The person who sins, he alone shall die. A child shall not share the burden of a parent’s guilt, nor shall a parent share the burden of a child’s guilt; the righteousness of the righteous shall be accounted to him alone, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be accounted to him alone.
Ezekiel 18:20
Although I’ve read Ezekiel before, I had forgotten how difficult a read it would be. As I read today I kept on waiting on a piece of scripture that would be less than “R-rated” that I could write about today. I was relieved when I found this clarification about who deserves punishment.
As I continued reading and thinking about what I read I realized that this little piece of scripture avoids the raw description describing God’s anger towards the people of Israel: unfaithfulness!
The image that Ezekiel uses is whoredom:
After all your wickedness (woe, woe to you!) — declares the Lord God — you built yourself an eminence and made yourself a mound in every square. You built your mound at every crossroad; and you sullied your beauty and spread your legs to every passerby, and you multiplied your harlotries. You played the whore with your neighbors, the lustful Egyptians — you multiplied your harlotries to anger Me. 16:23-26
These are not passages that we will read in worship any time soon! Should we? Should we struggle with the idea of a God who gets upset at our unfaithfulness?
I am not sure . . . still thinking about these passages and what they say about God, humanity, women. Still struggling with its harsh language and its place as part of the biblical narrative. What do you think?