Playing the Whore

With all this talk about coarse language and taking a look at the biblical usage of coarse language in the prophetic books, it has made me come face to face with some pretty powerful passages. Just as I feel sometimes that we have heard the Gospel so much that it becomes like oxygen and loses its awe, so do I feel as though we have heard the people of Israel mentioned as a harlot so often, we forget this abominable name and the reason behind the name that is used so often to describe idolaters.

I will tell you that I am going to show some pretty coarse messages in the Bible from here on out so if you are uncomfortable with this language please don't read further. I know this is kind of like telling you NOT to think of a pink elephant, but at as Pilate said to his demise I will say the same, "I wash my hands of this."

We find the usage of this term "harlot", most poignantly, used of Israel in Ezekiel 16. I think harlot is a nice term that makes us not think of the complete abhorrence this term is supposed to convey. Maybe it would be better served to use some contemporary terms so you can see the disgust God has on us when we are idolaters. Some terms that might be better served would be whore, slut, skank, hooch, ho, tramp or hooker. In the "urban dictionary" one definition is exactly what I was thinking:

One of the female species that sleeps around. She is really a slut, but goes by harlot to save her own reputation .

I feel like we as Christians like to use the word harlot instead of the word that means more disgust to us, like whore or slut. Harlot probably carried more meaning and disgust back in the day, but for me it just doesn't carry the weight of this passage.

Continuing. Ezekiel 16 starts off by God wanting to make known to Jerusalem her abominations. God wants to make sure that there is no mincing of words, no second guessing, no questions in regards to the hatred God has towards Jerusalem being a whore and a slut to other gods.

The way that God does this is to first show Jerusalem who they were from their birth, how worthless they were and how the world could care less about them:

As for your birth, on the day you were born your navel cord was not cut, nor were you washed with water for cleansing; you were not rubbed with salt or even wrapped in cloths. No eye looked with pity on you to do any of these things for you, to have compassion on you. Rather you were thrown out into the open field, for you were abhorred on the day you were born.
Ezekiel 16:4,5

This is how God found Jerusalem. Is this not how He found us as well? We are told in 1 Peter 2:10 that we were once not a nation, not a people, not a priesthood. When God found us, we are told that we were haters of God, children of wrath, sons of the devil and with absolutely no hope. Even so, God elected us to heir ship with His Son. God shows this redemption in Ezekiel 16:6

“When I passed by you and saw you squirming in your blood, I said to you while you were in your blood, ‘Live!’ Yes, I said to you while you were in your blood, ‘Live!’

Is this not the same as God showing us in Colossians 2:13 what He did for us?

When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions,

God is showing Jerusalem, and in the end us, where He has not only found us lying in our blood, squirming without hope, but He also found us as we were left to die as if our mothers conceived us on the street and left. God is showing truly how hopeless we were. We were lying like a small newborn baby, crying without hope in our own blood on the streets with onlookers scoffing at us. Yet, God saw us (Read Ezekiel 16:7-14)and picked us up, cleansed us, adorned us with jewels and gave us heir ship on the thrown.

How did Jerusalem respond? By being a slut, skank and whore to the other dead, lifeless gods. How specific does God get in this description?

“You built yourself a high place at the top of every street and made your beauty abominable, and you spread your legs to every passer-by to multiply your harlotry.
Ezekiel 16:25

This is not speaking of the "escorts" in the paper only affordable to the rich business man, this is speaking of a "$1 whore." They don't care what you look like, how much money you have, if you use a condom or what your health issues are. They just want your nickel and they will do anything for it.

You uncomfortable yet? Good. This is how God wants us to understand what it means to be a whore for idols.

What do you love more than God? What eisegesis do you put on Scripture to describe God in ways that are not His true attributes? I used to love money, and still do at times, more than my God. I used to love my reputation, my family and my friends more than God. Are you afraid to speak the truth about God to other people? You make them and their thoughts of you and idol over your God. When you do this, and when I do this, I am a whore.

How can we ever do this to a God that picked us up out of our own blood to clean us and make us heirs to the thrown? How can we not live a Cross centered life in humility? How is this possible?

What happens when we are whores for idols? God says simply in Ezekiel 16:26

...make me angry

The scary thing is that in this anger God says that He delivered up the Israelites to their desires, does this not sound a lot like Romans 1? The scary part is maybe some reading this are not saved and God will turn you over to your idols and the desires of your whoredom without the possibility of salvation.

When going through this text it again reminds me of the complete honor, adoration and gratitude through worship and service that my God deserves. Above that, He deserves this, and Him alone!

If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple.
Luke 14:26

I write this post to show the crassness of God when He really wants to get a point across to show His love and our failures. This crassness didn't just stop at His words but also in His actions. Sin was so deep and so nasty that even our righteous deeds are said to be like throwing a bloody tampon at God and acting as though we are giving Him a gift. (Isaiah 64:6) Our gift to God is a dirty, smelly, bloody tampon rag and God's gift to us was His pure, undefiled, perfect, almighty Son.

The question is: Are you a whore or a disciple?

Surely our griefs He Himself bore,
And our sorrows He carried;
Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken,
Smitten of God, and afflicted.
But He was pierced through for our transgressions,
He was crushed for our iniquities;
The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him,
And by His scourging we are healed.
But the Lord was pleased
To crush Him, putting Him to grief;
Isaiah 53:4,5,10a