Sunday Sermons
God's Way Isn't Right?
Ezekiel Chapter 33
People frequently argue with Scripture in our own time, yet what might surprise us is that even God’s professed people have argued with Him when He spoke to them through a prophet and after His judgments had come to pass. Once again we enter a section on human responsibility (compare with chapter 18) and the commission for Ezekiel to act as a watchman (Chapter 3:17ff). “In the aftermath of the fall of Jerusalem, the exile community could no longer doubt that God’s word through Ezekiel had been true all along. Now they needed to understand some important principles of God’s action and to prepare themselves for their future as a people — if they were willing to take the responsibility to do so, that is” (Stuart p. 309).
Outline
The basic watchman principle: 33:1-6
The principle applied to Ezekiel and Israel: 33:7-11
Sin can overcome a history of righteousness: 33:12-13
Righteousness can overcome a history of sin: 33:14-16
God’s way is fair: 33:17-20
33:1-7 The only warning that Israel received of a coming judgment was through prophets such as Ezekiel. In like manner the only warning from God that people today receive is through the Scriptures (Luke 16:31; Mark 16:15-16). The principle that God lays down in this section is that when people fail to listen to the warning of a watchman that enemy troops are approaching (the “sword is coming”), they must bear the consequences of their own irresponsible behavior. “The watchman is responsible to warn; the people are responsible to act for themselves after that”(Stuart p. 312). The point then is made that in like manner, Ezekiel had been the watchman in Israel, he had warned the people, but most had failed to believe him, the Israelites therefore only had themselves to blame for being unprepared for the coming judgment. 33:8 Without repentance, the wicked man will always surely die in his sin. This has always been the case and still is (Luke 13:3; 2 Thess. 1:8-9). 33:9 Ezekiel was not responsible for the number of receptive listeners he found or the number of people he converted, rather he was responsible for simply delivering the message.
33:10 “Thus you have spoken, saying, ‘Surely our transgressions and our sins are upon us’”: From this verse it looks like that the exiles had finally realized that God’s judgment had come because of their sin. Previously (chapter 18) the people had blamed their parent’s sin for any coming judgment. “Now they recognized fully their own wickedness was causing them to waste away” (Gaebelein p. 905). “We are rotting away in them; how then can we survive?”: At this point some are so discouraged that they feel that the situation is hopeless. If the nation is as ripe for judgment as Ezekiel has said, then how can the nation survive? Yet what is said here is very true; as long as a person remains in sin, there can be no true self-improvement. Living in sin is simply living a life that is continually rotting away. Paul would later tell Timothy that the pattern in sin is simply from bad to worse (2 Timothy 3:13). Like a disease, sin eats away at resolve, character, and virtue in the life of the individual. Furthermore, sin equally eats away at the moral fabric of a congregation or a nation (1 Corinthians 5:1ff). “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. The Jewish nation seemed doomed to extinction. Life more abundant and life eternal seemed remote for such sinners”(Smith p. 367).
33:11 “I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked”: God has good news; He is not vindictive nor does He desire to see His enemies die in their sins. Divine punishment is designed to move people to repentance so they might escape the ultimate consequences of their sin. “But rather”: God’s pleasure is in seeing the wicked repent, which means that any wicked person can repent if they so choose (2 Peter 3:9; Acts 17:30). “That the wicked turn from his way and live”: The key to life is always to turn from sin, for real life is always in the direction away from sin! Carefully note that there is no divine decree or predestination that is preventing the wicked from repenting. “Why then will you die, O house of Israel?”: Here God responds back to their despairing question in verse 10 “how then can we survive?” with a question of His own. If the spiritual death of the wicked can be averted by repentance, then there is no good reason why they should perish.
33:12 In the following verses God will set forth the grand truth “that a man’s past does not of itself determine future relations with the Lord” (Smith p. 367). “The righteousness of a righteous man will not deliver him in the day of his transgression”: This verse is clearly teaching that a formerly righteous individual can fall away and end up lost. Former righteousness does not make up or cover sin that is committed today. God here repudiates the doctrine of once-saved-always-saved. On this point Calvinists will probably attempt to argue that the “death” and “life” in this chapter is dealing with physical death and physical deliverance and while the former righteous man will die he will not end up lost. Yet the life and death in the chapter are clearly spiritual life and death. It is a death that takes place on the “day” of his transgression (33:12). Notice God tells the wicked they will “surely die” (33:14), yet all men, good or evil “surely die” physically (Hebrews 9:27), obviously then, God is taking about a death that wicked people often do not believe in. 3:12 “As for the wickedness of the wicked”: Notice that one cannot divorce what one does from what one is. If you do wickedness then you are wicked. There is really no such thing as the “good person” who is doing “bad things”. “He will not stumble because of it in the day when he turns from his wickedness”: What a great incentive for repentance! God here is saying that no one can use a sinful past as an excuse for why they cannot change. Past wickedness is not an insurmountable barrier to salvation! (1 Corinthians 6:11) Like some people today, the exiles had believed some common myths that the past cannot be overcome or that people never really become different just by taking a new direction in their lives. “Such thinking is common today as well. When a person claims to have committed his or her life to Christ, many people are skeptica — especially if the person was well known to be a sinner. ‘Let’s see how long this lasts’ people say, because they find it hard to believe that anyone would really to be able change” (Stuart pp. 312-313). Yet real and lasting change is possible for every sinner (2 Corinthians 5:17).
33:12 “Whereas a righteous man will not be able to live by his righteousness on the day when he commits sin”: Notice that this man who falls away was an actual righteous person who had been living right. Calvinists often argue that if someone falls away such proves that one was never a true believer to begin with — God disagrees. Here we also learn that past righteousness cannot make up for a sinful deed that is committed today. 33:13 “Trusts in his righteousness”: He trusts in his past track record of faithfulness to the point that he thinks that if he sins such a past makes him immune from condemnation.33:17 “Yet your fellow citizens say”: Many of the exiles that surrounded Ezekiel did not agree with such teaching. “The way of the Lord is not right”: It seems like they did not like the idea that the sin they committed today can completely erase an entire life of righteousness, just like people today do not like the idea that salvation can be forfeited. In addition, they may have resented the idea that former sinners could be forgiven. “Such a decisive, life-changing action can redeem a life headed for death. And just as truly, but also tragically, turning from God to sin can pollute a life that had been heading toward abundant life, so that the result is sin” (Stuart p. 313). 33:21 On January 9th, 586 B.C., news of the fall was delivered by one of Jerusalem’s survivors, who had traveled several months and several hundred miles to tell Ezekiel. “Only then did the awful reality of Ezekiel’s prophecies strike home” (Bible Knowledge Comm. p. 1293).
33:24 “Abraham was only one, yet he possessed the land; so to us who are many the land has been given as a possession”
Ezekiel now addresses an argument being made by those who were still left in Judah. Comparing themselves to Abraham, they claimed to be the remnant left by God to possess the land. Their argument ran something like, “If the one man, Abraham, had a right to the land, then certainly many Israelites remaining there had a right to it. “Those who were so worthless to the Babylonians that they were not taken captive (2 Kings 25:12) now seized the opportunity to take over fields and houses they had long coveted and occupied what they simplistically saw as their destiny: the land. Shouldn’t they, who after all, numbered in the thousands, have a greater right to the land than Abraham who was only one person? The argument was silly, of course, but it made a nice sounding slogan” (Stuart p. 316). 33:25-29 But there was a major difference between Abraham and those left in the land. Abraham had been faithful, and these people were disobedient. 3:31-33 Ezekiel now had become a very popular prophet among the exiles and many came to hear him. “Ezekiel’s words tantalized the people’s ears much as beautiful love songs would do; but his message never penetrated their hearts” (Bible Knowledge Comm. p. 1294). “To his audience he was an entertainer, like a musician with a good voice, but who obeys entertainers? News is big business. It is interesting, often provocative, and ultimately entertaining — even to people who have no intention whatever of doing anything about what they hear and read. Moreover, there can be a popular rule of thumb in deciding what news should belong in the headlines. The grisly is sometimes the most attractive. That is the phenomenon that Ezekiel had to confront. He had a big audience for terrible news about Judah and Jerusalem and undoubtedly for his dire predictions for foreign nations. People would listen as long as they didn’t have to do anything and could even enjoy what he preached as long as it didn’t immediately represent pain or suffering for them” (Stuart pp. 317-318). These people were avid hears, but that still did not make them doers! (James 1:22) 33:31 “For they do the lustful desires”: Yet many even among the exiles had never surrendered their hearts to God. “With their mouths they were very complimentary to the prophet; but their hearts were full of covetousness, that is, their own selfish concerns” (Smith p. 371).
