EZEKIEL CHAPTER S 33-39 The section begins with a reminder to Ezekiel that he is God's appointed watchman for the house of Israel. Then the news comes through of the destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, and Ezekiel is now released from his enforced dumbness and is free to speak again openly,... [ Continue Reading ]
‘And the word of Yahweh came to me saying, “Son of man, speak to the children of your people and say to them, When I bring the sword on a land, if the people of the land take a man from among them and set him for their watchman, if when he sees the sword come on the land he blows the horn and warns... [ Continue Reading ]
“So you, son of man, I have appointed you as a watchman to the house of Israel. Therefore hear the word from my mouth and give them warning 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 will die in his in... [ Continue Reading ]
“Nevertheless if you warn the wicked of his way, to turn from it, and he does not turn from his way, he will die in his iniquity, but you will have delivered your life.” But many individuals who are warned will not listen. They will refuse to change their ways. They will therefore die in their sin.... [ Continue Reading ]
“And you son of man, say to the house of Israel, Thus you speak, saying, ‘Our transgressions and our sins are on us, and we pine away in them. How then should we live?” God puts a question in the mouths of Israel, a question which suggests a certain level of conviction of sin. It suggests that they... [ Continue Reading ]
“Say to them, As I live, says the Lord Yahweh, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn yourselves, turn yourselves, from your evil ways. For why will you die, O house of Israel.” These words should be written in large letters. God has ‘no... [ Continue Reading ]
“And you, son of man, say to the children of your people, ‘The righteousness of the righteous will not deliver him in the day of his transgression, and as for the wickedness of the wicked, he will not fall by it in the day that he turns from his wickedness. Nor will he who is righteous be able to li... [ Continue Reading ]
“When I say to the righteous that he will surely live, if he trusts to his righteousness and commits iniquity, none of his righteous deeds will be remembered. But in his iniquity which he has committed, in that will he surely die.” The warning here is against one who has lived rightly and therefore... [ Continue Reading ]
“Again, when I say to the wicked, ‘You will surely die.' If he turns from his sin, and does what is lawful and right. If the wicked restore the pledge, give again what he has taken by robbery, walk in the statutes of life, committing no iniquity, he will surely live, he will not die. None of his sin... [ Continue Reading ]
“But as for them their way is not equal (fairly weighed). When the righteous turns from his righteousness and commits iniquity, he will even die in it. And when the wicked turns from his wickedness and does what is lawful and right, he will by that live. Yet you say ‘the way of the Lord is not equal... [ Continue Reading ]
‘Yet the children of your people say, ‘The way of the Lord is not equal (fairly weighed).' This sums up man's attitude. They cannot bear that a sinner can suddenly become acceptable to God. They cannot bear that one who has struggled to be righteous, building up merit, can ‘lose' the benefit of it.... [ Continue Reading ]
‘Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh to them, “Behold I, even I, will judge between the fat cattle and the lean cattle, because you thrust with side and with shoulder, and push all the diseased with your horns, until you have scattered them abroad.” The leaders and the wealthy were like the fat cat... [ Continue Reading ]
JERUSALEM HAS BEEN DESTROYED (EZEKIEL 33:21). ‘And so it was that in the twelfth year of our captivity, in the tenth month, on the fifth day of the month one who had escaped from Jerusalem came to me saying, “Jerusalem is smitten”. If we accept this dating, and accept it as being calculated on the... [ Continue Reading ]
‘Now the hand of Yahweh had been on me in the evening before he who had escaped came, and he had opened my mouth by the time he came to me in the morning, and my mouth was opened and I was no more dumb.' The arrival of the man had, for Ezekiel, been preceded by something equally remarkable. In an e... [ Continue Reading ]
‘And the word of Yahweh came to me saying, “Son of man, those who inhabit those waste places in the land of Israel speak, saying, ‘Abraham was one, and he inherited the land. But we are many. The land is given to us for an inheritance.' ” ' Those who now remained in the land, ‘the poorest of the la... [ Continue Reading ]
“Wherefore say to them, Thus says the Lord Yahweh, ‘You eat with the blood and lift up your eyes to idols, and shed blood. And shall you possess the land? You stand on your sword, you work abomination, and you each defile his neighbour's wife, and shall you possess the land?” But they were not faith... [ Continue Reading ]
“Thus shall you say to them, Thus says the Lord Yahweh, Surely those who are in the waste places will fall by the sword, and he who is in the open field will I give to the beasts to be devoured, and those who are in the strongholds and in the caves will die of pestilence, and I will make the land a... [ Continue Reading ]
“Then will they know that I am Yahweh, when I have made the land a desolation and an astonishment, because of all their abominations which they have committed.” The people who remained continued in the abominations described above. So instead of returning to Yahweh and listening to Jeremiah, assass... [ Continue Reading ]
“And as for you, son of man, the children of your people speak of you by the walls, and in the doors of the houses, and speak to each other, every one to his brother, saying, ‘Come I pray you and hear what word there is that comes from Yahweh'. And they come to you, as the people come, and they sit... [ Continue Reading ]
“And when this happens, behold it comes, then will they know that a prophet has been among them.” ‘This' is the further desolation of the land after the fall of Jerusalem as described above. That will further evidence to them that a true prophet of Yahweh has been among them. But the question will... [ Continue Reading ]