Thought for the Week

We humans are pretty good at the blame game. We do not do so well at accepting responsibility. This started way back in the Garden of Eden, after our first human ancestors disobeyed God and ate from the tree He told them not to eat. It did not take very long for God to confront them. God went first to Adam. Adam blamed Eve. God went to Eve and she blamed the serpent. Down through the centuries of time, all manner of people play the blame game. The Prophet Ezekiel shows us another aspect of this. Chapter 18 is where I want to direct our study for today. Ezekiel is a wonderful study, but we will likely not do any in-depth work in this book. Ezekiel was taken captive to Babylon in the second assault by Nebuchadnezzar on Jerusalem. Daniel was taken in the first. Ezekiel was likely about 30 years old when he began his work for God. In chapter eighteen, Ezekiel speaks for God and tells the people to discontinue a proverb they had been using. They said, “The father has eaten sour grapes and the children’s teeth are set on edge.” The meaning is, “It is the fault of those who have sinned before me that I am receiving this punishment.” The punishment, of course, is captivity in Babylon. Israel did not want to accept the blame for God’s punishment. We have used this same sort of thing in our day. A psychiatrist will propose that your problems are a result of something your parents did wrong. Therefore you are not to blame for the issues you are facing. God would not accept this excuse. He makes a wonderful claim, saying “The soul of every man is mine; the soul of the father and the soul of the son.” He goes on to say, the soul that sins shall be punished. Several commentators propose God is not talking about spiritual death rather simply physical punishment (death). God then goes on giving a triple example: a father, a son and a grandson. The father is found to be a good man with quite a number of good qualities. He has not participated in idolatry, he has not committed adultery, nor been ceremonially defiled, he has not oppressed the weak, has restored the collateral of borrower, has not acted in violence toward anyone, has given charitable gifts of food and clothing, has not charged interest nor made a profit on business dealings with a family member, has done what is right toward others and been fair in judgments of others. He is a person God can bless. This good man has a son who is a rascal. In fact he is downright evil: He is violent, multiple times a thief, an idolater, an adulterer, he oppresses the poor and needy, has done abominable things to others, he lives “by hook or by crook.” He is not at all like his father. Now a grandson enters the story. He observes the lifestyle of his father, considers carefully and has nothing to do with it. He lives like his grandfather. Now the questions: “Shall the good life of the father free the son from his wrongdoing? Shall the father be punished for the wickedness of his son? Shall the grandson be punished for his father’s evil?” Verse 20 provides answers: “The soul that sins shall die (receive punishment for the wrongs done.) Neither the father nor the grandson shall receive the punishments due to the son’s wickedness. The wicked shall suffer for the sins he has committed.

Scriptures to Read

Ezekiel 1:1-4

Ezekiel 1:5-9

Ezekiel 1:10-13

Ezekiel 1:14-17

Ezekiel 1:18

Ezekiel 1:19-21

Ezekiel 1:22-23