SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 1/5/2015
4:44 PM-B
My Worship Time Focus:
Individual Responsibility PT-1
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Ezekiel
18:1-5
Message of the
verses: I have been working very
hard on my Spiritual Diaries from the book of Revelation so far this year, but
know that I have to continue to look at the book of Ezekiel and so the
Spiritual Diaries that I do on Ezekiel will only have the first part of the
outline that I follow, that is the message of the verses, as I will do the
complete outline while in the book of Revelation.
We begin a new chapter in the book of Ezekiel and also in
Warren Wiersbe’s commentary that I follow to which he entitled this sixth
chapter “God is Just!” and this chapter covers 18-21 of Ezekiel. Stuart Briscoe’s commentary only covers
chapters 18-20 and he entitles his chapter “The Loud Silence of God.” Now Warren Wiersbe gives a brief preview of what
these four chapters are about: “Responsibility
is one of the major themes of these four chapters. The Jewish exiles in Babylon were blaming
their ancestors for the terrible judgment that had befallen them, so Ezekiel
explained that God judges people individually for their own sins and not for
somebody else’s sins (Chapter 18). He
then pointed out that the Jewish leaders were responsible for the foolish
decisions they had made (chapter 19), and that the nation itself had a long
history of irresponsibility (chapter 20).
Finally, the prophet reminded his listeners that the Lord Jehovah also
had a responsibility to be faithful to Himself and His covenant with the Jews,
and this was why He had chastened them (chapter 21). By dealing with the subject of personal and
national responsibility, Ezekiel was able to answer the frequent complaints of
the people that the Lord was treating them unfairly.” As I look at this outline that Dr. Wiersbe
has got from these chapters in Ezekiel I think that one of the biggest problems
that the Jewish people had, and probably one that many people have today is
that they don’t understand the character and attributes of God. If they would have realized that God is just
and that God is also a God of wrath they would not have been blaming God nor
their fathers for what was happening to them at this point in their lives. God had to keep His covenant with Israel and
part of that covenant was that if the children of Israel continued to sin
against the Lord that He would have to punishment them, which is what He was
doing.
“1 Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying, 2 “What
do you mean by using this proverb concerning the land of Israel, saying, ’The
fathers eat the sour grapes, But the children’s teeth are set on edge’? 3 “As I
live," declares the Lord GOD, "you are surely not going to use this
proverb in Israel anymore. 4 “Behold, all souls are Mine; the soul of the father as well as
the soul of the son is Mine. The soul who sins will die (Ezekiel 18:1-4).”
“1 GOD’s Message to me: 2 “What do you people mean by
going around the country repeating the saying, The parents ate green apples,
The children got stomachache? 3 “As sure as I’m the living God, you’re not
going to repeat this saying in Israel any longer. 4 Every soul—man, woman, child—belongs to me, parent and
child alike. You die for your own sin, not another’s (Message).”
Now here is the way that Warren Wiersbe writes verse two “Our
fathers have sinned and we, their children, are being punished for it.” He goes on with this by writing “Their
philosophy was a kind of irresponsible fatalism. ‘No matter what we do,’ they argued, ‘we
still have to suffer because of what the older generation did.’” When we go all the way back to when Adam and
Eve sinned that first sin we read “11 And He said, "Who told you that you
were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to
eat?" 12 The man said, "The woman whom You gave to be with me, she
gave me from the tree, and I ate." 13 Then the LORD God said to the woman,
"What is this you have done?" And the woman said, "The serpent
deceived me, and I ate’ (Genesis 3:11-13).”
You see the blame game began all the way back in the garden of
Eden. Look again at verse four of
Ezekiel chapter eighteen “Behold,
all souls are Mine; the soul of the father as well as the soul of the
son is Mine. The soul who sins will die.”
God is saying that each person is responsible on how they live their
lives and we will see this as we proceed through this chapter and through
chapters 18-21.
As we end this SD I want to quote an endnote from Dr.
Wiersbe’s commentary that will help us better understand what Ezekiel is
writing about concerning a son paying the price of his father’s sins or a father
paying the price for his son’s sins. “The
guilt and condemnation for a parent’s sin could not be passed on to the
children, but the consequences of parental sin could bring suffering to the
family. In Old Testament days, the
Jewish people lived in extended families, and often four generations lived
together. This meant that younger
generations were influenced by the bad examples of their relatives as well as
their good examples. Hereditary
tendencies could be passed along as well as social diseases. But at the same time, a godly relative’s
example, teaching and prayer could bring blessing to his or her descendants for
years to come. Neither Ezekiel nor Jeremiah
denied that innocent people were suffering because of the sins of the godless
Jewish leaders (Lam. 5:7). The thing
they opposed was that the people were using the proverb as an excuse for their
own sins, claiming that their generation wasn’t guilty of disobedience.”
1/5/2015 5:20 PM
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