September 30 Daily Devotional

Bible Reading:

Ezekiel 16:44-63

⁴⁴Behold, every one that useth proverbs shall use this proverb against thee, saying, As is the mother, so is her daughter.
⁴⁵Thou art thy mother's daughter, that lotheth her husband and her children; and thou art the sister of thy sisters, which lothed their husbands and their children: your mother was an Hittite, and your father an Amorite.
⁴⁶And 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.
⁴⁷Yet 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.
⁴⁸As I live, saith the Lord GOD, Sodom thy sister hath not done, she nor her daughters, as thou hast done, thou and thy daughters.
⁴⁹Behold, 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.
⁵⁰And they were haughty, and committed abomination before me: therefore I took them away as I saw good.
⁵¹Neither 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.
⁵²Thou 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.
⁵³When 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:
⁵⁴That thou mayest bear thine own shame, and mayest be confounded in all that thou hast done, in that thou art a comfort unto them.
⁵⁵When 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.
⁵⁶For thy sister Sodom was not mentioned by thy mouth in the day of thy pride,
⁵⁷Before 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.
⁵⁸Thou hast borne thy lewdness and thine abominations, saith the LORD.
⁵⁹For thus saith the Lord GOD; I will even deal with thee as thou hast done, which hast despised the oath in breaking the covenant.
⁶⁰Nevertheless I will remember my covenant with thee in the days of thy youth, and I will establish unto thee an everlasting covenant.
⁶¹Then 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.
⁶²And I will establish my covenant with thee; and thou shalt know that I am the LORD:
⁶³That 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.

Devotional:

Some of us are shocked on occasion to look into the mirror and be greeted by a remarkable resemblance to our father or mother! What an amazing phenomenon—a cast of the eye, a tilt of the head, a curl of the lip! 'As is the mother, so is her daughter' (16:44).

More awesome it is to see traits of character, and sins, in ourselves that we have seen, perhaps with some disgust, in our parents. The same things about which we used to be critical persist in cropping up in ourselves.

Sometimes God's people see the sins of their unbelieving parents getting a hold in their own lives. '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' (16:47). As Christians so much more is expected of us! Yet here we are falling into sins that our parents were subject to, sometimes even sinking lower than they did, at least from the point of view of privilege.

We should be bowing our heads in shame and pleading for God's forgiveness. 'Like mother, like daughter' is all very well when it comes to physical appearances, abilities or good qualities. When we are God's children, however, we may not repeat the sins of our parents in our own lives. If our parents are unbelievers this is even more shameful.

How thankful, Lord, we are for the latter verses in this chapter. You will remember Your covenant, despite our unfaithfulness (16:60).