44 lines
2.2 KiB
Markdown
44 lines
2.2 KiB
Markdown
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title = "Ezekiel 3:1–15"
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date = "2023-03-07"
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### [Read the passage.](https://biblia.com/bible/esv/Ezekiel3.1-15)
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As we learned last time, the Lord expects Ezekiel to eat this scroll of
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judgement. Since this is in a vision, he probably didn't physically eat
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anything, especially as doing so allowed him to speak the words on the scroll
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to the people. However, I am a little curious what it looked and felt like to
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him. Did it shrink so he could fit it all in one bite, or did he have to chew
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it? Once he does eat it, he tells us that it tasted as sweet as honey. This is
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clearly a similar passage to Revelation 10, where John also receives a scroll
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to eat, which gives him the authority to speak prophecy to the world. John's
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scroll is also sweet in his mouth, but is bitter in his stomach. I believe the
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sweetness represents the ease with which he can speak the words. It feels good
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to obey the Lord, and though the words are of lamentation and woe, Ezekiel is
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rewarded for saying them.
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Again the Lord reiterates that Ezekiel is to speak the words to Israel, his own
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people. He already knows the language and the culture, but if he was sent to a
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different people, they would listen more easily than the stubborn Israelites.
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He then makes a play on Ezekiel's name by saying that Ezekiel's face and
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forehead will be stronger and harder than Israel's. In Hebrew, Ezekiel means
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"God makes strong, hardens". Therefore, he is to be more stubborn than they in
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preaching God's word to them, whether they listen or not.
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With this, Ezekiel is dismissed, but before the vision ends, he hears the
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mighty voice of God's throne and the beings that make it up blessing God's
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glory. Get this: the sound of the wings of the living creatures brushing
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against each other formed the words, as did the sound of the wheels. God's
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glory is so majestic that incidental sounds praise Him.
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Ezekiel is carried away by the Spirit back to the Chebar canal, in "bitterness
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in the heat of my spirit". That's probably the same bittereness John felt after
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he ate his scroll. He is so overwhelmed by his experience that he sits and
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processes it for seven days.
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* * *
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Worthy are You to be praised by all that You have created, in heaven, on earth,
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and under the earth.
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