Links for today’s readings:

Read: Ezekiel 18 Listen: (5:26)

Read: Colossians 1 Listen: (4:18)

This Weekend’s readings:

Read: Ezekiel 19 Listen: (2:12), Read: Colossians 2 Listen: (3:27)

Read: Ezekiel 20 Listen: (9:25), Read: Colossians 3 Listen: (3:09)

Scripture Focus: Ezekiel 18.2-3, 19-23

2 “What do you people mean by quoting this proverb about the land of Israel:

“‘The parents eat sour grapes,

and the children’s teeth are set on edge’?

3 “As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord, you will no longer quote this proverb in Israel.

19 “Yet you ask, ‘Why does the son not share the guilt of his father?’ Since the son has done what is just and right and has been careful to keep all my decrees, he will surely live. 20 The one who sins is the one who will die. The child will not share the guilt of the parent, nor will the parent share the guilt of the child. The righteousness of the righteous will be credited to them, and the wickedness of the wicked will be charged against them. 21 “But if a wicked person turns away from all the sins they have committed and keeps all my decrees and does what is just and right, that person will surely live; they will not die. 22 None of the offenses they have committed will be remembered against them. Because of the righteous things they have done, they will live. 23 Do I take any pleasure in the death of the wicked? declares the Sovereign Lord. Rather, am I not pleased when they turn from their ways and live?

Reflection: Blame Less and be Blameless

By John Tillman

Ezekiel’s generation of exiles blamed the generations before. Haven’t we all? Generational finger-pointing is common.

Their complaint reminds me of the opening line of Mike + The Mechanics’ 1988 mega-hit, “The Living Years,” “Every generation blames the one before. And all of their frustrations come beating at your door.”

The exiles beat on God’s door, quoting an “old song”: “The parents have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge.” This saying or “proverb” is in scripture twice but is not “scripture.” In both places it appears, in Ezekiel 18.1-3 and in Jeremiah 31.29-30, it is quoted to be refuted.

In refuting the proverb, God does not deny the grim realities and results of parents’ sins or how this affects children. God also rebuked those quoting the proverb. Ezekiel’s generation was deflecting blame and denying responsibility, and God was having none of it.

The quote has some truth to it. The old covenant explicitly stated that God would punish younger generations for their parents’ sins, but promised a longer generational blessing for righteousness than a curse for wickedness. (Exodus 20.4-6)

Parents can harm their children with what they do or what they believe. Generational curses were a common religious belief in the ancient Near East and many other cultures. Today we have a secular belief in generational curses such as poverty, violence, addictions, lack of education, and physical, emotional, or sexual abuse.

Instead of denying that one generation’s failures can harm another, God was and is saying, “My way will be different. This is not how I will deal with you.” God promises, and delivers, a new covenant in which every generational curse can be broken.

There is no generation completely free of blame. We benefit from and perpetuate the sins of our parents and pass on sins and errors to the next generation.  God says, “Stop blaming your parents and deal with me honestly.”

Don’t curse a generation before you for their failings or curse a generation following you with yours. The only son who ever rejected all the sins of the generations before, is Jesus, the sinless son. (Ezekiel 18.14-17) Each generation, and each individual, stands or falls by how we deal with Jesus.

Jesus, the blameless son, suffered the blame and sin of all generations to make us blameless and free us from sins’ curse. Blame less and rely on the blameless one, Jesus.

Read more about A Generational Lament

“Every generation blames the one before…” Old and young scoff at each other’s sufferings, separating into camps of division and bias.

Read more about Sinless Descendants

God’s description of the righteous son is not a case study of an actual person. Such a son, who rejects the sins of previous generations did not exist…

Scripture Focus: Ezekiel 19.1
“Take up a lament concerning the princes of Israel…”

Ezekiel 18.31-32
Rid yourselves of all the offenses you have committed, and get a new heart and a new spirit. Why will you die, people of Israel? 32 For I take no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Sovereign LORD. Repent and live!

Reflection: Lament the Fall of Leaders (Even Bad Ones)
By John Tillman

God takes no pleasure in the death of anyone. Neither should his followers.

Both Ezekiel and Jeremiah sang songs of lament and loss to people who wished to sing songs of war and triumph. When people want war and triumph at any cost, telling the truth is seen as weakness, or worse, as treason.

Their relationship to those in power, including the kings in Jerusalem, was tenuous. Your life will always be in danger when you aren’t telling the powerful what they want to hear.

But despite their words of judgment to the kings and rulers of Judah and Israel, both men deeply loved their country, their kings, and the people. In this section, Ezekiel takes up a lament for the “princes of Israel.” 

The first of the two lions is most likely Jehoahaz, who was carried off in chains to Egypt by Pharaoh. The second is either Jehoiachin or Zedekiah, both of whom ended their lives in captivity in exile.

Part of what we learn from this lament is to not be like these young leaders who became abusive and prideful. Scripture tells us they “did evil in the sight of the Lord” and Ezekiel describes them as “man eaters.” Staying humble and using power responsibly is a worthy lesson.

But the surprising lesson is that even wicked kings are worthy of lament when they fall. No matter what we may think of leaders’ foolish decisions or reckless waste, their fall and failure will mean pain and suffering for many. The removal of a bad leader is often like the lancing of a boil or a surgery to remove cancer. There is pain, suffering, mess, scarring, and there is often still a chance that the patient will not recover.

Eventually, Jerusalem’s true king would come to her. After many lions, many blood-spillers, many deceivers, many charlatans, her true king would come. He would come as a lamb, not a lion, riding on a lowly donkey, daring the rocks to cry, “Hosanna!” He would come to her Temple with zeal, scattering the trappings of greed in place of prayer.

Whether leaders fall from governmental office, from corporate throne rooms, or from the pulpits of our churches, their fall hurts more people than just themselves. The kingdom suffers.

May we lament fallen leaders, confessing their sins and ours, as we await and serve our true King.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Request for Presence
Let my cry come before you, O Lord; give me understanding, according to your word.
Let my supplication come before you; deliver me, according to your promise. — Psalm 119.169-170

– Divine Hours prayers from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summertime by Phyllis Tickle
Today’s Readings
Ezekiel 19  (Listen – 2:12)
Psalm 64-65 (Listen – 2:39)

Read more about Seeking Righteousness
What happens to good people when they don’t live under good leaders?

Read more about Praising Christ’s Righteousness
If anything, human institutions magnify the failures of individual leaders. How pitiful a situation we would be in if our salvation relied on human institutions.

Scripture Focus: Ezekiel 18.1-3, 29-31
What do you people mean by quoting this proverb about the land of Israel: 

         “ ‘The parents eat sour grapes, 
         and the children’s teeth are set on edge’? 

3 “As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign LORD, you will no longer quote this proverb in Israel. 4 For everyone belongs to me, the parent as well as the child—both alike belong to me. The one who sins is the one who will die. 

29 Yet the Israelites say, ‘The way of the Lord is not just.’ Are my ways unjust, people of Israel? Is it not your ways that are unjust? 

30 “Therefore, you Israelites, I will judge each of you according to your own ways, declares the Sovereign LORD. Repent! Turn away from all your offenses; then sin will not be your downfall. 31 Rid yourselves of all the offenses you have committed, and get a new heart and a new spirit. Why will you die, people of Israel? 32 For I take no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Sovereign LORD. Repent and live! 

Reflection: Sinless Descendants
By John Tillman

Western individualists love when God says he will not punish righteous children for the sins of unrighteous parents but we ignore what is happening around these verses and what they mean.

“The parents eat sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge,” (Ezekiel 18.2; Jeremiah 31.29) was a proverb quoted by people complaining that God was treating them unfairly.

They felt they were righteous and should not suffer for their parents’ sins. In the same way, many today deny any connection or responsibility for crimes of previous generations. 

So, what happened to these people attempting to deny the sins “from the past” that they supposedly were innocent of? They died or went into exile for their sins. This shows that although they claimed to be blameless, they were not. God says to them, “Is it not your ways that are unjust.” 

They failed to recognize the connection between their parents’ sins and their own actions.

They weren’t innocent of their parents’ sins because they were perpetuating them. 

Jesus attacked this kind of argument from the Pharisees, who said that they, if they had been alive, would not have killed the prophets. Jesus told them directly that what they said was a lie and that they did share the same sin as the previous generations. That sin came to fruition when they put him to death.

God’s description of the righteous son (Ezekiel 18.14-17) is not a case study of an actual person. Such a son, who rejects the sins of previous generations did not exist in Ezekiel’s time and does not in ours either. This passage is a hypothetical narrative—an example created by God to defend his righteousness.

Jesus is the true sinless son sent by God to enact his righteousness. Jesus is the only sinless son who fully rejected the evil of his earthly fathers before him. He is the sinless son who chose to die not for his own sin but for the sins of all who would call upon him.

Jesus takes the cup of our sour grapes from us, drinking it so that we don’t have to. Today is the day to which Ezekiel and Jeremiah referred, when the cycle of sin can be broken. If we drop our denials, and look to the sinless son, we can be set free from our own sins and the sins of the past.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Greeting
To you I lift up my eyes, to you enthroned in the heavens.
As the eyes of servants look to the hand of their masters, and the eyes of a maid to the hand of her mistress,
So our eyes look to the Lord our God, until he shows us his mercy, — Psalm 123.1-3

– Divine Hours prayers from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summertime by Phyllis Tickle

Today’s Readings
Ezekiel 18  (Listen – 5:26)
Psalm 62-63 (Listen – 2:44)

Read more about Model of an Exile
May we confront and be humbled by difficult truths about our sins.
May we be comforted by Christ who bears our sins.

Read more about Have Mercy
We think of sins as individual actions but that is only one dimension of sin.