Ezekiel 18
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Introduction --
Reader’s Digest list of funniest excuses ever given for getting out of work. (https://www.rd.com/funny-stuff/excuses-for-calling-out-of-work/)
An employee got stuck in the blood pressure machine at the grocery store and couldn't get out.
An employee's wife found out he was cheating, and he had to spend the day retrieving his belongings from the dumpster.
An employee broke his arm reaching to grab a falling sandwich.
An employee’s false teeth flew out the window while driving down the highway.
An employee was bowling the game of his life and couldn’t make it to work.
An employee had been at the casino all weekend and still had money left to play with on Monday morning.
An employee said bats got in her hair.
An employee said she was bitten by a duck.
An employee woke up in a good mood and didn't want to ruin it.
An employee’s child stuck a mint up his nose and had to go to the ER to remove it.
An employee’s dead grandmother was being exhumed for a police investigation.
An employee said a cow broke into her house and she had to wait for the insurance man.
An employee hurt his back chasing a beaver.
An employee was blocked in by police raiding her home.
An employee had a gall stone they wanted to heal holistically.
Trans — All of us are looking for excuses for inaction and suffering, so were the Israelites. They believed that YHWH was acting unjustly toward them. They also felt stuck.
“The famous chapter 18, one of the few well-known texts in Ezekiel, is sandwiched between oracles that pronounce as inevitable the judgment of Judah and Jerusalem. Lest those prophecies to be taken to mean that there is no hope for the individual Israelite man or woman, we have this magnificent declaration of individual freedom and human responsibility, and, so, the possibility of salvation.” (Robert Rayburn)
The Accusation
The Accusation
“What do you mean by repeating this proverb concerning the land of Israel, ‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge’?
“Yet you say, ‘Why should not the son suffer for the iniquity of the father?’ When the son has done what is just and right, and has been careful to observe all my statutes, he shall surely live.
“Yet you say, ‘Why should not the son suffer for the iniquity of the father?’ When the son has done what is just and right, and has been careful to observe all my statutes, he shall surely live.
“Yet you say, ‘The way of the Lord is not just.’ Hear now, O house of Israel: Is my way not just? Is it not your ways that are not just?
Adding these verses together, you get the sense that Israel is using this proverb to Complain to God for their suffering and Excuse themselves for their sin.
The epigram expressed at one and the same time the people’s fatalism – there is nothing we can do about the situation – and irresponsibility – it’s not our fault. Human beings are past masters at blaming others for their problems and that is what we find Israel doing here.
“The application to which the people of Ezekiel’s time had put the proverb is not hard to discern: “Our fathers sinned against God, but we their children (the generation of the Exile) are the ones paying the price; that’s the way the world is and nothing can be done about it.” A similar thought is expressed in : “Our fathers sinned and are no more, and we bear their punishment.” Jeremiah also confronted the same proverb (), which suggests that the idea had considerable currency around the time of the Exile.” (Iain Duguid)
Complaining for their suffering
We are innocent! The previous generations made this mess and we are suffering for it.
Excusing their sin
The Problem
The Problem
The epigram expressed at one and the same time the people’s fatalism – there is nothing we can do about the situation – and irresponsibility – it’s not our fault. Human beings are past masters at blaming others for their problems and that is what we find Israel doing here.
This would have affected their ability to hear and obey the prophet’s message. Such theology would have been demoralizing. Literally.
“If we can’t change the past, then we can’t change the present or the future either, so why bother to try ? So, there would be no motivation to change, no hope of any relief from any relentless operation of a principle that seemed inevitable...”
“They were saying to God by using the parable about the fathers having eaten sour grapes and the children having their teeth set on edge. As they suffered the discipline of God in the Exile, their first response was, “This is not our fault,” which in turn led logically to the accusation, “God, that’s not fair.” Ezekiel’s response is to affirm that, along with previous generations, it is indeed their fault. It is not God’s unfairness but their sin that is the problem. They are simply in denial about the true nature of their case. But Ezekiel doesn’t take away their excuses in order to leave them crushed under the full impact of God’s law. He pleads with them even now to turn and live.”
The Answer
The Answer
God’s Answer?
“For every living soul belongs to me, the father as well as the son — both alike belong to me.”
What does that mean? And how does that help?
“It means then, that human beings, far from living in the grip of fatalistic and impersonal laws, actually live in relation to the personal God YHWH, to whom all lives belong. Human life is relational. History is relational. YHWH is not the name of some quasi-personal name of some distant and impersonal divine force. He is the personal owner of every human person who has ever lived, lives, or will live on this planet....it implies that each belongs to YHWH in the same way and under the same conditions, with the same demands, as the other does. Our relation to YHWHis not mechanically determined by the relation of other people to God. God is universally and particularly involved in each person’s life.” (Chris Wright)
YHWH then demonstrates this with the story of 3 generations. (That is an important number because it brings to mind the verses from
There is no unfair attribution of punishment to the next generation for the sins of the fathers; instead, “the soul who sins is the one who will die” (18:4), a maxim that had already been applied to the earthly judicial realm in . (Duguid)
The Application
The Application
Do what is just and right.
Do what is just and right.
“If a man is righteous and does what is just and right—
“Yet you say, ‘Why should not the son suffer for the iniquity of the father?’ When the son has done what is just and right, and has been careful to observe all my statutes, he shall surely live.
“But if a wicked person turns away from all his sins that he has committed and keeps all my statutes and does what is just and right, he shall surely live; he shall not die.
“Yet you say, ‘The way of the Lord is not just.’ Hear now, O house of Israel: Is my way not just? Is it not your ways that are not just?
He loves righteousness and justice;
the earth is full of the steadfast love of the Lord.
Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne;
steadfast love and faithfulness go before you.
Psalm 89:
2. Do not get locked into a fatalistic view.
2. Do not get locked into a fatalistic view.
When I was growing up, two of the top three things we were never allowed to say were, “It’s not my fault,” and, “It’s not fair.” (The other was, “I couldn’t help it.”) Those very phrases are, in effect, what Ezekiel’s contemporaries were saying.
We have our own forms of fatalism. “Genetic programming.” We talk about “baggage.” We identify ourselves as perpetually identified by things that have victimized them. Or Karma.