Ezekiel 3:22 says, And the hand of the Lord was there upon me; and he said unto me, Arise, go forth into the plain, and I will there talk with thee. Ezekiel said that the hand of God was on him then and told him to go to the plain where God would speak with him. When we meet God, it will because He reaches out to us.
Verse twenty-three adds, Then I arose, and went forth into the plain: and, behold, the glory of the Lord stood there, as the glory which I saw by the river of Chebar: and I fell on my face. Ezekiel said when he went where God told him to goi that he saw the glory of God there and fell on his face. I believe that we sometimes lose sight of the glory of God and start to treat Him like just another person, but we should always spiritually fall on our face before Him. We should never lose sight of the glory of God and of our own unworthiness.
Verse twenty-two continues, Then the spirit entered into me, and set me upon my feet, and spake with me, and said unto me, Go, shut thyself within thine house. Ezekiel said the Spirit of God entered him, lifted him to his feet and then told him to go and shut himself in his house. This is not what we would expect God to tell a prophet to do, but in order to be successful, Ezekiel needed to obey the commands from God. As sinners, we must heed God's call to us, humble ourselves before Him, be filled with His spirit when we accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, and then go where He sends us.
Verse twenty-five states, But thou, O son of man, behold, they shall put bands upon thee, and shall bind thee with them, and thou shalt not go out among them: Ezekiel was told to put bands on and bind himself. Matthew Henry said this was like a prisoner being bound. He was also told not to go out among the people. These may seem like strange orders for a prophet, but the first thing a prophet must do is to obey God, no matter how strange His command might be. This is still true for Christians today. We must obey God’s commands to us, even when we don’t understand them. I would also add that we should be bound to Jesus Christ and a prisoner to His will.
Verse twenty-six adds, And I will make thy tongue cleave to the roof of thy mouth, that thou shalt be dumb, and shalt not be to them a reprover: for they are a rebellious house. God then told Ezekiel he was to be made unable to talk so that he couldn't reprove people of Israel for their sins, since they were a rebellious people. Again, this seems a strange order for a prophet, but if a person was a true prophet, they had no choice but to obey God, even if this meant that they were going to be physically afflicted. We have the opposite order. We are to go into the world and proclaim the gospel to everyone, but when we do, it should be under the direction of the Holy Spirit.
Verse twenty-seven continues, But when I speak with thee, I will open thy mouth, and thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God; He that heareth, let him hear; and he that forbeareth, let him forbear: for they are a rebellious house. Ezekiel was then told that when he went to prophesy that God would give him the words to say and he was to tell them that what he spoke was what God said. God also said that some would believe and some wouldn’t because they were a rebellious people. When we go out to witness to people today, we need ensure that what we a proclaiming is the word of God. Some people will believe and some will not, but we will have done what God commands of us.
No comments:
Post a Comment