Ezekiel 23: 36-49

Dancer Ouled Nail 1890
by Etienne Dinet 1861 – 1929

36   The LORD said to me: “Son of man, will you judge Oholah and Oholibah? Then declare to them their abominable deeds.  37 For they have committed adultery, and blood is upon their hands; with their idols they have committed adultery; and they have even offered up to them for food the sons whom they had borne to me.  38 Moreover this they have done to me: they have defiled my sanctuary on the same day and profaned my sabbaths.  39 For when they had slaughtered their children in sacrifice to their idols, on the same day they came into my sanctuary to profane it. And lo, this is what they did in my house.  40 They even sent for men to come from far, to whom a messenger was sent, and lo, they came. For them you bathed yourself, painted your eyes, and decked yourself with ornaments;  41 you sat upon a stately couch, with a table spread before it on which you had placed my incense and my oil.  42 The sound of a carefree multitude was with her; and with men of the common sort drunkards were brought from the wilderness; and they put bracelets upon the hands of the women, and beautiful crowns upon their heads. 

43   “Then I said, Do not men now commit adultery when they practice harlotry with her?  44 For they have gone in to her, as men go in to a harlot. Thus they went in to Oholah and to Oholibah to commit lewdness.  45 But righteous men shall pass judgment on them with the sentence of adulteresses, and with the sentence of women that shed blood; because they are adulteresses, and blood is upon their hands.” 

46   For thus says the Lord GOD: “Bring up a host against them, and make them an object of terror and a spoil.  47 And the host shall stone them and dispatch them with their swords; they shall slay their sons and their daughters, and burn up their houses.  48 Thus will I put an end to lewdness in the land, that all women may take warning and not commit lewdness as you have done.  49 And your lewdness shall be requited upon you, and you shall bear the penalty for your sinful idolatry; and you shall know that I am the Lord GOD.”   Ezekiel 23: 36-49

Son of Man 

This is what the Lord calls Ezekiel though-out the book. It was also the favorite title that Messiah called Himself, and to many who are not all that familiar with the Bible this comes as a bit of a shock. They are often troubled the first time they see that Ezekiel is addressed as such, because they have come to believe that it is a title that only refers to the Messiah. But Ezekiel is always addressed as just a Son of Man, never The Son of Man, as Messiah used it. The point God is making, is that Ezekiel is the ordinary common man, who is in captivity, no longer living the victorious life, his wife even dies in chapter 24, he is a broken man with nothing, yet he receives direct communication from God.

Only one person other than Messiah,which is ever recorded as using this title for Messiah, Stephan as he was being stoned [Acts 7:56].

. . . will you judge Oholah and Oholibah? 

Not really a question in the Hebrew, it is just the cleanest way to deal with the tense differences between Hebrew and English. In English all things are past present and future, but Hebrew tenses are completely different. There is complete action, incomplete action, and several intensities of causation’s.

Where in English we never put a “the” before a verb  “the” only goes before a noun, in Hebrew it is common and sometimes required. “The Judgment” is a verb and it is continuos action, they are to be judged forever. Where “to tell” is in a causative tense, so Ezekiel is being caused to tell, of their “abominations”. So it is not a question of will he judge them, he has no choice. It is now his assigned duty.

The First-borns belong to the Lord. According to the Law the first-borns must be redeemed, [Ex. 13:11-16; Ex. 34:19-20; Num. 3:11-13; 18:15-17]. This was to remind the people that the first-born of Egypt died so they would be set free, and is also a type of Messiah who was first-born and died to set all men free.

Ezekiel is set the task of explaining to the Judean’s why they are out of God’s favor, sitting in Babylon. The people of God were committing the abomination of sacrificing these first-born to the pagan god Moloch. Scholars argue as to how these sacrifices were actually done. Some claim the children’s throats were slit and then they were thrown into the fire, others say they were thrown alive into the fire, and that great drums and trumpets were played to cover the screams. Many still keep a memory of this in the tradition of the yule log of christmas. See our sister blog’s The Pagan Origins of Christmas.  To top off their abomination, after they had thrown their own children into the fire, they then turned and went up to the temple of God, as if God would accept any sacrifice from anyone who would kill their own child.

They got 70 years in Babylon for this abomination, how much more will we, who have a greater light, get for all our abortions, and the continued keeping of this same pagan festival, which we now have whitewashed and renamed Christmas. We hide from ourselves and others what is really behind it. Why are you dragging a Green Tree into your house? Why are you putting lights on it? What is Christian about this? It is not Jesus’ birthday. Where in the Bible is anything like this? We tell ourselves it all means nothing, yet we cannot do without any of it. We think nothing spiritual is going on here? We have to indulge ourselves and our family in gluttony and conspicuous consumption. Then we make ourselves feel better buy giving money to the nearest charity. We are compromised with the things of Satan, and we don’t even know it. Our spiritual leaders are not telling us the truth of this, because they make money off of the whole system, and us. They are not praying for us. They are preying on us. We were told to pick our spiritual leaders carefully. We were warned not to listen to just anybody.[Deut 13]

Just like the ancient people of God. We want to be liked and fit in. We want to have friends. We don’t want to stand out, or be thought of as weird. We want to be like everybody else. We never appreciate what God has done to set us free. He gave us TRUTH. But we keep going back and enslaving ourselves to the same pagan ideas they had. Like ancient Israel we want a king. Even though Messiah left us The Kingdom. We were to be a nation of priest-kings. But we keep submitting ourselves to some authority other than the Word of God. We keep putting our lights under a bushel.

Nor do men light a lamp and put it under a bushel, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. Matt. 5:15

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, that you may declare the wonderful deeds of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. 1 Pet. 2:9 

Men come from afar, for whom you deck yourselves out, and spread a feast. These men are called Sabeans in the KJV but drunkards in the RSV. The Hebrew word can mean either. Take your pick. Sabea was to the south of Israel in what is now Yemen.

. . . and they put bracelets upon the hands of the women, and beautiful crowns upon their heads. This seems a strange accusation. What is the big deal about bracelets or crowns? However in the Hebrew the words “hands” and “heads” are in the masculine but the pronouns attached are in the feminine. In other words folks, Ezekiel is calling these drunken or Sabean lovers, effeminate. They wear women’s style jewelry. This comes from the fact that all paganism, but in particular the fertility cults seek to emasculate the men. Changing the rightful place of leadership from the males to females. Paganism always tries to compromise the line between men and women. It always seeks to make the two sexes equal. It always prefers celibacy to marriage. But the celibacy is rarely real, it just leads to prostitution, orgies, adultery, and child molestation. The idea that one should deny ones nature in this way, is not taught in the Scriptures.

Then the LORD God said,  “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.” Gen. 2:18  

Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by giving heed to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons, through the pretensions of liars whose consciences are seared, who forbid marriage and enjoin abstinence from foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. 1 Tim. 4:1-3

God whole heartedly allows sex in marriage. He created it. He encourages us though out the Scripture, and exclusively and explicitly in the Song of Solomon.

All our spiritual leaders are required to be married. Anyone not meeting this basic qualification, should be never be ordained but rather rejected.

Now a bishop must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, temperate, sensible, dignified, hospitable, an apt teacher, 1 Tim. 3:2

Let deacons be the husband of one wife, and let them manage their children and their households well; 1 Tim. 3:12

But righteous men shall pass judgment on them

This does not mean that the Babylonians were righteous, they were not. But, their attack is an act of righteousness, as Judah had been so wicked and unfaithful to her God. Judah was living with the false idea that she was God’s chosen people and as such would suffer no ill, no matter what.

Just like them the Western World is now facing Islamic terrorism, Mexican drug cartels, and Union riots, and just like the people of Judah we think that they are too evil to be the hand of God. Yet here they are, and we are not repenting. Just like Judah we have mixed our faith with paganism. We have even moved our paganism into the churches. It is one thing to go to a Christmas party, and quite another to bring the green tree into OUR buildings and hearts [Jer 10].

The Abandoned
by Etienne Dinet 1861 – 1929

 Bring up a host against them, and make them an object of terror and a spoil

 

For 70 years the land was empty and barren. Caravans moving between Asia, Europe, and Africa passed by. No longer stopping to see the great temple, only stopping to note the empty destroyed towns and city, and refresh themselves at the neglected wells.

The church leaders these day have busied themselves with telling the people, that everything is OK, we are going to be Raptured. The evil people will have 7 years of Tribulation under and evil political Antichrist, with his One World Government. None of this is actually in the Bible.  We are all looking for the wrong things.

We are completely in the mesmerizing control of the whore of Babylon.

Then I heard another voice from heaven saying, “Come out of her, my people, lest you take part in her sins, lest you share in her plagues; Rev. 18:4

Babylon is the corrupted church. It is far passed time to leave her and her abominations. She however is not to be left like Jerusalem was, but rather the way ancient Babylon was. No one lives there and no one has for over two millennia.  Even though Saddam Hussein in his madness tried to have it rebuilt it is still empty.

. . . and cried out as they saw the smoke of her burning,  “What city was like the great city?” Rev. 18:18

Once more they cried,  “Hallelujah! The smoke from her goes up for ever and ever.” Rev. 19:3 

What ever this means, it is an indication that at the very least we will remember this corruption forever and like the Jews returning from literal Babylon, we will never mix our faith again, as we did in Mystery Babylon.

Ezek. 23:22-35 Oholibah

22   Therefore, O Oholibah, thus says the Lord GOD: “Behold, I will rouse against you your lovers from whom you turned in disgust, and I will bring them against you from every side:  23 the Babylonians and all the Chaldeans, Pekod and Shoa and Koa, and all the Assyrians with them, desirable young men, governors and commanders all of them, officers and warriors, all of them riding on horses.  24 And they shall come against you from the north with chariots and wagons and a host of peoples; they shall set themselves against you on every side with buckler, shield, and helmet, and I will commit the judgment to them, and they shall judge you according to their judgments.  25 And I will direct my indignation against you, that they may deal with you in fury. They shall cut off your nose and your ears, and your survivors shall fall by the sword. They shall seize your sons and your daughters, and your survivors shall be devoured by fire.  26 They shall also strip you of your clothes and take away your fine jewels.  27 Thus I will put an end to your lewdness and your harlotry brought from the land of Egypt; so that you shall not lift up your eyes to the Egyptians or remember them any more.  28 For thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I will deliver you into the hands of those whom you hate, into the hands of those from whom you turned in disgust;  29 and they shall deal with you in hatred, and take away all the fruit of your labor, and leave you naked and bare, and the nakedness of your harlotry shall be uncovered. Your lewdness and your harlotry 30 have brought this upon you, because you played the harlot with the nations, and polluted yourself with their idols.  31 You have gone the way of your sister; therefore I will give her cup into your hand.  32 Thus says the Lord GOD: “You shall drink your sister’s cup which is deep and large; you shall be laughed at and held in derision, for it contains much;  33 you will be filled with drunkenness and sorrow. A cup of horror and desolation, is the cup of your sister Samaria;  34 you shall drink it and drain it out, and pluck out your hair, and tear your breasts; for I have spoken, says the Lord GOD.  35 Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: Because you have forgotten me and cast me behind your back, therefore bear the consequences of your lewdness and harlotry.”  Ezek. 23:22-35

Remember from our first post on this chapter that Oholah means “her tent”, and Oholibah means “my tent is in her”. This is because ancient Israel always had two opinions. They built the Tabernacle in the wilderness, but they also had a tent for Moloch. [Acts 7:43 ] After all the years God now condemns His people’s for this unfaithfulness. While the Northern Kingdom had under the leadership of her kings, adopted full out paganism, the Southern kingdom has instead created a compromise religion, where everything goes. They had merged ideas from paganism with their worship of the one true God.

As punishment for these hybrid religious activities, God is sending the Babylonian Empire to judge them. How strange it must have seemed to the people, that the source of all paganism was coming to judge them. The passage uses the oldest way of referencing the Chaldeans (the ancient name for the peoples who live between the two rivers the Tigris and Euphrates) now modern day Iraq. Pekod, Shoa, and Koa, are not tribal or geographical names. Pekod means “visitation” Shoa  means “rich” and Koa means “noble”. So the rich, noble, people are about to visit judgment on Judah. They are coming up to take the people of Jerusalem captive for seventy years. During which the city will lay desolate. Even thought the false prophets are telling the people that nothing will happen to them, because they are God’s people [Lam. 2:14; Ezek. 13].

The Babylonian armies were coming with war horses and chariots. The word translated here as “wagons”, is actually “gilgal”, which means “to go around”. So the idea is more like a whirlwind is coming, or that they will be surrounded. These armies of the empire are well protected with buckler, shield, and helmet, none of these are offensive, they are all of these are defensive, meaning that Judah will not be able to strike a blow. No matter what they do, they will end up under the judicial system of the Babylonians. A judicial system that is still used in most of the Arab world, The Code of Hammurabi.

24 . . . and I will commit the judgment to them, and they shall judge you according to their judgments.

 

God continues with His allegory of their adultery to Him. He states that their noses and ears’ will be cut off. This was the punishment for adultery among both the Egyptians and the Chaldeans. As the we have mentioned in other posts, the ornaments of the Orientals were often worn in their ears and noses. This punishment would mean that they would not be able to wear any of their precious ornaments. Such jewels were to be taken away leaving them humiliated.

All of this God is doing, so they will understand that they must put aside everything that they brought from the land of Egypt. They have continued to worship a bovine god, that the Bible purposely misnames Moloch. (Moloch being a combination of the Hebrew consonants for “king” with the vowels for “shame”.) The worship of this god required the sacrifice of human children, by being thrown into the fires of Moloch. Scholars argue as to whether these victims were killed first or thrown in still alive. (See Also: the Pagan Origins of Christmas)

So to Babylon they are sent. There they will see where all that is pagan started.

FYI: The tower of Babel still stood and was in active use. Later Alexander the Great had it torn down in order to rebuild it to its past glory. But he died before the reconstruction was started, and so it remains a ruin to this day.

After their time in Babylon there was no longer a question as to what is pagan and what is required by God. The paganism was fully revealed. They learned what not to do. After they returned from Babylon we no longer hear of anything pagan, Molech is never mentioned, Baal is gone, Ashtaroth is never mentioned. God’s people learned never to hybridize their faith.

The Babylonians were forever changed as well. The God of Daniel confronted Nebuchadnezzar with his arrogance. [Dan 4] Belshazzar learned to late that he did no measure up. [Dan 5] When the empire falls to the Persian, Cyrus the Great find in the book of Jeremiah orders that he is return the Jews to their homeland. [Ezra 1]. He must also have been shown the book of Isaiah written long before Cyrus was born. [Is. 44:28] That calls him by name. Cyrus was so changed, that we know from history that he evicted the Chaldean mystics from his empire.

FYI: After this eviction, the Chaldean mystics relocated to a Greek city in Asia Minor known as Pergamos, where they continued keeping the ancient religion. They renamed it all the Mystery Religions, so the seat of Satan moved from Babylon to Pergamos, later it moved to Rome[Rev. 2:13].

The consequences of their unfaithful whoredom, was to drink the cup of their sister. Drinking the cup of God’s wrath is a symbol of judgment though out the Bible.

Babylon was a golden cup in the LORD’s hand, making all the earth drunken; the nations drank of her wine, therefore the nations went mad. Jer. 51:7

You will be sated with contempt instead of glory. Drink, yourself, and stagger! The cup in the LORD’s right hand will come around to you, and shame will come upon your glory! Hab. 2:16

And he called out with a mighty voice, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! It has become a dwelling place of demons, a haunt of every foul spirit, a haunt of every foul and hateful bird;  for all nations have drunk the wine of her impure passion, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth have grown rich with the wealth of her wantonness.” Then I heard another voice from heaven saying, “Come out of her, my people, lest you take part in her sins, lest you share in her plagues; for her sins are heaped high as heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities. Rev. 18:2-5

In the passage from The Revelation, is clearly a call to the church to come out of the same paganism that had infected the Hebrew nations. Jeremiah told them to stop bringing in the green tree [Jer 10] which the church does at Christmas.  Ezekiel reported that they are weeping for Tammuz [Ezek. 8], which which the church has renamed as Lent. God is even angry with hot cross buns of Easter.  [Jer. 7:18]

Just about everything in church tradition is pagan in origin. If God did not put up with this from the Hebrews, why does the church think He is going to tolerate it in our hearts? When the Jews came back from Babylon, they never again adopted the pagan ways of those around them.  They never reintroduced these abominations.

I here over and over from Christians who tell me the Christmas tree doesn’t mean anything it is just a pretty tradition. Well, if that is the case, why can’t they do without it? Why do they not even consider not having one? Why must they have it? Why are they, of all the silly things to do, dragging a tree into their houses? And they don’t think anything spiritual is going on? Its a TREE! The tree came from paganism, it is pagan, it is like all other things pagan to be sent back to Babylon from whence it came. [Zech 5:5-11]

Our Messiah was not born at Christmas, He was born at Tabernacles. He was not crucified on Good Friday, but rather on Passover, because He is our Passover Lamb. He did not raise from the dead on Easter, but on First Fruits, because He is the First Fruits of those who have fallen asleep [1Cor. 15:20]. To teach otherwise, is to be preaching another Jesus [2 Cor. 11:4]. It is pass time to give up the churches traditions. It is time to return to a Biblical faith. Pick up your Bible and start reading it for yourself.

and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” John 8:32

Ezek. 23:11 -21 Oholibah

11  “Her sister Oholibah saw this, yet she was more corrupt than she in her doting and in her harlotry, which was worse than that of her sister.  12 She doted upon the Assyrians, governors and commanders, warriors clothed in full armor, horsemen riding on horses, all of them desirable young men.  13 And I saw that she was defiled; they both took the same way.  14 But she carried her harlotry further; she saw men portrayed upon the wall, the images of the Chaldeans portrayed in vermilion,  15 girded with belts on their loins, with flowing turbans on their heads, all of them looking like officers, a picture of Babylonians whose native land was Chaldea.  16 When she saw them she doted upon them, and sent messengers to them in Chaldea.  17 And the Babylonians came to her into the bed of love, and they defiled her with their lust; and after she was polluted by them, she turned from them in disgust.  18 When she carried on her harlotry so openly and flaunted her nakedness, I turned in disgust from her, as I had turned from her sister.  19 Yet she increased her harlotry, remembering the days of her youth, when she played the harlot in the land of Egypt 20 and doted upon her paramours there, whose members were like those of asses, and whose issue was like that of horses.  21 Thus you longed for the lewdness of your youth, when the Egyptians handled your bosom and pressed your young breasts.” Ezek. 23:11-21

This is directed to the Southern Tribes of Judah. Just like her sister Samaria, Judah has prostituted herself to the god’s of the Assyrians and Chaldeans.

What made her betray her lover, in such an abased way? Looking at a world map, the land that God gave to the children of Israel is probably the most strategic point in all of the ancient world. To move goods, or armies between Europe, Asia, and Africa, everyone had to go through this ancient land. So there is little Judah caught between the super powers of the day, Assyrians and Babylonians to the north and Egyptians to the south. She saw their great warriors of the Northern powers.

FYI: While David and Solomon were on the throne Assyrian and Egypt were in states of anarchy. World trade shifted to move through the Promised Land and avoid the trouble spots. David built fortified cities all along these routes, ending in the port cities of Sidon and Tyre, making Hiram king of Tyre extremely friendly. However by the time the kingdom divides between Samaria and Judah the Great powers of Assyria and Egypt have stabilized their respective empires.

Like all men of little faith, Judah thought that an alliance with these empires could provide some safety and security. They saw all the pomp and circumstance of all the shiny clanging armor, the flashy horses of their massive armies. These were the largest armies in the known world. The Judean’s felt insignificant and small by comparison. From this time on the Promised land was a battle field between the ebb and flow of the Empires. However now that the “Times of the Gentiles” has ended, things are changing. [Luke 21:24]

The Jews faith was shaken, they no longer believed that their God was the strongest. They turned to the gods of the Babylonians (the source of all things pagan). They went on pilgrimages to Babylon, to the land of Chaldea, the land between the rivers, Mesopotamia, to get better gods. In Ezekiel 8 there is an explanation of what they had brought back, and installed in the temple itself. These are all the abominations that they were told repeatedly not to permit, condone, or allow.

The graven images of their gods you shall burn with fire; you shall not covet the silver or the gold that is on them, or take it for yourselves, lest you be ensnared by it; for it is an abomination to the LORD your God. Deut. 7:25

Then he said to me,  “Son of man, lift up your eyes now in the direction of the north.” So I lifted up my eyes toward the north, and behold, north of the altar gate, in the entrance, was this image of jealousy. Ezek. 8:5

So I went in and saw; and there, portrayed upon the wall round about, were all kinds of creeping things, and loathsome beasts, and all the idols of the house of Israel. Ezek. 8:10

Then he said to me,  “Son of man, have you seen what the elders of the house of Israel are doing in the dark, every man in his room of pictures? For they say,  ‘The LORD does not see us, the LORD has forsaken the land.’” Ezek. 8:12

Then he brought me to the entrance of the north gate of the house of the LORD; and behold, there sat women weeping for Tammuz. Ezek. 8:14

And he brought me into the inner court of the house of the LORD; and behold, at the door of the temple of the LORD, between the porch and the altar, were about twenty-five men, with their backs to the temple of the LORD, and their faces toward the east, worshiping the sun toward the east. Ezek. 8:16

Then he said to me,  “Have you seen this, O son of man? Is it too slight a thing for the house of Judah to commit the abominations which they commit here, that they should fill the land with violence, and provoke me further to anger? Lo, they put the branch to their nose. Ezek. 8:17

Unfortunately the inherited churches are guilty of these same sins. The second commandment “You shall not make for yourself a graven image,” except at Christmas time, then even the Protestants can have them, has been a staple in the church since the second century when Tertullian complained of Saturnalia and all things pagan that many Christians were continuing to participate in, in his De Idolatria.

Weeping for Tammuz has been renamed by the church as Lent, and the list goes on.

Worshiping the sun is now only a vague memory as Christmas has masked that it is just a winter solstice celebration. We have managed to get rid of the summer solstice. Easter now masked spring equinox, and fall equinox is vaguely left to Halloween. And we no longer put a branch to our noses, no we bring in the whole tree in, then decorate it too [ c.f. Jer 10]. Judah got 70 years in Babylon for this infidelity. Yet the inherited churches somehow thinks that they will not be judged for the same idolatrous practices. The teachers teach that we will be rewarded, while the parables teach we will be punished.

In the Hebrew the word translated as paramours, is normally translated concubine. Which implies a legal contract between lovers. There are three kinds of marriages in the Bible. A wife, who comes with a dowry, a concubine, where the husband provides the dowry (or buys a wife), and a captive war wife, who must be a virgin and can never be divorced.

So Judah, is doting on her concubines. They are her legal lovers. It is also odd to see a feminine noun “concubine”, to have an attached masculine personal pronoun, “them”, So the concubines are male. They are described as having exceptionally large and potent sex organs. So outrages that it may seem that they would provide great satisfaction, but in reality would tear the partners insides, causing death.  Which is what idolatry does, it brings spiritual death.

Yet the Jews then and the inherited churches now have increased their harlotries. God remembering the days of Judah’s youth, when she played the harlot in the land of Egypt and doted upon her paramours there, whose members were like those of asses, and whose issue was like that of horses. He reminds them that they longed for the lewdness of your youth, when the Egyptians handled your bosom and pressed your young breasts. As the inherited churches long for the pre-Christian days of their paganism.

And again God says that the paganism of Egypt is the same as the paganism of Babylon. As it is the same today. There is nothing new under the sun. We must be constantly vigilant, in our walk with God, making sure that nothing that is pagan has corrupted our walk. We must in this last hour come out of all things pagan. (See Also: Paganism 101)

4   Then I heard another voice from heaven saying, “Come out of her, my people, lest you take part in her sins, lest you share in her plagues;  5 for her sins are heaped high as heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities. Rev. 18:4-5

Ezek. 23:5 -10 Oholah

The Ten Lost Tribes

5  “Oholah played the harlot while she was mine; and she doted on her lovers the Assyrians,  6 warriors clothed in purple, governors and commanders, all of them desirable young men, horsemen riding on horses.  7 She bestowed her harlotries upon them, the choicest men of Assyria all of them; and she defiled herself with all the idols of every one on whom she doted.  8 She did not give up her harlotry which she had practiced since her days in Egypt; for in her youth men had lain with her and handled her virgin bosom and poured out their lust upon her.  9 Therefore I delivered her into the hands of her lovers, into the hands of the Assyrians, upon whom she doted.  10 These uncovered her nakedness; they seized her sons and her daughters; and her they slew with the sword; and she became a byword among women, when judgment had been executed upon her.  Ezek. 23:5-10

Remember that Oholah is the Northern Tribes of ancient Israel, who had separated from the Southern Kingdom of Judah, after Solomon’s death [1Kings 12]. When he came to the throne the first thing that king Jeroboam did was to establish Baal worship because paganism offers the best way to control people. If they continued to worship the God of Israel they would have to travel to Jerusalem in the tribe of Judah in order to keep the covenant. Jeroboam did not want his people going down to Judah to get access to God. That would have threatened his sovereignty. So he lead the northern tribes into full fledge idolatry. Before Jeroboam this kind of apostasy had been small and localized, now it was everywhere and sanctioned. Jeroboam gave the people a new god, Baal, the storm god, who was sometimes represented as a bull calf.

28 So the king took counsel, and made two calves of gold. And he said to the people, “You have gone up to Jerusalem long enough. Behold your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.”  29 And he set one in Bethel, and the other he put in Dan.  30 And this thing became a sin, for the people went to the one at Bethel and to the other as far as Dan. 31 He also made houses on high places, and appointed priests from among all the people, who were not of the Levites. 32 And Jeroboam appointed a feast on the fifteenth day of the eighth month like the feast that was in Judah, and he offered sacrifices upon the altar; so he did in Bethel, sacrificing to the calves that he had made. And he placed in Bethel the priests of the high places that he had made. 1Kings 12:28-32

. . . 9 but you have done evil above all that were before you and have gone and made for yourself other gods, and molten images, provoking me to anger, and have cast me behind your back;  10 therefore behold, I will bring evil upon the house of Jeroboam, and will cut off from Jeroboam every male, both bond and free in Israel, and will utterly consume the house of Jeroboam, as a man burns up dung until it is all gone. 1Kings 14:9-10

Jeroboam made his new idolatry convenient. Instead of traveling all the way down to Jerusalem they only had to go to Bethel or Dan. Sin is always easier than keeping the commandments.

Leaders both physical and spiritual often want to control their people. One way to do this is to become or provide the only access to God. Some even go so far as to make themselves a god. The Pharaohs did this, Nebuchadnezzar did this, so did Caesar. And thus far too many churches have the pastor, preacher, priest, make this claim “They are the ones to teach you how to have access to The LORD”. It always starts off innocently enough. They just start giving short answers as to what God wants. Instead of teaching the people the Bible so that they can see what God wants for themselves.  After a while, they just stop using the Bible at all, and they begin to just make things up. But the granddaddy of them all is the Pope, to whom millions are taught that he can speak ex-cathedra.

“We teach and define that it is a dogma Divinely revealed that the Roman pontiff when he speaks ex cathedra, that is when in discharge of the office of pastor and doctor of all Christians, by virtue of his supreme Apostolic authority, he defines a doctrine regarding faith or morals to be held by the universal Church, by the Divine assistance promised to him in Blessed Peter, is possessed of that infallibility with which the Divine Redeemer willed that his Church should be endowed in defining doctrine regarding faith or morals, and that therefore such definitions of the Roman pontiff are of themselves and not from the consent of the Church irreformable.” the Vatican Council, Sess. IV, Const. de Ecclesiâ Christi, c. iv:

But God always sends prophets and teacher to bring us back. They always ask the same question the great prophet Elijah asked the people.

And Elijah came near to all the people, and said,  “How long will you go limping with two different opinions? If the LORD is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him.” And the people did not answer him a word. 1Kings 18:21

There are always those who tell God’s people that it is all right to mix their faith.  They tell you that God looks on the heart. So it is all right to keep Saturnalia, we will just rename it Christmas, and Easter is just Resurrection Sunday, and the great mother goddess is now Mary. This was a common practice all over the ancient world. They all worshiped the same sun god, moon god, and planet gods, and it really didn’t matter to them that they called these deities by different names. All paganism is the same paganism. (See Also: Paganism 101)

God condemns the Northern Tribes for dotting on these Assyrian lovers. He called them whores for mixing their faith with those of the pagans. He equates Assyria idolatry with Egyptian because it is all the same idolatry, only the names have been changed to protect the guilty. But the children of Israel had always been duplicitous in their worship, for they had never gotten rid of the worship of foreign gods. From Egypt, they had brought the worship of cattle with the Apis bull and Hathor cow. This is what the golden calf represented. [Ex 32]

And you took up the tent of Moloch, and the star of the god Rephan, the figures which you made to worship; and I will remove you beyond Babylon.’ Acts 7:43

They even went so far as to proclaimed that it was this bull god had brought them out of Egypt. They combined this bovine god with the Canaanites, Moloch a.k.a. Kronos, for it too was a bull, and the star Rephan is the planet Saturn which is the Greek name for the Canaanites’ Kronos. (He was the god that ate his children, and was known and worshiped by all. His most acceptable sacrifice was a human child.) Right after leaving Egypt the people went and got Aaron to make for them this compromised amalgamated god.

So all the people took off the rings of gold which were in their ears, and brought them to Aaron.  And he received the gold at their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool, and made a molten calf; and they said,  “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!” Ex. 32:3-4

Here is a wonderful little paper on Israel’s paganism. However, with a stipulation that the author of the linked paper is one of those liberal scholars that does not believe that the Bible is true.  He does explain how they were all worshiping some kind of bovine deity. He seems to think that this means that there is a question as to the Bibles teaching there is One True God. However, this is exactly what the Bible says was going on, the people were mixing the worship of the One True God with the pagan gods around them. And here in Ezekiel, the Northern Tribes are condemned to disappear from the historical record for their sin. Oh, and the reason for linking to such a backward paper is that it is full of really neat pictures of these gods. Illustrations of Yahweh as a Syrian Stormcloud Bull-god and Egyptian Solar Golden Calf

This mixing was not what God intended for us. We are to be the sons of Abraham.  This makes Abraham our father, and our example. He was a freeman who worshiped the one true God in the open fields and hills. He needed no priest, not temple, and no liturgy. It was just him and God. One time, just one time, he paid a tithe to Melchizedek. Abraham had come out of Ur in the middle of the fertile crescent. He would have seen the great ziggurats, known all about the forms and functions of these temples. Yet he left it all to walk with God. His wanderings took him to Egypt, where he saw all the great temples there. He rejected it all, for simple faith in the One True God. He did not mix his religion with those around him.  He did not rename idols for the LORD. He did not adopt any of it. He knew of Easter, and Christmas, yet walked away.

So you see that it is men of faith who are the sons of Abraham. Gal. 3:7

It does not matter your background. There is a way out of paganism. One must come out of all of it. Even one of the people condemned by God forever, the Moabites, found a way to the One True God.

“No Ammonite or Moabite shall enter the assembly of the LORD; even to the tenth generation none belonging to them shall enter the assembly of the LORD for ever;  Deut. 23:3

But just as Ruth found, there is no turning back. One cannot go half way like her sister-in-law Orpah.

But Ruth said,  “Entreat me not to leave you or to return from following you; for where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God my God; Ruth 1:16

She walked away from it all. Her family, culture, and religion. She was no longer a Moabite. She was now Naomi’s daughter, a child of Abraham, a worshiper of the One True God.

Then Naomi her mother-in-law said to her,  “My daughter, should I not seek a home for you, that it may be well with you? Ruth 3:1

11 But Boaz answered her, “All that you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband has been fully told me, and how you left your father and mother and your native land and came to a people that you did not know before. 12 The LORD recompense you for what you have done, and a full reward be given you by the LORD, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge!”  Ruth 2:11 -12

See Also: God? What’s in a name?

So the question is, Are you in the tent of Oholah who mixed her faith with paganism?  Or are you in the tent of Oholibah, who only mixed a little paganism into her faith?  There is so much that is pagan in the inherited churches that it is hard to see what is the truth. You cannot trust your preachers, teachers, pastors, priests, they are in it for the money. You must pick up the Bible and see for yourself what true worship is. The LORD is returning, and it is not going to be like what the preachers, teachers, pastors, priests, have told you.

35   “Let your loins be girded and your lamps burning,  36 and be like men who are waiting for their master to come home from the marriage feast, so that they may open to him at once when he comes and knocks.  37 Blessed are those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes; truly, I say to you, he will gird himself and have them sit at table, and he will come and serve them.  38 If he comes in the second watch, or in the third, and finds them so, blessed are those servants!  39 But know this, that if the householder had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have left his house to be broken into.  40 You also must be ready; for the Son of man is coming at an unexpected hour.”  41 Peter said, “Lord, are you telling this parable for us or for all?”  42 And the Lord said, “Who then is the faithful and wise steward, whom his master will set over his household, to give them their portion of food at the proper time?  43 Blessed is that servant whom his master when he comes will find so doing.  44 Truly, I say to you, he will set him over all his possessions.  45 But if that servant says to himself, ‘My master is delayed in coming,’ and begins to beat the menservants and the maidservants, and to eat and drink and get drunk,  46 the master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not know, and will punish him, and put him with the unfaithful.  47 And that servant who knew his master’s will, but did not make ready or act according to his will, shall receive a severe beating.  48 But he who did not know, and did what deserved a beating, shall receive a light beating. Every one to whom much is given, of him will much be required; and of him to whom men commit much they will demand the more.  Luke 12:35-48

Notice, no one here is getting a reward. All have been unfaithful. How could we not, when so much paganism has been allowed and even encouraged in the inherited church by our so called spiritual leaders? So, what kind of beating are you headed for?

Ezek. 23:1-4 Oholah and Oholibah

1   The word of the LORD came to me:  2 “Son of man, there were two women, the daughters of one mother;  3 they played the harlot in Egypt; they played the harlot in their youth; there their breasts were pressed and their virgin bosoms handled.  4 Oholah was the name of the elder and Oholibah the name of her sister. They became mine, and they bore sons and daughters. As for their names, Oholah is Samaria, and Oholibah is Jerusalem.  Ezek. 23:1-4

Ezekiel who’s name means God strengthens, was taken to Babylon with other hostages in 597 B.C. He had been resettled by the river Chebar, or in Babylonian Naru Kabari, which was a large irrigation canal, in what is now southern Iraq. Ezekiel 23 was written long after the Northern Kingdom of Israel , (called here Samaria) was gone from the stage of history. (See Also: The Ten Lost Tribes)

The Southern kingdom of Judah survived, and at the time of his writing most of the upper classes have been deported to Babylon. The Temple still stood, but that was soon to change. Chapter 24 explains that the Babylonian army is about to destroy Jerusalem. At the same time God is also going to take Ezekiel’s wife, “the delight of your eyes” and he is not to mourn. This is to show the people that God Himself does not mourn as His people and city are destroyed.

Oholah means “her tent”, and Oholibah means “my tent is in her”. Calling them tents seem odd even strange. Why tent? Every synagogue service start by singing the Ma Tovu, which is a quote from the oracle of Balaam,

. . . how fair are your tents, O Jacob, your encampments, O Israel! Num. 24:5 

They had been sojourners from the time of their father Abraham, they were a people of tents. But they have not kept their tents pure. As we shall see they are corrupt, unclean, and full of abominations. From Egypt they brought the false gods. As they traveled in the wilderness they picked up or married into the paganism from their contact with the people around them.

There were two tents in the wilderness, the Tabernacle of God, and the tent of Moloch. Moloch was a bull faced god, to whom child sacrifice was most acceptable. He is also know by the name Kronos, and Saturn. (Saturn being the star referred to as Rephan.)

And you took up the tent of Moloch, and the star of the god Rephan, the figures which you made to worship; and I will remove you beyond Babylon.’ Acts 7:43

The LORD complains that from the very start his people were not faithful. That is what is meant by “Their breast were pressed and their nipples handled.” They have entertained other lovers, and have not been true to their God. God views His people as wanton whores. The first lover to show up will be quickly embraced.  The inherited Churches are always quick to point out that this is about the Jews. They were unfaithful, they were wicked, they were a disgrace. Teaching that Gentile believers are somehow superior.  They think that, we don’t do what the Jews did. However we are just as quick to adopt and pass on any repugnant abomination from our Gentile pagan past. But unlike the descendants of Abraham, we now conceal our guilt by disguising and renaming them. Saturnalia has become Christmas, Weeping for Tammuz has become Lent, and many more. If God punished the Jews with 70 years in Babylon, how much more severe will the punishment be for the Church, who have a greater light?

For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you. Rom. 11:21