Ezekiel 33
Pray
Ezekiel 33:1
The word of the LORD came to me:
2:"Son of man, speak to your countrymen and say to them: `When I bring the sword against a land, and the people of the land choose one of their men and make him their watchman,
3:and he sees the sword coming against the land and blows the trumpet to warn the people,
4:then if anyone hears the trumpet but does not take warning and the sword comes and takes his life, his blood will be on his own head.
5:Since he heard the sound of the trumpet but did not take warning, his blood will be on his own head. If he had taken warning, he would have saved himself.
6:But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet to warn the people and the sword comes and takes the life of one of them, that man will be taken away because of his sin, but I will hold the watchman accountable for his blood.’
7:"Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel; so hear the word I speak and give them warning from me.
8:When I say to the wicked, `O wicked man, you will surely die,’ and you do not speak out to dissuade him from his ways, that wicked man will die for his sin, and I will hold you accountable for his blood.
9:But if you do warn the wicked man to turn from his ways and he does not do so, he will die for his sin, but you will be saved yourself.
10:"Son of man, say to the house of Israel, `This is what you are saying: "Our offences and sins weigh us down, and we are wasting away because of them. How then can we live?" ’
11:Say to them, `As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign LORD, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live. Turn! Turn from your evil ways! Why will you die, O house of Israel?’
12:"Therefore, son of man, say to your countrymen, `The righteousness of the righteous man will not save him when he disobeys, and the wickedness of the wicked man will not cause him to fall when he turns from it. The righteous man, if he sins, will not be allowed to live because of his former righteousness.’
13:If I tell the righteous man that he will surely live, but then he trusts in his righteousness and does evil, none of the righteous things he has done will be remembered; he will die for the evil he has done.
14:And if I say to the wicked man, `You will surely die,’ but he then turns away from his sin and does what is just and right -
15:if he gives back what he took in pledge for a loan, returns what he has stolen, follows the decrees that give life, and does no evil, he will surely live; he will not die.
16:None of the sins he has committed will be remembered against him. He has done what is just and right; he will surely live.
17:"Yet your countrymen say, `The way of the Lord is not just.’ But it is their way that is not just.
18:If a righteous man turns from his righteousness and does evil, he will die for it.
19:And if a wicked man turns away from his wickedness and does what is just and right, he will live by doing so.
20:Yet, O house of Israel, you say, `The way of the Lord is not just.’ But I will judge each of you according to his own ways."
21:In the twelfth year of our exile, in the tenth month on the fifth day, a man who had escaped from Jerusalem came to me and said, "The city has fallen!"
22:Now the evening before the man arrived, the hand of the LORD was upon me, and he opened my mouth before the man came to me in the morning. So my mouth was opened and I was no longer silent.
23:Then the word of the LORD came to me:
24:"Son of man, the people living in those ruins in the land of Israel are saying, `Abraham was only one man, yet he possessed the land. But we are many; surely the land has been given to us as our possession.’
25:Therefore say to them, `This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Since you eat meat with the blood still in it and look to your idols and shed blood, should you then possess the land?
26:You rely on your sword, you do detestable things, and each of you defiles his neighbour’s wife. Should you then possess the land?’
27:"Say this to them: `This is what the Sovereign LORD says: As surely as I live, those who are left in the ruins will fall by the sword, those out in the country I will give to the wild animals to be devoured, and those in strongholds and caves will die of a plague.
28:I will make the land a desolate waste, and her proud strength will come to an end, and the mountains of Israel will become desolate so that no-one will cross them.
29:Then they will know that I am the LORD, when I have made the land a desolate waste because of all the detestable things they have done.’
30:"As for you, son of man, your countrymen are talking together about you by the walls and at the doors of the houses, saying to each other, `Come and hear the message that has come from the LORD.’
31:My people come to you, as they usually do, and sit before you to listen to your words, but they do not put them into practice. With their mouths they express devotion, but their hearts are greedy for unjust gain.
32:Indeed, to them you are nothing more than one who sings love songs with a beautiful voice and plays an instrument well, for they hear your words but do not put them into practice.
33:"When all this comes true - and it surely will - then they will know that a prophet has been among them."
In around 600 BC before Israel and Judah had been taken into captivity, Jeremiah had warned about the coming destruction. For years Israel and Judah had refused to rid themselves of sin, Judah having only a scattering of good kings. Jeremiah had warned Judah that they needed to surrender to avoid destruction by the Babylonians. They refused to heed this warning even after a series of invasions in which Israel, the Northern Kingdom, had fallen.
In 597 BC a priest called Ezekiel was deported with other captives in Israel, and taken to Babylon. A few years into his captivity, God called Ezekiel to be a prophet. While Jeremiah continued in Palestine to prophesy Judah’s doom, Ezekiel spoke the same message to those already in exile.
Ezekiel writes in a very poetic and illustrative form. He also backs up his words with actions. In Ezekiel chapter 4 we read Ezekiel is told to lie down on his side for 390 days in order to prophesy the amount of years that Israel would have to be in captivity because of their sin. He is then told to lie on his other side for 40 days to represent the amount of time that Judah shall be in captivity because of its sin. During this time he isn’t to get up and has to cook his food by putting it over lit cow dung. It is impossible to imagine how hard it must have been to lie down for 14 months with out getting up. This was a man who believed in what he spoke and was willing to go to great lengths to warn the people. Just as we would use drama today, Ezekiel would shave off all his hair and burn it or cut it with a sword to demonstrate his point. Ezekiel wasn’t even allowed to mourn the death of his wife as a sign to the people. This was a man who had such a passion for Gods message, and the people, that he was willing to go to any lengths to warn them.
The actual book of Ezekiel can be split up into four parts. In the first part Ezekiel is given his commission to be a watchman. Ezekiel was to prophesy the destruction of Israel. He was to be a watchman not the the heathen, but to Gods people themselves. Only for a small part of Ezekiel’s ministry does he prophesy to the surrounding nations. The first 24 chapters of this book are about the coming destruction of Jerusalem. Both Jeremiah and Ezekiel fought against unbelief to try and lead Gods people to accept that Gods judgement was part of Gods plan for His people. Ezekiel declares in these chapters that the whole nation must suffer because of this sin. In chapter 9 we read that God sent His servant to mark off those who wept and mourned over the sin of the nation, and only they were spared the ultimate punishment. But even they had to suffer with the rest of the nation and endure exile. This warning of judgement continues until chapter 24 when the destruction of Jerusalem silences the prophet for 11 years.
This leads to the second part of Ezekiel’s ministry. He now prophesies judgement on the nations that surround Israel and have delighted in the fall of Gods people. Ammon, Tyre, Moab, Edom, Philistia, Sidon, and the finally Egypt all feel the force of Gods anger. This is the only part of Ezekiel’s ministry where he is told speak to anybody else other than Gods people. All of these prophecies come to pass. These prophecies take us from Ezekiel 25 -32.
It is only at this point that we see Ezekiel change his ministry from one of prophesying judgement, to one of prophesying the hope of restoration. God will be their leader once again and He shall move within them with new power and new might.
Ezekiel 36
26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.
In this same section we then have the passage of the dry bones in Ezekiel 37. God takes bones and puts flesh on them and gives them His Spirit. Here we see revival coming. These chapters are from 33-39.
Finally we have the new temple and a time when true worship is restored to God. This makes up the last section of the book, from Ezekiel 40-48. The book ends with ...
Ezekiel 48
35 "The distance all around will be 18,000 cubits.
"And the name of the city from that time on will be:
The LORD is There ."
The book and message of Ezekiel is one that starts off in judgement and ends in restoration.
If Ezekiel 33 then, is the beginning of the message towards restoration, why is it such a hard passage? Why does it talk about people dying because of their sins. To answer this I want to look first at Ezekiel’s role as a watch man, and then at the peoples accountability because of that.
Ezekiel the Watchman.
The watchman would stand at the watchtower. These were built either around cities or around pastures. They were built around pastures so that the watchman could guard the sheep or cattle against anything that might want to come in and harm them. In these instances they would be guarding against thieves who might want to steal or lead the flock astray. Here the watchman would come down and tackle the offender and keep them away. The bible represents these offenders as being the enemy. When people try to lead the flock astray this is the enemy attacking.
The watchman would also be guarding against animals as well. When the wolves approached the watchman would call the flock close and make sure that none would be wandering away where they were venerable. Animals were often represented in the Bible as bringing Gods judgement. Here we see that the watchman also has responsibility for when God is coming in judgement, so that all those who are going astray maybe brought in line. The watchman over the fields had two purposes then, to guard the sheep when the enemy attacked, and to bring them into the fold when judgement came.
The watchmen who stood in the towers around the cities also had the same responsibilities. They had to sound the trumpet against the attack of the enemy. In Nehemiah chapter 4 we see that he has everybody ready for battle with their swords by their sides and the trumpeter next to him. They would have to give word of anybody approaching the city wall to distinguish whether they were friend or foe. We read in Isaiah 21:11, that in times of hostility the dangers of the night were especially feared and they would eagerly await the break of day. It is at these times that the watchmen need to be extra vigilant.
It was only the watchman’s job to sound the trumpet and warn. If the people didn’t listen then the blood was on their own heads. However if the watchman didn’t warn, the people would still die, but he would have to take responsibility for their death.
Here in chapter 33 of Ezekiel we see him fulfilling that role. He can see Gods judgement coming and is trying to get the people from their astray ways and back into the flock. Ezekiel is like the watchman guarding the flock who sees the animals coming. Ezekiel prophesies that that those who are in sin will die and those who repent will live. Ezekiel is being a watch man for Gods people. I hear a lot of sermons representing this watchman as being a Christian warning a non Christian about impending judgement if they don’t repent. While that is extremely important and is appropriate, it is important to remember that Ezekiel is a watchman to Gods people. In the same way we need watchmen in the church, warning not only of the enemies attack, but also of Gods judgement. If we don’t warn our brothers and sisters to get in line, then the judgement is also upon us.
Ezekiel’s message.
So what exactly was Ezekiel’s message? Ezekiel was warning the people of their own individual sin. In previous chapters Ezekiel is warning of the judgement coming upon the whole nation because of their sin. Even though those whose wept and mourned over the sin of the land were marked out in chapter 9 and spared the sword, they still had to face the judgement that would come upon the whole nation. They would face exile like anybody else. Ezekiel’s message of judgement is no longer about that. Ezekiel states that everyone will pay for their own sin. Ezekiel has already been building up to this message and saying that this time would come. in chapter 18.
Ezekiel 18:1
The word of the LORD came to me:
2:"What do you 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’?
3:"As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign LORD, you will no longer quote this proverb in Israel.
4: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.
Ezekiel also states that nobody can rely on their past goodness. If they are found in sin when judgement comes they will be taken away. Also those who have been away and then turn from their wicked ways at the time of judgement will be saved. The sheep who have bee in the flock for many years cannot rely on that fact if they then stray at the time when the wild animals come to attack. If they do not heed the warning and get back into the fold they will die. Likewise those who have been astray for most of the time, if they return to the fold at the time of judgement, the animals will not be able to get to them. Being in the fold of course represents living a life of Holiness with God.
The reason for Ezekiel’s message.
Why does Ezekiel bring this message of individual judgement at a time when he is prophesying restoration. We find that in the last part of the chapter after Jerusalem has fallen people think that they can take the land with sin in their hearts.
Ezekiel 33:25
Therefore say to them, `This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Since you eat meat with the blood still in it and look to your idols and shed blood, should you then possess the land?
26:You rely on your sword, you do detestable things, and each of you defiles his neighbour’s wife. Should you then possess the land?’
The people were going to try and posses the land whilst still steeped in their sin and God can not tolerate that as it will take away His glory. The people felt that they had some sort of right to the land just because of their ancestry.
Ezekiel 33:24
"Son of man, the people living in those ruins in the land of Israel are saying, `Abraham was only one man, yet he possessed the land. But we are many; surely the land has been given to us as our possession.’
If we are not living in Holiness then we have no right to the land. God could forgive there past unfaithfulness but could not give them anything without repentance. The people had been waiting for God to restore the land and God was on the verge of moving. However when God moves to restore He first has to move to judge.
Application.
In the same way we have been waiting for God to move in the church in a restoration way for many years. However if we are continuing in sin in any way then when God moves He will first bring Judgement. In order for God to restore the land back to him He first has to judge the sin of His people. God is about to move in this church and bring it back to restoration. If you do not expose your sins to God, God will expose them in judgement. He is calling His people to repentance and Holiness today and then the restoration will begin.
