Then said I unto her that was old in adulteries, Will they now commit whoredoms with her, and she with them?
Ezekiel 23 portrays the grave sins of Judah and Israel through the figure of lewd women. Samaria and Jerusalem are depicted as adulterous women. The verse speaks of that spiritual fornication in harsh, unpleasant terms. A corrupt woman in the passage is a symbol of a corrupt church. The adultery describes God's people abandoning their covenant with Him and joining themselves to worldly powers and their ways, turning from God to foreign powers including the Assyrians and Babylonians.
In the verse the adultery means forsaking God to seek help in Egypt, which was rebellion. The figures of harlotry and sexual immorality describe spiritual apostasy as turning from God's law and worship to an unlawful connection with idolatrous or false religious groups. These figures concern religious unfaithfulness, not a church's lawful use of civil government for temporal matters. The verse belongs to the prophecy of Babylon's attack on Jerusalem and the removal of Israel's ruler, marking the overturning of the kingdom because of its unfaithfulness.
The same spiritual adultery is committed by professed Christian churches today that seek union with the civil power. God has provided fullness of blessing in Jesus Christ and demands whole loyalty from His church. He will not share His glory with another.
Ezekiel 23 portrays the grave sins of Judah and Israel through the figure of lewd women. Samaria and Jerusalem are depicted as adulterous women. The verse speaks of that spiritual fornication in harsh, unpleasant terms. A corrupt woman in the passage is a symbol of a corrupt church. The adultery describes God's people abandoning their covenant with Him and joining themselves to worldly powers and their ways, turning from God to foreign powers including the Assyrians and Babylonians.
In the verse the adultery means forsaking God to seek help in Egypt, which was rebellion. The figures of harlotry and sexual immorality describe spiritual apostasy as turning from God's law and worship to an unlawful connection with idolatrous or false religious groups. These figures concern religious unfaithfulness, not a church's lawful use of civil government for temporal matters. The verse belongs to the prophecy of Babylon's attack on Jerusalem and the removal of Israel's ruler, marking the overturning of the kingdom because of its unfaithfulness.
The same spiritual adultery is committed by professed Christian churches today that seek union with the civil power. God has provided fullness of blessing in Jesus Christ and demands whole loyalty from His church. He will not share His glory with another.