Ezekiel 33

It has well been said that the most important thing about prophets is not that they have hindsight or foresight but that they also have insight. Prophetic hindsight is important because it helps us deal with the past and understand better what God did and why He did it. Foresight helps us avoid trouble and have hope

for the future. But insight helps us better understand ourselves and those around us, and what we must do to become better men and women who do the will of God. In these chapters, Ezekiel exercises all three gifts as he exposes sin, analyzes history, and gives promises for the future. He deals with the sins of the Jewish people (chap. 33), the sins of their leaders (chap. 34), and the sins of the neighboring land of Edom (chap. 35).

This chapter reaches back into some of Ezekiel’s previous messages and brings together truths that were important to Israel’s understanding of God, their situation, and what God wanted them to do. You will find here references to 3:15–27; chapters 5 and 6; 11:14–21; 18:1–32; 20:1–8; and 24:25–27. It’s as though the Lord led His servant to combine these basic spiritual truths in one message so that nobody could say, “I didn’t hear what the Lord said to us!” Ezekiel turned the light of God’s Word on the nation as a whole (33:1–20), the people left in Judah and Jerusalem (vv. 23–29), and the exiles in Babylon (vv. 21–22, 30–33), and he revealed what was in their hearts and lives.

The entire nation (vv. 1–20). Every Jew who had ever lived in a walled city knew what Ezekiel was talking about when he referred to the watchmen on the wall, for these watchmen were important to the city’s defense. Faithful watchmen kept their eyes focused on the horizon and gave the warning when they saw the enemy approaching. If the watchmen were alert and faithful and the people obedient, lives would be saved; if the watchmen were careless, or the people unconcerned, the city would be captured and people would die.

God had called Ezekiel to be His watchman (3:19–21) and it was his task to hear God’s word of warning and declare it to the people. The faithful watchman had clean hands, but the unfaithful watchman had hands that were stained by the blood of the victims who died because he didn’t warn them. Isaiah compared unfaithful watchmen to blind men, dogs that can’t bark, and people who can’t stay awake (Isa. 56:10). Ezekiel was a faithful watchman who delivered God’s message to the Jews in Babylon as well as those back in Judah, and that message was “Repent—turn from your sins!” The word turn is used eight times in this chapter and it describes “repentance.” The biblical words translated “repent” simply mean “to change your mind,” but this change of mind also involves a change of life. If a thief truly repented, he or she would restore what had been stolen. The liars would confess their deception and ask for forgiveness, and the drunkards would stop their alcohol abuse.

The discussion in Ezekiel 33:10–20 reminds us of 18:1–32, where Ezekiel explained human responsibility before God. The Jews had blamed the older generation for what had happened to the nation, but Ezekiel made it clear that God didn’t punish the children for the sins of their fathers. Each person was accountable for his or her own sins and couldn’t blame somebody else. But 33: suggests that some of the Jews were now feeling the pain of their sins like a heavy weight on their shoulders, and day after day were “wearing away.” However, this feeling of remorse fell far short of real repentance.

We must correctly distinguish regret, remorse, and true repentance. Regret is an activity of the mind; whenever we remember what we’ve done, we ask ourselves, “Why did I do that?” Remorse includes both the heart and the mind, and we feel disgust and pain, but we don’t change our ways. But true repentance includes the mind, the heart, and the will. We change our mind about our sins and agree with what God says about them; we abhor ourselves because of what we have done; and we deliberately turn from our sin and turn to the Lord for His mercy.

When Peter remembered his sin of denying Christ, he repented and sought pardon; when Judas remembered his sin of betraying Christ, he experienced only remorse, and he went out and hanged himself. “For godly sorrow produces repentance to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death” (2 Cor. 7: nkjv). If the sinner turns from his sins and turns to the Lord in faith, he will be forgiven. Paul’s message was “repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ” (Acts 20:21), and that message is still valid today.

As they did previously (Ezek. 18:21–29), the Jews debated with Ezekiel and affirmed that God wasn’t being fair and that His ways were unequal. This response in itself proved that they had not really repented, because repentant sinners don’t argue with God’s Word. The Jews were saying, “God isn’t using standard weights on His scales! He’s got the scales fixed!” But their accusation against the Lord was false. As Ezekiel had already told them (vv. 21–29), it wasn’t God’s ways that were false but their own ways! It wasn’t their responsibility to prove God wrong but to admit that they were wrong!

The people of the land (vv. 23–29). The Babylonians had left some of the poor people to take care of the fields and the ruins (Jer. 52:16), while the rest who survived the siege were taken to Babylon. The Lord heard what these people were saying: “We have a right to this land because the Lord spared us to live here.” After all, when Abraham was just one man, God gave him the land; but the survivors were many and had lived on the land a long time. The very fact that they had survived proved that they were special to the Lord. Therefore, they could claim the land for themselves because the former owners were either dead or in exile.

They had forgotten that Jeremiah had already settled the question of which group was God’s choice people, the exiles in Babylon or the survivors in Judah. As recorded in Jeremiah 24, God showed Jeremiah two baskets of figs, one filled with very good figs and the other with very bad figs. The very good figs represented the exiles in Babylon, the remnant God would use to rebuild the temple and restore the nation. The very bad figs were King Zedekiah and the leaders in Jerusalem who disobeyed the Lord by breaking the treaty with Babylon. It’s obvious that the remnant in Judah was not considered “special” or “choice” by the Lord.

But Abraham was a righteous man, and the people left in Judah had been living in defiance of God’s law! In Ezekiel 33:25–26, Ezekiel listed some of the sins they were committing: eating meat with the blood still in it (Deut. 12:16, 23; Lev. 17:10); worshipping idols (Ex. 20:4–6); murder (v. 13); relying on violence (“stand upon your sword” kjv); and doing abominable things, like committing adultery (v. 14). No, instead of inheriting the land and becoming rich, the people would be slain by the sword, the beasts of the field, or the pestilence that often accompanies war (Ezek. 33:27; see 5:12; 7:15; 12:16; 14:12–21). Instead of the land becoming their prize possession, it would become desolate and enjoy its sabbath rest (Lev. 26:32–35, 43; 2 Chron. 36:21).

The exiles in Babylon (vv. 21–22, 30–33). The Babylonian army set fire to Jerusalem on August 14, 586 BC, and about five months later—January 8, 585 BC—a fugitive arrived in Babylon to announce the sad fact that Jerusalem and the temple had been destroyed. This validated the prophecies of Ezekiel and proved that he was indeed the prophet of God (Deut. 18:20–22). The night before he received this news, Ezekiel had been in a prophetic state with God’s hand upon him, so he knew that something special was about to be revealed. The hearing of this news brought about the opening of Ezekiel’s mouth so that he was no longer mute when he wasn’t declaring the message of God (Ezek. 3:26–27). He was now able to converse with people and have a “pastoral” ministry among them apart from his prophetic preaching. For about seven and a half years, Ezekiel had been under this constraint, but now he was free to speak. Certainly the exiles noticed this and would be curious to know what had happened to him.

But Ezekiel knew that the people who came to his house to hear him speak didn’t appreciate his ministry or obey what they heard. As the exiles met one another during the day, they would step out of the hot sunlight and discuss the prophet’s ministry (v. 30). They even invited people to come with them to hear the preacher! But going to hear the Word of God wasn’t a serious thing to them. “Come on, let’s have some fun! Let’s go hear the prophet tell us what the Lord is saying” (v. 30 nlt). But they weren’t concerned about God’s truth or their personal responsibility; all they wanted to do was get up-to-date information so they could make money! They listened to God’s preacher but refused to obey what God told them to do (James 1:22–25; Ps. 78:36–37; 1 John 3:18). They saw Ezekiel as an entertainer who sang love songs, not as an exhorter who sought to convey God’s love to them.

This information could have discouraged the prophet, but the Lord added a message of faith and hope: The day would come when the fulfillment of God’s prophetic word would convince careless people that a prophet had truly been among them. This would mean personal privilege (hearing the word), personal responsibility (obeying the word), and personal accountability (being judged by the word that they had heard, John 12:48).

Believers today have the Word of God readily accessible not only in public meetings, but also in literature, on the Internet, over radio and television, as well as on video and audio tapes and CDs, and we will have much to answer for when we see the Lord. The important thing at the judgment seat of Christ won’t be how much Bible we studied or learned, but how much we loved and obeyed.