Ezekiel 18 & Corporate Guilt

Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, 13 and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed. 14 Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. 15 See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled; 16 that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal. 17 For you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears.  (Hebrews 12:12–17, ESV)

Sometimes people read this text & assume that it means that Esau never repented.  From time to time, they even say that when Esau died, he didn’t know the LORD.  Is that at all true?   No, it isn’t, & here’s why…

First, let’s look at Hebrews 12.  Hebrews is a warning against letting bitterness run your life.   Esau was young when he went about doing the things he did.  The implication is that, had Isaac not played favorites, Jacob would have inherited the blessing, but that didn’t happen & as a result, Esau got what he deserved at the time, & his bitterness kept him from repenting **then** —- > Hebrews draws attention to that particular time in his life.  It isn’t a commentary on Genesis 33, as if Esau was just paying lip service to repentance.  

Now, let’s look at Genesis 33.  

In Genesis 33, Jacob is afraid to meet Esau,  but when he does, we see that time has passed & they make reconciliation.  

But Esau ran to meet him and embraced him and fell on his neck and kissed him, and they wept. 5 And when Esau lifted up his eyes and saw the women and children, he said, “Who are these with you?” Jacob said, “The children whom God has graciously given your servant.” 6 Then the servants drew near, they and their children, and bowed down. 7 Leah likewise and her children drew near and bowed down. And last Joseph and Rachel drew near, and they bowed down. 8 Esau said, “What do you mean by all this company that I met?” Jacob answered, “To find favor in the sight of my lord.” 9 But Esau said, “I have enough, my brother; keep what you have for yourself.” 10 Jacob said, “No, please, if I have found favor in your sight, then accept my present from my hand. For I have seen your face, which is like seeing the face of God, and you have accepted me. 11 Please accept my blessing that is brought to you, because God has dealt graciously with me, and because I have enough.” Thus he urged him, and he took it. (Genesis 33:4–11, ESV)

Jacob inherited the birthright via nefarious means. At that time, Esau was angry enough to seek vengeance.  He found himself unable to repent. 

Years later, when they meet again, Jacob, who is now the covenantal head of their family by way of inheritance of the birthright, blesses Esau as Isaac & Abraham’s representative, even saying that seeing Esau is like seeing God’s face.   Esau had repented by then. 

Hebrews is a warning against letting bitterness run your life.   Esau was young when he went about doing the things he did.  The implication is that, had Isaac not played favorites, Jacob would have inherited the blessing, but that didn’t happen & as a result, Esau got what he deserved at the time, & his bitterness kept him from repenting **then** —- > Hebrews draws attention to that particular time in his life.  It isn’t a commentary on Genesis 33, as if Esau was just paying lip service to repentance.  

Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, 13 and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed. 14 Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. 15 See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled; 16 that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal. 17 For you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears.  (Hebrews 12:12–17, ESV)

Others might point to Esau (the nation, ie Edom), & their history with Israel, especially in light of Malachi’s words.  

2 “I have loved you,” says the Lord. But you say, “How have you loved us?” “Is not Esau Jacob’s brother?” declares the Lord. “Yet I have loved Jacob 3 but Esau I have hated. I have laid waste his hill country and left his heritage to jackals of the desert.” 4 If Edom says, “We are shattered but we will rebuild the ruins,” the Lord of hosts says, “They may build, but I will tear down, and they will be called ‘the wicked country,’ and ‘the people with whom the Lord is angry forever.’ ” 5 Your own eyes shall see this, and you shall say, “Great is the Lord beyond the border of Israel!”  (Malachi 1:2–5, ESV)

The text isn’t about Esau & Jacob’s personal, individual eternal destinies.  It’s about the relationship between Israel & Esau as two distinct, yet related people groups.  

In addition according to Ezekiel 18, “the soul who sins shall die.”  Via the 3fold use of the Law (& Gospel) this is both an individual & a corporate principle.  In other words, just as is the case with respect to individual moral agents, if a family, tribe, clan, nation, &/or cosmos sins, then it shall die as surely as the LORD lives. 

Recall that God reveals himself to us covenantally via a series of suzerain covenants, so that means that His Law & Gospel for Himself individually (&, considered as a living triune entity within Himself) is both General & Specific as to its stipulations. 

Generally, the individual who sins is morally responsible to God for his own sins, not those of his offspring, nor those of anyone else around him.   Ergo, he doesn’t inherit the sins of his offspring, nor those of anyone else around him. 

If the father sins, but the son does not, then the father dies for his sins. but his son does not die for his own sins, nor for the sins of his father.  

That said…

Specifically, 

But when a righteous person turns away from his righteousness and does injustice and does the same abominations that the wicked person does, shall he live? None of the righteous deeds that he has done shall be remembered; for the treachery of which he is guilty and the sin he has committed, for them he shall die.  (Ezekiel 18:24, ESV)

In other words, there is such a thing as corporate moral responsibility, guilt,  &tc.

If the father sins & the son doesn’t, the son shall live but the father shall die.   If the son later down the line decides to throw his lot in with his father by way of agreeing with his father’s (or fathers’) sins, then he shares in those sins & the guilt of his father.  After all, it’s a sin to suborn not only your own sins but the sins of others.   

Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.  (Romans 1:32, ESV)

This is all to say that judging Esau on the basis of the sins of his offspring depends on whether or not Esau found (or would find if asked) agreement with the sins of his offspring.  

 

The Bible gives no indication that Esau, particularly after so many years after he & his brother parted ways was the kind of man that would approve of the sorts of things Edom did.   Genesis 33 depicts him as a man who had put the gall of bitterness away & repented of the sins of his youth.  

Incidentally, this is also how the imputation of Christ’s (& the LORD’s) righteousness to us & our sins to Christ (& the LORD) operates.   Even though Yeshua never sinned (2 Corinthians 5:21, Hebrews 4:15), He inherited our sins on our behalf while finding no moral agreement with our sins nor turning into the personification of sin nor becoming a person who had sinned, & we, while finding moral agreement with our own sins individually (& corporately), God evangelically imputed His (& Yeshua’s) righteousness to us & has been applying it to us in the created order’s past, present, & future on His own timetable ever since. 

O LORD, Hear our prayer(s)!