16 Again the word of the Lord came to me: 2 “Son of man, make known to Jerusalem her abominations, 3 and say, Thus says the Lord God to Jerusalem: Your origin and your birth are of the land of the Canaanites; your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite. 4 And as for your birth, on the day you were born your cord was not cut, nor were you washed with water to cleanse you, nor rubbed with salt, nor wrapped in swaddling cloths.5 No eye pitied you, to do any of these things to you out of compassion for you, but you were cast out on the open field, for you were abhorred, on the day that you were born.
6 “And when I passed by you and saw you wallowing in your blood, I said to you in your blood, ‘Live!’ I said to you in your blood, ‘Live!’ 7 I made you flourish like a plant of the field. And you grew up and became tall and arrived at full adornment. Your breasts were formed, and your hair had grown; yet you were naked and bare.
8 “When I passed by you again and saw you, behold, you were at the age for love, and I spread the corner of my garment over you and covered your nakedness; I made my vow to you and entered into a covenant with you, declares the Lord God, and you became mine. 9 Then I bathed you with water and washed off your blood from you and anointed you with oil. 10 I clothed you also with embroidered cloth and shod you with fine leather. I wrapped you in fine linen and covered you with silk. 11 And I adorned you with ornaments and put bracelets on your wrists and a chain on your neck.12 And I put a ring on your nose and earrings in your ears and a beautiful crown on your head. 13 Thus you were adorned with gold and silver, and your clothing was of fine linen and silk and embroidered cloth. You ate fine flour and honey and oil. You grew exceedingly beautiful and advanced to royalty.14 And your renown went forth among the nations because of your beauty, for it was perfect through the splendour that I had bestowed on you, declares the Lord God.
It is all the more surprising, therefore, to see the attitude of some commentators in finding a certain crudity in the passage. One says, 'The Christian reader may not surprisingly feel nauseated at the indelicate realism of Ezekiel's language'. Another says, 'The allegory is developed with a candour that tends to shock the Western mind, but it is normal to the oriental outlook'. Surely this is misplaced 'gentility'. To be sure, the language is of a certain kind, but is it indelicate? We recall the first time we ever read this passage, and how it arrested heart and spirit, evoking the response, 'I am that foundling child, and that is what God has done for me'. If we have ever been in the place of desolation expressed by the Psalmist (Psalm 142:4) when he said 'No man careth for my soul', we will certainly know what this passage means, for it is the gospel in all its wonder and glory: He passed by one day, and saw us in our abject need and misery, in our lost and dying state, and He said 'Live, live'. That is what the gospel is about, that is what preaching is about. When a man stands and proclaims the message of God's riches in Christ, the living God passes by and says to those that are dead in trespasses and sin, 'live' and a life emerges that owes absolutely everything to God.