Cup of Wasting ASTONISHMENT

and HORROR and DESOLATION

General James Green, Sept. 5, 2011

TEXT: EZEKIEL 23:1-49 —

“The word of the LORD came again to me, saying: Son of man, there were two women, the daughters of one mother. They committed harlotry in Egypt, they committed harlotry in their youth; their breasts were there embraced, their virgin bosom was there pressed. Their names: Oholah the elder and Oholibah her sister; they were Mine, and they bore sons and daughters. As for their names, Samaria is Oholah, and Jerusalem is Oholibah.

Oholah played the harlot even though she was Mine; and she lusted for her lovers, the neighboring Assyrians, who were clothed in purple, captains and rulers, all of them desirable young men, horsemen riding on horses. Thus she committed her harlotry with them, all of them choice men of Assyria; and with all for whom she lusted, with all their idols, she defiled herself. She has never given up her harlotry brought from Egypt, for in her youth they had lain with her, pressed her virgin bosom, and poured out their immorality upon her. Therefore I have delivered her into the hand of her lovers, into the hand of the Assyrians, for whom she lusted. They uncovered her nakedness, took away her sons and daughters, and slew her with the sword; she became a byword among women, for they had executed judgment on her.

Now although her sister Oholibah saw this, she became more corrupt in her lust than she, and in her harlotry more corrupt than her sister’s harlotry. She lusted for the neighboring Assyrians, captains and rulers, clothed most gorgeously, horsemen riding on horses, all of them desirable young men. Then I saw that she was defiled; both took the same way. But she increased her harlotry; she looked at men portrayed on the wall, images of Chaldeans portrayed in vermilion, girded with belts around their waists, flowing turbans on their heads, all of them looking like captains, in the manner of the Babylonians of Chaldea, the land of their nativity. As soon as her eyes saw them, she lusted for them and sent messengers to them in Chaldea. Then the Babylonians came to her, into the bed of love, and they defiled her with their immorality; so she was defiled by them, and alienated herself from them. She revealed her harlotry and uncovered her nakedness. Then I alienated Myself from her, as I had alienated Myself from her sister. Yet she multiplied her harlotry in calling to remembrance the days of her youth, when she had played the harlot in the land of Egypt. For she lusted for her paramours, whose flesh is like the flesh of donkeys, and whose issue is like the issue of horses. Thus you called to remembrance the lewdness of your youth, when the Egyptians pressed your bosom because of your youthful breasts.

Therefore, Oholibah, thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I will stir up your lovers against you, from whom you have alienated yourself, and I will bring them against you from every side: the Babylonians, all the Chaldeans, Pekod, Shoa, Koa, all the Assyrians with them, all of them desirable young men, Governors and rulers, captains and men of renown, all of them riding on horses. And they shall come against you with chariots, wagons, and war-horses, with a horde of people. They shall array against you Buckler, shield, and helmet all around. I will delegate judgment to them, and they shall judge you according to their judgments. I will set My jealousy against you, and they shall deal furiously with you; they shall remove your nose and your ears, and your remnant shall fall by the sword; they shall take your sons and your daughters, and your remnant shall be devoured by fire. They shall also strip you of your clothes and take away your beautiful jewelry. Thus I will make you cease your lewdness and your harlotry brought from the land of Egypt, so that you will not lift your eyes to them, nor remember Egypt anymore. For thus says the Lord GOD: Surely I will deliver you into the hand of those whom you hate, into the hand of those from whom you alienated yourself. They will deal hatefully with you, take away all you have worked for, and leave you naked and bare. The nakedness of your harlotry shall be uncovered, both your lewdness and your harlotry.

I will do these things to you because you have gone as a harlot after the Gentiles, because you have become defiled by their idols. You have walked in the way of your sister; therefore I will put her cup in your hand. Thus says the Lord GOD: You shall drink of your sister’s cup, the deep and wide one; you shall be laughed to scorn and held in derision; it contains much. You will be filled with drunkenness and sorrow, the cup of horror and desolation, the cup of your sister Samaria. You shall drink and drain it, you shall break its shards, and tear at your own breasts; for I have spoken, says the Lord GOD. Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: Because you have forgotten Me and cast Me behind your back, therefore you shall bear the penalty of your lewdness and your harlotry.

The LORD also said to me: Son of man, will you judge Oholah and Oholibah? Then declare to them their abominations. For they have committed adultery, and blood is on their hands. They have committed adultery with their idols, and even sacrificed their sons whom they bore to Me, passing them through the fire, to devour them. Moreover they have done this to Me: They have defiled My sanctuary on the same day and profaned My Sabbaths. For after they had slain their children for their idols, on the same day they came into My sanctuary to profane it; and indeed thus they have done in the midst of My house. Furthermore you sent for men to come from afar, to whom a messenger was sent; and there they came. And you washed yourself for them, painted your eyes, and adorned yourself with ornaments. You sat on a stately couch, with a table prepared before it, on which you had set My incense and My oil. The sound of a carefree multitude was with her, and Sabeans were brought from the wilderness with men of the common sort, who put bracelets on their wrists and beautiful crowns on their heads.

Then I said concerning her who had grown old in adulteries, Will they commit harlotry with her now, and she with them? Yet they went in to her, as men go in to a woman who plays the harlot; thus they went in to Oholah and Oholibah, the lewd women. But righteous men will judge them after the manner of adulteresses, and after the manner of women who shed blood, because they are adulteresses, and blood is on their hands. For thus says the Lord GOD: Bring up an assembly against them, give them up to trouble and plunder. The assembly shall stone them with stones and execute them with their swords; they shall slay their sons and their daughters, and burn their houses with fire. Thus I will cause lewdness to cease from the land, that all women may be taught not to practice your lewdness. They shall repay you for your lewdness, and you shall pay for your idolatrous sins. Then you shall know that I am the Lord GOD” (NKJV).

Seduction of Judah

THE IMAGERY OF this chapter reproduces that of chapter 17: we see two eagles—Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon, and Pharaoh Hophra, king of Egypt (along with Jehoiachin, king of Judah). Here in Ezekiel 23 we find Egypt, Assyria and Babylon mentioned.

The specific story here is of two women under indictment from their God: Oholah and Oholibah, representing Samaria (the capital of Israel—the 10 northern tribes) and Jerusalem (the capital of Judah—the 2 southern tribes) respectively; both represent wives of Yahweh. Oholah, the older, committed adultery and bestowed favors on the Assyrians, and for this she was delivered into their hands and slain. Oholibah did not take heed to this, but consorted first with the Assyrians and then with the Babylonians...and became WORSE than Oholah.

We could liken this imagery to Great Britain and America—both of these nations once honored God but fell into IDOLATRY/ADULTERY...slowly but surely losing God’s protective favor.

Both Defiled

BOTH OHOLAH AND Oholibah defiled God’s sanctuary, profaned His Sabbaths, offered their children as sacrifices to idols (like Britain and America, offering their pre-born to the idol of sex!)—now they (Great Britain / USA) must face their FATE!

We can find parallels all through God’s Sacred Scriptures. Here in Ezekiel we are shown the two Israelite peoples succumbing to the attractions of three major nations which boasted a more advanced civilization—Egypt, Assyria, and Babylon.

Their Names

Oholah = “She who has a tent” | Oholibah = “Tent in her.” NO DOUBT THESE names have reference to the sacred tent or tabernacle, an institution not limited to the Hebrews (a good book on this subject is The Ark—A Miniature Temple by H.G. May. May lists “Ephod and Ariel” under American Journal of Semitic Languages and Literatures).

No doubt the Prophet Ezekiel used the term (tent) as an allusion to the period of the wandering in the wilderness, or because of its association with pagan practices (look up Ezek.. 16:15, 21, 22 and 25 where the term “harlotries” is used which carries the connotation of association with sexual rites of the Canaanitish cults; the verbal form in vss. 16, 17, 28.

Jerusalem became as it were a sacred prostitute in the cult in which the sacred marriage was an important part of the ritual practices (see also Gen. 38; Jer. 2:23-25; 3:1-5; Hos. 4:13, 14; 9:1).

First Samuel 2:22 is a good example of how bad Israel got in their “sexualities,” where Eli’s sons “lay with the women that assembled at the door of the tabernacle (tent) of the congregation.”

CONSIDER: How far has America, the very America that once had godly principles within her tent, how far she has BACKSLID from God. All one has to do is look up the present nation’s administration’s goal of defending the rights and supporting the needs of the gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer (GLBTQ) community. Rights! Once this nation had laws, godly laws against such abominations.

Your Sick Prez

SICK PREZ OBAMA, on May 31, 2011, gave a Presidential Proclamation declaring June (which once was the hetero’s marriage month) as GLBTQ Pride Month. Read his sick and disgusting proclamation for yourselves—see if America is not GUILTY of idolatry and adultery (on God). He uses a word that all sex-perverts of that community use: “DIGNITY.” “Dignity??!!” Doing such vile / filthy / unholy / unhealthy things to one another is now called “DIGNITY”! Equal rights in a plural society can be grasped, but vile sex acts called “dignity” is totally OUT OF ORDER…especially coming from the Commander-in-THIEF (oops!, I mean Chief) himself.

Your “gay” Prez did mention June marking the “30^th anniversary of the emergence of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, which has had a profound impact on the GLBTQ community.” Well, Prez, just what brought about HIV/AIDS? It started in the homo communities. It was and is God’s retributive judgment upon them. This “epidemic” broke out shortly after their first “gay” parade. Wait and see the plagues that will now befall these people for violating God’s natural order for sex and for officially turning June into a homosexual idolatry affair. Mark it down, God’s plagues will counteract all their “advancements.”

TO HELL with equality! There is not one verse in the entire Bible where God honors/blesses sex-perversions/perverts—not ONE!! Why should we? I’m waiting for an answer from the Prez down to the GLBTQ folks. You people need to REPENT! And this goes for you straight adulterers / fornicators etc.

No, Mr. Prez, history is not on your side. This is pure PINK BULL! All nations that allowed / promoted unlawful sexings became disgraceful and fell into ruin—this is history!! Read the history of civilizations, Mr. Prez. The following, Obama states:

“NOW, THEREFORE, I, Barack Obama, President of the USA, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws [that once prohibited such open filth found within the GLBTQ community] of the United States, do hereby proclaim June 2011 as Lesbian [note how he puts the lesbians first rather than the gay men], Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride month. I call upon the people of the United States to eliminate prejudice [the Bible doesn’t do this, Mr. Prez!] everywhere it exists, and to celebrate the great diversity of the American people.” This, my dear readers, is SHEER BLASPHEMY AGAINST GOD, HIS SON, JESUS, THE HOLY SPIRIT, HIS WORD, AND HIS TRUE CHURCH. While Americans suffer great loss, their obdurate misotheist has the gall to promote SIN and SINNERS.

Esau’s Wife

IN SPEAKING OF DEFINITIONS, both Oholah and Oholibah are associated with “tent.” Esau’s wife, Oholibamah, means “Tent of the high place” (see Gen. 36:18), or the Phoenician, “tent of Baal”; see also the “tents of the gods” in the Ugaritic texts, where ’ah / hm, “their tents,” is paralleled with msknthm, “their tabernacles.”

It can rightly be said that America’s “tent” is one of deceit and perversion, for this is how Americans live—in deceit and perversion. Think of how many nations America deceives / perverts thru her enchantments and seductions. America once was known for her Gospel work, her religious freedom, her love for the poor and outcast etc., now, for her deceit and perversions. Her “tent” is full of witchcraft and all manner of dark and evil things.

Fallen!

THERE WAS A TIME when nations of the world looked to the West for sound advice, guidance…as an example of godliness. Now America is known for her deceits and perversions. Her political aim assaults any and all who oppose her. All of her presidents have slowly but surely led the nations AWAY from God’s laws and standards towards alliances with nations that are godless (Islamic nations being the icing on the cake).

Ezekiel protested against foreign alliances as disloyalty to God. As the two sisters played the WHORE with ungodly nations, doting on them, they would eventually take “her sons and her daughters, and slew her with the sword….for they executed judgment upon her” (Ezek.. 23:10).

Inordinate Love

AMERICA—FAMILY, CHURCH, AND STATE, is being corrupted daily in her inordinate love for the things of this world—she has capitulated to idols and perversions that God’s Word forbids. Even small children are now being taught sexual perversions thru sex-education. School children are forced to “learn” about homosexuality and all manner of uncleanness that accompanies it. Schools and Universities have perfected this filth (of “sexing”) and are indoctrinated in “Political Correctness” / One World Orderism. God has been BOOTED from this nation—even many churches have BOOTED Him from their tents, preferring alliances with foreign deities/gods/idols.

Soldier Up!

UNLESS THE CHRISTIAN SOLDIERS of Christ troop up, soldier up, this nation will continue to fall into eternal ruin.

The Church itself faces significant challenges if it does not BOOT OUT all that offends God. Until she mitigates the growing worldly influences that dominates and motivates her priesthood, the Church will continue to fall into eternal ruin.

The Church, i.e., The genuine people of God, bears significant responsibility for the cultural and moral decay that is all too evident to all. The sins that constitute this culture are numerous and enormous…the rise of an increasing POLICE state are manifest. The Truth is this: if we do not let God rule us again, foreign entities will! The rise of the secular / pagan / anti-Christ state is a good sign that the Church has failed to be salt and light.

We Can’t Blame God!

NO WAY! God has blessed America from “sea to shining sea”. This nation is full of Churches, what’s the problem? The problem is what Israel did—she played the harlot, she worshiped Pagan idols, she sacrificed her children to them. Has not America copied Israel?

Ezekiel, the man of God, already in captivity (not because of his own sins but because of Judah’s sins), was told by God to prophesy to the remaining Israelites still in Jerusalem to repent and submit to the Babylonians and be spared.

Israel played the whore with pagan nations, now God will use them to PUNISH her (see 23:22, 23, 24). Note well verse 24b: “and I will commit the judgment and punishment to them, and they shall judge and punish you according to their (pagan) customs in such matters.”

Verses 25-29 speaks of Jerusalem’s judgments. Verse 30 tells us WHY—“These things shall be done to you because you have PLAYED the HARLOT after the nations, and because you have DEFILED yourself with their idols.”

The Cup

VERSE 33 TELLS US that Judah shall be filled with sorrow, “WITH THE CUP OF WASTING, ASTONISHMENT, AND HORROR AND DESOLATION.” Verse 35 gets specific: “…because you have FORGOTTEN ME and CAST ME BEHIND YOUR BACK, therefore bear also the consequences of your LEWDNESS and your HARLOTRY.” You see, we reap what we’ve sown. Take heed America, your days and numbered. If God’s people don’t repent and preach righteousness once again, this nation will come under severe judgments.

Their ABOMINATIONS

GOD TOLD EZEKIEL to “declare and show to them their abominations—the detestable, loathsome and shamefully vile things they do.” The things they DID follow in vv. 37-42. (For definitions of “abominations,” see our “Gay Way” booklet #9, esp. pages 29-37.)

Recompensed

VERSE 49 SHOWS us once again that God is not unfair; Israel was unfaithful! “Thus your LEWDNESS shall be RECOMPENSED UPON YOU, and you shall suffer the PENALTY for YOUR SINFUL IDOLATRY…”

Defiled My Sanctuary

THIS WAS AND is a grave SIN! Take a good look at what the “ministers of God” allow, even promote these days. Israel’s sins pale in comparison. We have same-sex sex, same-sex “marriage,” TRANSGENDERISM!, bisexualism, “QUEERING” in all vileness,…not to mention the allowed / promoted heterosexual sex-sins — ALL IN THE CHURCH!!!!

Ezekiel 24:14

“I, THE LORD, HAVE SPOKEN IT; it shall come to pass, and I will do it; I will not go back, neither will I spare, neither will I relent; according to YOUR WAYS and according to YOUR DOINGS shall they (enemies) judge and punish you says the LORD God.”

Sad, But True

EVIL IS SO INGRAINED in America that judgment cannot, will not, be kept within nice comfortable limits that would satisfy God’s critics. Too BAD! Take note of the increasing judgments falling upon America—they are murderous, not very nice at all.

This sin-sick nation in no wise realizes the extent of her depravity, her harlotries, Americans are so BRAINWASHED they tend to think of SIN as something detached from themselves—it is those BAD guys of non-“Christian” nations!!

I personally think that what is befalling America may not suffice for national repentance. I tend to believe that the SIN that is so deeply embedded in America’s life will remain even amid the fire of God’s judgments.

LIES!—Ezekiel 24

VERSE 12: “She (Jerusalem) hath wearied herself with lies, and her great scum went not forth out of her: her scum shall be in the fire.” (Read vv. 1-11 for background: the allegory of the caldron on the fire, symbolizing the Babylonian siege. The date of the beginning of the siege is Jan. 15, 588 B.C.; see 2 Kings 25:1; Jer. 52:4.)

The allegory recalls Jeremiah’s vision of the boiling caldron (Jer. 1:13-19). The same imagery appears in Ezekiel 11:3 and v. 11, the princes in Jerusalem calling themselves the flesh in the pot.

Many feel that God is too harsh in His judgments, far in excess of what could be thus justified. I believe that He does not make misjudgments, we see things totally different than He.

America: Full of Liars

I MEAN THIS LITERALLY TOO. Even ministers have become liars and deceivers. Politicians have always been notorious liars, but the priesthood is as bad today. We all know the end of deceivers and liars, DON’T WE?

Two Peas in A Pod

NOT ONLY DO we have One Worlders plotting the complete overthrow of America (your current Prez is such a one!), but we have “New Evangelicals” working hand-in-hand with them—two peas in a pod. Both political and religious leaders are working to change the American culture from its Christian origins to the Marxist/Socialist ideology—the politicals being determined to undermine / infiltrate the media and any and all centers and structures, etc., that have not succumbed wholly to “Political Correctness”; the religionists being determined to undermine / infiltrate any and all Christian establishments that still hold to Biblical eminence, the virgin birth of Christ, His substitutionary Atonement, His Holy life (No, Christ was NOT an adulterer or a homo!!), His miracles, His bodily resurrection, His ascension, and the belief in an ETERNAL HELLFIRE.

On Brainwashing

WE THINK THIS has gone away. HA! You’ve been brainwashed to believe brainwashing has disappeared from America. To be honest, there are still 4 major stages of brainwashing currently going on right under your Red, White, and Blue noses: 1) demoralization; 2) de-stabilization; 3) crisis; 4) normalization. The Homosexual Movement has used these 4 and we can see #4 headed towards the finishing line.

Politicals / Religionists use psychological warfare to subvert any and all who does not stand up and call them LIARS / DECEIVERS. All this is a process to dethrone Christ, exalt the One World Order and eliminate freedom…the freedom to even think apart from their satanic agenda.

Idolatry and Prostitution

IN GOD’S SIGHT this nation is guilty of both idolatry and prostitution, in both the national and spiritual spheres. These indelicate expressions fits the sins of today. This is America’s great political and religious disaster—the failure of both to stand for Biblical Truth. Both have abandoned God’s holy standards and laws in order to accommodate the spirit of the age. The Church, which certainly ought to know better, has ruled out absolutes in favor of a weakened view of God’s Word, thus no longer affirming the militant truth found in Scripture.

Then we have the political camp with its Humanistic / Socialistic / Communistic / Islamic strategies designed to displace / replace Christian influence. These people have infiltrated their HSCI ideas into academia for years now. Relativism has replaced absolutes; hence, “dumbing down”. Good education, godliness and patriotism (in the true sense) are no longer goals to be achieved, but are now viewed as intolerance, bigotry, prejudice, and stupidity.

Friends, we can learn a lot from Biblical history. We can see what befell nations that not only forgot God but that rebelled on God, even spit on Him.

God has always acted in history. It would do Americans good to remember the words of the poet and philosopher, George Santayana: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it” (The Life of Reason, Vol. 1, 1905).

Israel’s past reveals to us that each generation needs to get right with God and stay right with God. Bible history teaches us that life is a lifetime adventure and it is better to live it out under God’s / Christ’s authority, not man’s. The Holy Bible is the accurate, historical revelation of our Creator, and the creation.

Scholarly Testimony

I WOULD LIKE to end this article with Professor R.D. Wilson’s scholarly “testimony.” He joined with other Bible scholars to form Westminster Theological Seminary; he was a Professor at Princeton Theological Seminary before it departed from believing in the inerrancy of the Bible in 1929. He was fluent in over 40 Semitic languages and has been regarded as one of the greatest ancient Middle East language scholars of all time. Here is his testimony (it can be found in the Bible League Quarterly (1955), pp. 39-48):

“For forty-five years continuously...I have devoted myself to the one great study of the Old Testament, in all its languages, in all its archaeology, in all its translations.... The critics of the Bible, who go to it to find fault, claim for themselves all knowledge and all virtue and all love for truth. One of their favorite phrases is, ‘All scholars agree.’ When a man says that, I wish to know who the scholars are and why they agree. Where do they get their evidence? I defy any man to make an attack upon the Old Testament on the ground of evidence that I cannot investigate.

After I learned the necessary languages, I set myself about the investigation of every consonant in the Hebrew Old Testament. There are about a million and a-quarter of these, and it took me years to achieve my task. I had to observe the variations of the text in the manuscripts, or in the notes of the Massoretes, or in the various versions, or in the parallel conjectural emendations of critics; and then I had to classify the results, to reduce the Old Testament criticism to an absolute objective science; something which is based on evidence and not on opinion.

The result of those forty-five years of study which I have given to the text has been this: I can affirm that there is not one page of the Old Testament concerning which we need have any doubt. For example, to illustrate its accuracy: there are twenty-nine kings whose names are mentioned, not only in the Bible but also on monuments of their own time. There are 195 consonants in these twenty-nine proper names. Yet we find that in the documents of the Hebrew Old Testament there are only two or three out of the entire 195 about which there can be any question of them being written in exactly the same way as they were inscribed on their own monuments (which archaeologists have to this date discovered). Some of these go back 4,000 years and are so written that every letter is clear and correct.

Compare this accuracy with the greatest scholar of his age, the librarian at Alexandria in 200 BC. He compiled a catalogue of the kings of Egypt, thirty-eight in all. Of the entire number, only three or four are recognizable. He also made a list of the kings of Assyria, in only one case can we tell who is meant; and that one is not spelled correctly. Or take Ptolemy, who drew up a register of eighteen kings of Babylon. Not one of them is properly spelled; you could not make them out at all if you did not know from other sources to what he was referring.

If anyone talks about the Bible, ask them about the kings mentioned in it. There are twenty-nine, all of whom are included in the Bible and on monuments. Every one of these is given in his right name in the Bible, his right country, and placed in correct chronological order. Think what that means!”

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[Study material has been adapted from its original sources.]