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Say what?


Ezekiel 18:2
Yet the Israelites say, ‘The way of the Lord is not just.’ Are my ways unjust, people of Israel? Is it not your ways that are unjust?

Thought for the day – Say what?
What is it about our faith, our Christian faith, that makes us special? I can tell you the things it's not, it's not the rules, it's not the buildings, it's not even our communities, what makes Christianity special is the fact that we have a God who holds us accountable but in ways that allows us to be free of our past.

You may well be thinking, Ray, what are you talking about? In our verse today, God is challenging the understandings of the people of Israel, particularly the understanding that the sins of the fathers are persecuted on the children of the next few generations, and God is saying, no, that is not the case, the accountability lies with the person committing the sin, so the person who commits the sin will face the punishment, the person who does not sin will not face punishment, the person who sins and then repents and changes his ways will not face punishment, the person who is righteous and does not sin, but then sins, will face punishment.

You may well be thinking, that actually we know this  
This is the joy of the gospel  
But how often have the rules and structures that we've created put us in a position that runs contrary to God's will, that runs contrary to God's understanding of how our life should be led  

I think we need to be reminded that God's ways are not our ways, and that his understanding is not our understanding  
God is not entirely unknowable  

We have the scriptures, our church history, our personal experience, and our own understanding. These things show us who God is, but we can still somehow warp the image of God into something that bears no resemblance to him  

And I think our verse today challenges that. When the people of Israel say that God's ways are unjust, it's God who says their ways are unjust, because their ways do not reflect the reality of who God is. In much the same way that some of the things we do, do not reflect the reality of who God is and we occasionally need reminding of that.


 

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