Ezekiel 16:44-57--Jerusalem, the Unfaithful Bride (Part 3)

Ezekiel 16:44-57
English Standard Version

44 “Behold, everyone who uses proverbs will use this proverb about you: ‘Like mother, like daughter.’ 45 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. 46 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. 47 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. 48 As I live, declares the Lord GOD, your sister Sodom and her daughters have not done as you and your daughters have done. 49 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. 50 They were haughty and did an abomination before me. So I removed them, when I saw it. 51 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. 52 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.

53 “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, 54 that you may bear your disgrace and be ashamed of all that you have done, becoming a consolation to them. 55 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. 56 Was not your sister Sodom a byword in your mouth in the day of your pride, 57 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.

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The LORD says that those who quote proverbs would quote the proverb, "Like mother, like daughter" regarding Jerusalem.  They would realize that she was not like Father God, but she had become like all the nations around her, especially the evil Canaanite tribes.  The LORD even compares Jerusalem to the people of Samaria (remember King Ahab and Queen Jezebel?) and Sodom.  Jerusalem (and all of Judah with her) has become just like these idolatrous and sexually perverse peoples.  The LORD condemns Sodom (and Israel and Judah) because they were selfish and greedy and did not share with the poor and needy what He had blessed them with.  That does not discount all the other kinds of sin that we know they committed, but the LORD is specifically drawing a connection here.  Not only did Jerusalem have an abundance of material possessions that they should have been sharing with the world, but they also had the fullness of God's revelation to man in the Scriptures.  They could have invited all the peoples of the world to the Temple to learn about Him.  They could have sent missionaries (prophets and priests and Levites) to the uttermost ends of the earth to share the truth and light with those who were deceived and walking in darkness.  However, the Jewish people kept the truth that God had given them to themselves, even though they were called to be a city on a hill that would shine brightly and give light to the rest of the world.

The LORD condemns Israel and Judah because they had His covenant and a relationship with Him that Samaria and Sodom did not have (Samaria should have, but they slipped so far into paganism that they lost their connection to the LORD and His covenant).  The LORD promises that He will restore them--their people and their land that have survived.  This would make the point even stronger that the LORD was angered with Judah and Jerusalem and that they were going to experience His judgment because of what they knew and rejected.  They had tasted and seen and chosen to become apostate.  The LORD does not bother trying to call the apostates of Jerusalem back to repentance--He's already done that quite a bit through the other prophets.  He does want His people to return to Him, but now is a time of purification and judgment to separate the wheat from the chaff and for the chaff to be burned up.  No longer will His people bring reproach on His good and holy Name.  No longer will they be allowed to be more wicked than their pagan, Gentile neighbors and receive the blessings of the Covenant simply for the sake of Abraham, Moses and David.  It is time for the children of Israel to reap what they have sown.  The wicked Syrians and the Philistines even despise the moral depravity of the people of Jerusalem.  If the LORD is going to judge all these other wicked nations, how can judgment not first start in the house of God?