Ezekiel 3
We do not get to choose the times we live in. We do not get to choose our generation. We only get to choose whether or not we remain faithful to our General’s commands.
Such was Ezekiel’s reality. Surely he would have preferred to preach in a time of great revival, when crowds of people would respond positively to his message. But the inverse was true: if he preached God’s message, God promises him that they would not listen (7a). This is because their minds are closed and their hearts are stubborn (7b).
So then, God has made Ezekiel’s “forehead hard” and his face like a knife’s blade (8). This is a play on Ezekiel’s name, literally “God hardens.” It matters not if Ezekiel was raised to be an agreeable, amiable fellow. It matters not if Ezekiel thinks of himself as suitable for the confrontation: God has made him suitable. Ezekiel must walk by faith in what God says about himself.
Once again the command is given: “Fear them not . . .” (9). This does not mean that he should not feel any fear, but that he must not be controlled by fear, which inevitably would lead to shaving off something God told him to say, like an ancient Joel Osteen. “Fear them not,” because there is no neutral ground for his listeners, nor for Ezekiel. God has called him to a dangerous calling.
Either Ezekiel digests God’s words into his mind and heart (10) and preaches them fully, regardless of Israel’s response, or he doesn’t. It’s pass-fail. If he doesn’t, God will still bring judgment on His people, but their blood will be on Ezekiel’s hands (18-20). But if he does warn them, Ezekiel will have “delivered (his) own soul” (22).
This is a hard reality, all around. The boats are burned; there is no turning back. Cowardice leads to death. Certainly Paul thought himself under the very same burden, as he was able to tell the Ephesian elders:
Acts 20:26–27 (ESV): Therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all, 27 for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God.
God continues to raise up such men today. The fact that the hardened hordes do not listen makes them no less successful.
August 31