Ezekiel 3:4-9 – He then said to me: “Son of man, go now to the people of Israel and speak my words to them. 5 You are not being sent to a people of obscure speech and strange language, but to the people of Israel— 6 not to many peoples of obscure speech and strange language, whose words you cannot understand. Surely if I had sent you to them, they would have listened to you. 7 But the people of Israel are not willing to listen to you because they are not willing to listen to me, for all the Israelites are hardened and obstinate. 8 But I will make you as unyielding and hardened as they are. 9 I will make your forehead like the hardest stone, harder than flint. Do not be afraid of them or terrified by them, though they are a rebellious people.”
“He then said to me: “Son of man, go now to the people of Israel and speak my words to them.” God told His prophet Ezekiel to go and speak His Words to the people of Israel. Matthew 28:19-20 “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Jesus told all His people to go to the whole world and speak, and teach, His Word.
“You are not being sent to a people of obscure speech and strange language, but to the people of Israel—6 not to many peoples of obscure speech and strange language, whose words you cannot understand.” The Lord God told Ezekiel to go out among his own countryman, and bring the word to them. The Lord was not sending Ezekiel to a foreign country that spoke a different language. He said talk to you neighbors, your family, your friends and your nation. Luke 14:23-24 “Then the master told his servant, ‘Go out to the roads and country lanes and compel them to come in, so that my house will be full. 24 I tell you, not one of those who were invited will get a taste of my banquet. Jesus gave a parable that where the master told his servants to go out to the streets, to the alleys, to family, friends and our nations and invite them to come to the wedding feast (See Revelation 19:6-9).
“Surely if I had sent you to them, they would have listened to you. 7 But the people of Israel are not willing to listen to you because they are not willing to listen to me, for all the Israelites are hardened and obstinate.” It would seem that one’s own people would be prone to listen to one of their own, but unfortunately, it is the opposite. Mark 6:4 “Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his own town, among his relatives and in his own home.” So predictable, too often, but not always, our family, the company that trained us, even the church we attend cannot or refuses to acknowledge one’s abilities. Refuses to see the growth and the hand of God. Often a person must move on to strangers who can see what they are and not what they were. We see that even Jesus’s home town could not see Him as the Son of God that came to save the world, but could only see the little boy with a runny nose and this, to their own loss.
“But I will make you as unyielding and hardened as they are. 9 I will make your forehead like the hardest stone, harder than flint. Do not be afraid of them or terrified by them, though they are a rebellious people.” God enabled Ezekiel to be ready for the hard hearts and heads and for the anger, frustration and hate that he would face from his people. The people who Ezekiel would face would be hard hearted against God. But God would harden Ezekiel’s heart for God. God did not harden the heart of Ezekiel against whom He was being sent to give the Word. God was sending Ezekiel to save, not to destroy, and to give hope, not destroy hope. But God was also protecting Ezekiel so that those who do not love God would not cause Him to pull back in the giving of God’s message, but to be bolder and stronger against the most aggressive attacks against the message He was given by God. 2 Peter 1:3 “His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.” By the divine will and love of our God and Savior Jesus Christ we have been given the precious and sweet Holy Spirit to prepare us, to strengthen us and to soften us so that we will be able to stand up to every challenge and to cry with the broken hearted, that all may be touched by God through us. We stand for the sanctity and inerrancy of the Word of God. We tell the pure message that God gave to us in a precise canon what we now call the Bible. Others may doubt, but we have studied and the Holy Spirit has convinced us of the infallibility of the Bible. The world tells us that the Bible is a book of antiquity and not relative to our world. We know better. We know that God’s truth is infallible and unchangeable. The world would strip God of His omniscience and omnipotence so as to change our opinion of God (and to excuse themselves). Yet the Holy Spirit equips and enables us so that we do not yield to the challenge (Ephesians 6:10-20).
Family Ezekiel was given a tough job to do, He was told to be the Watchman for Israel. He was his brother’s keeper. He was not to have the heart of Cain who killed his brother and had no love for him. Ezekiel was challenged that if He did not give the saving message that God told him to give then he would hold him responsible for their evil ways (Ezekiel 3:18). How is this so? Family, we need to look deeper than action but judge as God does, looking at the heart (1 Samuel 16:7). God’s people will have His love and so love others. If we don’t have love than we don’t belong to God (1 John 4:8). God loves the world and desires it all to be saved (John 3:16). So if we have God’s love within, we will care about the salvation of all the people of the world, just as He does. If we will not bring the message of God to the world, or at least our part of it, then we have to question if we have God’s love within, and what really is the status of our relationship with God. Furthermore, since Jesus told us to share the Gospel, if we don’t, then we are disobedient and Jesus said that if we do not obey Him, then we really don’t love Him (John 14:15). So if Ezekiel did not obey God, if He did not share the message from God, then the love of God and to God, was missing. The same is true for us. Ezekiel could have protested “Yeah but”, and so could we. But God’s Word was clear to him and is clear to us. Jesus has not given us a list of substitutes to do instead. He gave us the “Great Commission” to share the Gospel. We might say that we do other things. Jesus did not give us options to do instead of, but in addition to. Family, let us honor the Savior and Lord that we love by letting His love flow through us back to Him, and to each other, and thereby the love of God is completed. 1 John 2:3-5 “We know that we have come to know him if we keep his commands. 4 Whoever says, “I know him,” but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in that person. 5 But if anyone obeys his word, love for God is truly made complete in them. This is how we know we are in him.”
God told Ezekiel that he indeed was his brother’s keeper. He tells us the same. Praise God!
Psalm 150:6 – Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord!
Micah 7:7 – But as for me, I watch in hope for the Lord, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear me.
Micah 6:8 – He has shown You, O man, what is good; And what does the Lord require of You but to do justly, to love mercy, And to walk humbly with Your God.