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One Passage Your Pastor Will NEVER Preach

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One Passage pastors will not preachPaul says in 2 Timothy 3:16 that all Scripture is inspired and profitable for teaching. But there are some verses that make you wonder…

Here is one passage I have NEVER heard any pastor preach on, and doubt I ever will: Ezekiel 23:20-21. It says this in the NIV:

There she lusted after her lovers, whose genitals were like those of donkeys and whose emission was like that of horses. So you longed for the lewdness of your youth, when in Egypt your bosom was caressed and your young breasts fondled.

I just performed a quick internet search, and found two guys who wrote a fairly decent post about Ezekiel 23:20-21… Here is a colorful quote:

Allegory or not, passages like Ezekiel 23 certainly present some challenges to our social comfort levels.  Just when you think you think you’re past the slightly embarrassing awkwardness of the breast fondling, virgin bosom caressing, prostitution and exposing of oneself (starting in verse 3 and repeated numerous times thereafter), you find yourself at verse 20, which seems more like something from a National Geographic special about the wild mustangs of the American West than the inspired Word of God.

Ah yes. Anyone who says the Bible is boring has never actually read it.

Have you ever heard a pastor preach on this passage? Do you have the sermon notes? If so, I would love to hear about how this sermon went and what he said. I know that many pastors preach through books of the Bible (that is my approach as well), and so if any pastor preaches through Ezekiel, I suppose they would have to cover this text… or skip over it.

If you have heard a sermon on Ezekiel 23:20-21, or attended a Bible study where it was discussed, let me know in the comments below and tell me what was said. Keep it PG-13! 

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  • http://mickholt.com/ mickholt

    I would pay to hear the sermon on this. Makes Song of Solomon seem tame.

    • http://www.tillhecomes.org/ Jeremy Myers

      Ha! Yeah, it does! It would be a squirm-in-your-seat sermon, for sure!

  • http://www.tillhecomes.org/ Jeremy Myers

    I had a guy email a lesson he made for a Youth Group on this exact passage. Wow. That’s…. ballsy. Ha!

    Here is his lesson plan (I think he might have danced around the language in the verse, but what else are you going to day in a youth group?)

    A Tale of Two Sisters: Ezekiel 23

    Say: Today you’ve asked me to teach on a difficult and graphic verse. Before we talk about this verse, I’d like to tell you a story and get your feed back.

    Pre- Lessons Facts

    Ezekiel is a prophet dealing with disobedient nations, Samaria and Jerusalem. Jerusalem and Samaria were committing spiritual adultery. Forsaking God. God is in the midst discipling and judging his children. For their sin.

    Opening: Reframe The Story

    Before you get into the above facts. Tell another story.

    There was once two daughter. They were young and beautiful, but they were slaves. On the day the were to be sold, they saw the Kings carriage driving by. The King asked the carriage be halted at the site of the sisters in cages. He demanded they be released. The one who had enslaved them answered, “Will the King be unjust? I have paid for these slaves.” The King retrieved the appropriate money and paid for the slaves. He took the sisters home and took care of them as if they were his own, and warned them to stay away from the slave district, lest they be captured again. But the sisters
    did not listen. They missed the wild life that gotten them enslaved in the first place. They stole from the
    king, They took his money and bought wine and beer. They went and partied with those who had enslaved them. They mocked the King for his generosity and pity and spread rumors about him all over town. But the King had grown to love them and did not want them enslaved.

    Ask: If you were the King, what would you do about these sisters?

    Get a few answers from the group. You can have the group to split up into smaller groups to discuss (if your group is large enough you could mix the groups guy and girls or make the groups gender specific)

    Say: This is the story of Ezekiel 23. Ezekiel is telling a graphic story of two nations, whom the Lord had saved from slavery by other nations, but now these two nations refused to serve Him. Their graphic sins required a graphic message and a graphic judgement

    Read: Offenses committed by the sisters

    36 The Lord said to me: “Son of man, will you judge Oholah and Oholibah? Then confront them with their detestable practices, 37 for they have committed adultery and blood is on their hands. They committed adultery with their idols; they even sacrificed their children, whom they bore to me, as food for them. 38 They have also done this to me: At that same time they defiled my sanctuary and desecrated my Sabbaths. 39 On the very day they sacrificed their children to their idols, they entered my sanctuary and desecrated it. That is what they did in my house.

    Ask: What if a bunch of you got crazy and came into the church one night, drunk, broke the windows, and had sex on the pews (seats)? Let’s say you fell asleep in the church and the Pastor came in and found you there. How do you think Pastor wold react? What would he do? Would he call the police? Should he? What would you do if you were th pastor of the church and found that?

    Tell: The Lord is a just God. He allows us to choose and allows the consequences of actions to come about.

    Read: God’s Judgement

    35 “Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says: Since you have forgotten me and turned
    your back on me, you must bear the consequences of your lewdness and prostitution.”

    48 “So I will put an end to lewdness in the land, that all women may take warning and not imitate you. 49 You will suffer the penalty for your lewdness and bear the consequences of your sins of idolatry. Then you will know that I am the Sovereign Lord.”

    Transition: Things have not changed much in 2000 years. ‘

    Ask: What kind of actions do we see in America, your school, your peers that look like the sins of these two sisters? They can be physical sins or spiritual sins.

    What should God do about this based on what he did to Samaria and Jerusalem?

    Why hasn’t he done it yet?

    Let me continue with the story I started with:

    The king grew angry with the sisters mocking. The King also had a son and he saw how angry His father became at these sisters who had taken advantage of him. Though he loved them, he decided to send his guards to arrest them and put them in jail. They had broken his laws and his hear and there must be justice. The Kings son spoke and said, “Father, let me go an plead with these captors and
    with these sisters”. After much discussion, the King let his son go. The son came to the slavers and tried to reason with them but they would not listen. The killed the Kings son hoping to get rich and famous. Instead the King sent and Army and destroyed everyone in that part of town. Judgment was handed down.

    Read: Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on them. Let me propose a reason, from the New Testament, God withholds
    his wrath.

    Read: Romans 2:4-6

    Closing: Because of God’s love, he waits. He waits to see how we (us in the room and America at large) we will respond the kindness of His grace, and the gift of His son Jesus Christ. God disciplines
    those he loves (Hebrews 12:6) but he judges the wicked, those not in a relationship with Him through His son Jesus Christ. The questions we must ask is, will I be disciplined or will I be judged in my wickedness.

    Here are some others ways to close

    Switchfoot’s Free
    The Rend Collective Christ Has Set Me Free
    Mercy Me’s Free
    Lord Have Mercy from Extreme Worship
    Benton Brown’s Our God is Mercy
    Rhett Walker Band’s When Mercy Found Me

    Have a few locks up front that takes keys. Make sure the locks are different and the keys won’t unlock each other.

    During one of the songs you play, ask, “if you want to be free tonight from spiritual slavery, come and get a key and unlock your lock. Every time you choose a key that does not work, say a prayer and say “Lord forgive me for trusting in my self instead of you” This is to show the frustration of trying to free
    ourselves from sin.

    Close in prayer.

  • Carl

    Hi Jeremy – New reader – First time comment I preached from Ezekiel 23:20-21 in fall of 1989. I’d have to look through a box with handwritten sermon notes to find the outline.

    • http://www.tillhecomes.org/ Jeremy Myers

      Nice! Way to go! Even if you don’t find the notes, do you remember roughly what you said?

      Oh, and thanks for reading and for the comment!

      • Carl

        Hi Jeremy,

        The sermon came from a question by a student, which many students ask in regards to intimacy with the opposite sex before marriage. The question was, “How far is too far?” I took a thematic approach and my basic contention was that anything that would arouse lust is sinful. Which begins with eyes and progresses to various levels of touching. The obvious implications in Ezekiel are clear. So what does it mean to commit immorality? Ezekiel 23:3 makes it clear that breasts are a part of virginity. Pornography is also found in verses 14-16. Public nudity is mentioned in 18. Of course this passage is teaching that Israel has been unfaithful to God. It uses real life examples to portray a spiritual truth. This only confirms everything we know from the Law, Christ and the Apostles.
        That was my basic angle.

        Carl

        • http://www.tillhecomes.org/ Jeremy Myers

          Interesting. Thanks for the summary!

  • http://www.halleluiahanyhow.com/ GratefulOne

    I’m late with my response (again). I see the essence and history of the story has been covered, so all I can say is this is just another gross example of just what a weak. disgusting, vile, and at least, lousy “translation” the NIV amounts to.

    Given the group of deviates and outcasts behind the work of the NIV, it is hardly surprising. Can you give me a single reason such graphic sexual images must be used?

    As opposed to the KJV: (Eze 23:20) For she doted upon their paramours, whose flesh is as the flesh of asses, and whose issue is like the issue of horses.

    (Eze 23:21) Thus thou calledst to remembrance the lewdness of thy youth, in bruising thy teats by the Egyptians for the paps of thy youth.

    Same thing: less provocative/pornographic?

    (BTW: Mathew Henry’s Commentary added a rich context to Eze 23)

    • http://www.theworld4realz.com/ Andi-Roo

      It’s my understanding that the NIV is actually more accurate than the KJV insofar as translation from the Hebrew to colloquial English. I also question anything that disguises what’s happening in overly poetic fashion, as that distracts from the nitty gritty of what’s truly going down. The NIV version of this passage in particular conveys the message much more succinctly than does the KJV for all its crass wordage. The point of this section is to say, “This stuff is bad.” The KJV kind of kills that feeling for me. Flowery wording does not a better translation make, IMO.

      • http://www.tillhecomes.org/ Jeremy Myers

        Andi-Roo,

        Great point, and I agree. I love your last line… it is a poetic way of saying that sometimes, poetry is not best! Very witty.

    • http://www.tillhecomes.org/ Jeremy Myers

      I actually think the NIV is better. God is apparently disgusted with the behavior of the Israelites, and so a graphic description tends to portray this disgust and revulsion better.

      There are times, I think, when we need to look at sin the way God does, and see and feel similar disgust without trying to sugar-coat it or cover it up with poetic language.