Ezekiel 16 paints a sublime portrait of the Creator God’s love for his chosen people. This God expresses his love saying, “I pledged myself to you and entered into covenant with you…and you became mine…I bathed you with water and washed off the blood from you, and anointed you with oil. I clothed you with embroidered cloth and with sandals of fine leather; I bound you in fine linen and covered you with rich fabric. I adorned you with ornaments” (8-11). This poetic expression of God’s passionate adornment of his beloved people is moving. There is, though, an interesting detail earlier in the chapter which is not to be overlooked. The word of Lord through the prophet says, “As for your birth, on the day you were born your navel cord was not cut, nor were you washed with water to cleanse you, nor rubbed with salt, nor wrapped in cloths. No eye pitied you, to do any of these things for you out of compassion for you; but you were thrown in the open field, for you were abhorred on the day you were born” (4-5). I find it fascinating anc comforting that the metaphor chosen by God to express his love to his people is that of an unwanted, unloved, and left for dead newborn. The one whose cord was not cut, who was left unwashed, abandoned by her parents, and thrown in a field to die, this is the one that the Lord chooses for himself to raise up as his own making her the object of his covenant love. When God wanted to express his passionate love and loyalty to his people, he chose language not altogether unlike a partial birth abortion. Evidently, God loves babies that no one else does.
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