The Way, the Truth and the Life

Let’s look at Ezekiel 16 and the LORD telling us of how he sees us as His people. Before posting the chapter we need to focus on verse 6 where we read that the LORD says He found us when we were “polluted in our own blood.” Blood symbolizes life leaving the body, and therefor we see this as saying we were bleeding to death. The word “polluted” is from the Hebrew word bawc, meaning to tread under foot. This is depicting both to loath and to be trampled, these together showing cause and effect of why the life was bleeding out of humanity’s body. According to Merriam-Webster the definition of loath is: unwilling to do something contrary to one’s ways of thinking. The idea of trampling something under foot is that it is perceived to be worthless. Ezekiel 16 speaks of the LORD finding us polluted in doing things the same way as all humanity (human nature), and doing so thinking there was no value in His alternative, therefore not even consider it. It tells of His taking us as His own and showing us His ways and our prospering into a great kingdom by these unique ideas. It goes on to describe our forgetting the ideas and corrupting ourselves back to the same condition we had been delivered from, and doing so by taking on the ways the chaotic nations of the world. The corruption is in all church and civil government and now the whole lump is corrupted to the point that we reject returning and instead choose again to ourselves death.

The chapter begins with the LORD commanding Ezekiel to cause Jerusalem to know her abominations. Jerusalem meaning the place taught and founded upon the ways of mutual and reciprocal security (order and civilization). The abominations are the ways of the world that lead to death, and a place of eternal self-inflicted torment (chaos and confusion). The chapter ends with the LORD saying, “…I will establish my covenant with you; and you shalt know that I am the LORD: 63 That you may remember, and be confounded, and never open your mouth any more because of your shame, when I am pacified toward you for all that you have done, says the LORD God.”

The Hebrew word translated as “pacified” here is kaphar, literally meaning a cover. Kaphar is most often translated as atonement, and in all cases the meaning is something that positively reorders what was wrong. The context is our being covered as in what LORD says in Ezekiel 16:8 when he made us His by giving us His wisdom: “8 Now when I passed by you, and looked upon you, behold, your time was the time of love; and I spread my skirt over you, and covered your nakedness: yea, I swore unto you, and entered into a covenant with you, says the LORD God, and you became mine. 9 Then washed I you with water; yea, I thoroughly washed away your blood from you, and I anointed you with oil.”

The word kaphar is one time translated as “shall be disannulled,” when in Isaiah 28:18 the LORD speaks of His disannulling our covenant with death. There we read that the covenant with death, and our agreement with the place of eternal self-inflicted torment, is when we make lies our refuge and cover ourselves with falsehood. There we are also told that it is the stone that the builders rejected that corrects the error. This is speaking to those who loath to their own destruction, and reject the LORD’s introduction of His wisdom (the Way, Truth and Life).

Psalms 127
1 Except the LORD build the house, they labor in vain that build it: except the LORD keep the city, the watchman wakes but in vain.
2 It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows: for so he gives his beloved sleep.
3 Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD: and the fruit of the womb is his reward.
4 As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth.
5 Happy is the man that has his quiver full of them: they shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate.

Isaiah 28
14 Wherefore hear the word of the LORD, you scornful men, that rule this people which is in Jerusalem.
15 Because you have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with the place of eternal self-inflicted torment are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves:
16 Therefore thus says the LORD God, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste.
17 Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place.
18 And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with the place of eternal self-inflicted torment shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then you shall be trodden down by it.
19 From the time that it goes forth it shall take you: for morning by morning shall it pass over, by day and by night: and it shall be a vexation only to understand the report.

Ezekiel 16
1 Again the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
2 Son of man, cause Jerusalem to know her abominations,
3 And say, Thus says the LORD God unto Jerusalem; Your birth and your nativity is of the land of Canaan; your father was an Amorite, and your mother an Hittite.
4 And as for your nativity, in the day you were born your navel was not cut, neither were you washed in water to supple you; you were not salted at all, nor swaddled at all.
5 None eye pitied you, to do any of these unto you, to have compassion upon you; but you were cast out in the open field, to the loathing of your person, in the day that you were born.
6 And when I passed by you, and saw you polluted in your own blood, I said unto you when you were in your blood, Live; yea, I said unto you when you were in your blood, Live.
7 I have caused you to multiply as the bud of the field, and you have increased and waxen great, and you are come to excellent ornaments: your breasts are fashioned, and your hair is grown, whereas you were naked and bare.
8 Now when I passed by you, and looked upon you, behold, your time was the time of love; and I spread my skirt over you, and covered your nakedness: yea, I swore unto you, and entered into a covenant with you, says the LORD God, and you became mine.
9 Then washed I you with water; yea, I thoroughly washed away your blood from you, and I anointed you with oil.
10 I clothed you also with broidered work, and shod you with badgers’ skin, and I girded you about with fine linen, and I covered you with silk.
11 I decked you also with ornaments, and I put bracelets upon your hands, and a chain on your neck.
12 And I put a jewel on your forehead, and earrings in your ears, and a beautiful crown upon your head.
13 Thus were you decked with gold and silver; and your raiment was of fine linen, and silk, and broidered work; you didst eat fine flour, and honey, and oil: and you were exceeding beautiful, and you didst prosper into a kingdom.
14 And your renown went forth among the heathen for your beauty: for it was perfect through my comeliness, which I had put upon you, says the LORD God.
15 But you didst trust in your own beauty, and played the harlot because of your renown, and poured out your fornications on every one that passed by; his it was.
16 And of your garments you didst take, and decked your high places with divers colors, and played the harlot thereupon: the like things shall not come, neither shall it be so.
17 You have also taken your fair jewels of my gold and of my silver, which I had given you, and made to yourself images of men, and didst commit prostitution with them,
18 And took your broidered garments, and covered them: and you have set mine oil and mine incense before them.
19 My meat also which I gave you, fine flour, and oil, and honey, wherewith I fed you, you have even set it before them for a sweet savor: and thus it was, says the LORD God.
20 Moreover you have taken your sons and your daughters, whom you have borne unto me, and these have you sacrificed unto them to be devoured. Is this of your prostitution a small matter,
21 That you have slain my children, and delivered them to cause them to pass through the fire for them?
22 And in all your abominations and your prostitution you have not remembered the days of your youth, when you were naked and bare, and were polluted in your blood.
23 And it came to pass after all your wickedness, (woe, woe unto you! says the LORD God;)
24 That you have also built unto you an eminent place, and have made you an high place in every street.
25 You have built your high place at every head of the way, and have made your beauty to be abhorred, and have opened your feet to every one that passed by, and multiplied your prostitution.
26 You have also committed fornication with the Egyptians your neighbors, great of flesh; and have increased your prostitution, to provoke me to anger.
27 Behold, therefore I have stretched out my hand over you, and have diminished your ordinary food, and delivered you unto the will of them that hate you, the daughters of the Philistines, which are ashamed of your lewd way.
28 You have played the harlot also with the Assyrians, because you were insatiable; yea, you have played the harlot with them, and yet could not be satisfied.
29 You have moreover multiplied your fornication in the land of Canaan unto Chaldea; and yet you were not satisfied therewith.
30 How weak is your heart, says the LORD God, seeing you do all these things, the work of an imperious unfaithful woman;
31 In that you build your eminent place in the head of every way, and make your high place in every street; and have not been as an harlot, in that you scorn hire;
32 But as a wife that commit adultery, which takes strangers instead of her husband!
33 They give gifts to all prostitutes: but you give your gifts to all your lovers, and hire them, that they may come unto you on every side for your prostitutions.
34 And the contrary is in you from other women in your prostitution, whereas none follow you to commit prostitution: and in that you give a reward, and no reward is given unto you, therefore you are contrary.
35 Wherefore, O harlot, hear the word of the LORD:
36 Thus says the LORD God; Because your filthiness was poured out, and your nakedness discovered through your prostitution with your lovers, and with all the idols of your abominations, and by the blood of your children, which you didst give unto them;
37 Behold, therefore I will gather all your lovers, with whom you have taken pleasure, and all them that you have loved, with all them that you have hated; I will even gather them round about against you, and will discover your nakedness unto them, that they may see all your nakedness.
38 And I will judge you, as women that break wedlock and shed blood are judged; and I will give you blood in fury and jealousy.
39 And I will also give you into their hand, and they shall throw down your eminent place, and shall break down your high places: they shall strip you also of your clothes, and shall take your fair jewels, and leave you naked and bare.
40 They shall also bring up a company against you, and they shall stone you with stones, and thrust you through with their swords.
41 And they shall burn your houses with fire, and execute judgments upon you in the sight of many women: and I will cause you to cease from playing the harlot, and you also shalt give no hire any more.
42 So will I make my fury toward you to rest, and my jealousy shall depart from you, and I will be quiet, and will be no more angry.
43 Because you have not remembered the days of your youth, but have fretted me in all these things; behold, therefore I also will recompense your way upon your head, says the LORD God: and you shalt not commit this lewdness above all your abominations.
44 Behold, every one that uses proverbs shall use this proverb against you, saying, As is the mother, so is her daughter.
45 You are your mother’s daughter, that loath her husband and her children; and you are the sister of your sisters, which loath their husbands and their children: your mother was an Hittite, and your father an Amorite.
46 And your elder sister is Samaria, she and her daughters that dwell at your left hand: and your younger sister, that dwells at your right hand, is Sodom and her daughters.
47 Yet have you not walked after their ways, nor done after their abominations: but, as if that were a very little thing, you were corrupted more than they in all your ways.
48 As I live, says the LORD God, Sodom your sister has not done, she nor her daughters, as you have done, you and your daughters.
49 Behold, this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom, pride, fullness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy.
50 And they were haughty, and committed abomination before me: therefore I took them away as I saw good.
51 Neither has Samaria committed half of your sins; but you have multiplied your abominations more than they, and have justified your sisters in all your abominations which you have done.
52 You also, which have judged your sisters, bear your own shame for your sins that you have committed more abominable than they: they are more righteous than you: yea, be you confounded also, and bear your shame, in that you have justified your sisters.
53 When I shall bring again their captivity, the captivity of Sodom and her daughters, and the captivity of Samaria and her daughters, then will I bring again the captivity of your captives in the midst of them:
54 That you may bear your own shame, and may be confounded in all that you have done, in that you are a comfort unto them.
55 When your sisters, Sodom and her daughters, shall return to their former estate, and Samaria and her daughters shall return to their former estate, then you and your daughters shall return to your former estate.
56 For your sister Sodom was not mentioned by your mouth in the day of your pride,
57 Before your wickedness was discovered, as at the time of your reproach of the daughters of Syria, and all that are round about her, the daughters of the Philistines, which despise you round about.
58 You have borne your lewdness and your abominations, says the LORD.
59 For thus says the LORD God; I will even deal with you as you have done, which have despised the oath in breaking the covenant.
60 Nevertheless I will remember my covenant with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish unto you an everlasting covenant.
61 Then you shalt remember your ways, and be ashamed, when you shalt receive your sisters, your elder and your younger: and I will give them unto you for daughters, but not by your covenant.
62 And I will establish my covenant with you; and you shalt know that I am the LORD:
63 That you may remember, and be confounded, and never open your mouth any more because of your shame, when I am pacified toward you for all that you have done, says the LORD God.

Isaiah 28
1 Woe to the crown of pride, to the drunkards of Ephraim, whose glorious beauty is a fading flower, which are on the head of the fat valleys of them that are overcome with wine!
2 Behold, the LORD has a mighty and strong one, which as a tempest of hail and a destroying storm, as a flood of mighty waters overflowing, shall cast down to the earth with the hand.
3 The crown of pride, the drunkards of Ephraim, shall be trodden under feet:
4 And the glorious beauty, which is on the head of the fat valley, shall be a fading flower, and as the hasty fruit before the summer; which when he that looks upon it sees, while it is yet in his hand he eats it up.
5 In that day shall the LORD of hosts be for a crown of glory, and for a diadem of beauty, unto the residue of his people,
6 And for a spirit of judgment to him that sits in judgment, and for strength to them that turn the battle to the gate.
7 But they also have erred through wine, and through strong drink are out of the way; the priest and the prophet have erred through strong drink, they are swallowed up of wine, they are out of the way through strong drink; they err in vision, they stumble in judgment.
8 For all tables are full of vomit and filthiness, so that there is no place clean.
9 Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand doctrine? them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts.
10 For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little:
11 For with stammering lips and another tongue will he speak to this people.
12 To whom he said, This is the rest wherewith you may cause the weary to rest; and this is the refreshing: yet they would not hear.
13 But the word of the LORD was unto them precept upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little; that they might go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken.
14 Wherefore hear the word of the LORD, you scornful men, that rule this people which is in Jerusalem.
15 Because you have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with the place of eternal self-inflicted torment are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves:
16 Therefore thus says the LORD God, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste.
17 Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place.
18 And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with the place of eternal self-inflicted torment shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then you shall be trodden down by it.
19 From the time that it goes forth it shall take you: for morning by morning shall it pass over, by day and by night: and it shall be a vexation only to understand the report.
20 For the bed is shorter than that a man can stretch himself on it: and the covering narrower than that he can wrap himself in it.
21 For the LORD shall rise up as in mount Perazim, he shall be wroth as in the valley of Gibeon, that he may do his work, his strange work; and bring to pass his act, his strange act.
22 Now therefore be you not mockers, lest your bands be made strong: for I have heard from the LORD God of hosts a consumption, even determined upon the whole earth.
23 Give you ear, and hear my voice; hearken, and hear my speech.
24 Doth the plowman plow all day to sow? doth he open and break the clods of his ground?
25 When he has made plain the face thereof, doth he not cast abroad the fitches, and scatter the cummin, and cast in the principal wheat and the appointed barley and the rie in their place?
26 For his God doth instruct him to discretion, and doth teach him.
27 For the fitches are not threshed with a threshing instrument, neither is a cart wheel turned about upon the cummin; but the fitches are beaten out with a staff, and the cummin with a rod.
28 Bread corn is bruised; because he will not ever be threshing it, nor break it with the wheel of his cart, nor bruise it with his horsemen.
29 This also cometh forth from the LORD of hosts, which is wonderful in counsel, and excellent in working.