Eze 16:19 | KingComments | STEP | Then comes the dramatic change introduced by the word “but” ( ). There is a long tirade about the terrible ingratitude she has shown toward the LORD for all the goodness with which He has favored her. After all the benefits and privileges granted, the time comes when she forgets from Whom she has received all that. She begins to rely on her beauty and forgets Him Who granted her that beauty, to Whom she owes it ( ). In her pride and haughtiness she becomes unfaithful to Him and starts acting lewdly, she starts playing the harlot. How deeply she sinks! To every one who passes by, that is, to every people with whom she comes into contact, she pours out her harlotry. Her beauty, which should be only for the LORD, she gives away to strangers. We see that this development begins as early as the days of Solomon. Solomon, with his love for many women, also brings the gods of those women into his home ( ). What Jerusalem has received from the LORD as an adornment for herself is used to adorn the places where she practices her idolatrous harlotry ( ). She acts like the harlots, who are also used to decorate their beds to entice men into fornication ( ). Her behavior is unparalleled. Here the saying applies that the decay of the best is the worst decay. We hear the grief in the voice of the LORD when He says how she used the beautiful jewels of gold and silver that He had given her to make idols out of them and to bow down before them and thus play the harlot with them ( ). Another part of the beautiful clothing given to her by the LORD she uses to adorn her idols ( ; ). In front of these adorned idols she then places “My oil and My incense”. The LORD is set aside, banished, grossly insulted. By thus dealing with all that He has given her in His mercy and His love, no affront is spared Him. Even the food which He has given her and by which she has become so beautiful is offered as a soothing aroma to the idols of the heathen ( ). In the words “so it happened”, we hear how deeply the LORD feels grieved. As if all this abominable harlotry were not enough, she also brings her children, whom she gave birth to Him, as sacrifices to the idols ( ). The children who belong to Him by virtue of the covenant ( ; ) are taken from Him. They are slaughtered and then offered as burnt offerings ( ; ; ; ). No parent couple has an absolute right to their children. God gives life and it belongs to Him. Countless parents, however, do not care about God. Even in Christian families, parents often do not think about the fact that they have been given their children to raise them for God ( ). Many parents want their children to live up to their ideals so they can show them off. They do not realize that they are sacrificing their children to modern idols in this way. In committing all these abominations and harlotries, Jerusalem did not think back to her past, what she had been like, and thus not at all to what the LORD did to her afterwards ( ). Literally everything Jerusalem owes to the LORD. He, when she lay utterly helpless, naked and bare and squirming in her blood, took care of her with an everlasting love. He saved her from that misery. But she totally forgot about all the benefits. Are we not also often forgetful? If we forget where we come from and what the Lord has done with us, we will be able to fall into the grossest sins and greatest abominations. This is why it is so important that we say with our hearts: “Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget none of His benefits” ( ).