"No eye pitied you... out of compassion for you...
You were cast out on the open field, for you were abhorred...
When I passed by you and saw you... I said to you... 'Live!' ... 'Live!' ...
You flourish like a plant of the field.
And you grew up and became tall and arrived at full adornment.
Your breasts were formed, and your hair had grown;
Yet you were naked and bare.
When I passed by you again and saw you, behold, you were at the age for love,
and I spread the corner of my garment over you
and covered your nakedness;
I made my vow with you and entered into a covenant with you...
and you became mine.
I bathed you with water...
washed off your blood... and anointed you...
I clothed you... I wrapped you in fine linen
and covered you with silk.
And I adorned you... with gold and silver...
You grew exceedingly beautiful and advanced to royalty...
Your renown went forth... because of your beauty,
for it was perfect
through the splendor that I had bestowed on you...
You trusted in your beauty
and played the whore...
on any passer-by;
your beauty became his...
And in all your abominations and your whorings
you did not remember the days of your youth,
when you were naked and bare [and I clothed you]...
[You] made your beauty and abomination,
offering yourself to any passer-by
and multiplying your whoring...
Even with this you were not satisfied.
How lovesick is your heart...
because you did all these things,
the deeds of a brazen prostitute...
Yet you were not like a prostitute,
because you scorned payment.
Adulterous wife,
who receives strangers
instead of her husband!
Men give gifts to all prostitutes,
but you gave your gifts to all your lovers,
bribing them to come to you...
So you were different from other women in your whorings.
No one solicited you to play the whore
and you gave payment,
while no payment was given to you;
therefore you were different...
I will gather all your lovers...
and will uncover your nakedness to them,
that they may see all your nakedness.
And I will judge you as women who
commit adultery and shed blood are judged,
and bring upon you
the blood of wrath and jealousy...
They shall strip you of your clothes
and take your beautiful jewels
and leave you naked and bare..."
Silk Spectre's past has been riddled with abuse and despair, sex and distrust, scandals and hate. She has sojourned through life not being able to confide in her own mother, ignorant to the identity of her father, and lost in a sea of violence.
It is no wonder that by the time of Watchmen, she has become a woman able to allow a man who may not have a soul to fall in love her, a woman who cheats on a blue god with a simple man, and a woman who would rather live behind a mask than face the pains of reality.
This is the same place that Israel has finds herself in Ezekiel 16. She no longer remembers her identity. Her covenant and her creator, her lover and her God, have become distant memories to who she has become. Lost in slavery, covered in blasphemy, and drowning in misery, the Israelites had become nothing more than a lost, beaten, and abused whore. Not even a prostitute, but a whore.
She had given herself away.
She had turned on the only one who had ever loved her, the one who had always been there for her, the one who swore to continue to be there for her, the one who not only created her, but sustained her and more than once has saved her.
For that, she deserved nothing more than the wrath of her abused husband and the death penalty prescribed to an adulterous wife.
Before Christ, Israel had payed the price for her unfaithfulness. But, our God still refused to give up on His vow to His woman.
"I will make you stop playing the whore,
and you shall also give payment no more.
So will I satisfy my wrath on you,
and my jealousy shall depart from you.
I will be calm and will no more be angry...
I will remember my covenant
with you in the days of your youth,
and I will establish for you
an everlasting covenant...
and you shall know that I am the Lord,
that you may remember and be confounded...
when I atone for you
all that you have done,
declares the Lord God."
God's continued faithfulness has done more than just forgiven us for our adulterous ways. He has remained true to His word. He has not only kept His promise, He has secured us with buying eternity for us and atoning us through the blood of His Son, Jesus Christ.
And, unlike Israel, we can remember. Although we were naked, He clothed us. Although we rebel, He forgives us. And, although we run from Him, He finds us.
Even in this screwed up world, there is still one
And, He shouts out to us, "Live!" "Live!"
His eye pities us. He allows us to flourish with His continued sustenance. He clothes us with righteousness. He bathes us in Baptism. He cleanses us from our dirty ways. And, He adorns us as His beautiful and only body and Bride.
"I have loved you with an everlasting love;
therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you." Jer. 31:3.
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