Friday, July 26, 2024

Ezekiel 33: "you will have saved your own life"

I believe that Jesus saved my life and I have no merit on it, but in Ezekiel 33 we read a call to hear the watchman and repent, and have a change of life. The one who listens and have a change of life is the one who lives.
We read:

7-9 “You, son of man, are the watchman. I’ve made you a watchman for Israel. The minute you hear a message from me, warn them. If I say to the wicked, ‘Wicked man, wicked woman, you’re on the fast track to death!’ and you don’t speak up and warn the wicked to change their ways, the wicked will die unwarned in their sins and I’ll hold you responsible for their bloodshed. But if you warn the wicked to change their ways and they don’t do it, they’ll die in their sins well-warned and at least you will have saved your own life.

There are people feels heavy for their sins:

10 “Son of man, speak to Israel. Tell them, ‘You’ve said, “Our rebellions and sins are weighing us down. We’re wasting away. How can we go on living?”’

11 “Tell them, ‘As sure as I am the living God, I take no pleasure from the death of the wicked. I want the wicked to change their ways and live. Turn your life around! Reverse your evil ways! Why die, Israel?’

The Lord has no pleasure in the death of the wicked, although it may seem so, given that Jerusalem is being destroyed. The Lord is calling to repentance, to a turning life but death is in front of Israel.

12-13 “There’s more, son of man. Tell your people, ‘A good person’s good life won’t save him when he decides to rebel, and a bad person’s bad life won’t prevent him from repenting of his rebellion. A good person who sins can’t expect to live when he chooses to sin. It’s true that I tell good people, “Live! Be alive!” But if they trust in their good deeds and turn to evil, that good life won’t amount to a hill of beans. They’ll die for their evil life.

The Egyptians thought that our good and bad deeds in a lifetime are weigh on a balance, but it is not how the Lord judges. It is very important how a person dies. A good person may turn to evil because he trusts in their good deeds and believe that he is saved. He is not, he can´t trust in his good deeds and turn to evil.

we read:

21 In the twelfth year of our exile, on the fifth day of the tenth month, a survivor from Jerusalem came to me and said, “The city’s fallen.”

22 The evening before the survivor arrived, the hand of God had been on me and restored my speech. By the time he arrived in the morning I was able to speak. I could talk again.

Ezekiel had stopped speaking in Ezekiel 24; the Lord would make him speak again when Jerusalem fell as a signal to the Jews in Babylon. As the prophecy fulfilled, then the Lord restored Ezekiel's speech.

The Lord says to Ezekiel:

30-32 “As for you, son of man, you’ve become quite the talk of the town. Your people meet on street corners and in front of their houses and say, ‘Let’s go hear the latest news from God.’ They show up, as people tend to do, and sit in your company. They listen to you speak, but don’t do a thing you say. They flatter you with compliments, but all they care about is making money and getting ahead. To them you’re merely entertainment—a country singer of sad love songs, playing a guitar. They love to hear you talk, but nothing comes of it.

33 “But when all this happens—and it is going to happen!—they’ll realize that a prophet was among them.”

It is very similar to people going to a church searching for diversion, instead of listen to the Lord and repent.

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