~ HEED THY WATCHMEN ~
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"Surely the Lord GOD will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto |
"AGAIN the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
"Son of man, speak to the children of thy people, and say unto them, When I bring the sword upon a land,
if the people of the land take a man of their coasts, and set him for their watchman:
"If when he seeth the sword come upon the land, he blow the trumpet, and warn the people;
"Then whosoever heareth the sound of the trumpet, and taketh not warning; if the sword come, and take him
away, his blood shall be upon his own head.
"He heard the sound of the trumpet, and took not warning; his blood shall be upon him. But he that taketh
warning shall deliver his soul.
"But if the watchman see the sword come, and blow not the trumpet, and the people be not warned; if the
sword come, and take any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood will I
require at the watchman's hand.
"So thou, O son of man, I have set thee a watchman unto the house of Israel; therefore thou shalt hear the
word at my mouth, and warn them from me.
"When I say unto the wicked, O wicked man, thou shalt surely die; if thou dost not speak to warn the wicked
from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand.
"Nevertheless, if thou warn the wicked of his way to turn from it; if he do not turn from his way, he shall
die in his iniquity; but thou hast delivered thy soul.
"Therefore, O thou son of man, speak unto the house of Israel; Thus ye speak, saying, If our transgressions
and our sins be upon us, and we pine away in them, how should we then live?
"Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the
wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of
Israel?
"Therefore, thou son of man, say unto the children of thy people, The righteousness of the righteous shall
not deliver him in the day of his transgression: as for the wickedness of the wicked, he shall not fall
thereby in the day that he turneth from his wickedness; neither shall the righteous be able to live for
his righteousness in the day that he sinneth.
"When I shall say to the righteous, that he shall surely live; if he trust to his own righteousness, and
commit iniquity, all his righteousnesses shall not be remembered; but for his iniquity that he hath
committed, he shall die for it.
"Again, when I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die; if he turn from his sin, and do that which is
lawful and right;
"If the wicked restore the pledge, give again that he had robbed, walk in the statutes of life, without
committing iniquity; he shall surely live, he shall not die.
"None of his sins that he hath committed shall be mentioned unto him: he hath done that which is lawful
and right; he shall surely live.
"¶ Yet the children of thy people say, The away of the Lord is not equal: but as for them, their way is not
equal.
"When the righteous turneth from his righteousness, and committeth iniquity, he shall even die thereby.
"But if the wicked turn from his wickedness, and do that which is lawful and right, he shall live thereby.
"¶ Yet ye say, The way of the Lord is not equal. O ye house of Israel, I will judge you every one after his ways."
[as applied of yester-year]
"¶ And it came to pass in the twelfth year of our captivity, in the tenth month, in the fifth day of the month,
that one that had escaped out of Jerusalem came unto me, saying, The city is smitten.
"Now the hand of the LORD was upon me in the evening, afore he that was escaped came; and had opened my mouth,
until he came to me in the morning; and my mouth was opened, and I was no more dumb.
"Then the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
"Son of man, they that inhabit those wastes of the land of Israel speak, saying, Abraham was one, and he inherited
the land: but we are many; the land is given us for inheritance.
"Wherefore say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Ye eat with the blood, and lift up your eyes toward your idols,
and shed blood: and shall ye possess the land?
"Ye stand upon your sword, ye work abomination, and ye defile every one his neighbour's wife: and shall ye possess
the land?
"Say thou thus unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; As I live, surely they that are in the wastes shall fall by the
sword, and him that is in the open field will I give to the beasts to be devoured, and they that be in the forts
and in the caves shall die of the pestilence.
"For I will lay the land most desolate, and the pomp of her strength shall cease; and the mountains of Israel shall
be desolate, that none shall pass through.
"Then shall they know that I am the LORD, when I have laid the land most desolate because of all their abominations
which they have committed."
[also as applied unto today]
"¶ Also, thou son of man, the children of thy people still are talking against thee by the walls and in the doors of
the houses, and speak one to another, every one to his brother, saying, Come, I pray you, and hear what is the word
that cometh forth from the LORD.
"And they come unto thee as the people cometh, and they sit before thee as my people, and they hear thy words, but
they will not do them: for with their mouth they shew much love, but their heart goeth after their covetousness.
"And, lo, thou art unto them as a very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice, and can play well on an instrument:
for they hear thy words, but they do them not.
"And when this cometh to pass, (lo, it will come,) then shall they know that a prophet hath been among them."
~ Old Testament | Ezekiel 33:1-33
The fore going is taken from the time period when Babylon would take the peoples of Jerusalem into captivity in Babylon at least three different times. In a short simplification, during the braking up of the Assyrian Empire, Egypt went up to war with Assyria. The Kingdom of Judah was alienated toward Assyria and Josiah felt morally to stand in Egypt's way of joining the battle with Assyria against Carchemish of Babylon. Necho the Egyptian King warned Josiah not to oppose him as he had no designs on Judah.
But Josiah was killed in doing so. Egypt went on up to fight and on their way back they looked in on Judah. Jerusalem had set Josiah's son Jehoahaz to be king. Egypt then set Judah as a tributary kingdom to Egypt, retired Jehoahaz to Egypt and installed Jehoiakim, another son of King Josiah, as the tributary King of Judah. After a few years, Judah fell to Babylon, a number of the Jewish people were taken to Babylon including as it seems the prophet Daniel as a young lad.
But Babylon kept Judah's established king Johiakim but obligated him to Babylon and Nebuchadnezzar. Yet Jehoakim attempted to renew his confederacy with Egypt and thus Nebuchadnezzar's army again came upon Jerusalem and removed Jehoiakim, replacing him with his son Jehoiachin at age 8 according to one Jewish record. Many more captives were taken including Jehoiakim and likely Ezekiel among others. Jehoiakim died on the journey to Babylon and was lift as a dead carcass in a field as would be done to a dead ass.
It seems that Jerusalem had caught wind of the 'mistreatment' of Jehoiakim and as much as an 8 year old king can, the influence of the then Princely rulers opted to seek again an alliance with Egypt. Thus 3 months later the Babylon army had returned and taken Jehoiachin captive with the rebellious Jews and many more of the Jewish craftmen and captives back to Babylon. Jehoiachin did make it back to Babylon but according to Jeremiah's prophecy and the Bible's indications, he as would eventually be him uncle Zedekiah, was made a eunuch and was himself biologically childless.
Nebuchadnezzar had installed another son of Josiah, Zedekiah, as king in place of the grandson of Josiah, the son of Jehoiakim. Jeremiah was the prophet in Jerusalem at this time and Ezekiel had become on of the Lord's spoke prophets to the Jews in Babylon. Daniel was also contemporary, but had raised into the Babylonian governmental hierarchy. It is Ezekiel who is the prophet in Babylon when Jerusalem eventually finally falls and is destroyed at the end of not only Zedekiah's reign, but the end to the in state Kings of Judah ever after. Only Jesus Christ the Lord would become heir to King David, but he the ruling Sanhedrin and the none house of David monarchy of Jerusalem would reject and see crucified as foreshadowed by Jesus' parables and teaching.
Thus what Ezekiel has presented not only applied to his day when Jerusalem fell as reported, but the foreshadowing of the Latter-day conditions as well for those who will not respond to the warnings of the watchmen in the latter days.