Chapter 18
MSB says this chapter is a foundational principle of scripture. That judgment is according to individual faith and conduct. Even though this book is about a coming national punishment, they are each - individually - the cause. The people are all at fault.
A new prophecy begins. God asks why the saying "The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on age" is so popular? I didn't understand the saying. Again, MSB says the people knew they were idolatrous and evil, but they blamed their parents for the state they were in. The eating of sour grapes refers to the sin of their fathers. The teeth set on edge means the children are getting the bitter taste - the consequences of that sin - visited on them. They are blame shifting. They shouldn't be punished because they are just going where their fathers led them. God says this is not the case. And then he says:
4 Behold, all souls are mine; the soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is mine: the soul who sins shall die. [Eze 18:4 ESV]
In vss 5-9 we have a list of the conduct of a truly righteous man. I think it is impossible to do it all, but that is not the point in this context. The point is to show in some detail how a righteous man would behave, and God says if one pulls it off, then "...he shall surely live." Then vss 10-13 contrast the behavior of that man's son, his very son, as opposite the behavior of the righteous man. Then the end of this verse:
13 ...He has done all these abominations; he shall surely die; his blood shall be upon himself. [Eze 18:13 ESV] How can this be anything but justice. His father was a righteous man, but that buys the son no favors.
Then, in case there is any uncertainty, vss 14-18 set up the opposite scenario. A sinful father and a righteous son. In this case, the father dies, the son lives. The righteousness of the son is not retroactive to the father, nor is the father's sin condemning of the son. God leaves no doubt here that it is what we each do, in our own lives, that determine if our souls live or die. These principles are then summarized in vs 19, 20. I like this verse:
20 The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not suffer for the iniquity of the father, nor the father suffer for the iniquity of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself. [Eze 18:20 ESV] The principle could not be more unequivocally stated.
Such a chapter...
In vss 21-23 another scenario is laid out. What if a wicked person changes his ways? Then what happens? This is the answer:
22 ...for the righteousness that he has done he shall live. [Eze 18:22 ESV]
And then, so we know why things are this way, God reveals to us His own thinking on this subject. He tells us why He does things this way:
23 Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked, declares the Lord GOD, and not rather that he should turn from his way and live? [Eze 18:23 ESV]
God prefers righteousness. That's why he tells us how to be righteous. He does not enjoy sentencing the wicked to death. That gives Him no pleasure. Instead, He does this because His character - His innate justice, and His requirement of ultimate justice in the world that He has created - requires this behavior of Him. He has bound Himself by His own rules. (BUT, it remains true, from these verses and many others, that it is the state of your heart at the second of death that will be the determining factor. The thief on the cross turned from unrighteousness, but he did no good works afterward. But this also is addressed in this verse. While the good things we do when we are bad people are not credited to us, because our hearts are against God, if we turn to Him in our hearts, then that previous good we did DOES get credited to us, however minuscule it might be.) Again, to make sure no room is left for argument, the text goes on to say that no matter how many good things we do, if we turn bad, the good things are forgotten, and only the bad are remembered. Possible FB post.
And then, back then just as now, look at the argument the people make:
25 "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? [Eze 18:25 ESV]
God summarizes His system of justice. He codifies it if you will. He presents it clearly and with utter simplicity. Then He challenges those who accuse Him of injustice. It is a little long, but it is worth seeing word for word, as God laid it out. It works like this:
26 When a righteous person turns away from his righteousness and does injustice, he shall die for it; for the injustice that he has done he shall die. 27 Again, when a wicked person turns away from the wickedness he has committed and does what is just and right, he shall save his life. 28 Because he considered and turned away from all the transgressions that he had committed, he shall surely live; he shall not die. [Eze 18:26-28 ESV]
How can any injustice be dug up out of that? The only attempt I've heard was on a YouTube video where a guy said that stealing a pencil one time does not make him a thief for life. His argument was that a "lapse" should not count, only thievery as a way of life should make you accountable as a thief. The preacher posed a question to him: How do you think you'd come out by telling a judge in a courtroom that you've only committed one murder, and so therefore you are not a murderer. Surely one murder does not earn the title murderer? Any earthly judge would see through that. How much more will God see through the stolen pencil argument. If I steal, then under God's law, I am a thief. I must turn from that sin. Great one for FB if I can shorten it. Perhaps a series to get the point across.
2025 - Repentance is here also. We see that saving righteousness is not a one time thing. You can't say ok, I was wrong with all that stuff before, and God was right, and I admit that now. So forgive me for all that...but pay no attention to the fact that I am going to start doing all those things again, I just want a clean slate so that they have to build up enough to condemn me again. That won't work. That verse about a NEW heart is critical. It has to be an soul searing change in focus, from "I'm not a bad person" to "I am a bad person, and I pray God will help me do HIS will instead of my own", as in the next verse:
The universal invitation of God is in this OT verse:
31 Cast away from you all the transgressions that you have committed, and make yourselves a new heart and a new spirit! Why will you die, O house of Israel? [Eze 18:31 ESV]
God's favor requires a new heart, a changed heart, not a "personal commitment to be a good person, or as close to one as I can get". An internal heart change - so dramatic as to be recognizable as a NEW heart and a NEW soul - is required. Submission to His will is what makes such a change possible. And still another for FB. And recall that all of this, all of this, comes after Chapter 16 where God disclosed the why of His dealing with nations, and we saw the differences in national justice and individual justice. Here, we see that they are just superimposed on each other. Nations are judged by the cumulative justice dispensed on individuals. The only difference I see at this point, is that judgement of nations is not eternal, in the sense that the earth is not eternal. Judgement of the souls of men IS eternal, based on the state of the heart at the moment of death.
2025 - Repentance is the word that belongs here. Without repentance from sin, there is no salvation. We cannot hang onto it. We must repent of it all, and make every effort to avoid it.
This is all tied together. 16 and 18 are a set.
2023 - It occurs to me that the people living in Ezekiel's time were also saying that this wrath coming down on Israel was about what Manasseh had done SO many years before. God had waited what, 500+ years before actually following through on His promises to punish Israel and Judah over the deeds of Manasseh? So these people were saying, "Why us? Why this generation? Why now?" Justice has been so long delayed that maybe it ought not to be carried out at all, after all, WE are NOT our FATHERS. And God answers this accusation. He says look at how YOU are living. Do your deeds, your sinful way of life, not deserve this wrath AT LEAST as much as Manasseh deserved it? Perhaps when Manasseh did his evil, there were still a lot of righteous-living people in the land. But now, in Ezekiel's time? Almost none. Judah and Jerusalem are overwhelmingly evil and that "old-time" promise of wrath is not only applicable to a few, but to almost ALL those currently alive. EACH one deserves this wrath as much as THAT one - that Manasseh - deserved it. This is not unjust. And this is not overdue, either. God's timing says wrath is imminent because things are too awful ever to change back, and because the whole people of Judah deserve wrath. THIS is how it works against nations. As I said above, God's wrath here imposes what the nation deserves on top of what the people deserve.