v1 “Moreover He said to me, ‘Son of man, eat what you find; eat this scroll, and go, speak to the house of Israel’.”
v2 “So I opened my mouth, and He caused me to eat that scroll.”
v3 “feed your belly and fill your stomach with this scroll that I give you”
In our belly lives our Spirit Man. The Word of God is the sustance for our spirit man to flourish. The word was “like honey in sweetness”. God’s words do not poison us.
v4 Ezekiel was sent to the house of Israel to speak the word.
v5 “For you are not sent to a people of unfamiliar speech and of hard language, but to the house of Israel.”
This is a key for me.
v6 Surely, had I sent you to them, they would have listened to you.
v7 “But the house of Israel will not listen to you, because they will not listen to Me; for all the house of Israel are IMPUDENT and HARDHEARTED.”
Impudent = strong of forehead, stubborn, stiff necked
God already knows that they wont listen. But, He sends Ezekiel anyway. The Word must be released.
v8 “Behold, I have made your face strong against their faces, and your forehead strong against their foreheads.”
You are both stubborn, says the Lord.
v9 “Like adamant stone, harder than flint, I have made your forehead. DO NOT BE AFRAID OF THEM, NOR BE DISMAYED BY THEIR LOOKS, THOUGH THEY ARE A REBELLIOUS HOUSE.
Again, God repeats Himself. Just like He did with Joshua. Our circumstances can be overwhelming. We MUST carry the Word. Speak it out. Trust God.
v10 “receive into YOUR HEART all MY WORDS that I speak to you, and HEAR with your EARS.”
v11 “And go, get to the CAPTIVES, to the CHILDREN of YOUR PEOPLE, and speak to them and tell them, ‘Thus says the LORD GOD.’ WHETHER they hear, or whether they refuse.”
v12 “Then the Spirit lifted me up” Encounters with God and the planting of His seed in us most certainly leaves us on the mountain.
He heard behind him “BLESSED IS THE GLORY OF THE LORD FROM HIS PLACE!”
v13 He also heard:
1) Noise of the wings of the living creatures that touched one another
2) the noise of the wheels beside them
3) a great thunderous noise
v14 “So the Spirit lifted me up and took me away, and I went in bitterness, in the heat (anger) of my spirit; but the hand of the LORD was STRONG upon me.”
v15 Then I came to the CAPTIVES at Tel Abib (“mound of the flood”) and I sat where they sat, and remained there astonished among them seven days.
Amazingly interesting passage.
1) Captives
2) Tel Abib
3) Sat where they sat
4) Hung out there “astonished”
5) Seven days
He just got this major revelation. Was his astonishment and sitting with them his coming to grips with what God had just told him. Here he knows that God has judged them and calls them rebellious. Now, he sits among them and sees them as God sees them. His eyes have been opened by God. As he watches on the mound, in their midst, it astonishes him. He sits there for 7 days. 7 = completeness and covenant. Was he gearing up to honor a covenant that he made with God?
When God gives us a word, perhaps it is best that we take that word and dwell amongst the “captives” to let the word reach out hearts as God directed in verse 10. Let that word become complete in us before we take it out to the masses.
v16-17 After 7 days passes, God speaks to Ezekiel and gives him a new identity:
“I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel; therefore hear a word from My mouth, and give them a warning from Me:
v18 “When I say to the wicked, ‘You shall surely die,’ and you give him no warning, nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life, that same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood I will require at YOUR HAND.”
Yikes! When God tells us to speak it out, we MUST. Our disobedience/silence keeps the wicked in their wickedness, and God judges us accordingly.
v19 “Yet, if you warn the wicked, and he does not turn from his wickedness, nor from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but you have DELIVERED YOUR SOUL.”
v20 Same for the righteous man that sins and God lays a “stumbling block” before him. We must give warning.
v22 “Then the HAND of the LORD was upon me there, and He said to me, ‘Arise, go out into the PLAIN, and there I shall TALK WITH YOU’.”
v23 So I arose and went out into the plain, and behold, the GLORY of the LORD STOOD there, like the GLORY which I saw by the River Chebar; and I fell on my face.
v24 Then the SPIRIT ENTERED ME AND SET ME ON MY FEET. Each time he worships on his face, the Spirit comes. And, it picks him up.
“Go, shut yourself inside your house.”
v25 “And you, O son of man, surely they will put ropes on you and bind you with them, so that you cannot go out among them.”
The captives always want to make you their captive. Defensiveness to the offense of God is a key trait of rebellion against God.
v26 “I will make your tongue cling to the roof of your mouth, so that you shall be mute and not be one to rebuke them, for they are a rebellious house.”
So, God gives warning after warning to speak the word. Do so or you carry their blood on you. But, when they rise up against you, be silent. I will even help you and make you mute. It is not for you to rebuke them once the word has gone out. They are rebellious. They will come after you. Be silent.
v27 “But WHEN I SPEAK WITH YOU, I WILL OPEN YOUR MOUTH, and you shall say to them, ‘Thus says the LORD GOD,’ He who hears, let him hear, and he who refuses, let him refuse; for they are a rebellious house.”