I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Ezekiel 16.

    In today’s passage Ezekiel uses a metaphor which our modern culture finds objectionable. We must not allow our distaste for the practice suggested in the metaphor to interfere with the message it contains. There are actually several pieces to that message. Ezekiel begins by addressing the belief among many of the Jews that they were better than other people. They believed that because they were God’s Chosen People they were superior to others. The same message needs to be heard by many who consider themselves Christians today. Ezekiel’s message to them (and to us) was that they were the offspring of a mixed relationship between a man and a woman of different cultures, both from cultures which were considered barbaric. The message here is that the people of Jerusalem, the Jewish people, were not special because of anything about themselves. They were special because God had chosen them. He could just as easily chosen someone else. In the same way, we who are Christians are not special because of anything we have done, or because of who are ancestors are. We owe God a gift of gratitude to God for choosing us. He could just as easily choose someone else in our place.

    The key part of the message, however, is how the people of Jerusalem used the things which God gave them because He had chosen them. Instead of using those things to honor God, they used them to make other things appear worthy of replacing God and then worshiped those things in place of God. When those idols did not satisfy, instead of turning back to God they sought out other more exotic idols. Worse than that, they sacrificed their children, the children whom God had given them, on the altars of these gods whom they had put in the place of God. Every time I read such passages, I am struck by the comparisons to our society, where we worship material things and build shrines to our possessions. Even many of those who consider themselves Christian put a higher priority on material possessions than on serving God. Further, when I read the Old Testament prophets condemning the people of Israel for sacrificing their children I cannot help but think of abortion as it is practiced in this country. We have sacrificed our children on the altar of convenience.
    I want to make an important caveat here. Those who have had an abortion, or performed an abortion, or facilitated an abortion are not worse than anyone else. We have all, each and every one of us, committed heinous sins in the eyes of God. It is only through God’s grace that we can do better going forward. No matter what the sin we have committed, God will forgive us and wipe us clean if we repent and turn to Him.