Ezekiel 16:7
I have caused thee to multiply as the bud of the field, and thou hast increased and waxen great, and thou art come to excellent ornaments: thy breasts are fashioned, and thine hair is grown, whereas thou wast naked and bare. I have caused thee to multiply as the bud of the field, and thou hast increased and waxen great, and thou art come to excellent ornaments: thy breasts are fashioned, and thine hair is grown, whereas thou wast naked and bare.
God raised Jerusalem as his own child from a naked, helpless and exposed beginning into increase, maturity, greatness and beautiful adornment. He took her into covenant as in marriage, and her turning to others broke that bond as adultery, which is not the final marriage of the Lamb. Her joining the surrounding nations, worshiping their gods and leaning on earthly powers made her city the picture of spiritual unfaithfulness and the pattern of an apostate church. A woman stands for a church, and a harlot stands for a corrupt, fallen and apostate church, as with Babylon in Revelation 17. The Jewish church espoused to the Lord became such a harlot like Babylon by seeking the friendship of the world in unlawful union with the kings of the earth, showing that the great harlot is a professedly religious yet corrupt universal body distinct from civil powers though joined to them.
Nurtured Growth Into Apostasy
Ezekiel 16:7 portrays Jerusalem, Judah and Israel as a people and as a child whom God caused to multiply, grow, flourish, increase and wax great. From a naked, bare, helpless and exposed condition he brought her into maturity, greatness, beauty and excellent adornment. The image of physical growth shows the increase, development, care, favor and greatness God gave her before her turning away, belonging to a strong parable concerning the apostasy of Judah and Israel. In its wider allegory the chapter is the account of Israel as a people whom God favored and brought from helplessness to growth.
The chapter uses marriage to represent the Lord's covenant relationship with his people, in which he makes them his own but they break the covenant and turn to another. It is the record portraying Israel's backsliding and departures from God as adultery, invoking the allegory of Israel as a woman and as an adulterous wife who turned from God and followed other powers. This Old Testament use of marriage for the bond between God and his people is not the marriage of the Lamb at the end. It is cited for that covenant relation and not to explain the verse's specific details about growth, adornment or former nakedness separately.
In its wider allegory the chapter describes the church's unfaithfulness to God as spiritual fornication and adultery. When God's people turned from him, joined the surrounding nations and worshiped their gods, their city symbolized their spiritual unfaithfulness. That turning to seek the support of earthly powers makes Ezekiel 16 a prototype of an apostate church.
The excellent ornaments are the moral beauty that appears when God transforms a person, in the first stirrings of love, hope, prayer and praise and a renewed mind devoted to God. Even these early signs of transformation are beautiful. God will recognize and honor the transformed person.
Harlot Means Corrupt Church
In the imagery of the verse a woman stands for a church, and a licentious, lewd woman stands for a corrupt, fallen and apostate church. That same symbol is used for Babylon in Revelation 17. The Jewish church had been espoused to the Lord and then became a harlot through apostasy, in the same manner as Babylon. She became a harlot by turning from Him, seeking the friendship of the world, and entering unlawful union with the kings of the earth and with the world.
This shows what the great harlot Babylon of Revelation is: not abstract earthly civil power, but a corrupt, professedly religious body. She is distinct from the kings of the earth though unlawfully united with them. Just as the woman in Revelation 12 represents the true church, the harlot in Revelation 17 with her daughters represents the entire corrupt church. That corrupt church is not limited to a single ecclesiastical body but is composed of many, the universal worldly church unlawfully united to the kings of the earth.
The verse belongs to the portrayal of the Jewish church as a harlot whom God had caused to grow and become great, attaining maturity and adornment after beginning in nakedness and helplessness. Her fall as so portrayed was her rejection by God. Her destruction was delayed and came only after a considerable time.