*Scripture: Ezekiel 33:1-20 (NKJV)* 1 Again the word of the LORD came to me, saying, 2 "Son of man, speak to the children of your people, and say to them: 'When I bring the sword upon a land, and the people of the land take a man from their territory and make him their watchman, 3 when he sees the sword coming upon the land, if he blows the trumpet and warns the people, 4 then whoever hears the sound of the trumpet and does not take warning, if the sword comes and takes him away, his blood shall be on his own head. 5 He heard the sound of the trumpet, but did not take warning; his blood shall be upon himself. But he who takes warning will save his life. 6 But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet, and the people are not warned, and the sword comes and takes any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood I will require at the watchman's hand.'
7 "So you, son of man: I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel; therefore you shall hear a word from My mouth and warn them for Me. 8 When I say to the wicked, 'O wicked man, you shall surely die!' and you do not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood I will require at your hand. 9 Nevertheless if you warn the wicked to turn from his way, and he does not turn from his way, he shall die in his iniquity; but you have delivered your soul. 10 "Therefore you, O son of man, say to the house of Israel: 'Thus you say, "If our transgressions and our sins lie upon us, and we pine away in them, how can we then live?"' 11 Say to them: 'As I live,' says the Lord GOD, 'I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways! For why should you die, O house of Israel?' 12 "Therefore you, O son of man, say to the children of your people: 'The righteousness of the righteous man shall not deliver him in the day of his transgression; as for the wickedness of the wicked, he shall not fall because of it in the day that he turns from his wickedness; nor shall the righteous be able to live because of his righteousness in the day that he sins.' 13 When I say to the righteous that he shall surely live, but he trusts in his own righteousness and commits iniquity, none of his righteous works shall be remembered; but because of the iniquity that he has committed, he shall die. 14 Again, when I say to the wicked, 'You shall surely die,' if he turns from his sin and does what is lawful and right, 15 if the wicked restores the pledge, gives back what he has stolen, and walks in the statutes of life without committing iniquity, he shall surely live; he shall not die. 16 None of his sins which he has committed shall be remembered against him; he has done what is lawful and right; he shall surely live. 17 "Yet the children of your people say, 'The way of the LORD is not fair.' But it is their way which is not fair! 18 When the righteous turns from his righteousness and commits iniquity, he shall die because of it. 19 But when the wicked turns from his wickedness and does what is lawful and right, he shall live because of it. 20 Yet you say, 'The way of the LORD is not fair.' O house of Israel, I will judge every one of you according to his own ways." *Devotion* As we read today's lesson we hear echoes of what the Lord had spoken to Ezekiel in previous chapters. It is important for us to remember that God is interested in the salvation of all people, both the wicked and the righteous, and that God's means of salvation is the same for all people. So why does God repeat this message to Ezekiel, and through Ezekiel to the Children of Israel? They, like we, keep forgetting what God says. All people, except for Jesus, are alike in the fact that we are by nature sinful and unclean. Because we are sinners we sin, and because we are sinners we cannot hear what God says unless God opens our ears to hear. In addition, if God did not continually repeat the message, our ears would turn deaf to His Word. It is His Word that creates hearing, and with hearing, faith. It is also through the same Word that He sustains our hearing and our faith. Throughout the course of time God has never ceased to call out to people to repent of their sins. Even though the people at the time of Ezekiel said, "The way of the Lord is not fair," God did not change the way He dealt with His people. All who are saved are saved by God's grace through the faith He creates within them. Those who reject God's grace, thinking that God "is not fair," will be judged as they wish, on the basis of their own works. As such, their works will judge them unworthy of the kingdom of God.
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