Living Room Study

Ezekiel 18

“‘Therefore, house of Israel, I will judge each of you according to his ways,’ says Adonai Elohim.  ‘Repent, and turn yourselves away from all your transgressions, so that they will not be a stumbling block that brings guilt upon you.  Throw far away from yourselves all your crimes that you committed and make yourselves a new heart and a new spirit; for why should you die, house of Israel?  I take no pleasure in the death of anyone who dies,’ says Adonai Elohim, ‘so turn yourselves around, and live!’” Ezekiel 18:30-32

People in Ezekiel’s day were much the same as they are today. They were muddled over the nature and consequences of individual sin. Sin is one of the first things we learn about ourselves. Without this knowledge, the Bible will make no sense…for the Bible’s message, from beginning to the end, is an exposition of God’s answer to the problem of mankind’s sin.

Our natural instinct is not to confess our sin; rather, it is to make excuses for it. That is exactly what Adam & Eve both did in the garden. Adam blamed Eve, and Eve blamed the serpent. It was, apparently, what the exiled Israelites in Babylon were doing. Citing a proverb, which they must have learned during their days in exile, the Israelites blamed their present troubles on errors of previous generations – not on anything they had done themselves. It was the ancient version of “my father was an alcoholic, and that’s why I am an alcoholic”; or, “my mom was an abuser, so I’m an abuser.”

Today’s chapter teaches that parents are not to be punished for their children’s sin, and children are not to be punished for their parents’ sin. That is, each person is accountable for his/her own sin. But how does that jive with the Lord’s Word in Exodus?

“You are not to make for yourselves a carved image or any kind of representation of anything in heaven above or the earth beneath or in the water below the shoreline.  You are not to bow down to them or serve them; for I, Adonai your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sins of the parents to the third and fourth generation for those who hate me, but displaying grace to the thousandth generation of those who love me and obey My commands.” Exodus 20:3-6

There is a difference between a “curse” and a “consequence”. There is no such thing as a “generational curse”, but there are learned patterns of sin, which can be passed-on throughout the generations. Nobody is helplessly trapped in some family curse…but it is entirely predictable that unless God’s Spirit intervenes, certain patterns of sin will be passed-down throughout the generations. Children often repeat what they see their parents doing, but each child is responsible for his or her actions. Ezekiel’s contemporaries, on the other hand had concluded that the blame for Israel’s punishment lay entirely on their forefathers; it had nothing to do with them.

We serve a God who doesn’t grade on a curve. He judges on a person-by-person basis; and the hope of today’s passage is that if we will confess our sins and turn to Him, He is faithful and just to forgive us, regardless of our past, or the pasts of our culture & elders.

Blessings.

Steve Wiggins