Welcome to Bible Fiber, where we are encountering the textures and shades of the biblical tapestry through twelve Minor Prophets, two reformers, and one exile. I am Shelley Neese, president of The Jerusalem Connection, a Christian organization devoted to sharing the story of the people of Israel, both ancient and modern. You can follow the podcast wherever you listen to your podcasts (like Spotify or Apple) or subscribe to our YouTube Channel!
This week we are parsing Ezekiel 18, the prophet’s extended theological sermon on individual responsibility and divine justice. We can divide Ezekiel’s message into two themes. First, individuals will not face judgment for the sins committed by their ancestors, nor will God credit them for the righteousness of their ancestors (18:1-20). Second, God judges everyone based on their current faith and obedience status, not the sins of their past (18:21-32). He is willing and ready to forgive those who sincerely repent.
Individual Responsibility
The chapter begins with the refutation of a popular expression circulating among the exiles. God asked, “What do you mean by repeating this proverb concerning the land of Israel, ‘The parents have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge’? As I live, says the Lord God, this proverb shall no more be used by you in Israel” (18:1-2).
If a parent picks an unripe grape, they alone should taste the sourness. The consequences should not be unfairly imposed on the children. The expression conveyed a sense of frustration among the exiles who believed that their generation was being punished for the guilt of their ancestors. The sour grapes proverb was widespread among the exiles in Tel Abib, but Jeremiah confirmed the Jerusalemites used it as well (Jer. 31:29-30).
For the third time thus far in the book, Ezekiel dismantled a popular saying in the community that both reflected and perpetuated their mistaken mindset (12:22; 16:44). Instead of seeing their own role that led to their punishment in exile, they blamed God for his unfair administration of justice. In their minds, they were innocent, but they had to suffer the consequences for their predecessors’ misdeeds. To them, Yahweh’s indiscriminate judgement was impossible to avoid. This mistaken belief left them paralyzed with inaction.
The prophet condemned their determination that nothing they did or could do would change their fate. They absolved themselves of responsibility by claiming their parents’ failures as the cause of the exile. God countered, “Know that all lives are mine; the life of the parent as well as the life of the child is mine: it is only the person who sins who shall die” (18:4). Everyone was accountable for their own personal sin. God has universal claim on the soul of every individual. He invests in the personal faithfulness of his image bearers.
Three generations
To support his refutation of the sour grapes proverb, Ezekiel presented three hypothetical scenarios, an intergenerational tale of a father, son, and grandson. When communicating through Ezekiel, God had a certain fondness for utilizing hypotheticals as teaching tools (3:18-21; 14:12-23; 18:5-18).
The first case study is of a righteous father, wholly obedient to the laws and statutes of the covenant (18:5-9). He worships Yahweh alone, refusing to take part in the idolatrous practices on Israel’s high places. He abstains from adultery and avoids sexual prohibitions. He treats others kindly, putting his neighbors’ needs before his own. He does not oppress the poor and makes sure to restore the pledges of his debtors. In biblical times, it was customary for debtors to provide collateral, like a garment, when getting a loan. The point was to assure the lender of the debtor’s repayment. However, the righteous father compassionately returned the debtor’s pledge (Ex.22:26-27).
Ezekiel then introduced a second case study: the righteous father’s wicked son. The son’s catalog of iniquities includes violence, idolatry, and seduction. He “eats upon the mountains, defiles his neighbor’s wife, oppresses the poor and needy, commits robbery, does not restore the pledge, lifts up his eyes to the idols, commits abomination, takes advance or accrued interest” (18:11-13). “Eating on the mountains” is a reference to consuming sacrificial meals at the hilltop pagan shrines. Unlike his father, the son exploits the poor and takes advantage of his neighbor. He collects interest on loans and refuses to return the pledge of his debtor, two types of extortion forbidden in the Torah (Lev. 25:36-37).
The third case study is of a righteous grandson, the antithesis of his wicked father (18:14-18). After witnessing the immorality and unfaithfulness of his father, the grandson returns to the righteous ways of his grandfather, who followed God’s laws and decrees. He avoids idolatry and adultery. He gives his garment to the poor and bread to the hungry. For Ezekiel’s audience, describing a grandson who rejected his father’s wickedness in favor sounded like King Josiah. Josiah descended from the wicked King Amon and the even more wicked grandfather King Manasseh. Rather than following the ways of his immediate predecessors, Josiah returned to the righteous manner of his great-great-grandfather, King Hezekiah.
After the presentation of each case study, Ezekiel asked rhetorically about the deserved fate of the righteous versus the wicked (18:9, 13). Should the wicked son live on the merit of his righteous father? Should the grandson die as a punishment for his father’s sins?
The point of the hypothetical scenarios was to reject any claim that one generation was accountable for the sins of the previous generation. According to Yahweh’s system of justice, parents do not bestow their guilt on to their children, nor can children inherit the righteousness of their parents. Ezekiel succinctly declared, “the righteousness of the righteous shall be their own, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be their own” (18:20). The exiles did not need to despair of Yahweh’s justice, but he awaited their repentance and return.
The hypothetical scenarios offer insight into Ezekiel’s parameters for defining a righteous life. Although the selection of deeds is not at all comprehensive, they can fit into four broad categories: piety, purity, morality, and charity. The pious avoided idolatry. The pure were not adulterers. The moral did not oppress their neighbors. The charitable did not rob the poor. Christians measure a person’s righteousness through the lens of faith, but Judaism’s focus is on action. Of course, neither religion promotes one to the exclusion of the other.
In the New Testament, John the Baptist prepared the way for Jesus by preaching repentance. When the people asked John what else they should do after repenting and being baptized, he instructed them to “bear fruits worthy of repentance” (Luke 3:8). When they asked for specific deeds, he named many of the same terms of righteousness that Ezekiel used in his hypothetical scenarios (Luke 3:10-14). John told the tax collectors not to overcharge. He told the soldiers not to extort the commoners or practice injustice. To the masses, he instructed them to share their garments with the poor and their food with the hungry. God’s standards for virtue, charity, and morality have remained consistent throughout the centuries.
Righteous and wicked individuals
Establishing that sin is neither inherited nor imparted through kinship, Ezekiel shifts his thesis to the importance of repentance. To drive home his point, the prophet gave two more examples of God’s system of justice. If a wicked person persists in their rebellion, God will punish them. However, if they turn from their sin, repent, and reconcile with God, they will live (18:21). Returning to God cleans their slate, cancels their debt, and pays their ransom. Ezekiel said, “None of the transgressions that they have committed shall be remembered against them, for the righteousness that they have done they shall live” (18:22). God casts aside their sin and makes all things new.
The opposite is true as well, of course. If a righteous person turns from God and commits the same offenses as the wicked, they will die. Ezekiel said, “None of the righteous things that person has done will be remembered” (18:24). No one can bank merit at one point in their life and expect to be credited as righteous later. God entrusted us with free will. Throughout the passage, Ezekiel emphasized the importance of choice in turning toward God’s will or away.
Repentance
God does not deny that the exiles are in a difficult situation. However, he disputes the logic of their blame game. They have no right to shift responsibility from themselves to God. When Ezekiel toured Jerusalem in a vision, God clarified that the current generation of Jerusalemites were as guilty as any previous of violence, idolatry, and abominations (8:17). The first step toward restoration was for them to acknowledge their guilt and accept God’s punishment for their own sins. The second step was repentance, the gateway to forgiveness, the guarantor of God’s mercy. Genuine repentance inspires obedience and reconciliation with God.
Yahweh takes great joy in repentance, desiring that all his people turn back to him. The prophet Micah described God’s forgiveness as casting all their sin into the depths of the sea (Mic. 7:19). Ezekiel instructed his listeners that God does not delight in punishing the wicked. God stated, “Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked, says the Lord God, and not rather that they should turn from their ways and live?” (18:23). His ultimate desire was for the restoration and flourishing of his people, not their punishment.
Three times in the chapter, Ezekiel breaks from his monologue and provides the reaction of his audience (18:19, 25, 29). Despite his strong rhetoric, they continually accused God of being unfair and denied his mercy. Ezekiel wrote, “Yet the house of Israel says, ‘The way of the Lord is unfair.’ O house of Israel, are my ways unfair? Is it not your ways that are unfair?” (18:29). Ezekiel took umbrage at the exiles’ accusations and challenged their distorted view of God’s constancy. It was not Yahweh’s actions that were arbitrary; he was consistent with his word since the time of Moses. The real issue was the people’s unwillingness to recognize their own sin.
Corporate Responsibility from the Old to the New Covenant
For Christians reading Ezekiel 18, we see the beginnings of a faith system that looks very close to the individual salvation plan offered by Jesus: faith paired with repentance and reform. Ezekiel’s hypothetical scenarios in both Chapters 14 and 18 reinforce the idea that each person is individually accountable for their actions before God. In Chapter 14, the righteous trio (Joel, Noah, and Daniel) could not impute their innocence to the entire community. In Chapter 18, relatives could not impart their righteousness or guilt to family members. Everyone survived or perished on their own account. That line of thinking adheres to the way we, as Christians or even modern individuals, perceive justice. Individual responsibility is our only mode of judgment.
However, it is important not to overstate Ezekiel’s stance on personal accountability. God had originally established his covenant with the entire nation of Israel. The Hebrew scriptures are replete with language about Israel’s corporate reward and punishment.
Ezekiel 18 may seem like a watershed chapter in the Old Testament, marking the instance that Israelite theology moved away from corporate solidarity and toward individual accountability. Seminary students often present Ezekiel 18 as the Old Testament hook that New Testament individualism hangs. In studying the prophets, we as Christians often encounter a progressive revelation that starts with the law and moves through the prophets, culminating in the gospel.
However, one should also hesitate in rubberstamping any exegesis that has Ezekiel contradicting himself or other parts of the Hebrew scriptures. Indeed, the proverb about sour grapes did not materialize out of thin air. The Bible often speaks in the language of generational sin and corporate guilt. When God made the covenant with Israel at Mount Sinai, he described the blessings and curses as divine consequences assigned to the nation, depending on their faithfulness. Even Ezekiel sometimes describes the exile as punishment for their accumulated sin and idolatry over the generations. Although he highlighted the role of the individual’s standing before God in Chapter 18, at several points in the text he also still referred to the “house of Israel,” a corporate term for the entire nation (18:25, 29-30). Israel’s religious ethos has and will always include ideas of corporate solidarity.
The Torah’s most well-known pronouncement on corporate solidarity occurred when God provided Israel with the Ten Commandments. God said, “I the Lord your God am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents to the third and the fourth generation of those who reject me but showing steadfast love to the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments” (Ex. 20:5-6). On the surface, Ezekiel 18’s teaching appears to contradict Exodus. However, the Ten Commandments’ warning was to those children who continued to castoff God, like their parents. The NIV and NKJV translations describe the children as hating God. Of course, anyone knows from lived experience that if a parent abandons God and sets on a path of wickedness, the children are affected negatively. Like dropping a pebble in a pond, sin has inevitable ripple effects. Ezekiel’s case studies demonstrate every individual can choose to sustain the problem or alter their path.
In one of Moses’s speeches before the Israelites entered the promised land, he said, “Parents shall not be put to death for their children, nor shall children be put to death for their parents; only for their own crimes may persons be put to death” (Deut. 24:16). Considering those two Torah passages, Ezekiel 18’s teaching does not radically depart from the traditional view of the covenant relationship between God and the nation of Israel. What Ezekiel advanced was the already existent teachings on individual responsibility, as presented in Deuteronomy. As a prophet, he certainly developed that idea further and adamantly dispelled the notion that God punished children for the sins of their parents.
Stirring call to action
Ezekiel 18 ends with a stirring call to action. This could have been his altar call, the moment when the pianist appears on stage as heads bow. Echoing the call of Moses, Ezekiel asks his hearers to choose life over death. He preached:
O house of Israel, all of you according to your ways, says the Lord God. Repent and turn from all your transgressions; otherwise iniquity will be your ruin. Cast away from you all the transgressions that you have committed against me, and get 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, says the Lord God. Turn, then, and live. (18:30-32)
The exiles do not have access to the Jerusalem temple or the sacrificial system. The traditional means for atoning sins and reconciling with God are unavailable to them. Considering the circumstances, Ezekiel’s message is even more powerful. All they must do is repent, and reform, and God will forgive them. God is not asking for any other sacrifice or payment for sin. In his message, Ezekiel urges them to obtain a new heart and spirit, knowing that God will provide it for them, as mentioned in Jeremiah and earlier in Ezekiel.
Conclusion
Ezekiel 18 weighs in on many profound questions: free will, generational sin, individual versus corporate responsibility, and divine justice. His monologue touched on all these points by simply refuting a common saying that revealed a flawed and fatalistic worldview.
Ultimately, Jesus had the last word on the misconception of generational sin. In the Gospel of John, Jesus and his disciples encountered a man who had been blind from birth (John 9:1-3). The disciples inquired about the cause of the man’s blindness, asking whether it was because of his sins or those of his parents. Jesus responded that the man’s blindness was not caused by his sins or his parents’, but it happened so that God’s works could be displayed through him.
Thank you for listening and please continue to take part in this Bible Reading Challenge. Next week, we are reading Ezekiel 19. If you like Bible Fiber and it has been helpful to you in your own journey of biblical literacy, please consider leaving a review for the podcast. It helps others find the show who are looking for extra conversations around their own devotional life.
And as always, please keep the nation of Israel in your prayers. War with Hezbollah in the North seems more inevitable each day.
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Am Israel Chai