Ezekiel 18

Ezekiel 18:1-9

God will not only be just in all his dealings with men, but make his righteousness appear. We have here, 1. The corrupt proceeds of the people of Israel, and the children of Israel, and the children of Israel, and the children of Israel, and the children of Israel, and the children of Israel, and the children of Israel, and the children of Israel, and the children of Israel, and the children of Israel, and the children of Israel, and the children of Israel, and the children of Israel, and the children of Israel, and the children of Israel, and the children of Israel, and the children of Israel, and the children of Israel, and the children

1. THE word of the LORD came unto me again, saying, 2. What mean ye, that ye use this proverb concerning the land of Israel, saying, ‘The fathers have eaten four grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge? 3. At I live, faith the Lord GOD, ye shall not have occasion any more to use this proverb in Israel. 4. Behold, all souls are mine, as the soul of the father, to also the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sinners, it shall die. 5. But if a man be just, and ‘do that which is lawful and right, 6. And ‘hath not eaten upon the mountains, neither hath left up his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel,’ neither hath defied his neighbour’s wife, neither hath come near to a meritorious woman, 7. And hath not ‘wometed any, but hath restored to the debtor ‘his pledge, hath spoiled none by violence, hath given his bread to the hungry, and hath covered the naked with a garment, 8. He that hath not given death upon usury, neither hath taken any increase, that hath withdrawn his hand from iniquity, hath executed true judgment, bearing man and man. 9. Hath walked an o’er flatter, and hath kept my judgments to deal truly; he is just, ‘he shall surely live, faith the Lord GOD.

We have here.

1. The infliction and impious proverb in use among the Jews, The fathers have eaten four grapes, and with children’s teeth are set on edge, which implies a charge of imprisonment cruelty in God, as if he punished them for the sins of their fathers, and they had themselves done nothing to provoke the wrath under which they lay. It was true indeed that, as a nation, their fathers sins came into remembrance; but the infatuation was false this for them alone they suffered: had they not copied after their forefathers wickedness they had never gone into captivity. Note, When sinners had died with God, it is a fine judgment their heart is yet heeded, and unthimbed under their sufferings.

2. The reproof God gives them heretofore. What upon ye, that ye are not proverb? with such a blasphemous indentation. God therefore will silence them; and hears it himself, they shall have occasion to use this proverb in men. He will better immediate judgment on the sinners, and not defer it to another persecution; and will make to manifest on themselves and others, that their sufferings are so more than their distress.

3. He lays down the equitable method of his procedure. But, as the eternal foreright, indeed is not bound to give him any account of his nature. All that are his, the work of his hands, accountable to him; and, as he may do, there are not only being from him, they may be blamed for will do them to wrong.

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He waves however his right of forewitigry, and effaillifies a rule of judgment to which none can reasonably object.

(1.) The foul that fanneth it shall die, he exposed to temporal judgments in this life, and his punishment not be deferred to another generation; which seems to be the meaning of the death here threatened; or he shall die eternally, separated from the faithful presence of God, and configured to the place of torment. Let impenitent sinners hear and tremble.

(2.) The just man shall live: and, that we may not mistake, God gives his character in several particulars, both negatively and positively. Happy for us will it be, if we can through grace call the character our own. (1.) He is no idolater; neither joins in the worship nor gives the least countenance to the fervour, hating both the idols and the things tarnished to them, never deigning to lift his eyes to the one, nor to sit down to death on the other. (2.) He is no adulterer, nor freed perfect, but possesses his vessel in fancification and honour; neither by word or deed attempting the chaffity of his neighbour’s wife, nor in the time of her separation approaching his own. (3.) He is not oppressive, by force or fraud depriving his neighbour or what is his just due; not taking advantage of his merciless, but resorting to the debtor his pledge when the redemption-money is paid; and, since the law had forbidden him to take usury on his brethren, lending freely, hoping for nothing again. (4.) He is charitable to his power, feeding the hungry and closhing the naked; willing to give, glad to distribute; and this not as depending on his works as meritorious, but actuated by a principle of love. (5.) He withdraws his hand from iniquity; will have no fellowship nor connection with wicked men or their deeds; and, if he hath been inadvertently drawn into evil, he hastily returns, with grief and shame, to the right way. (6.) In all his dealings, either as a magistrate, a witness, a referee, or a man in business, he pays the shulself regard to truth and justice, and to his power desires that every man may enjoy his right. (7.) To finish his character, he is not only just and merciful towards man, but pious towards God, trusting to God’s statutes, making them the rule of his conduct; constant in his worship and ordinances, and keeping God’s judgment to God truly, never deviating from the line of justice God hath marked out. He is just: such a conversation is an evidence to men of that righteousness which he hath he possesses before God. And he shall surely live, faith the Lord God, happy in the enjoyment of God’s favour, exempted from the plagues which are the portion of the ungodly, and shall shortly live eternally with God in glory.

10. ¶ If he beget a son that is a robber, * a sledder of blood, and that doth the like to any one of these things, 11. And that doth not any of those duties, but even hath eaten upon the mountains, and defiled his neighbour’s wife, 12. Hath oppressed the poor and needy, hath spoiled by violence, hath not restored the pledge, and hath lift up his eyes to the idols, hath committed abomination, 13. Hath given forth upon usury, and hath taken increase: shall he then live? he shall not live: he hath done all these abominations, * he shall surely die, * his blood shall be upon him. 14. ¶ Now lo, if he beget a son that forth all his father’s sins, which he hath done, and confedereth, and doth not fuch like, 15. That hath not eaten upon the mountains, neither hath lift up his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel, hath not defiled his neighbour’s wife, 16. Neither hath oppressed any, hath not withholden the pledge, neither hath spoiled by violence, but hath given his bread to the hungry, and hath covered the naked with a garment, 17. That hath taken off his hand from the poor, that hath not received usury nor increase, hath executed my judgments, hath walked in my statutes; he shall not die for the iniquity of his father, he shall surely live. 18. At for his father, because he cruelly oppressed, spoiled his brother by violence, and did that which is not good among his people, lo, even he shall die in his iniquity. 19. ¶ Yet fay ye, Why? * doth not the son bear the iniquity of the father? when the son hath done that which is lawful and right, and hath kept all my statutes, and hath done them, he shall surely live. 20. * The foul that finneth, it shall die: * the son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son; * the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and * the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him.

11. 10—20. God, having laid down his method of procedure, applies it to particular cases, demonstrating the justice of his dealings, and the injustice of their censures.

12. For the justice of his dealings he observes,

(1.) That an ungodly Son, though forcing from a pious father, shall bear his own burden. The case is not uncommon; for grace doth not run in the blood, nor is the most careful education always successful: the hell of men have, to their grief, behold the most ungodly children. Dreadful are the sins here supposed; and indeed usually they grow most abandoned who sin against the greatest light and warnings. This wicked Son is described as the very averse to all goodness; a robber, a murderer, an idolater, an adulterer, an oppressor, an usher, in short devoted to every abomination; the consequence of which must be, he shall not live in the enjoyment of God’s favour, or in peace in his possessions, he shall surely die, given up to the sword of the enemy, or led captive, and, if he dies impenitent, configured to the eternal death of both and God in hell; he blood shall be upon him, he hath only himself to blame for his destruction, his sins the more aggravated and inexcusable, and his misery the more intolerable through the abide of the mercies he hath enjoyed.

(2.) The gracious son of a wicked father shall never fare the worse for his descent from him. And a happy thing it is when a child, instead of being influenced by his parents’ ill example to imitate it, sees, confuses, and takes warning to shun those vices to which they were addicted. His character in the same described o. b. for all just men walk by the same rule, and mind the same things; and, being found in the same way, have the same blessed end, he shall surely live, and shall not die for his father’s iniquity; but his grace of his father, whose ways were perverse before God, oppressive, ungodly, and negligent of every good work, he shall bear his iniquity and perish under it.

2. Hence he infers the injustice of their censures. Yet ye say, Doth not the son bear the iniquity of the father? No, in no wise. He that doth that which is lawful and right shall live; but the foul that finneth shall die, whether father or son: the son shall not be chargeable with his father’s iniquity; nor the father, when he hath discharged his duty towards him, he unfeasible for the conduct of his ungodly Son. This is the bested rule of God’s judgment: the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, he shall have the present and eternal comfort of well doing; and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him, crushing him down under temporal judgments, and sinking him at last into the body of hell.

3. But if the wicked will turn from all his sins that he hath committed, and keep all my statutes, and do that which is lawful and right, he shall surely live, he shall not die. 22. All his transgressions that he hath committed, they shall not be mentioned unto him: in his righteousness that he hath done, he shall live. 23. Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die? faith the LORD God: and not that he should return from his ways and live? 24. But when the righteous turneth away from his righteousness, and committed iniquity, and doth according to all the abominations that the wicked men doth: shall he live? all his righteousness that he hath done shall not be mentioned; in his trespass that he hath trespassed; and in his sin that he hath sinned, in them shall he die. 25. ¶ Yet ye say, The way of the LORD is not equal. Hear now, O house of Israel, * is not my way equal? * are not your ways unequal? 26. When a righteous man turneth away from his righteousness, and committed iniquity, and doth in them; for his iniquity that he hath done shall be die. 27. Again, when the wicked man turneth away from his wickedness that he hath committed, and doth that which is lawful and right, he shall save his foul alive. 28. Because he confidends and turneth away from all his transgressions that he hath committed, he shall surely live, he shall not die. 29. Yet faith the house of Israel, The way of the LORD is not equal. O house of Israel, are not my ways equal? are not your ways unequal?

4. 21—29. The equity of the divine government is here farther demonstrated. As God will not punish one man for the sins of another, neither will he be rigorous to mark the transgressions of those who return to him. The finally impenitent only shall perish.

5. The sinner that repeats and turns to God shall surely live. Not that of himself he is able to turn and change his own heart. The work is God’s to give repentance: and this he doth, [1.] By leading the sinner to consider his ways, 9. 28. giving him an enlightened knowledge of the evil and danger of sin, and opening his eyes to a discovery of that guilt to which he was before a stranger; in consequence of which, [2.] He turns from ALL his wickedness, hating and forsaking it, and makes no allowed reserve of the least sin. (3.) His obedience is sincere and universal, keeping all God’s statutes, and doing that which is lawful

Lemysol and rigle, according to his best knowledge of God’s word, in simplicity and truth, though not in perfection. And, when this is the case, he hath [4.] an affured evidence of his pardon and acceptance with God, of which repentance indeed is not the cause but the effect. His transgressions shall not only be forgiven but forgotten, not so much as mentioned unto him, to shame or upheed him in the day of judgment. (5.) He shall surely live, he shall not die. Which may be confined to that exemption from temporal calamities, which an external observance of the musical institutions seems to have focused, to which, rather than to real evangelical repentance, the context may then refer: or we may interpret the life here promised of the enjoyment of God’s love and favour both here and for ever, which are sure to all those who walk in righteousness and true holiness.

2. God encourages sinners, from the views of his rich grace and mercy, to return to him. How I say plague at all that the wicked should die? Faith the Lord God? No: vengeance is his strange work, but mercy is his delight. And though his justice is glorified in the punishment of the obstinately rebellious, yet he would rather glorify his grace in pardoning them, when they turn from their ways and love. Now, The God that perishes will have only himself to blame for his damnation.

3. The righteous man who turns apollate will perish. Not that one truly righteous ever will or can finally be said away; but many who are professionally footh, appear to before men, and count themselves righteous, do turn from their righteousness, cast off their profession, grow carefully and outwardly profane and festival, commit iniquity open and avowed, according to all the abominations of the wicked, joining with them, and in practice like them. Shall such love? because of the former appearances of righteousness. No. Their good deeds, however many, will not be mentioned in their favour. They turn back unto perdition, and die in their sins, v. 24. and for them, v. 26.

4. God appeals to their consciences for the equity of his ways and the injustice of their reflections. For ye for the way of the Lord is not equal. Impudently and blasphemously they dared arraign the divine justice at the bar of their partial self-love; though the procedure was so evidently equal and just: not could it possibly be otherwise; the judge of all the earth must needs do right. The inequality therefore was in themselves, not in him: he was righteous, but they had done wickedly; his judgments altogether just, their murmuring under them wicked as unreasonable.

5. Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways, faith the LORD God: repent, and turn yourselves from all your transgressions; so iniquity shall not be your ruin. 31. ¶ Cast away from you all your transgressions, whereby ye have transgressed, and make you a new heart, and a new spirit; for why will ye die, O house of Israel? 32. For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, faith the LORD God: wherefore turn yourselves, and live ye.

Ezekiel 18:30-32

The case being thus fairly stated, God’s methods of procedure appear fully vindicated. I will judge you according to your ways, giving to every man as his work is. Yet, as their works and ways would so ill bear the severity of his enquiry, he lengthens their day of grace, and gives them yet space to repent, and an earnest invitation to engage them thereunto.

1. He invites them to repent and live, turning from all their transgressions with shame and rooted aversion, and calling them away, with full purpose of heart never to return to them again. And he calls on them to make them a new heart and a new spirit, thoroughly changed in all their tempera and dispositions; which though indeed their duty, yet God must give the power to enable them for what he does command, see chap. xi. 19. and by his grace, preventing and following the word of exhortation he sends, it becomes effectual to the sinner’s conversion.

2. He enforces his invitation with various arguments. [1.] So iniquity shall not be your ruin, as otherwise it infallibly would be; for except we repent we must perish. [2.] God hath no delight in the sinner’s death, and therefore expeditates, Why will ye die, O house of Israel? It is as pleasing to him to see the sinner turned from the evil of his ways, as it is unfeasibly advantageous to ourselves. They who refuse therefore to give him this satisfaction, for against their own mercies, and die because they will die. [3.] Immortal life and glory are before us, if we truly turn to God. Turn yourselves, and live ye. And what can engage us, if these considerations are ineffectual.