Ezekiel 33:1-20
1 Again the word of the LORD came to me, saying, 2 "Son of man, speak to the children of your people, and say to them: When I bring the sword upon a land, and the people of the land take a man from their territory and make him their watchman, 3 when he sees the sword coming upon the land, if he blows the trumpet and warns the people, 4 then whoever hears the sound of the trumpet and does not take warning, if the sword comes and takes him away, his blood shall be on his own head. 5 He heard the sound of the trumpet, but did not take warning; his blood shall be upon himself. But he who takes warning will save his life. 6 But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet, and the people are not warned, and the sword comes and takes any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood I will require at the watchman's hand.'
7 "So you, son of man: I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel; therefore you shall hear a word from My mouth and warn them for Me. 8 When I say to the wicked, 'O wicked man, you shall surely die!' and you do not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood I will require at your hand. 9 Nevertheless if you warn the wicked to turn from his way, and he does not turn from his way, he shall die in his iniquity; but you have delivered your soul.
10 "Therefore you, O son of man, say to the house of Israel: 'Thus you say, "If our transgressions and our sins lie upon us, and we pine away in them, how can we then live?"' 11 Say to them: 'As I live,' says the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways! For why should you die, O house of Israel?'
12 "Therefore you, O son of man, say to the children of your people: 'The righteousness of the righteous man shall not deliver him in the day of his transgression; as for the wickedness of the wicked, he shall not fall because of it in the day that he turns from his wickedness; nor shall the righteous be able to live because of his righteousness in the day that he sins.' 13 When I say to the righteous that he shall surely live, but he trusts in his own righteousness and commits iniquity, none of his righteous works shall be remembered; but because of the iniquity that he has committed, he shall die. 14 Again, when I say to the wicked, 'You shall surely die,' if he turns from his sin and does what is lawful and right, 15 if the wicked restores the pledge, gives back what he has stolen, and walks in the statutes of life without committing iniquity, he shall surely live; he shall not die. 16 None of his sins which he has committed shall be remembered against him; he has done what is lawful and right; he shall surely live.
17 "Yet the children of your people say, 'The way of the Lord is not fair.' But it is their way which is not fair! 18 When the righteous turns from his righteousness and commits iniquity, he shall die because of it. 19 But when the wicked turns from his wickedness and does what is lawful and right, he shall live because of it. 20 Yet you say, The way of the Lord is not fair.' O house of Israel, I will judge every one of you according to his own ways."
God's Judgment Is fair but thankfully it is also merciful and good. This is the basis of the gospel of Jesus Christ our Lord. The watchman was commanded to speak the truth with tough love, alerting the people to the impending and imminent judgment of God. If he did not warn them, he himself answered to the LORD for his inaction as Paul later hinted at in Romans 1:16 and 1 Corinthians 9:16 for our example. The watchman warns of danger straight away and leaves it to the hearers for their response. Either they heed and prepare themselves for life or they ignore it to their own peril of death and destruction. If, however, the watchman does not warn them for any reason and leaves them to their fate at the hands of the enemy at the gate then he also answers for their destruction because he did not care for their souls. The question is how much of this pertains to us in spreading the good news of Christ who rescues us from eternal destruction by telling as many as we can of the bad news of God’s wrath on sin, righteousness in Him, and the judgment to come (John 16:8-11) and then speaking the good news of that atoning work of His sacrificial death and the resulting hope of our own resurrection in Him. While we may not be held to the severity of account that this watchman Ezekiel was, yet the desire to see men and women escape the enemy’s deceit and lasting effects of the resulting sin of rebellion since Adam should also drive us in love as willing watchers to not cease warning others (Acts 19:8, 10, 20:31, 2 Corinthians 5:11) through teaching and reasoning from the scriptures. This includes then that we warn those bent on living in sin just what the end of that is under God’s wrath according to His word (John 3:18) just as life through forgiveness is freely offered in Christ (John 5:24) to those hearing and turning in repentance with faith to trust His work (John 6:29) and who receive Him by heeding the warnings of the watchmen. Yes, we all have earned the wages paid out by our inherited and ongoing sin (Romans 3:23, 6:23) and deserve God’s just anger, yet we know it is God’s character to desire to be destroyed, but as He says here, “I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways! For why should you die?” That is God’s wrath and grace of love (Psalm 85:10) joined together in His righteousness to make us holy as originally created to be in His presence in the Garden if we hear and heed the warnings of the watchmen. He further says here that “'The righteousness of the righteous man shall not deliver him” as a warning hinting that we can no more earn our salvation than a wicked man can escape judgement because we know that their is nobody really righteous who does good enough to earn a release from our legal sentence that fits our crime against God (Romans 3:20-23). We are warned not to trust in our own perceived righteousness because that in itself is sin, but the wicked who turns “and does what is lawful and right,” this one will be spared judgement and “None of his sins which he has committed shall be remembered against him.” This is the root of the gospel spelled out for us. Yet some today echo the same response then that God is not fair! It is our ways which are unfair and unjust and without mercy, righteousness, or grace. God’s ways are both fair and merciful to we who are undeserving and unable to earn the peace with Him that we earnestly seek in our yearnings for safety and hope for tomorrow. Christ Jesus is the only answer (Acts 4:12) to these things which we speak of as His watchmen with this fair and yet merciful message of salvation. May we then be compelled (Job 32:18-20, 2 Corinthians 5:14) to watch for others (Acts 19:8, 10) and not just ourselves that we might glorify God and see eyes opened as men and women are delivered from hopeless darkness to light of hope eternal (1 Peter 2:9-10). Amen and amen.
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