| Church School Lesson: To Everything Turn, Turn, Turn |
"To Everything Turn, Turn, Turn"
November 23, 2025
Background: Ezekiel 18:1-32; 33:1-20; Print: Ezekiel 33:7-16;
Key Verse: Ezekiel 33:7; Devotional: Jeremiah 17:5-10
Ezekiel 33:7-16 (ESV)
7 “So you, son of man, I have made a watchman for the house of Israel. Whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you shall give them warning from me.
8 If I say to the wicked, O wicked one, you shall surely die, and you do not speak to warn the wicked to turn from his way, that wicked person shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand.
9 But if you warn the wicked to turn from his way, and he does not turn from his way, that person shall die in his iniquity, but you will have delivered your soul.
10 “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?’
11 Say to them, As I live, declares the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways, for why will you die, O house of Israel?
12 “And you, son of man, say to your people, The righteousness of the righteous shall not deliver him when he transgresses, and as for the wickedness of the wicked, he shall not fall by it when he turns from his wickedness, and the righteous shall not be able to live by his righteousness when he sins.
13 Though I say to the righteous that he shall surely live, yet if he trusts in his righteousness and does injustice, none of his righteous deeds shall be remembered, but in his injustice that he has done he shall die.
14 Again, though I say to the wicked, ‘You shall surely die,’ yet if he turns from his sin and does what is just and right,
15 if the wicked restores the pledge, gives back what he has taken by robbery, and walks in the statutes of life, not doing injustice, he shall surely live; he shall not die.
16 None of the sins that he has committed shall be remembered against him. He has done what is just and right; he shall surely live.
Ezekiel Chapter 33 (Commentary)
33:1-9 Ezekiel had been speaking words of judgment for seven years, otherwise keeping silent in obedience to God’s command (see 3:26-27) as part of his original commission to his prophetic office (beginning at 3:16). He had proclaimed that the people of Judah, the only ones who remained of Israel, would be punished for their sins (chapters 1–24), as would the nations around them (chapters 25–32). But from here to the end of the book, the message to Israel becomes one of restoration, because God did not intend to abandon his covenant people forever. The nation of Israel was going to be brought back to him (and these messages spoke to the entire nation, not just to Judah).
Since Ezekiel’s message was going to change, it was appropriate that God recom-mission him to his ministry. For seven years prior to the fall of Jerusalem, Ezekiel had remained mute when not delivering a prophetic oracle from God. But when news arrived that Jerusalem had fallen, God lifted that restriction and Ezekiel was free to speak (see 33:21-22).
This chapter may not sound like good news to God’s people, but he had to do some spadework before he could begin rebuilding. The people of Judah who stayed behind in the land, and all of the Israelites, still needed to understand that they were personally responsible before God for their actions. God brought this point home by appointing Ezekiel as Israel’s watchman, with the responsibility to blow his trumpet to warn of coming danger (33:2-3). Anyone who ignored a faithful watchman’s warning and lost his life would be solely responsible for his own death. But if the watchman failed to give the warning and people died, the watchman would be held accountable for their deaths (33:4-9). In this way God stressed the personal responsibility of both the watchman (Ezekiel) and those who heard his message of repentance that was to follow.
Similarly, it is the role of spiritual leaders today to warn God’s people of his just judgment against sin and call them to repentance. Leaders who fail to fully carry out this sacred duty are accountable.
33:10-11 That message finally penetrated the hearts of his fellow Israelites. For the first time, they acknowledged that it was because of their transgressions and sins that they were wasting away, and they asked in despair, How then can we survive? (33:10). God told Ezekiel to give them words of comfort: God did not take pleasure in the death of the wicked, and their sin could be forgiven (33:11).
33:12-16 God’s declaration that a person is righteous—in right standing before him—is always based on faith that expresses itself in right actions. That’s the message Ezekiel delivered here. It was an invitation for the people to repent of sin and do what is just and right (33:14). It was a message that all the people of Israel desperately needed to hear and heed. One of the problems of the exiles, in fact, was that they loved to hear Ezekiel speak, but they didn’t put his words into action (see 33:31). In today’s terms, they shouted “Amen!” on Sunday, but lived as they pleased on Monday through Saturday. They voted for God’s kingdom agenda with their mouths but voted for their own agenda with their hands and feet.