In this chapter, we read about the calling of the prophet and his future attitude towards the people. The announcement of restoration and salvation, Ezekiel 33-48.
Barnes, in his commentary, says the following.
‘Ezekiel, newly designated to the prophetic office, undertakes his new duty of encouraging his countrymen to hope for forgiveness and restoration. Ezekiel 33:1-20 is the introduction to this third group of prophecies. This is the beginning of the last section, Ezekiel 33-48.’
This is the link chapter between the two messages of the prophet, Ezekiel 24:25-27. This section repeats Ezekiel 3:16-21. The only difference is one of direction. In this chapter, the people are being told that they have been given a watchman, Ezekiel.
The prophets of the Old Testament were the watchmen of God, Ezekiel 3:16-21 / Isaiah 21:6 / Jeremiah 6:17 / Habakkuk 2:1. They were called in order to call Israel back to God.
Their work was to warn the wicked, that they turn from their wicked ways. The Major and Minor Prophets existed for the purpose of warning God’s people during the era of apostasy that they should repent and return to God.
God now asks Ezekiel to speak to his people in exile, Ezekiel 33:1-2. He is to tell his people if God brought war on a land and the people, and He gives them a watchman, then they would have no excuse if they ignored the warning, Ezekiel 33:2-4.
The watchmen would usually stand on the towers and walls, and if they saw an enemy coming, they would blow the trumpet as a warning, Ezekiel 33:3. If the people heard the trumpet but ignored the warning and died, they would be responsible for their own death, Ezekiel 33:4.
Notice the double warning, if the people heard the trumpet, but ignored the warning and died, they would be responsible for their own death, Ezekiel 33:5. However, if they heard the warning and obeyed it, then they would life, Ezekiel 33:5. If the watchman failed to blow the trumpet and sound the warning, then the watchmen would be accountable for their death, Ezekiel 33:6.
McFadyen, in his commentary, says the following.
‘In these verses, Ezekiel compares himself to an ordinary watchman, to show that it is his duty in that current crisis to care for and warn individual souls.’
God now tells Ezekiel that is the watchman for God’s people, Ezekiel 33:7 / Ezekiel 3:17-21 / Isaiah 21:6-9 / Jeremiah 6:17. God gives him a stern warning and tells him that if failed to deliver God’s message, that is, people dying for their sins, then he will be responsible for their deaths, Ezekiel 33:8 / Genesis 4:9 / Genesis 9:5.
However, if he did warn those who sin and told them about the consequences of their sin, then they would die, and God wouldn’t hold Ezekiel responsible for their death, Ezekiel 33:9 / Acts 20:26.
In this context, Ezekiel turned from the sins of the nation to the sins of the individual. Though the nation had to suffer the calamity of destruction and captivity, the individual would be saved through individual repentance and obedience to God’s law.
Constable, in his commentary, says the following.
‘Ezekiel had carried out his commission faithfully. Ezekiel 4-24 of this book contain the warnings that he delivered concerning the judgment that God intended to send on Judah and Jerusalem for the people’s sins.’
Cooper, in his commentary, says the following.
‘Warning others of the consequences of judgment inherent in sin is never a popular assignment. Believers have a duty to be ’watchmen’ who warn those who are in the world and are without God of the destructive nature of sin and its final irrevocable result, death and hell, Ezekiel 33:1-33. Our responsibility is to warn and proclaim as persuasively as possible, but how the message is received is beyond our control, 2 Corinthians 5:20 / 1 Timothy 5:22 / 1 Peter 4:17 to 1 Peter 5:2.’
A glance back at Ezekiel 18 will give us the gist of this section. This repeats what that had to say about the prophet’s message. God’s people are obviously wondering how they could survive God’s judgment upon them, in light of their offences and sins, Ezekiel 33:10.
God would rather have His people repent and turn to Him than die, Deuteronomy 30:19. He says, He takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked, Ezekiel 33:11 / Ezekiel 18:23 / Ezekiel 18:30-32 / 2 Peter 3:9.
Ezekiel is to tell his people that even if a righteous person disobeys, then all of that persons righteous acts they did before will count for nothing, Ezekiel 33:12. If a sinner repents, then they won’t be condemned, Ezekiel 33:12. If someone was righteous but then goes on to sin, they will die, despite of their past righteousness, Ezekiel 33:12.
If God Himself tells a righteous person that they will live but then that person begins to trust on their own righteousness and sin, then all their former righteous acts will be forgotten and they will die, Ezekiel 33:13.
If Ezekiel tells a sinner they will die, but they repent and do what is right, Ezekiel 33:14, if they give back what they took in pledge for a loan, return what they have stolen, follow the decrees, that is God’s laws, and do no evil, then that person will life not die, Ezekiel 33:15. Their sins will be remembered no more because they have done what is just and right, they will live, Ezekiel 33:16.
Beasley-Murray, in their commentary, says the following.
‘Thus, the two things Ezekiel stressed here are (1) the grace of God, Ezekiel 33:11, and (2) the importance of one’s present state, rather than his past record.’
God’s people didn’t think God was dealing with them justly, however, it was their actions and their thinking that was just, Ezekiel 33:17. Once more God says, if a righteous person stop being righteous and sins, they will die because of their sin, Ezekiel 33:18. If a sinner, repents and does what is just and right, then they would live, Ezekiel 33:19.
Once more, God’s people didn’t think God was dealing with them justly, but God says He will judge each of them according to their ways, Ezekiel 33:20. In other words, they will be judged as individuals for their own individual actions, James 2:14-17.
Twenty years have passed since the first captives were deported from Judah, and the exile had begun. Now the city of Jerusalem had fallen, 586 B.C. 2 Kings 25:2-7. and the exiled of the nation continued with greater magnitude. It will be another fifty years before the exile ends.
It is evidently some six months before one of the survivors of the Jerusalem slaughter finally makes his way to the prophet Ezekiel in Babylonia, Ezekiel 33:21. Ezekiel gets a few hours’ advance warning of Jerusalem’s fall on the evening before the messenger arrives, Ezra 7:6-9.
Just as promised, Ezekiel’s muteness disappears the following morning before the messenger arrives, Ezekiel 33:22. Ezekiel is suddenly unable to speak, Ezekiel 33:22.
Undoubtedly, he recalls the day the siege began, the day of his wife’s death and when God told him his mouth would be opened on the day when a messenger appears with news of the fall, Ezekiel 24:25-27.
Wiersbe, in his commentary, says the following.
‘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.’
With this dramatic confirmation of his earlier predictions concerning Jerusalem, Ezekiel once more sets out to proclaim the word of the Lord to the people. He reminds them that the desolation has not yet ended, but assures them that it will end soon and that the promised restoration will begin. The time for healing will come quickly, so Ezekiel changes his focus to begin to comfort a scattered people.
Two things are now evident.
1. The prophet will now have a new message.
2. The prophet is vindicated before the people, Deuteronomy 18:22.
God now speaks to Ezekiel about those living in the ruins in Israel, Ezekiel 33:23-24. These people were saying, because of Abraham’s right to stay in the Promised Land, they were entitled to live there too, Ezekiel 33:24 / Ezekiel 11:15 / Matthew 3:9 / Luke 3:8 / John 8:33 / John 8:39.
This concerns Ishmael and some who tried to take the land that was left. When Nebuzaradan took Zedekiah away in 586 B.C., he left Gedaliah as governor. Ishmael and a small guerrilla group killed Gedaliah and sought to re-establish themselves as an independent nation again, Jeremiah 40:41 / 2 Kings 25:25-30. They thought they still deserved the land; they thought they were righteous as Abraham, and because they were many, they thought it was theirs, Ezekiel 33:24.
Barnes, in his commentary, says the following.
‘The argument is, Abraham was but one man, and he had the promise of the land, though he did not at once possess it; much more shall we, the descendants of Abraham, being many, retain this promise and possess the land, though for a time we are depressed and subject, Matthew 3:9 / John 8:33 / John 8:39.’
Because they ate meat with the blood still in it, Leviticus 17:10-14 / Leviticus 19:26 / Acts 15:29, practised idolatry, Exodus 20:4-5 and murder, Exodus 20:13-14, God asks whether they should possess the land? Ezekiel 33:25.
Since they relied on the sword, practised detestable things, Leviticus 18:30, defiled their neighbours’ wives, Leviticus 18:20, God again asks, Should you possess the land? Ezekiel 33:26.
They disobeyed God, and God had told them the terms and conditions for living in the land beforehand, Deuteronomy 27-28 / Deuteronomy 29:25-29. God told them that anyone who remained in the land would die, either by the sword, wild animals, or plagues, Ezekiel 33:27 / Leviticus 26:22 / Leviticus 26:25 / Jeremiah 40-44.
They did not inherit the land, and they went to Egypt, Jeremiah 40-41 / 2 Kings 25:22-30. God said he would desolate the land, making it a wasteland, He would humble His people, Leviticus 26:19 / Leviticus 26:33, and even make the passage away across the mountains impassable, Ezekiel 33:28. Then they would know that He is the LORD, because of the evil they had done, Ezekiel 33:29.
Now the people are forced by events to admit that the prophet was right, Ezekiel 33:30. They make him popular, Ezekiel 33:30, but they only hear what he has to say; they will not do it, Ezekiel 33:31. They speak one thing, but their hearts say another, Ezekiel 33:31 / Ezekiel 14:1 / Ezekiel 20:1.
They enjoy a good sermon, just as they enjoy listening to love songs and music; they dissect it technically, ‘but they will not do it’, Ezekiel 33:32. Those days haven’t disappeared yet, James 1:22-25. When everything that God said through Ezekiel, then they would have no doubts that a prophet had been among them, Ezekiel 33:33 / Deuteronomy 18:22.