Ezekiel 18:1-4, 25-32 Pastor Nathan P. Kassulke
Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost Sunday, September 27, 2026 “Repent and Live”
You’ve probably heard some proverbs, some sayings that make sense in our modern context. I’m not talking about the book of Proverbs from the Old Testament of the Bible, which is full of God’s wisdom. I mean common sayings that carry some wisdom that perhaps people repeat. One might be, “A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.” That means that if you have a sure thing, you may not want to give that up for something that is not so certain. Another example might be, “Give a man a fish and he’ll eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he’ll eat for a lifetime.” That proverb tells us that helping someone take care of himself might take a little more effort now but could create a better outcome than just handing him something. Not that it’s wrong to give a gift, but that there may be more valuable things to give. Maybe you’ve heard these proverbs or others like them. You probably didn’t need me to explain them to you. Even if they were new to you, you could probably figure them out. But I’d be willing to guess that outside of the Scripture Reading we heard earlier, you’ve probably never run across the proverb, “Fathers eat sour grapes, and their sons’ teeth are set on edge.” That’s not a modern American proverb, that’s for sure. Sour grapes do have a certain context for us. Sour grapes is when we talk down something that we can’t have or can’t reach. It comes from a fable about a fox who couldn’t reach a bunch of grapes, so he decided that they were just sour anyway. The proverb quoted by God in the book of Ezekiel is different. These sour grapes are actually eaten, and they set on edge the teeth of someone else. What does that mean? Do you know the feeling of biting something that’s really sour? If you were to bite into a lemon, you pucker up and it’s almost a painful rush of sensations. That’s the kind of reaction suggested by this idea of sour grapes. Only in this case, fathers eat the grapes and sons deal with the setting on edge. Let’s see if we can put it together what this proverb meant to the people of Israel at the time of Ezekiel. This book comes from the time of the Babylonian Captivity. Many Israelites, including Ezekiel—who was a priest, had been taken away from their home in the Promised Land. They had been carried as prisoners, captives, into the land of an enemy people. This is what God had long threatened would happen to his people if they did not live the way that he directed in the Promised Land. The people had failed to meet God’s expectations, and the threatened punishment, exile from the land, had come. The problem was that these people who had been carried away to Babylon, who were living there at the time, didn’t think that they had deserved that. They thought that God was punishing them for things that their ancestors had done. They thought that God had made up his mind in the generations before but that they were suffering because of it. Obviously, we don’t find ourselves in the same situation, and we probably aren’t tempted to talk about sour grapes setting anyone’s teeth on edge. But perhaps you’ve felt something like those Israelites did. Maybe you’ve felt that things were difficult for you because of what someone else had done. You felt like things were unfair. Maybe you even felt like God was punishing you for what someone else had done. Some people even get upset about the fact that we are born into the world as sinners as a result of what has happened in every generation of people. The big problem is that when we say that we’re suffering for what other people have done, we might also be tempted to think that we’ve done nothing wrong. Our insistence that we don’t deserve the specific suffering we’re facing could become an accusation that God is being unfair with us, that we haven’t done anything to deserve any trouble. That wasn’t true for the Israelites, and it is not true for us today, either. So God lays it out through Ezekiel. He says clearly, The soul who sins is the one who will die. God deals with sin on an individual basis. Perhaps you remember our discussion of fairness last week. It would be fair if God would punish all of us for our sins. No Israelite captive in Babylon was sinless. No person throughout history has been
sinless with the exception of our Savior Jesus. That means that no one living today is sinless. None of us can accuse God of being unfair, no matter what he allows us to suffer. God uses our suffering to accomplish something. He wants us to repent. That is a very important word in Scripture. The main idea behind it is turning around or turning away. It speaks about sinners turning away from their sin and turning to God for forgiveness. This is what Ezekiel tells us. Our lives call for repentance. Our job is not to compare ourselves to others and say, “I don’t think I’m so bad because look at what someone else has done.” Our job is not to question the way God treats us because we think someone else is more responsible for what we face. Our job is not to accuse God of unfairness. Our job is to admit that we have been unfair. We have sinned against God. We have sinned against others. We deserve God’s wrath, his anger, his punishment. We deserve death. God is absolutely serious when he speaks in the strongest terms. Why should you die, O house of Israel? Death is what happens to those who insist that their ways are fair and God’s are not. It is what everyone who persists in unrighteousness, in evil, in sin will face. Death is what happens to people because of their sin and unrighteousness. But God does not want people to die. He calls his people away from their sin. He leads them away from stumbling blocks. He leads them to repentance. He leads them to righteousness. This is what he promised through Ezekiel. But if a wicked man turns from his wickedness that he has done and practices justice and righteousness, he will preserve his life. Because he has seen and turned away from all the rebellious acts that he had committed, he will surely live, and he will not die. There is a lot of bad news in these verses. It was bad news for the people in Babylon who couldn’t just blame their fathers, who had to face their own weaknesses and sins. But the bad news led to good news. God sent his Word to those people through Ezekiel. God graciously called them to turn from their sin and evil. He did not want them to die. He wanted them to live. He wanted them to be saved. For I take no pleasure in the death of anyone who dies, declares the Lord God. So repent and live! This is good news for us, too. This is what God wants for people. He wants to bless them. He wants to save them. He wants them to turn from sin and turn to righteousness and live. And he has left no doubt about his desires. He sent his own Son to bring righteousness and life. These verses from Ezekiel are not as clear as some passages about their focus on Jesus Christ. But all along the promise of God has pointed sinners to his righteousness. See, no one earns salvation by doing better or by fixing their own lives. That’s not what repentance is all about. God fixes lives, saves lives, by bringing people to turn away from sin and turn to his mercy and love. And here is the reality: that repentance changes the earthly lives of people, too. Repentance is more than saying the right thing. It is more than speaking an apology. Repentance is true sorrow for sin worked in our hearts, hearts that God has made new, hearts that God’s Spirit has given us. God didn’t want the people in Babylon to recognize their own sins because he wanted them to feel bad. He wanted them to recognize their own sin because he wanted to save them from their sin. He doesn’t call us to repent in order to make us feel bad. He calls us to repent because he wants us to be with him now and forever. He wants us to turn from all those things that would take us away from him. He wants us to live. He wants us to live for him now. He wants us to live with him forever. You may very well face challenges that come into your life because of what someone else has done. You may find struggles that have no earthly explanation. You probably won’t say it this way, but your teeth could be set on edge because of someone else biting into sour grapes. But every week God invites you to stand before him and confess, “I am a sinner.” And every week he assures you that he forgives. And he wants you to take that home with you. He doesn’t want you to forget. He doesn’t want you to get sidetracked. He doesn’t want you to change your mind. This is what God wants. He wants you to repent and live.
The Text: Ezekiel 18:1–4, 25–32 (EHV) 18 The word of the Lord came to me. 2What do you mean, you who keep repeating this proverb concerning the soil of Israel, “Fathers eat
sour grapes, and their sons’ teeth are set on edge”? 3As surely as I live, declares the Lord God, you will never again use this proverb in Israel. 4Indeed, all souls are mine. The soul of the father is mine just like the soul of the son. The soul who sins is the one who will die. 25But you say, “The Lord’s way is not fair.” Listen now, house of Israel. Is it my way that is not fair?
Is it not your ways that are not fair? 26If a righteous man turns away from his righteousness and practices unrighteousness, he will die because of it. Because of the unrighteousness that he has practiced, he will die. 27But if a wicked man turns from his wickedness that he has done and practices justice and
righteousness, he will preserve his life. 28Because he has seen and turned away from all the rebellious acts that he had committed, he will surely live, and he will not die. 29But the house of Israel says, “The Lord’s way is not fair.” Is it really my ways that are not fair, O house of Israel? Is it not your ways that are not fair? 30Therefore, I will judge each one of you according to his ways, O house of Israel, declares the Lord
God. Repent and turn away from all your rebellious acts, so that you will not set out a stumbling block that makes you guilty. 31Throw off from yourselves all your rebellious actions by which you have rebelled, and obtain a new heart and a new spirit for yourselves. Why should you die, O house of Israel? 32For I take no pleasure in the death of anyone who dies, declares the Lord God. So repent and live!