3:20 Again, When a {i} righteous [man] doth turn from his righteousness, and commit iniquity, and I lay a {k} stumblingblock before him, he shall die: because thou hast not given him warning, he shall die in his sin, and his {l} righteousness which he hath done shall not be remembered; but his blood will I require at thy hand.
(i) If he that has been instructed in the right way turn back.
(k) I will give him up to a reprobate mind, Ro 1:28.
(l) Which seemed to have been done in faith, and was not.
3:20 I Lay - Permit it to be laid before him. He shall - Perish in his sin. Remembered - Shall not be profitable to him; he that apostatizes is the worst of men, because he falls from known ways of goodness and holiness.
3:12-21 This mission made the holy angels rejoice. All this was to convince Ezekiel, that the God who sent him had power to bear him out in his work. He was overwhelmed with grief for the sins and miseries of his people, and overpowered by the glory of the vision he had seen. And however retirement, meditation, and communion with God may be sweet, the servant of the Lord must prepare to serve his generation. The Lord told the prophet he had appointed him a watchman to the house of Israel. If we warn the wicked, we are not chargeable with their ruin. Though such passages refer to the national covenant made with Israel, they are equally to be applied to the final state of all men under every dispensation. We are not only to encourage and comfort those who appear to be righteous, but they are to be warned, for many have grown high-minded and secure, have fallen, and even died in their sins. Surely then the hearers of the gospel should desire warnings, and even reproofs.
