Ezekiel 16:23-25, 42-43, 48-52, 62-63 NLT
“What sorrow awaits you, says the Sovereign Lord. In addition to all your other wickedness, you built a pagan shrine and put altars to idols in every town square. On every street corner you defiled your beauty, offering your body to every passerby in an endless stream of prostitution.
“Then at last my fury against you will be spent, and my jealous anger will subside. I will be calm and will not be angry with you anymore. But first, because you have not remembered your youth but have angered me by doing all these evil things, I will fully repay you for all of your sins, says the Sovereign Lord. For you have added lewd acts to all your detestable sins.
As surely as I live, says the Sovereign Lord, Sodom and her daughters were never as wicked as you and your daughters. Sodom’s sins were pride, gluttony, and laziness, while the poor and needy suffered outside her door. She was proud and committed detestable sins, so I wiped her out, as you have seen. “Even Samaria did not commit half your sins. You have done far more detestable things than your sisters ever did. They seem righteous compared to you. Shame on you! Your sins are so terrible that you make your sisters seem righteous, even virtuous.
And I will reaffirm my covenant with you, and you will know that I am the Lord. You will remember your sins and cover your mouth in silent shame when I forgive you of all that you have done. I, the Sovereign Lord, have spoken!”
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Having grown up hearing people preach and teach the Bible and continuing to hear it for the better part of these past 47 years I have heard of Sodom. Who hasn't? Famous for their sin and maybe even more famous for their destruction by fire and brimstone rained down from heaven because of their terrible evil.
If a person wants to say that someone or some place is really perverted and evil then they compare them to Sodom!
Ezekiel puts things in perspective. First, the really detestable thing about Sodom contrary to common misconception isn't apparently their lewd sexual practices particularly homosexual gang rape of strangers. But rather Sodom is rebuked by God in Ezekiel for their economic unfairness! The people of Sodom apparently fostered an economic apathy towards the poor and this was the pinnacle of their sinful practice. Before you point that finger look in the mirror!
But secondly it turns out according to God we have the wrong iconic sinners! If you want to feel smug and point the finger at the real detestable sinners you'd have to point at God's people. Apparently, the all time evil lewd crude dudes were the Jews! Nobody was as evil , sexually promiscuous, or economically unfair than God's chosen people.
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| The Sun finds a way through! |
And God isn't messing around either he has judgements planned for them that are far worse than Sodom experienced. And it is a bit embarrassing when you think the Israelites themselves used to always point the finger at bad old Sodom or the dolt Samaria only to look in the mirror and see they were the really bad guys! Remember Abraham pleaded with God to save Sodom if only a handful of people were not completely against God. But it turns out no one was good so they all had to die a terrible death as did their children, babies animals, and culture. If Abraham could not save Sodom, he will not be able to save the worst sinners of all time, Israel.
But hold on! What is God ending this passage with now? He has exposed his people as completely off the chart sinners of a magnitude unheard of and then he says the whole lot will be restored. Sodom, Samaria, and the all time gross sad filthy disgusting people of God too will be forgiven!
Watch out who you think you are better than!
Watch out who God can forgive and restore!
