Reasoning Through the Bible
Taking a cue from Paul, Reasoning Through the Bible is an expository style walk through the Scriptures that tells you what the Bible says. Reviewing both Old and New Testament books, as well as topical subjects, we methodically teach verse by verse, even phrase by phrase.
We have completed many books of the Bible and offer free lesson plans for teachers. If you want to browse our entire library by book or topic, see our website www.ReasoningThroughTheBible.com.
We primarily do expository teaching but also include a good bit of theology and apologetics. Just like Paul on Mars Hill, Christianity must address both the ancient truths and the questions of the people today. Join Glenn and Steve every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday as they reason with you through the Bible.
Reasoning Through the Bible
S36 || Sounding the Alarm: God's Warning Through Ezekiel || Ezekiel 33:1-12 || Session 36
A watchman who fails to sound the alarm bears responsibility for what follows. This sobering truth frames Ezekiel chapter 33, where God reestablishes the prophet's role as Israel's spiritual sentinel while marking a crucial turning point in the book.
After 32 chapters dominated by pronouncements of judgment against Jerusalem and surrounding nations, God begins to shift toward a message of restoration. The timing is perfect—the people have finally reached rock bottom, acknowledging their sin and questioning their very survival. It's in this moment of desperation that God reveals His heart: "I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked turn from his way and live."
This chapter unpacks several vital spiritual principles. First, the responsibility of spiritual watchmen to discern and warn about approaching dangers. Whether ancient prophets or modern church leaders, God holds accountable those tasked with protecting His people from false teaching and spiritual compromise. Second, God's consistent character across both testaments—His judgments are always redemptive in purpose, designed to bring people back to Himself. Three times in a single verse, He urges His people to "turn back"—the Old Testament equivalent of repentance.
God also addresses the faulty perception that He's unfair in His judgments. He makes clear that neither past righteousness nor past wickedness ultimately determines one's standing; what matters is one's current orientation toward Him. By addressing the primarily Judean captives as "the house of Israel," God also subtly affirms the unity of His covenant people, challenging any attempt to create ethnic distinctions within His redemptive plan.
This powerful chapter bridges judgment and hope, revealing that even God's most severe discipline aims at restoration. What dangers might be approaching your spiritual community? And more importantly, who's watching the walls?
Thank you for listening!! Please give us a five-star rating to help your podcast provider's algorithm spread RTTB among their listeners.
You can find free study and leader resources at the following link - Resource Page - Reasoning Through the Bible
Please prayerfully consider supporting RTTB to help us to continue providing content and free resources. You can do that at this link - Support RTTB - Reasoning Through the Bible
May God Bless you!! - Glenn and Steve
If the watchman doesn't sound the alarm when danger comes, then how will the people be prepared? When the enemy comes in the middle of the night and the watchman doesn't sound the alarm, how will the people defend themselves? That's today's lesson on reasoning through the Bible. Hi, my name's Glenn. I'm here with Steve, Our ministry. We do verse-by-verse Bible study through the Word of God and we also provide resources to you. So go check them out at our website, ReasoningThroughTheBiblecom, and you'll find helps there for your Bible study and small group.
Speaker 1:Today, open your Bibles to the book of Ezekiel, chapter 33. And here is a bit of a change. We have a new section of the book is a bit of a change. We have a new section of the book. If you remember, the first few chapters were God giving Ezekiel a message about the fall of Jerusalem, and he gives messages there about how Babylon is going to come in and destroy Jerusalem because of their repeated, ongoing disobedience. In chapters 12 through 16, God explains why he's judging Jerusalem and gives very graphic descriptions of the abominations, calling them adulteries. The Lord also talked about a future time where there'll be a new covenant where he will make and restore Jerusalem. Starting in chapter 24 and going through 32, God condemns many nations in that day in that part of the world, including Tyre and Egypt and many others.
Speaker 1:Here in chapter 33, God turns a bit of a corner, although he's a little slow in turning the corner, but it is a new section of the book. Up to now God has been describing judgment on Jerusalem, the Jewish people and the nations. Now the tone changes and God begins to describe the restoration process of Israel and a future kingdom. That's what he's really talking about here. And as the book goes on, it starts here. That's what he's really talking about here.
Speaker 1:And as the book goes on, it starts here. And as we go on, we're going to find that there's going to be a great deal of restoration. That goes on, and God becomes very clear about that in chapters 36 and 37. So remember, back in chapter 3 of Ezekiel, God told Ezekiel that he would be like a watchman and it was his job to warn the Jewish people of what was coming. God told Ezekiel that he would hold Ezekiel responsible for giving the warning, not whether the people heeded the warning. So here in chapter 33, God is reminding Ezekiel that it's his job to be a watchman, a watchman on the wall warning the people. So let's go ahead and dive in. Steve, if you could read the first nine verses of Ezekiel, chapter 33.
Speaker 2:And the word of the Lord came to me saying son of man, speak to the sons of your people and say to them if I bring a sword upon a land and the people of the land take one man from among them and make him their watchman, and he sees the sword coming upon the land and blows on the trumpet and warns the people, then he who hears the sound of the trumpet and does not take warning and a sword comes and takes him away, his blood will be on his own head. He heard the sound of the trumpet but did not take warning. His blood will be on himself. But had he taken warning, he would have delivered his life.
Speaker 2:But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet and the people are not warned and a sword comes and takes a person from them, he is taken away in his iniquity. But his blood I will require from the watchman's hand. Now, as for you, son of man, I have appointed you as a watchman for the house of Israel, so you will bear a message from my mouth and give them warnings from me when I say to the wicked, o wicked man, you will 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 from your hand. But if you, on your part, warn a wicked man to turn from his way and he does not turn from his way, he will die in his iniquity, but you have delivered your life.
Speaker 1:Once again, Ezekiel tells us that the prophecies he's giving are ones he got directly from God. He got a word from the Lord. God is now again giving Ezekiel to realize that it's his job to go announce God's message. He is to be a watchman. So, Steve, according to the kind of the flow of this passage, what's the watchman responsible for?
Speaker 2:The watchman is responsible for giving the alert and the warning when he sees that there is danger. Warning when he sees that there is danger. And in this case, we note that it is God that is setting up Ezekiel as the watchman. So it's God giving the warning himself to the people through the prophet of Ezekiel.
Speaker 2:He was also named as a watchman in the earlier chapters of this book and in that case, the example was given is I'm going to give you something to say to the people, and if you tell them and they don't listen, then you're free from their guilt of having the blood on your hands. But if you don't tell them and they don't change their ways, then the guilt is going to be on you. In this case, he's talking about giving a warning call from a trumpet and the same type of situation. If you give the warning call, they don't heed it, then you're free and clear of having their blood on your hands. But if you don't give the warning call when I tell you to and they don't change their ways, then their blood is going to be on you, because that's the job as a watchman is to warn the people. And if you don't warn the people, then you haven't fulfilled your job as a watchman.
Speaker 1:This is a repeat of what God told Ezekiel back in chapter three. He told him there's essentially very similar things. God repeats something. It's something that he's trying to emphasize the importance of. So here God is emphasizing to Ezekiel it's your job to give out the message and it's everybody else's job, whether or not they're going to heed it. So we should also think of ourselves. At least part of our job is the same today. Are there dangers today in the Christian life? Do churches today need people to warn them about coming?
Speaker 2:dangers. That should be one of their main calls to the community is to give the community warnings of what was going to happen for their eternal soul if they don't become a believer in Jesus Christ. And it's through their belief in Jesus Christ that the people are changed, which thus changes the community. But if the local church or congregations are just giving fluff messages and not preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ, then are they really changing the community? Are they really doing what they're supposed to be doing as a watchman to give the clarion call to the community of Jesus Christ and what the future holds if they don't become a follower Jesus Christ and what the future holds if they don't become a follower.
Speaker 1:Note here in these passages that the word warn is used eight times. In seven verses God is talking about warning his people and he emphasizes that he needs a watchman to warn them. There are dangers today that's out there lurking for churches and church members, just like there were in Ezekiel's day and there were in every other generation. Every church needs a watchman. Every church should have someone with a gift of discernment that can realize when false teaching is coming in the door or when a risk or a danger is coming. Too many times churches are blind to doctrinal issues and other problems that arise. If you're a pastor or if you're a church leader, you should realize that you need someone in your church that has a gift of discernment, that can discern between spirits and know when false teaching is creeping in wearing sheep's clothing. It happened in the first centuries. Many of the New Testament books were written to contradict false teachers. There were false prophets in the Old Testament. There are false prophets today. We've not escaped the problem that's caused by the need for a watchman and, yes, I realize there are some watchmen that see a boogeyman behind every door. Pastors should be leaders in this and have some discernment themselves. But, my friend, if you and your church are just blindly going through the Christian life without any worry at all about deception, then you're in for a rude awakening because there are wolves in sheep's clothing and you need a watchman on the wall in your church. And if you're that watchman, you need to do your job. A lot of times, people don't want to be woken up in the middle of the night with a trumpet blowing about a warning, but the dangers are out there. They need to do your job. A lot of times people don't want to be woken up in the middle of the night with a trumpet blowing about a warning, but the dangers are out there. They need to be warned.
Speaker 1:Moving on, look at verse 10. It says this Now, as for you, son of man, say to the house of Israel Thus you have spoken saying Surely our transgressions and our sins are upon us. Spoken saying Surely our transgressions and our sins are upon us and we are rotting away in them. How then, can we survive? Say to them, as I live, declares the Lord, god, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn back, turn back from your evil ways. Why then will you die, o house of Israel? What do you think of Steve when you hear those words? What's he talking about?
Speaker 2:I hear that God is once again going to the people of Israel and telling them to turn back to him, that he has a love for them, where he wants to take care of them. But they need to turn and recognize him and drop all their other evil ways that they're doing meaning following the false idols, false gods, things like that and turn back to God and put their whole trust in God, just like they did when they were wandering the wilderness. They had to trust on God to give them food every day, water every day, and God was faithful in doing that all of those 40 years, and in fact he did it up to the day that they crossed the Jordan River, going into the promised land. So this was a time and period when they had total dependence on God. And then, once they got into the land, we start to see them break away from God. And they were doing things that were right in their own eyes.
Speaker 2:God sent judges when they became oppressed. Then the people said we want a king, and God told him, said the king's not going to satisfy you, but he allowed them to have it. So we have this narrative and here they are Jerusalem has fallen and the temple has fallen, yet God is still going to them and through Ezekiel, telling them turn back to me so that I can take care of you, so that I can take care of you. I think it shows the loving part of God, of where he wants to be merciful and gracious to us, but at the same time, we have to make that approach to him and turn back to him.
Speaker 1:The last half of verse 10,. God knows that Israel has come to realize their situation is caused by their own sin. The people of Israel have been listening to years of Ezekiel's messages of doom and gloom and now they see no hope. They're saying we're rotting away and they ask how can we survive? They've finally got the message that their sin is severe. God has finally communicated to them the seriousness of their situation. That's what the message is here. And he's responding to them in verse 11, saying I take no pleasure in this, but really want the wicked to turn from his way and live. So God's message to them when they get to their lowest point, how can we live? We're not going to survive.
Speaker 1:God gives them a message of a way out Turn back. Turn back from your evil ways. Why then will you die? He's saying, if you turn back, you won't die. That's the message. That's why this chapter is turning a corner. He's finally got his people to the point where they realize the seriousness of their sin and they're realizing everything is lost. And God says no, turn back and live. That means that he can't use these ancient Jews when they were full of sin and pride. He had to get them to the point where they were broken. He had to get them to the point where they were looking for a way out, and not just saving their own skin, but a way to get right before the Lord. Steve, will God use us when we're full of pride? Will he use people that are dealing in their own strength, or does he have to break us down before he can use us?
Speaker 2:We have various stories throughout scripture Nebuchadnezzar, pharaoh, these leaders that become prideful and God breaks them down because of their pride, because of them looking out and saying I have done all this on my own. Pride is between them and God. So, no, generally God doesn't use people that are prideful. I don't want to say he can't use them, because there are situations where he does use Nebuchadnezzar to be a judge and bring judgment on Israel, for instance, but at the same time, when Nebuchadnezzar becomes prideful, he does take and humble Nebuchadnezzar. So God will generally take the prideful person and knock them down so that they can then acknowledge who God is not acknowledge themselves, but acknowledge who God is.
Speaker 1:I think if we look at verse 11, we can learn some things about God's character. The first thing I notice about God's character is he does not take pleasure in the death of the wicked. He says that flat out. He says do not take pleasure in this. So, Steve, can we know some things about God's character from a statement like that? What kind of a God do we have that we worship? We've seen like 32 chapters now of God giving very direct, very severe punishment, and here God is saying I don't take pleasure in that, but really want you to turn back. What does that tell us about God's?
Speaker 2:character. I think that it's good that God, the Father, is noted as being a parent to us, because those of us who are parents, how many times as our children were growing up, when we needed to discipline them, did we tell them the exact same thing? I don't take any pleasure in disciplining you, of taking your car away from you, of grounding you for a week or two weeks, or taking something away from you. I don't take pleasure in doing that, but I'm doing it in order to get a point across to you. I'm doing it in order to demonstrate to you that whatever you did was not the right thing to do and that there's a better way that you can do things, and therefore I am disciplining you.
Speaker 2:So I think that it's a good thing that God is noted as being the Father, because it gives us a connection as parents to understand when he says here, I don't take any pleasure in the death of the wicked. He then follows it up. He says but rather that the wicked turn from his way and live. Same thing when we discipline our children I don't take pleasure in disciplining you, but if you'll obey me, then you will get the benefits of being an obedient child, and that's my desire is for you to be an obedient child, so that I can there bless you and we can have a good relationship with each other.
Speaker 1:In verse 11, when the people had finally gotten to their lowest point, thinking they weren't even going to survive at all. God says I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked. And then he mentions the word turn three times, but rather the wicked turn from his way and live. So he says twice turn back, turn back. That makes three times in one verse. He's saying turn, turn back from your evil ways. Steve. What's the New Testament word that we hear a lot that he's talking about here? Turn back.
Speaker 2:Well, the most common term that we hear is repent. Repent means a change of mind. When you change your mind, you are turning back. In the cases of Jesus, it was change your mind as to who you think that Jesus Christ is, that he is the Messiah, that he's not just a prophet or he's not just a good man, but he is the Son of God and the Messiah. So that's the term that we hear repent. Whenever you repent, whenever you change your mind, you naturally will turn back or turn towards God. And in order to turn back means that you're going in one direction, and then you turn back means you go back the other direction. In this case, God is clearly saying I don't take any pleasure in punishing the wicked. Why don't you turn back? You're going and moving away from me when you're wicked. Why don't you turn back and come back towards me and change your ways? Don't be wicked anymore. Turn back to me, Come to me.
Speaker 1:The message in the New Testament is to repent and turn back. The message here in the Old Testament is to turn back and repent. The same message in the Old Testament and New that God has given from the beginning, which is to turn from your evil ways, turn back to God and then you will live. That is the message. We are saved the same way in the Old Testament as the New, which is to turn back, repent and go back to the Lord. That same message is given throughout the scriptures. We are saved one way by repenting from our old ways of following our own lusts and turning back to God. Peter, in one of his first sermons, said this when he was speaking to the Jewish leaders. Quote therefore repent and return so that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of so. The message has always been repent, turn back. He gives this message over and over. God expects the same of the people in the Old Testament as well as the New.
Speaker 1:Now, before we leave this section, I want to go back to verse 10 and mention something the beginning of verse 10 says Now, as for you, son of man, say to the house of Israel Now, if you remember most of the people in the Babylonian captivity were from the southern kingdom of Judah, yet here he speaks to them as Israel. There is a teaching out there today that I hope we can bury for good that there is an ethnic difference still today between the Jewish people from the southern kingdom of Judah and the Israelites from the northern kingdom of Israel. If you remember, after Solomon the kingdom was divided between the southern kingdom and the northern kingdom. Judah is the origin of the word for Jews. So there are some that still today teach that there's some sort of an ethnic difference between Israelites and the Jews.
Speaker 1:Here God doesn't make that distinction. He includes all Jewish people as Israel. So the teaching that there's some sort of an ethnic difference and some sort of a difference in how they're treated before God is just false. God does not teach that he always viewed his people as one people, and we've seen that as we've gone through Ezekiel. This is not the first time we've seen it and it's not the last time we'll seen that as we've gone through Ezekiel. This is not the first time we've seen it and it's not the last time we'll see it as we go through this book. Let's move on, steve, if you could start at verse 12 and read through verse 20.
Speaker 2:And you, son of man, say to your fellow citizens the righteousness of a righteous man will not deliver him in the day of his transgression, and as for the wickedness of the wicked, he will not stumble because of it in the day that he turns from his wickedness, whereas a righteous man will not be able to live by his righteousness on the day when he commits sin. When I say to the righteous he will surely live, and he so trusts in his righteousness that he commits iniquity, none of his righteous deeds will be remembered, but in that same iniquity of his which he has committed, he will die. But when I say to the wicked you will surely die. And he turns from his sin and practices justice and righteousness.
Speaker 2:If a wicked man restores a pledge, pays back what he has taken by robbery, walks by the statutes which ensures life without committing iniquity, he shall surely live, he shall not die. None of his sins that he has committed will be remembered against him. He has practiced justice and righteousness. He shall surely live. Yet your fellow citizens say the way of the Lord is not right. When it is their own way, that is not right. When the righteousness turns from his righteousness and commits iniquity, then he shall die in it, but when the wicked turns from his wickedness and practices justice and righteousness. This passage talks a lot about living and dying.
Speaker 1:To properly interpret this, we have to look at the context of the book of Ezekiel. The entire first half of this book of Ezekiel, as we've seen, makes it quite clear that at least the primary context is God sending in nations in judgment. He is raising up nations, tearing down nations. He was going to send in Babylon in to tear down Jerusalem. And the primary context over and over was nations and nations living and dying because of not obeying God's laws. That's the primary context. So we can take this and take some of these principles and apply it many places, such as personal salvation, but what we can't do is go over to the New Testament and be thinking about living and dying in a personal salvation standpoint and then take it back here and interpret Ezekiel primarily through the glasses of personal salvation. The primary interpretation we should look at is in the context of living and dying of nations, as he's been talking about for many chapters now. So, steve, as we've read that, what's God's basic message in this section about living and dying?
Speaker 2:It's the same message that he talked about in the earlier chapters, where he gave a similar story of a grandfather, his son and his grandson, and at that time we talked about the living and dying that he mentioned. There was talking about the living and dying in the land, that it went back to Deuteronomy where God, through Moses, told him if you do my ordinance and statutes, then you'll live long in the land. If you don't, then you will not live long in the land. If you don't, then you will not live long in the land that you will die. So same thing here. It's the same concept and in this section starting in chapter 33 up to chapter 40, this is all a section here, as you mentioned as being a restoration section of Israel. So we can take many things out of these chapters and it's going to get more specific, as you said a while ago, as to the restoration that is going to be coming up, as to God bringing his people back. But the bottom line is that God is saying here is that he is just and he is fair and he's consistent, that if a person who has practiced wicked ways and not been a follower of God, if they turn to God and become a follower of God, it doesn't matter how long or what they have done previously that that person will then live long in the land. And at the opposite is true that if a person has lived righteously all the while, but yet at the very last that they turn away from God, then they're not going to live long in the land.
Speaker 2:The people at the very end there say God's ways isn't right, and God is very direct in saying no, my ways are right. Now, this idea of a person that lives righteously, obeys the ordinance and statutes and then turns from God and then is judged and punished on that meaning they die in the land. That's why we can't take these verses here, glenn, as to eternal salvation, because our eternal salvation is based upon belief in Jesus Christ and his debt that he has paid for us on the cross. So there's no work that we do in order to have eternal life salvation. So, keeping this in context, he's talking here about living long in the land itself and he's talking to these people here, the remnants. Talking to these people here, the remnants. His idea in this section is that his ways are fair and that they don't believe that it's fair, that they think oh, if we've practiced all these righteousness and followed you, then just because we've done a little bit of turning from you at the end, that should be overlooked.
Speaker 1:And God is saying no, that's not going to be overlooked, this passage is indeed a very important one, and the message here that he gives to these ancient Israelites is to turn from your wicked ways. God is consistent and, as you said, steve, he's fair. He wants people to turn and depend on him. He wants people to trust in his ways and follow his commands. His commands are not grievous, it's just people don't trust them. People don't trust his ways, and that's what he wants is to have a love relationship with the people so that they will trust his commands enough to walk in his paths. That's the primary message in here and it's such a wonderful message. That applied then and it applies now.
Speaker 2:It is a wonderful message and as we go through this part of Ezekiel, we're going to see the restoration that he has planned for the nation of Israel, and we'll see that again as we keep reasoning through next time. Thank you so much for watching and listening. May God bless you.
