In Ezekiel 18, God makes it clear that people maintain personal accountability for their sins. Sons aren’t going to be paying for the sins of their fathers. Instead, the father would pay for his own sin, and the son would pay for his own sin (Ez. 18:20). The Lord says, “Behold, all souls are mine; the soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is mine: the soul who sins shall die” (Ez. 18:4). Furthermore, God puts forward the condition that if the wicked person turned from their sins in repentance, they would experience mercy, and their wickedness wouldn’t be remembered (18:21-23). Likewise, if the righteous turned from their right way and does wickedness, their righteous deeds wouldn’t be remembered (18:24).
In response to God’s ways, the people had issue. They claim that He wasn’t acting justly! (18:25,29). To which God turns the question around on them by saying, “Is it not your ways that are not just?” (18:25,29).
It’s interesting that at times the creature thinks they know better than the Creator. Yet, He is beyond our ability to comprehend, and His ways are much greater than ours. God sees the whole picture from beginning to end, He knows the secret sins, the public sins, and all the rest. He is all-powerful, all-knowing, and He is everywhere present. Certainly, He knows what He’s doing and is capable of doing whatever He wants.
Not only this, but He presents to us in His Word that He is a God who acts justly, as we see in this chapter today. It’s a part of His nature! So, a charge against God’s justice is a charge against His nature on two accounts. One, that He is unjust, contrary to what He’s revealed, and two, that He is a liar! If God presents Himself as just, and He actually isn’t, then He’s being dishonest, that’s quite the claim to leverage against the Almighty.
I’m sure there are times that we don’t understand God’s ways. That we wonder why God does this, that, or the other thing. We wonder why some get to live to old age, and others die young. We wonder why the wicked prolongs their life and even Solomon recounts this (see Ecc. 8:11-13). We wonder why God allows a wicked ruler to remain in power. We might have a lot of questions that don’t come with answers in this life…but perhaps, we ought to just trust God? That the Judge of the earth will do that which is just? If as children we occasionally had to do what our parents said, “Because they said so” and to trust their opinion on things because they knew more than us, then maybe we ought to do this with God as well. Truly, He knows more than any of our parents ever did or will. We might see a world that is filled with sin and see so many that seem to be getting away with it. We might be tempted to question what God is doing, or why God isn’t executing justice. In response, we should remind ourselves that we aren’t the ones who are just. He alone is just, and He will execute judgment justly. It’s not our job to run the universe, and we ought to be thankful for that today. Let’s trust that He is just, and not worry about how He’s running things down here. He’s got it figured out.
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