Ezekiel 33

REVIEW QUESTIONS

Why does Ezekiel repeat the material about the watchman and his responsibilities at this point?

Why does Ezekiel underscore the potential of repentance in Ezekiel 33:10-20?

In what way does Ezekiel envision a sinner manifesting his repentance?

In what sense are God’s promises to the righteous conditional?

Why did some Jews feel that the ways of God were not equal?

How long after the actual event did a fugitive arrive in Babylon with the news that Jerusalem had fallen?

In what sense was the silence imposed on Ezekiel now lifted?

What attitude characterized the pitiful remnant that remained in Judah after the catastrophe of 587 B.C.?

What evidence is there that the survivors of the destruction of Jerusalem really had not changed?

What was the attitude of the exiles toward Ezekiel?

Who were the shepherds condemned by Ezekiel? How had they failed in their duty?

In what way would those shepherds immediately be re placed?

In the more distant future who would God provide for the leadership of His people?

Why is the future covenant referred to as a covenant of peace?

In what way is God’s flock like Adam?

Why is Edom singled out for special condemnation in chapter 35?

Ezekiel 33:1-9

Chapter Fifteen

PREPARATION FOR RESTORATION 33:1-35:15

Ezekiel’s predictions of the destruction of Jerusalem had become a tragic reality. No more does the prophet sound forth the threatening blast against the inhabitants of Judah, for Judah no longer existed. It was time for consolation. Hope had to be rekindled. A remnant had to be prepared for the restoration and rebirth of the nation. Ezekiel opens this section of the book with an oracle underscoring individual responsibility and the power and potential of repentance (chap. 33). Then the prophet predicts the removal of the corrupt leadership of the nation (chap. 34) and the national enemies of Judah (chap. 35). By so doing he sets the stage for his later prophecies of restoration.

1. THE RENEWAL OF EZEKIEL’S COMMISSION

33:1-33 A. The Prophet as a Watchman 33:1-9

TRANSLATION

(1) And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, (2) son of man, speak to the children of My people, and say to them: When I bring the sword upon a land, and the people of the land take a man from their midst, and set him as their watchman; (3) if he sees the sword come against the land, and he blows the horn, and warns the people; (4) then whoever hears the sound of the horn, and does not take warning, if the sword come and take him away, his blood shall be upon his own head; (5) he heard the sound of the horn but did not take warning, so his blood shall be upon him; for if he had taken warning he would have delivered his soul. (6) But if the watchman sees the sword come and does not blow the trumpet, and the people are not warned, and the sword come and take a person from them, he is taken away in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at the hand of the watchman. (7) And as for you, son of man, I have set you as a watchman to the house of Israel. Therefore, when you hear from My mouth a word, then you shall warn them from Me. (8) When I say to the wicked: O wicked man, you shall surely die, and you do not speak to warn the wicked of his way, that wicked one shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will seek from your hand. (9) But if you warn the wicked one of his way to turn from it, and he does not turn from his way, he shall die in his iniquity, but you have delivered your own soul.

COMMENTS

Following the interlude in which Ezekiel spoke to foreign nations, the prophet is again instructed to devote his attention to the children of your people. When God in His sovereign will determines to bring a sword, i.e., war, upon a land, normally that land would try to protect itself as best it could. A responsible person was appointed as watchman charged with the task of sounding the alarm as the enemy approached (Ezekiel 33:2). Normally the watchman would warn his neighbors by means of a horn (Ezekiel 33:3; cf. Amos 3:6). Those who failed to heed the warning blast were responsible for their own death; for if they had taken refuge or had fled the doomed land, they would have saved their lives (Ezekiel 33:4-5). No blame can be attached to the watchman in such a case. He did his job. But if the watchman sees the danger and fails to sound the alarm, he is responsible for the death of those who were slain. Even if those who died were worthy of death because of their iniquity, still the watchman would be held accountable by God. That unfaithful watchman would someday pay for his negligence (Ezekiel 33:6).

The principle applies to a spiritual watchman such as Ezekiel. The fundamental responsibility of an Old Testament prophet was to convey to God’s people any threatening word which he might have heard from the mouth of God (Ezekiel 33:7). If he fails to warn the wicked man of the consequences of his way, the blood of that wicked man will be upon the hands of the prophet (Ezekiel 33:8), The prophet can only clear himself before God by the faithful discharge of his duty of sounding the alarm. Whether or not the sinner heeds the prophet’s call to repentance, the watchman has saved his own life (Ezekiel 33:9).

Ezekiel 33:10-20

B. The Possibilities of Repentance 33:10-20

TRANSLATION

(10) And as for you, son of man, say unto the house of Israel, Thus you have said: Our transgressions and our sins are upon us, and we waste away in them; how then can we live? (11) Say unto them, As I live (oracle of the Lord GOB) surely I do not delight in the death of the wicked one, but rather when the wicked one turns from his way and lives. Turn, turn from your evil ways; for why will you die, O house of Israel? (12) Now as for you, son of man, say unto the children of your people: The righteousness of the righteous man shall not deliver him in the day of his transgression, and as for the wickedness of the wicked man he shall not be made to stumble by it in the day he turns from his wickedness; neither shall the righteous man be able to live thereby in the day of his sin. (13) When I say to the righteous man that he shall surely live; if he trust in his righteousness and commits iniquity, all his righteousness shall not be remembered, but he shall die in his iniquity which he has done. (14) And when I say to the wicked man: You shall surely die. and he turns from his sin and does what is just and right; (15) if the wicked man returns what has been taken in pledge, if he restores what has been seized by robbery, walks in the statutes of life, so that he does not do iniquity; be shall surely live, he shall not die. (16) None of his sins which be has committed shall be remembered against him; he has done what is just and right; he shall surely live. (17) Yet the children of My people say: The way of the Lord is not equal; but as for them, their way is not equal. (18) When the righteous man turns from his righteousness, and commits iniquity, he shall die in them. (19) And when the wicked man turns from his wickedness and does what is just and right, he shall live on account of them. (20) But you say, The way of the Lord is not equal. I will judge each man according to his ways, O house of Israel.

COMMENTS

Despair engulfed the exilic community after the fall of Jerusalem. For the first time the captives faced up to the enormity of their sin. There could be no other explanation of the disastrous overthrow of their holy city and shrine. How can we live? they asked in desperation (Ezekiel 33:10). The Jewish nation seemed doomed to extinction. Life more abundant and life eternal seemed remote for such sinners.

God had good news for those captives, as He always does for those who honestly face up to the sin problem in their lives. He underscores this good news by an oath (as I live!). God is not vindictive. He does not desire to see His enemies die in their sins. Divine chastisement is designed to move wicked people to repentance so that they might escape the ultimate consequences of their sin. Why will you die? The prophet responds to the despairing question of the preceding verse with a question of his own. The death of the wicked can be averted by repentance. Ezekiel urges the hearers to turn from their evil ways, for that is always the key to life (Ezekiel 33:11).

Ezekiel 33:12-20 set forth a great truth, that a man’s past does not of itself determine future relations with the Lord. A backslider who formerly lived by the righteous law of God will not live, i.e., escape punishment, when he casts his lot with the wicked. By the same token, a penitent sinner will not stumble, i.e., suffer punishment or recrimination, because of his past life (Ezekiel 33:12).

God’s promises to the righteous are conditional. The righteous man must continue to trust in God, not in his own goodness. Should he deliberately commit iniquity he would die for that iniquity (Ezekiel 33:13). Neither are the threats made to the wicked absolute. God has decreed that death physical, spiritual, eternal is the penalty for wickedness. But if the wicked man turns from sin to pursue a righteous and lawful life, that death threat is cancelled (Ezekiel 33:14). The repentance envisioned here is more than contrition for sin. The penitent person must (1) restore articles which had been pawned to him and which he had illegally retained; (2) restore that which had been taken by violence from another; and (3) walk in the statutes of life, i.e., those laws of God which lead to life more abundant and ultimately life eternal (Ezekiel 33:15), If the former sinner manifests this genuine repentance God would not hold his past against him and he would live (Ezekiel 33:16).

Some Jews argued against the proposition being set forth by Ezekiel. They argued that Ezekiel’s teaching would make out God to be inconsistent in His rulership of the world. The wax of the Lord is not equal, they said. But to this reasoning the prophet replies that it is not God who makes the change, but man (Ezekiel 33:17). Righteous men do in fact turn from righteousness and pay the consequences (Ezekiel 33:18). Wicked men sometimes do repent and reap the reward (Ezekiel 33:19). God deals with men as they are in the present, not as they were in the past (Ezekiel 33:20).

Ezekiel 33:21-29

C. The Fall of Jerusalem and Further Prophecies 33:21-29 TRANSLATION

(21) And it came to pass in the twelfth year of our captivity, the tenth month, the fifth day of the month, the fugitive from Jerusalem came, saying, the city has been smitten! (22) Now the hand of the LORD was upon me in the evening, before the fugitive came; and He had opened my mouth until he came unto me in the morning; and my mouth was opened, and I was no more dumb. (23) Then the word of the LORD came, saying, (24) Son of man, those who are living in these waste places in the land of Israel are saying, Abraham was one man, but he inherited the land; but we are many; the land has been given to us for a possession. (25) Therefore say unto them, Thus says the Lord GOD: You eat along with blood, and you lift up your eyes unto your idols, and you shed blood; and shall you possess the land? (26) You stand upon your sword, and you do abominations, and each of you defiles the wife of his neighbor; and shall you possess the land? (27) Thus you shall say unto them: Thus says the Lord GOD: As I live, surely the ones who are in the waste places shall fall by the sword, and the ones who are upon the open field I have given to the beasts to be devoured, and the ones who are in the fortresses and in the caves shall die of the pestilence. (28) And I will make the land desolate and waste, and the pride of her strength shall cease; and the mountains of Israel shall be desolate so that no one will pass through. (29) And they will know that I am the LORD when I make the land a desolation and a waste, because of all their abominations which they have done.

COMMENTS

In the twelfth year of the captivity of Jehoiachin a fugitive from Jerusalem arrived in Babylon with the sad news that Jerusalem had fallen (Ezekiel 33:21). The city fell in the fourth month of the eleventh year of the captivity. i.e., Tammuz 587 B.C. (Jeremiah 39:2). It would appear that some eighteen months elapsed between the event and the report of it among the captives.[455] On the evening before the arrival of the messenger, the silence imposed upon the prophet was removed as predicted in Ezekiel 24:26 f. Ezekiel was now vindicated as a true prophet. He was now authorized to open his mouth in a new series of utterances designed to prepare the captives for the future restoration (Ezekiel 33:22).

[455] Some scholars believe that a different system of counting years was employed by the Jews in Babylon, The difference between tenth month of the twelfth year in the Babylonian system, and the fourth month of the eleventh year in the Judaean system would actually be only six months.

Again Ezekiel received revelation from the Lord (Ezekiel 33:23), and it pertained to those pitiful survivors who remained among the ruins of Judah under the governorship of Gedaliah. Once the initial shock of seeing their homeland ravished had passed, that ragtag band began to imagine that they were the favored of the Lord. They apparently believed that they would form the nucleus of a new nation. They consoled themselves by the thought that originally Canaan had been given to a solitary individual, the patriarch Abraham. But how much greater their claim to that land! They were many, and they were actually occupying that land. They would be able to recoup their loses and rebuild that land in no time (Ezekiel 33:24).

Even the fall of Jerusalem did not cure the Jews of their rebellious conduct. The hopes of those few survivors to rebuild Judah was doomed to failure so long as they persisted in the very crimes which caused God to destroy their city in the first place, They openly violated the dietary regulations of the Mosaic Law by eating meat from which the blood had not been properly drained (cf. Leviticus 3:17; Leviticus 17:10). Furthermore, they lifted up their eyes in prayer to idols and persisted in child sacrifice (Ezekiel 33:25). They stood upon the sword lived by violence and worked abomination, i.e., participated in immoral pagan practices. Apparently adultery was quite common among these people (Ezekiel 33:26).

Further disaster awaited those ungodly survivors who inhabited the ruins of Judah. They would yet face the sword of divine judgment as wielded by the Babylonians or their agents. Beasts of the field would devour those who might escape the sword. Those holed up in caves and other natural strongholds would face the pestilence which resulted from overcrowding, and lack of food and sanitation (Ezekiel 33:27).

Those sinful survivors of Jerusalem’s fall would not be the ones to rebuild Judah. God would make that land so desolate that no one would even want to make a trip through it. Then the stubborn pride of her power, i.e., pride in her position as a favored nation, would cease (Ezekiel 33:28). Then they would recognize that the God from whom they expected deliverance had actually brought desolation to their land because of their idolatrous abominations (Ezekiel 33:29).

Ezekiel 33:30-33

D. The Attitude of the Exiles Toward Ezekiel

33:30-33

TRANSLATION

(30) And as for you, son of man, the children of your people who talk about you beside the walls and in the doors of the houses, and speak one to another saying, Come, I pray you, and hear what is the word which comes forth from the LORD; (31) and come unto you as the people come, and sit before you as My people, and hear your words, but do not do them for with their mouth they show much love, but their heart goes after their covetousness; (32) and behold you are to them a love song of one who has a beautiful voice and who can play an instrument well; so they hear your words, but they do them not (33) when this comes to pass (behold it shall come) then shall they know that a prophet has been in their midst.

COMMENTS

When the news of Jerusalem’s fall reached Babylon, Ezekiel and his prophecies became the topic of general conversation. Now for the first time in his ministry the exiles were anxious to hear the word of the Lord from the lips of God’s accredited prophet (Ezekiel 33:30). But while they were now eager to hear Ezekiel’s word, they still had not surrendered their hearts to follow the commandments of the Lord. With their mouths they were very complimentary to the prophet; but their hearts were full of covetousness, i.e., their own selfish concerns. To those unspiritual souls Ezekiel was like a musical entertainer the crooner of love songs. They enjoyed listening to him, but were unmoved by his passionate exhortations (verse 34). But when all his predictions came to pass and they surely would come to pass they would know that a true prophet had been among them (Ezekiel 33:33).