NOTES for Eze 33:1-33
Once again the prophet turns to the destiny of the chosen people and, beginning with chapter 33, delivers a series of exceptionally important prophecies. The first prophecy in this part of the book, like those set out earlier, speaks of God’s will and providence and of human responsibility. In addition, the crucial theme of faith and trust in God emerges in the prophet’s words. Yet beyond the content of the Revelation, we also hear in his words an echo of the events and spiritual atmosphere of those days.
As far as we can judge from what God tells Ezekiel, his prophecy had become a rather chilling amusement for his fellow countrymen. They find a strange pleasure in the prophet’s words, full of bitterness, and come to hear Ezekiel for that pleasure. Yet his listeners do not wish to receive his words as the Word of God addressed to them personally. The prophet’s preaching has become for them what concerts of sacred music sometimes are for our contemporaries, when we delight our ears while brushing aside the content.
We can imagine how bitter such an attitude was for the prophet and how offensive it is to almighty God. For Ezekiel, as for anyone, this is a serious spiritual trial whose full weight can be appreciated only by experiencing it. No amount of human strength can suffice to endure it, and at the beginning of the chapter the prophet speaks of how God strengthens him. Ezekiel’s situation and spiritual tasks differ from those of his predecessors and contemporaries. The Lord does not command him, as he does Jeremiah, “to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant.” Ezekiel must only say what God tells him, “whether they listen or not.” And again the Lord repeats what Ezekiel already recorded in chapter 2: “But let them know that a prophet has been among them.”
If the prophet remains silent, whether out of fear or a sense that his efforts are futile, he will bear responsibility for people’s destruction. But if the prophet speaks what God has commanded him, the Lord tells him, each person is responsible for how he responds to the prophet’s words. Everyone is free to hear them or not, to believe or not. What, then, is the essence of this Revelation?
In terms of content, verses 10–20 form the central part of the chapter. At this time a pessimistic view of their fate had spread among the exiled Israelites. We have sinned, they said, and there is no salvation for us. “Well, so be it,” this attitude implies, “now it makes no difference... we shall be like all the nations...” The Israelites think that God wanted righteousness from them and, having failed to obtain it, will abandon them to their fate. Behind this indifference and pessimism lies disbelief in God’s goodness, disbelief that God desires salvation. This is what the great words of verse 11 counter, as God reveals his will for us: “I do not desire the death of the sinner, but that the sinner should turn from his way and live.” God wants neither retribution nor even righteousness according to the law; he wants the human heart to be turned towards him and the human being to live. This immense Revelation is the foundation of all our hope.
The Lord then says that every person has a chance. The Jews think that past righteousness can atone for wrongdoing. No, says the Lord, it cannot. Yet the Jews do not believe that a wrongdoer who turns back can find favour in God’s eyes. The Lord says that if the wrongdoer turns back, he will be saved. Thus the heart’s direction is precisely what matters. God’s justice is not what people expect, but it is precisely this good will of the Creator that is justice. The Lord calls the prophet’s listeners to believe and turn back. “Why should you die?” he says. The meaning of these words almost coincides with Christ’s final appeal to Jerusalem: “Oh, if only you too had known, even on this your day, what makes for your peace!” The repentance to which God calls his people therefore consists not simply in acknowledging their sins—that is remorse, not repentance. True repentance consists in actively trusting that God desires our salvation.