“Thus says the Lord God to Jerusalem: Your origin and your birth are of the land of the Canaanites; your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite. 4 And as for your birth, on the day you were born your cord was not cut, nor were you washed with water to cleanse you, nor rubbed with salt, nor wrapped in swaddling clothes. 5 No eye pitied you, to do any of these things to you out of compassion for you, but you were cast out on the open field, for you were abhorred, on the day that you were born. 6 And when I passed by you and saw you wallowing in your blood, I said to you in your blood, ‘Live!’ I said to you in your blood, ‘Live!’” (Ezekiel 16:2-6).
“Then I bathed you with water and washed off your blood from you and anointed you with oil. 10 I clothed you also with embroidered cloth and shod you with fine leather. I wrapped you in fine linen and covered you with silk. [1] 11 And I adorned you with ornaments and put bracelets on your wrists and a chain on your neck.” (Ezekiel 16:9-11).
This is one of my favorite Old Testament passages. The Lord here is certainly talking to Israel as a nation; any interpretation without that in mind will be faulty. Still, there are some definite applications for us.
Like Israel, we come from sinful parents (Psalm 51:5) who cannot pass the grace necessary for life down to us; instead, they pass down sin and death (Romans 5:12). Our parents cannot wash the filth of sin from us. They can’t wash us with sanctification. They can’t clothe us with righteousness. We are as children “cast out on the open field” and “wallowing in (our) blood.”
But God says, “When I passed by you and saw you…” Just as He said, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people” when they were in Egypt, so He saw us, and it was by no accident that He passed by.
Notice that He says “live” while we are polluted in our blood (sin). There is no cleansing prior to this; the first step is for Him to say “live!” And it is said with power that cannot be resisted.
Paul tells us in Ephesians 2:3-5 that we were “children of wrath” who were dead in sins. It is while we are dead that He makes us alive. What comes next? In Ezekiel 16:9-11 God tells Israel that He had washed her and clothed her, just as He does to His children today (Titus 3:5).
So consider the picture of the newborn baby cast into the open field without any care. The Father comes along, takes her up, cleans her, clothes her, and cares for her in every way. What can she boast about? And how much does she owe to Him?