Ezekiel 2:1-3:15 Ezekiel’s Call
God calls Ezekiel to speak to his own people. Not strangers but heard headed Israelites. Ezekiel is overwhelmed and takes a week to soak it in.
When God called Ezekiel, He first got his attention with the vision. This vision was awe inspiring! Just hearing about it is amazing. Imagine being the one to actually SEE IT first hand!!!
Last time we met, we looked at the four living creatures and the wheels. I didn’t touch on the glory of God that Ezekiel saw. I’m not sure why it slipped past me. Maybe it was so we could link back to it for today. God’s glory drove Ezekiel to his knees but His Spirit lifted him back onto his feet.
God spoke to Ezekiel, not while he was groveling on the ground and too afraid to listen. He stood him tall so they could speak ‘face-to-face’ as it were. When God first told Ezekiel to “stand on your feet”, Ezekiel didn’t have it within himself to be able to do this. God’s Spirit had to raise him up. And it would be God’s Spirit working within Ezekiel that would carry him through the mission God was about to give him.
I find it interesting, and almost comical, how many times God told Ezekiel that the people probably wouldn’t listen to him. God KNEW the hearts of His people. He knew they were stubborn and still in rebellion. He also knew that it would take some time for that rebellion to break and their hearts to soften. God was putting Ezekiel in a place to ‘chip away’ at their hearts.
God wasn’t sending a weak-kneed prophet. He was hardening Ezekiel against the looks, the words, the attitudes and the actions of those he was sent to prophecy to. God also told Ezekiel it didn’t matter if the people listened to him. He was to keep speaking God’s word anyway. Ezekiel was also told that this would be a HARD task. It would be personally painful. “Be not afraid of them, nor be afraid of their words, though briars and thorns are with you and you sit on scorpions” (verse 6b). Can we say “OUCH!”?
God KNEW the people would mistreat His prophets. And that they would be killed physically. He would protect their spirits though, IF they followed His call on their lives. Ezekiel had a choice. In fact, God told him not to be rebellious like the rest of Israel. In other words, accept My calling, accept my words.
Ezekiel received God’s words in a way that none of the other prophets had. Ezekiel read and ATE God’s words. The words full of misery tasted sweet in Ezekiel’s mouth. That MUST have been a God thing. I can’t imagine words of woe being sweet. I wonder why God made them sweet. Was it to give Ezekiel fortitude for what lay ahead? Was the sweet part where his spirit saw the redemption that lay ahead? The circumstances of the people was not ‘sweet’ at that time. Nor was what lay ahead for Ezekiel. Maybe the ‘sweetness’ was simply God’s Spirit washing over and filling up Ezekiel. THAT would certainly be ‘sweet’ and filling.
Ezekiel ends his encounter with the Lord with another awesome encounter with the four creatures. He heard them praising the Lord and the sound of their wings as they flew. At first, I thought he said they touched him but it says they touched one another. The Holy Spirit transported Ezekiel from the place where he encountered God to where the people were; those whom he would minister to.
The ‘sweetness’ did not stay with Ezekiel when he left the presence of the Lord. “The Spirit lifted me up and took me away, and I went in bitterness in the heat of my spirit, the hand of the Lord being strong upon me” (verse 14). He was overwhelmed by the task before him. He didn’t refuse the mission but he took a week to soak it all in.
We don’t see that the people asked him any questions about what had happened. He doesn’t appear to have told them about it either. But he would, when the time was right.
When God gives us a job to do, He doesn’t promise us a smooth road either. When I started sharing my journal time, I didn’t know what was ahead. Watching the numbers of people reached was very disheartening to me. I felt like I was talking to the wind. But I kept going anyway. I even got caught up in scams that claimed they would help me increase my audience AND make a living here. They were all empty promises. But God has rewarded my faithfulness. HE has grown the number of lives I get to share His word with. I don’t know what lies ahead but whatever it is, I KNOW He will be with me through it. And that’s ALL I need to know to keep going.
Father God, thank You that NO task You ask me to do is done in my own strength. I ALWAYS have to rely on You. Your Spirit is what gives me the strength on the hard days and the joy on the lighter ones. Thank You that I will NEVER walk alone.
