No Fidelity Without Remembering (ezek. 16; 23)

In this lecture, Don Carson teaches mainly from Ezekiel 16, which describes Jerusalem’s spiritual adultery and compares the city to an ungrateful prostitute who turns to infidelity. Carson also points to Israel’s rebellion in forming a political alliance with Egypt. He explains that, despite the severe punishment described, God promised eventual restoration through an everlasting covenant when Jerusalem would repent and experience God’s faithfulness.

He teaches the following:

• Why Israel is compared to a “useless vine” and how it connects to the Bible’s larger metanarrative
• Absolutizing any one form of God’s love results in absurd theology
• How political alliances contributed to Israel’s downfall
• God remembered Jerusalem and established an everlasting covenant with her
• The new covenant would bring atonement for Jerusalem’s sin
• How the metaphor of marriage and apostasy is used to illustrate the severity of Israel’s rebellion
• The importance of fidelity and the consequences of betrayal in both human and divine relationships
• The imagery of marriage and atonement conveys God’s enduring love for his people