Ezekiel 33, A Watchman for Israel

Ezekiel 33 forms a bookend to chapter 24 says Mackie, who covers this chapter in session 18 of his Bible Project class on Ezekiel. This chapter concludes and summarizes the prophecies from before.

Ezekiel 33:1-6, Responsibility of the watchmen

The word of the LORD came to me:

"Son of man, speak to your countrymen 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 take warning and the sword comes and takes his life, his blood will be on his own head. Since he heard the sound of the trumpet but did not take warning, his blood will be on his own head. If he had taken warning, he would have saved himself. 

But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet to warn the people and the sword comes and takes the life of one of them, that man will be taken away because of his sin, but I will hold the watchman accountable for his blood.'   

The watchman is responsible for the city -- if he does not warn people, their blood is on his hands. This echoes Ezekiel 3:16-21. There are also echoes of Ezekiel 14:17-18, warning of a coming sword. 

Ezekiel 33:7-9, Ezekiel the watchman

"Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel; so hear the word I speak and give them warning from me. When I say to the wicked, `O wicked man, you will surely die,' and you do not speak out to dissuade him from his ways, that wicked man will die for his sin, and I will hold you accountable for his blood.   

But if you do warn the wicked man to turn from his ways and he does not do so, he will die for his sin, but you will have saved yourself.   

The duties of the watchman continues. Here it involves a spiritual role to warn the people of Judah. 

Ezekiel 33:10-11, Turn away and live!

"Son of man, say to the house of Israel, `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, O house of Israel?'   

It is not God's intent that people die, but that they follow Him and live. Judgment is to make it clear that disobedience leads to death. (This repeats the message of Ezekiel 18:32.)

Ezekiel 33:12-20, Each according to his own ways

"Therefore, son of man, say to your countrymen, `The righteousness of the righteous man will not save him when he disobeys, and the wickedness of the wicked man will not cause him to fall when he turns from it. The righteous man, if he sins, will not be allowed to live because of his former righteousness.' If I tell the righteous man that he will surely live, but then he trusts in his righteousness and does evil, none of the righteous things he has done will be remembered; he will die for the evil he has done.   

And if I say to the wicked man, `You will surely die,' but he then turns away from his sin and does what is just and  right--if he gives back what he took in pledge for a loan, returns what he has stolen, follows the decrees that give life, and does no evil, he will surely live; he will not die. None of the sins he has committed will be remembered against him. He has done what is just and right; he will surely live.

 "Yet your countrymen say, `The way of the Lord is not just.' But it is their way that is not just. If a righteous man turns from his righteousness and does evil, he will die for it. And if a wicked man turns away from his wickedness and does what is just and right, he will live by doing so.  

Yet, O house of Israel, you say, `The way of the Lord is not just.' But I will judge each of you according to his own ways."   

People are judged according to their actions, and they can change. (This passage echoes the case-studies message of Ezekiel 18.)

Ezekiel 33:21-22, The city has fallen!

 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 upon 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.   

A refugee from Jerusalem brings the news that Jerusalem has fallen. The evening before, Ezekiel is suddenly able to speak.  

Alexander views the material from here to the end of chapter 39 as a series of prophecies that Ezekiel gives that night before the refugee arrives.

Ezekiel 33:23-26,

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?'  

Those who rely on their idols and their swords do not deserve the promised land.

Ezekiel 33:27-33. Sword, animals, plague

"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.' 

"As for you, son of man, your countrymen 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 listen to your words, but they do not put them into practice. With their mouths they express devotion, 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 repeats the judgments of the sword, wild animals and plague. Here there are accusations that the people sing love songs with beautiful voices but their hearts are not in it; they do not put the words to practice. When finally the judgment comes, everyone will know that Ezekiel has been speaking as a true prophet. (Both Jeremiah and Ezekiel upset the Jewish leaders around them and yet their words were preserved. This last sentence explains why.)