Ezekiel 18

The word of the Lord came to me: "What do you people mean by quoting this proverb about the land of Israel:

"The fathers eat sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge'?

"As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord, you will no longer quote this proverb in Israel. For every living soul belongs to me, the father as well as the son - both alike belong to me. The soul who sins is the one who will die.

"Suppose there is a righteous man who does what is just and right.
He does not eat at the mountain shrines or look to the idols of the house of Israel.
He does not defile his neighbor's wife or lie with a woman during her period.
He does not oppress anyone, but returns what he took in pledge for a loan.
He does not commit robbery but gives his food to the hungry and provides clothing for the naked.
He does not lend at usury or take excessive interest.
He withholds his hand from doing wrong and judges fairly between man and man.
He follows my decrees and faithfully keeps my laws.
That man is righteous; he will surely live,
declares the Sovereign Lord.

Suppose he has a violent son, who sheds blood or does any of these other things (though the father has done none of them):

He eats at teh mountain shrines.
He defiles his neighbor's wife.
He oppresses the poor and needy.
He commits robbery.
He does not return what he took in pledge.
He looks to the idols.
He does detestable things.
He lends at usury and takes excessive interest.

Will such a man live? He will not! Because he has done all these detestable things, he will surely be put to death and his blood will be on his own head.

But suppose this son has a son who sees all the sins his father commits, and though he sees them, he does not do such things:

He does not eat at the mountain shrines or look to the idols of the house of Israel.
He does not defile his neighbor's wife.
He does not oppress anyone or require a pledge for a loan.
He does not commit robbery but gives his food to the hungry and provides clothing for the naked.
He withholds his hand from sin and takes no usury or excessive interest.
He keeps my laws and follows my decrees.

He will not die for his father's sin; he will surely live. But his father will die for his own sin, because he practiced extortion, robbed his brother and did what was wrong among his people.

"Yet you ask, 'Why does the son not share the guilt of his father?' Since teh son has done what is just and right and has been careful to keep all my decrees, he will surely live. The soul who sins is the one who will die. The son will not share the guilt of the father, nor will the father share the guilt of the son. The righteousness of the righteous man will be credited to him, and the wickedness of the wicked will be charged against him.

"But if a wicked man turns away from all the sins he has committed and keeps all my decrees and does what is just and right, he will surely live; he will not die. None of the offenses he has committed will be remembered against him. Because of the righteous things he has done, he will live. Do I take any pleasure in the death of the wicked? declares the Sovereign Lord. Rather, am I not pleased when they turn from their ways and live?

"But if a righteous man turns from his righteousness and commits sin and does the same detestable things the wicked man does, will he live? None of the righteous things he has done will be remembered. Because of the unfaithfulness he is guilty of and because of the sins he has committed, he will die.

"Yet you say, 'The way of the Lord is not just.' Hear, O house of Israel: Is my way unjust? Is it not your ways that are unjust? If a righteous man turns from his righteousness and commits sin, he will die for it; because of the sin he has committed he will die. But if a wicked man turns away from the wickedness he has committed and does what is just and right, he will save hsi life. Because he considers all the offenses he has committed and turns away from them, he will surely live; he will not die. Yet the house of Israel says, 'The way of the Lord is not just.' Are my ways unjust, O house of Israel? Is it not your ways that are unjust?

"Therefore, O house of Israel, I will judge you, each according to his ways, declares the Sovereign Lord. Repent! Turn away from all your offenses; then sin will not be your downfall. Rid yourselves of all the offenses you have committed, and get a new heart and a new spirit. Why will you die, O house of Israel? For I take no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Sovereign Lord. Repent and live!

Ezekiel 18

There are many voices in the world today.

One does not need to listen hard to hear them, or to sense their number.

People in these times preach from the roof tops about how we are all in this life together and how 'this person' is not at fault and 'that person' is not at fault, but really it is society that is at fault.

And if there is sorrow, these voices say it was their fathers who set their teeth on edge, that our parents are the ones to blame. Or our children are to blame. Or the public is to blame.

And they make the understanding of justice so complex ...

They preach that the path to goodness is a matter of having the right circumstances ... of having the right education, the right resources, the right ideology.

But the God of Israel has determined that our solution is a new heart, and a new spirit.

The voices spoke today as they spoke in the time of Ezekiel. They are a chattering of gossipers, a slandering against God, and yet they talk of proverbial wisdom. In their craftiness they accuse God of being unjust.

"There's nothing for the criminals to do. They have to turn to crime."
"The rich just keep getting richer -and they don't deserve their riches."
"People that do good things are punished for them."

Are God's ways unjust? Or are our ways unjust?

Certainly there are occasions when misfortune strikes the just, and God allows His rain to fall on the evil as well as the obedient.

Yet, God assures his people that the soul who sins will die.

A man who appears to do evil seems to succeed, but death is already coming for him.

God is not blind to the cries of the oppressed. We may not see the work he does to protect and to change, and we may not hear clamboring voice drawing the least attention to it, but the one who sins will die.

The word of God is a different voice. One only needs to catch a glimpse of it to see that it is not like the voice of worldly wisdom.

The world never singles out a person and says, "If you hear me and follow my ways you will certainly live." The world only understands probabilities, trivia, and generalities.

'If you steal the sour grapes, someone else will (probably) be punished...'

How great is the depth of the scorn and deceit of the world!

It first sets itself up as a judge to scoff at the criminality of others, when it is clearly one's own life that is at stake. Mixed with the pride in judging these invisible criminals, it begins to envy them and say, 'How much better I am than the evil-doers, and how much I would wish to be like the evil-doers eating the sour grapes!'

The second practice of the world is to join in the acts it once condemned. To what can we call the agony of duplicitly holding such opposite intents, but death? And we have the assurance of God Himself that death waits for those who sin and do not turn from their evil ways.

How unlike the voices and proverbs of the world, to say everything is left up to the individual! To say that life and death are at hand! To identify the singularity of the moment and say, 'This is when you must decide!'.

To count a man's sins against him no longer!

Very often a worldly man will welcome someone with a tarnished background. He will smile and excuse his acts with societal proverbs about grapes -the very proverbs he excuses his own behavior with- and even before the lowly one reluctantly agrees the worldly man is already saying to himself:

What a despicable man, wholly inferior and a reminder of my greatness.

The worldly man is quick to recall the injustices of others, but unable to survey the criminality of his own ways.

The ways of the Lord are set apart. When a wicked man turns from his ways and sets in his heart to obey all the decrees of God's Word, the Lord himself says,

None of the offenses he has committed will be remembered against him.

When a famous person errs, he often gathers the crowds and apologizes. The spectacle draws many, but no one forgets and the condition of the man is the same.

But when a sinner errs and turns to God, it is as though the jabbering of the crowd quiets down and vanishes away. His offences will not be remembered against him, and, behold! He is a different man because he is alive!

In the same way God calls everyone -the ones who have deaf ears as well as the ones with ears that hear- to repent and be saved from the downfall of sin and death.

Teach us, O Lord, to view our sins, and to turn from them that we may find our wrongs forgotten and our hearts full of life.