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Encouragement for the journey from God’s Word. Today's Scripture: Ezekiel 16:43-17:24 / Proverbs 27:7-9
Well, a good Thursday morning to you. Hope your week is going well. Today we're reading in Ezekiel chapters 16 and 17. And there's a couple of verses in this passage that remind me of a conversation I had with a man many years ago when we were living in Vermont at the time.
And the context of this conversation is that, and it's only been like 25 years ago maybe, the state of Vermont was going through the throes of what to do about same-sex marriages. There was a couple, a homosexual couple, that sued the state because they were not granted a marriage license.
And the state Supreme Court ruled that the laws governing marriage were unconstitutional because they discriminated against same-sex couples. And the legislature in the state of Vermont then took up a bill to enact civil unions, trying to distinguish between the marriage between a man and a woman and homosexual same-sex.
Marriages.
And so a same-sex couple could have a civil union and get all the rights and the benefits and so forth of a married couple. And so anyway, this was going on in the legislature at the time. And I was working with a printer, working on some projects, and I got to talk to this guy and apparently he knew some same-sex couple or whatever.
But he was also a professing Christian. And he said, I think too many Christians get all upset over homosexuality and say that Sodom was destroyed for homosexuality. But Ezekiel says that's not what they were destroyed for.
They were destroyed because they didn't show hospitality. And I didn't remember exactly the passage he was talking about off the top of my head. So I didn't really argue with him much, but I said, well, that's not what was going on in Genesis when you read about the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.
So I went back to the passage and looked at what he was talking about, and here it is. It's in Ezekiel chapter 16, and he says in verse, the Lord speaks in verse 48. He says, as I live, says the Lord God, neither your sister, speaking to Jerusalem, the tribe of Judah, your sister Sodom nor her daughters have done as you and your daughters have done.
In other words, the Lord is saying, your behavior, what you've done is worse than what Sodom has done. Look, he says, this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom. She and her daughter had pride, fullness of food and abundance of idleness.
Neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and the needy. Well, if that's where it ended, you'd have to say, okay, well, then I guess that, I guess my friend that I was talking with had a point that she was destroyed for her, for her pride and her luxury and all of this, that kind of stuff.
But it continues though, in verse 50, it says, and they were haughty and committed abomination before me. Therefore, I took them away as I saw fit. Well, what was the abomination? Well, you go back to Genesis and you find out what the abomination was.
Now it is true that we zero in on simply the abomination and we have kind of glossed over these other aspects of Sodom's pride and her living in luxury and her haughtiness and arrogance because of it, and her condescending, hostile attitude toward the poor and the needy.
We kind of downplay those things and zero in on the homosexuality, the abomination and the sexual abominations of Sodom. And it's understandable because that's probably the most repulsive aspect of their behavior to us.
Now here's the thing, here's the thing about this passage. Don't forget how the Lord introduces this. He says to Jerusalem, as I live, neither your sister Sodom nor her daughters have done as you and your daughters have done.
The Lord is saying you have done worse. So what is it that Jerusalem has done that is worse than the abominable behavior of Sodom along with its expressions of pride and arrogance and condescension and hostility or lack of compassion toward the poor and the needy?
What's so bad that Jerusalem has done? I mean, after all, they still claim to be followers of God and the people of God. Well, what they have done was they had a covenant with the Lord that Sodom didn't have, a covenant that they agreed to, and they said, we will live by this covenant.
And part of that covenant was that the Lord would be the only God they served. They wouldn't serve any other gods other than him. They would not make any graven images. And yet what has Jerusalem done?
Jerusalem has violated that covenant and has gone after other lovers. And the previous whole section in Ezekiel talks about Jerusalem's harlotry and her adultery, that she's behaved like a harlot, but not taking pay for her harlotry, instead paying to get lovers to come and to commit harlotry with her.
And all of that is a very vivid description of the spiritual adultery and harlotry that Jerusalem has engaged in. What the Lord is saying here is that that kind of spiritual adultery is worse than the abominable behavior of the city of Sodom.
Let that sink in and let that serve to be a warning to us who may feel really proud that we're not guilty of such abominable behavior as took place in Sodom and Gomorrah, and we can be grateful to the grace of God that we haven't gone there.
But we also can be even worse in our sinful behavior if we engage in spiritual adultery and have other idols that we bow down to. I'm not talking about physical idols. There is an idol factory in our heart, and if we're holding on to other gods than the one true God whom we claim to be serving, then we are guilty of that idolatry.
That is an abomination to the Lord. So let's get that in perspective. It's not excusing it by any means, the abomination of Sodom and Gomorrah and its pride and all the rest of that stuff. But it's putting in perspective how God views the spiritual adultery of those whom he has called and chosen to be his own, and yet they spurn his love and turn their back on.
Him.
Oh, let's be warned in that. Let's have a good, proper perspective, and then let's be faithful. Let's be faithful to our loving God. Our Father and our God, we do thank you this morning for challenging us and encouraging us to be faithful to you and avoiding the abomination of spiritual adultery, we pray.
In Jesus' name, amen. All right, well, I hope you have a wonderful Thursday. May the Lord bless you in it. Good day.
