13th November 2023 – Ezekiel 18:1-4
18 The word of the Lord came to me: 2 “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’? 3 As I live, declares the Lord God, this proverb shall no more be used by you in Israel. 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.
This chapter has as its subject the law of individual responsibility. First of all, in 1-4, there is a statement of the teaching and the principle involved. Then, in 5-20, Ezekiel gives three cases to illustrate the point. Finally, in 21-32, it is the case of a changed life. In these verses, then, we have a statement of the teaching and the principle. God challenges people's use of the proverb in 2. The meaning is simply that they had assumed as a working principle that the sufferings and misfortunes of one generation were due to the misdeeds of their forebears. And Ezekiel disabuses them of this mistaken idea, saying, 'No: every man bears his own responsibility. The soul that sinneth, it shall die'. The implications in this are considerable and important. The issue is not a simple one, for in fact the Scriptures do teach the reality of collective and corporate responsibility: Exodus 20:5 speaks of God visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generation. Ezekiel, however, can hardly be supposed to be contradicting Scripture. Rather, what he is doing is to check and contradict distortion or misapplication of this teaching, for it was being used to excuse responsibility for sin, and it was this that Ezekiel was challenging. The exiles were hiding themselves behind an unbalanced view of their national responsibility in order to avoid the prophetic demand for repentance and a new way of life. That all this has relevance for today is surely obvious, and we shall examine this in the next Note.
12th November 2023 – Ezekiel 17:22-24
22 Thus says the Lord God: “I myself will take a sprig from the lofty top of the cedar and will set it out. I will break off from the topmost of its young twigs a tender one, and I myself…
11th November 2023 – Ezekiel 17:11-21
11 Then the word of the Lord came to me: 12 “Say now to the rebellious house, Do you not know what these things mean? Tell them, behold, the king of Babylon came to Jerusalem, and took her king and her princes…
10th November 2023 – Ezekiel 17:1-10
17 The word of the Lord came to me: 2 “Son of man, propound a riddle, and speak a parable to the house of Israel; 3 say, Thus says the Lord God: A great eagle with great wings and long pinions, rich in…
9th November 2023 – Ezekiel 16:44-63
44 “Behold, everyone who uses proverbs will use this proverb about you: ‘Like mother, like daughter.’ 45 You are the daughter of your mother, who loathed her husband and her children; and you are the sister of your sisters, who loathed their…
8th November 2023 – Ezekiel 16:44-63
44 “Behold, everyone who uses proverbs will use this proverb about you: ‘Like mother, like daughter.’ 45 You are the daughter of your mother, who loathed her husband and her children; and you are the sister of your sisters, who loathed their…
7th November 2023 – Ezekiel 16:15-43
15 “But you trusted in your beauty and played the whore because of your renown and lavished your whorings on any passer-by; your beauty became his. 16 You took some of your garments and made for yourself colourful shrines, and on them…
6th November 2023 – Ezekiel 16:15-43
15 “But you trusted in your beauty and played the whore because of your renown and lavished your whorings on any passer-by; your beauty became his. 16 You took some of your garments and made for yourself colourful shrines, and on them…
5th November 2023 – Ezekiel 16:1-14
16 Again the word of the Lord came to me: 2 “Son of man, make known to Jerusalem her abominations, 3 and say, Thus says the Lord God to Jerusalem: Your origin and your birth are of the land of the Canaanites; your…
4th November 2023 – Ezekiel 16:1-14
16 Again the word of the Lord came to me: 2 “Son of man, make known to Jerusalem her abominations, 3 and say, Thus says the Lord God to Jerusalem: Your origin and your birth are of the land of the Canaanites; your…