John Calvin Commentary Ezekiel 16:50

"And they were haughty, and committed abomination before me: therefore I took them away as I saw [good]." — Ezekiel 16:50 (ASV)

We must diligently attend to this passage, because God does not excuse the wickedness of Sodom here. Instead, as abominable as those people were, He says that the Jews were even more abandoned. We know why God inflicted His vengeance terribly upon the Sodomites and their neighbors: that was a terrifying example. Jude says that it was a kind of mirror of the wrath of God which awaits all the ungodly (Jude 1:7). Scripture also often reminds us of that proof of God’s judgment. However, we must see how Sodom rushed into such a degree of licentiousness that they were horrified by no enormity.

God says that they began with pride, and certainly, pride is the mother of all contempt for God and all cruelty. Let us learn, then, that we cannot be restrained by the fear of God unless moderation and humility reign within us. Pride, as we know, has two horns, so to speak. One is when people forget their own condition and claim for themselves not only more than is right, but what God alone claims as His own.

This, then, is one horn of pride: when people, trusting in their dignity, excellence, abundance, and wealth, are intoxicated by false imaginings, so that they think themselves equal to God. Now, another horn of pride is when they do not acknowledge their vices, despise others in comparison with themselves, and delight in their enormities, just as if they were free from any future accountability.

Therefore, since pride consists of these two aspects—when people arrogate too much to themselves and are thus blind to their own vices—each of these is undoubtedly condemned in the Sodomites. They first raised themselves up with a rash confidence and then refused to submit to God, rebelling against Him as if they could shake off His yoke.

He then adds "fullness of bread." But the Prophet seems to condemn in the Sodomites something that was not blameworthy in itself. For when God feeds us bountifully, abundance itself is not to be considered a crime; rather, He means it here as immoderate gluttony. Those who have abundance are often self-indulgent, and nothing is rarer than self-restraint when the means for luxury are supplied to us.

Hence, "fullness of bread" is here understood as intemperance, since the Sodomites were so addicted to gluttony and drunkenness that they gratified their appetites worse than animals. Animals do retain some moderation, for they are content with their own food, but human covetousness is altogether insatiable.

Let us observe, then, that by "fullness of bread" we are to understand that intemperance in which ungodly people indulge when God supplies them bountifully with the means of living. For they do not consider why they abound in wine, corn, and an abundance of all things; instead, they drown themselves in luxuries with a blind and brutal impulse.

Hence, such greediness, so inflaming to the spirits of the Sodomites, is added to pride, so that they arrogate to themselves more than is just. He then adds and rest (Hebrew: תולש, sheloth). Some translate it as abundance, but almost everywhere it means peace. The noun (Hebrew: טקש, sheket), which is added next, properly means rest, so that it will be the peace of rest or ease.

This peace or ease seems blameless. For why should we not be permitted to enjoy ease if no one molests or troubles us? Indeed, it is counted among God’s blessings: you shall sleep, and no one shall frighten thee (Leviticus 26:6).

Since God, therefore, wishes it to be considered among His blessings that the faithful should sleep soundly, without any anxiety or trouble, why is Sodom condemned for enjoying ease and peace in this way? But here its excess is pointed out, not its true use. The true use of peace is to make our minds tranquil, so that we may return thanks to God and dwell calmly under His rule.

But how do the reprobate act? They grow brutish, so to speak, in their own peacefulness. Hence, sloth is what is meant in this passage by the "peacefulness of ease," and God means that the Sodomites were intoxicated by their luxuries when they enjoyed peace. We must postpone discussing the remainder.

Prayer:

Grant, Almighty God, since You have seen fit to graft us into the body of Your only-begotten Son, that we may be mindful of our origin, since from our very birth we were lost and cursed. Grant also that we may be mindful of that grace by which You have honored us, so that we may worship You as a Father and preserve our trust in You inviolate. May we be so obedient to You that Your image may be renewed in us more and more in all righteousness and holiness, until Your glory perfectly shines forth in us in Your heavenly kingdom, through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

[Exposition continues from previous day's lecture]

In the last lecture, we began to discuss the passage where God declares that the Jews surpassed in all kinds of wickedness both the Sodomites and the ten tribes of Israel. When He wished to prove this, He said that the iniquity of Sodom was pride, fullness of bread, and then ease, with sloth and cruelty. Afterwards, He described another kind of pride, where the people were intoxicated with confidence and indulged in unbridled and brutal license, as He says later.

For He adds that the cities were overthrown and destroyed because they had committed foul abominations. With regard to excess, we said that simply living well is not condemned here when anyone uses the affluence granted to him for God’s glory; rather, what is condemned is luxury and intemperance. For the rich boast as much as possible, and are not only eager for delicacies and stuff themselves to the full, but they also triumph and revel in what is sure to destroy them.

The Prophet then blames this in the Sodomites. We also said of quiet and rest that it denoted that sloth by which ungodly people drive themselves to madness; but that is more clearly expressed shortly by "vain-boasting." The Prophet now adds, that they had not seized the hand of the poor and needy.

We must notice this, since pride is almost always cruel. Truly, no one heartily helps their poor brothers and sisters who is not affected by their needs. But those who are intoxicated by false confidence and claim everything for themselves despise their brothers and sisters, and thus carelessly allow them to be utterly oppressed by poverty and want.

The Prophet here declares nothing concerning Sodom but what we too often perceive by daily experience. He now adds—

Here God shows that Sodom had not at first fallen into those foul and gross crimes which were the cause of its final destruction. We must diligently mark this: for when Satan begins to entice us, we think that we will be free to retract our steps whenever we please; but we are ensnared, some in one way and some in another.

But when we are entangled by Satan’s deceits, it is not in our power to escape from them; indeed, we feel that we are involved in a complete labyrinth. Since, then, men proceed gradually in provoking God’s wrath, we must observe this passage, in which God informs us that the Sodomites were not given up at once to enormous lust, but they began with smaller sins, and then became luxurious through their abundance, and were stupefied by ease and quiet. Meanwhile, they despised the poor and needy, and did not stretch forth their hands to them. For to seize the hand means the same as to stretch forth the hand, when we help up again those who have fallen, or prop up those who are slipping.

Hence God shows that the Sodomites were afterwards so corrupted by luxuries, that He eventually adds, that they raised themselves up, that is, that they purposely, and of their own accord, exempted themselves from all fear of punishment. For this is the meaning of the word raised up; that is, they buoyed themselves up, since they promised themselves freedom from punishment. And in that fallacious hope, they dared to perpetrate abomination before my face. Therefore, we must always fear that Satan might entangle us by his enticements, and eventually so fascinate and stupefy our senses that we can no longer distinguish between good and evil, as the Sodomites exceeded the animals in their abominations, which were the cause of their ruin.

When God announces that He removed those cities as He pleased, He wishes to inspire the Jews with terror, for fear that they might suppose that they would profit by turning their backs. Because, whether they wished it or not, He would eventually drag them before His tribunal. God, therefore, here passes the final sentence, so that the Jews may feel that they must render an account to Him.

Now, if anyone should ask whether these crimes which Ezekiel relates are worse than those of the Jews, the answer is readily available: the Sodomites were not under the law. Therefore, it is no wonder if they wandered and stumbled in darkness. But when the right course of life was pointed out to the Jews, they openly sought their own destruction; they knowingly and willfully rejected God’s yoke, and haughtily despised all the prophets who daily desired to recall them to the path of duty.

Other circumstances are also to be noted: the Jews not only abused the goods which God plentifully bestowed on them, but, as we have seen, squandered them on adulterous worship. Then they derived from there all kinds of superstition and became worse than the animals, as we have seen elsewhere. We also know that the imitation of the people of Sodom was very common in Judea, when they were tainted with many corruptions through forgetfulness of the law. If, therefore, we weigh these points together, it will not be surprising that God pronounces the Jews to have sinned more grievously than the Sodomites.