Sexual Idolatry
She lusted after their paramours, whose flesh is like the flesh of donkeys and whose issue is like the issue of horses Ezekiel 23:20
Flesh – This world is drowning in sex. Four million Internet porn sites. One million people each year trafficked in forced sexual slavery. Continued abuse of children and women in dozens of countries with government and religious approval. The worldwide display of sexual promiscuity called MTV. But who cares? Can’t we simply dismiss it all as part of the utter corruption of Man, as Paul does in the first chapter of Romans? As long as we believers maintain our morality, does it really matter what the world does to degrade human sexuality and human intimacy?
The Bible answers a resounding “Yes!” Human sexuality is not confined to the human realm. It is not a morality of consenting adults. Human sexuality is a one-way mirror into my relationship with God. It has always been that way. I stand on one side of the mirror and see my own intimate relationship development. But when I stand on the other side of the mirror, I see through my sexuality into the intimacy with my God.
My sexuality is a significant part of my identity. The exercise of my sexuality in intimate relationship is the voluntary engagement of who I am in unity with another person. Sex is not essential for life. It is not like eating or drinking. It is a choice to act out who I am in relationship. That’s why self-sex is so pointlessly destructive. True sexuality is always found in relationship. So the Bible uses sexual imagery, and marriage in particular, as the metaphor for the divine-human relationship, the other relationship of choice in life.
Sexuality, just like everything else that reflects God’s image in the world, can be twisted. All things good can be distorted to deface God’s image. The Bible does not ignore this fact. In this verse, Ezekiel speaks in graphically descriptive language about the twisting of God’s design, in the physical realm and the spiritual realm. The Hebrew masculine noun basar generally means “flesh”, but here (as in Genesis 17), the word clearly means “penis.” Coupled with zirmah (flow of liquid), the imagery cannot be misunderstood. When twisted human sexuality is obsessed with penis size and ejaculations, so follows twisted spirituality. When sex becomes lust, my spirituality is destroyed too. If I don’t have my sexual identity in alignment with God’s plan, my spiritual intimacy is also degraded.
A moment’s reflection on contemporary sexuality shows that we live in a repetition of Ezekiel’s age. Men and women chase the twisted image. Wherever and whenever we condone or tolerate the pseudo-sex of lust, we are judged by the holy standard. How can we expect the civilization to survive? None like this ever has.
