse; it is a calculated strategy. Israel and Judah did not just stumble into alliances with Egypt and Babylon; they sent ambassadors. They actively courted the world, believing that their security and prosperity lay in these powerful, pagan lovers rather than in their covenant husband, Jehovah.
The modern church does the same thing. We send out our messengers, our demographic researchers, our marketing consultants, to find out what the world wants. What kind of music do they like? What style of preaching will they tolerate? What moral demands are a bridge too far? We send for the men from afar, the unchurched, the seekers, the spiritual-but-not-religious, and we are desperate for them to come. And when they agree to show up, the frantic preparations begin.
"For whom you bathed, painted your eyes, and decorated yourselves with ornaments." This is the language of seduction. Think of Jezebel, when she heard Jehu was coming, painting her eyes and adorning her head to look out the window (2 Kings 9:30). This is not the simple, modest beauty of a faithful bride adorning herself for her husband. This is the calculated, artificial beautification of a prostitute preparing for a client. The goal is not holiness, but appeal. The standard is not God's pleasure, but the world's.
When a church decides that its primary mission is to be attractive to unbelievers, it has already begun to paint its eyes. The worship service is no longer a covenant renewal ceremony between God and His people; it becomes a carefully staged performance designed to impress the visitors. The music is tailored to sound like the world's music. The sermon is sanded down, with all the rough edges of judgment, wrath, and repentance removed, lest it offend. The architecture and aesthetics are designed to feel more like a coffee shop or a concert hall than the house of God. We decorate ourselves with the ornaments of worldly cool, hoping the world will find us interesting, relevant, and, ultimately, desirable. We have bathed away the sweat and blood of costly discipleship and put on the perfume of cultural acceptability.
The Idolatrous Lounge (v. 41)
Next, the scene is set. The harlot has prepared her room for the adulterous encounter.
"and you sat on a splendid couch with a table arranged before it on which you had set My incense and My oil." (Ezekiel 23:41)
The "splendid couch" and the "arranged table" speak of luxury, comfort, and ease. This is not the posture of a pilgrim people, marching through the wilderness toward the Celestial City. This is the posture of a people who have made themselves at home in Babylon. This is the church that has exchanged the hard wooden pew for the plush theater seat. It is a Christianity of comfort, a faith that is more about feeling good than being good. The entire environment is engineered for the ease of the consumer, not the glory of the Creator.
But the most blasphemous detail is what she places on the table: "My incense and My oil." These were items consecrated for the worship of Jehovah in the Temple. The incense represented the prayers of the saints, and the oil was used for anointing, for setting things apart as holy unto the Lord (Exodus 30:22-38). And what has this harlot done? She has stolen the very elements of true worship and used them to add ambiance to her adulterous rendezvous. She is using God's things to seduce God's rivals.
This is the very essence of seeker-sensitive syncretism. We take the things of God, the Bible, prayer, music, fellowship, and we repurpose them. We take God's oil, the anointing of the Holy Spirit, and try to use it to make our programs run smoothly. We take God's incense, the language of prayer and worship, and we burn it before the idol of "what works." We use biblical language, but strip it of its biblical meaning. We talk about grace, but it's a cheap grace that makes no demands. We talk about love, but it's a sentimental love that never confronts sin. We use the tools of worship as props in an evangelistic stage play, designed to make the world feel comfortable in our splendid lounge. We have taken what is holy and made it profane, all in the name of being effective.
The Party of Apostasy (v. 42)
Finally, the party begins, and the company she keeps reveals the depth of her degradation.
"The sound of a multitude at ease was with her; and drunkards were brought from the wilderness with men of the common sort. And they put bracelets on the hands of the women and beautiful crowns on their heads." (Ezekiel 23:42)
The atmosphere is one of carnal celebration. "The sound of a multitude at ease." This is not the joyful noise of the redeemed singing psalms to their King. This is the careless, godless chatter of a crowd that is comfortable in its sin. It is the sound of a church that has made peace with the world, a church where the fear of God has been replaced by a casual, irreverent familiarity.
And look at the guests: "drunkards were brought from the wilderness with men of the common sort." She is not content with the respectable pagans from the cities; she brings in the rabble, the spiritually inebriated, the undisciplined. This points to a complete breakdown of discernment. When the church is desperate for numbers, she will lower her standards to zero. All are welcome, which is true, but the unspoken second half of that sentence is that all are welcome to stay just as they are. There is no call to repentance, no summons to sobriety.
This spiritual drunkenness is a key feature. When worship becomes entertainment, it intoxicates. It creates an emotional buzz, a spiritual high that has nothing to do with the Holy Spirit. It is a religion of pure experience, detached from truth and holiness. People are moved, they are stirred, they may even laugh or cry, but they are not changed. They are drunk on the cheap wine of emotionalism, and they are led by men who are themselves spiritually drunk.
And what is the result of this unholy alliance? "They put bracelets on the hands of the women and beautiful crowns on their heads." The world rewards the compromising church. When you play the harlot for the world, the world will give you trinkets. It will give you cultural influence. It will give you praise in the media. It will give you tax-exempt status and a seat at the table. It will crown you with the beautiful crown of relevance. But it is a crown of shame. It is the payment for a prostitute. You get the bracelets and the crown, but you lose your husband. You gain the world, but you forfeit your soul.
Your Husband or Your Lovers?
The application of this text is a sharp-edged sword, and it cuts to the heart of the modern church. We must ask ourselves: for whom are we decorating? For whose pleasure are we arranging the furniture of our worship? Are we the faithful bride, adorning ourselves in the pure linen of righteousness, eagerly awaiting the return of our husband, Jesus Christ? Or are we the painted harlot, sending messengers to the world, desperate for its approval and its trinkets?
God did not call the church to be a splendid couch for the world to lounge upon. He called it to be an army, a pilgrim people, a colony of heaven encamped in enemy territory. Our worship is not meant to be a comfortable, easy, entertaining experience. It is covenant renewal. It is warfare. Every time we gather, we confess our sins, we receive His pardon, we hear His law, we sit at His table, and we are commissioned afresh to go out and take the world for Him. It is a solemn and glorious business.
To exchange this high calling for the cheap thrill of being popular with a multitude at ease is the ultimate bad bargain. To take the incense and oil of true worship, things purchased by the blood of Christ, and to use them to perfume the air for drunkards, is a blasphemy of the highest order.
The choice before us is the same choice that was before Oholibah. Will we be faithful to our husband? Will we find our security, our identity, and our pleasure in Him alone? Or will we continue to court the world, painting our eyes and arranging the furniture, hoping for a few bracelets and a worthless crown? God is a jealous God. He will not share His bride. He is calling us to repent of our whoredoms, to wash the paint from our faces, to tear down the splendid couch, and to return to Him, our first and only love. For it is better to be a faithful bride in a humble cottage than a celebrated harlot in the palaces of Egypt and Babylon.