In December, I was in prayer and was pretty much downloaded these paintings.... God asking me to make them and put them out there. I struggled through each one personally as no creator can make something that communicates a message without first having to apply it to there own lives. It was a very humbling and sobbering experience.
I believe they communicate a larger message that God is saying through many different venues. The message is this:
we have left our first love... and He is calling His bride back to Him. He is a jealous husband and He will do whatever it takes to remove these obstacles of adultery from this relationship. We often allow these idols exist because of our comfort, security, and pride in ourselves. So if these things must go in order to bring us back... then they will be challenged.
My prayer and hope for these paintings is a response of repentence.
This is the write up I had at the show:
Read this:
“On the day you were born your cord was not cut, nor were you washed with water to make you clean, nor were you rubbed with salt or wrapped in cloths. No one looked on you with pity or had compassion enough to do any of these things for you. Rather, you were thrown out into the open field, for on the day you were born you were despised.”
'Then I passed by and saw you kicking about in your blood, and as you lay there in your blood I said to you, "Live!" I made you grow like a plant of the field. You grew up and developed and became the most beautiful of jewels. Your breasts were formed and your hair grew, you who were naked and bare.”
'Later I passed by, and when I looked at you and saw that you were old enough for love, I spread the corner of my garment over you and covered your nakedness. I gave you my solemn oath and entered into a covenant with you, declares the Sovereign LORD, and you became mine.”
'I bathed you with water and washed the blood from you and put ointments on you. I clothed you with an embroidered dress and put leather sandals on you. I dressed you in fine linen and covered you with costly garments. I adorned you with jewelry: I put bracelets on your arms and a necklace around your neck, and I put a ring on your nose, earrings on your ears and a beautiful crown on your head. So you were adorned with gold and silver; your clothes were of fine linen and costly fabric and embroidered cloth. Your food was fine flour, honey and olive oil. You became very beautiful and rose to be a queen. And your fame spread among the nations on account of your beauty, because the splendor I had given you made your beauty perfect, declares the Sovereign LORD.”
'But you trusted in your beauty and used your fame to become a prostitute. You lavished your favors on anyone who passed by and your beauty became his. You took some of your garments to make gaudy high places, where you carried on your prostitution. Such things should not happen, nor should they ever occur. You also took the fine jewelry I gave you, the jewelry made of my gold and silver, and you made for yourself male idols and engaged in prostitution with them. And you took your embroidered clothes to put on them, and you offered my oil and incense before them. Also the food I provided for you—the fine flour, olive oil and honey I gave you to eat—you offered as fragrant incense before them. That is what happened, declares the Sovereign LORD.”
'Woe! Woe to you, declares the Sovereign LORD. In addition to all your other wickedness, you built a mound for yourself and made a lofty shrine in every public square. You built yourself a high place at the top of every street and made your beauty abominable, and you spread your legs to every passer-by to multiply your harlotry. You engaged in prostitution with the Egyptians, your lustful neighbors, and provoked me to anger with your increasing promiscuity. So I stretched out my hand against you and reduced your territory; I gave you over to the greed of your enemies, the daughters of the Philistines, who were shocked by your lewd conduct. You engaged in prostitution with the Assyrians too, because you were insatiable; and even after that, you still were not satisfied. Then you increased your promiscuity to include Babylonia, a land of merchants, but even with this you were not satisfied."
'How weak-willed you are, declares the Sovereign LORD, when you do all these things, acting like a brazen prostitute! When you built your mounds at the head of every street and made your lofty shrines in every public square, you were unlike a prostitute, because you scorned payment."
'You adulterous wife! You prefer strangers to your own husband! EZEKIEL 16
Does this passage freak anyone else out? I mean, did you know this kind of language was in the Holy Bible?
And can God really say, “spread your legs... to multiply your harlotry”?
Apparently He can. This is a specific passage where God is speaking to a specific group of people, Israel. Awhile back He entered into a relationship with them, a commitment to be each other’s one and only, and now we see that Israel has breached that commitment and has “cheated” on Him.
What I find interesting about this passage is the language God uses. It’s not this booming stale voice from the sky like we picture from Monty Python films. But it’s this excruciatingly painful lament of a husband over his bride. In fact, we see at the end of this passage that God’s relationship with a people is viewed as a marriage.
I’m newly married myself and as my wife and I are on this journey, I’m finding my preconceived notions of what marriage is is falling away and being replaced with the reality of this commitment. And commitment is the biggest part. So with this reality, it seems to me that commitment context between a group of people and God is viewed in His eyes as an intimate, loving.... marriage.
I live thousands of years later from when this passage was written. And even though there is not a specific nation that God has chosen anymore, there are many people who have chosen to commit to Him and have in fact become His bride. This is a language that is used a lot in the North American Christian Church... that they are the “Bride of Christ.” If you had to peg me in somewhere I guess you could put me in this group... although I’m not always sure I want to be pegged with the North American church. The reason is there is so much garbage that has been mixed in with the true essence of knowing God... and it repulses me as much as the rest of society. But having been on this journey with the “Bride of Christ”, having seen what I’ve seen, and in light of this passage from the Bible, I have to look and ask myself, “Is there anything to convict us of being a whoring bride?”
These paintings are based on that question. These are muses on our own idols... the adulterous tendencies of the North American Church... the things that fall into the category of a relationship buster. They are an insider commentary on what we say we believe but where in reality we prefer strangers to our own husband.
They were made in the utmost humility and grief.
