- God explains the reasons for the deaths of everyone who'll die in the Babylonian invasion.
- If a watchman sees the armies coming and blows his trumpet and people fail to heed the warning—hey, they deserve to die.
- But, if the watchman fails to blow the trumpet, he'll be held responsible for those people's deaths. But they're still going to die, because they're sinners.
- As you might have been able to guess, Israel has a watchman. His name? Ezekiel.
- When people turn to Ezekiel asking him what they can do to remedy their sins and offenses, he says, "Turn away from sin—DURR!"
- He reiterates the point that a righteous person who goes bad won't be forgiven because of how good they were in the past. But the same thing goes for the wicked: if they turn good, their pasts won't be held against them.
- Although the people claim God isn't just, it's actually their ways that are unjust.
Ezekiel Ain't Just Some Boy Band Member
- Ezekiel now discusses how a man came to him after the fall of Jerusalem bringing him the news that it had finally been destroyed in the siege.
- Ezekiel says he was able to talk. This may be (slash is very) confusing since Ezekiel has been gabbing it up for 33 chapters and counting. But, back in 3:26, God told him he was going to make him silent (hard to say why) but that his silence would be released when the exile hit (as was predicted in 24:27.) So now, in comes the fall of Jerusalem, and out come the words.
- He prophesies saying that the people in Judah think God's given them the land, because he gave it to Abraham and they're his descendants.
- But that just ain't so, says Ezekiel—they're too given to eating meat with the blood still in it (not kosher), worshipping idols, and committing adultery.
- God says that even the people left in the ruins will die by the sword, and wild animals will devour the bodies of the Judean country folk. The land will be—guess what?—a desolate waste.
- The people, says God, come to Ezekiel and listen to his words about love and goodness and pretend to heed them, but they're actually greedy and corrupt on the inside. To them, Ezekiel is only like a performer of love songs.
- When everything Ezekiel says comes true, they'll recognize him for a genuine prophet. You can just picture Ezekiel shaking his fist and muttering, "just you wait!"