They became prostitutes in Egypt, engaging in prostitution from their youth. In that land their breasts were fondled and their virgin bosoms caressed. – Ezekiel 23:3

Today’s Scripture Reading (May 16, 2014): Ezekiel 23

On December 7, 1941 at 7:48 in the morning, the first wave of Japanese fighters reached their target – Pearl Harbor. The U.S. Military base was attacked by 353 Japanese fighters, bombers and torpedo planes launched from six aircraft carriers. The attack was intended to knock the United States out of World War II before they were able to enter the war. The overwhelming fight at Pearl Harbor was really a Japanese attempt to put into practice a military agenda that the United States a few decades later would master called “shock and awe.” The intention was to demoralize that United States and convince them that they needed to stay out of the war. If they could succeed, the result would have been that Japan would be left unchallenged in the Pacific Theater of operations. The Pearl Harbor plan was hatched by Admiral Isoruko Yamamoto. But the Admiral quickly realized his error. Pride had led Japan into a fatal blunder. Yamamoto warned his colleagues just after the Pearl Harbor attack that “I fear all we have done is awaken the sleeping giant and filled him with a terrible resolve.” No words could have been truer. With the help of her allies (England, Australia, Canada and the Soviet Union) American vengeance would be swift and complete – and in the end Japanese pride would cost them two of their largest cities as well as cause an embarrassing surrender of the Japan to the United States.

As Ezekiel begins to describe the reason for the defeat of Judah, he describes the situation with a story of two adulterous sisters. The story itself has been called lewd and vulgar, and some have refused to read the story in public. But the words used in the story accurately describe the situation and the history of Judah. Ezekiel begins his story in Egypt. And the event that he attempts to describe is the act of building the golden calf by Aaron, deep in the past of the nation. In a moment when Israel was deeply indebted to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob because of the marvelous acts that he had performed in the presence of the Pharaoh, as well as the parting of the Red Sea as Israel made their miraculous escape from the Egyptian army, the building of the golden calf was an incredibly vulgar and adulterous act; and it revealed the pride of a people who seemed to believe that they could serve whatever God they wanted – and a pride that insisted that they were indebted to no one.

The act would set the nation up for a series of vulgar adulterous acts throughout her history, all led by her pride that insisted that she could do whatever it was that she wanted. And she had decided that her future was to be found in gods other than Yahweh. That pride had been Israel’s blunder, and the result of that blunder was the reality that Ezekiel and his friends in exile were now being forced to live through. Their adulterous pride contained the seeds of their eventual defeat – and the day of their defeat had finally arrived.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Ezekiel 24