Last week, God reestablished Ezekiel as a watchman to warn Israel of impending judgment. This next section in chapter 33 is out of chronological order by a few months. The scene opened with a fugitive who escaped from Jerusalem reporting Jerusalem’s fall to Ezekiel.
Read Ezekiel 33:21-22.
- The evening before the messenger arrived, the Lord opened Ezekiel’s mouth and he was able to speak again. Until that time, the prophet had been silent. Some commentators believe God caused Ezekiel to remain silent for a time. It would take a detailed study of the book’s chronology to determine exactly how this might have looked in Ezekiel’s life. We know from Scripture that God uses silence as surely as he uses any other means he chooses to reveal himself to people.
- In Ezekiel chapter 1:24-25, when the four living creatures stilled, there was an implied silence.
- Then God spoke.
“The Lord said, ‘Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.’ Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper” (1 Kings 19:11-12).
What other examples in God’s Word come to mind where God reveals himself through silence? 
Why might God have caused Ezekiel to remain silent for a time?
How have you observed God using silence in your life or someone else’s life?
Read Ezekiel 33:23-26.
- The people in Jerusalem didn’t understand why, as Abraham’s descendants, the land they possessed now lay in ruins, a wasteland created by God’s judgment.1
- God had an answer for them: they disobeyed his statutes.
- Not only did they break the dietary laws, but they openly worshiped idols and sacrificed to them.
- Why should God give them an inheritance from him?
- The Lord continued to list specific sins to point out their depravity.
What connection do you see between the Israelites’ specific sins and detestable actions, and God’s judgment making their land, their possession, a desolate waste?
Read Ezekiel 33:27-29.
- God declared his specific judgment on the Israelites for their detestable actions.
- Those in Jerusalem would fall by the sword.
- Those in the country would fall to wild animals who would devour them.
- Those in strongholds would die by plague.
- God would completely destroy the land, and Israel could no longer boast in their strength.
- God’s judgment would create a condition of desolation, waste, isolation, desertion2, and destruction in the land.
- The Lord isolated his people from him, in a sense, and deserted the land he had promised to them. We read earlier in Ezekiel that God’s glory departed the temple due to its defilement by Israel.
- Through all this desolation and ruin, then they will know I AM the Lord.
How do these judgments show God’s people he is Almighty God and the great I AM?
Read Ezekiel 33:30-33.
- God informed Ezekiel that his fellow countrymen claimed the prophet had a message from the Lord.
- From God’s perspective, the people would come and listen to Ezekiel’s message, but they would not put it into practice.
- They would talk as if they were devoted to God, but their hearts would remain greedy for things of the world.
- The people would continue to lust after foreign ways.3
- They would chase after dishonest profit and gain.
“For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever” (1 John 2:16-17).
- As far as the Israelites were concerned, Ezekiel was simply another fine speaker.
- They had no interest in following God’s ways.
- God’s promise to Ezekiel: when these things happen, then they will know he was the Lord’s prophet, a spokesman for God, who spoke truth.
How might God’s closing words to Ezekiel reassure the prophet?
When do we express devotion, but our hearts are not in it?
What might it look like to truly show devotion to God and follow his ways?
1. Warren Baker, D.R.E., Eugene Carpenter, Ph.D. The Complete Word Study Dictionary: Old Testament. (Chattanooga, TN: AMG Publishers, 2003), 375
2 Ibid., 685
3. Ibid., 803