Daily Bible Reading 1 September 2023

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Sep 1

Daily Bible Reading: Ezekiel 18-19

Ezekiel 18:1-4 (NKJV) The word of the LORD came to me again, saying, "What do you mean when you use this proverb concerning the land of Israel, saying: 'The fathers have eaten sour grapes, And the children's teeth are set on edge'? "As I live," says the Lord GOD, "you shall no longer use this proverb in Israel. "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.

Ezekiel had delivered three parables to convict the nation of her sin (chaps. 15–17). He then returned to the bluntness of a direct message to drive home the fact of Israel's guilt. The message in chapter 18 is like that in 12:21–28, for they both answered the people's proverbs that denied their coming judgment.

18:1–4. God asked Ezekiel about a proverb being circulated. This proverb—The fathers eat sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge—must have been well known in Israel because Jeremiah also quoted it (cf. Jer. 31:29–30). The proverb's point was that children were suffering because of their parents' sins. True, Jerusalem was suffering, but as stated in the proverb the people thought they were suffering not because of their sins but because of their parents' sins. So, these people were blaming God for punishing them unjustly (cf. Ezek. 18:25).

God saw that this false proverb had to be refuted. Yet, as with all false doctrines, a kernel of truth in the teaching made it seem plausible. In the Ten Commandments God indicated that He was "a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate Me" (Ex. 20:5). This same threat was repeated in Exodus 34:6–7 and Deuteronomy 5:9. Even Ezekiel had traced God's coming judgment back to the people's past actions (cf. Ezek. 16:15–29). But the point of these passages was that the effects of sin are serious and long-lasting, not that God capriciously punishes the innocent for their ancestors' evil ways.

Blaming others for their misfortunes, the people were denying their own guilt. This was wrong because every individual is personally responsible to God. For every living soul belongs to Me, the father as well as the son. Those who are guilty will receive their own deserved punishment. The soul who sins is the one who will die (cf. 18:20). The people of Israel could not rightly charge God with injustice.^[1]

^[1] Charles H. Dyer, "Ezekiel," in The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, ed. J. F. Walvoord and R. B. Zuck, vol. 1 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1985), 1260.

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