Graphic Language Illustrates God's Disgust

After reading through the Bible several times now I can state that today's reading is the most graphic and shocking every time around. It's at least R-rated and you almost can't believe it's in the Bible. That's God's point. The People's Bible points out that we tend to not take spiritual sins too seriously because they don't seem to hurt anybody, whereas something like adultery really grabs our attention. This section shows how our spiritual sins really are spiritual adultery against God, a rejection of his faithfulness for any number of worthless, even personally damaging, substitutes. As we get caught up in our spiritual free fall, things become more perverted and we become more obsessed.

Here are some helps with some of the tougher verses:

• In 23:1-4 we are introduced to "two women, daughters of the same mother." That mother would be Jacob or the twelve tribes of Israel. Oholah means "her own tent," and is a reference to Israel breaking away from Judah and setting up their own places of worship so their people wouldn't have to go to Jerusalem. Oholibah means "my tent is in her," a reference to the temple in Jerusalem.
• 23:17 about the Babylonians coming to Oholibah's "bed of love" and defiling her, and then her turning away in disgust--this is a reference to Judah's alliance with Babylon and their taking up of the worship of Babylon's idols. Judah later decided to make an alliance with Egypt instead.
• 23:20 where it talks about the Egyptians having genitals like those of donkeys and emission like that of horses--the best I could find is it's an emphasis of how the Egyptians were full of carnal desire.
• In 23:25 when it talks about Oholibah being punished by the nations cutting off her nose and ears--that was a punishment for a prostitute.
• In 23:34 where Oholibah drinks the cup of God's wrath and tears her breasts--that represents Judah's terrible suffering under God's wrath and willing mutilation of the instruments of their lewdness.
• In 23:39 it says, "On the very same day they sacrificed their children to their idols, they entered my sanctuary and desecrated it." This means the people both worshipped their idols and then thought they could worship God as well.