Ez 33:21-33

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News from Jerusalem (Eze 33:21-33)

As soon as news reached the exiles that Jerusalem had fallen as Ezekiel had foretold, Ezekiel knew that the new phase of his work was to begin. The former restrictions on his speech and movements were lifted (Eze 33:21-22; cf. Eze 24:25-27).

Ezekiel received news also of certain selfish and dishonest practices among the Jews who were left in the country areas of Judah. Some of these people had seized the land of those taken into exile. They argued that if Abraham (only one person) had been given the right to inherit Canaan, surely they (a much greater number) had the right to accumulate property there (Eze 33:23-24).

God’s reply through Ezekiel is clear. The Jews scattered in Judah have no right to possess any of the land, since they commit the same sins as the Jerusalemites - sins for which Jerusalem was destroyed and its people taken into captivity (Eze 33:25-26).

Those who happened to escape the Babylonians are not the people who will repossess the promised land. On the contrary, they will be punished as the Jerusalemites were punished (Eze 33:27-29).

Meanwhile the exiles in Babylon had developed a more favourable attitude towards Ezekiel. Now that his prediction of the fall of Jerusalem had come true, they were convinced that he was a true prophet. As a result they came to listen to what else he had to say (Eze 33:30).

But they were concerned only with any advantages that they might gain to make life easier for themselves in Babylon. They listened to Ezekiel as they might listen to an entertainer. They took no notice of his moral instruction (Eze 33:31-32).

Only after they had been restored to the promised land would people understand fully that this was the goal for which Ezekiel had been trying to prepare them (Eze 33:33).