Daily Devotion for February 27--God Took Them Away As He Saw Fit

February 27

Ezekiel 16:49-50

49 Behold, 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.
50 And they were haughty, and committed abomination before me: therefore I took them away as I saw good.

Did you realize that immorality was not the only reason that Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed?  Most of the time when we think about these two cities where Lot and his family were living, we think about their sexual sin.  And, yes, that was sin then and is sin now and God did punish them severely.

But that was not the only problems in these 2 cities.  As we read here in Ezekiel there were other sins that God would not tolerate.  These are things we may find ourselves guilty of today if we are not careful.  

The people living in these places were unconcerned about others.  They were arrogant.  There were well fed (maybe to the point of being overfed) and they had plenty of time on their hands.  Life was great.  For them.  But they did not reach out to help those who were in need.  They did not share what they had with the poor.  They looked at every thing that was evil and called it good.  (Oh, that sounds like today).  God said they were prideful and wrought wicked things.  And so what did He do?  "... therefore I took them away as I saw good."  He removed them.  He did away with them.  Just as He saw fit.

Ezekiel was talking to the people of Israel and comparing them with Sodom and Gomorrah, but God could say the same things to us today.  It is important that we not become conceited nor feel self-sufficient because we have all we need to survive.  We must be careful not to put ourselves into a position where God might choose to call our acts abominable and remove us as well.  We must beware of the sins we are warned about in 1Corinthians 6: 9-10 and focus on having the fruits of the spirit (Galations 5:22-23) manifested in our lives.

As we go through the day, let us remember to live as God wants us to and not fall into the sins of excess.