Today, I am reading and commenting on Ezekiel 17-19.

I did not know what I wanted to write about today, and my day was busy so I had to put it aside until later than I normally like to have it finished (note: I write these blogs the day before the date on them so that I can have them published for most people around the world early in the day).  When I came back to it now, I was struck by chapter 18.  Which starts with Ezekiel quoting the parable,
“The parents eat sour grapes,
    and the children’s teeth are set on edge.”
Through Ezekiel God tells the Israelites that they would no longer quote this parable, because everyone belongs to God, both the parent and the child.  Then He says “The one who sins is the one who will die.”  The rest of the chapter explains what he (and He) means by this.  If a father sins, it is he whom God will hold accountable.  If that sinful father’s son lives a righteous life, God will not punish him for his father’s sins.  If that righteous son then has a son of his own, this son will not inherit his father’s righteousness.  Rather the third generation will be judged by God according to his actions.  If he sins, God will judge him for his sins.  On the other hand, if he is righteous God will judge him accordingly.  Children will not share in the guilt of their parents, nor will parents share in the guilt of their children.  None of us will be condemned because of the evil committed by our parents.  However, the opposite is also true, none of us will be exonerated of our guilt for our sins because of the good performed by our parents either.  Further, if we are currently behaving according to God’s will and turn to evil, God will bring judgement against us for our wickedness.  Or, if we are currently behaving wickedly and turn from our wickedness to doing God’s will, He will bless us for doing so.

Going back to what God said to explain WHY each person, parent or child, would be judged according to their own sins: “For everyone belongs to me,…”  The implications of that for how we treat each other are immense.  If everyone belongs to God, then if we bring harm to another, we are damaging God’s property.  If we bring harm to ourselves, we are damaging God’s property. If I belong to God, then I cannot belong to someone else.  If you belong to God, then you cannot belong to me, or to anyone else.  I will leave you with one final thought.  If we belong to God, it means that God values us.  If God values us, we have value.  In fact, we have so much value that He was willing to die for us.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.