Daily Devotional For Thursday, August 20, 2026
Good morning Southside! Our daily devotional for today comes from Ezekiel 18:19-24:
“‘What?’ you ask. ‘Doesn’t the child pay for the parent’s sins?’ No! For if the child does what is just and right and keeps my decrees, that child will surely live. (20) The person who sins is the one who will die. The child will not be punished for the parent’s sins, and the parent will not be punished for the child’s sins. Righteous people will be rewarded for their own righteous behavior, and wicked people will be punished for their own wickedness. (21) But if wicked people turn away from all their sins and begin to obey My decrees and do what is just and right, they will surely live and not die. (22) All their past sins will be forgotten, and they will live because of the righteous things they have done. (23)“Do you think that I like to see wicked people die? says the Sovereign LORD. Of course not! I want them to turn from their wicked ways and live. (24) However, if righteous people turn from their righteous behavior and start doing sinful things and act like other sinners, should they be allowed to live? No, of course not! All their righteous acts will be forgotten, and they will die for their sins” (NLT).
You have just read the justice of God. No one is held responsible by God for the sins of another. People are responsible for their own sins and God decides who is punished and who is not punished. At this point the nation has been totally destroyed by God for their sins. God used King Nebuchadnezzar and Babylon to discipline His children. There is nothing left but a remnant and even those are wishing they had died.
So, as the tantamount discipline of the Lord impacted everyone, they are asking theological questions that sometimes we may ask: for example, are parents responsible for their children’s sins? Sometimes in our system of justice parents are held responsible, but in God’s system of justice no one is held responsible for the sins of another. Praise the Lord for this blessing or all of us would be in deep trouble.
The promise here is any person who genuinely repents receives forgiveness and restoration by the Lord and those who do not, well, they are punished. A second question is raised here: what happens to godly people who choose to become ungodly. They are punished by God. Being saved does not give us a license to sin and rebel (Romans 6).
God was using Ezekiel to eliminate people’s thought that there is some kind of cosmic determinism operating here. We see and hear this in our culture when someone says, “Well, they got what was coming to them” or “Life calls the tune, we dance” or “The stars did not align for them as they hoped” or “They got poetic justice.” These and other cultural phrases like them suggest there is some kind of independent cosmic force out there rendering justice. There is not. This was believed in Ezkiel’s day and it is at times believed in ours. Ezekiel called the people of Israel, who now are under the full destruction by God through Babylon, to do three things:
- Repentance – this involves a fundamental change of direction. And what is that direction? – Turning away from the very sin that brought about God’s discipline.
- Commitment – commit to obey the Lord. Righteous people have a desire to do this. Repented people are highly motivated to do this.
- Determinism – a passion not to return to their old, former sinful lives. If they do, death will be knocking on their door. In the back of Ezekiel’s mind is God’s words to His people in Deuteronomy 30:15-20.
Since past sins are not held against those who repent, neither is past righteousness a safety net if one rebels and chooses to sin. In Ezekiel’s day people saw their righteousness like a stored treasury similar to people’s savings accounts today for emergencies. Whatever level of righteousness one has in their past is not a savings account for themselves or for their children that God deposits from when they choose to rebel and sin in their current life and time. One’s righteousness cannot be transferred or granted by us to another by us. I am reminded of the Apostle Paul’s words in 2 Timothy 4:3-4.
Reflection Assignment: This passage by Ezekiel should be encouraging to all of us. How is it for you and why? Have you ever made a comment conveying there as some kind of “poetic justice” or “stars aligning” to bring about justice? Why do you think some people believe this?
Scripture To Meditate On: 1 John 2:19, “These people left our churches, but they never really belonged with us; otherwise they would have stayed with us. When they left, it proved that they did not belong with us” (NLT).
Prayer To Pray: “Dear Lord, please help me to never deny You with any sin or to walk away assuming my salvation is some kind of future treasure chest that protects and covers me. I never want to be so arrogant and presumptuous of Your grace. I love You Lord. In Jesus’ name, Amen!”
I love you Southside! – Pastor Kelly