Ezekiel 16 Part One: Origins

Ezekiel 16:3 begins the story of Israel with her first state: “your origin and your birth are from the land of the Canaanite, your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite.” Many people have pain when they consider where they started in life; shame and inferiority can originate from countless causes. But for Yahweh to say of His bride, ‘your origin and your birth’ were not from a pure blood line, was a deeper offense in their ancient near eastern culture than we would first realize today.

For Israel to be associated with the neighboring peoples of the southern hill country was a direct threat to the Abrahamic promises in Genesis 15. The promises of a Land and People were the foundational symbols of Jewish identity; to say Israel had their cultural and moral heritage from these groups was a pronouncement of failure and shame. This can be hard to understand in our individualistic culture where the place a person ends up is more significant than where they came from. But for ancient near eastern cultures, honor was ascribed primarily by birth and blood ties. Theirs was a collectivist society, and honor was connected more to the past—where you were from— rather than where you were going.

People have said that if the end has come, and the world has not been set right— keep going, it is not yet the end. Our hearts longs for the faithfulness and justice of God just as we wait for dark nights to be followed by dawn. David wrote in Psalm 130:6: “My soul waits for the Lord more than the watchmen for the morning,” and the theme of the expected justice of God is a theme through his writings. Because the story of creation is etched onto our desires, we expect for good to be triumphant at the end of all things. Yet it is clear that we live in the midst of pain and sin.

The reconciliation of these quiet and often unspoken realities is either to minimize the current tragedy of life, or to set our hope in the dramatically altering power of the cross. Christians do not put our hope in the beginning of the story of our lives when we hope for all to be well. We put hope in the life-altering grace of the cross. Christianity, unlike any other religion, places an emphasis, not on the perfection of the person, but primarily on the perfect work of God. We can hold to both the doctrine of human depravity and dignity/beautification in Christ. Part of the reason why this story is so captivating is because of the depths of tragedy, in Israel’s story and in mine that Christ gently raises us out of.
A savior is supremely precious to sinners.