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"Woe, woe to you"

Text: Ezekiel 16:23

A PRONOUNCEMENT OF WOE

The wickedness of Israel had to be addressed! Even as the Lord continues to recite the reasons for His anger, He could not but let out a cry of sadness. Israel would face grave consequences for what it had pursued!

“Then it was so, after all your wickedness—
Woe, woe to you!’ says the Lord GOD—
that you also built for yourself a shrine,
and made a high place for yourself in every street.”
Ezekiel 16:23-24

1. “All your wickedness”

a) Forgetting all that God had done.

b) Forsaking the God who had shown such glorious love.

c) Filling of the heart with all kinds of foolish pride and vanity.

d) Wicked deeds followed:

i) Human sacrifice.

ii) Evil deeds of violence and bloodshed.

2. “Woe, woe to you”

a) This was like an interjection.

b) This expressed a word of warning.

c) This spells deep trouble and sorrow if Israel continues in this trajectory.

d) This expresses great sadness in the heart of God.

e) There would be many woes that Israel would experience in the near future.

f) How could any sane person not heed this cry of warning?

3. The promotion of idolatry in the Holy Land.

a) Israel became obsessed with idolatry.

b) Many places were converted into shrines for idolatrous worship.

i) Every high place became a place of worship.

ii) Shrines were built in every street.

c) This was a very serious sinful problem in Israel in the days of Ezekiel.