Inverse Prostitution

“On the day you were born your cord was not cut, nor were you washed with water to make you clean, nor were you rubbed with salt or wrapped in cloths…Rather, you were thrown out into the open field, for on the day you were born you were despised. Then I passed by and saw you kicking about in your blood, and as you lay there in your blood I said to you, “Live!” (Ezekiel 16:4-6)

The Lord of the Universe calls a people to Himself, in order to redeem the whole of His creation. He calls them from despised obscurity. He calls a weak and helpless people to Himself, a people destined to die, and He says to them, “Live!” Today, the call to “Live!” is extended to us as individuals—from all nations and peoples.

“Later I passed by, and when I looked at you and saw that you were old enough for love, I spread the corner of my garment over you and covered your nakedness. I gave you my solemn oath and entered into a covenant with you, declares the Sovereign Lord, and you became mine” (Ezekiel 16:8).

Few young teenagers could think of anything more embarrassing than being stripped naked in front of their peers. I remember having nightmares of going to school in my underwear during middle school, and I would spend the whole dream trying to get home to find more clothes. A naked, exposed teen hitting puberty is how God describes His people Israel. Vulnerable to those around Her; Her imperfections out in the open for all to see and take advantage of. And this is how He finds us today in our sin and brokenness; exposed, vulnerable, imperfections glaring, and open to the ravages of sin.

“And your fame spread among the nations on account of your beauty, because the splendor I had given you made your beauty perfect, declares the Sovereign Lord.” (Ezk. 16:14)

The Lord makes a covenant with Israel. They are to be His people, and He will be their God. He covers their nakedness and adorns them with beauty, so that their fame is known through the nations. He offers protection and provision in a covenant of love. His covenant for us today promises the same—a covering for our naked shame, a reworking of our imperfections, a healing of the damage done by sin in order to make us beautiful. He makes us beautiful as individuals in relationship to Him, and in corporate unity as the Church, His Bride.

“But you trusted in your beauty and used your fame to become a prostitute. You lavished your favors on anyone who passed by and your beauty became his.” (16:15)

Having been made a covenant people—a distinct people with a unique pattern of living and an unsurpassed relationship with Her God—and having been redeemed and saved from the oppressing nations around them, Israel wastes no time in breaking Her vows. She immediately whores after idols and the customs of other nations. Having been redeemed and saved ourselves, we perhaps delay no longer than Israel in seeking after idols and customs that deny the distinct and holy lives we have been brought into. We run back into the naked shame from which we came, opening ourselves to the ravages of sin once again. He has given us life and beauty, and we run back to kicking in our own blood and death. More shocking yet:

“You adulterous wife! You prefer strangers to your own husband! Every prostitute receives a fee, but you give gifts to all your lovers, bribing them to come to you from everywhere for your illicit favors. So in your prostitution you are the opposite of others; no one runs after you for your favors. You are the very opposite, for you give payment and none is given to you.” (16:32-34)

An inverse prostitution of sorts. Israel had an oath from the Sovereign God of the Universe that He would be their God—what more could be needed? Instead, in times of crisis, Israel pays money to other nations to deliver Her. Her lack of obedience and trust cost her greatly. And when we choose to find satisfaction from sin, we do so at great cost to ourselves. When we choose the alluring promises of sin, we pay to make ourselves a prostitute. Much is taken from us as sin rapes us—a rape of our own choosing. If running back to sin were a simple act of prostitution at least we would leave the encounter with something in our pockets, but it is a terrible act of inverse prostitution in which we lose all.

In what ways has sin ravaged us again? What has it taken from us? As individuals? As the Church?

New Year’s resolutions are typically cheap and cliché at best. So I hesitate to tell you that I made some. But in moments of clearheaded reflection at the end of the year, I made some decisions to live differently—more in line with the distinct pattern of living that Christ has modeled for us. I’ve already broken a few of these resolutions, and if it were only an issue of not making it to the gym like I wanted, I suppose I wouldn’t be so concerned. But since my resolutions are choices to derive my life, beauty and worth from the God with whom I live in covenant relationship, and not from the alluring but ravaging life of sin, I am reminded by Ezekiel what is truly at stake.