Martyn McGeown on Ezekiel 18:23, 32 and 33:11

Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die? saith the Lord God: and not that he should return from his ways, and live? (Ezek. 18:23)

For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord God: wherefore turn yourselves, and live ye (Ezek. 18:32).

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? (Ezek. 33:11)

(a)

[Source: “A Double-Minded God Unstable in All His Ways,” in British Reformed Journal, issues 57 & 58. Rev. McGeown is the missionary-pastor of the Covenant Protestant Reformed Church in Northern Ireland (www.cprf.co.uk) and is stationed in Limerick, Republic of Ireland (www.limerickreformed.com). He has written three books: Called to Watch for Christ’s Return—an exposition of Matthew 24-25 (2016), Grace and Assurance: The Message of the Canons of Dordt (2018) and Micah: Proclaiming the Incomparable God (2018).]

It is bizarre that Ezekiel should have been misused for so long because it was the last thing from Ezekiel’s mind—and from the Spirit’s mind who inspired Ezekiel—to teach that God loves, has mercy on and desires to save all men. Such a concept was utterly foreign to the Old Testament. We sometimes read the Bible through the lens of modern sentimentalism. Today, it is controversial to teach that God does not love everyone. In biblical times, it was controversial to teach that God’s love extends beyond Israel. That is why the “world” and “all men” passages in the New Testament were revolutionary in their day. Modern man has taken them too far. They do not mean “every man head for head,” but the Jews were reluctant to take them far enough; they do mean all nations, tribes and tongues. The Jew-Gentile distinction has indeed been broken down.

The Ezekiel trio of 18:23, 32 and 33:11 speak of God’s good pleasure: “Have I any pleasure ...?”, “I have no pleasure ...,” “As I live ... I have no pleasure.” … God’s good pleasure is at least three things. First, it is what God is pleased to do, that which seemed good to Him to decree and execute for His own glory (Ps. 115:3; 135:6; Eph. 1:5). Second, God’s good pleasure is that in which He delights or that which is pleasing in His sight. Third, it is that of which He approves in His creatures and therefore that which He commands (such as obedience and repentance). In Ezekiel, God declares emphatically with an oath that He does not take pleasure in the death of the wicked (18:23; 33:11) or in the death of him that dieth (18:32). But what [the proponent of the “well-meant offer”] (and the Arminians) reads into the text is this: God earnestly desires that all wicked men, whoever and wherever they are, in every age and nation, not perish but turn and live. That is not what Ezekiel is teaching!

First, the context forbids it. The solemn oath of Jehovah in 33:11 occurs after chapters 25-32 in which God has prophesied death, destruction, doom and damnation upon Ammon, Moab, Edom, Philistia, Tyre, Sidon and Egypt. Are we seriously expected to believe that God did not desire the death of any of the wicked in any of those reprobate nations? How did God—who affirms this with a solemn oath—show this desire to save those wicked? Did God even send a prophet to announce the glad tidings to these nations that He did not have any pleasure in their death? Second, Ezekiel’s careful qualifications forbid [the well-meant offer] view. Which wicked does God have in mind? The house of Israel (18:32; 33:11)! Moreover, within the house of Israel, addressed as one organic whole, God does not even have all the wicked in mind. God has no pleasure in the death of the wicked who turn. “Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die? saith the Lord God: and not that he should return from his ways, and live?” “I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live.” God says nothing here about any pleasure or displeasure He might have in the death of the wicked who does not turn. In fact … there are some wicked in whose death God does delight, whose death does please God. I Samuel 2:25, speaking of the reprobate sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, teaches that “they hearkened not unto the voice of their father, because the Lord would slay them.” Literally, I Samuel 2:25 says, “because the Lord delighted, took pleasure in and willed to cause them to die.” God did take pleasure in the death of these two non-turning, wicked, reprobate men. Hophni and Phinehas, although Israelites and sons of the high priest, were never the object of God’s favour or love. God never had compassion on them. God never desired to save them, not even with a desire which He supposedly “restrained” under a conflicting desire to destroy them. They are not part of the wicked whose death gives God no pleasure.

This truth that God has no pleasure in the death of the repenting wicked is the pastoral appeal of Ezekiel’s prophecy. Especially this is the case in chapter 33. God’s people were in exile. They had seen their hopes dashed when news returned to them from Jerusalem. God’s holy city and temple had been destroyed. In verse 10, the people lament, “If our transgressions and our sins be upon us, and we pine away in them, how should we then live?” Despair was in the camp of the exiles. God has finished with His people; there is no mercy, even if we turn, because the covenant is broken and Christ will never come. It was to that people that Ezekiel brings comfort—not to the heathen, not to everybody, not to the hardened and impenitent, but to God’s despairing people. There is salvation and life for the wicked who turns—no matter how wicked he may be. The people of God in Ezekiel’s audience needed that encouragement and we do too. Their companions were telling them that there was no point in turning, and the devil wanted them to despair so that they would never repent. God answers the fear of His own people who were sorry for their sins but were afraid to repent. God swears that there is life for the one who turns. Essentially what God says is this, “As I live, if I have no life for the wicked who turns, then I am not God. If the wicked turns to me from sin and finds no life in me, I am not the living God.” Behind that solemn promise stands the cross.

It would have been nonsense and no comfort if Ezekiel had said to his contemporaries, “Do not worry. Jehovah loves everybody. He really desires to save everybody.” The Israelites would have looked at him with incredulous astonishment (our reaction ought to be this too, if we know the Scriptures). “If God wants to save everybody …,” Ezekiel’s audience might have asked, “… why did He not choose everybody? Why did He not make atonement for the sins of everybody? And why does He not give life to everybody?” Ezekiel could not have answered as [the proponent of the well-meant offer] does, “Well, God does want to save everybody, but in His complex mind, God wants something more, which is to show His justice by destroying the wicked. But you must understand that this in no way negates God’s genuine compassion towards the wicked whom He will punish forever in hell for their sins.”

Ezekiel’s God is no hypocrite who offers something He does not have. That is the god of the modern, confused, conflicted Calvinist … a god who is muddleheaded and double-minded, and thus unstable in all his ways.

(b)

[Source: Protestant Reformed Theological Journal, vol. 55, no. 2 (April 2018), pp. 68-69]

But which wicked does God have in mind here? Not all wicked everywhere, but the wicked of the house of Israel! Moreover, within the house of Israel, addressed as one organic whole, God does not even have all wicked people in mind. God has no pleasure in the death of the wicked who turn: “Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die? saith the Lord God: and not that he should return from his ways and live?” “I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live.” God says nothing here about any pleasure or displeasure that He might have in the death of wicked people who do not turn. And God delights in the life of the turning wicked exactly because He purposes the salvation of the turning wicked, for He grants repentance to His elect people, so that they turn to Him.

[“Free offer” advocates argue,] “It is absolutely and universally true that God does not delight in or desire the death of a wicked person. It is likewise absolutely and universally true that he delights in the repentance of that wicked person” … But this is not true of the reprobate. The text does not teach that God desires the salvation of all reprobate people.

Positively, the text means this: there is salvation and life for the wicked who turns—no matter how wicked he may be.  The people of God in Ezekiel’s audience needed that encouragement. Their companions were telling them that there was no point in turning, and the devil wanted them to despair so that they would never repent. God answered the fear of His own people who were sorry for their sins, but were afraid to repent. God swears that there is life for the one who turns. Essentially what God says is this, “As I live, if I have no life for the wicked who turns, then I am not God. If the wicked turns to Me from sin and finds no life in Me, I am not the living God.” Behind that solemn promise stands the cross where life was purchased for all turning sinners.

In fact, there are some wicked in whose death God does delight, whose death does please God.  I Samuel 2:25, speaking of the reprobate sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, teaches that “they hearkened not unto the voice of their father, because the Lord would slay them.” Literally, I Samuel 2:25 says, “because the Lord delighted, took pleasure in and willed to cause them to die” (Hebrew: chapez). God did take pleasure in the death of these two non-turning, wicked, reprobate men. Hophni and Phinehas, although Israelites and sons of the high priest, were never the object of God’s favor or love. God never had compassion on them. God never desired to save them.