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

Ezekiel makes two prophecies worth thinking on in today’s passage.  First, he uses a metaphor of two eagles and a vine to describe the faithlessness of Zedekiah.  Zedekiah was put on the throne by Nebuchadnezzar and swore an oath of fealty to him.  But, once he had consolidated his hold over Jerusalem, he entered into an alliance with Egypt and rebelled against Babylon.  Ezekiel prophesied that God would use Babylon to bring Zedekiah and Jerusalem down for breaking their covenant with Babylon.  Then, at a later time, God promised to raise up a ruler over His people who would show the world that He was indeed God.

Ezekiel then goes from there to a prophecy which sits near to the center of the Christian faith.  Ezekiel is not the first, nor the only, prophet to make this proclamation.  And from the frequency with which it gets brought back up we can see that we as humans have trouble remembering it.  Each individual is responsible for their own sins. A son, or daughter, does not inherit righteousness, nor do they inherit guilt, from their parents.  If your parents were terrible, awful people, you may still choose to be a good person, and if your parents were good, righteous people, God will still hold you to account if you choose the path of wickedness.  We, also, should judge people based on their own actions, not the righteousness, or wickedness, of their parents.

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