Ezekiel – The Ugliness of Sin

Scripture: Chapters 16-18

Key Verse: Ezekiel 18:4, “Behold, all souls are Mine; The soul of the father As
well as the soul of the son is Mine; The soul who sins shall die.”

Overview: Ezekiel showed the true nature of unrighteousness through pictures

that are graphic and repulsive. When believers see the ugliness of sin, it helps us
to shun sin in our daily conduct. Ezekiel called upon God’s people to accept
responsibility for their conduct and to turn their faces towards God. Both actions
are necessary for fellowship with the Father of Righteousness

Theme: Sin produces unpleasant undesirable fruit

Chapters 4-24 cover the period from Ezekiel’s call to the beginning of the siege of
Jerusalem

Chapters 4-11, the certainty of God’s judgment

Chapters 12-19, the necessity of God’s judgment
Their confidence that the kingdom and the capital would be spared was
baseless
God desires the remnant to be aroused to repent

Outline:

1. The Outcast Vine (Chapter 15)

2. The Parable of the Faithless Wife (Chapter 16)
3. The Parable of Two Eagles (Chapter 17:1-21)
4. The Parable of the Tender Twig (Chapter 17:22-24)
5. The Message of Retribution (Chapter 18)

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Detail:

1. The Outcast Vine (Chapter 15) (Reader 15:1-8)

a. The parable (15:1-5)
i. Vine wood useless as construction or for furniture (a peg) (vs 3)
ii. Vine’s purpose to produce fruit – the very thing Israel did not do!
b. The interpretation (15:6-8)
i. Pruned vines only worthy of the fire
ii. So God has delivered Israel to destruction by Nebuchadnezzar (vs
6)
iii. Invaders would pillage and burn Jerusalem (cf. 2 Kings 25:1-12)
iv. Reason: (vs 8, “because they have persisted in unfaithfulness”)
2. The Parable of the Faithless Wife (Chapter 16)
a. Purpose of this section: “Son of man, cause Jerusalem to know her
abominations” (vs 2)
b. The unwanted child (Reader 16:1-5)
i. Nation depraved like a heathen nation
ii. God’s love for Israel like that of one who would have pity on an
abandoned child – one left to die in the wilderness!
iii. When no one cared … God found her and took her!
c. Unwanted child claimed in marriage (Reader 16:6-14)
i. Consider that from a patriarchal family of only 75 that descended
into Egypt (Acts 7:14)
ii. After 430 years a nation of several million emerged! (Exodus
12:37-38)
iii. Israel became “ike a plant in the field; and you grew, matured,
and became very beautiful” (vs 7)
iv. In the imagery of this text, God married her: “I swore an oath to
you and entered into a covenant with you, and you became Mine”
(vs 8)
v. And what a beautiful and blessed bride Israel was!

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d. The unfaithful wife (Reader: 16:15-30)

i. Key verse: “How degenerate is your heart!” says the Lord GOD,
“seeing you do all these things, the deeds of a brazen harlot. (vs
30)
ii. The sickening picture of adultery
1. Note the Lord’s condemnation: “Woe, woe to you!” (vs 23)
2. Graphic: vs 25, “offered yourself to everyone who passed
by”
a. Other versions even more graphic (NASB)
b. Hebrew : “spreading your legs”
3. Israel’s unfaithful alliances:
a. Assyria (vs 28)
b. Babylon (Chaldea) (vs 29)
iii. Worst than a harlot: (Reader 16:30-34)
1. How?
2. Answer: A harlots are solicited for sex … Israel (picture of
the married woman) solicited adultery!
e. The wife’s punishment ( 16:35-43) – Reader 35-38,43
i. Israel’s lovers will abuse her (vs s 36-37)
ii. Her sin the sin of adultery or murder (vs 38)
iii. God’s hurt: (vs 43)
1. NKJV: “but agitated Me with all these things”
2. ESV: “have enraged me with all these things”

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f. The enormity of the wife’s sins (16:44-52)

i. Proverb (vs 44, “Like mother, like daughter!”)
ii. Explained:
1. Mother a pagan Hittite (16:3)
2. Three sisters:
a. Samaria (Northern Kingdom)
b. Judah portrayed here!
c. Sodom
3. Judah considered herself better but in reality worse
a. Knew of her sister’s judgment but persisted!
b. 51, “Samaria did not commit half of your sins; but
you have multiplied your abominations more than
they, and have justified your sisters by all the
abominations which you have done.”
g. The wife’s restoration (Reader 16:53-59)
i. Ultimately will be restored to the land, “I will also bring back the
captives of your captivity among them” (vs 53)
ii. Restoration a common theme of the prophets
1. Isaiah 11:11-16, “There will be a highway for the remnant
of His people” (16)
2. Isaiah 27:13, “They will come, who are about to perish in
the land of Assyria, And they who are outcasts in the land
of Egypt, And shall worship the LORD in the holy mount at
Jerusalem”
3. Isaiah 43:1-44:5, “I will bring your descendants from the
east, And gather you from the west; 6 I will say to the
north, ‘Give them up!’ And to the south, ‘Do not keep them
back!’ Bring My sons from afar, And My daughters from
the ends of the earth” (43:5-6)
4. Jeremiah 12:14-17, “Then it shall be, after I have plucked
them out, that I will return and have compassion on them
and bring them back, everyone to his heritage and
everyone to his land”
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5. Jeremiah 46:26, “Afterward it shall be inhabited as in the

days of old”
6. Hosea 6:11, “O Judah, a harvest is appointed for you, When
I return the captives of My people”
h. The renewal of the covenant (16:60-63)
i. “I will establish an everlasting covenant with you” (v 60)
1. Three fold “covenant” in this text
ii. “you shall know that I am the LORD” (62)
iii. “I provide you an atonement for all you have done” (63)
iv. Ultimately in the millennial Kingdom: Ezekiel 36:25-27, “Then I
will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean; I will
cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. 26 I will
give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take
the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.
27
I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My
statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them”
3. The Parable of Two Eagles (Chapter 17:1-21) (Read 2-10)
a. Parable to Two Eagles
b. Interpreted in vss 11-21
i. Great eagle (vs 3) = Babylon (vs 12)
ii. Another great eagle (vs 7) = Egypt (vs 15-ff)
iii. “fertile field” (vs 5) = favorable conditions in Babylon
iv. “low stature” (vs 6) suggests the humiliation of the nation
c. Egypt:
i. Zedekiah rebelled against the Babylonian king
ii. Seeking alliance with Egypt
iii. That desperate act would fail (vss 7-10, 15-17)
1. 2 Chronicles 36:13, “And he also rebelled against King
Nebuchadnezzar, who had made him swear an oath by
God; but he stiffened his neck and hardened his heart
against turning to the LORD God of Israel.”

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2. Jeremiah 37:5-7, “Then Pharaoh’s army came up from

Egypt; and when the Chaldeans who were besieging
Jerusalem heard news of them, they departed from
Jerusalem. 6 Then the word of the LORD came to the
prophet Jeremiah, saying, 7 “Thus says the LORD, the God of
Israel, ‘Thus you shall say to the king of Judah, who sent you
to Me to inquire of Me: “Behold, Pharaoh’s army which has
come up to help you will return to Egypt, to their own
land.”
d. Babylonians would invade “east wind” (vss 10,20,21)
i. Nebuchadnezzar besieged Jerusalem in 588 BC (2 Kings 25:1)
ii. Walls breached in 586 BC (2 Kings 25:2-7)
iii. Egypt’s alliance did nothing to protect Israel (vs 17, “Nor will
Pharaoh with his mighty army and great company do anything in
the war”)
4. The Parable of the Tender Twig (Reader = Chapter 17:22-24)
a. Glorious future of Israel
b. God would take a sprig and plant it again!
c. On a high mountain
d. Messianic;
i. Isaiah 11:1, “There shall come forth a Rod from the stem of Jesse,
And a Branch shall grow out of his roots”
ii. Jeremiah 23:5-6, “Behold, the days are coming,” says the LORD, “
That I will raise to David a Branch of righteousness; A King shall
reign and prosper, And execute judgment and righteousness in
the earth. 6 In His days Judah will be saved, And Israel will dwell
safely; Now this is His name by which He will be called: THE
LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS” (YHWH Tsidkenu)

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5. The Message of Retribution (Chapter 18)

a. The complaint of the exiles (18:1-2)
i. False proverb refuted, “The fathers have eaten sour grapes, And
the children’s teeth are set on edge” (vs 2)
ii. In essence …why are we being judged for the sins of our fathers?
b. Principle of Judgment stated (18:3-4)- You die for you own sins, “The
soul who sins shall die” (vs 3)
c. Principle of Judgment illustrated (18:5-17)
i. The righteous man (18:5-9)
1. Description provided .. keeps the law!
2. He lives (vs 9, “If he has walked in My statutes And kept
My judgments faithfully— He is just; He shall surely live!”
ays the Lord GOD.”)
ii. The wicked son (18:10-13)
1. Described vss 10-13
2. He dies (vs 13, “He shall not live! If he has done any of
these abominations, He shall surely die; His blood shall be
upon him.”)
3. The righteousness of the Father not transmitted to the son!
iii. The righteous grandson (18:14-18)
1. 3rd generation
2. Observes the wickedness of his father!
3. Lives righteously
4. “He shall surely live!” (vs 17)
5. The unrighteousness of the father NOT transmitted to his
son!

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d. The principle of judgment summarized (18:19-20), “The soul who sins

shall die. The son shall not bear the guilt of the father, nor the father
bear the guilt of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be
upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself”
e. The principle of judgment elaborated (18:21-32) – “turn and live!”
i. Man invited to repent! – And some have (as detailed here in vss
26-28)
ii. God is perfectly fair, “Hear now, O house of Israel, is it not My
way which is fair” (vs 25)
iii. An invitation to repent: (30-32)
1. “Repent, and turn from all your transgressions, so that
iniquity will not be your ruin.” (30)
2. “For I have no pleasure in the death of one who dies” (32)

Conclusion

The Regular Baptist Press material has these postulates about sin: Sin …

1. Is self-sufficiency (Ezekiel 16:1-15) – “But you trusted in your own beauty” (vs
15)
2. Is Prostitution (Ezekiel 16:17) – “made for yourself male images and played the
harlot with them”
3. Is brazen (bold) (Ezekiel 16:30) – “the deeds of a brazen harlot”
4. Is Promiscuity (Ezekiel 16:34-35) – “harlotry with your lovers” (note plural)
5. Leads to a snare (Ezekiel 17:20) – “he shall be taken in My snare”
6. Is Personal (Ezekiel 18:30) – “every one according to his ways” (personal
accountability!)

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