When the Good Kid is the Worst of All Text: Ezekiel 16:44-52
Introduction: The Covenantal Family Tree
We live in an age that despises its heritage. We are told to be ashamed of our fathers, to tear down their monuments, and to repudiate everything they stood for. But the Bible has a much more robust, and frankly, more terrifying, understanding of heritage. The Scriptures teach that character, sin, and blessing are passed down through generations. We are not isolated individuals, popping into existence without a history. We are part of a stream, a covenantal succession. And as this passage in Ezekiel makes devastatingly clear, sometimes the family resemblance is a damning indictment.
Ezekiel 16 is one of the most blistering chapters in all of Scripture. God, through the prophet, is laying out a covenant lawsuit against his adulterous bride, Jerusalem. He recounts her history, from an abandoned infant left for dead in a field, to a queen whom He rescued, cleaned, adorned, and married. He gave her everything. And she took all His gifts and used them to play the harlot with every passing pagan nation. She became infamous not just for her adultery, but for paying her lovers, a whore in reverse.
Now, in our text, God moves to the sentencing phase. And He does it by introducing Jerusalem to her family. He holds up a dark mirror and says, "Look at yourself. You know who you look like?" This is not a compliment. This is God using the principle of generational sin to drive home the breathtaking depth of Judah's rebellion. The world thinks in terms of individual choices, isolated from history. God thinks in terms of covenants, families, and nations. And what He says here is that Jerusalem, the chosen city, the place of His Temple, had become so corrupt that she made the wicked sisters, Samaria and Sodom, look good by comparison. This is a staggering charge. It is one thing to be bad. It is another thing entirely to be so bad that you rehabilitate the reputation of the worst sinners imaginable.
This passage forces us to confront the nature of our own sin. We like to compare ourselves with others and come out looking pretty good. But God compares us to His perfect standard, and He takes into account the light we have been given. To whom much is given, much is required. And to sin against great light is to sin greatly. Jerusalem had more light than any city on earth, and so her darkness was the blackest of all.
The Text
"Behold, everyone who quotes proverbs will quote this proverb concerning you, saying, ‘Like mother, like daughter.’ You are the daughter of your mother, who loathed her husband and children. You are also the sister of your sisters, who loathed their husbands and children. Your mother was a Hittite and your father an Amorite. Now your older sister is Samaria, who lives north of you with her daughters; and your younger sister, who lives south of you, is Sodom with her daughters. Yet you have not merely walked in their ways or done according to their abominations; but, as if that were too little, you acted more corruptly in all your ways than they. As I live,” declares Lord Yahweh, “Sodom your sister and her daughters have not done as you and your daughters have done. Behold, this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had lofty pride, abundant food, and quiet ease, but she did not strengthen the hand of the afflicted and needy. Then they were haughty and committed abominations before Me. So I removed them when I saw it. Furthermore, Samaria did not commit half of your sins, for you have multiplied your abominations more than they. Thus you have made your sisters appear righteous by all your abominations which you have done. Also bear your dishonor in that you have made judgment favorable for your sisters. Because of your sins in which you acted more abominably than they, they are more in the right than you. Yes, be also ashamed and bear your dishonor, in that you made your sisters appear righteous."
(Ezekiel 16:44-52 LSB)
The Proverb of the Rotten Root (vv. 44-45)
God begins his summation with a proverb that will become common knowledge.
"Behold, everyone who quotes proverbs will quote this proverb concerning you, saying, ‘Like mother, like daughter.’ You are the daughter of your mother, who loathed her husband and children. You are also the sister of your sisters, who loathed their husbands and children. Your mother was a Hittite and your father an Amorite." (Ezekiel 16:44-45)
God says that Jerusalem's behavior is so predictable, so thoroughly corrupt, that it will become a case study, a byword. "Like mother, like daughter." This is the principle of covenantal succession in its grimmest form. Earlier in the chapter, God identified Jerusalem's parentage: "Your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite" (Ezek. 16:3). This wasn't a strict genealogical statement, but a spiritual one. The Amorites and Hittites were the pagan inhabitants of Canaan, infamous for their idolatry and depravity, the very people God commanded Israel to drive out. But instead of driving them out, Israel intermarried with them, learned their ways, and eventually, became them.
Jerusalem had adopted the character of her pagan mother. And what was that character? She "loathed her husband and children." This is a precise diagnosis. The pagan world is defined by its hatred of true covenant relationships. The Hittite mother loathes her husband, representing a rebellion against God-ordained authority and covenant faithfulness. And she loathes her children, which was most graphically displayed in the horrific practice of child sacrifice to idols like Molech, a sin Jerusalem had enthusiastically adopted. When a culture rejects God, the first things to go are faithful marriage and the love of children. Sound familiar?
Jerusalem has proven to be a true daughter of this pagan stock. She has loathed her husband, Yahweh, and committed spiritual adultery with countless idols. And she has loathed her children, passing them through the fire. The family resemblance is undeniable, and it is her shame.
A Family of Harlots (vv. 46-48)
Next, God introduces the sisters, Samaria and Sodom, to show that this is a family-wide corruption, but with Jerusalem as the worst of the bunch.
"Now your older sister is Samaria, who lives north of you with her daughters; and your younger sister, who lives south of you, is Sodom with her daughters. Yet you have not merely walked in their ways or done according to their abominations; but, as if that were too little, you acted more corruptly in all your ways than they. As I live,” declares Lord Yahweh, “Sodom your sister and her daughters have not done as you and your daughters have done." (Ezekiel 16:46-48 LSB)
Samaria, the capital of the northern kingdom of Israel, was the "older sister." She had led the way into apostasy with the golden calves of Jeroboam and was judged for it by the Assyrians. Sodom, the "younger sister," was the ancient benchmark for utter depravity, judged by fire from heaven. Geographically and spiritually, Jerusalem is situated between these two infamous examples of rebellion.
One might expect God to say, "You've become just like them." But the charge is far more severe. He says, "You have not merely walked in their ways... you acted more corruptly in all your ways than they." This is the heart of the indictment. Jerusalem looked at the sins of Samaria and Sodom not as a warning, but as a starting point, a baseline to be exceeded. It was "as if that were too little."
Then comes the divine oath, "As I live." When God swears by His own existence, we must pay very close attention. He says that Sodom, the city whose name is synonymous with perversion, had not done what Jerusalem had done. This is not hyperbole. This is a calculated, legal verdict from the bench of the supreme Judge of the universe. Why was Jerusalem's sin worse? Because she sinned against a floodlight of revelation. Sodom sinned in the relative twilight. Jerusalem had the Law, the prophets, the Temple, the sacrificial system, and the manifest presence of God. Her sin was high-handed treason. It was the adultery of a cherished wife, not the fornication of a street-walker who had never known love.
The Real Sin of Sodom (vv. 49-50)
God then pauses to define the iniquity of Sodom, and it is a definition our modern world desperately needs to hear.
"Behold, this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had lofty pride, abundant food, and quiet ease, but she did not strengthen the hand of the afflicted and needy. Then they were haughty and committed abominations before Me. So I removed them when I saw it." (Ezekiel 16:49-50 LSB)
Notice what is listed first. Not the sexual perversion, though that was certainly present. The root sin, the fountainhead of all the rest, was "lofty pride." This is the primal sin of Satan, the desire to be autonomous, to be one's own god. This pride was fertilized by prosperity: "abundant food, and quiet ease." They were fat, happy, and secure. And in their self-satisfied comfort, they became utterly callous: they "did not strengthen the hand of the afflicted and needy."
This is a crucial point. The revisionists who want to claim that Sodom's only sin was a lack of hospitality are just as wrong as those who want to reduce it to one particular sexual act. The sin was a whole orientation of the heart, a culture of arrogant self-sufficiency that bred contempt for both God and neighbor. Their pride made them haughty, and that haughtiness expressed itself in "abominations before Me." The Hebrew word for abomination, toebah, is a strong one, often used for idolatry and gross sexual immorality, including the homosexual acts described in Genesis 19. The sexual sin was not the root; it was the foul fruit that grew from the root of pride and godless prosperity.
God's conclusion is swift and final: "So I removed them when I saw it." There was no lengthy legal proceeding. The sin was blatant, the abomination was public, and the judgment was summary. This is a permanent warning to every proud and prosperous nation that forgets God.
Making Sodom Righteous (v. 51-52)
The final verses of our passage deliver the knockout blow. Jerusalem's sin is so profound that it changes the moral calculus of history.
"Furthermore, Samaria did not commit half of your sins, for you have multiplied your abominations more than they. Thus you have made your sisters appear righteous by all your abominations which you have done. Also bear your dishonor in that you have made judgment favorable for your sisters. Because of your sins in which you acted more abominably than they, they are more in the right than you. Yes, be also ashamed and bear your dishonor, in that you made your sisters appear righteous." (Ezekiel 16:51-52 LSB)
Samaria's sins were not even half of Jerusalem's. The sheer volume and creativity of Judah's idolatry and wickedness were off the charts. And the result is a shocking reversal. "You have made your sisters appear righteous." Imagine a criminal so vile, so monstrous in his crimes, that in the court of public opinion, he makes garden-variety murderers look like decent chaps. This is what Jerusalem had done. Her covenant-breaking was so black that the sins of Samaria and Sodom seemed almost grey by comparison.
This is why God tells her to "bear your dishonor." Her sin had made a favorable judgment for her sisters. In any relative comparison, they now looked better. "They are more in the right than you." What a soul-crushing verdict for the people of God! The pagans are more righteous than you are. This is the ultimate shame. When the church behaves so badly that the world, with its debased standards, can legitimately point a finger and say, "We are better than you," that is a profound dishonor. And that is exactly where Jerusalem found herself.
The Gospel for Those Who Make Sodom Look Good
The weight of this passage is immense. It is a portrait of total depravity, magnified by covenant privilege. It is easy for us to read this and thank God that we are not like those wicked Jerusalemites. But in doing so, we become them. For we too have been given immense light. We have the completed Word of God, the history of redemption, and the indwelling Holy Spirit. We live on this side of the cross and the empty tomb. If Jerusalem's sin was worse than Sodom's because of the light she had, how much more culpable are we when we trifle with sin?
The charge that Jerusalem made Sodom look righteous is a foreshadowing of what Jesus would say to the cities of his day. "Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I tell you, it will be more bearable on the day of judgment for Tyre and Sidon than for you. And you, Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven? You will be brought down to Hades. For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day" (Matt. 11:21-23).
The principle is the same: sinning against the very presence of God in Christ is the ultimate transgression. It makes Sodom's sin pale in comparison. This is our natural state. Left to ourselves, we are all daughters of the Hittite mother. We loathe our true husband and we sacrifice our children on the altars of our own convenience and ambition. Our pride, our prosperity, and our quiet ease make us callous and hard-hearted.
Is there any hope? The end of Ezekiel 16, beyond our passage, gives the stunning answer. God says, "Yet I will remember my covenant I made with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish an everlasting covenant with you... So I will establish my covenant with you, and you will know that I am the Lord, that you may remember and be confounded, and never open your mouth again because of your shame, when I have atoned for you for all that you have done" (Ezek. 16:60-63).
The only answer to sin that makes Sodom look righteous is a grace that makes no sense at all. It is a grace that remembers its own promises even when we forget ours. It is a grace that atones for everything. This is the grace we have in Jesus Christ. He took our Hittite nature upon Himself. He stood in the place of the adulterous bride and bore the fury and jealousy of the holy Husband. He was cast out, as Jerusalem was, so that we might be brought in. He bore our dishonor so that we might be clothed in His righteousness.
The result is not arrogance, but a shame-faced wonder. When we truly see the depth of our sin, a sin worse than Sodom's, and the height of God's grace, a grace that covers it all, the only proper response is to be confounded, to be silenced by mercy, and to never open our mouths in self-justification again. That is true repentance, and that is the beginning of true worship.