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condemnation or compassion?

Ezekiel 23:43-49 (JDV)

Ezekiel 23:43 Then I said concerning this woman worn out by adultery: Will they now have illicit sex with her, even her?
Ezekiel 23:44 Yet they had sex with her as one does with a prostitute. This is how they had sex with Oholah and Oholibah, those depraved women.
Ezekiel 23:45 But righteous men will judge them the way adulteresses and those who shed blood are judged because they are adulteresses and blood is on their hands.
Ezekiel 23:46 “This is what the Lord Yahveh says: Summon a mob against them and consign them to terror and plunder.
Ezekiel 23:47 The mob will stone them and cut them down with their swords. They will kill their sons and daughters and burn their houses.
Ezekiel 23:48 So I will put an end to infamy in the land, and all the women will be admonished not to imitate your depraved behavior.
Ezekiel 23:49 They will punish you for your infamy, and you will bear the consequences for your failures of idolatry. Then you will know that I am the Lord Yahveh.”

condemnation or compassion?

How does one reconcile this passage with that describing our Lord’s compassionate treatment of the adulterous woman in John 8?

Jesus chose not to condemn the woman but warned her to “Go, and from now on do not sin anymore” (John 8:11).

But Ezekiel was not talking about a woman caught in adultery. He was talking about two nations steeped in idolatry. The condemnation he predicted was just and was fulfilled in history.

Further, both incidents — Ezekiel’s condemnation and Jesus’ forgiveness — result in the same thing: “Then you will know that I am the Lord Yahveh.”

We cannot always predict how our LORD is going to react, but we can be assured that his action will be just, and we will recognize his touch.