https://literalword.com/esv?q=Ezekiel+23
Observations from today’s readings and today’s S-WOD, Saturday, 26 September 2026:
Ezekiel 23:2-4 – “Son of man, there were two women, the daughters of one mother…. Oholah was the name of the elder and Oholibah the name of her sister. They became mine, and they bore sons and daughters. As for their names, Oholah is Samaria, and Oholibah is Jerusalem.”
Ezekiel returns to the painful picture of spiritual adultery that he used in chapter 16, but now he tells the story of two sisters. Oholah represents Samaria, the capital of the northern kingdom of Israel, and Oholibah represents Jerusalem and Judah. They belonged to God — “They became mine” — yet both gave themselves to other gods and nations. Their sin was not merely that they broke religious rules; they were unfaithful to the God who had made them His own. Throughout Scripture, God describes His relationship with His people in the language of covenant love, and idolatry is therefore pictured as adultery because we give to someone or something else the trust, affection, dependence, and devotion that belong to Him.
This makes Ezekiel 23 uncomfortable by design. The chapter uses graphic sexual language because God wants His people to feel the ugliness of what they had learned to accept. Sin rarely looks as repulsive to us while we desire it as it does when God exposes what it really is. We rename greed ambition, lust attraction, pride confidence, bitterness justice, and idolatry priorities. God strips away those respectable names. James uses similar language when he calls believers who seek friendship with the world “adulterous people” (James 4:4). God loves His people too much to speak casually about a divided heart.
Ezekiel 23:5-10 – “Oholah played the whore while she was mine, and she lusted after her lovers the Assyrians…. Therefore I delivered her into the hands of her lovers…. These uncovered her nakedness; they seized her sons and her daughters; and as for her, they killed her with the sword; and she became a byword among women, when judgment had been executed on her.
Samaria desired Assyria’s power and protection and increasingly gave herself to Assyria’s gods and ways. The nation she trusted instead of God eventually became the nation that destroyed her. In 722 BC, Assyria conquered Samaria and carried the northern kingdom into exile (2 Kings 17:5-6). What Israel embraced as a source of security became an instrument of judgment.
This pattern reaches far beyond ancient political alliances. An idol promises to give us something we believe we need — security, pleasure, significance, control, acceptance — but eventually begins to own us. Jesus said, “Everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin” (John 8:34). We may believe we are using money, sexual pleasure, approval, achievement, alcohol, entertainment, influence, or another person to satisfy ourselves, only to discover that what we thought we controlled has begun controlling us. Sin promises freedom while quietly creating slavery. Christ works in exactly the opposite direction: the One to whom we surrender ourselves is the One who actually sets us free (John 8:36).
Ezekiel 23:11-13 – “Her sister Oholibah saw this, and she became more corrupt than her sister in her lust…. And I saw that she was defiled; they both took the same way.”
Jerusalem watched Samaria rebel against God, watched Assyria destroy her, and then “took the same way.” She possessed something Samaria had not possessed: the opportunity to learn from another person’s destruction. Instead, she became even more corrupt.
There is a warning here about how easily we can observe the consequences of someone else’s sin without recognizing the same desires growing within ourselves. We watch marriages destroyed, families fractured, careers lost, addictions deepen, ministries collapse, and lives consumed by bitterness or greed, yet somehow imagine ourselves immune. Paul warns, “Let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall” (1 Corinthians 10:12). Someone else’s failure should produce humility rather than superiority. The question is not simply, How could they have done that? It is, What desires were they feeding before anyone could see the consequences, and are any of those desires growing in me?
Ezekiel 23:14-21 – “But she carried her whoring further. She saw men portrayed on the wall, the images of the Chaldeans portrayed in vermilion…. When she saw them, she lusted after them…. Thus you longed for the lewdness of your youth….”
Jerusalem did not merely stumble into temptation; she cultivated desire. She saw the images of the Babylonians and wanted what they represented. The progression matters: what captured the eyes began to command the imagination, and what commanded the imagination eventually shaped desire and action. Sin often grows long before the visible act occurs.
Jesus takes us directly to this level of the heart. Adultery begins before the physical act when lust is welcomed and cultivated within (Matthew 5:27-28). This is why discipleship includes what we repeatedly place before our eyes and allow our minds to dwell upon. Job said, “I have made a covenant with my eyes” (Job 31:1), and Paul tells us to set our minds on what is true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, and commendable (Philippians 4:8). We cannot continually feed desires opposed to Christ and then be surprised when those desires become strong. Union with Christ changes more than what we refuse to do; as we abide in Him, He reshapes what we learn to desire.
Ezekiel 23:22-27 — Therefore, O Oholibah, thus says the Lord GOD: “Behold, I will stir up against you your lovers from whom you turned in disgust…. Thus I will put an end to your lewdness and your whoring brought from the land of Egypt….”
Again, the judgment fits the sin. The nations Jerusalem pursued would become the instruments of her humiliation. What she once desired she would eventually hate, but even disgust with an idol is not necessarily repentance. We can become miserable because of what sin has done to us without grieving that our sin has separated our hearts from God.
God therefore says, “I will put an end” to it. His purpose goes deeper than allowing His people to experience painful consequences. He intends to break their long-established pattern of unfaithfulness. Hebrews tells us that God disciplines those He loves so that we may “share his holiness” (Hebrews 12:10). Sometimes God’s mercy comes through removing what we refuse to release. When He exposes an idol, frustrates a sinful desire, or allows something we trusted to fail us, the right question is not merely, How can I get this back? It may be, What is God freeing me from so that my heart can return more fully to Him?
Ezekiel 23:28-31 — For thus says the Lord GOD: “Behold, I will deliver you into the hands of those whom you hate, into the hands of those from whom you turned in disgust…. Your lewdness and your whoring have brought this upon you, because you played the whore with the nations and defiled yourself with their idols. You have gone the way of your sister; therefore I will give her cup into your hand.”
There is a bitter irony in Jerusalem’s sin: she eventually came to hate the very people she had once desired. Sin often works this way. What we pursue apart from God can move from attraction to dependence and finally to disgust, yet still retain power over us. A person can hate what an addiction is doing and remain enslaved to it, resent the approval he once craved and still need it, or despise the consequences of a sinful relationship while remaining emotionally bound to it. Changed feelings are not the same as a changed heart. Jerusalem had “turned in disgust,” but she had not returned to God. Repentance is more than becoming tired of what sin has done to us; it is turning from sin to the Lord Himself.
God also says, “Your lewdness and your whoring have brought this upon you.” His judgment is not arbitrary. Jerusalem is experiencing where her chosen loves have led her. This exposes one of sin’s great deceptions: we want the choice without its consequences. We want to decide for ourselves what will satisfy us while still expecting God to protect us from where those decisions lead. But “whatever one sows, that will he also reap” (Galatians 6:7). God’s commands are therefore not restrictions keeping us from life; they are the wisdom of the One who created us and knows where life is found. Jesus does not merely forgive us after sin has devastated us. He calls us to trust Him enough to believe that His way is better before we learn it through pain (John 10:10).
The Gospel gives us something Jerusalem desperately needed: not merely different circumstances or stronger resolve, but freedom from the mastery of our old desires. Jesus said that the one who practices sin becomes its slave, but “if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed” (John 8:34-36). United to Christ, we can bring even deeply rooted desires into the light, confess them without hiding or defending them, and learn through the Spirit to desire what pleases God. The question is not only, What sin do I now hate because of what it has done to me? More importantly, have I actually turned from it to Christ?
Ezekiel 23:32-35 – “You shall drink your sister’s cup that is deep and large…. you shall be filled with drunkenness and sorrow…. Because you have forgotten me and cast me behind your back, you yourself must bear the consequences….”
Jerusalem had followed Samaria’s path, and now she would drink Samaria’s cup. Scripture frequently uses the cup as a picture of receiving God’s judgment (Isaiah 51:17). That gives these words an important connection to Jesus in Gethsemane. Knowing the cross was immediately before Him, Jesus prayed, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will” (Matthew 26:39). The cup we deserved was placed before Him, and He willingly drank it.
This is where Ezekiel’s severe language ultimately drives us. God does not overlook spiritual adultery or pretend our rebellion does not matter. At the cross, we see both how seriously God takes sin and how far His love goes to rescue sinners. Jesus does not save us by declaring sin insignificant; He saves us by bearing its judgment Himself. There is therefore “no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1). United to Christ, we do not obey in terror that we might someday persuade God to accept us. We fight sin as people already forgiven and loved, learning to become faithful to the One who was faithful to us even at the cost of His own blood.
Ezekiel 23:36-39 – “Son of man, will you judge Oholah and Oholibah? Declare to them their abominations…. For when they had slaughtered their children in sacrifice to their idols, on the same day they came into my sanctuary to profane it.
Perhaps nothing reveals their divided hearts more clearly. They sacrificed their children to idols and then entered God’s sanctuary. They apparently believed they could live in rebellion and continue worshiping as though nothing were wrong. Religion had become something added to life rather than submission of the whole life to God.
The idols have changed, but children can still be sacrificed to them. Parents can sacrifice their children more slowly through neglect when careers, money, possessions, personal freedom, entertainment, relationships, or even ministry consistently receive the time, attention, and affection their children need. We may never place a child on a pagan altar, yet we can still make our children bear the cost of whatever we have decided matters more. Jesus reverses this self-centered way of living by welcoming children, valuing those the world easily overlooks, and calling His people to receive and care for them in His name (Mark 9:36-37; 10:13-16). Our culture also faces the more direct reality of abortion, in which an unborn child’s life is ended and the child is removed from the equation altogether. Scripture consistently presents children as lives known and formed by God rather than obstacles whose value depends upon whether they fit our plans (Psalm 139:13-16).
That exposes the terrible contradiction of idolatry: idols promise life while ultimately consuming it. They promise freedom, happiness, security, success, and control, but demand increasingly costly sacrifices from us and often from the people around us. Jesus is completely different. False gods demand that others be sacrificed so that we may have the life we want; Jesus sacrifices Himself so that others may have life. “The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep” (John 10:11). At the cross, Christ does not take life to satisfy Himself; He gives His own life to save sinners.
Jesus repeatedly confronted the same separation between outward religion and inward reality. He condemned those who carefully maintained a religious appearance while their hearts remained far from God (Matthew 23:25-28). We can attend church, sing, pray, study Scripture, serve, and speak Christian language while protecting areas of life from Christ’s rule. But Jesus did not die merely to become one important part of our lives. “You are not your own, for you were bought with a price” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). Union with Christ means His self-giving life increasingly shapes everything—our private thoughts, bodies, relationships, money, ambitions, parenting, speech, and use of power. The sanctuary and the rest of life cannot belong to different gods.
Ezekiel 23:40-45 – “They even sent for men to come from afar, to whom a messenger was sent; and behold, they came. For them you bathed yourself, painted your eyes, and adorned yourself with ornaments…. But righteous men shall pass judgment on them with the sentence of adulteresses, and with the sentence of women who shed blood, because they are adulteresses, and blood is on their hands.”
The sisters did not simply respond to temptation; they prepared themselves for it. They sent invitations, beautified themselves, and created the setting for their unfaithfulness. That is an important distinction because we sometimes ask God to deliver us from sins for which we continue making provision. Paul says, “make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires” (Romans 13:14). Repentance does not merely ask God to make temptation weaker; it stops arranging life to make sin easier.
Jesus describes a very different relationship with His people. He is the Bridegroom who loves His bride and “gave himself up for her” to sanctify and cleanse her (Ephesians 5:25-27). Our old life runs after lovers who use us and eventually leave us empty. Christ gives Himself for us and makes us holy. Christian obedience therefore is not merely trying harder to remain morally clean. It grows from belonging to Christ, receiving His love, and learning that nothing we chase apart from Him can compare with what we already possess in Him.
Ezekiel 23:46-49 – “Bring up a vast host against them, and make them an object of terror and a plunder…. Thus will I put an end to lewdness in the land…. And you shall know that I am the Lord GOD.”
The chapter ends where so much of Ezekiel ends: “you shall know that I am the Lord GOD.” Their deepest failure was forgetting God; God’s judgment would force them to confront the reality they had pushed aside. Yet the larger story of Scripture does not end with an unfaithful bride receiving judgment. It ends with a redeemed bride prepared for her Bridegroom (Revelation 19:7-9). That transformation is possible only because Jesus took the judgment of His people and gave Himself to make them His own.
Ezekiel 23 therefore confronts more than obvious sexual sin or ancient idolatry. It asks what our hearts pursue when we want security, pleasure, significance, comfort, or control, and whether we are feeding desires that slowly pull us away from Christ. What has begun to capture your imagination and affection? Are you asking Christ to free you from something while continuing to make provision for it? Is there an area where you worship God publicly while effectively casting Him behind your back privately? When you see another believer fall, do you respond with superiority or with the humility of someone who knows that you stand only by the grace of God? Christ does not merely call us away from lesser lovers. He calls us deeper into fellowship with Himself, where we discover that the One who gave Himself for us is also the One our hearts were created to desire.
The chapter ultimately reminds us that victory over temptation does not come simply from greater willpower, stronger rules, or repeatedly reminding ourselves how destructive sin can be. Those things have value, but Jesus points us deeper: “this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent” (John 17:3). Peter likewise teaches that God’s divine power has given us “all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him” (2 Peter 1:3). The Christian life is ultimately relational. The more deeply we know Christ, experience His goodness, and grow in love for Him, the less attractive the substitutes become.
Proverbs captures this with a simple picture: “One who is full loathes honey, but to one who is hungry everything bitter is sweet” (Proverbs 27:7). Temptation gains much of its power from spiritual hunger. When our hearts are empty, even bitter things can look sweet. But as we become increasingly satisfied in Christ, sin begins to lose some of its appeal. This is why John can say that love for God expresses itself in obedience and “his commandments are not burdensome” (1 John 5:3). Obedience increasingly becomes not merely something we have to do, but something we desire because we love the One we are obeying.
We are therefore transformed not primarily by staring harder at sin, continually measuring our own strength and weakness, or trying to manufacture enough determination to resist. We look to Christ. As we behold the glory of the Lord, the Spirit transforms us “from one degree of glory to another” (2 Corinthians 3:18). Union with Christ changes the battle because He is not merely helping us become stronger versions of ourselves; He is increasingly making us like Himself (Romans 8:29). The answer to competing loves is a greater love. The more fully our hearts are occupied with Christ—knowing Him, loving Him, abiding in Him, and seeing His surpassing worth—the less compelling the lesser lovers of Ezekiel 23 become.
“Cross” Fit S-WOD (Spiritual Workout of the Day) – 26 September 2026: Identify one thing that is regularly feeding a desire that competes with Christ—a particular image, account, website, conversation, relationship, purchase, entertainment habit, or private routine. Remove that one source today, and use the time or attention it normally receives to spend fifteen minutes with Christ in Scripture and prayer.
Pray: “Lord, You have loved me faithfully even when my heart has wandered from You. Forgive me for the things I pursue for satisfaction, security, or control that only You can give. Thank You that Jesus bore the judgment my unfaithfulness deserves and has made me His own. Expose what I am feeding that draws my heart away from You, and give me grace to remove it rather than make provision for my flesh. Teach me to abide in Christ until my desires, choices, and private life increasingly reflect His faithfulness. Amen.”
