This is another in my latest series (that started out as one ginormous post I decided to break into several) on verses that will never be read on Christian radio.
This one is a verse that, if you are reading out loud to your underage children, (a practice I wholeheartedly discourage with any of my writing) I’d stop.
(mouse over the verse to read it)
Ezekiel 23:20
We are not likely to see much at all from this section of Ezekiel make it to the air on Christian radio. It’s really racy. The translators make the wording a little softer, here, but let’s face it, Zeke was not afraid to shoot straight with the people of Israel. He crosses well over the line of propriety and decency. But we here in the Evangelical camp are committed to all of Scripture being God-breathed and profitable. Even the parts that make us blush.
I love (is that a weird word in this context?) this verse because in it I find a God who is not afraid to tell his prophets all the dirty stuff going on in the hearts of his people. God doesn’t pretend like the junk isn’t there. This is a prophecy that most commentators agree is about Israel and Judah, the chosen people of God. And yet God doesn’t go through and clean up the storefront so that the nations won’t find out how bad things are. No, things are pretty rough when this type of lusting is going on. And God includes details in this verse that he could have left out. But he didn’t.
When Christ came and died, he was aware of what he was paying the penalty for. All of the sin, evil and brokenness in the world. He didn’t just pay generally for general sins. He paid for that specific act of lust, for those specific acts of unfaithfulness. What a Savior.