Proper 21: Old Testament, Ezekiel 18:1-4, 25-32              

Ezekiel 18:1-4, 25-32

I love the prophets. I’ve probably already written that in this series of meditations. But I do. Lay it out straight. Black and white. I love these guys. But then I realize what they have written and spoken applies to me. I mean it really does. GULP! I still love the prophets.

The eighteenth chapter of Ezekiel makes clear that God’s judgment for sin is impeccably just and accurate. There was a proverb in old Israel that floats in the prophets and it has to do with fathers and sour grapes and children’s teeth. So very clear. But it has to do with the idea that children would eventually catch heck for what their parents had done. And it was used to garner the idea that we can duck responsibility for our sins now and pass the grief. I think I’m accurate in saying that, although it seems like a horrid parental philosophy. God thought so, too.

God makes clear in both sections of our reading that each person is responsible before the judgment seat for their own transgressions. And no matter how much we squeal and squirm and point the finger at the other person, God’s punishments are correct and ultimately … well, ultimate.

Verse 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?’” Let’s be clear, God says. I am NOT the problem. God’s punishments are strict (LAW), but his gospel is sweet and available. For in the next few verses, as well as in several other places in Ezekiel, God clearly spells out the solution. “When a wicked person turns away from the wickedness he has committed and does what is just and right, he shall save his life” (Ezek. 18:27b). Be clear there is no forgiveness apart from the shedding of blood so both their present sacrificial system and the future provision of Christ is in view within the scope of their turning. But the key here is recognition. I have done wrong. I am wrong. At the heart level.

If we continue on in sin, we will die. Justly. If we turn from sin, recognizing the demands of the law and our inability before it, then in God’s mercy we are given life. And oh what a life it is. For as God says, “For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Lord GOD; so turn and live” (Ezek 18:32). Read this passage this week. Thanks be to God for his gift of life.