Ezekiel 18:2-3 - Homiletics.

An old proverb discarded.

The proverb of the sour grapes was but an expression of a prevalent belief of the Jews, viz. that guilt is hereditary. Whatever element of truth there may have been in this proverb was overlaid and lost in a monstrous notion, which destroyed both the sense of personal responsibility and the conception of Divine justice, substituting doctrines of unavoidable fate and unreasonable vengeance on the innocent.

I. THE TRUTHS BEHIND THE PROVERB . This saying and the doctrine which it embodied were based upon dark, mysterious, but still true, facts of experience.

1 . Children share in the sufferings produced by the sins of their parents. Sins of the fathers are visited on the children. This dread fact was recognized in the ten commandments ( Exodus 20:5 ). We see it confirmed by our daily observation of the world. The vices of the father and mother bring poverty, disgrace, and disease on the children. When the thief is sent to prison his children are left without bread. Fearful diseases appear in the constitution of innocent children following their parents' profligacy.

2 . Children inherit the appetites and habits of their parents. The child of the drunkard is predisposed to inebriety. This physical inheritance in brain and nerve is confirmed by the ceaseless, powerful, unanswerable lessons of example. Where the head of the family leads a loose life the children are brought up under evil influences.

II. THE FALSITY OF THE PROVERB .

1 . God does not inflict real punishment on innocent children. They suffer, but they are not punished; for there is no element of Divine anger towards them in what they endure. God permits the suffering, and he uses it, as he uses other troubles of his children, for discipline. But he cannot look upon the poor victims of the vices of others with any disfavour. It is a piece of hypocritical Pharisaism on the part of society to treat the children who come of sinful parentage as though they were disgraced by their birth. The effect of sour grapes is purely physical. When we transfer the physical fact to the moral world we fall into a mistake.

2 . Actual sin is not hereditary. If it were, men would be doomed to sin apart from their own choice. But the essence of sin is a self-willed rebellion against God. When freedom of choice is taken out of it the evil thing ceases to be sin; it becomes a moral disease. So long as we have individuality and personal wills we can choose for ourselves. No one is utterly the slave of moral disease, or, if such a person exists, be is a moral lunatic, and not responsible for his action. Therefore he should be put under lock and key. Moreover, responsibility is measured by opportunity, and moral conduct is seen in the amount of resistance offered to the terrible slavery of an inherited tendency to evil habits. The proverb of the sour grapes was not only a discouragement to children; it was an excuse for impenitence among grownup men.

III. THE EXPOSURE AND REJECTION OF THE PROVERB .

1 . A familiar saying may be false. It may be a venerable lie, or, if true in its first utterance, it may have been exaggerated and so presented as to be false in its present application.

2 . It is the duty of the teacher of religion to correct popular notions. This is the second occasion on which Ezekiel has exposed and repudiated a popular fallacy enshrined in the form of a proverb ( Ezekiel 12:22 ). Christ fought prevalent delusions ( e.g. Luke 13:1-5 ); so did St. Paul ( Romans 2:25 ).

3 . There is an advance in revelation. The proverb of the sour grapes was never given with the authority of a Divine truth. But in the earlier stages of revelation there was not enough light to liberate men from the illusion on which it was founded. As revelation advances it dissolves moral difficulties and clarifies our vision of Divine righteousness.