With their idols have they committed adultery

Bible Reading: Ezekiel 22-23

Ezekiel 23:37 That they have committed adultery, and blood is in their hands, and with their idols have they committed adultery, and have also caused their sons, whom they bare unto me, to pass for them through the fire, to devour them.

Ezekiel was God's prophet to tell the people of Judah that he was going to bring chastisement upon them. He told them the reason for the exile was their sin and the fact that they had broken his covenant. As he brought the indictment against them, he said that God sees idolatry as adultery.

Think of a man who has been betrayed by his wife. Think of a woman whose husband has cheated on her. They were in a covenant relationship with each other and the other person was unfaithful. That is adultery. It is excruciatingly painful to the other person. It involves lying and stealing. It usually leads to divorce.

God here paints a picture for us of what idolatry is like. With their idols, Judah was cheating on God and being an unfaithful wife. Not only that, but the children that God had given to them, they had sacrificed to these false gods they worshipped. Imagine a wife who committed adultery and then killed the children she and her husband had together! It is utterly unthinkable.

Jesus says that the church is a bride and he is the bridegroom. He loves the church and gave himself for her. He wants her to submit to him and love him. He will not share her with another. He is worthy of our faithful, loving devotion. Let the love of the bridegroom overwhelm you so that your heart fully belongs to him.

1 John 5:21 Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen.

In Christ,
Rody