The Prophet as a Pop Song Text: Ezekiel 33:30-33
Introduction: Connoisseurs of the Word
We live in an age drowning in religious information and starving for spiritual wisdom. A man can sit in his climate controlled living room and, with a few clicks, listen to the most eloquent preachers from across the globe. He can subscribe to podcasts, download sermon series, and fill his commute with endless hours of Bible teaching. He can become a connoisseur of exegetical styles, an expert on homiletical techniques, and a critic of theological nuances. And he can do all of this while his own heart remains a barren, untilled wasteland.
The central problem of our day is not a famine of the Word being preached, but rather a widespread deafness to the Word being heard. It is a rebellion of the will, not a deficiency of the intellect. Men are more than willing to be entertained by God, to be stimulated by His prophet, to discuss His Word as a matter of curious interest. What they are not willing to do is obey it. They want to audit the class, but they have no intention of taking the final exam.
This is not a new problem. This is the ancient disease of the fallen human heart, and God provides a perfect diagnosis of it here in the book of Ezekiel. The prophet Ezekiel was a man set apart by God to speak hard truths to a hard people. He was ministering to the exiles in Babylon, a people who had been ripped from their homeland because of their idolatry and rebellion. You would think that such a traumatic judgment would have softened them up, made them tender and receptive to the Word of the Lord. But as God reveals to Ezekiel, their hearts were just as hard in Babylon as they had been in Jerusalem. They had changed their location, but not their disposition.
They flocked to hear Ezekiel. He was the talk of the town. But God pulls back the curtain to show His prophet what is really going on in the hearts of his audience. They are not coming as penitent sinners seeking deliverance. They are coming as bored consumers seeking a diversion. They are treating the Word of the living God as a form of religious entertainment, and the prophet of God as a popular musician. This passage is a sobering warning to every generation of the church, and particularly to ours. It forces us to ask the question: are we doers of the Word, or are we merely its consumers?
The Text
"But as for you, son of man, the sons of your people who talk about you by the walls and in the doorways of the houses, speak to one another, each to his brother, saying, 'Come now and hear what the word is which comes forth from Yahweh.' They come to you as people come and sit before you as My people and hear your words, but they do not do them, for they do the lustful desires expressed by their mouth, and their heart goes after their greedy gain. Behold, you are to them like a lustful song by one who has a beautiful voice and plays well on an instrument; for they hear your words but they do not do them. So when it comes to pass, behold, it is coming, then they will know that a prophet has been in their midst.”
(Ezekiel 33:30-33 LSB)
Religious Chatter and Pious Posturing (v. 30-31)
God begins by showing Ezekiel the "buzz" that surrounds his ministry.
"But as for you, son of man, the sons of your people who talk about you by the walls and in the doorways of the houses, speak to one another, each to his brother, saying, 'Come now and hear what the word is which comes forth from Yahweh.'" (Ezekiel 33:30)
Ezekiel is a popular topic of conversation. The people are gathering in public and in private, not to pray, not to repent, but to gossip about the prophet. "Did you hear what Ezekiel said this week? Quite the performance. Very dramatic." He is a local celebrity, a source of public interest. Notice their language. It sounds wonderfully pious. "Come now and hear what the word is which comes forth from Yahweh." They use the right vocabulary. They acknowledge that the message originates with God. They are encouraging one another to go and listen. On the surface, this looks like a revival.
But God sees the heart. He sees that this is all just religious chatter. It is a way to feel spiritual without the inconvenience of actual obedience. It is the ancient equivalent of sharing a sermon clip on social media with a caption like "So good!" and then continuing to live exactly as you did before. It is the form of godliness, denying its power.
And so they follow through on their pious invitations:
"They come to you as people come and sit before you as My people and hear your words, but they do not do them, for they do the lustful desires expressed by their mouth, and their heart goes after their greedy gain." (Ezekiel 33:31)
They show up. They fill the seats. They sit before the prophet and adopt the posture of disciples. God says they come "as My people." They look the part. They know how to act in a religious gathering. They are attentive. They listen. They hear. And that is as far as it goes. "They hear your words, but they do not do them." This is the great disconnect, the fatal chasm between the ear and the hand, between hearing and heeding.
And God immediately exposes the reason why. Their inaction is not an accident; it is the fruit of a divided heart. Two things have captured their true affections: lust and greed. "They do the lustful desires expressed by their mouth, and their heart goes after their greedy gain." Their mouths are full of one thing, and their hearts are full of another. They might talk about Yahweh, but their mouths also give expression to their base desires. And underneath it all, their hearts, the true command center of their lives, are chasing after money, after unjust profit. They serve two masters, which is to say, they serve mammon. Their religion is a weekend hobby; their covetousness is a full time job. The Word of God cannot take root because the soil of their hearts is choked with the weeds of worldly desire.
The Prophet as Performer (v. 32)
In verse 32, God gives Ezekiel a devastatingly precise analogy for how the people perceive him and his message.
"Behold, you are to them like a lustful song by one who has a beautiful voice and plays well on an instrument; for they hear your words but they do not do them." (Ezekiel 33:32)
God tells his prophet, "You are not a messenger to them; you are a musician. You are not a watchman sounding an alarm; you are an entertainer putting on a show." The message is compared to a "lustful song" or a "love song." It is aesthetically pleasing. It might be beautiful, moving, and skillfully delivered. Ezekiel has a "beautiful voice" and "plays well." In other words, he is a gifted communicator. And they appreciate his talent. They are sermon connoisseurs. They might leave the gathering saying, "What a wonderful sermon! The prophet was in fine form today. His rhetorical skill is unmatched."
They enjoy the performance. It stirs their emotions. It tickles their ears. But it is consumed as entertainment, and therefore it requires nothing of them. A concert does not demand repentance. A beautiful song does not require you to forsake your greed. And so, for the second time, God repeats the damnable charge: "for they hear your words but they do not do them." This repetition is like the tolling of a funeral bell. Hearing without doing is the very definition of a dead faith. As James, the brother of the Lord, would later write, "But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves" (James 1:22). These people were experts in self deception.
The Coming Vindication (v. 33)
The passage concludes with a solemn and terrifying promise. There is a day of clarification coming.
"So when it comes to pass, behold, it is coming, then they will know that a prophet has been in their midst.” (Ezekiel 33:33)
The "it" that is coming is the fulfillment of Ezekiel's prophecies of judgment. Specifically, the news of Jerusalem's final, catastrophic fall. Reality is about to crash their little concert. When the consequences of their sin, which Ezekiel had been warning them about, finally arrive, the song will be over. The entertainment will cease. And in the rubble of their world, a terrible realization will dawn on them.
"Then they will know." On that day, their theological categories will be violently rearranged. They will understand, with a clarity born of disaster, that Ezekiel was not just a man with a beautiful voice. He was not an artist. He was a prophet. He was speaking the very words of the living God, words of life and death, and they treated it like a pleasant tune. The vindication of the prophet's word is the judgment of those who ignored it. They will finally know who he was, but by then it will be too late.
Conclusion: From Consumer to Convert
This passage holds up a mirror to the modern church. How many of us come to worship as consumers? We evaluate the music, we critique the sermon, we enjoy the fellowship, and we leave unchanged. We treat the preaching of the Word as one more piece of content to be consumed, liked, and shared. We hear, but we do not do.
The root of the problem in Ezekiel's day was a heart enslaved to lust and greed. And the root is the same today. We cannot serve God and mammon. We cannot delight in the Word of God on Sunday and then spend the rest of the week chasing the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. A heart full of the world has no room for the Word to take root and bear fruit.
What, then, is the solution? It is not to simply try harder to "be a doer." That is mere moralism, and it is a crushing burden. The solution is the one that the prophet Ezekiel himself proclaimed elsewhere. It is the promise of a new heart. "I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes" (Ezekiel 36:26-27).
Only God can solve the problem of the disobedient heart. Only the gospel can turn a spiritual consumer into a true convert. The cross of Jesus Christ is not a beautiful song about love; it is the bloody instrument of God's justice and mercy. It is the place where our old, disobedient self is crucified with Him, and from which we are raised to new life, a life of obedience empowered by the Holy Spirit. The gospel does not just give us something to hear; it makes us into something new.
The call, therefore, is to repent. Repent of treating the holy things of God as a form of entertainment. Repent of your lust and your greed. Repent of hearing without doing. And cry out to God for a new heart, a heart that delights in His law. For the day is coming, behold, it is coming, when every sermon you have ever heard will be brought into evidence. And on that day, it will be made clear whether the Word was to you a pleasant song, or whether it was the power of God unto salvation.