Ezekiel 18:2

Ezekiel 18:2

It is not strange that so well known a law as the fatal persistency with which evil follows on from generation to generation, should find its expression in the Proverbs of Israel, but it is strange that you should find the prophet quoting it only to denounce it. He rises up, having quoted the proverb, and he declares that it is unworthy of those who bear the name of Israel. "It is a heathenish proverb. What mean ye to use it concerning Israel? It is not only heathenish, it does wrong to God; it violates the rights of the Almighty over His creatures. Behold, all souls are Mine."

I. The proverb is unquestionably true. Every land, every race, every age, has seen its truth. We often look round and see how true it is that a man is weighted in the race of life by the folly, by the extravagance, of his father. A man, on the other hand, toils on industriously, accumulates possessions for his children, and in doing so gives them the advantage of the position which he has established. That which is true with regard to personal history is true also with regard to national history. Are we not bearing the weight of our fathers' sins? We are enduring the pain of our teeth being set on edge because of the follies and the sins of past generations.

II. What is the reason, then, that the prophet should take upon himself to denounce what is so obviously true? He denounces its use because it is used in an untrue sense, and for an untrue purpose. It is quoted in the sense of trying to make people cast a shadow upon the lovingkindness of God; therefore, the prophet takes up his parable against them. For every soul, for every nation, there is a glorious destiny; and for men to shelter themselves from their duty by declaring that a hard fate has bound them about with its fetters of iron, and that there is no escape for them; that their whole life is shipwrecked and ruined; that they are the last miserable inheritors of the fatality of their own organisation, of the tyranny of their national position, is to declare that they have lost faith in the power of God; it is to take a solemn truth and wrest it to their own destruction. Life is the prerogative of man, and the power of taking upon them a new life is never denied to those who look God in the face, to those who grasp firmly the weapons of life, and turn to their duty as men. It is not our part to live for ever in the north pole of life, and declare that it is all bitterness, and a blasted fate; it is not our duty to live in the sunny south, and to declare that our life is all sweetness and sunshine; your lot and mine is cast in these moderate poles, where we know that law rules, and love rules above our heads, sweet love beneath our feet, sweet law, both strong, both sweet, both the offspring of God, both heralds of encouragement, to lift up our energies, to exert ourselves in the toil of life, and to be men. It is in the counterpoising truths of law which is inexorable, and love which is never inexorable, that the power of life and heroism of life is found.

Bishop Boyd Carpenter, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xxiii., p. 353.

Reference: Ezekiel 18:2. Homiletic Magazine,vol. xiv., p. 107.