Sour Grapes and Justice

[566 words] Ezekiel 18 is a marvelous chapter on the fairness and justice of God. Its message is in an Old Testament setting, but it portrays an attribute of God which is unchanged; and it should be read today—with care. The Israelites had a proverb: “The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge,” by which they blamed their troubles on an earlier generation. God said, yes, your fathers sinned, but “ye have done evil more than your fathers.” “Every one shall die for his own iniquity: every man that eateth the sour grapes, his teeth shall be set on edge” (Jer. 16:10-f. 31:29-30). “The soul that sinneth, it shall die: the son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son.” The physical and environmental consequences of one generation’s sin may affect generations to come…