Introduction

The relevance of what we read in our bibles to the modern day can be a real challenge for many people. They might think that because it was written about people who lived thousands of years ago in a culture so far removed from them that they can never see how any of it can be relevant. 

Take for example the passage that we will look at today. Some might dismissively suggest we are going to look at the writings of a man called Ezekiel who claimed to be a prophet hearing from God, and speaking to Jewish people exiled in Babylon thousands of years ago. 

If you add into that a mindset which seems to distinguish the God we read about in these Old Testament accounts and the Jesus we read about in the New Testament it can present even more challenges. Some would accuse the Old Testament God of being some kind of tyrannical and intolerant God who condoned all sorts of brutality, and needed the Jesus of the New Testament to come as some sort of gentle and peaceful representation of Him to make things better. 

Well let me just say straight off, that is a very wrong position to hold, and it is passages like this in Ezekiel which demonstrate that God is consistent and unchanging in character from beginning to end. And alongside that, so generally are we. God is unchangingly good, and we are not. 

This passage we are going to read from was written about people who lived thousands of years ago, and yet even though the timing and culture of these people are very different to ours, the problem they are being called out for hasn’t changed.

There is a well used saying that ‘the only thing we learn from history, is that we don’t learn from history’.

And I think that this is a big part of the reason why people shut down their minds to consider the bible, because if they were to study it properly they would see very clearly the reality of who God is and who we are. The time and place and culture may have changed, but the character of God hasn’t changed, and neither has the character of mankind.

We will see God calling out the wrong thinking of the people for how they were living and who they were blaming for their situation. It is as relevant today as it was then. With people who lived blaming others for their circumstances and behaviours, and with no personal accountability or willingness to change. 

It presents a great challenge to all our thinking, and provides a very stark warning if we don’t change. But most importantly it offers compassion, grace and assurance for those who do. It shows to us the beauty of God’s love which is unchanging and still relevant and still available to all who would turn to Him.

The themes and content of this passage could occupy many sermons, and so I hope, as always, that what we share today will be helpful, but most importantly will encourage you to go away and look more closely and deeply into what God has to reveal in his word.

So, let’s consider this passage and the main lessons we can learn from it.

Background

I won’t do too much of a history and context lesson but I think it is important to understand a bit about the setting and situation being presented to us.

Ezekiel was a prophet of God who lived around 600 BC, and he lived among the Jewish community who had been sent into exile by God to Babylon under the rule of Nebuchadnezzar. Although he was mainly writing this for his fellow exiles, it was clearly intended for communication to a wider audience. 

Ezekiel is presenting a message from God warning of judgement, but also offering restoration of relationship. The message was a reminder of the consequences for people who follow their own thinking and determinations, and seek to do life without God. The people found themselves in a foreign land and had suffered greatly because they had not listened to God’s warnings about rejecting him and wanting life their way. They had not valued God’s love for them and all the blessings they had received from him. 

But instead of recognising the reality and consequences of wanting to do things their way and rebelling against God, they had determined it was all God’s fault and this generation were suffering because of the sins of their parents and others. 

And so as we look through chapter 18, we see the themes of the peoples’ wrong thinking about themselves, their situation and of God, alongside God’s correcting, warning and offer to make things right again.

So, let’s take time to consider these themes.

Wrong thinking

The passage starts out with God challenging the wrong and entrenched thinking captured in a proverb of the people, as we read in verses 2 and 3,

“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’?

This was not a God inspired proverb as we find elsewhere in our bibles. This is a cultural misrepresentation of the consequences of the actions of others. It was probably common in a number of cultures of that time, not just amongst the Jewish people. It was a belief that the sins and evil behaviours of the parents (or previous generations) bring judgement onto future generations. The suggestion is that God condemns the children for the actions of their parents so that there is no hope for them to do good or be right with God. 

For the Jewish people there was a corruption in interpreting what God told Moses in Exodus 20: 5, and 34:7, where God is warning about worshipping other Gods, and the sins of those who did such things having consequences for future generations. And in general the sins of the guilty being consequential for future generations.

These warnings from God were not statements of judgement on future generations leaving them without any hope of being right with God, but reminding people that there are consequences in terms of our actions which can be damaging to others. It is not a condemnation of others, but a warning of the consequences others may have to live with. 

It is a reminder that our actions have consequences to others. However, our guilt does not become their guilt. 

The people exiled in Babylon were taking this proverb as a determination of being punished for the sins of their parents. They had a fatalistic, “what is the point?” attitude to their situation. They were turning their circumstances back on God and blaming him for being unfair. They had a wrong thinking about God’s justice.

We see God call this out in verses 25 and 26,

“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?

There was a twisted and contradictory logic in the thinking of the people of Israel. After all it was their determination that children should suffer the guilt of the parent, and the parent suffer the guilt of the child, not God’s. And yet we see them using this position to unjustly accuse God of not being a just God. They were accusing him of being unfair. Worse than that there is belief that God takes pleasure in their suffering, verse 22,

Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked, declares the LORD GOD

Right thinking

God takes this error and responds to ensure the people have the right thinking and understanding. The wrong thinking needs to be corrected, and the first thing God does is remind them that He is God, and secondly it is the individual who is accountable. 

The response starts in verses 3 and 4,

As I live, declares the Lord GOD, this proverb shall no more be used by you in Israel. Behold all souls are mine; the soul of the father as well as the soul of the son are mine: the soul who sins shall die.

It is a powerful statement to the people. God is saying, stop talking nonsense and thinking this way. I am the one true living God, and you will listen to what I have to say. 

I have the power and determination over every life, and I am telling you that everyone is accountable to me. Everyone is accountable for their own life, and it is the soul or the person who sins who will be found guilty, and suffer the eternal consequences. It is the soul who sins who shall die.

In the verses that follow God is going to set out the consequences of sin leading to death, and being right with God leading to life. It is important to understand that the language of life and death are not necessarily held in the immediate consequences of the existing time, but in terms of eternity. 

It is not a judgement of suffering for sin now, or receiving a trouble free life now for being right with God. We know that is not the case. Many wicked people live pretty well and have lots of good health and wealth, and many Godly people struggle in health and suffering and poverty. We are being called to live in the right relationship with God in whatever circumstances we find ourselves, and that is going to be set out as God gives us the examples of fathers and sons. 

Whilst fathers and sons are referred to specifically, we can read this more generally to understand it’s applicability to men and women and the relationship between parents and children.

God starts with the righteous man, that is, the man who is right with God and lives a life evident of that. In verses 5 to 9 we see God set out the example of the man who lives a just and right life. It is an interesting list, and it would be easy to think that being right with God is based on our efforts and following rules. That is not the case as we will see. 

The examples given of the man who is right with God are interestingly not a straight repeat of the ten commandments given to the Jewish people, but are focused on the two greatest commandments which encapsulate all the commandments – to love God, and to love our neighbours. They are rooted in faith and trust in God, and that being evident in how the man conducts himself.

The righteous man will love and serve God only. As we see in verse 6, he doesn’t worship other gods and idols, and in verse 9, he walks daily with God by faith, and following and trusting in God’s word, or statutes. 

His love for God flows into his love for other people. He does not take advantage of others for his own gain or pleasure, he does not destroy the purity of others, he cares for the needy, and he ensures truth and justice for his fellow man. 

But to ensure the correct understanding of God’s justice and personal accountability, we have the further accounts and examples which show that a righteous man can have an unrighteous son, and an unrighteous man can have a righteous son. Our position with God is not inherited, it is not genetic. Each person is accountable for their own actions and choices. God will not judge a father for the sins of his son, nor will he judge a son for the sins of his father. 

This was to be a challenge to the thinking of the people of Israel who had determined God was not fair and was judging them, and as such what was the point of changing? 

Well, the point of the accounts of the fathers and sons, was to demonstrate to them that their fathers would be judged for their sins, but that did not mean there was no hope for the current generation to turn from the wickedness of the previous generation and be right with God. It was to make them see that their fate was not determined by what others had done, but there was hope in a loving God if they would turn to him.

Right response

The reason God is calling out the thinking and behaviour of the people is to draw them to the right response which is to repent. That is, to change their thinking and turn to God. In verse 21 God say that there is hope,

“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.

This is God’s desire for them. He is not a God who takes pleasure in punishment, or seeing people suffer for their sin. He wants all to repent. Verse 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?

In offering hope to the wicked to repent and be right with God, he also offers a warning to those who turn from following him to leading their own lives and committing the sins of the wicked, that there will be death. This is not saying that believers won’t mess up, but it is about those who determine to close God out, and turn away from him. There is no credit in anything they did previously. 

The person who is right with God is righteous because they recognise their sinfulness and their need of God. The person who knew what was right with God and turns away is condemned because they have rejected God, and chosen wickedness. 

There is a significant distinction in judgement and justice being expressed here. God judges on the true heart of a person toward Him. No matter what sin has been committed beforehand, there is hope to be right with God through faith and repentance. 

So, God again re-enforces his call to repentance and the hope he promises, verse 31 onwards,

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? For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Lord GOD; so turn, and live.

God is calling them to take personal accountability for their situation. They have the opportunity to change and to have that relationship with God that leads to life. 

Application

So, is there anything from this situation which we can see as relevant to us today? Well of course there is. 

As I said at the beginning, our place in history and culture may be very different, but sadly our nature is not. It doesn’t take much effort to observe the same mindset in people around us, and even ourselves at times. We see in our culture the promotion of the individual. It is all about living life how you want and achieving what you want. However, when that doesn’t quite work out the way you think it should then somebody else must be to blame. Someone else is holding you back. 

People use their background and family history as excuses for all sorts of wrongdoing or reasons for not trying to achieve better. Now that is not seeking to dismiss the challenges which many people can face in life but for many it has become a way of thinking which has removed any accountability from themselves and put it on someone else. We see it done to parents, friends, “the system”, or whatever. And if God is mentioned in any of their considerations, then they reject him or deny him, but perversely happily accuse him as another contributor to theirs and the world in general’s problems. We judge God and what he does unfairly, and we judge other men and women unfairly. 

Now before this diverts off into a detailed social commentary about specific examples and issues, I think we need to get back to the main point of this passage in regard to our human nature that is not right and not just. It is self-centred and not God centred. We will all have examples we can think about and could discuss in great depth, but our focus today is not the problem but the solution.

The main purpose and solution offered is the hope we find in a loving and gracious God who wants people to live in the right relationship with him. A God who does not hold us accountable for the sins of others, but who calls us and judges us as individuals. A God who is patient in offering us the opportunity to turn from sin to him. A God who wants people to live and not die. A God who is just. 

The accusation against God’s justice being unfair is always made from a position of ignorance. This passage along with all of what we find in our bibles is reflective of a God who is fair and just. A God who has given people opportunity to live life in relationship with him. A God who has given people the blessings and good things of that relationship. A God who gave people fair warning when they rejected that relationship, and warned them of the consequences. 

A God who gave people the discipline of experiencing that separation from him as a small taste of the horrendous reality of what lies ahead in eternity if they are permanently separated from him. A God who did not make a relationship with him reliant on how good we could be, but who made it possible because of how good he is as he stepped into this world as our Saviour and Lord Jesus to pay the price for our sins. The sacrifice that brings the offer of forgiveness and restoration. 

A sacrifice that brings life and not death for those who want it. God wants you to live so much that he was willing to lay down his own life for you.

How can we accuse God of being unfair and not just? He has made it pretty straightforward for us – choose the gift of life he offers, or reject it. 

And the passage brings that encouragement to us all that it doesn’t matter what background we have, a relationship with God and the eternal life it brings is offered to everyone. But it has to be a personal relationship. It is not inherited from Christian parents, but also thankfully, you are not prevented from having it even if your parents have done the most awful of things.

We are not accountable for the sins of our parents or our children, but we are accountable for our own. So how will we respond to this today?

For those who know Jesus and are walking in a right relationship with God, I hope we will take heed of the warning to not turn away from that. I hope it will encourage us to pursue that relationship more closely each and every day. 

And as a further point, we need to acknowledge that our desires to follow Jesus are not necessarily going to be those of our children. They may chose a very different path in life. We have duties as parents to do all we can to point them in the right direction, but ultimately if they reject God they carry that guilt themselves. 

Some of us will know that pain, but I say it more to direct others not to judge the parents in that situation. Rather let’s make sure we love and pray for everyone involved.

But what about you if you are here today and don’t have that right relationship with God? How are you going to respond to what God is offering you? Your back story might not be the best, and you might feel you carry with you an unwanted reputation from things you have done or your family reputation may not be good. You may have done all sorts of awful things in life. You might have the wrong thinking about God up until now, but do you now see the hope that is yours in what God is sharing with you today? 

God’s warning is that the soul who sins shall die. Why will you die when there is hope for life? God is calling you to turn to him and live. He is calling you to throw away the old life and seek from him a new life, a new heart, a new thinking. God has no pleasure in seeing you suffer and struggle. God has no pleasure in seeing you separated from him. 

God has offered that hope to everyone from the very beginning of time and he is offering it to you today. You don’t need to work for it, you can’t earn it. Jesus has made it possible through what he has done and offers you it as gift that you can receive. 

So will you turn to him today and live? If this is challenging you then please don’t dismiss it without exploring more. If you need to talk about it please come and see me or speak with someone else here today.

God’s warning that the soul who sins shall die, is hopefully a wake up call and reality check for us all. We are all personally accountable before a Holy God. But He is the God who gives hope for us in being right with Him through what he has done. Will we listen to Him today and respond as he calls us? I pray his love, patience and justice will be a blessing and transformation to us all.