THIS chapter gives the last and most solemn testimony against Israel before the closing scenes when Nebuchadnezzar’s army besieged and captured Jerusalem, and what remained of Judah. (Chapter 24 is dated from the day that the siege began.)
The sin of idolatry that became so great a snare to all Israel is much dwelt upon in the Old Testament prophetic Scriptures. Jeremiah 2 and 3 may be taken for an example; there God was exposing their guilt, but pleading for the return to Himself of a repentant people. Now all is over with the nation, for His word of grace, His long forbearance too, have been despised, until there is no remedy.
In the book of Exodus (chapters 1 to 13), where the children of Israel are seen in Egypt nothing is said of their worshipping the idols of that land. God had, in that book, another purpose in view, viz., to show the state of wretched slavery in which the people He had chosen for Himself was found, for whose deliverance He acted in power; and He brought them out, and covenanted with them that they should be His, gave them His law, etc. Idolatry appeared at Sinai (chapter 32), when they had been three months out of Egypt, and had the memory of God’s wonderful works of power on their behalf fresh in memory.
We have already noticed (chapter 20) that the idol worship that became the ground of God’s rejecting the nation ban in Egypt, and this is again set forth in verse 3, concerning Aholab and Aholibah, the elder and younger “daughters” of Israel.
“Aholah” means “her tent,” speaking of the independence of the ten tribes which broke off from the son of David after Solomon’s death, and turned to idolatry under Jeroboam (1 Kings 12).
“Aholibah” means “My tent is in her,” for the two tribes among whom Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel, with Habakkuk and Zephaniah also, each in his day, served God, up to this time had His temple as the very center of their system, and He had dwelt there according to His promise to David and Solomon (2 Chronicles 6 and 7).
Aholah (the ten tribes) sought the friendship of Assyria, and adopted, as we should expect, the Assyrian idols as their own, for in seeking alliance with the world they were turning away from God. See Hosea, and 2 Kings 15:19 and 16:7, 8, which indicate the attitude of “Aholah” to Assyria. Verses 9 and 10 of our chapter refer to the historical facts set forth in 2 Kings 15:29 and 17:3-6.
Aholibah (the two tribes called Judah, or the Jews) merited more severe punishment than Aholah; verses 11 to 21 recount her sins. 1 Kings 14:22-24 tells of the early course of these more favored ones when Solomon’s son was reigning, a course never given up, though several God-fearing kings were raised up; and for a few years there was an altered appearance, the heart of the people being, however, unchanged.
Ezekiel is here giving the moral history of the twelve tribes, as seen by God. Though the historical books of the Old Testament do not expressly mention the friendship between Israel and Judah and Assyria, the ways of wickedness of which we read in them were not learned in that separation from the Gentile world to which God had called His people, and from this prophet we learn that Assyria was the source. This is not surprising, because Assyria rose to greatness with the decline of Solomon’s kingdom.
Chaldea and Babylon (verses 14 to 17) evidently refer to Assyria’s, successor in power, Babylonia, which rose out of the collapse of Assyria, attaining its height of glory under Nebuchadnezzar.
Judah’s sin was far more flagrant than that of the ten tribes, because of their linking their idolatry with the worship of Jehovah, as verses 38 and 39 tell.
Verse 47 declares the judgment to be executed—that accorded an immoral woman in Deuteronomy 22:21.
ML-11/10/1935