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A False Proverb Refuted:
God spoke to Israel regarding a proverb that was commonly used among the Jewish people of Ezekiel’s day. The proverb was a protest, a complaint. The idea was that the present generation was being unjustly punished for what their fathers did. One would think that if the fathers have eaten sour grapes, then the fathers would have the sour taste in their teeth. According to the proverb, the fathers didn’t have the sour taste and the children did. The proverb “reflects a materialistic fatalism, a resignation to immutable cosmic rules of cause and effect, an embittered paralysis of the soul, that has left the exiles without hope and without God.” ""As I live,” says the Lord God, “you shall no longer use this proverb in Israel. “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. But if a man is just; And does what is lawful and right; If he has not eaten on the mountains, Nor lifted up his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel, Nor defiled his neighbor’s wife, Nor approached a woman during her impurity" Ezekiel 18:3-6 (NKJV).
Both Jeremiah and Ezekiel saw this as a pernicious doctrine, because it inevitably led to a spirit of fatalism and irresponsibility. If the fault could really be laid at the door of a previous generation, those on whom the judgment was falling could reasonably shrug off any sense of sin and accuse God of injustice. This popular proverb both expressed and promoted a popular idea. The idea was that God was unfair; unfair in not punishing the fathers as they deserved, and unfair in punishing the present generation.
God did not accept the proverb just because it was a popular message. Proverbs were a popular form of media or messaging in the ancient world, and through His prophet God commanded that this false message be exposed, answered, and spoken against. "If he has not oppressed anyone, But has restored to the debtor his pledge; Has robbed no one by violence, But has given his bread to the hungry
And covered the naked with clothing; If he has not exacted usury; Nor taken any increase, But has withdrawn his hand from iniquity; And executed true judgment between man and man; If he has walked in My statutes; And kept My judgments faithfully—He is just; He shall surely live!” Says the Lord God" Ezkeiel 18:7-8 (NKJV).
The soul who sins shall die. Because God has authority over all souls (including the father and the son), God promised to pronounce judgment over every guilty soul. None who should be punished for their sins would escape that judgment. Some believe that Ezekiel only dealt with physical life or death in these passages. The problem with this is that surely, there were relatively good and innocent people who physically died in the judgment that came upon Jerusalem and Judea. The book of Job and all our personal experience teach us that sometimes the wicked prosper in this life and the righteous suffer. Ezekiel must have the eternal life and death of people primarily in mind. But if a man is just and does what is lawful and right: In the previous line God promised that the soul who sins shall die. Yet, if a man is just, God will not condemn his soul to death. Ezekiel then began to describe the nature of the just man.
God repeated the principle that He looks at people as individuals before Him. There are certainly some ways that God may bless or judge people in community, but in regard to eternity God looks at each individual life.Because the son has done what is lawful and right. ""But when a righteous man turns away from his righteousness and commits iniquity, and does according to all the abominations that the wicked man does, shall he live? All the righteousness which he has done shall not be remembered; because of the unfaithfulness of which he is guilty and the sin which he has committed, because of them he shall die" Ezekiel 18:25 (NKJV). As God judges each man and woman individually, the righteous will be justified and the wicked will be judged. They will not be justified or condemned on the basis of family or community; the son shall not bear the guilt of the father, nor the father bear the guilt of the son.The door of repentance and restoration is open to any wicked man. The thief on the cross, who because he turned, entered into paradise after a wicked life, later showed this."Then one of the criminals who were hanged blasphemed Him, saying, “If You are the Christ, save Yourself and us.” But the other, answering, rebuked him, saying, “Do you not even fear God, seeing you are under the same condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds; but this Man has done nothing wrong.” Then he said [b]to Jesus, “Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom.” And Jesus said to him, “Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise " Luke 23:39-43 (NKJV). Repent, and turn from all your transgressions, so that iniquity will not be your ruin: Because of the principle of individual responsibility before God, it is absolutely essential for each soul to repent and prevent their iniquity from becoming their ruin.
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