“You are to say, ‘This is what the Lord God says to Jerusalem: Your origin and your birth were in the land of the Canaanites. Your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hethite. No one cared enough about you to do even one of these things out of compassion for you. But you were thrown out into the open field because you were despised on the day you were born. “‘I passed by you and saw you thrashing around in your blood, and I said to you as you lay in your blood, “Live!” Yes, I said to you as you lay in your blood, “Live!” “‘Then I passed by you and saw you, and you were indeed at the age for love. So I spread the edge of my garment over you and covered your nakedness. I pledged myself to you, entered into a covenant with you — this is the declaration of the Lord God  — and you became mine. I clothed you in embroidered cloth and provided you with fine leather sandals. I also wrapped you in fine linen and covered you with silk. I adorned you with jewelry, putting bracelets on your wrists and a necklace around your neck. So you were adorned with gold and silver, and your clothing was made of fine linen, silk, and embroidered cloth. You ate fine flour, honey, and oil. You became extremely beautiful and attained royalty. You took some of your clothing and made colorful high places for yourself, and you engaged in prostitution on them. These places should not have been built, and this should never have happened! You also took your beautiful jewelry made from the gold and silver I had given you, and you made male images so that you could engage in prostitution with them.” Ezekiel 16:3, 5-6, 8, 10-11, 13, 16-17 CSB https://bible.com/bible/1713/ezk.16.3-17.CSB

This chapter summarizes God’s perspective on Israel. He chose by His grace, mercy, and love, to form a nation of people for Himself from one who was nothing. He blessed that nation and made it wealthy. He gave them His ways to make them wise and beautiful before all nations so that all nations would come to Him for the blessings they saw among His people. But His people rebelled against Him by worshipping things created and their immoral pleasures. Despite painful consequences, the rebellion led His people to even greater rebellion rather than repentance and reconciliation with Him. Therefore, He removed His people from His face and divorced Israel as His bride (Jeremiah 3.8-10). Yet God cannot deny Himself or His love for people, and so through Israel, He came as their Messiah to restore Israel and open the door for all humanity to become His people. In Christ, the Messiah, God Himself the sacrificial Savior, Redeemer, and Reconciler of all humanity, God has made for Himself a people He calls His church. Yet we continue to do what Israel did, worshipping ourselves and the things of this world, not accomplishing the work He left us to do of making disciples by teaching obedience to all of Jesus’ commands. We see this fruit in an increasingly hostile culture to God and man. What must we do? We must repent and return to our first love, the Lord Jesus Christ. We must remove from ourselves our idols and cease living idolatrous lives. We must engage the will of God revealed in the word of God to bear fruit in the work of God. This is the world’s reconciliation to God in Christ until all people everywhere love God most demonstrated by loving their neighbor first.