| THE RUNAWAYS |
| A story meant to make you sick. |
| "Now let them use her as a prostiture, for that is all she is." 23:43 |
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| This story, which uses sexually explicit language, turns you off, not on. It tells of two sisters who choose promiscuous sex. Once they are involved, nothing satisfies them. They go from one man to the next. God calls them prostitutes, but they don't do it for the money. They do it because they like to live perversely. Finally, in grief and frustration, God turns them over to their chosen lovers, who treat them like trash. God seems to take angry satisfaction in this. Love makes him angry - angry enough to weep. An Allegory of Love Ezekiel doesn't pretend that these two sisters are real people. From the beginning he identifies them with the capitals of the two halves of Israel - Samaria in the North, which the Assyrians had wiped out over 100 years before, and Jerusalem in the South. Samaria was properly rewarded for her prostitution, Ezekiel says, and Jerusalem will be too. The story of the two sisters is, in a sense, one more graphic way of saying that God has been patient with Jerusalem long enough. (A similar story is told in Ezekiel 16.) A Drastic Dose of Reality God had promised the Israelites everything their hearts desired if they would stick by him. But they were always cozying up to other nations whose prosperity and power they envied. In those days, a little nation like Israel couldn't just sign a friendship pact with a big power. Political alliances meant accepting the big power's religion and worshiping its gods alongside your own. God warned Israel against this repeatedly, but they ignored the warning. Therefore, Ezekiel says, they will get their wish. They will experience firsthand the care and concern of |