OUR FATHER WHO SPARES THOSE WHO RESIST DOING WHAT IS EVIL

The book of Ezekiel chapter 18 verse 15 says this;

“He does not eat at the mountain shrines or look to the idols of Israel. He does not defile his neighbor’s wife.

Preceding this verse, the prophet Ezekiel declared that those who do evil will not be spared because of  the righteousness of their parents. 

He then declares here that the children of parents who do evil things, if they abstain from wickedness by not participating in idol veneration by eating at the shrines on the high places and turning to graven images and also by not engaging in immorality, they will not incur the judgment that their parents invited to themselves even though they saw their parents doing these things.

These children of evil parents also avoid other evil things set as examples by their parents as enumerated in verses 15 -17 which say;

They do not oppress people nor do they require collaterall for a loan nor do they commit robbery but instead, they give food to the hungry and give clothes to the naked.

They also avoid mistreatment of the poor and refuse to profit off of them.

These children keep the laws of God and follow his decrees and are spared culpability as Ezekiel chapter 18 verses 19 - 20 says;

“Yet you ask, ‘Why does the son not share the guilt of his father?’ Since the son has done what is just and right and has been careful to keep all my decrees, he will surely live.  The one who sins is the one who will die. The child will not share the guilt of the parent, nor will the parent share the guilt of the child.

And because of the mercy of God, any who had already gone down the wrong path and then repented to turn around, the Lord will rescind their penalty as verse 21 and 22 say;

“But if a wicked person turns away from all the sins they have committed and keeps all my decrees and does what is just and right, that person will surely live; they will not die. None of the offenses they have committed will be remembered against them. Because of the righteous things they have done, they will live. 

Amen.

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