"Thou wast exceeding beautiful, and thou didst prosper into a kingdom".

At this point we meet the first ominous signs that the most awful apostasy was imminent:

"And thy renown went forth among the heathen for thy beauty: for it was perfect through My comeliness, which

I had put upon thee, saith the Lord GOD" (Ezek. 16:14).

If only Israel had pondered the significance of the words "through My comeliness, which I had PUT UPON thee", all

might have been well, but the record proceeds:

"Thou didst trust in THINE OWN

beauty, and playedst the harlot because of thy renown, and pouredst out thy

In these terrible words we can perceive the temptation and the subjugation of this chosen people to Satan. In the

twenty-eighth chapter of Ezekiel we read of one who also was "perfect in beauty", who also was decked with

wondrous ornaments, who betrayed the trust given to him, and who was cast out as profane:

"Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty ... thou hast defiled thy sanctuaries" (Ezek. 28:17,18).

So we see that Israel emulated the fallen cherub and became defiled in like manner. The degeneration of this people

was rapid and extreme. Words almost too unclean for repetition are multiplied by the prophet as he thinks of the

betrayal by Israel of the covenant of their God:

"Harlot", "Images of a man", "Whoredoms", "Thou hast made thy beauty to be abhorred", "The work of an

imperious whorish woman", "As a wife that committeth adultery".

Israel are to be judged "as women that break wedlock" (Ezek. 16:38). After many more indictments, among

them being comparisons with Sodom and Samaria, the mercy of the Lord breaks through with a blessed

"Nevertheless I will remember My covenant with thee in the days of thy youth, and I will establish unto thee an

everlasting covenant" (Ezek. 16:60).

This everlasting covenant is more fully described by the prophets Jeremiah and Isaiah (Jer. 32:40; Isa. 55:3).

Jeremiah 32 flows out of Jeremiah 31, and there we read:

"Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a NEW COVENANT with the house of Israel, and with the

house of Judah: not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the

hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which My covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto

them, saith the LORD" (Jer. 31:31,32).

"Surely as a wife treacherously departeth from her husband, so have ye dealt treacherously with Me, O house of

Israel, saith the LORD" (Jer. 3:20).

Yet, such is the grace of Israel's God, He says:

"Thou shalt forget the shame of thy youth ... for thy Maker is thine husband ... the LORD hath called thee as a

woman forsaken ..." (Isa. 54:4-6).

"Thou shalt no more be termed Forsaken; neither shall thy land any more be termed Desolate; but thou shalt be

called Hephzi-bah (My delight is in her), and thy land Beulah (married) ... as the bridegroom rejoiceth over the

bride, so shall thy God rejoice over thee" (Isa. 62:4,5).

To this grave departure of Israel, their long period commencing at Acts 28 when they became lo-ammi "not My

people", and their ultimate restoration when the present dispensation of the Mystery is concluded, the third chapter

of the prophet Hosea bears witness:

"Thou shalt abide for me many days; thou shalt not play the harlot, and thou shalt not be for another man: so will

I also be for thee. For the children of Israel shall abide many days ...

without a king, and without a prince, and

without a sacrifice, and without an image, and

without an ephod, and without teraphim: