Ezekiel 18 (selected verses)

William F. Schnell

September 28, 2008

   I want to begin by changing the title of our message from, "If Life Gives You Sour Grapes" to "When Life Gives You Sour Grapes."  It will soon become apparent that it is not a matter of "if" but of "when."  I flew this title past my daughter during a phone call, and also past the Church Secretary, Patti Jaeger, and their first reactions were the same (and probably the same as yours).  It brings to mind that famous quote: "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade."

   That quote has spawned 119,000 web pages filled with humorous alterations such as: "When life gives you lemons, find somebody with vodka and throw a party," or, When life gives you lemons, find a kid with a paper cut," or my personal favorite, "When life gives you lemons, make a battery and harness electricity."  If you want to make a battery out of a lemon, a nail and a penny, go to Youtube.com for an interesting demonstration.  The point is that even from circumstances which have soured, we can create sweet outcomes if we take personal responsibility to make the most of this life we have been given.

   This is basically the point of our text and of our message, and one might wonder why the title is not about lemons and lemonade.  That is because there was another saying that was popular back in the days of Ezekiel the prophet, which is about sour grapes.  Since lemons were native to China, sour grapes were probably the closest thing to sour that one could find in biblical times.  That said, our text begins with Ezekiel proclaiming: The word of the Lord came to me: "What do your people mean by quoting this proverb about the land of Israel: ’The fathers eat sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge’" Verse 1).

   Ezekiel was a post-exilic prophet, which means that he prophesied to Jewish exiles in Babylon.  They had lost their homeland, they were a slave race and life was not good.  When life is not good we tend to play "the blame game."  I can no longer pay my variable rate mortgage, and so it must be the fault of the lending institutions for allowing me to live beyond my means.  Sometimes we find previous generations a convenient target for blame.  Social Security will not be there for me because other generations have set up the system to benefit them at my expense.

   In Ezekiel’s day, the exiles were blaming their parents’ and grandparents’ generations for the mess they found themselves in.  "We wouldn’t be exiles if our parents and grandparents had lived the way they should instead of the wicked, sinful way they did."  They actually had a biblical justification for leveling blame on previous generations.  In the Ten Commandments we read: …I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments (Exodus 20:5-6).

   I believe that documented evidence would bear that out.  For example, children of alcoholics are four times more likely than non-children of alcoholics to develop alcoholism.  What is more, children of alcoholics exhibit elevated rates of psychopathology such as anxiety, depression and various behavior disorders.  Growing up in a divorced family greatly increases the chances of ending one’s own marriage, a phenomenon called the divorce cycle or the intergenerational transmission of divorce.  Most sexual abusers were themselves sexually abused.  Children of criminals are more likely to become criminals than children of law-abiding citizens.

   This tendency for children to suffer for the sins of their parents was not only expressed in one of the Ten Commandments, it was summed up in a popular proverb that circulated among the Israelites: The fathers eat sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge.  Tartness causes us to pucker and make all sorts of funny faces.  I guess setting one’s teeth on edge is one of them.  The point of the parable is that the parents are eating the sour grapes, but it is their children whose teeth are set on edge.  The parents sinned, but their succeeding generations are being punished for it.  The parents rebelled against God, but their children are exiled from the Land of Promise.

   But God, through the prophet Ezekiel, is dispelling this justification for blaming all of one’s personal problems on somebody else’s sin.  As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord, you will no longer quote this proverb in Israel.  For every living soul belongs to me, the father as well as the son—both alike belong to me.  The soul who sins is the one who will die (Verse 3).  Then God goes on to create a scenario that involves three generations from the same family.

   First there is a righteous man.  Righteousness is understood as not worshiping false Gods, and treating others right—not committing adultery, not robbing, not oppressing; being generous with money for the needy, food for the hungry, clothing for the naked—that sort of thing.  "That man is righteous; he will surely live," declares the Sovereign Lord.  "Suppose he has a violent son, who sheds blood (among other nasty things).  Will such a man live?  He will not!  Because he has done all these detestable things, he will surely be put to death and his blood will be on his own head.

   But suppose this son has a son who sees all the sins his father commits, and though he sees them, he does not do such things…. He will not die for his father’s sins; he will surely live.  But his father will die for his own sin….  The soul who sins is the one who will die.  The son will not share the guilt of the father, nor will the father share the guilt of the son.  The righteousness of the righteous man will be credited to him, and the wickedness of the wicked will be charged against him" (Verses 9-10, 17-18 & 20).

   While the incidence of alcoholism, divorce, sexual abuse and crime go up for children born to parents with these problems, not all children of alcoholics become alcoholics as adults, not all children of divorce become divorced as adults.  While it is true that most child abusers were themselves abused as children, most abused children do not grow up to be child abusers.  Many children see their parents’ sins and crimes and say, "I don’t want any part of that.

   I know some people whose difficult childhoods give them absolutely no right to be well balanced, but they are.  They may have to compensate for some things that others of us do not, but they have taken personal responsibility to do it.  Confidentiality precludes me from telling you who these walking victories are in our midst, but I can tell you about a fellow whose story has been made public.  His name is Benjamin Carson.  Ben Carson had a less-than-stellar childhood.

   He was born in the ghettos of Detroit, Michigan.  His mother Sonya had dropped out of school in the third grade, and married when she was only 13.  When Benjamin Carson was only eight, his parents divorced, and Mrs. Carson was left to raise Benjamin and his older brother Curtis on her own.  She worked at two, sometimes three, jobs at a time to provide for her boys.  Benjamin and his brother fell farther and farther behind in school.  In fifth grade, Carson was at the bottom of his class.  His classmates called him "dummy" and he developed a violent, uncontrollable temper.

   When Mrs. Carson saw Benjamin's failing grades, she determined to turn her sons' lives around.  She sharply limited the boys' television watching and refused to let them outside to play until they had finished their homework each day.  She required them to read two library books a week and to give her written reports on their reading even though, with her own poor education, she could barely read what they had written.  Within a few weeks, Carson astonished his classmates by identifying rock samples his teacher had brought to class.  He recognized them from one of the books he had read.  "It was at that moment that I realized I wasn't stupid," he recalled later.  Carson continued to amaze his classmates with his newfound knowledge and within a year he was at the top of his class.

   The hunger for knowledge had taken hold of him, and he began to read voraciously on all subjects.  He determined to become a physician, and he learned to control the violent temper that still threatened his future.  After graduating with honors from his high school, he attended Yale University, where he earned a degree in Psychology.  From Yale, he went to the Medical School of the University of Michigan, where his interest shifted from psychiatry to neurosurgery.  After medical school he became a neurosurgery resident at the world-famous Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore.  At age 32, he became the hospital's Director of Pediatric Neurosurgery.

   Some kids have every head start imaginable, and never amount to a hill of beans.  Others come from extremely disadvantaged   circumstances but, by assuming personal responsibility as young, single and economically disadvantaged mothers like Mrs. Carson and as sons like Ben, they exceed every expectation.  The key is to assume personal responsibility for making the most of life as God gives us every opportunity—and he gives everyone of us the opportunity.

   Let’s face it; this life is not perfect for anyone.  You think you had it bad coming up?  Somebody else had it far worse and they are doing just fine right now thank you.  That is because they are not sour grapes about the past but have assumed personally responsibility for making lemonade out of their lemons.  Speaking of recipes, I actually found one online that requires sour grapes to make just as lemonade requires lemons.  With God’s grace, we eventually discover that even our bitter moments are an essential ingredient in the mix of a life well-lived.