This evening, if you have your Bibles, turn with me to Ezekiel chapter 16. I want to come to the last portion of chapter 16.Ezekiel has been commissioned by the Lord to share with the people of Judah about the fact that they have looked upon what the Lord refers to as two of their sisters, Sodom and Samaria.
And as we were studying the last couple of times we met together, the reason he calls them their sisters, Sodom is south of where Jerusalem and Judah, the tribe of Judah and Benjamin would be. It’s in the southernmost portion of where the Dead Sea is today, is where Sodom would have been looked at. The scriptures refer to Sodom and her children.
And then it refers to Samaria, which would have been north of where Judah and Jerusalem were. And it refers to Samaria and her children. When it refers to their children, it’s referring to the other small cities that are around them.
And these other cities have taken the lead from Sodom and they’ve taken the lead from Samaria and they’ve become just as wicked and corrupt as the cities that were there.But it’s interesting as we look at this that Judah didn’t view herself as being as wicked as these two places. Remember back in chapter 19 of the book of Genesis it talks about the wickedness that was found in Sodom.
And it was so wicked that God came and judged the city. And in that chapter it talks about how He sent two angels and the Lord Himself came with them to the tent of Abraham. And then the two angels went on to the city of Sodom.
And the city of Sodom and many of the surrounding cities were destroyed by the Lordbecause of the wickedness. And we see that Samaria to the north was overrun by the Assyrians. And the people of Samaria and all of the northern kingdom of Israel were taken into captivity by the Assyrians as judgment on them by the Lord.
Well, Judah just didn’t see it had a problem. And Ezekiel is coming and he’s sharing with them what they do. I want us to look at three things in the verses.
We’re going to just read the beginning and the verses starting at, well we’ll start at verse 46 and we’ll read to the end of the chapter. And we’ll take a look at some of these things that Judah was doing. The elder sister is Samaria.
The Sin of Sodom Revisited
46 And thine elder sister is Samaria, she and her daughters that dwell at thy left hand: and thy younger sister, that dwelleth at thy right hand, is Sodom and her daughters.
47 Yet hast thou not walked after their ways, nor done after their abominations: but, as if that were a very little thing, thou wast corrupted more than they in all thy ways.
48 As I live, saith the Lord God, Sodom thy sister hath not done, she nor her daughters, as thou hast done, thou and thy daughters.
49 Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy.
50 And they were haughty, and committed abomination before me: therefore I took them away as I saw good.
51 Neither hath Samaria committed half of thy sins; but thou hast multiplied thine abominations more than they, and hast justified thy sisters in all thine abominations which thou hast done.
52 Thou also, which hast judged thy sisters, bear thine own shame for thy sins that thou hast committed more abominable than they: they are more righteous than thou: yea, be thou confounded also, and bear thy shame, in that thou hast justified thy sisters.
53 When I shall bring again their captivity, the captivity of Sodom and her daughters, and the captivity of Samaria and her daughters, then will I bring again the captivity of thy captives in the midst of them:
54 That thou mayest bear thine own shame, and mayest be confounded in all that thou hast done, in that thou art a comfort unto them.
55 When thy sisters, Sodom and her daughters, shall return to their former estate, and Samaria and her daughters shall return to their former estate, then thou and thy daughters shall return to your former estate.
56 For thy sister Sodom was not mentioned by thy mouth in the day of thy pride,
57 Before thy wickedness was discovered, as at the time of thy reproach of the daughters of Syria, and all that are round about her, the daughters of the Philistines, which despise thee round about.
58 Thou hast borne thy lewdness and thine abominations, saith the Lord.
59 For thus saith the Lord God; I will even deal with thee as thou hast done, which hast despised the oath in breaking the covenant.
60 Nevertheless I will remember my covenant with thee in the days of thy youth, and I will establish unto thee an everlasting covenant.
61 Then thou shalt remember thy ways, and be ashamed, when thou shalt receive thy sisters, thine elder and thy younger: and I will give them unto thee for daughters, but not by thy covenant.
62 And I will establish my covenant with thee; and thou shalt know that I am the Lord:
63 That thou mayest remember, and be confounded, and never open thy mouth any more because of thy shame, when I am pacified toward thee for all that thou hast done, saith the Lord God.
She and her daughters that dwell at thy left hand. And the younger sister that dwelleth at thy right hand is Sodom and her daughter. And by saying the left hand and the right hand as you’d be standing in Jerusalem, Samaria would be to the north, Sodom would be to the south.
Let’s just fall in prayer. Heavenly Father, I pray that you would speak to us through your word this evening and help us to see that it’s so easy to not examine our own heart, but to look out and be critical as we see others that are caught up in sin.Lord, may we learn from the text tonight the importance of living according to your rules, that we may walk in the power of your Spirit, bringing obedience to your word and showing forth love to you, and understanding that we’re not to compare ourselves against others, but we are to compare ourselves against you and your holiness. And seek to walk according to that.
Speak to us now through your word, we pray in Jesus’ name. Amen. It’s interesting, the things that the city of Jerusalem was involved with in Judah can be summed up in the following three.
First of all, one of the things that they were caught up in was something that has become the preeminent thing in our culture today, and that was moral relativism. Moral relativism. And you see that moral relativism has become the foundation of people’s lives in our culture today, and one of the things that happens with moral relativism is that it’s very easy for me to look at someone else and see their sin and never examine my own heart.
And everything becomes relative to my situation, to my circumstances, and I can justify the way that I live and the decisions I make by all that’s around me, and there is no higher standard than what I’m facing at any given time in history.Is that what God says, that everything is to be judged by our situation, that we’re to be judged in comparison to other people, that we’re to be judged, and that is to be the highest standard we’re to live by. Judah thought that that was what it was.
They looked at themselves in comparison to what Sodom had been, they looked in comparison to what Samaria had been,and they thought, we’re pretty good. We still go to the temple. We still have a sacrificial system in place, even though we perverted it,even though we’ve changed it, but there’s a good reason for doing that.
We can justify the reasons, but we’ve still got the basics, right? God doesn’t care about that. He wants to look at the heart and the real purposes in what you’re doing. He wants to look at what is the foundation that you’re basing your life upon,and are you looking at the fact that you’re accountable to the Lord because there are absolutes we are to live by, and we’re accountable to the truth of His character and His word, and we stand judged by it, not by other people and what they’re involved in.
Many times we can always go out and find someone that we view in our eyes as a bigger sinner than we are. But in the eyes of the Lord, as you look at these three cities, first of all, Samaria, it becomes very evident very quickly that we’re in open defilement of the Lord. If you go back and look at verse 49, it says that the sins that were easily seen in Samaria, and he doesn’t even mention the sexual sins, which is what brought the final judgment upon them, but the judgment was already coming because of their attitudes and their sins.
It says, Behold, this was thy iniquity of the sister Sodom. Pride and fullness of bread and abundance of idleness was in her and her daughter. Neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy.
I want you to see that he talks about four things there. The first is, behold, her iniquity was pride. She thought that she was better and had a standard that was not accountable to God.
Pride was the sin of Satan, and when sin entered his heart, pride was there. And pride was that Satan thought he was no longer accountable to God, but he could either be an equal to or above his creator. And it was pride.
He abandoned the truth of God. He had abandoned the purpose of his calling. He had abandoned what God had created him to be, and instead he desired to be something that he was never intended to be, nor never could be.
This was the underlying sin of Sodom. And I want you to see that pride always leads spiraling downward into greater and greater sin. Just turn with me, keep your fingers in Ezekiel, and turn with me to Romans 1. And in Romans 1, the apostle Paul gives us a picture of this very thing as we examine what he says is the problem with people who are not believers.
So if you begin in Romans 1, and we come to the last book, let’s see. Let’s take a look at, let’s start at the beginning of verse 2. First, I thank my God, through Jesus Christ, for you all, and for your gifts as spoken of throughout the whole world. For God is my witness when I serve with my spirit in the gospel with his Son, and without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers, and make me request that by any means, now at length, I might have a prosperous journey by the will of God to come to you all.
And his whole point is, Paul had an attitude of service, an attitude where he desired to come and meet them. In verse 16 it says, For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ,for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith,that as it is written, the just shall live by faith.
Now, he says, this is where we should be. This is where Judah should have been in her understanding. This is what their attitude should have been, they should have been focused on the Lord.
But instead, he goes and he says, you’re looking at your sister Sodom and Clyde was one of her issues. Let’s pick it up at verse 18 of chapter 1 of Romans, and it says, For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness. Now, what is holding the truth in unrighteousness? It means that you are saying that the truth isn’t truth and that the lies are the truth.
That’s exactly where we are today. And we see that the prophets Isaiah and Jeremiahtalked about the fact that when good is called evil and evil is called good, it’s a mark on a culture that they no longer have a proper perspective of God and they desire to walk in their own pride and arrogance instead of following the Lord. That’s what Paul said is what brings the wrath of God upon men is this attitude of pride where I establish the rules, I have become God unto myself, I don’t need to listen to the Lord.
And it says, are they without excuse? Paul says no, for the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead, so that they are all without excuse. And the whole area of sin begins when you deny the fact that God is creator and you want to replace himwith some other God. And pride is listening to the lie of the serpent in the garden where the serpent told Adam and Eveyou shall be like God.
You shall know good and evil and you shall become like God.
Romans Verse 21,
because that when they knew God they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful but became vain in their imaginations and their foolish heart was darkened. Pride leads to the darkness of heart.
Now what happens is when the darkness of heart comes it leads into deeper and more wicked sin. It says,
professing themselves to be wise, they became fools and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into the image made like unto corruptible man and to birds and four-footed geese and creeping things. Wherefore God also gave them up to the uncleanness through the lust of their own heart to dishonor their own bodies between themselves to change the truth of God into a lie and worship and serve the creature more than the creator who is blessed forever. Amen.
And this is where you have moral relativism coming in which the Lord is speaking of and showing Judah you become moral relativist as you look and don’t see you look and see sin in Samaria and Sodom but you don’t see it in yourselvesand the sin that they possessed was pride where they thought they could set the rules. You’re doing the same thing.
And if you go, keep your hand in Romans let’s go back to Ezekiel chapter 16. So it says, behold, this was the iniquity of the sister Sodom, pride, and then the fullness of bread.Now what is the fullness of bread? The fullness of bread is that they could never get enough.
They were never satisfied. They were never thankful. They always desired more.
And it manifested themselves in physical lusts and desires. Paul gives, or rather Ezekiel, the Lord tells Ezekiel tell them that one of the things they had is the lust of food they could never get enough. And that really comes from the fact that we’re never satisfied and thankful for the position that God has placed us in nor what the things he’s given and established us to do and to possess.
But we always want more. And that’s because we view that we deserve more and it’s not because God doesn’t want to bless us but because we have lustful desires and can never be satisfied. So after pride came this lustful desire that no matter what you gave them, it wasn’t enough.
Then the third thing you see is the abundance of idleness. And as you look at this, the abundance of idleness, they felt it was their privilege to not have to work and to just do what they wanted to do when they wanted to do it. And then the final thing that he addresses in David’s 4 is, And in her and her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy.
In other words, they never came to the help of those that were in need. But they looked down upon them. Now I want to look at just some cultures just briefly.
If you look at, for example, let’s take the Hindu religion in India. They have a caste system there. And the caste system evolved from the fact that a group of individuals felt that they were better than other people.
In other words, they were the ones that set the standards. They were God. And they could never get enough.
The other people, they would take from the other people and because they viewed themselves as the higher caste, the ones that were under them had to be their servants,their slaves, to meet all of their needs. And they could take whatever they wanted from them. Then on top of that, the spirit of idleness, as you have all these other people that are less worthy than you, that they need to meet and supply your needs.
And finally, the ultimate thing in India that leads to the lower caste, that they’re not even worthy of being helped. For example, if someone from the lower caste would slip and fall and harm themselves on the street, and you come from a higher caste, you don’t stop and help them. You just walk around them or walk over them because they’re not worthy.
That’s just faith. That’s what they deserve. And this is an attitude that spiraled downward that comes from this whole series of rebellion against the principles of God’s word.
Jesus gave the parable of the Good Samaritan because the people of Jesus, the Jews of Jesus’ time, many of them were falling into the same philosophy as what had happened in Sodom. You had the Jewish people that felt that they were betterthan certain other people in their culture, than Samaritans and others, and that if someone was hurt, it was unclean to touch them and help them. And so you have the parable where Jesus has the priest that the man hurt and he walks around them.
You have another religious Jew that sees them and he walks around them. You have the Samaritans. And the Samaritan is viewed as unclean by the Jews, but the Samaritan comes and he not only helps the individual, but he takes him to a place.
He finds a place and he pays for him to be taken care of and to find a bed for him to stay in and that his wounds can be healed. And Jesus says, who is the more righteous? The one who professes to be religious, but doesn’t help his brother in need, help the person in need, or the one who you would look upon as being unworthy, but is willing to help the person in need. Ezekiel is speaking of the same type of thing.
They’re looking at the situation. I determine in my eyes what is right and wrong. I determine in my eyes who will be helped and who won’t.
I determine in my eyes what is good for me. I will take what I want when I want it, and I won’t work when I don’t want to work, and I’m not going to help the needy. It’s interesting to look at our culture today in America and much of these things we’re seeing here.
People think that I am God. I can determine my own destiny. I’m not accountable to anybody else.
And then, I just give me more. I want more, and I want more. And I don’t have to earn it.
I don’t have to go out and work for it. It just should be given to me. How many people want a position of prominence and prestige and preeminence, but they never want to put in the work to get there? And then finally, just being idle, not willing to work.
How many young people today we hear about that don’t really want to work? They want to get a paycheck. They want to have a position, but they don’t want to work. And then, the fourth thing is, what happens is it leads to, like in our culture,where many people have a skewed view on not being willing to help those that are in need, even though you may have the ability to help.
And so, Zika is telling the people of Judah, this is not a scenario problem, but lest you become too proud, realize that the same problem is with you, except in a greater extent.And then, he goes on, and he talks about the fact, the second thing is,Ezekiel is exposing the fact that the covenant has been broken, and the privilege, because of the privilege that this covenant that Judah has broken, it manifests itself in being guilt upon them. And this can be looked at in Samaria, where God has made the covenant with them as well, with the Samaritans.
And all of the ten tribes of the Northern Kingdom, as well as the Benjamin and Judah of the Southern Kingdom, they’d all been at Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal, when they came into the land of the Joshua, their ancestors were there, they heard the blessings in person, they heard how if you walk in obedience, these will be the blessings, if you disobey me and sin, these are the cursings, they heard all of this. Yet, they didn’t listen,and they didn’t walk by that. To one who is given great privilege, when you fail to take it and walk in the privilege that you’ve been given, but abuse that privilege, and take advantage of that privilege, to the extent that you bring disgrace upon the one who has given you that privilege, it results in guilt coming upon you, and you stand guilty before the one that you’re accountable to.
Jesus gave the example of the talents, and you remember the five and the one talents,that were given, and the guy with the one talent, he went out and buried it, he didn’t do anything with it. Now, a lot of people say, well, why was Jesus talking about how hard it was on that guy, because he buried his talent, because he’s a master king, and you ask the other two, the one that they’ve given ten, the one that they’ve given five, what they’ve done, and the one that they’ve given ten, so they went out and learned it, and got ten more, he said, he was blessed, the one with five, so I went out and learned it,and got five more, and he was blessed, and when they came to the one with ten, what did he tell them? Well, I knew what a hard taskmaster you were, I knew how strict you were, I knew how that you would judge me, and so I didn’t want to lose the one talent I got, so I went and I buried it, so nothing would happen to it, and here’s your one talent,and the master became extremely mad with him, and because he said, you could have at least taken my talent, and put it out to use it, in other words, you could have gone and got some interest on it, by borrowing it from somebody, but instead you did nothing with it, you went and buried it, because you didn’t want to be accountable to me, well, he’d been given a privilege, the privilege was, he was entrusted with property that was his master’s, and the master was showing the fact, I am trusting you with this, use it wisely,but he didn’t use it wisely, he used it foolishly, and he had been given a privilege, but because he abused that privilege, he stood guilty before the master, and Jesus gives every person privilege, and what Christ is telling us, not everybody receives the same, if you are, talent, don’t receive the same amount of responsibility, don’t receive the same amount of spiritual gifts, but we all receive them, and we’re to be accountable, not with what you get, but with what I get,so I’m accountable for mine, you’re accountable for yours, and we stand accountable for the Lord, with how we lived our lives, and how we have done, and what we use it, Judah stood accountable before God, he stood much more accountable than Sodom, because Sodom did not have the law, Sodom didn’t have the promise of the coming Messiah, Sodom didn’t have the history of the lineage of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, Judah and David, they didn’t have the line of the Messiah going through them, Judah had that, Judah even had it more than Samaria, because Judah, they were of the tribe of Judah,they should have known above all of them, and plus, they were in Jerusalem, where the temple was, all the law, and the promises, and the worship, were all there, and yet what did they do, they ignored and abused it.
And so what he’s telling them, you were given much privilege. But because you abused it and ignored it and thought that you could do whatever you wanted and were accountable to no one, guilt will come and judgment will be a reality. And so Ezekiel is trying to show them the reality of the fact, because they’re going, why is God being so hard on us and bringing Nebuchadnezzar and attacking Jerusalem? We’ve got the temple, we’ve got the city.
It’s supposed to be his city, it’s supposed to be his temple, and we’re the overseers of it. So why is he being so cruel to us? And he’s saying he’s not being cruel, he’s bringing just judgment. He’s being just because you have been more wicked than Samaria.
Because they didn’t have the privilege you had. You were more wicked than Samaria because they didn’t have the temple. They didn’t have Jerusalem.
They had a place where a false center of religion had been set up, and they stand accountable for that. But you were given the true place. You were given the true form of religion.
You were given the point that was showing that the Messiah was coming and that everything that was involved in this city was pointing to his coming and pointing to the fact that he had come to pay the penalty for your sins. Samaria didn’t have cities, they didn’t have the temple. You had it all and yet you rejected it.
You stand more accountable. To whom that is given much privilege manifests itself in much guilt if one doesn’t take responsibility properly. The third thing is, Ezekiel calls repentance through the shock of the example that God gives.
And when he judged Sodom and how he will spare Sodom, how could he possibly spare Jerusalem who is not guiltless before him? The Babylonian seed was a validated warning and resulted in God’s judgment against Israel, against Judah rather, and the city of Jerusalem in 587 and 586 B.C. God was shocking them with the reality that there are real consequences. Sometimes we don’t think that there are. Sometimes people think, well I grew up in the church, I know all the Bible accounts, historical accounts, I give to the church, I go to services, I get involved in activities, I do things, so why is God judging me but I go out and I live my life like the devil.
And I go out and don’t honor the Lord the minute I walk out the church door. And when I’m in the church, my heart is far from him. And so the Lord was saying, judgment will come, don’t be shocked when it comes.
There’s a lot of people in America that unless true repentance comes and we turn to God to resolve and people give their hearts to the Lord, judgment comes. If you look at biblical prophecy, you don’t find the United States in prophecy. The United States disappears.
We are not going to be there to help Israel and Russia and Iran indeed. Because no one will come to their aid except the Lord. And people are going to be shocked when judgment comes on our nation.
And it can come in many forms. It can come in economic judgment. Right now, our economy appears to be getting healthy again but the whole banking system is built with a house of cards where if you pull out one card the whole thing can collapse.
And that means the U.S. dollar is becoming worse, worse, and worse. And most people don’t even realize God can cause that. God can cause an attack on our nation.
There are many people that are military experts that say the next war could very well end up coming to American soil. We’ve had wars on American soil since the Civil War. But it could happen.
These things could happen. And when they do happen, many people can go, well how could this be? But God said, you need to look at what you’re doing. And that’s what He’s telling you to do.
Don’t be shocked when judgment comes. Because if you’re not willing to repent and turn to me, I have no other means to get you to turn than to totally shock you and bring you to the reality of where you really are. And God told them, you’re worse than Sodom.
You’re worse than Samaria. It was a message that could have shocked them. But in closing, I just want you to look at verses 51 to 53.
Because it says, Then thou shalt remember thy work. When you see the reality of judgment, when you see the reality of the fact that sin does really have consequences, you can’t hide it from God, then you are going to be, remember your ways, the ways of what you’ve done wrong and what you’ve done right. You’re going to be ashamed.
You’re going to be ashamed of the way that you’ve acted. You’re going to be ashamed of your pride. You’re going to be ashamed of your lust.
You’re going to be ashamed of your idleness and your unwillingness used by God. And you’re going to be ashamed about the way you’ve treated others. And so he says, and even thou shalt beseed thy sisters, thy elder and thy younger, and I will give them unto thee four daughters, but not by thy covenant.
In other words, it’s not going to be by your word that it’s going to happen, but it’s going to be by my word. Forgiveness is going to come to them through a new covenant, which is it’s going to come to you. And he says, but it’s not going to be things that you do.
One of the things that is distressing about even what everything that’s happening in our nation seems to be turning around, but the attitude is, we’re doing it. You hear this from our president, look at what I’ve done. Look at what I’ve done in a year.
Look at what my cabinet’s done in a year. How about look what the Lord has allowed to happen? It’s a totally different perspective. And he’s saying to them, you’re going to remember your ways and you’re going to be ashamed of the fact that you were saying, look at us, look at us, look at us.
Because I did look at you and I brought judgment. You’re going to look back and see why the judgment came and shame is going to come upon you. And then you’re going to see that these two other cities and the other cities around them, the areas that were judged and you felt were so much more wicked than you, but God says, no, you’re more wicked than them.
You’re going to see that they’re going to be saved, but it’s not going to be by your covenant. What’s it going to be saved by? He says, I will establish my covenant with you. And thou shalt know that I am the Lord.
So it’s going to be God that’s establishing his covenant, his redemption in his way, not men’s way. And that thou mayest remember and be confounded and never open thy mouth anymore because of thy shame. And I am pacified toward thee for all that thou hast done, saith the Lord.
God’s saying, when I forgive you, which I will, and it’s going to come through a means of my covenant, a new covenant that’s coming through Jesus. He said, you will be ashamed to the point that you will never open your mouth again and say, look at me, look at me, look at me. Instead, what you’re going to do is you’re going to be humbled before him.
And he says, when I am pacified toward thee, in other words, when peace comes between me and you, it derives forgiveness, and you’re not going to continue in the sinful way. This is a hard message for Jesus to bring, because he’s talking about that which God loves, that which God has to discipline, will God continue to love back. And he brings this message of hope that is found not in their ability to sin, but in God’s ability to forgive.
That’s what it’s about. Lord, I pray that you just help us to see what’s happening in the lives of these people, Sodom, Samaria, and help us to see that we all have levels of pride, but the greatest pride of all is those that are in Jerusalem and here, because we thought that they were the worst. Lord, help us to have a humble spirit, to be convicted of the sin in our lives, and to be conformed to the image of your Son and receive the gift of salvation in response to Jesus Christ our Lord.
Let’s do that. Amen.
Did You Know?
Ezekiel 16 is one of the strongest chapters in the Bible describing God’s covenant love using marriage imagery. Yet it ends not in abandonment—but in restoration. Even after severe rebuke, God promises an everlasting covenant.
Reflection Question:
If God restores Jerusalem after such rebellion, what does that reveal about His mercy toward repentant sinners today?