God Gives Second Chances (Ezekiel 18:1-32) Series

fair judgment he makes between men (disputing something);

(9) in my statutes he walks,

while my rules, he has kept to do them faithfully--

righteous, he [is].

He will surely live-- utterance of the Lord Yahweh,

In verse 4, God starts off by saying that if a generation sins, that generation will die. Meaning-- that generation will fall under God's punishments, and judges, and curses, as described in the Mosaic covenant.

On the other hand, if a generation does what's right, it will live. And I could easily spend a whole sermon unpacking what it means to do what's right, but God lays out the specific things he's looking for. God spends a little time talking about acting rightly toward Him by not worshipping idols, and He spends a lot of time talking about the importance of acting rightly toward each other.

And a generation that does this-- that loves God, and loves people, will "live." They will receive God's covenant blessings.

So in this section, we see both possible futures held out to God's people. If they sin, we see in verse 4 (in a single line) that they will die. If they do what's right, verses 5-9, they will live. God holds out to his people the choice between death and life, and He invites them to choose life.

With this, we come to verse 10. And here we find ourselves dealing with the issue of generational punishments, or curses. So God spent most of verses 4-9 talking about how things work when people act rightly toward God and each other, and that results in life. It was about when a righteous generation, acts righteously. But then that generation, has another generation. A righteous father has a son. And in this first example, the son is a bad dude:

(10) and he has a violent son [who] sheds blood, and he does/acts, alas (DCH), from [any] one of these [bad] things,

(11) while he, all these [good] things he didn't do.

For, what's more/worse, to the mountains he ate,

while the wife of his neighbor he defiled.

(12) The needy and the poor he oppresses/mistreats.

Stolen things he seized.

Someone's pledge for a loan, he doesn't return,

while to idols he lifted his eyes.

A detestable/abominable thing he did.

(13) With interest, he gave,

while usury, he took,

and shall he live?

He shall not live.

All these detestable things he did.

He will surely die.

His blood, on him, it will be,

The son does all the bad things the father doesn't. And he doesn't do all the good things that the father did. He's the opposite.

And so the question is, what's his fate?

The answer is that he will die. Meaning, he will fall under the covenant curses.

That wicked son, in turn, has a son. A third generation is now in view. And this third generation "sees" what the second generation did, and chooses a different path. Verse 14-18:

(14) while LOOK! He has a son,

and the son saw all the sin of his father

that the father did,

and he saw,

and he wasn't doing like them.

(15) Upon the mountains he didn't eat,

while his eyes didn't lift up to the idols of the house of Israel.