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Two Harlot Sisters:
Both Samaria and Jerusalem sought cultural and military alliances with Egypt. God considered this adultery because God stated He was Israel's husband. These two Jewish nations later sought alliance with Assyria. The Assyrian adultery ended in disaster. The ten-tribe kingdom was conquered and physically removed from the land by the Assyrians, and the two-tribe kingdom nearly fell to Assyria. The miraculous deliverance of Jerusalem during the Assyrian siege is found in Isaiah 37. Good king Hezekiah set the boastful letter from the Assyrians before the Lord, and the Lord executed judgment on the Assyrian army. A plague destroyed 185,000 soldiers of the Assyrian army in one night (Isaiah 37:36). There are many parallels between Ezekiel 16 and 23; both chapters confront Israel as an unfaithful wife to Yahweh. Yet there are also important differences. There is a bigger, symbolic picture here. The adultery with Egypt seems to picture the conservative influences of the world that seek the status quo. This adultery pictured the Jewish leaders' willingness to compromise to save their worldly status. (John 11:48) This adultery is held responsible even for crucifying Jesus (Revelation 11:8). Egypt was unified and led by the all-powerful Pharaoh. Egypt was very conservative, unconquerable – or so it seemed – and predictable.
The two sisters also committed adultery with Assyria. Assyria was known for its independently-minded calvary. Oholah the elder and Oholibah her sister: God gave these two symbolic sisters names. The elder was Oholah, which means Her Own Tabernacle, with the sense that she rejected God’s temple and the service that attended it. The younger was Oholibah, which means My Tabernacle is In Her, with the sense that she was home to God’s temple and its service. Ezekiel 23:12 states, “She (Israel and Judah) doted upon the Assyrians her neighbors, captains and rulers clothed most gorgeously, horsemen riding upon horses, all of them desirable young men.”
There were two women, the daughters of one mother: Ezekiel 23 presents two symbolic sisters, representing the kingdoms of Israel and Judah. This story of the two sisters is not a perfect illustration of the relationship between Yahweh and Israel; the Lord did not have two wives. But the story of the two sisters is a powerful description of how Judah followed in the sinful steps of Israel.
There was nothing holy or even spiritual in Israel’s attraction to the Assyrians and their gods. It was purely on a fleshly, materialistic basis. Because Israel gave herself to foreign gods and morals, God allowed them to be conquered by those foreign nations. It was God’s way of saying, “You reject Me and lust after these; now you must be conquered by them and live under them. "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" Ezekiel 23:5-7 (NKJV). Throughout the Scriptures it may be discerned that divine retribution operates in such a way that the source of sinful pleasure becomes the source of punishment. Samaria’s lovers became her destroyers. Oholibah (having the temple) instead of Oholah (rejecting the temple) made no difference if it did not result in faithfulness to Yahweh and His covenant. "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" Ezekiel 23:11-13 (NKJV). If the people of Jerusalem thought having the temple would save them from judgment, that God would never allow the Babylonians to destroy the temple, they needed to learn from the story of Oholah and Oholibah.
They loved their idolatry. Their rebellion against God made them feel carefree and popular with the multitude. Foreigners came and rewarded them for their idolatry. The sound of a carefree multitude was with her. they became like old, tired, worn-out prostitutes. Their young years of attractiveness and allure were a distant memory and they were merely lewd women. Their unfaithfulness to God made them age poorly. "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'" Ezekiel 23:46-49 (NKJV).
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