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\(^{10}\)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.

This chapter repeats the metaphor of Ezekiel as Israel’s watchman from chapter 3.

The verse that sticks out to me the most, and it’s a verse that has really stuck with me is verse 11. God says so emphatically that he has no pleasure in the death of the wicked, he wants us all to turn from our wicked ways and live. It’s so comforting.

However, God also makes it very clear that he won’t clear the guilty if they don’t repent, and that if the righteous person turns to wickedness, their previous righteousness won’t save them.

This chapter, like chapter 3 anticipates people objecting to this. Because it says a wicked person will be cleared if they repent, they will say that isn’t fair. This is the same sort of objection people had to Jesus. People want to think they can gain God’s approval through their own actions. God is actually looking for people to trust in him to save them, to earn the righteousness they can never have themselves.

People who have good reputations, or who feel they have worked hard and had no reward can, sadly, fall into the trap of thinking they have earned the right to some guilty pleasures. The Oxfam Haiti scandal and Ravi Zachariahs are prominent examples of this kind of attitude. But God doesn’t look at it that way at all. We can never earn the right to do evil. Our hearts are more evil than we know. We should hate evil as much as we can and trust in the Lord to save us.