“And you, son of man, say to the house of Israel, Thus have you said: ‘Surely our transgressions and our sins are upon us, and we rot away because of them. How then can we live?’
Here it is the people who speak, and their words are a verdict on themselves: no way out. Everything that follows turns on how God answers that despair.
The setting: a new principle after national ruin
The judgment on the nation has fallen. One writer sets this cry at the point where God lays down a fresh basis for His dealings.
J. N. DarbyIn view of these judgments, God sets up a completely new principle. He now deals with each person according to his own conduct, and not by the consequences of national sin (v. 10, 11). So the door was still wide open to individual repentance, based on a testimony that spoke to each person, whatever the national judgment might be.
"We rot away" — the language of hopelessness
The same picture appears earlier in Ezekiel. There God warns a grieving people that this wasting away would be all they had left.
William KellyNothing would be left for them but wasting away in their sins and groaning to one another. What a picture of despair, when the sorrow lies too deep for tears, and an overwhelming sense of guilt forces men to abandon hope!
The argument hidden inside the complaint
Their words sound like confession, but they work as an excuse. One writer reads the cry as a plea that God's righteousness has left no way to live, and then gives the Lord's reply.
Numerical Bible NotesThey were now ready to plead, and indeed were pleading, that no one could live before the unbending righteousness of God. But the Lord replies, as He had already declared again and again, that He has no pleasure in the death of the wicked. He wants them to turn from their wickedness and live. For anyone who truly turned to Him, God would not remember any of his past wickedness against him. Could God go on with them in their evil ways? Even they could not think so. There was then only one choice left... Why would they die? Their death was of their own will and not His.
Another writer links this despair to the charge they made against God elsewhere in the chapter, and shows where the mercy they needed came from.
Arno C. GaebeleinThe exiles knew that the just wrath of God rested upon them as a nation and that their sins were unforgiven... They also accused the Lord of inconsistency by saying, "the way of the Lord is not equal." ... Judgment rested upon them as a nation, but the individual still could turn to the Lord in repentance. The wicked man who confessed and gave up his sin would find mercy and forgiveness... And this gracious promise was given looking forward to the work of the cross, the redemption by the blood of Christ. In it God declares His righteousness in passing over the sins of Old Testament believers who turned to God (Rom. 3:25).
God's answer: judgment is not His delight
The reply says nothing about their guilt. It shows what God Himself feels about judgment.
W. TrotterIt is not because judgment is His delight... If God pleaded like this with Israel long ago, we may be sure He is no more willing to judge Christendom and the nations now. Even where He foretells those judgments in the most solemn words, He speaks of rising to do His work. He calls it "his strange work," and His act "his strange act."
The same cry from an awakened conscience today
The same cry rises from anyone who wakes up to his own guilt. One writer traces where that road ends.
C. StanleyHe has tried to be innocent. He has pleaded, "Not as guilty as my neighbours." He has tried to mend his ways. He has tried to keep the law of God, and he has broken it more and more... And so, sooner or later, every saved sinner is brought to utter despair about all help in self, or in what self can do.
That cry gets a direct answer.
H. H. Snell"I know I am a sinner. I am sure I have broken God's laws... Can I be saved? Is there hope for me?" Yes! yes, dear soul; Jesus died for such as you. He was nailed to the cross for the ungodly. Every sin-convicted soul that looks to Him, He saves.
Summary
- Cry — The words are the people's, not God's: guilt still on them, and no way left to live. Sorrow this deep has stopped expecting anything.
- Excuse — Underneath the despair sits an accusation. They pleaded that God's righteousness left no way to live. Elsewhere they said outright that His way was not fair.
- Answer — God has no pleasure in the death of the wicked. He calls judgment His strange work. Their death was their own will, not His.
- Door — National judgment had fallen, yet individual repentance stayed open. Whoever truly turns finds his past not remembered against him.
- Today — Every awakened conscience reaches the same dead end of self-help. The reply is still to turn and live. Jesus died for exactly such people.