King James Bible Study – [And when he had called the people unto him with his disciples also, he said unto them, Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. – Mark 8:34]
Date: Thursday, September 03, 2026
Chapters: Ezekiel 23-24
Message: Ezekiel: Aholah and Aholibah
Hello My Friend,
As we have been reading through Ezekiel, we have gained deeper insight into what took place during the days when Nebuchadnezzar carried Judah away captive, and king Zedekiah and his men exhausted every means to keep themselves from being taken to Babylon. It became painfully clear that the Jews had learned nothing from the judgment God had already sent upon them; they showed no concern for turning from their sin, nor any desire to return to the God who had pleaded with them through His prophets. Once, Israel had been one nation under God. But after the death of Solomon, the kingdom was divided, and God portrayed the split nation as two sisters whom He had espoused. As we continue in the reading of Ezekiel, we learn of Aholah, meaning her tabernacle, representing Samaria. And Aholibah, meaning My tabernacle, representing Jerusalem.
[Ezekiel 23:2-5,9 Son of man, there were two women, the daughters of one mother: 3 And they committed whoredoms in Egypt; they committed whoredoms in their youth: there were their breasts pressed, and there they bruised the teats of their virginity. 4 And the names of them were Aholah the elder, and Aholibah her sister: and they were mine, and they bare sons and daughters. Thus were their names; Samaria is Aholah, and Jerusalem Aholibah. 5 And Aholah played the harlot when she was mine; and she doted on her lovers, on the Assyrians her neighbours, 9 Wherefore I have delivered her into the hand of her lovers, into the hand of the Assyrians, upon whom she doted.]
Samaria, fell into idolatry with alarming speed, for she had never truly been faithful to God since the days of the Exodus. Her devotion lasted only as long as her needs were met, their bellies were fed, so to speak, but her heart was never steadfast toward the God who had redeemed her. Jeroboam, the first king of the Northern Kingdom, deepened this unfaithfulness. He fashioned two golden calves and set them before the people, commanding them to worship in the same manner God had ordained for His own worship.
[I Kings 12:28,32 Whereupon the king took counsel, and made two calves of gold, and said unto them, It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem: behold thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. 32 And Jeroboam ordained a feast in the eighth month, on the fifteenth day of the month, like unto the feast that is in Judah, and he offered upon the altar. So did he in Bethel, sacrificing unto the calves that he had made: and he placed in Bethel the priests of the high places which he had made.]
God is incredibly merciful and longsuffering, in that we may stumble a thousand times in a single day; yet if we come before Him in true repentance, He is faithful and just to forgive us, and even to forget that it ever happened. But when one continues in sin, worse still, when one denies that they have sinned at all. God, will often turn that very thing they desired into something despised. Sin always promises sweetness, but when it is cherished rather than confessed, God, allows it to reveal its bitterness. Now we come to Aholibah, representing Jerusalem, who had become even more corrupt than her sister.
[Ezekiel 23:11,13-14,17-18 And when her sister Aholibah saw this, she was more corrupt in her inordinate love than she, and in her whoredoms more than her sister in her whoredoms. 13 Then I saw that she was defiled, that they took both one way, 14 And that she increased her whoredoms: for when she saw men pourtrayed upon the wall, the images of the Chaldeans pourtrayed with vermilion, 17 And the Babylonians came to her into the bed of love, and they defiled her with their whoredom, and she was polluted with them, and her mind was alienated from them. 18 So she discovered her whoredoms, and discovered her nakedness: then my mind was alienated from her, like as my mind was alienated from her sister.]
[Alienated; cause someone to feel isolated or estranged; transfer ownership of property rights to another person or group.] Think about how God worded this. First, He addresses how Judah had become estranged from Him, no longer walking in His statutes, no longer seeking His face, no longer desiring the covenant He had graciously established with them. Then God declares the consequence of that estrangement: He would transfer, as it were, His protective ownership over them into the hands of their enemies. God goes on to tell Judah how and why He alienated her.
[Ezekiel 23:22,24,28-29 Therefore, O Aholibah, thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will raise up thy lovers against thee, from whom thy mind is alienated, and I will bring them against thee on every side; 24 And they shall come against thee with chariots, wagons, and wheels, and with an assembly of people, which shall set against thee buckler and shield and helmet round about: and I will set judgment before them, and they shall judge thee according to their judgments. 28 For thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will deliver thee into the hand of them whom thou hatest, into the hand of them from whom thy mind is alienated: 29 And they shall deal with thee hatefully, and shall take away all thy labour, and shall leave thee naked and bare: and the nakedness of thy whoredoms shall be discovered, both thy lewdness and thy whoredoms.]
In other words, God was chastening them. Point blank, godly sorrow, the kind produced by His sometimes severe chastening, is what leads to repentance. God, does not wound His people to destroy them, but to turn their hearts back to Him. When His hand is heavy, it is never without purpose; His corrections are meant to break the pride that keeps us from confessing our sin and seeking His mercy, [II Corinthians 7:10-11 For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death. 11 For behold this selfsame thing, that ye sorrowed after a godly sort, what carefulness it wrought in you, yea, what clearing of yourselves, yea, what indignation, yea, what fear, yea, what vehement desire, yea, what zeal, yea, what revenge! In all things ye have approved yourselves to be clear in this matter.]
We often wonder why the wicked seem to get away with the things they do without one peep from God. But the truth is this: God does not need to lift one finger to send judgment upon them, because they bring it upon themselves. God simply allows them to reap the bitter fruit of what they sewed. What appears to be silence from heaven is often God letting their own choices become their downfall. God, then goes on to explain this as He tells of why Judah’s judgment was harsher than Samaria’s.
[Ezekiel 23:31-32,34-35 Thou hast walked in the way of thy sister; therefore will I give her cup into thine hand. 32 Thus saith the Lord GOD; Thou shalt drink of thy sister’s cup deep and large: thou shalt be laughed to scorn and had in derision; it containeth much. 34 Thou shalt even drink it and suck it out, and thou shalt break the sherds thereof, and pluck off thine own breasts: for I have spoken it, saith the Lord GOD. 35 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Because thou hast forgotten me, and cast me behind thy back, therefore bear thou also thy lewdness and thy whoredoms.]
We would all be lying if we said that we as saved born-again Christians have not backslid a time or two in our walk with God. Judgment, always begins at the house of God first. Why? Just listen to what is actually God’s heartbreak here. God, thinks they have forgotten Him and think about what how Jesus feels, it is as though He is being hung on the cross all over again, [Hebrews 6:4-6 For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, 5 And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, 6 If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.]
We all stumble sometimes, even the most faithful and obedient Christian. Yet many times the root of that stumbling lies within a lack of spiritual nourishment, either because they are not in church, or because the church itself is failing to feed them with the spiritual food they need to be sustained. When Covid hit in 2020, many churches were forced to close their doors and that actually led to many Christians spiritual decline. When a congregation refuses to repent, God is not only grieved with them; He is also angry with the churches that refuse to shepherd them faithfully. As God continues to address His anger toward Judah, He turns His attention to the priests and what they were allowing within the sanctuary.
[Ezekiel 23:38-42 Moreover this they have done unto me: they have defiled my sanctuary in the same day, and have profaned my sabbaths. 39 For when they had slain their children to their idols, then they came the same day into my sanctuary to profane it; and, lo, thus have they done in the midst of mine house. 40 And furthermore, that ye have sent for men to come from far, unto whom a messenger was sent; and, lo, they came: for whom thou didst wash thyself, paintedst thy eyes, and deckedst thyself with ornaments, 41 And satest upon a stately bed, and a table prepared before it, whereupon thou hast set mine incense and mine oil. 42 And a voice of a multitude being at ease was with her: and with the men of the common sort were brought Sabeans from the wilderness, which put bracelets upon their hands, and beautiful crowns upon their heads.]
Judah’s downfall was not merely the sin of the people, it was the failure of the spiritual leaders who refused to uphold the holiness of God’s house. They permitted idolatry, tolerated impurity, and allowed the people to bring their sin into the very place where God had set His name. The shepherds were no longer protecting the flock; they were enabling its ruin. And when the sanctuary is defiled, the entire nation follows. Suffering exposes the flesh, strips away self‑confidence, and removes the desire to walk in our own strength, which God goes on to explain as He tells how He will purge the nation of its sin.
[Ezekiel 23:45-49 And the righteous men, they shall judge them after the manner of adulteresses, and after the manner of women that shed blood; because they are adulteresses, and blood is in their hands. 46 For thus saith the Lord GOD; I will bring up a company upon them, and will give them to be removed and spoiled. 47 And the company shall stone them with stones, and dispatch them with their swords; they shall slay their sons and their daughters, and burn up their houses with fire. 48 Thus will I cause lewdness to cease out of the land, that all women may be taught not to do after your lewdness. 49 And they shall recompense your lewdness upon you, and ye shall bear the sins of your idols: and ye shall know that I am the Lord GOD.]
It is in the furnace of affliction that God burns away the impurities that keep us from wholehearted obedience. And while He is faithful and just to forgive us and to reconcile with us again and again when we sincerely confess our sin, insincere and unrepentant sin will continue to defile us until we do. God, uses a striking image to show just how vile sin becomes when one does not turn away from it.
[Ezekiel 24:2-5 Son of man, write thee the name of the day, even of this same day: the king of Babylon set himself against Jerusalem this same day. 3 And utter a parable unto the rebellious house, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Set on a pot, set it on, and also pour water into it: 4 Gather the pieces thereof into it, even every good piece, the thigh, and the shoulder; fill it with the choice bones. 5 Take the choice of the flock, and burn also the bones under it, and make it boil well, and let them seethe the bones of it therein.]
What happens to the water when you boil a pot of meat with its bones on the stove? All the blood rises to the top and it is not pretty. It is called scum and you literally need to scrape it off to see the lovely broth that is produced. God, goes on to describe the scum and how His defiled people look to Him and what He will do to remove it.
[Ezekiel 24:6-8,10-11 Wherefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Woe to the bloody city, to the pot whose scum is therein, and whose scum is not gone out of it! bring it out piece by piece; let no lot fall upon it. 7 For her blood is in the midst of her; she set it upon the top of a rock; she poured it not upon the ground, to cover it with dust; 8 That it might cause fury to come up to take vengeance; I have set her blood upon the top of a rock, that it should not be covered. 10 Heap on wood, kindle the fire, consume the flesh, and spice it well, and let the bones be burned. 11 Then set it empty upon the coals thereof, that the brass of it may be hot, and may burn, and that the filthiness of it may be molten in it, that the scum of it may be consumed.]
This is how we appear before Him when we continue living in our sin. Unrepentant sin does not stay hidden; under the heat of God’s chastening, it rises, it shows itself, and it reveals the corruption of the heart. And it will literally consume us if we do not let go of it. God, goes on to say that if they do not remove the sin, He will burn it out of them, [Ezekiel 24:12-14 She hath wearied herself with lies, and her great scum went not forth out of her: her scum shall be in the fire. 13 In thy filthiness is lewdness: because I have purged thee, and thou wast not purged, thou shalt not be purged from thy filthiness any more, till I have caused my fury to rest upon thee. 14 I the LORD have spoken it: it shall come to pass, and I will do it; I will not go back, neither will I spare, neither will I repent; according to thy ways, and according to thy doings, shall they judge thee, saith the Lord GOD.]
This was not some cheap meat, this was the best of the best, so this was in a sense God’s people and we need to understand that this is not your average sin nature sins here, it is deliberate, uncontrollable behavior. The moment we receive Christ as our Saviour, we become new creatures. We are not meant to sit in the scum we were purged from; we are meant to move forward, putting distance between ourselves and the sin that once enslaved us. Jesus, removes all the scummy sin from our lives through the fiery trials we face, and while it is not pretty before He takes us to the boiling point, once He skims it off we are fit for His use, [II Timothy 2:21 If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the master’s use, and prepared unto every good work.]
There are two types of saved, born‑again Christians with whom God grows angry. First, is the worldly Christian, who uses their salvation to justify their sin, treating grace as a license rather than a deliverance. Second, is the ignorant Christian, who seeks nothing beyond salvation itself. They have no desire to learn the Word of God, no hunger for truth, no pursuit of holiness. And there comes a point when God has had enough and will no longer heed their cries. Not because He is cruel, but because they refuse the very repentance that would restore them.
But what of the faithful Christian? Often, they find themselves caught in the middle. God, will use them as living examples to show the unfaithful the error of their ways. God, used Ezekiel in this same manner when He told him that his wife was going to die.
[Ezekiel 24:16-19 Son of man, behold, I take away from thee the desire of thine eyes with a stroke: yet neither shalt thou mourn nor weep, neither shall thy tears run down. 17 Forbear to cry, make no mourning for the dead, bind the tire of thine head upon thee, and put on thy shoes upon thy feet, and cover not thy lips, and eat not the bread of men. 18 So I spake unto the people in the morning: and at even my wife died; and I did in the morning as I was commanded. 19 And the people said unto me, Wilt thou not tell us what these things are to us, that thou doest so?]
God, took the most precious person in Ezekiel’s life and made her passing a sign of how God’s people would lose what was dearest to them because of their unrepentant sin. Ezekiel, was commanded not to mourn openly, not to weep, not to follow the customary signs of grief. His silence was meant to mirror the shock Judah would feel when judgment fell and there was no time, no strength, and no comfort left for mourning. This is actually going to be the shock that many Christians will face when Jesus returns, [I Thessalonians 5:2-4 For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. 3 For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape. 4 But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief.]
This reminds me of when my mother passed away. I did not have time to grieve or even to cry, because there were things that had to be taken care of. There are moments still day when grief is present, but the urgency of what God is doing requires a stillness rather than an outward display. Of course, we feel sadness for our loved ones who have gone on to be with the LORD. Love does not vanish at death. Yet we are not to mourn as those who have no hope, for they are in a far better place than we are. Their suffering is over, their race is finished, and they have fought the good fight, [II Timothy 4:7-8 I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: 8 Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.]
Anyone who receives Christ as their Saviour is accepted of God, and because the Holy Spirit dwells within them, they naturally begin to gravitate toward the things of God. A new heart seeks new desires. Nevertheless, we are still human, and God knows that, this is why He chastens us. His correction is not rejection; it is proof that we belong to Him. Now, those who are not saved stand in an entirely different condition. Their fate is sealed the moment they die, and there is nothing we can do to change it. Their opportunity to repent is gone. But for the living, both the unrepentant saved and the unsaved, this is the opportune time to reconcile with God. God, He goes on to explain this very truth: that His dealings with Judah were not merely punitive, but redemptive.
[Ezekiel 24:21-24 Speak unto the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will profane my sanctuary, the excellency of your strength, the desire of your eyes, and that which your soul pitieth; and your sons and your daughters whom ye have left shall fall by the sword. 22 And ye shall do as I have done: ye shall not cover your lips, nor eat the bread of men. 23 And your tires shall be upon your heads, and your shoes upon your feet: ye shall not mourn nor weep; but ye shall pine away for your iniquities, and mourn one toward another. 24 Thus Ezekiel is unto you a sign: according to all that he hath done shall ye do: and when this cometh, ye shall know that I am the Lord GOD.]
In order for one to truly see their need for Christ, they must come to the sober realization that their sin will send them to hell. Until a soul understands the eternal consequence of sin, the cross will seem unnecessary, repentance will seem optional, and Christ will seem merely helpful rather than absolutely essential. Conviction is the doorway to salvation; without it, the heart remains blind to its danger and deaf to God’s call, [Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.]
As for those who are saved, their sin will not send them to hell, but they may as well face hell on earth. When a believer refuses to let go of the idols they love, the chastening of God can become unbearably heavy. I have seen far too many Christians cling to their idols until the very end, stood by the sin that destroyed them, [II Peter 2:20-22 For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning. 21 For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them. 22 But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire.]
Today’s Prayer: God, We love You because You first loved us. You love us so much that You gave Your one and only begotten Son to take the punishment we deserve for our sins so that we could escape hell. Thank You, for salvation by grace. Lord, as our relationship with You grows, give us Your love, mercy, grace, and strength to remain faithful to you no matter who or what tries to get in between us. Search our heart, see if there is any wicked way in us, and if there is, lead us to repentance. Let us not become so proud that we become forgetful of all that You have done for us. Let us never forget just how much You love us, and use us to be a Godly testimony to draw others to You. In ask these things in Your name, Jesus. Amen.
God Bless You, I am praying for you,
Christina
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