Ezekiel 16:8, 43, 62 ESV
"When I passed by you again and saw you, behold, you were at the age for love, and I spread the corner of my garment over you and covered your nakedness; I made my vow to you and entered into a covenant with you, declares the Lord God, and you became mine.
Because you have not remembered the days of your youth, but have enraged me with all these things, therefore, behold, I have returned your deeds upon your head, declares the Lord God. Have you not committed lewdness in addition to all your abominations?
I will establish my covenant with you, and you shall know that I am the Lord,
God uses a graphic vision to express his truth to his people. He likens them to a baby born and thrown out that he rescued and gave life to. Twice he emphatically says, "Live!" She lives, and when she grows up he marries her and clothes her with expensive clothes and beautiful jewelry. How does she respond? She actively pursues prostitution. In fact he says that, unlike other prostitutes, she doesn't take money for her services. She pays her customers to come to her. She becomes far more wicked than those around her who have already experienced God's judgment.
Here is an incredible truth. God says that he will reestablish his covenant with her despite her sin. First will come judgment, then will come blessing. But, why did she act like this in the first place? You would think that after all he had done for her she would have lived in gratitude rather than rebellion. Verse 43 contains the key: "Because you have not remembered the days of your youth," he says.
She had forgotten what God had done for her. That's why Jesus calls us to take the Lord's Supper "in remembrance" of him. That's why the Apostle Paul continually reminds the Romans and the Galatians, and every other group to whom he writes, that they are "in Christ." When we forget who we are we live like the world.
Father, thank you for your glorious grace and mercy. Today may I live in full remembrance of all you have done for me. May I never forget the cradle, the cross and the empty tomb.
By His grace,
Rick Weinert
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