Ezekiel 33:11 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?
No one likes warnings. Most of us ignore warnings on a regular basis and never even realize it. Think about the smoke alarm in your house or building. It goes off and you assume that it is a mistake or merely a practice drill. A car’s alarm goes off downtown and no one pays attention because everyone knows that car alarms don’t protect you from car theft, they just annoy the owner of the car and other people. You get a call from your credit card company wondering if you are really you, if you are where you are, and if you have been making the purchases that you have made. You get a warning from your doctor, teacher, or spouse. We don’t like warnings, yet warnings are important.
Warnings are a gift from God. Sometimes He warns us through other people, sometimes He warns us through His Word, and sometimes He warns us through a Bible sermon. All these are means by which God may give us a warning.
Ezekiel 33:11 says, “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?” God is not about whacking you over the head. God is about warning and changing you. This is not because He dislikes you, but precisely because He loves you. Until you look at warnings differently than you do now, you are not going to respond to them differently than you do now.
The fact is you probably don’t know how you respond to God’s warnings because they happen somewhat frequently, like the warning from a car alarm or like the call from the credit card company. We can easily think little of the warnings God gives us. There are two character flaws that squander God’s warnings to you. The effects are numerous, but the causes are primary.
The first character flaw is found in verse 17 where God says to the prophet, “Yet the children of thy people say, The way of the Lord is not equal: but as for them, their way is not equal.” God’s people were saying, “God’s way is not equal. He is not fair. This isn’t fair.” God says, “They are the ones who are not fair.”
Earlier God had said that people will suffer for their own sins. They will be warned about their own sins. If you give warning to people and they heed it, then they have saved their own soul, but if you don’t give warning to people when you should, God says, “They have done wrong, but I will hold you accountable. You have sinned by not warning them.”
So, warnings are a gift from God. They are important, and to say that it is not fair is to miss the point. If someone ignores a warning about honesty because someone else is less honest, about being kind because someone else is less kind, or about working hard when someone else is lazy, they are missing the point. God is not giving you a warning because He hates you. He is giving you a warning because He loves you and wants you to do better.
This obsession with equity is a red herring. It keeps you from accepting the warning that God is giving you. We don’t suffer for our father’s sins; we are accountable for ours. I can live a great life my entire life, but I am still accountable for the sin I let into my life. Or, I may live a wicked life, but if I turn and change, then God’s response will be in keeping with that.
The second character flaw is this idea of “I deserve it.” Verse 24 says, “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 an inheritance.” God had made a ruin of His own people and land. They had thought, “The temple is here. God is our God. Nothing will happen to us.” They felt entitled. Then they said, “God made this great promise of the land to one man, Abraham. How much more do we as a nation deserve this land that God has given to us?”
They missed the warning because they felt like they deserved what they had. In short, God said, “For I will lay the land most desolate, and the pomp of her strength shall cease.” Both an obsession with equity and the idea that I am entitled to what I have are forms of pomp and arrogance. In short, the one sin that leads to so many others is the arrogance of thinking, “I don’t need this warning. I don’t need help.”
So don’t make people eggshell around you. This is not an alibi for people who want to run roughshod over everyone else. This is a reminder that God’s warnings are for our good so that we can change.