Ezekiel 16:8, “Now when I passed by thee, and looked upon thee, behold, thy time was the time of love; and I spread my skirt over thee, and covered thy nakedness: yea, I sware unto thee, and entered into a covenant with thee, saith the Lord GOD, and thou becamest mine.”
“Ezekiel 16:8, When I passed - This second passing by, may be understood of God's visiting and calling them out of Egypt. Thy time - The time of thy misery was the time of love in me towards thee. I spread my skirt - Espoused thee, as Ruth 3:9. Entered into a covenant - This was done at mount Sinai, when the covenant between God and Israel was sealed and ratified. Those to whom God gives spiritual life, he takes into covenant with himself. By this covenant they become his, his subjects and servants; that speaks their duty: and at the same time his portion, his treasure; that speaks their privilege.” [John Wesley]
God has an unconditional covenant with Israel from her inception, here a metaphor as a young woman betrothed to God. “Ezekiel 16:8-22 When she came to young womanhood, Jehovah betrothed Himself to her, purified her for marriage, lavished kindnesses upon her, and adorned her. But because she trusted in her own beauty, she turned from Him to idols, becoming a harlot . . . to everyone who passed by.” [Believer’s Bible Commentary]
Ezekiel 16:21, “That thou hast slain my children, and delivered them to cause them to pass through the fire for them?” She not only turned to idols, she sacrificed her children to pagan gods.
God honored His covenant with Israel and returned the Israeli to their land after a 70-year exile. Ezekiel 16:60, “Nevertheless I will remember my covenant with thee in the days of thy youth, and I will establish unto thee an everlasting covenant.” Then after another two and a half millennia, fulfillment of Isaiah 66:8, “Who hath heard such a thing? who hath seen such things? Shall the earth be made to bring forth in one day? or shall a nation be born at once? for as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children.”
During His earthly ministry, just touching the hem of Jesus’ robe could heal.
Matthew 9:20-21, “20 And, behold, a woman, which was diseased with an issue of blood twelve years, came behind him, and touched the hem (G2899) of his garment 21 For she said within herself, If I may but touch his garment, I shall be whole.”
Mark 6:56, “And whithersoever he entered, into villages, or cities, or country, they laid the sick in the streets, and besought him that they might touch if it were but the border (G2899) of his garment: and as many as touched him were made whole.”
G2899, a margin, that is, a fringe or tassel, border, hem.
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