Fri, 30 September, 2005: Today’s Bible readings.

Ezekiel 33:7-11

⁷ “So you, son of man, I have made a watchman for the house of Israel. Whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you shall give them warning from me. ⁸ If I say to the wicked, O wicked one, you shall surely die, and you do not speak to warn the wicked to turn from his way, that wicked person shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand. ⁹ But if you warn the wicked to turn from his way, and he does not turn from his way, that person shall die in his iniquity, but you will have delivered your soul.

¹⁰ “And you, son of man, say to the house of Israel, Thus have you said: ‘Surely our transgressions and our sins are upon us, and we rot away because of them. How then can we live?’ ¹¹ Say to them, As I live, declares the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways, for why will you die, O house of Israel?

Today’s passage from Ezekiel is very familiar, at least to those of us who grew up having missionary conferences every year. This passage of the watchman was always a favorite for those meetings as it encourages us to think about our own personal responsibility for bringing the gospel to those around us. It is a sobering passage when we think of how we have failed so many times to tell people the gospel message.

In the passage is an interesting statement where God has Ezekiel tell Israel that I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. This statement is one of the proof texts used by those who believe that people are sovereign in salvation and not God. “Look,” they will say, “if God is sovereign in salvation, and He has no pleasure in the death of the wicked, then He will save all the wicked. None will perish. Since God doesn’t desire the wicked to perish in their sin, but experientially we see that most of the wicked do perish in their sins, therefore God must not be sovereign in salvation. God wants them to be saved, but He either can not or He chooses to not force them. People make their own choices, and often those choices are contrary to what God desires. Therefore people are sovereign in salvation.”

The short answer is that they are reading something into the passage to interpret it that way. Clearly, the point of the passage is that God calls for all to repent of their sins, and He does not get any evil pleasure from damning people who do not repent. The point is not to tell us how much God is involved in changing the hearts of people to enable them to come to saving faith. The point God is making through the prophet is that people are responsible before God to repent of their sins and turn to Him in faith, and that God uses people to bring that message to the lost around them.

Scripture is clear that people can only come to God in saving faith if He enables them to do so. And God for His own reasons does not chose to cause all to have saving faith. He is sovereign in salvation.

What do we learn from this?

We are commanded to tell people about the holiness of God, the punishment due upon sin, and what God has done in Jesus Christ to save His people from their sins. We are to warn people of the coming wrath for their sins, and call them to repentance and faith. God has given us both the privilege and the responsibility of bringing the gospel to the people around us.

People will not all listen to this warning, but they will bear the responsibility for not listening. And as we neglect to warn those around us, we are responsible before God.

God is sovereign and will bring His people to salvation. But He has chosen to use people as the instrument of sharing the gospel. We are to take the gospel to the people around us. As we neglect to do that, we are unfaithful watchmen, failing to carry out our duty before God to the people around us. We are to point the people around us to Jesus Christ the Savior.

Where is Christ in this passage?

We warn people to turn from their sins and to turn to the substitute God has provided for their salvation. As watchmen we are to point people to Christ the Savour.