Ezekiel 2

Like Jeremiah (1:2), Zechariah (1:1), and John the Baptist (Luke 1:5ff.), Ezekiel (“God strengthens”)

was called by God from being a priest to serving as a prophet. As God’s spokesman to the Jewish exiles in the land of Babylon, he would rebuke them for their sins and expose their idolatry, but he would also reveal the glorious future the Lord had prepared for them. He was thirty years old at the time of his call (Ezek. 1:1), the normal age for a priest to begin his ministry (Num. 4:1–3, 23).

It would have been much easier for Ezekiel to remain a priest, for priests were highly esteemed by the Jews, and a priest could read the law and learn everything he needed to know to do his work. Prophets were usually despised and persecuted. They received their messages and orders from the Lord as the occasion demanded and could never be sure what would happen next. It was dangerous to be a prophet. Most people resent being told about their sins and prefer to hear messages of cheer, not declarations of judgment.

Jeremiah had been ministering in Jerusalem for four years when Ezekiel was born in 622 BC, but surely as he grew up, he paid attention to what Jeremiah was saying. It’s likely that Daniel and Ezekiel knew each other before the captivity, though there’s no evidence they saw each other in Babylon. Ezekiel’s prophetic ministry was greatly needed in Babylon because false prophets abounded and were giving the Jewish people false hopes of a quick deliverance (usually by Egypt) and a triumphant return to their land (Jer. 5:30–31; 27:1–11; 28:1–17). It’s possible that King Zedekiah’s visit to Babylon (51:59–61) and the arrival of Jeremiah’s letter to the exiles (Jer. 29) both occurred the year Ezekiel received his call. Jeremiah’s letter told the Jews that they would be in Babylon for seventy years and therefore should settle down, raise families, and pray for their captors. But Jeremiah also announced the ultimate fall of Babylon, a message the exiles were only too eager to hear.

The most difficult task of a prophet is to change people’s minds. This means pulling up the weeds of false theology and planting the good seed of the Word of God. It also means tearing down the flimsy thought structures that false prophets build and constructing in their place lasting buildings on solid foundations of truth (Ezek. 1:10; 2 Cor. 10:3–6). To prepare him for his difficult ministry, the Lord caused Ezekiel to participate in three dramatic experiences.

Ezekiel was now to receive his official commission as a prophet of the Lord God, and the Lord told him he was facing a very difficult task. Whether it’s raising a family, teaching a Sunday school class, shepherding a church, or evangelizing in a distant nation, we have to accept people as they are before we can lead them to what God wants them to be. God gave Ezekiel four important commandments to obey.

Stand and listen (2:1–2). As a result of beholding the vision, Ezekiel fell to the ground, completely overwhelmed by the glory of the Lord and the wonder of His providential working in the world. Who but the sovereign Lord could have a throne like a chariot and move as quickly as He pleased? Who but the Lord could travel in the midst of a fiery whirlwind to accomplish His great purposes?

Ezekiel is called “son of man” ninety-three times in his book, a title that the Lord also gave to Daniel (Dan. 8:17). “Son of man” is also a messianic title (Ezek. 7:13), which the Lord Jesus applied to Himself at least eighty-two times when He was ministering on earth. But in the case of Daniel and Ezekiel, the title “son of man” emphasized their humanity and mortality. Ezekiel was facedown in the dust when God spoke to him, reminding him and us of mankind’s humble beginning in the dust (Gen. 1:26; 3:19). “For He knows our frame; He remembers that we are dust” (Ps. 103: nkjv). God remembers, but sometimes we forget.

There is a time to fall down in humble adoration, and there is a time to stand up and take orders (Josh. 7:6ff.). The command of the Word and the power of the Spirit enabled Ezekiel to stand to his feet, and the Spirit entered him and strengthened him. On many occasions, the Spirit would lift him up (Ezek. 2:2, 3:14; 8:3; 11:1, 24; 37:1; 43:5) and give him special power for his tasks (3:24; 11:5). The important thing was that Ezekiel stand obediently before the Lord and listen to His word.

Go and speak (2:3–5). Prophets weren’t people who majored only in foretelling the future, although that was part of their ministry. They were primarily forth-tellers who declared God’s Word to the people. Sometimes they gave a message of judgment, but it was usually followed by a message of hope and forgiveness. The Jews needed to hear Ezekiel’s messages because they were rebellious, stiff-necked, and hard-hearted. At least sixteen times in this book you find the Jews described as “rebellious.” They had revolted against the Lord and were obstinate in their refusal to submit to His will. Their refusal to obey the terms of the covenant had led to their defeat and capture by the Babylonian army. Even in their captivity, they were nursing false hopes that Egypt would come to their rescue or the Lord would do a great miracle.

So rebellious were the Jewish people that God called them “a rebellious nation” and used the Hebrew word goy, which was usually reserved for the Gentiles! Israel was God’s chosen people, a special nation, and yet they were acting like the Gentiles who didn’t have all the blessings and privileges God had given the Jews. This wasn’t a very encouraging word for the young prophet, but he needed to know in advance that his work would be difficult. God gave the same kind of message to Isaiah when He called him (Isa. 6:8–13). But whether the people listened and obeyed or turned a deaf ear, Ezekiel had to be faithful to his task (1 Cor. 4:2).

Don’t be afraid (2:6–7). Three times in verse 6 the Lord admonished the prophet not to be afraid of the people, and He repeated it again (3:9). He had given a similar caution to Jeremiah (Jer. 1:8), and Jesus gave the same warning to His disciples (Matt. 10:26, 28, 31). “Who are you that you should be afraid of a man who will die, and of the son of a man who will be made like grass?” (Isa. 51: nkjv). Ezekiel was to declare God’s word boldly no matter how his listeners responded. His own people might act like briars and thorns, and even like painful scorpions, but that must not deter His servant.

Receive the Word within (2:8—3:3). Being a priest, Ezekiel knew that the Hebrew Scriptures pictured God’s Word as food to be received within the heart and digested inwardly. Job valued God’s Word more than his “necessary food” (Job 23:12), and Moses admonished the Jews to live on God’s Word as well as on the bread (manna) that the Lord supplied daily (Deut. 8:3; see Matt. 4:4). The prophet Jeremiah “ate” the Word of God (Jer. 15:16), and so did the apostle John (Rev. 10:8–10). God’s prophets must speak from within their hearts or their messages will not be authentic.

A hand stretched out and handed Ezekiel a scroll that didn’t have any good news written on it, because it was filled on both sides with “words of lament and mourning and woe” (Ezek. 2: niv). Perhaps it contained the messages that are recorded in chapters 4 through 32, God’s judgments on Jerusalem and the Gentile nations. (See the suggested outline of the book.) God commanded him to eat the scroll, and it tasted sweet like honey (Ps. 19:10; 119:103), although later he tasted bitterness (Ezek. 3:14), not unlike the apostle John (Rev. 10:8–11). It’s a great honor to be a spokesperson for the Lord, but we must be able to handle both the bitter and the sweet.

Had Ezekiel heard the description of the hardness of his people before he saw the vision of God’s glory, he might have had a difficult time accepting his call. But having seen the glorious throne of the sovereign Lord, Ezekiel knew that he had all the help he needed to obey the will of God. In his difficult ministry to the Israelites, Moses was encouraged by meeting God on the mountaintop and seeing the display of His glory, and the prophet Isaiah saw the glory of Christ in the temple before he launched into his ministry (Isa. 6; John 12:37–41). The prophet Habakkuk was lifted from the valley of despair to the mountain peak of victory by contemplating the glory of God in the history of Israel (Hab. 3). Before Stephen laid down his life for the sake of Jesus Christ, he saw the glory of the Son of God in heaven (Acts 7:55–60). The only motivation that never fails is doing all for the glory of God.