God is Addressing the Sins of His People

 

Ezekiel 16: 44-58

 

November 30,2023

 

“Behold, everyone who uses proverbs will use this proverb about you: ‘Like mother, like daughter.’  You are the daughter of your mother, who loathed her husband and her children; and you are the sister of your sisters, who loathed their husbands and their children. Your mother was a Hittite and your father an Amorite.  And your elder sister is Samaria, who lived with her daughters to the north of you; and your younger sister, who lived to the south of you, is Sodom with her daughters.  Not only did you walk in their ways and do according to their abominations; within a very little time you were more corrupt than they in all your ways.  As I live, declares the Lord God, your sister Sodom and her daughters have not done as you and your daughters have done.  Behold, this was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and needy.  They were haughty and did an abomination before me.  So, I removed them, when I saw it.  Samaria has not committed half your sins. You have committed more abominations than they, and have made your sisters appear righteous by all the abominations that you have committed.  Bear your disgrace, you also, for you have intervened on behalf of your sisters. Because of your sins in which you acted more abominably than they, they are more in the right than you. So be ashamed, you also, and bear your disgrace, for you have made your sisters appear righteous.

“I will restore their fortunes, both the fortunes of Sodom and her daughters, and the fortunes of Samaria and her daughters, and I will restore your own fortunes in their midst, that you may bear your disgrace and be ashamed of all that you have done, becoming a consolation to them.  As for your sisters, Sodom and her daughters shall return to their former state, and Samaria and her daughters shall return to their former state, and you and your daughters shall return to your former state.  Was not your sister Sodom a byword in your mouth in the day of your pride, before your wickedness was uncovered? Now you have become an object of reproach for the daughters of Syria and all those around her, and for the daughters of the Philistines, those all around who despise you.  You bear the penalty of your lewdness and your abominations, declares the Lord.

 

The Jewish people were guilty of leaving God who had chosen them from all others, to make them special people to Him.  God makes it clear what stole the hearts of the people of Sodom and Samaria.  “Behold, this was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and needy.  They were haughty and did an abomination before me.  So, I removed them, when I saw it.  Samaria has not committed half your sins. You have committed more abominations than they, and have made your sisters appear righteous by all the abominations that you have committed.”

 

If we who are in Christ have that same pride with the excess of many things and having prospered by God's blessing and did not aid the poor and needy, are you not in the same boat with the ones that God says have done these abominations before Him. 

 

You should recall that both Sodom and Samaria were looked at with disdain by the Jewish people.  We the Church, are more like the Jewish people in that we often look down on those who are not in Christ, not understanding, that it was God's grace that brought us out of that life, the captivity of being under the control of sin.  

 

Jesus has given us one command: Go, and share what God has done for you as you go. When you and I abide in Christ we are His ambassadors.   When we care for the under-resourced in our area or give to a ministry that helps the needy, we are being the hands and feet of Jesus.  Note: Make sure they are using the funds to do so.

 

From the Back Porch,

 

Bob Rice