EZEKIEL STREET PREACHER TO THE EXILES
LESSON FOR THE JUNIOR CLASSES
STUDY SCRIPTURE: EZEKIEL 18
Lesson 12 May 22, 2021
Key verse
“For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the LORD GOD: wherefore turn yourselves and live ye”.
Ezekiel 18:32
INTRODUCTION AND STUDY.
Have you ever done something wrong and try to blame it on somebody else like your sister or brother? Well, if you have you are normal. Most people do exactly that. Even adults do it. Even the first man our father Adam and the first woman our mother Eve did it. When they ate the fruit that God told them not to eat Adam told God that it was Eve his wife that gave him the fruit. It was her fault that he ate the fruit that he should not have eaten. It was really not his fault. Then Eve had to find someone to blame and she turned around and said that it was the serpent Satan that had somehow tricked her into doing something that she knew she should not have done. So it was his fault, not hers. Then Adam chimed in and said that he had sinned because of the action of the wife that God had given to him. So it does God’s fault.
Nehemiah That was what happened a long time ago when a King called Zedekiah ruled the nation of Judah, the land where the Temple of God was. So the king and the people were aware of what God wanted and what pleased God. But they chose to worship all kinds of idols that they had made and did all kind of things that God told them not to do.God had warned the This is very bad day andThey were guilty and so they tried to pass the blame for what they did on somebody else. This time they chose to blame their parents and they came up with a saying or proverb that “The parents had eaten Sour grapes and the children’s teeth were sent on edge”.
That meant that their parents had done all kind of wrong things that God had commanded them not to do and because of what the parents did they were now suffering. Their suffering was all because of their parents. When the king of Babylon had surrounded the city of Jerusalem and was going to destroy it, it was not their fault.
Ezekiel was a prophet of God in the land of Judah and he was born about 623 B.C. He began to prophesy for God about 593 B.C. so we know that he worked for God as long, long time ago. He made it quite clear to the people of the land of Judah and to the king and the rulers that if they did not repent and stop committing sins they would suffer for it not because of what their parents did but because of what they were doing. God told them that they should stop thinking of themselves as a victim for what their parents had done for that was untrue . They were guilty. They should stop sinning and repent for what they had done. Once they did that God would give them a new heart and a new mind. If they did not begin to behave the king of Babylon who was their enemy would come and capture their land and their city, burn down the city and the Temple of God and take them away as slaves into Babylon.
But they did not want to hear what Ezekiel was telling them for they thought that because they had a covenant with God and the Temple of God was in Jerusalem, God would never allow that to happen. They did not want to accept that their persistent sinning would be punished. Ezekiel told them over and over again that they should stop arguing that they had done nothing wrong and they could not help it if their forefathers had sinned. This was a directOnly God could cure them of that their wrong attitude.
Lesson for us today thereforeIn our days people do the same thing like the people in Judah did. We know that it is true that parents sometimes do things that are not right and because of that their children suffer badly. Children sometimes suffer because they have been brought up in the wrong ways and their parents have made poor choices. But we also know that many children that have grown up in what we call dysfunctional homes have overcome all the circumstances that have held them back and have lived normal lives and sometimes extremely creative lives, doing great things that benefit their country and even their parents. On the other hand some children who grow up in very good homes where the parents have taught them the ways of God have turned away from God and got themselves into a lot of trouble.
So God and the prophet Ezekiel told the people that the parents would suffer for their own sins and the children would suffer for their own sins. Everybody belonged to God and so God would not be unfair and make someone suffer for the sins of their parents.
So Even if your life had not been good you can make a quick turnaround with the help of God.
What is sad was that the people of Judah did not want to listen to the prophet Ezekiel even though he preached to them for a long time. Ezekiel told them to repent and turn back to God going in a different direction from the one that they were going in. When they repented and turned they would live.
God had no pleasure in the death of people who were wicked. What He wanted was for them to turn around and do the right thing. They should stop blaming others and accept personal responsibility for they were in charge of their own lives and God would have them to do what was right. So we pray that all young children will turn to God, pray to Him, listen to Him, and take His hand of help so that they would overcome all the difficult times in their life.