Scripture Daily

Context No. 1315 of 4322 · Ezekiel

Context · Reflection

Ezekiel 16:49-58: in context

49“‘“Behold, this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom: pride, fullness of bread, and prosperous ease was in her and in her daughters. She also didn’t strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. 50They were arrogant and committed abomination before me. Therefore I took them away when I saw it. 51Samaria hasn’t committed half of your sins; but you have multiplied your abominations more than they, and have justified your sisters by all your abominations which you have done. 52You also bear your own shame yourself, in that you have given judgment for your sisters; through your sins that you have committed more abominable than they, they are more righteous than you. Yes, be also confounded, and bear your shame, in that you have justified your sisters. 53“‘“I will reverse their captivity, the captivity of Sodom and her daughters, and the captivity of Samaria and her daughters, and the captivity of your captives among them; 54that you may bear your own shame, and may be ashamed because of all that you have done, in that you are a comfort to them. 55Your sisters, Sodom and her daughters, will return to their former estate; and Samaria and her daughters will return to their former estate; and you and your daughters will return to your former estate. 56For your sister Sodom was not mentioned by your mouth in the day of your pride, 57before your wickedness was uncovered, as at the time of the reproach of the daughters of Syria, and of all who are around her, the daughters of the Philistines, who despise you all around. 58You have borne your lewdness and your abominations,” says the LORD.

In an extended and severe allegory, God is exposing Jerusalem's sin by comparing her to her sisters, Samaria and Sodom, and declaring Jerusalem worse than both. In the middle of it comes a striking summary of what Sodom's guilt actually was. This was the iniquity of your sister Sodom, God says: she and her daughters had pride, an excess of food, and prosperous ease, but she did not aid the poor and needy. They were haughty and did abominable things, and so God removed them. Jerusalem, God says, has done worse, multiplying abominations until her sisters look righteous by comparison, and she must bear her shame.

The definition of Sodom's sin here is arresting, because it is not the one we expect. God names it as pride, fullness of bread, and prosperous ease, together with a failure to help the poor and needy. Sodom was comfortable, well fed, secure, at leisure, and in the midst of that ease it did not lift a hand for the vulnerable at its gate. The self-satisfaction of the comfortable, hardening into indifference toward the poor, is what God names as the iniquity that brought Sodom down. That is a word that lands uncomfortably close to those of us who live in relative plenty. It is easy to assume the great sins are the dramatic ones and to feel safe because we have avoided those; but here God points to a quieter corruption, the pride and ease of the well-fed who simply do not notice or care about the needy around them. Prosperity is dangerous precisely because it can make us comfortable enough to stop seeing the poor, and God counts that blindness among grave sins. The passage will not let the comfortable rest easy; it asks whether our fullness of bread and prosperous ease have made us, like Sodom, people who no longer strengthen the hand of the poor and needy.

Have my own comfort and plenty made me, like Sodom, too much at ease to notice the poor and needy at my gate, and does God's definition of Sodom's sin as prosperous indifference convict me where I assumed I was safe?

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