In Ezekiel 4:5, the reckoning of the years of Israel's rebellion may have been calculated from Rehoboam's apostasy to the destruction of Jerusalem in the eleventh year of Zedekiah:

In Ezekiel 4:6, the forty years of Judah's sin may simply be a subset of the 390 years. The period may refer to the reign of Manasseh, whose sinful reign God explicitly named as the reason for His judgment on Judah (cf. 2 Kings 24:3).

Friends, these verses demonstrate God's exact reckoning and justice, and they apply to us as well. Paul writes: "God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap"; the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life (cf. Galatians 6:7–8).

This principle is illustrated in a popular parable. An old man tells his grandson that there is a battle between two wolves inside all of us: one evil — anger, jealousy, greed, and resentment — and one good — joy, love, hope, humility, kindness, and courage. The boy asks which wolf wins, and the old man replies, "The one you feed."

Friends, let us labor to feed our Spirit-led, righteous self and starve our fleshly, sinful self. So we read in Galatians: walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh; for the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other (cf. Galatians 5:16–17).

Each morning, which wolf are you feeding? By meditating on God's Word and praying humbly, are you feeding the good one? Or by anxious planning and selfish striving, are you feeding the other? And throughout the day, which do we tend and nurture? May the Lord help us nurture our spiritual life, in keeping with our new life in Christ (cf. Galatians 5:24–25).

AI-Expanded Reflection

Ezekiel 4 describes one of the prophet's most demanding sign-acts: he was to lie on his left side for 390 days bearing the iniquity of Israel, then on his right side for 40 days for Judah, a day for each year (4:4–6). Interpreters have proposed many ways to calculate the periods; the comment's reckoning through the kings of Judah is one careful attempt, and others count from the division of the kingdom, from the building of Solomon's temple, or read the numbers symbolically, noting that 390 plus 40 equals 430 — the length of Israel's bondage in Egypt (Exodus 12:40). On that reading, the exile is portrayed as a new Egypt from which God will again deliver His people.

The comment's use of the two-wolves parable to illustrate Galatians 5 is memorable, and it is worth noting one important difference, which the comment itself points toward. In the parable, the outcome depends entirely on our choice of which to feed. In Galatians, the believer's victory rests first on what God has done: "those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires" (5:24), and the fruit belongs to the Spirit, not to us (5:22). Our "feeding" — Scripture, prayer, fellowship — is real and necessary, but it is cooperation with the Spirit who already dwells within, not a contest we win in our own strength.

God told Ezekiel to go to the exiles, his people, and speak to them, "whether they hear or refuse to hear" (Ezekiel 3:11; cf. 2:5, 7).

God sent Ezekiel to preach to the exiles whether they would listen or not. It is clear from earlier verses that they would not listen to him. God told him that foreign peoples would have listened, "But the house of Israel will not be willing to listen to you…" because all Israel had a hard forehead and a stubborn heart (a paraphrase of Ezekiel 3:6–7).

Why would God send Ezekiel to preach when He knew the people would not listen? Would the absence of a warning absolve the guilty? No. God told Ezekiel that if he failed to warn them, those he failed to warn would still die in their sins. If a righteous person turns from righteousness and does injustice, and God lays a stumbling block before him, he shall die; because Ezekiel had not warned him, he would die for his sin, and his righteous deeds would not be remembered (cf. Ezekiel 3:20a).

And beyond the judgment on those he was to warn, if Ezekiel failed to speak, he would bear some of the guilt: "but his blood I will require at your hand" (Ezekiel 3:20b).

Regardless of how people responded, Ezekiel's responsibility was not to be preoccupied with that, but simply to obey God's command to deliver the message.

Friends, I believe God has chosen some for salvation, chosen before the foundation of the world (cf. Ephesians 1:4; Romans 8:29–30). So we cannot change what God has decreed. We cannot add to those God has chosen for His kingdom, nor take any away.

In view of this, some may object to evangelism. Why preach the gospel if God has already decided who will be saved? Besides the obvious reason — that God has not put a sign on every person to show whether they are elect — we are commanded to preach the gospel: "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations" (Matthew 28:19); "Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation" (Mark 16:15).

Ezekiel was commanded to preach his message without worrying about how his hearers would respond. God had already told him that, for the most part, the people would reject it. So his primary motivation for preaching was obedience to God.

God's commission to Christians is much the same. We have the command to preach the gospel, but we are not given divine insight into people's hearts or whether they are elect. It is very possible that none of those to whom we preach were chosen, so that no amount of our preaching will affect their salvation. So I believe our primary motivation for preaching the gospel should not be the salvation of souls, but simple obedience to God's command.

Ezekiel would not be judged for the people's response, but he would be judged for failing to preach the message. Likewise, Christians will not be judged if people reject their gospel message, but we will be judged if we fail to obey God's command to preach the gospel.

AI-Expanded Reflection

Ezekiel's commission as a "watchman for the house of Israel" (3:17; repeated in 33:1–9) is one of the most sobering calls in Scripture. The watchman's job was to see danger coming and sound the alarm; whether the people heeded it was their responsibility, but sounding it was his. Paul seems to echo this language when he tells the Ephesian elders, "I am innocent of the blood of all," for he had declared the whole counsel of God (Acts 20:26–27).

On the relationship between election and evangelism, Christians who share the comment's Reformed convictions have often drawn a somewhat different emphasis from the same doctrine. Charles Spurgeon, for example, preached election and pleaded passionately for the salvation of sinners, and Paul, who taught election in Romans 9, wrote in the next chapter, "my heart's desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved" (Romans 10:1). Many would say that obedience and love for the lost are not competing motives but partners, and that God's sovereign choice is the ground of confidence in evangelism: "I have many in this city who are my people" (Acts 18:10). Christians in other traditions ground evangelism in God's desire that "all people... be saved" (1 Timothy 2:4). All agree with the comment that faithfulness in proclaiming the gospel is the believer's calling, whatever the response. (Mark 16:15 belongs to the longer ending of Mark, which is absent from the earliest manuscripts; the same commission appears in Matthew 28:19–20, Luke 24:47, and Acts 1:8.)

God tells Ezekiel that the house of Israel will not be willing to listen to him, for they are not willing to listen to God (a paraphrase of Ezekiel 3:7).

God says Israel should listen, but they will not.

Thus says the Lord God: "He who will hear, let him hear"; and he who refuses, let him refuse, for they are a rebellious house (a paraphrase of Ezekiel 3:27).

God says that if Israel hears, let them hear, and if they refuse to hear, let them refuse. Why state the obvious? The last phrase helps us understand: "for they are a rebellious house." God declares that the Israelites will refuse rather than hear because they are naturally rebellious toward Him. Then what about "He who will hear, let him hear"? To understand this we need to wait until Ezekiel 11, where God promises to give them one heart and a new spirit, to remove the heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh, so that they may walk in His statutes and keep His rules, and they will be His people and He their God (a paraphrase of Ezekiel 11:19–20). And again in Ezekiel 36, where He promises to sprinkle clean water on them and cleanse them from all their uncleanness and idols, give them a new heart and a new spirit, remove the heart of stone and give a heart of flesh, and put His Spirit within them and cause them to walk in His statutes (a paraphrase of Ezekiel 36:25–27).

A day would come when God would give them a new heart and put His Spirit within them. In other words, even though Israel would reject God when left to their own will, because they were rebellious by nature, God would intervene to give them a heart to believe, a Spirit to obey, and ears to hear. So Jesus would later say to the rebellious Israel of His day, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear" (Mark 4:9; cf. Matthew 11:15).

What did Jesus mean by this seemingly obvious statement? I believe He meant what Ezekiel meant: whoever has been given ears to hear, let them hear. So Jesus would say more plainly to the unbelieving Jews that no one can come to Him unless the Father who sent Him draws him, and unless it is granted by the Father (cf. John 6:44, 65).

So, as his contemporary Jeremiah wrote (cf. Jeremiah 31:31–34), Ezekiel speaks of a New Covenant in which God would do for Israel what they had failed to do on their own because of the weakness of their sinful nature.

Jesus accomplished this by ratifying the New Covenant with His own blood (cf. Hebrews 8–10). He paid for sins once for all (cf. Hebrews 7:27). By this one sacrifice He makes everyone who believes in Him perfect forever, and no more sacrifices are necessary (cf. Hebrews 10:10, 14, 18), for He intercedes for them forever (cf. Hebrews 7:25).

Friends, let us understand that, left to ourselves, our will leads to unbelief and self-destruction. But by God's sovereign grace He brought about the hearing of faith in us (cf. Romans 10:17), so that we might believe and be saved (cf. Ephesians 2:8–9).

AI-Expanded Reflection

Ezekiel's commission in chapters 2–3 is unusual: he is told in advance that his hearers will not listen, and sent anyway. God makes his forehead "like emery harder than flint" to match their hardness (3:9), and appoints him a watchman whose responsibility is to speak, whatever the response: if he warns the wicked and they do not turn, they will die in their iniquity, "but you will have delivered your soul" (3:19). Faithfulness, for Ezekiel, is measured by the message delivered rather than the results produced — an encouraging word for anyone who teaches Scripture to unresponsive listeners.

The comment's connection of Ezekiel 3:27 to Jesus' "he who has ears to hear" is well made, and the promises of Ezekiel 11 and 36 are the heart of the New Covenant hope. How that promised new heart relates to human response is understood differently across Christian traditions (see #1779 and #1838). The Reformed reading, which the comment gives, sees the new heart as the sovereign cause of faith; others see God's grace as enabling a response that people may still resist, pointing to Ezekiel 18:31, where God also commands, "make yourselves a new heart and a new spirit!" Why will you die, O house of Israel? Both the command and the promise stand in the same book, and believers have long held them together in different ways.

But the people of Israel are not willing to listen to you because they are not willing to listen to me, for all the Israelites are hardened and obstinate. (Ezekiel 3:7 NIV)

At the end of seven days the word of the Lord came to me: "Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the people of Israel; so hear the word I speak and give them warning from me. When I say to a wicked person, 'You will surely die,' and you do not warn them or speak out to dissuade them from their evil ways in order to save their life, that wicked person will die for their sin, and I will hold you accountable for their blood. But if you do warn the wicked person and they do not turn from their wickedness or from their evil ways, they will die for their sin; but you will have saved yourself.

Again, when a righteous person turns from their righteousness and does evil, and I put a stumbling block before them, they will die. Since you did not warn them, they will die for their sin. The righteous things that person did will not be remembered, and I will hold you accountable for their blood. But if you do warn the righteous person not to sin and they do not sin, they will surely live because they took warning, and you will have saved yourself. (Ezekiel 3:16–21 NIV)

Ezekiel is called to be a watchman over the remnant of Israel (Ezekiel 3:16–27). His primary responsibility is to warn and admonish the people, whether they listen or not. God has already told him that they will not listen because their hearts are hardened and obstinate, but this is not his concern. His responsibility is simply to obey God.

It is interesting that God's message to the wicked is simply, "You shall surely die." This was what God told Adam when He gave the command for him not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. This was also Jonah's message to Nineveh, and they repented. And a century later Nahum brought the same message, but they were destroyed. It is not a message primarily of encouragement but admonition and warning.

It is interesting that there is little expectation for the wicked to repent, only whether Ezekiel will be held accountable for their judgment or not. Even when God speaks of the righteous, God indicates that they will be judged in how they end rather than how they began or persevered over time. If they turn from God in the end, none of their former righteous deeds will be remembered. But again, this is not Ezekiel's concern. He is simply to warn them. Interestingly, the emphasis is again on warning rather than on encouragement.

There seems to be a distinct difference between how God responds to sin and obedience throughout Scripture. Sinfulness warrants warning and admonition. Obedience warrants encouragement.

Today, some preachers simply preach encouragement, whether a fellow believer is doing wrong or right. Warning and admonition is re-labeled and denounced as "criticism" and "negative thinking." But this does not represent the Scriptural command, which speaks not only of encouragement but also of warning and admonition, and perhaps one might even say that the latter is more emphasized than the former.

I realize that I have from time to time emphasized encouragement over admonition. I pondered why I do it and why others do it as well. I think it’s because I am concerned more about the unity and solidarity of my group than I am about its spiritual health and representation of God's Name. As I consider the entire testimony of Scripture I realize that God will even destroy seven billion people save one for the sake of His Name. The history of Israel and the nations are more about God's judgment of sinful people rather than their salvation. In every generation those saved were only a fractional remnant of a much larger population. Even Jesus taught in the Sermon on the Mount,

"Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it. (Matthew 7:13, 14 NIV)

God is more concerned with His Name than the salvation of many. Shouldn't we be more concerned for God's Name?

When we consider the Book of Acts, which gives us a window into the preaching and practices of the early church, we realize that their message and teaching were primarily warnings and admonitions rather than appeals to God's love and mercy or even the positive benefits of trusting in Him. If this was the emphasis of the prophets, Jesus and the apostles, is it right for us to change it?

Again, pastors and leaders emphasize encouragement over admonition for the sake of church or organizational unity, but when taking a longer view of things and a larger perspective, such an approach may create a unity and solidarity around spiritual and moral complacency, the very things God hates and judges.

Friends, especially those of you that have been studying the Scriptures with me these several years, I want you to consider this sobering thought. Have you been supporting rebellion and sinful complacency by your words of encouragement and "understanding"? When you ought to have been rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, have you found yourself just saying positive things, concerned more about people's feelings, political correctness, and keeping church "unity" rather than upholding the truth and God's Name against the backdrop of our stubborn and rebellious generation?

AI-Expanded Reflection

Ezekiel's watchman commission makes the prophet responsible for faithfully conveying the warning he receives. A city's watchman cannot prevent every attack, but he must not conceal danger from those whose lives depend on hearing it. The metaphor therefore distinguishes responsibility for the message from control over the response. The hearer remains accountable for wrongdoing, while the prophet is accountable for withholding a warning entrusted to him.

The original emphasizes obedience regardless of whether people listen, but the commission is not indifferent to their lives. Ezekiel 3:18 explicitly describes speaking to turn the wicked from an evil way in order to save life. The purpose of warning includes the hearer's good. Later, Ezekiel 18:23 and 33:11 state the Lord's desire that the wicked turn and live. These passages should govern the tone of the watchman's application: seriousness about judgment belongs with a real desire for repentance.

The discussion of a righteous person turning toward evil confronts the assumption that past conduct guarantees immunity from present rebellion. It is not best reduced to an arbitrary final-second calculation in which a single lapse cancels an otherwise faithful life. Ezekiel is addressing genuine turning between ways of life and calling people to responsibility before God. Christian debates about perseverance require consideration of the wider canon rather than treating this one passage as a complete account of saving assurance.

The contrast between encouragement and admonition also should not become absolute. First Thessalonians 5:14 instructs the church to admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, and be patient with everyone. Different needs call for different forms of care. A person trapped in complacency may require warning; a person already crushed by guilt may need the promise of forgiveness. Faithful ministry discerns the condition rather than applying the same severity or reassurance to everyone.

The original's numerical and rhetorical claims about how many God would destroy are not figures supplied by this text. Nor does Acts present the gospel merely as warning without grace: its preaching includes forgiveness, resurrection hope, the gift of the Spirit, and the good news of peace through Jesus Christ. God's name is honored by the fullness of that message, including mercy. His glory and the sincere invitation to salvation should not be placed in opposition.

A congregation can ask whether its version of unity depends on avoiding difficult truths. It can also ask whether leaders use warning to secure submission rather than restore people. The watchman image grants no license for intrusive control or unverified accusations. Its proper application is accountable speech: know the danger, ground the warning in God's word, speak with patience, and seek the hearer's good. Love may require a difficult message, but its purpose remains care rather than the satisfaction of having condemned someone correctly.

Even though God knew Israel wouldn't listen to what He told Ezekiel to say, He still sent him among them to call them to righteousness. Some would hear, though unfortunately not all. It strikes me that no matter how much effort we put into persuading people to accept Christ, only some will actually listen. Our job isn't to guarantee they're persuaded, but simply to take responsibility for proclaiming the good news, whether they accept it or not. God's faithfulness to His covenant promise stays strong even through His people's ongoing rebellion. If our salvation depended in any measure on our own inconsistent will, could we really delight in His mercy and grace the way we do? The more I read God's word, the clearer it becomes how little inherent goodness we actually have, despite how often we falsely claim it as part of our own character. I ask forgiveness for my own wrongful pride and indifference — may His name alone be praised!

AI-Expanded Reflection

The specific reassurance this comment draws from Ezekiel's commission — that God sent him knowing in advance the message would be largely rejected — is worth extending as a genuine comfort for anyone discouraged by limited response to their own efforts at sharing their faith. Ezekiel's ministry wasn't a failure because most of his hearers didn't respond; his obedience in delivering the message was the actual measure of his faithfulness, entirely apart from the response rate. That distinction — between being responsible for proclamation and being responsible for outcomes — offers real relief from a kind of pressure Scripture never actually places on believers in the first place.

In Ezekiel 1–4, Ezekiel receives a vision of judgment coming on those remaining in Jerusalem — yet he doesn't deliver this message to the people actually being judged, but to those already living in exile in Babylon. Even after their exile, they remain stubborn and rebellious, still listening to false prophets and practicing idolatry. Now they'll stand at a distance and watch as God wipes out the remnant in Jerusalem, destroying the city, the Temple, and the people — meant as an object lesson so the exiles won't persist in their own rebellion. The people in exile were given a real break here: God allowed them simply to observe rather than personally experience the judgment. In a real sense, that's what God has done for us too. We're given a break. How many of us — including pastors and teachers — have admitted we're really no different from rebellious ancient Israel? If that's true, we should, by rights, face the same judgment they did. So why don't we? Why did the exiles escape? Not because they were more righteous than the ones being judged — simply because of God's grace, expressed through His faithfulness to His covenant promises. Let's not be like the exiles who stubbornly refused to listen and kept rebelling regardless. Instead, let's carve time out of our busy lives to meditate on Scripture, and reflect honestly on the direction of our own lives. Let's humble ourselves and genuinely mourn over our sin (see James 4:7–10), adopting the posture of the tax collector in Jesus's parable rather than the Pharisee (see Luke 18:9–14). Let's remember that what we believe in Christ is more real and lasting than anything we currently treat as "real" in this passing world (see 1 John 2:17), and let's pursue treasure that actually endures (see Matthew 6:19–21). Holy Father, forgive our sinful self-preoccupation. Forgive our aversion to self-denial, our refusal to bear the cross, our half-hearted attempts to follow Christ. Forgive our tendency toward a feel-good approach to interpreting and applying Scripture, our token acts of devotion, and our disinterest in speaking against injustice and corruption in our own generation. Teach us Your ways again, and enable us not only to hear them but to actually obey. Remember, Lord, that apart from Your grace at work in us, we're merely dust — worth nothing on our own. Transform us by renewing our minds according to Your word, for Your name's sake, so our lives might testify to Your good, acceptable, and perfect will.

AI-Expanded Reflection

The specific question this comment asks — why the exiles were spared the judgment they arguably deserved just as much as those in Jerusalem — resists an easy answer, and it's worth noting the comment doesn't try to manufacture one beyond "grace." That refusal to over-explain is itself instructive: Scripture consistently declines to offer a formula for why some receive mercy and others experience the full weight of consequence, insisting only that the difference isn't rooted in comparative righteousness. That's an uncomfortable answer for anyone looking for a tidy explanation, but it's also the only answer that keeps grace actually functioning as grace — genuinely unearned — rather than quietly smuggling merit back into the equation through the back door.