EZEKIEL The LORD’s Judgment & Restoration Bible Study 2020/2021; Tuesdays, 12:00-1:00 p.m. by Zoom

Class #3, September 29, 2020

The Watchman Ezekiel 3:16-21; 6:1-14; 7:1-27; 33:1-9

Notes, observations, and questions on Ezekiel 3:16-21

1. A formal “oracle” (“teaching; declaration”) from the LORD

(a) Yahweh charges Ezekiel to serve as His “watchman.” (b) Duplicated and expanded in 33:1-9 (c) These two “watchman” passages form bookends around the prophet’s judgment proclamations. (d) The passages emphasize Ezekiel’s accountability to God. (e) The passage here is given privately; the message in 33:1-9 publicly. (f) The LORD’s dire warning to the prophet not to shirk his responsibilities (1) Ezekiel is a stubborn man (see last week’s class notes); the LORD must be stern with him.

2. “at the end of seven days” (v 16)

(a) Ezekiel has had a week to recover from his shock of God’s divine commissioning. (b) He now must be ready for another prophetic experience.

3. “watchman” (v 17)

(a) Ironic: The God of Israel is the danger whose arrival the people are to be warned! (b) Yahweh is coming to pass a death sentence on his people. (c) “to look out; to spy; to keep watch” (d) The role of a watchman is best seen in 33:1-6. (1) Such watchmen were placed on lookout towers on the walls of a city or the roofs of gatehouses (2 Sam 18:24) or towers outside the city (2 Kgs 9:17) (2) In case of danger, he would blow a ram’s horn (a shofar) summoning soldiers to arms and civilians to take cover. (e) Hosea also identified as a watchman (9:8). (f) Jeremiah also used this same analogy (4:5, 19, 21; 6:1, 17; 51:27).

4. God puts four hypothetical scenarios before Ezekiel (vv 18-21).

(a) “wicked” (v 18) – 37 X in the book; the most in the Bible (1) In Ezekiel’s context, a wicked person is one who holds Yahweh and the LORD’s covenant with Israel in contempt; he’s ostensibly a member of the covenant community but he then willfully violates the covenant’s stipulations (2) While perhaps drawing on this biblical background, Jesus will say that the one unforgiveable sin is the sin against the Holy Spirit; such a sin could only be done by a person who’s ostensibly a member of the Church by faith and baptism, who has thus been filled by the Holy Spirit, but who then turns in opposition against the Lord (b) “a righteous person” – the polar opposite of a wicked person; this is the man or woman who holds Yahweh in greatest respect and joyfully obeys the covenant (c) Case 1 (v 18) – Yahweh charges Ezekiel to deliver to the wicked person the legal sentence of the death penalty (1) Here no repentance is offered, but it will be elsewhere in the book (2) Here the emphasis falls on the prophet’s responsibility to warn the wicked; if he doesn’t, Ezekiel will be guilty of murder (d) Case 2 (v 19) – Ezekiel has dutifully delivered the sentence; he’s absolved of responsibility of the wicked man’s death (e) Case 3 (v 20) – A formerly righteous person turns to evil practice (1) The LORD brings about his death by placing an obstacle—a “stumbling block”— before him (2) A stumbling block signifies a concrete equivalent to the death sentence. (3) Four stages in the life of a backslider: 1. The person is a faithful member of the covenant community. 2. He turns from his righteousness to evil. 3. He is tripped up by God. 4. He dies, not being able to bank on any of his former righteousness. (4) His fate is determined not by how he began his life of faith but whether he has persevered in his faith in the LORD. (f) Case 4 (v 21) – the fate of a repentant backslidden person (1) The watchman has given the warning, and the backslider has heeded it. (2) Now the repentant person has a sentence not of death but life. (g) We find a parallel teaching in Jeremiah 6:16-21. (1) Jeremiah began his ministry around the time of Ezekiel’s birth. (2) The two may have known each other before Ezekiel was taken into Babylon. (3) Some of Jeremiah’s prophecies almost certainly reached Ezekiel, and Jeremiah may have been something of a model of prophetic ministry to Ezekiel.

5. Theological implications

(a) Those who repudiate the covenant stand under the judgment of God. (1) A person cannot hold others responsible for his or her own guilt. (b) The wages of sin is death. (1) See Romans 3:23. (2) The warning is to members of the covenant community who have in the past trusted in Yahweh and submitted to his Lordship. (3) God’s gives such a person the freedom even to turn away from their righteousness. (4) It establishes the seriousness of perseverance in the faith. (c) The voice of the watchman represents the grace of God reaching out to those under the sentence of death. (1) God is on the side of life, even for the wicked, rather than intent on death. (d) This passage affirms above all else that with the privilege of having the prophet’s authority comes an awesome responsibility for the life and death of the people in one’s charge. (e) The messenger/watchman of God is not called to success but to faithfulness, as we saw earlier in the commissioning account. (1) The prophet’s call is not to save souls (this only God can do) but to proclaim the message he receives from the Word of the LORD.

6. For further discussion

(a) Thus far in our study, what do you think is the biggest take-away in Ezekiel we must hear and heed as believers in the 21st century? (b) This passage raises the tension in Scripture between God’s “election” of us and our “decision” to remain either faithful or become wicked. On the one hand, God clearly chooses and elects us by his grace. “You did not choose me,” Jesus says, “but I chose you” (John 15:16). On the other hand, a formerly righteous person in God by grace through faith can backslide into wickedness, as we find here in Ezekiel. How do you live in this tension? (c) What is the greatest warning a modern prophet must proclaim to the Church in 2020? (d) How might each one of us see him/herself as a “watchman” for the Lord?