Ezekiel 33:21 - Meaning and Application

Here we have the news brought to Ezekiel of Jerusalem being burned by the Chaldeans, that is, the Babylonians. The city was burned in the eleventh year of the exile and the fifth month (Jeremiah 52:12-13). The report came to the prophet in the twelfth year and the tenth month (Ezekiel 33:21), which was about a year and almost five months later. He may well have heard the news earlier through regular contact between Jerusalem and Babylon, but this was the first report he received from a refugee, someone who had escaped and could tell the story in full and with great feeling.

This also fulfilled the sign God had already given him, that an escapee would come and make him hear it with his own ears (Ezekiel 24:26). He would hear it more clearly than ever from a man who could say, in effect, "I myself saw these sad things." The reality of the ruin, told by an eyewitness, would make the judgment even more serious.

We also see the special help of God resting on Ezekiel to prepare him for that heavy news (Ezekiel 33:22). The hand of the Lord had been on him before the messenger arrived, and God had opened his mouth to speak to the house of Israel what was said earlier in this chapter. Now he was no longer silent. The event itself proved him to be a true prophet and put to shame those who had opposed him.

The prophecies from chapter 24 to this chapter seem to have been mainly about the nations around Israel. It is likely that Ezekiel did not speak them aloud at the time, but wrote them down and sent them as letters to the people concerned. He could not stand before the Ammonites, Tyre, or Egypt and speak to them directly, so he worked through written messages, as Zechariah did when he could not speak. In that way, he was still carrying out his prophetic work fully. Even ministers who are silenced can still do much good by writing letters and making visits.

Now the prophet’s mouth is opened so he can speak to the children of his own people. He may well have been speaking to them all along as a friend, reminding them of what he had already taught. But he had not spoken to them as a prophet, by fresh inspiration, until now. The hand of the Lord came on him again, renewed his calling, gave him new words, and enabled him to speak as he should.

The message he is given now concerns the Jews who were still left in the land of Israel and lived among its ruins, because sin had made the land a waste (Ezekiel 33:24). The cities of Israel had become ruins of Israel. A few who had escaped the sword and exile were still there and were beginning to think about settling down again. This was long after Jerusalem had been destroyed. By then Gedaliah, a modest and humble man, and his companions had been killed, and Johanan and the proud men with him were likely at the height of their influence (Jeremiah 43:2). Before they decided to go to Egypt, Ezekiel seems to be opposing an earlier plan to establish themselves in the ruined land of Israel, and he likely sent the warning by the same person who brought him the news of Jerusalem’s fall.

It may also have been aimed at some other group of Jews who remained in the land, hoping to take root there and become the only masters of it after Johanan and his forces left for Egypt. In any case, the first thing we see is the pride of these remaining Jews. They lived among the ruins of the land of Israel, and although God’s dealings with them had been deeply humbling, and still threatened them, they were stubbornly proud and felt safe. The messenger who brought Ezekiel the news could not likely tell him what they were saying, but God did tell him: "The land has been given to us for an inheritance" (Ezekiel 33:24).

In other words, they thought, "Our partners are gone, so the land is now all ours by right of survival, or because there are no heirs. We will now stand alone in the middle of the earth and have everything to ourselves." This shows how blind they were under God’s heavy hand, and how selfish and narrow-minded they had become. They were pleased with their country’s ruin as long as they could still gain something from it. They did not care if everything else was waste, so long as they could keep the property. It was a poor inheritance to boast about.

They even compared themselves with Abraham and took pride in saying, "We have Abraham for our father." "Abraham," they said, "was only one man, one family, and he inherited the land and lived in peace in it for many years. But we are many, many families, more numerous than he. Surely the land has been given to us for an inheritance." By this they meant two things. First, they thought they could claim just as strong a right from God to the land as Abraham had. If God gave the land to Abraham, who was only one worshiper of him, as a reward for service, they imagined he would much more surely give it to them, since they were many worshipers. This shows how highly they thought of their own merit, as if they were greater than Abraham, their father, who was not made right with God by works.

Second, they thought they could hold the land against the Chaldeans and all other enemies just as well as Abraham had held it against those who disputed it with him. If Abraham, who was one man, could keep it, then surely they, who were many and had far more men under them than Abraham’s 300 trained servants, could keep it too. This shows their confidence in their own strength. They had taken possession, and they were determined to keep it. God’s providences had not humbled them or frightened them, so he sends them a message that should do both. He will first humble them by exposing the wickedness they still continued in, which made them completely unfit to possess the land.

Idolatry, that covenant-breaking sin, the sin that especially provoked the jealous God to lay your country waste, is still the sin that most easily traps you. You lift up your eyes toward your idols, which shows that, even if you no longer bow to them as much as before, you still set your hearts on them and long for them.

You are just as fierce, cruel, and barbaric as ever, shedding innocent blood. You also trust in your own strength, your own arm, and your own bow, with no real dependence on God or his rule over events. You stand on your sword (Ezekiel 33:26), meaning you think you can win everything by force of arms.

How can people like that expect the inheritance of Isaac, when they have the spirit of Ishmael, who had his hand against every man (Genesis 16:12), and the resolve of Esau, who meant to live by his sword (Genesis 27:40)? We read of some who, when they died, thought they could not rest in the grave unless they had their swords under their heads (Genesis 32:27). Here we find people who, while they live, think they cannot stand securely unless they have their swords under their feet, as if swords were both the softest pillows and the strongest supports. Yet it was sin, sin itself, that first drew the sword. Blessed be God, some know better. They stand on the support of God’s power and promise, and lay their heads in the comfort of his love, not trusting in their own sword (Psalm 44:3).

You are also guilty of every kind of evil, and especially of this: each man defiles his neighbor’s wife, which is one of the worst sins. Then should you possess the land? What vile people you are. Those who live in rebellion against the Lord cannot expect to keep the land, or enjoy any true peace or happiness, here or in the life to come.

To frighten them, he tells them of the further judgments God has stored up for them, judgments that will make it impossible for them to keep this land or stand against their enemies. Do they say they will possess the land? God has said they will not, and he has sworn it: As I live, says the Lord. Though he has sworn that he takes no pleasure in the death of sinners, he has also sworn that those who keep refusing to repent and believe will not enter his rest.

Those who are in the cities, here called the ruins, will fall by the sword, either by the sword of the Chaldeans, who come to punish the murder of Gedaliah, or by each other’s swords in their civil strife. Those in the open fields will be eaten by wild animals, which would naturally swarm in a deserted land where no one was there to control them (Exodus 23:29). Even after the enemy army leaves the country, there will still be no safety there. Harmful beasts were one of the four terrible judgments (Ezekiel 14:15).

Those who are in the forts and caves, thinking they are safe in man-made or natural hiding places because no human eye can see them and no human weapon can reach them, will still be found by the arrows of the Almighty. They will die of disease. The whole land, even the land of Israel, once the glory of all lands, will become utterly desolate (Ezekiel 33:28). It will be complete desolation, as desolate as desolation can be. The mountains of Israel, the fertile hills, and even Zion itself, the holy mountain, will not be spared. The roads will be empty, the houses uninhabited, and no one will pass through, just as it was threatened, “You will be left few in number” (Deuteronomy 28:62).

The pride of her strength, whatever she boasts in and depends on as her glory and power, will be brought to an end. The cause of all this is very serious, for it is for all their abominations, all their hateful sins, that they have committed. Sin is what brings this ruin and makes nations desolate, so we should call it what it is, an abomination.

Yet the result will be good: then they will know that I am the Lord, their Lord, and they will return to loyalty to him when I have made the land most desolate. People are truly stubborn and unwilling to learn if they do not come to know their dependence on God when every earthly comfort is gone and left in ruins.