“Why Will Ye Die?”
Ezekiel 33:10,11

January 9, 2005
by C.W. Powell

1 Again the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
2 Son of man, speak to the children of thy people, and say unto them, When I bring the sword upon a land, if the people of the land take a man of their coasts, and set him for their watchman:
3 If when he seeth the sword come upon the land, he blow the trumpet, and warn the people;
4 Then whosoever heareth the sound of the trumpet, and taketh not warning; if the sword come, and take him away, his blood shall be upon his own head.
5 He heard the sound of the trumpet, and took not warning; his blood shall be upon him. But he that taketh warning shall deliver his soul.
6 But if the watchman see the sword come, and blow not the trumpet, and the people be not warned; if the sword come, and take any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at the watchman’s hand.
7 So thou, O son of man, I have set thee a watchman unto the house of Israel; therefore thou shalt hear the word at my mouth, and warn them from me.
8 When I say unto the wicked, O wicked man, thou shalt surely die; if thou dost not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand.
9 Nevertheless, if thou warn the wicked of his way to turn from it; if he do not turn from his way, he shall die in his iniquity; but thou hast delivered thy soul.
10 Therefore, O thou son of man, speak unto the house of Israel; Thus ye speak, saying, If our transgressions and our sins be upon us, and we pine away in them, how should we then live?

11 Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel?” (Eze 33:1-11 AV)

My Text today is the passage, verses10, 11.

There are three things that came to my attention in this passage, when I was preparing this sermon. First, the responsibility of those who are called to the ministry of the Gospel; the revelation of the character of God, and the personal responsibility of those who hear the Word of God. There are several things I would say about these things.

I. The Responsibility of the prophetic ministry.

A. Ezekiel was a prophet during the last days of the nation of Judah. He was carried captive by the Babylonians when Nebuchadnezzer captured Jerusalem and spent the rest of his life in exile from Canaan. In the first two parts of his book, he announces judgment upon Jerusalem that was fulfilled as he predicted and he also announced judgments upon other nations. After learning of the destruction of Jerusalem, he wrote chapters 33 – 48, announcing the rebuilding of Jerusalem and the temple, but he sees much farther, to the coming of Messiah and the establishment of the true and pure worship of the Lord.

B. Under the figure of a watchman, the Lord impresses upon the prophet the seriousness of his mission: he is to be a watchman to the people of God, to warn them of dangers.

C. Ministers in the New Testament are different from those in the O.T., for they do not receive direct revelation because the Scripture is finished. Their job is to understand the Scriptures and speak them plainly to the people of God.

D. A watchman should be able to see. You would not set a blind man to watch the horizon to see if an enemy army is coming. Of course, we have much more sophisticated communications nowadays, but we still would expect the watchman to watch the radar screens and listen to warning signals, and we would hold them responsible for failing to warn the people. This principle is so firmly ingrained into the very nature of man that we are seeking ways of early warning systems, not only for military dangers to our people, but also for tsunamis and terrorist attacks.

E. His blood is upon his own head. This is a figure from the sacrifices, in which the priest would place his hands upon the head of the animal and, in a figure, transfer the guilt of sin to the animal, which would then be sacrificed. Guilt would be passed to the animal and the animal punished in place of the sinner. This speaks of Christ, of course, for the blood of bulls and goats can never take away sin. But the Lord is telling Ezekiel that He will hold Ezekiel responsible if he does not warn the people of the dangers of not hearing and obeying the word of the Lord. But if Ezekiel does warn the people, then Ezekiel will have fulfilled his responsibility. The prophet is not responsible for whether or not the people hear and obey, but he is responsible for crying the warnings.

F. It is a very serious thing for those who have responsibility--fathers, elders, ministers—to neglect this responsibility with respect to those under their charge. After 9-11 the charge was made the President Bush knew in advance about the terrorist attack; something of the same sort was charged against President Roosevelt—that he knew in advance about the attack on Pearl Harbor. Radical Democrats made the charge against Bush; Radical Republicans made the charge against Roosevelt. The charges had no legs in either case, but it shows that man recognizes the responsibility that those in authority have.

II. Something of the character of God in verses 10 and 11.

A. God sets Himself in contrast to Israel and the whining they did about their troubles. They had not yet come to repentance and instead they complained against God. These complaints were twofold:

1. They said that God was not fair. In a parallel passage in chapter 20, they complained that they were being punished for the sins of their fathers. They ignored their own sinful condition and raged against God. Sinful man does this: he takes statements in God’s word out of context and charges God with folly and injustice. He does this with the doctrine of predestination and other doctrines. But Ezekiel firmly holds their feet to the fire, saying that there is no doctrine of Scripture which releases man from responsibility for his own sins.

2. They said that there was nothing they could do about their sins. Ezekiel had said that they would pine away in their sins, and now they say that there was nothing they could do because God had put salvation beyond their reach. This is always the tack of the natural man: he would blame God in some way for his troubles. Cain did that, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” No, Cain, the requirement to love your brother as your self does not mean that you become his guardian and caretaker, for that is an insult to him and to God. But it does mean that you have no right to murder him.

3. The option of repentance and submission to God is always open. “God has no pleasure in the death of the wicked.” It is possible to make too much or two little of this passage.

a) To make too much, as if predestination that is spoken of so many places in the Bible is not true, for see, God has no pleasure in the death of the wicked. How could he pass over some and elect others to eternal life.

b) To make too little, as if this passage were not in the Bible and God is equally pleased with both the salvation of the elect and the damnation of the reprobate. Afterall, they both bring glory to God and how God is glorified is a matter of indifference to Him.

4. In fact, the damnation of the lost and the salvation of the elect are not the same to God.

a) This word translated “pleasure” does at times mean simple satisfaction and is so used in this sense a number of times in Scripture.
b) But other times this word is used in the sense that this is better than that. I please to do this because it is better than that in my eyes: Consider these passages:

(1) 1Sa 15:22 And Samuel said, Hath the LORD [as great] delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey [is] better than sacrifice, [and] to hearken than the fat of rams.

(2) “As he loved cursing, so let it come unto him: as he delighted not in blessing, so let it be far from him.” (Ps 109:17 AV

) (3) “To what purpose [is] the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the LORD: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats.” (Isa 1:11 AV)

(4) “Behold, I will stir up the Medes against them, which shall not regard silver; and [as for] gold, they shall not delight in it.” (Isa 13:17 AV)

(5) “But our God [is] in the heavens: he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased” (Ps 115:3 AV).

(6) “So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper [in the thing] whereto I sent it.” (Isa 55:11 AV) “Lazarus, come forth.”

(7) “For [as] a young man marrieth a virgin, [so] shall thy sons marry thee: and [as] the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride, [so] shall thy God rejoice over thee.” (Isa 62:5 AV)

(8) “Therefore will I number you to the sword, and ye shall all bow down to the slaughter: because when I called, ye did not answer; when I spake, ye did not hear; but did evil before mine eyes, and did choose [that] wherein I delighted not.” (Isa 65:12 AV)

(9) “Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die? saith the Lord GOD: [and] not that he should return from his ways, and live?” (Eze 18:23 AV)

(10) “For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.” (Ho 6:6 AV)

c) The sum is this: God knows the difference between what is better and what is worse. His pleasure is in the better. It is better for you to repent and turn from your sins, and this is His pleasure. He will bring judgment upon those who do not repent, for this is better than abandoning His kingdom to sin and iniquity, but His good pleasure is that men repent, trust in Him, and live out their lives in blessing and joy and depart into an eternity of joy and bliss. He does not refuse the other, but His pleasure is this.

III. Finally: What is the personal responsibility of those who hear? To believe and obey.

A. Man will not escape by convoluted and philosophical arguments. “Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.” (Ro 3:19 AV)

B. Every way that you turn will be stopped to you until you confess and turn to God in truth and sincerity.

C. Listen to the words of Scripture:

1. “The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have [it] more abundantly.” (Joh 10:10 AV)

2. “For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. 4 For Christ [is] the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth. 5 For Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the law, That the man which doeth those things shall live by them. 6 But the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise, Say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring Christ down [from above]:) 7 Or, Who shall descend into the deep? (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead.) 8 But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, [even] in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach; 9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.” (Ro 10:3-9 AV)

D. Why will ye die? If you die in your sins, you cannot go where Christ is, but you will know the horrors of the second death, the judgment of God forever. But if you die it will be on your own head, for God has abundantly satisfied for sins and your misery will be your own: not God's, not the devil's, not your relatives', not your nation's nor your church's. You have heard the word of God. Now you must heed and trust Christ. You have heard the word of God with more clarity and precision than the men of Ezekiel’s day, for Christ has come and shown us all things about heaven and hell and life and death. He was a faithful watchmen and showed us the wrath to come and called us to Himself as the only remedy for our sins. You must now trust Him for all things.

May God bless you. Amen.