Ezekiel 16:45
Thou art thy mother’s daughter, that lotheth her husband and her children; and thou art the sister of thy sisters, which lothed their husbands and their children: your mother was an Hittite, and your father an Amorite. Thou art thy mother’s daughter, that lotheth her husband and her children; and thou art the sister of thy sisters, which lothed their husbands and their children: your mother was an Hittite, and your father an Amorite.
The verse belongs to a parable that rebukes the apostasy of Judah and Israel, exposing their grave sins under the figure of unfaithful women to call God's children back to Him. It pictures the Jewish church, married to the Lord, turning harlot by forsaking God for unlawful friendship with the world and the surrounding nations and their worship. Judah is shown repeating her mother's and her sisters' pattern of loathing husband and children through departure from God, idolatry, and conformity to the world. A lewd and licentious woman is a symbol of a corrupt, fallen, apostate church, and this unfaithful wife seeking unlawful union with the world explains and supports that symbol for Babylon. When a church that belongs to God joins itself to the world it breaks its marriage bond to Him, and God names that union fornication and adultery. Mother, daughters, and sisters belong to one family by shared unfaithfulness and worldliness, so the mother of Revelation 17 has daughter churches of the same kind, and together they form Babylon, the universal worldly church.
Setting and Plain Meaning
Ezekiel received this word among the captives of Israel between the years 595 and 574, beginning and closing his work just a little later than Jeremiah. He belonged to the priestly family and first received wonderful visions in which God revealed His glory and majesty to him. That impression of the greatness of God was given before his prophetic work began, so that having once seen God he would not fear the face of man. The word belongs to the awful messages of warning and reproof he was then sent to deliver to the sinners among his own people.
It stands in a strong parable rebuking the apostasy of Judah and Israel and pleading with God's children to turn back to Him. The surrounding chapters expose the grave sins of Judah and Israel through the figure of lewd women. Judah is there portrayed as following the sinful pattern of her mother and sisters, who are described as rejecting their husbands and children.
The chapter describes God's covenant with His people and their betrayal of it, in which they broke the covenant and relied on another. Its marriage language represents the relation between God and His people. The Jewish church is portrayed as espoused to the Lord but becoming a harlot through apostasy and unlawful friendship with the world. Apostate Jerusalem is depicted as an unfaithful woman who turns from God and joins herself to surrounding nations and their worship, presenting God's professed people as a corrupt church committing spiritual unfaithfulness.
Judah is shown repeating her mother's rejection as a daughter follows her mother, in departure from God, idolatry, and conformity to the world.
Apostasy, Babylon, and Warning
A lewd and licentious woman is the figure for a corrupt, fallen and apostate church, and the Jewish church is held up as an unfaithful wife seeking unlawful union with the world to make that figure plain. Ezekiel 16 shows the harlot as the symbol of a corrupt church, and that use bears out the naming of symbolic Babylon by the same image. When a church that belongs to God joins itself to the world it is counted unfaithful to Him, for the church is lawfully united to God as wife is to husband and any joining to the world breaks that marriage bond. God's own name for such union of His church with the world is fornication and adultery, pictured in a daughter and sisters whose mothers loathed their husbands and children.
The church becomes unfaithful to Christ when it befriends the world, follows Babylon, and casts off God's precepts, so that Israel and Babylon are united in one life of spiritual unfaithfulness. The ancient course of Israel in rejecting her husband stands as the pattern for the apostate church in seeking the support of worldly powers instead of seeking the Lord. A woman stands for a church, and corrupt churches belong to one family by shared character, since mother, daughters and sisters all loathe husband and children in the same unfaithfulness and worldliness. Therefore the mother of Revelation 17 must have daughter churches of the same kind, and mother with daughters together form Babylon, the universal worldly church made up of all denominations in whose ways and worship there is more of the spirit of the world than of the Spirit of Christ.
The Jewish church presented as a harlot is the example of God rejecting a church for alienation from Him and union with the world. Her fall was her rejection by God, likened to her mother and sisters who were likewise unfaithful, while her destruction came later and was deferred. The marriage language of the chapter sets forth God's covenant with His people and their betrayal of it in breaking the covenant and relying on another, picturing the relation between God and His people. That language does not establish that the marriage of the Lamb has been taking place throughout history, for that marriage is an event at the end.