Fallen!

Ezekiel 33:1-33
 

Welcome! Good morning! I am excited to be speaking to you today on Ezekiel chapter 33. Ezekiel 33 is the transition between two major sections of the book, and it is therefore good today to start with a brief overview of what we have seen in the first 32 chapters. I will also highlight a few details that have direct relevance to today’s passage. Recall that Ezekiel was in training to be a priest in Jerusalem when a Babylonian attack on the city resulted in the city itself being spared but in many Israelites being taken captive and sent to the Babylonian nation, among whom was a young man, 25 years old, named Ezekiel.
 
As the book begins, Ezekiel is sitting by an irrigation canal in what amounted to be an Israelite refugee camp. Ezekiel is now 30 years old, the age in which he would have become no longer a priest-in-training but a full-fledged priest if he had not been captured but instead remained in Jerusalem. But on this date, God gave Ezekiel an amazing vision in which he sees a heavily symbolic image of God coming on his throne. In this vision, Ezekiel is commissioned by God to be, not a priest, but a prophet. God called him to speak to the hardened people of Israel. God promised to make Ezekiel even more persistent, more hardened than they were, “harder than flint” (from which comes the title of our series). God instructed Ezekiel to speak what he had been shown in the vision. (This is in Chapter 3.)
 
We are told that Ezekiel then went to his fellow exiles on this irrigation canal and… told them? Well, no. Instead, it says he “sat among them for seven days, deeply distressed.” At the end of the seven days, God came again to Ezekiel and instructed him further:
 
“Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the people of Israel; so hear the word I speak and give them warning from Me. When I say to a wicked person, ‘You will surely die,’ and you do not warn them or speak out to dissuade them from their evil ways in order to save their life, that wicked person will die for their sin, and I will hold you accountable for their blood. But if you do warn the wicked person and they do not turn from their wickedness or from their evil ways, they will die for their sin; but you will have saved yourself. Again, when a righteous person turns from their righteousness and does evil, and I put a stumbling block before them, they will die. Since you did not warn them, they will die for their sin. The righteous things that person did will not be remembered, and I will hold you accountable for their blood. But if you do warn the righteous person not to sin and they do not sin, they will surely live because they took warning, and you will have saved yourself.” – Ezekiel 3:17-21
 
Because God has called Ezekiel to be a watchman, someone who was to warn people of what was coming, God said that Ezekiel would be held accountable to deliver the messages God revealed to him. Ezekiel was not in any way accountable for how the people responded or failed to respond, but he was being held responsible to give the message. I am reminded of the account of Jonah. Jonah rejected God’s call outright and actually fled in the opposite direction. We all know how that turned out – since the boat was going in the wrong direction, God provided His own transportation – the belly of a giant fish – and brought Jonah to exactly where he was told to go. Wisely, Ezekiel did not go the route, so to speak, of Jonah, but obeyed God faithfully after this encounter.
 
I want to mention an additional detail found in chapter 3 that also has relevance for us in today’s passage:
 
I will make your tongue stick to the roof of your mouth so that you will be silent and unable to rebuke them, for they are a rebellious people. But when I speak to you, I will open your mouth and you shall say to them, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says.’ – Ezekiel 3:26-27a
 
This passage indicates that God made Ezekiel mute, except for when he was to speak God’s words. I can imagine what a powerful witness this made Ezekiel, that is, for those who had hearts warm to the things of God. Imagine being around at the time of Ezekiel, knowing that every time he spoke, his words were straight from God! I am reminded of Zechariah, father of John the Baptist, who was made completely mute until his son was born. But this is different. Ezekiel did frequently speak, as our past weeks in Ezekiel can testify. And perhaps Ezekiel could also speak privately, for example to his wife – we don’t really know, but I suspect this was the case. There is one instance recorded in which Ezekiel speaks his own words, his own heart, to God. But if he tried to speak anything to the Israelites apart from God’s words, at God’s time, no words would come out. Among Ezekiel’s many challenges, I want you to see how hard this had to be. Maybe you have felt isolated in this pandemic. But what Ezekiel experienced, over many years, was a totally different level of isolation.
 
Now God repeatedly gave Ezekiel words and sign acts to present to the people to warn them that their continued sin was leading to another attack on Jerusalem, one in which the city would fall. These warnings were given to the people in exile with him, but did they also reach Jerusalem? I think Ezekiel’s written warnings did make it to Jerusalem. In Jeremiah 29, for example, we see a letter sent from Jeremiah to the exiles in Babylon, so there was a mail system accessible to at least some Israelites. I believe that Ezekiel’s warnings to Jerusalem were given in a similar way. Why would the Babylonians allow such letters to be sent? Because, in their eyes, Israel was a tiny nation, a nation already nearly completely fallen, an insignificant people, and their long-term goal was always to make life good for the people they conquered so that they eventually abandoned their own cultures and started to see themselves as part of the great Babylonian “melting pot.” A mere piece of mail was no threat to them.
 
After about a year of giving these warnings that God gave him, Ezekiel had another vision (Chapters 8-11) in which he saw rampant sin associated with the Temple; men, women, priests, and non-priests were all sinning greatly against the Lord through idolatry, oppression, and more.  In the vision, Ezekiel then saw God’s glorious chariot leaving the Temple and leaving Jerusalem entirely. At the end of the vision, God promised to go into exile with them, and He promised that one day they or their descendants would return with new, transformed hearts, hearts of flesh replacing their former hearts of stone.
 
Chapters 12-24 consist of a series of God-given judgments on Israel often in the form of poems, parables, and allegories. They also gave details of how Israel, Jerusalem, and her leaders would fall. God explained that Israel’s sin had been so great for so long that the coming judgment was irreversible, certain to come and to come soon.
 
This section of the book of Ezekiel ends with what I think was Ezekiel’s hardest days: he was told his wife was about to die, and when she did, he was not to mourn for her, as a sign of how the fall of Jerusalem would be a similar experience, one with ongoing threats on their lives, one so traumatic that the people who survived could not even mourn.
 
The topic of Ezekiel’s “muteness” returns at the very end of this chapter:
 
“And you, son of man, on the day I take away their stronghold, their joy and glory, the delight of their eyes, their heart’s desire, and their sons and daughters as well—on that day a fugitive will come to tell you the news. At that time your mouth will be opened; you will speak with him and will no longer be silent. So you will be a sign to them, and they will know that I am the Lord.” – Ezekiel 24:25-27
 
And so we see a promise of the apparent end of Ezekiel’s commission, one in which he will once again be free to speak whenever and whatever he wishes. The passage does not imply that it will be the day of the fall that this will happen, but that the fugitive will start his long journey on that day, and when he arrived to tell Ezekiel of the fall of Jerusalem, that day would be when Ezekiel would be “released.”
 
Now, in Chapters 25 through 32, where we have been camped out for the last four weeks, God uses Ezekiel to not give prophecies against Israel, but against her neighboring nations, all of whom also would experience God’s judgment. Special attention is given to what might be described as the shining modern financial center of business at that time, the city-state of Tyre, and to what could be described as the oldest surviving empire in that part of the world, great old Egypt, land of countless wonders including the great pyramids, in which rulers (Pharoahs) who were treated as gods were laid to rest with their treasures for the life to come. Tyre, likewise, had taken traditions and stories of gods and rewoven them into a new god for themselves, Melqart, god of the sea, and worship of this god spread far and wide. God’s prophecies against these nations were tailor-made to strike at the heart of their false belief systems. Egypt was told that their leaders would go down to Sheol like every other “common” idolater, and Tyre was told that the very sea that Melqart supposedly controlled would be their undoing, both figuratively and literally.  
 
This brings us to today’s passage:
 
The word of the Lord came to me: “Son of man, speak to your people 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, and he sees the sword coming against the land and blows the trumpet to warn the people, then if anyone hears the trumpet but does not heed the warning and the sword comes and takes their life, their blood will be on their own head. Since they heard the sound of the trumpet but did not heed the warning, their blood will be on their own head. If they had heeded the warning, they would have saved themselves. But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet to warn the people and the sword comes and takes someone’s life, that person’s life will be taken because of their sin, but I will hold the watchman accountable for their blood.’ – Ezekiel 33:1-6
 
Here, God is not yet delivering the punchline, so to speak, but He is setting it up. This is like a parable that is about to be explained. What is described here is perfectly logical, and the people would certainly agree. It would be foolish to blame a watchman if he gave his warning but the people did not respond, but it would be entirely appropriate to blame the watchman if he had seen the approaching calamity but did not give it to the people. God goes on to give the “punchline,” and surprisingly, it is not directed to the people, but to Ezekiel himself:
 
“Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the people of Israel; so hear the word I speak and give them warning from me. When I say to the wicked, ‘You wicked person, you will surely die,’ and you do not speak out to dissuade them from their ways, that wicked person will die for their sin, and I will hold you accountable for their blood. But if you do warn the wicked person to turn from their ways and they do not do so, they will die for their sin, though you yourself will be saved. – Ezekiel 33:7-9
 
You can see the strong parallels between this passage and the one at the beginning of Ezekiel’s ministry, back in Chapter 3. Why does God essentially repeat this message to Ezekiel? It is because, in effect, Ezekiel’s ministry to Israel ended back in Chapter 24. During the time period of Chapters 25-32, which appears to be about two years, Ezekiel had nothing else to say to the Israelites. God had finished warning them! Chapter 33 represents a new beginning, a recommissioning, so to speak, of Ezekiel. God was, once again, going to use Ezekiel to give His words to the people of Israel. Would it be a continuation of the same kinds of dire “it is too late” warnings, or would it be something different? Let’s keep reading and see.
 
“Son of man, say to the Israelites, ‘This is what you are saying: “Our offenses and sins weigh us down, and we are wasting away because of them. How then can we live?”’ 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, people of Israel?’ – Ezekiel 33:10-11
 
This is not the same message that Ezekiel had been giving previously. Pretty much the only hope to be found in the latter part of Ezekiel’s earlier messages to Israel had been a future hope, the hope that I mentioned could be found in Chapter 11. But this is a present hope! Repent, now, and live, now! And here we see God’s heart. He takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked. He wants people to turn from their evil ways. He wants people to live. Note that these Israelites are saying a very different thing than those described previously in the book of Ezekiel. The earlier Israelites refused to acknowledge their sin or its consequences. They enjoyed the fruits of their wickedness, even though such fruits were minimal. Their hearts were completely hardened. But these Israelites were deeply aware of how their sins had led to their awful situations. They admitted they were sinners. They thought, wrongly, that their softened hearts would make no difference to God. But they were wrong. God was completely willing to help those who truly repented and started to walk in accordance with the ways of God.
 
“Therefore, son of man, say to your people, ‘If someone who is righteous disobeys, that person’s former righteousness will count for nothing. And if someone who is wicked repents, that person’s former wickedness will not bring condemnation. The righteous person who sins will not be allowed to live even though they were formerly righteous.’ If I tell a righteous person that they will surely live, but then they trust in their righteousness and do evil, none of the righteous things that person has done will be remembered; they will die for the evil they have done. And if I say to a wicked person, ‘You will surely die,’ but they then turn away from their sin and do what is just and right—if they give back what they took in pledge for a loan, return what they have stolen, follow the decrees that give life, and do no evil—that person will surely live; they will not die. None of the sins that person has committed will be remembered against them. They have done what is just and right; they will surely live. – Ezekiel 33:12-16
 
This is good news! Following God’s ways would lead to life, irrespective of what evil things they had done previously. But it was not perfect news. Returning to sinful ways would also lead to death, irrespective of what good things they had done perfectly. This was the essence of life under the Mosaic law. Obey it and live or disobey it and experience God’s judgment. But for people who had been thinking that judgment and death was the only possible outcome irrespective of what they did next, this was indeed good news. God continues:
 
“Yet your people say, ‘The way of the Lord is not just.’ But it is their way that is not just. If a righteous person turns from their righteousness and does evil, they will die for it. And if a wicked person turns away from their wickedness and does what is just and right, they will live by doing so. Yet you Israelites say, ‘The way of the Lord is not just.’ But I will judge each of you according to your own ways.” – Ezekiel 33:17-20
 
God’s rules about the consequences of sin were entirely just, entirely fair. I might argue that they were more than fair, as, in contrast to what most of the world thinks about judgment, this was not a matter of counting or weighing out your good deeds versus your bad. Much of the world still thinks in these terms today. I suppose that could also be a valid system, but it is not the system that God describes. And most people, faced with the choice of that system or this one, should have preferred this one. Most people vastly underestimate the amount of sin in their lives, both past sins and present ones. And most people completely neglect the sins that are directly about not worshiping Yahweh, the God revealed to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the only true God, the only creator of the universe and all that is in it. Most people think their “scales” slightly lean heavier in the good works side, but the reality is that their sin side is so weighed down that it sits on the ground, and you could add an elephant to the scale on the other side, and it wouldn’t make any difference.
 
God’s approach is based on the present, not the past. Are you following Him faithfully now? If not, repent and start doing so immediately. If yes, keep on doing it without fail. And that is where the problem arises, but it is not God’s fault; it is ours. Returning to our sinful ways is not God’s fault. It is our choice, every time. And God is completely justified in holding us accountable for our sins. People like to say that it is impossible not to sin, but that is not true. Jesus proved that it was and is possible. We sin because we want to. We choose to value transient, tiny, forbidden things over our relationship with the perfectly holy, perfectly loving, simply perfect, God of the universe. That is an insanely stupid choice to make, yet we keep doing it. And it is nobody’s fault but ours. God is indeed just, and more than just.
 
Let’s continue with the passage:
 
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!” Now the evening before the man arrived, the hand of the Lord was on 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. – Ezekiel 33:21-22
 
Here, at last, we see the many, many prophecies about Jerusalem’s fall, and we also see the fulfillment of God’s prediction in Ezekiel 24 in which the fugitive would come and Ezekiel’s muteness would come to an end; Ezekiel would now be free to speak his own words in addition to God’s words.  But I am certain that from Ezekiel’s perspective his ability to speak freely would have meant nothing to him at this time. This news, although 100% expected, was horrible. It had actually happened. The Promised Land, held from the days of Joshua over many centuries until this day, was once again only a future promise. Israel, Jerusalem, even the Temple, was no more. This was a time for weeping, for mourning.
 
Listen to the first 20 verses of Lamentations:
 
How deserted lies the city, once so full of people! How like a widow is she, who once was great among the nations! She who was queen among the provinces has now become a slave. Bitterly she weeps at night, tears are on her cheeks. Among all her lovers there is no one to comfort her. All her friends have betrayed her; they have become her enemies. After affliction and harsh labor, Judah has gone into exile. She dwells among the nations; she finds no resting place. All who pursue her have overtaken her in the midst of her distress. The roads to Zion mourn, for no one comes to her appointed festivals. All her gateways are desolate, her priests groan, her young women grieve, and she is in bitter anguish. Her foes have become her masters; her enemies are at ease. The Lord has brought her grief because of her many sins. Her children have gone into exile, captive before the foe. All the splendor has departed from Daughter Zion. Her princes are like deer that find no pasture; in weakness they have fled before the pursuer. In the days of her affliction and wandering Jerusalem remembers all the treasures that were hers in days of old. When her people fell into enemy hands, there was no one to help her. Her enemies looked at her and laughed at her destruction. Jerusalem has sinned greatly and so has become unclean. All who honored her despise her, for they have all seen her naked; she herself groans and turns away. Her filthiness clung to her skirts; she did not consider her future. Her fall was astounding; there was none to comfort her. “Look, Lord, on my affliction, for the enemy has triumphed.” The enemy laid hands on all her treasures; she saw pagan nations enter her sanctuary—those you had forbidden to enter your assembly. All her people groan as they search for bread; they barter their treasures for food to keep themselves alive. “Look, Lord, and consider, for I am despised. Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by? Look around and see. Is any suffering like my suffering that was inflicted on me, that the Lord brought on me in the day of his fierce anger? “From on high He sent fire, sent it down into my bones. He spread a net for my feet and turned me back. He made me desolate, faint all the day long. My sins have been bound into a yoke; by his hands they were woven together. They have been hung on my neck, and the Lord has sapped my strength. He has given me into the hands of those I cannot withstand. The Lord has rejected all the warriors in my midst; he has summoned an army against me to crush my young men. In his winepress the Lord has trampled Virgin Daughter Judah. “This is why I weep and my eyes overflow with tears. No one is near to comfort me, no one to restore my spirit. My children are destitute because the enemy has prevailed.” Zion stretches out her hands, but there is no one to comfort her. The Lord has decreed for Jacob that his neighbors become his foes; Jerusalem has become an unclean thing among them.  “The Lord is righteous, yet I rebelled against his command. Listen, all you peoples; look on my suffering. My young men and young women have gone into exile. “I called to my allies but they betrayed me. My priests and my elders perished in the city while they searched for food to keep themselves alive. See, Lord, how distressed I am! I am in torment within, and in my heart I am disturbed, for I have been most rebellious. Outside, the sword bereaves; inside, there is only death.” – Lamentations 1:1-20
 
Is this repentance? No. But it does reveal humility, an admission of guilt. It is much closer to repentance than the proud, haughty behavior we see described in Ezekiel prior to the fall of Jerusalem. Ezekiel’s mission is changing, because everything has changed, including, most importantly, the attitudes of at least some of the people.
 
Then the word of the Lord came to me: “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.’ 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? You rely on your sword, you do detestable things, and each of you defiles his neighbor’s wife. Should you then possess the land?’ – Ezekiel 33:23-26
 
Everything has indeed changed, but not everyone’s attitude has changed. The people described here are still proud, even though they have nothing. There argument about being able to possess the land because they are more people than Abraham, who was only one, is not only factually incorrect, but also completely ignoring that it was the power and promise of God that gave Abraham the land. These people continue to live in sin, and talk as if they are mighty when in fact an outside observer would be embarrassed for them, for how far they have fallen.
 
“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. 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. 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.’ – Ezekiel 33:27-29
 
God indeed opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. Living in humble means does not mean you are humble!
 
“As for you, son of man, your people 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.’ My people come to you, as they usually do, and sit before you to hear your words, but they do not put them into practice. Their mouths speak of love, but their hearts are greedy for unjust gain. 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. When all this comes true—and it surely will—then they will know that a prophet has been among them.” – Ezekiel 33:30-33
 
These verses resonate so strongly with me. You see this again and again in Jesus’ teachings, where people are respectful, the crowds even come, but so few truly believe, so few truly “are cut to the quick”. And this continues today. I am always on the lookout for Christian podcasts to listen to when I exercise, and some have been shockingly offensive. There have always been non-Bible believing, liberal churches out there, but they seem to have recently coalesced into a new movement called progressive Christianity. Now I’m sure there are exceptions, genuine believers among the movement, but with the stuff I have heard the people are using their entire platform to make fun of genuine believers. They talk about their “deconstructing” and it becomes abundantly clear, at least in what I have heard, that the people were never believers, people who put their hope and their trust in Christ, people who gave their lives to Christ because of what Christ had done for them. Instead, these were people who attended Christian events but never fit in because they never actually believed. The truth is that if you are with true believers, even if many of their practices seem strange or different to you, you will see beyond that, because what is important is that you are fellow bondservants of Christ. When I listen to these “progressives” talk about their experiences, it is exactly like what God says to Ezekiel about those who love to be entertained but miss the point, that the goal is to live for Christ, to serve Him, to love Him, and love those He loves, which includes both believers and the lost.
 
And with that in mind, I want to say a few things about applications of this passage for our lives; I am being selective, because I see many.
 
The first application I see has to do with our responsibility to be sharers of the gospel. We live in the age of the gospel, not the Law, but I feel like the principle God tells Ezekiel in verses 7-9 is even more applicable to us than it was back then. God told Ezekiel that if he did not warn people with God’s words, God would hold him accountable. What about us? God has given us not just the words of life, but of eternal life; the consequences of not turning to God are also eternal. It is not our responsibility to see people saved, but I believe we do have a responsibility to faithfully tell people both the good news and the bad to those who express interest as well as to those for whom God’s Spirit prompts us. Again, we are not responsible for results, but we do have a responsibility to be faithful.  It’s been a while, but I have shared before how, many years ago, I volunteered at a men’s homeless shelter, and one day, there were important visitors present and I was asked to do intake, something I had never done before. That was scary enough, as I was literally reading the rules while there was an impatient line of homeless people eager to come in. The meetings with the important people continued longer than expected, so I was then asked do orientation for any first-timers at the shelter. There was one such person, an older man. Again, I tried to explain things to him as per my orientation instruction sheet, but I was awkward and nervous. Then I came to a point where the instructions simply said to ask him how he thought he ended up here, and share the gospel if he was open. I felt like Jonah in that I said next to nothing, but the next thing I know, he is weeping over his sin and begging me to tell him if there is any hope for him! I shared with him, awkwardly, the basics of the gospel, and the next thing I knew, he was praying to God for forgiveness and dedicating the rest of his life to Christ. When I later shared with the director what happened, I’m not sure he really believed me. But this man was the first person I “led” to the Lord. I put “led” in quotes because I had very little to do with it. I was not eloquent, but I was faithful. We all have a responsibility before God to be faithful. I Peter 3:15 says we are to always be ready to give an answer when someone asks about the hope that you have. If you do not feel ready, let John or Fred or Brian or me know, and we’ll be overjoyed to help you.
 
And my second and final application is related to the first. Not only do we have a responsibility to be sharers of the gospel, we also should take cues from this passage that what we share should be heavily dependent on where the people we are talking to are at. I am thinking primarily about people we know here, as opposed to cold turkey evangelism, where we are talking with strangers. The message of God’s holiness and man’s sinfulness is a prerequisite to having a person be receptive to the gospel message of grace. I am reminded of Luke 7:47 which says that he who is forgiven little loves little. People who think they aren’t sinners don’t need a savior. There are lots of different ways to suggest to people that they are in fact extremely sinful; you don’t necessarily have to pronounce judgment like Ezekiel, although there certainly is a Spirit-led time and place to be direct about it. But I am struck by how, even in this one chapter, God has such a radically different response to the brokenhearted than He does to those who remain proud. We of course see the same thing in Jesus’ ministry as well as in the ministry in the early days of the church as told in Acts as well as in the writings of Paul. We should of course also pray for the lost we are trying to reach out to; this is undoubtedly our most important preparation of all. We should seek wisdom from God, who knows each person better than we know ourselves. None of us are Old Testament prophets, but I do believe that, if we ask God, the Holy Spirit will guide us in what to say and how to say it.
 
And finally, unlike Ezekiel, we are under no “gag order” when we are together. Let us, more and more, love one another in word and in deed, because this brings glory to God; even this can draw unbelievers to Christ.