Today, I am reading and commenting on Ezekiel 17-19.
I have rarely given much thought to the message of chapter seventeen. However, today I realized it gives us an important lesson for understanding the implications of how a country implements its foreign policy (and from that, some lessons on our own actions). When King Josiah ruled, Judah was an ally of Babylon against Assyria, while Egypt was an ally of Assyria. Josiah was killed in battle trying to prevent Egypt from marching to Assyria’s aid. Egypt deposed Josiah’s eldest son and put his second son (Jehoiakim) on the throne as a puppet. A little over a decade later, Babylon deposed Jehoiakim’s son and put Zedekiah on the throne. As part of that process, Zedekiah swore oaths of loyalty to Babylon. However, he was soon convinced to renounce those oaths and rely on Egypt for support against Babylon. In this passage Ezekiel condemns Zedekiah for breaking his oath to Babylon, pointing out that Babylon had provided Judah with the means to thrive during a tumultuous time. Zedekiah thought that by throwing his support to Egypt he could capitalize on being in between these two powers. The end result was that instead of thriving as a client state of Babylon Judah became a mere province of Babylon, and later of Persia.
Today, I am reading and commenting on Ezekiel 17-19.
Today’s passage begins with an allegorical parable (are there any other kind?) about Judah’s last king. He then explains the meaning of the parable. Ezekiel explains that if King Zedekiah had honored his oath to the king of Babylon, God would have caused him to prosper. However, because Zedekiah broke the covenant which he made with the king of Babylon, God will allow him to die in Babylon without an heir. Extending the allegory, Ezekiel says that God will take a shoot from the same stock which Babylon had selected a plant a tree which would tower over the earth. This is clearly a prophecy about God’s Messiah offering hope for those about to see the destruction of Jerusalem.
Today, I am reading and commenting on Ezekiel 17-19.
Ezekiel begins chapter 18 by referring to a proverb spoken among the people:
The parents eat sour grapes,
and the children’s teeth are set on edge
This proverb comes from things like the fact that children abused by their parents are likely to abuse their own children. Other types of abuse, bad behavior, and sin are also often passed down from one generation to the next. As humans we tend to expect that the children of bad people will be bad people. In a way, we expect that the children of bad people deserve the suffering they receive because their parents were bad people. God tells us through Ezekiel that He does not see things that way. God will judge each and every one of us on our own actions. But there is more to it than that. God will offer each and every one of us the opportunity to break that cycle of brokenness which we inherit from whatever flaws our parents had. We do not need to continue the generational pattern of sin. There is another side to that. We don’t just get a free pass if our parents did not pass on some type of abuse to us. And we don’t get to live off of the good behavior our parents may have instilled in us. We need to actively serve God of our own volition as well. My parents were devoted servants of God, who served Him in whatever task He put in their hands. I have failed to live up to the standard they set, and I need to change that going forward.
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.
Today, I am reading and commenting on Ezekiel 17-19.
God will judge all people on the basis of their actions, not on the basis of what their parents, or other ancestors, have done. We should do likewise. If we do what is righteous and just, it does not matter to God that our ancestors were terrible sinners. On the other hand, if we do what is sinful and wrong, it does not matter to God that our ancestors were upright and godly. We should treat people in the same way, although we so often fail to do so. More importantly, we should remember that if we are upright and godly we need not feel guilt for our ancestors sins and if we commit heinous sins, the fact that our ancestors were wonderful, godly people will not protect us.
Ezekiel gave a parable directed against King Zedekiah. In the parable Ezekiel suggests that Jerusalem and Judah were beginning to prosper with King Zedekiah ruling as a vassal to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, who had placed King Zedekiah on the throne. Despite this turn in their fortunes, King Zedekiah and the elites of Jerusalem turned to Egypt to escape their vassalage to Babylon. I just realized that I am going to take a detour into a history lesson here. Under Zedekiah’s father, King Josiah, Jerusalem and Judah had prospered by allying with Babylon against the weakening Assyrian Empire. This prosperity came to an end when King Josiah was killed trying to take on Egypt’s army without the aid of his allies, who were busy elsewhere at the time. Eventually, the Babylonians put Zedekiah on the throne to end the Egyptian attempt to use Judah to extend their influence into the middle of the trade routes. Zedekiah, and his advisers, thought that he could gain independence by playing Egypt off against Babylon.
There are some important political lessons here, but there is also some spiritual lessons as well. First, the political lesson: the leaders of Judah thought that, because Egypt was the weaker power, they could gain more concessions from them in exchange for their allegiance than they could from Babylon. They were probably correct. Their mistake was that Egypt lacked the will, and perhaps the power, to aid them against Babylon. Now, the spiritual lesson: the people of Judah thought that they could navigate their way through the vagaries of life without paying any attention to God. They thought that they could control things. Instead of seeking God’s guidance and aid, they sought the guidance and aid of Egypt. If the people of Jerusalem and Judah had faithfully followed God, and part of that would have meant keeping their oaths to Babylon, God would have guided them to independence and, perhaps, power.
After that parable, Ezekiel addresses another issue, actually tow related issues. First, Ezekiel speaks about the issue of prejudice against people because of who their parents were and what their parents did. There was a parable which was used to justify holding a parent’s sins against their children. Ezekiel’s response to this was, God will judge people for their sins, not us. And God says that He will judge people according to their actions, not that of their parents. If God will not hold the sins of the parents against their children, then neither should we. More importantly, we can choose to be different from our parents. If they were terrible evil people, we do not have to be. We can choose not to do the same as they did. If we do good we do not have to suffer all our lives for the evil which our parents did. Of course, the other side of that is true. If our parents were wonderful people, we still have to choose to do good things. Our parents’ goodness does not give us a pass to do evil.
Second, Ezekiel tells us that God will judge people based on what they are doing now, not on what they did many years ago. This means that we can change. If we repent of doing wrong and begin doing good, we will reap the rewards of doing good. On the other hand, if we cease doing good and start doing evil, we will reap the punishments for evil. Further, We should follow God’s lead in how we judge people. If someone did terrible things in the past, but no longer does them but instead does good things, we should treat them according to the good things they do now, not the terrible things they used to do. On the other hand, if someone used to do wonderful, generous, kind things that does not mean we should overlook their current behavior. There is one final point about how we should treat people. We are not God, so we do not know what is going on in people’s hearts. So, we should always give people the benefit of the doubt and show them God’s love.
Today, I am reading and commenting on Ezekiel 17-19.
When I got to Ezekiel’s message in chapter 18 it made me think about the fact that children often suffer for their parent’s sins by repeating those same sins. As an example, someone who was abused as a child often will end up abusing others when they become an adult. Another example, someone whose parent(s) was an alcoholic is much more likely to themselves be an alcoholic. God is saying here that it does not have to be that way. If we choose to not repeat our parent’s sins, God will not hold us accountable for those sins. Through Jesus Christ, God offers His Holy Spirit to heal us from our brokenness. Ezekiel’s message tells us that we should not judge people based on their parents either. If God is going to judge each person on their own merits, we should do the same.
There is another side to this. If out parents were righteous but we choose to sin, we will suffer the consequences of our sin. More than that, if we have lived our lives righteously up to now, but start to sin, God will hold us accountable for our sins. On the other hand, if we have lived our lives steeped in sin but change and start to live righteously, God will reward us for our righteousness. Before I go on about what I think this means for us I want to mention that we will only be able to live righteously by the grace of God. For me, the point of this is that if we allow God to do so, He will transform us so that we can live righteously by His power. More importantly, we should not judge people by what they did in the past, only by what they are doing now. If someone was honest, good, and upright in the past, but now they lie, cheat, and steal, we should treat them accordingly. On the other hand, if they used to lie, cheat, and steal, but now they are honest, good, and upright, we should not treat them as if they still lie, cheat, and steal.
Today, I am reading and commenting on Ezekiel 17-19.
Once more Ezekiel uses a metaphor to communicate his message. The message here is pretty obvious and much the same as the one which Jeremiah gave for the same situation. King Zedekiah was put on the throne of Judah by Nebuchadnezzar, who demanded, and received, an oath of fealty from Zedekiah. Later, Zedekiah turned to the Pharaoh of Egypt for support in breaking that oath of fealty. Both Jeremiah and Ezekiel condemned him for this and warned him that it would lead to the destruction of Jerusalem. In this passage, Ezekiel laws some of the blame for Zedekiah’s faithlessness at the feet of the people of Jerusalem. As I read the biblical record, Zedekiah was under significant political pressure to obtain independence from Babylon. Zedekiah and the people of Jerusalem made the mistake of putting their faith in the Pharaoh, who was merely human, while themselves being faithless.
Chapter 18 contains a message from God which is at the heart of understanding God’s will for us all. Ezekiel begins the chapter by challenging the belief that children are destined to suffer because of their parents’ failures and sins. We have tendency to hold people accountable for the actions of their parents and their grandparents, sometimes even of the people they live among. And there is a reason why we do this. Someone who was abused as a child is more likely to abuse their own children. Someone whose parent (father or mother) abused alcohol or drugs is more likely to do the same. The same is true of many other sins and behaviors, both good and bad. However, God declares that it does not have to be this way. We can choose to turn from the sins we learned from our parents and to live righteously. If we do, God will not punish us because our parents were sinners. God will judge each and every one of us according to our actions. The same is true of those who had good parents. If they do not follow in their parents’ footsteps of living righteously, they will suffer for their wickedness. It is God’s wish that each and every person live righteously. He takes no pleasure in the suffering we bring upon ourselves.
