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Of all the allegories God has used to His relationship to Judah and Israel, in my opinion, Chapter 16 is the most embarrassing, most excruciating, and most humiliating of them all. God tells Ezekiel to share His feelings through a story, and what a story it is!
In the beginning, as the nation of Israel was first coming into existence, God describes them as a baby who was once rejected by all of the nations of the world. They were hated and helpless. But God had pity on them, and describes how He took this baby in, fed it, clothed it, grew it, nurtured it, ordained it with all kinds of wonderful glory ( such as when they defeated the Egyptians during the 10 plagues and eventually inherited the Promised Land ), and even became like a husband to her. He describes them as becoming one of the world's most prominent nations. However, despite all that He did for Israel, they eventually became like a prostitute - by turning away from God and worshipping the gods of the other nations. In fact, God said they were the worse kind of prostitute! In fact, in 16:34 He says, "So you are the opposite of other prostitutes. No one pays you; instead, you pay them!"
In Chapter 17, Ezekiel foretells of how the King of Judah will try to escape the siege of the Babylonion army - only to get captured and sent into exile.
Everyone Pays For Their Own Sin!
Chapter 18 shares how everyone will pay for their own sin. While some think that the children of a wicked father will always pay the price for their father's sin, God tells them it's NOT TRUE! He carefully and repeatedly reminds us that each of us are responsible for our own lives and our own sin. It's up to us to either be righteous in the eyes of God or to be sinful. God loves us so much that He's willing to give us a choice of our own choosing. That way, if we have to pay for the price of sin, it's NOT God's fault...it's solely ours!
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