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
S37 || Understanding God's Promises of Israel's National Restoration || Ezekiel 33:13-22 || Session 37
Have you ever wondered if God truly forgets our sins when we repent? Or questioned whether He's still working with nations as collective entities in our modern world? Ezekiel chapter 33 delivers profound answers to these timeless questions.
The backdrop is dramatic – Jerusalem has fallen to Babylon, and the Jewish exiles are questioning their very survival as a people. "Our transgressions are upon us. How then can we survive?" they ask in desperation. Into this crisis, God speaks through Ezekiel with an unexpected message of hope and restoration.
We unpack the remarkable principle found in verse 16: when someone genuinely repents, "none of his sins that he has committed will be remembered against him." This divine amnesia regarding forgiven sin applies both to individual salvation and national restoration. The passage powerfully refutes the notion that God has permanently rejected Israel, demonstrating instead His consistent pattern of honoring true repentance throughout Scripture.
The chapter also addresses skeptics who claim "God's ways are not right" – a challenge that mirrors modern atheist arguments. Yet as we explore, these critics unwittingly borrow from the very moral framework they attempt to reject. Their inconsistency highlights a profound truth: human standards of justice are flawed, while God's are perfect.
For Christians today, this passage offers practical wisdom about speaking with divine timing. Just as God controlled when Ezekiel could speak and when he must remain silent, believers should be "so attuned to the Word of God that we know when to say things and when to keep our mouths shut." The chapter marks a pivotal transition in Ezekiel's ministry from prophecies of judgment to messages of restoration.
Discover with us how God works through both individuals and nations, and why His promise to remember sins no more represents the greatest hope for humanity. Subscribe now to continue exploring the profound revelations in Ezekiel that remain astonishingly relevant to our modern questions about faith, justice, and divine purpose.
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May God Bless you!! - Glenn and Steve
One of the questions from people in all times is what do I have to do to please a holy God? And one of the questions within the Judeo-Christian tradition is what will happen to the Jewish people in their relation to God? Is there a place for them today or not? Then also personal salvation. How do we get right with God?
Speaker 1:Well, god in the book of Ezekiel is dealing primarily with nations, and he spent many chapters condemning the Jewish nation simply because they had repeatedly disobeyed his commands. And now the punishments were coming. He sent Babylon in to destroy Jerusalem. That's where we pick up in Ezekiel, chapter 33. God is now giving some words of comfort. The question that had been asked before us was in 33, verse 10, where the Jewish people were saying our transgressions are upon us. How then can we survive? They were at the point where they were thinking their nation would be completely destroyed and never exist again. So God is giving them directions here on how they can survive as individual peoples before him and as a nation going back to the land. There's some things we can apply here, both in that day and to us. So let's go ahead and dive in. Steve, can you start at verse 13 and read down to?
Speaker 2:verse 20? 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. 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 righteous 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, he will live by them. Yet you say the context of the book of Ezekiel is in ancient Israel.
Speaker 1:God was sending in Babylon in judgment, and he spends many chapters talking about raising up nations and tearing down nations, entire nations. Here, once he turns the corner and starts talking about what it would take to restore Israel to the land, that's where we are. He's giving some tips and some commands, some instructions on how the people can live rightly before him. So the passage we just read, starting in verse 13 and following, explains that if a person turns from their wickedness and does righteousness, they will live, but if they turn from their righteousness and do evil, they will die. So we know over in the New Testament that all of us have made that choice. All of us have chosen to walk away from the Lord and do evil. We've all lied, we've all stolen and therefore we are guilty before God, and that the only way is for God to provide a way, through Jesus Christ, to get back to him. If we repent and change our ways and turn to Christ, we will be saved. Here, in this context, the people were wondering will we survive as a people group? And God is giving them instructions on how these people can survive and ultimately get back to the land.
Speaker 1:So look at verse 16. He's talking about none of his sins that he committed will be remembered against him, he that practiced justice and righteousness, he shall surely live. So, Steve, is there a place where God will not remember sin? That's what it's saying here. None of his sins he's committed will be remembered against him. Is there a place where God would not remember our sins? And then, secondly, is there a place where God might not remember Israel's sins?
Speaker 2:Scripture is clear that whenever we become a believer in Jesus Christ, that our sins will not be remembered. So, yes, on an individual basis of salvation. That is true, and I think that principle is laid down as to how he deals with the nation of Israel. Now, as we've pointed out in the beginning of this session, this is talking about living and dying in the land. This chapter is a parallel to chapter 18, same principles that everyone is judged on the way that they live. And in that chapter 18, we noted that the background was Deuteronomy, that if the Children of Israel obeyed the ordinances and statutes of God, that they would live long in the land. And then, if they didn't obey the ordinances and statutes, they would not live long in the land, they would die and would not be a part of the land. That's the background for 18, and it's also the background for this part of chapter 33. Now, glenn, I think this is very important. There are people today that are Christians that have this type of theology that says that God is done with the nation of Israel because they rejected Jesus Christ. But I think we can go to this verse here in 16, and we can refute that. God is very clear. He says here that if they turn back to God, then none of his sins that he has committed will be remembered against him. He has practiced justice and righteousness. He shall surely live. Now again, this is talking about living in the land.
Speaker 2:We're told in Zechariah that the nation of Israel and the nation is made up of individual people that they're going to look at the end of the tribulation period, when Jesus returns, they're going to look upon the one whom they pierced and they're going to mourn because they're going to recognize that Jesus Christ is the Messiah, the one that they pierced.
Speaker 2:We're also told that Paul says over in Romans that all Israel will be saved. We have other prophets that talk about the restoration of Israel. This whole section here is talking about the restoration of the nation of Israel. So at that time, at the period of when Jesus Christ returns to rescue the nation of Israel, when it's being attacked by all the other nations, at the end of the tribulation period, they're going to become believers in Jesus Christ and they're going to once again live long in the land. They're going to go into a restored kingdom and they're going to be in that kingdom. We believe it's going to be a thousand years, based on Revelation, chapter 20, and they're going to live once again as a nation in the land. So I think this verse can be looked at as refuting this idea that God is done with the nation of Israel because they rejected Jesus. He's very clear in these verses that if they turn back to him, that he will remember their sins no more because they have turned back to him.
Speaker 1:If the Bible gives any message, it's a message of God's faithfulness in honoring repentance. If people truly repent not just give lip service at repenting, but truly repent then God honors that and he blesses that. That's the message in all the scriptures. What we're saying here in Ezekiel 33, the primary context is not one of personal salvation, although we can make some applications to personal salvation. The primary context is he has just spent chapter after chapter after chapter talking about people physically dying with earthly swords because of disobedience, and he talked about nations going in and conquering other nations. Large numbers of people were killed in Jerusalem because of God's judgment of sending Babylon in. So we have here their question how are we as a people going to live? They were thinking all of us are going to die here and God is saying no, I'm not going to judge you. I don't take any pleasure in judging you. I'm going to judge you because of what you do and if you repent you can live. Now we can take that application and we do over in the New Testament. If a believer today, if anybody turns and puts their faith in Jesus Christ, they will live spiritually. So we can apply this to salvation. But, steve, I think your application to the nation Israel is quite sound.
Speaker 1:Somehow people today we get so focused on how we are saved in New Testament theology that we lose sight of all of these passages over and over where God says I deal in nations also. Yes, the primary message of the Bible is personal salvation, but he deals in nations too, and if the nation repents then God will bless that. And if the nation of Israel were still to repent, he will bless that. Go and read Peter's first two sermons to the Jewish leaders in the book of Acts and you're going to see their repent and times of refreshing and renewal will come on our nation. So he's dealing with nations even then. So God's plan for the Jewish people is not over and I submit there's no more rejection in the golden calf than there is in Jesus. When they rejected Jesus, they rejected God in the golden calf. They rejected God in Ezekiel's day when they didn't heed Ezekiel Over and over again. We're hard-pressed to find a time when the Jewish people believed and obeyed it all.
Speaker 1:So we have here in this passage Ezekiel 33, 16,. If someone repents he will live, and that message can be applied to people in personal salvation and also supplied to nations. God is quite capable of doing more than one thing at a time. And no, it doesn't mean just because he has an issue with a nation that that's going to be a different way of salvation, because there is only one way of salvation. So look at verse 17. He says there that there are people that are saying the way of the Lord is not right, but in reality it is their own way. That is not right, steve. Do we have people today that are out there saying that God's ways are not right?
Speaker 2:Yeah, they are saying it all over the place, especially the atheists and the skeptics. They want to come in with a moral argument on many parts of the scriptures and say that they are basically more moral than God because of certain decisions that were or were not made, mostly in the Old Testament, related to God. And when they do that, they're borrowing off of the morality of God that they reject. So, yes, they go around saying God's ways are not the right way and our ways are the right way. If we were in charge, then we would make this type of decision. Well, they're making a supposed hypothetical decision without knowing all the facts of the situation. They think that they know the facts but they really don't. And if they actually knew the facts then maybe they might make the same decision that God has made.
Speaker 2:I'm going to go with God anytime it comes up between a decision that an atheist is going to make or God is going to make. I'm going to go on the side of God. So, yes, there's people out there today, not just with atheists and skeptics, but other parts of theology, even in the Christian community, that they get very dogmatic about some of the things they say and they say God's ways are not right here. I know the way that he thinks and the way that he wants to go.
Speaker 1:Skeptics are big today and I presume it was back in Ezekiel's day as well, because it's mentioned here. But skeptics in our day are very good at picking isolated chapters out and saying well, see, god's doing something here. That's not right. I heard an atheist just a few days ago that was saying because God commanded Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, then he would not care to worship the Lord. Then he would not care to worship the Lord. Puny.
Speaker 1:Mankind questions the infinite creator, the creator of the universe, about what is moral and what isn't. And I found, like in the case of Abraham and Isaac, these skeptics. They don't question when God gives a wonderful gift to a 90-year-old woman and a 100-year-old man that I'm going to give you a child, they don't question that. But when God uses that child to test Abraham's faith, then suddenly they have a problem. So we have, as you said, a double standard, steve. They're borrowing from God's morality to judge God, in which case they're just showing, as God says in this passage, it's really their morals that are not right. If we really look at the scriptures, instead of picking and choosing passages, we're going to see that God's ways are best.
Speaker 1:Ezekiel 33, 17,. People say it's the Lord. That's not right, when in reality, it's the people that are not right, when in reality, it's the people that are not right and the Lord is good. The next verse verse 18, says that if a righteous person turns and goes into sin, he will die. So, steve, if we apply this, at least to a question that we would have in the Christian life today, what would happen to the Christian, somebody that has truly repented and put their faith in Jesus Christ, but they fall into severe and continual sin? Will God judge that?
Speaker 2:God will judge that. And just to make a clarification, we've moved into the realm of eternal salvation of this discussion that we're having now. Eternal salvation of this discussion that we're having now that, yeah, god's going to judge that. But we are told very clearly in Scripture that when you believe in Jesus Christ, that you become someone who is in Christ, and the book of Colossians is very clear of the things that we get once we're in Christ. We've been transferred from darkness into light. The book of Colossians is a great, great book to understand the characteristics and attributes that we have in Jesus Christ. We encourage our audience to go and listen to our study in the book of Colossians. It's such a great book, so we hold to that.
Speaker 2:Whenever somebody makes that commitment to Jesus Christ and believe that they are saved and they have eternal salvation, because their salvation is not based off of anything they have done. Their salvation is based off of what Jesus Christ has done. So therefore, their salvation cannot be undone based off of anything that they do, because it's all based off of what Jesus Christ has done. But will they be judged if they are a true believer but yet they decide in latter years to live in sin? Then, yes, there's going to be a judgment on them as to the rewards that they're going to miss. Their salvation of eternal life is safe, but yet their rewards are in jeopardy, the ones that they would have gotten If a believer does decide to wander away from God. I think the Holy Spirit is going to be convicting them to get back to God, but if they're going to be stubborn and obstinate about it and they live their latter lives away from God, their eternal salvation is secured, but yet their rewards are going to be diminished somewhat, and through that, the judgment is made by God.
Speaker 1:If we ask the question what happens to the Christian, the true Christian, that falls into continual sin? I think we can build a very strong case that we're not going to lose our salvation. But we are told to constantly examine ourselves First. Corinthians 11, 31 says specifically that we should judge ourselves so that God doesn't have to. We should examine our lives and get rid of the sin so that God doesn't have to. We should examine our lives and get rid of the sin so that God doesn't have to sift us and judge us. God may judge a person on the earth and I believe he will. I believe he'll even take their life at times, but this doesn't mean they've lost their salvation. There are people that have sinned so severely that God takes them home, but that doesn't mean they've necessarily lost their salvation. There is a price to pay for our sin.
Speaker 1:Now, verse 20, I'll read this again. Yet you say the way of the Lord is not right. So those skeptics are still there. O house of Israel, I will judge each of you according to his ways. I submit that we really don't want to be judged according to our ways, simply because our ways are too inconsistent. We're too unfair with ourselves, we are hypocritical and we don't have a true moral compass. So, steve, I don't want God to judge me according to my ways. I want him to judge according to Jesus Christ and my faith in him. If I appear before his judgment seat and all of us will someday then I don't want him judging me according to my ways. I want to be able to claim Jesus' righteousness.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. I agree with that and I am so glad that that's what scripture says. God looks at the righteousness of Jesus Christ. He doesn't look at our supposed righteousness or the things that we do because we can't live up to the expectation or righteousness of what God's expectations are. So it's such a great plan that God has and a way of providing salvation in that we have the covering of the righteousness of Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1:The next section starts in 33,. Verse 21, says this Now, in the 12th year of our exile, on the 5th of the 10th month, the refugees from Jerusalem came to me saying the city has been taken away. So the first thing we notice in this verse is that, again, ezekiel is meticulous about accurately documenting the very day that he received each prophecy. In this one, this was the very day that they got the message that Jerusalem had fallen. If you remember, god had given Ezekiel the message that it had fallen previously, but now someone had to walk, after the battle, all the way to Babylon, which took many days. They've gotten there and they got the message that Jerusalem had fallen. So at this point, ezekiel is documenting the year, the month and the day that this person came in and gave this message. Documenting the year, the month and the day that this person came in and gave this message. And this is also the day when Ezekiel's prophecy was proven true. Again, if you were one of the Jewish people, in that day you had true prophets and false prophets. How do you know which one's true and which one's false when they're saying conflicting things? Well, here's how you knew is Ezekiel prophesied that Jerusalem would fall, and he prophesied the exact day it was going to fall and the day that the siege began. Now we have many days later. They get the news and Ezekiel was proven true to the people around them. They knew that Ezekiel was a true prophet. Therefore, the things that he was going to say about the future could also be trustworthy.
Speaker 1:Back in chapter 24, god had given Ezekiel a message about the destruction of Jerusalem, comparing it to a boiling pot, and Ezekiel's wife died that very same day. So then, starting in chapter 25 and going to 32, god's message about the surrounding nations. He told Ezekiel the very day that the siege started. When Jerusalem fell, ezekiel's wife died and God said to not mourn, to stop giving prophecies about Jerusalem. So here, when the message finally comes in about the fall of Jerusalem, god loosens his tongue again and gives a message. Steve, can you read verse 22,? And we'll find out about that.
Speaker 2:Now. The hand of the Lord had been upon me in the evening before the refugees came, and he opened my mouth at the time. They came to me in the morning, so my mouth was open and I was no longer speechless.
Speaker 1:So, steve, really basic concept. When does Ezekiel speak? And I'm not talking about the day. When does he speak? Well, he speaks when God tells him to.
Speaker 2:Yeah, god told him at the death of his wife that he was going to be mute, and he made him mute. And here he is opening his mouth once again.
Speaker 1:At least twice now in the book, god told Ezekiel to be silent, back in chapter 3 and again in chapter 24. Well, now he speaks because God allows him. What can the Christian today learn about how God was controlling when Ezekiel would speak and when he wouldn't? How can we apply that to our lives today? Well, the first thing I think of is we need to be so attuned to the Word of God that we know when to say things and when to keep my mouth shut, because oftentimes I want to say things when I shouldn't and not say things when I should. So, if I'm guided by the Word of God and the Holy Spirit, I should know when to speak.
Speaker 2:Should I not, as we've mentioned throughout all of our studies, that the Word of God is something that we should base our life off of? It's also the thing that we should bounce other doctrines and teachings from other Christians or teachers, pastors, against, and in that, yes, we find out how to control our tongue. A great book on that is the book of James. We've done a study on that and we encourage our audience to go through that study with us on James, great book of practical teaching on the damages and danger that a loose tongue could do and how to control it and what type of relationships that we should have and can have with our fellow Christians.
Speaker 1:Oh, such great lessons back here in Ezekiel. We'll stop here, but be with us next time. We're going to find out more about the land Now that the Jewish people in Babylon had heard the news about Jerusalem and Ezekiel's prophecies were proven true then. Now God allows him to speak about the land and he's going to give some encouraging messages about the land and how they could inherit it. Again, From here, really towards the end of the book, God's going to be increasing his detail about the restoration of the nation Israel. So please be with us for that wonderful message that we'll be reasoning through next time.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much for watching and listening. May God bless you.
