Charles Spurgeon Commentary Ezekiel 16:15-16

"But thou didst trust in thy beauty, and playedst the harlot because of thy renown, and pouredst out thy whoredoms on every one that passed by; his it was. And thou didst take of thy garments, and madest for thee high places decked with divers colors, and playedst the harlot upon them: [the like things] shall not come, neither shall it be [so]." — Ezekiel 16:15-16 (ASV)

But thou didst trust in thine own beauty, and playedst the harlot because of thy renown, and pouredst out thy fornications on every one that passed by; his it was. And of thy garments thou didst take, and deckedst thy high places with divers colours, and playedst the harlot thereupon: the like things shall not come, neither shall it be so.

As soon as the Israelites grew rich and powerful, they began to build altars to the false gods. The very treasures that God had given them, they desecrated by turning them to the making of idols; and God calls this a spiritual harlotry, turning aside from the one true God, who was the Husband of the nation, to follow after false gods.

It is a bad sign in any of us when God's blessings are themselves made into idols. If you begin to worship your wealth, your health, your children, your learning, or anything that God has given you, this is extremely provoking to the Most High; it is a breach of the marriage covenant between your soul and God.

The rest of the chapter is more for private reading than for public assembly. It gives a truly terrible picture of the sin of Israel, and heaps up most dreadful descriptions of the way in which the people turned aside from God. I confess that, after reading to the end of this chapter, I am astonished to think that it should close as it does. It is an amazing instance of the immutable love of God. Turn to Ezekiel 16:60.