In response to the exile’s slur that one could be punished for the sins of the previous generation, God made the declaration in Ezekiel 18:4. He said, “Behold, all souls are Mine; the soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is Mine. The soul who sins will die.” God was making clear that He views everyone separately. Each person is a separate entity on his or her own. And every soul belongs to Him. Each one is responsible and accountable for himself or herself. This is how God operates.
Having stated His premise, God then went on to discuss two very important issues for the rest of Ezekiel 18. Verses 5-2o, deal with the issue of individual accountability, and verses 21-32 deal with the issue of one’s free will. We will examine the two issues in manageable portions.
For this reflection, we will focus on verse 5 to verse 9. In these
verses, God defines for us what a righteous man looks like. They are two lists.
One lists the things that a righteous man would not commit and then the other lists the practices a righteous man would commit to do.
First a list of what righteous man would avoid.
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He would not participate
in pagan rituals or cast his eyes on idols.
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He would eye his neighbor’s
wife or sleep with a menstruating woman.
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He would not oppress
anyone or cheat or defraud them.
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He would not commit
robbery but would provide for the needy.
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He would not take advantage
of the needy by lending money with exorbitant interest.
Second a list of what a righteous man would strive to do and be.
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He shows justice and
practices righteousness.
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He returns what he
holds as collateral so that the needy would not have to suffer.
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He feeds the
hungry clothes the naked.
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He avoids
committing iniquity.
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He shows fairness
and acts judiciously.
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He observes the laws
of God.
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He is sincere and
deals faithfully.
What do we take away? If we are to be truly blessed, we must decide
what kind of person we want to be. We thank God in Christ; we can be and act
right. All glory to His name!
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