Day 244 (Ezekiel 18-20) - Year 8

**Tara-Leigh Cobble** (0:01)
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When today's reading opens, God starts out by addressing a common saying of the time, because it's starting to inform their theology, and it's wrong. The saying conveys the idea that children will be punished for the sins of their parents. And while children are certainly impacted by the sins of their parents and might even inherit some of those traits, they aren't punished for them. Despite the corporate impact and effects of sin, God says he will judge each person individually. In the midst of wiping out most of their generation, he lets them know he's provided a way out, he's preserving a remnant, so who will be a part of that? Just because your dad was destroyed doesn't mean you have to be. This is great news.
He lists out what righteous living looks like and boils it down to demonstrating his character to the world around them. That's what life in the kingdom of God looks like. And for the people who don't live according to God's ways, that's what death looks like. And just to make sure everyone gets the point, God gives an illustration of a righteous father with a wicked son and a wicked father with a righteous son. He wants to make sure they understand that everyone will be judged individually. Righteousness doesn't transfer genetically, and wickedness doesn't either.
But one important caveat here. The point of this passage is not that we're saved by doing good works or being good people, whatever that means. That would run contrary to the whole rest of the Bible. The point of this passage is that our righteous works are evidence of our love for God and our faith in Him. And that kind of faith is individual, not inherited. Then, just in case anyone is discouraged, God reminds them in verse 21 that it's never too late to turn to Him and have the debt of their sins paid for. God wants to make sure they know this because he says he doesn't actually want to kill the wicked. It's a much better scenario if they repent. Unfortunately, for those who don't repent, his righteousness requires justice. And Israel's response to all this great news is to object to everything God just said. They think it's not fair for God to pardon the wicked if they repent, which is incredibly ironic because that's Israel's only hope at this point. They're objecting to the mercy he's extending to them.
I can't think of a better way to follow their response than with a lament from Ezekiel, and that's what we get in chapter 19
In his lament, he portrays Judah as both a lioness and a vine. The lioness raises one cub, but he gets captured and taken to Egypt. This is probably referring to Jehoahaz, the fourth final king. Then she raises up another cub, probably Zedekiah, the final king, but things don't go any better for him. He's taken to Babylon. You can see what a defeat this is for the tribe associated with such esteemed lion imagery.
Next up, we have another vine metaphor. Judah is like a vine that has grown so tall and strong that it gets turned into a scepter, then eventually burned. And again, Ezekiel laments over Judah's demise.
In chapter 20, we get a recap of God's history with the people of Israel. Here's how it unfolds. The leaders of Israel come to ask God questions. Two days ago in chapter 14, God told the elders that if they come to him to inquire of him before repenting of their idolatry, he would only speak to them about their idolatry. And since they haven't repented yet, he says, no, they can't ask anything of him. Then he's like, but while you're here, pull up a rock. I'm going to tell you a story. He spends the next few paragraphs reminding them of how he's provided for them for years, but they continued to rebel and disobey. It happened in Egypt. It happened in the wilderness. It happened in the promised land. And now, of course, it's happening in Babylon. No matter their circumstances, enslaved, challenged, blessed or oppressed, they reject God. He says their hearts go after idols, and he speaks the truth to each new generation, and they do the same thing. So no, he won't let them ask their questions. And the text doesn't say this, but in my opinion, hypothetically, if he had let them ask him questions and he responded by telling them the truth, chances are they'd just ignore what he said regardless. So God reminds them how wicked they've been. Then, because God is who he is, he circles back around to remind them that he's going to restore things in the end. We can hardly go three chapters without him bringing it up. He's pumped about restoration. God does say something that could be confusing in this chapter though. And if you tend to zone out while you're reading, you probably got jolted back somewhere around verses 25 through 26, where it sounds like God is saying he misled them and ordered them to do a bunch of terrible things. It says, I gave them statutes that were not good and rules by which they could not have life. And I defiled them to their very gifts in their offering up all their firstborn that I might devastate them. And if you were jolted back to the text when you read that, that's fitting because it seems like that's the exact response God wanted the Israelites to have when they heard it too.