SHE TRUSTED IN HER OWN BEAUTY
We found last month that after the Lord took Jerusalem as His bride, He washed, cleaned and dressed her, and then He said she was “exceeding beautiful,”Why? Because of His work and His comeliness which He placed upon her.
And thy renown went forth among the heathen for thy beauty: for it was perfect through my comeliness, which I had put upon thee, saith the Lord GOD.
Ezek 16:14
The heathen saw her as beautiful. The definition of renown is ‘a mark or memorial of individuality with honor, authority and character’. She was ready to be used of God to draw the lost to Christ. She was ready to be an help meet to her husband and His kingdom. She was the bride of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Her husband owned everything and knew everything and had the all power to do anything she needed. Her husband was LOVE! He didn’t just know how to love, He was LOVE itself. He was righteousness and she never had to worry about being mistreated. She had it all!
How many times do we say, “If things were just different, I would be what I ought to be.” We are fooling ourselves if we think that circumstances would cause us to be a better person. Circumstances reveal us, they don’t make us! Our lives do not depend upon what we posses. It depends upon who we are in our hearts and who is truly “Lord” of our lives. Look what this woman does.
But thou didst trust in thine own beauty, and playedst the harlot because of thy renown, and pouredst out thy fornications on every one that passed by; his it was.
And of thy garments thou didst take, and deckedst thy high places with divers colours, and playedst the harlot thereupon: the like things shall not come, neither shall it be so.
Thou hast also taken thy fair jewels of my gold and of my silver, which I had given thee, and madest to thyself images of men, and didst commit whoredom with them,
And tookest thy broidered garments, and coveredst them: and thou hast set mine oil and mine incense before them.
My meat also which I gave thee, fine flour, and oil, and honey, wherewith I fed thee, thou hast even set it before them for a sweet savour: and thus it was, saith the Lord GOD.
Ezek 16:15-19
This woman thought it was her own beauty that had brought her such honor! Her trust was in herself, not the Lord. What happened? She was clean now. She could hold her head up high as others passed by. Her clothes showed that time, effort and money had been spent on them and it showed someone cared about her. Her jewelry must have been attractive and she must have looked like royalty which made her think she was someone special. She forgot who she was before the Lord came into her life.
This woman took the things her husband had given her and used them to buy the love of the world. Her job was to bring the world to her husband (Christ), not to leave her husband for the world. If she had brought them to Christ, everyone could have had life. We are to make a difference in the lives of the lost and bring them into life, not to become polluted with their ways. If she had brought them to Christ, everyone could have enjoyed what she had, but she took of the good things and spent them in vain. She didn’t help the world and she left herself empty.
Not only did she give away her beauty, but she lost her relationship with her husband. Why would she look for someone else when she had everything a woman could ever desire? She was deceived!!! She was looking for self satisfaction. She wasn’t thinking of serving His life, but she was thinking of being served by others. Who did she hurt? She did damage to her husband. She brought disgust to the world and she left herself looking ugly to all, including herself! But that’s not all.
Moreover thou hast taken thy sons and thy daughters, whom thou hast borne unto me, and these hast thou sacrificed unto them to be devoured. Is this of thy whoredoms a small matter,
That thou hast slain my children, and delivered them to cause them to pass through the fire for them?
Ezek 16:20-21
It is one thing to choose to destroy ourself, but I think too often we mothers forget that when we turn to sin we take our children with us. When we yield to Satan, we are sacrificing our children upon the altar of fire!!! We are influencing them to live in the world. Somehow we think we can be unfaithful to God and still raise faithful children. Boy, are we deceived when we think that way.
I have seen many Christians become beautiful after Christ put His comeliness upon them and then watched them look to themselves instead of the Lord. I have watched their beauty turn to ashes and it always grieves my heart. Many, many of God’s children fall by the wayside because of becoming disappointed in a brother or sister in Christ. Satan is a sly old fox and his goal is to destroy. What was this woman’s downfall? She trusted in her own beauty!
SHE FORGOT WHERE SHE CAME FROM!
And in all thine abominations and thy whoredoms thou hast not remembered the days of thy youth, when thou wast naked and bare, and wast polluted in thy blood.
Ezek 16:22
It is very easy to forget what we were before Christ took us to be His own. I try to go back on a regular basis to the day of my salvation. The night I was saved, I remember thinking to my self, that if it got any harder to be a Christian I wasn’t going to make it. I was playing Christian and I had used about all the strength I had. I was empty and insecure. If Christ had not come into my life at sixteen years of age, my emotions would have destroyed my mind, and my fleshly lust would have destroyed my body. The Word of God began instantly to remake my thinking and my acting. I live with a boldness today, not because of who I am, because I am still that empty and insecure girl in the flesh, but because of who He is and the knowledge that it is Him and not me that is doing the living through my life. If I ever forget where I came from, I am a dead duck!!! My daily verse is,
I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
Gal 2:20
SHE BUILT EMINENT PLACES IN THE WORLD
And it came to pass after all thy wickedness, (woe, woe unto thee! saith the Lord GOD;)
That thou hast also built unto thee an eminent place, and hast made thee an high place in every street.
Thou hast built thy high place at every head of the way, and hast made thy beauty to be abhorred, and hast opened thy feet to every one that passed by, and multiplied thy whoredoms.
Thou hast also committed fornication with the Egyptians thy neighbours, great of flesh; and hast increased thy whoredoms, to provoke me to anger.
Ezek 16:23-26
No one is perfect! We all fall short of the glory of God, but
it is one thing to sin against God in an action, and quite another thing to begin building our life back out in the world. Transgression is rebuilding that which was destroyed at salvation. She was taking the goods that the Lord had supplied and was giving them to the world. She was living there! God said she made her beauty to be abhorred. Have you ever seen a beautiful lady with an obnoxious personality? Beauty is as beauty does! Notice something else she did. She no longer chose with whom she would sin. She opened her feet to EVERYONE! When we turn our lives over to sin we lose our ability to discern. She just started acting downright dumb!
Well, she has done what she wanted to do, instead of what the Lord wanted her to do and now the Lord will do as He pleases! Part three will give us a picture of how the Lord thinks and feels when we are unfaithful to Him.
But if ye will not do so, behold, ye have sinned against the LORD: and be sure your sin will find you out.
Num 32:23
We all know this verse, but do we believe it? Next month we will see God in action.
….Gloria Brewster