GOD CALLS EZEKIEL - Ezekiel 2 part 1

EZEKIEL 2 - GOD CALLS EZEKIEL AS PROPHET

After revealing his glorious presence to Ezekiel, the Lord commissioned him as a prophet with strict instructions.

2:1-4a

First, God filled Ezekiel with his Spirit. The Spirit allowed Ezekiel to stand to hear God’s word. Then, the Spirit caused Ezekiel to hear God speaking to him. Without the Spirit, Ezekiel may have been as stubborn toward God as Israel was. 1 Corinthians 2 tells us the Spirit enables us to hear and understand God's message. Read 1 Corinthians 2:6-16. The Spirit helps us understand the things of God. One without the Spirit cannot understand.

God sent Ezekiel to speak to Israel in captivity. God said Israel was rebellious, obstinate and stubborn. They resisted God’s word even though he proved it by sending them into exile. So, his task is actually more difficult. There is much emphasis on the historical rebelliousness of Israel. They are a “rebellious house”. (5, 6, & 7) Their “fathers” also transgressed. (3)They refuse to acknowledge God’s sovereignty over them.

Remember that Israel had a covenant with God. He was sovereign, they were subjects. They were to keep his decrees to obtain his protection and blessing. They did not do so. God never calls them “his people”, which is a bad sign.

The word “nations” in verse 3 is important. That term is normally used of the Gentile nations that do not worship Yahweh. But here, God applies the term to Israel. The word for nations is “goyim”, it should be plural even though the NIV has it singular, for it is identifying Israel with the pagan nations. Israel is unchosen rather than chosen in that they have broken the covenant and moved away from Yahweh.

God only refuses to call them his people when he is angry with them for violating the covenant. For example, when Israel built the golden calf and worshipped it. God told Moses to go talk to his (Moses) people, not God’s. (Exodus 32:7) In Hosea, God had Hosea name his son “not my people” and said “you are not my people and I am not your God”. (Hosea 1:9)

This would be as Jesus saying to us that not everyone who says to him “Lord, Lord” will enter the kingdom of heaven. He will say they never knew them if, in fact, they have not received him as savior and lord. (Matthew 7:21)

Not only does God refuse to call Israel “his people”, during this whole encounter, God never calls Ezekiel by his name. He calls him Son of Man, literally “ben adam”, or “Son of Adam”. The Old Testament use of “son of” is to say that person is a member of a certain class of people. Son of David would mean a member of David’s house or line. Son of Man or Adam means he is a human being, a creature, who is facing his creator. He is inferior to God, as are all men, as demonstrated by the revelation of his glorious presence in chapter 1.

We are all sons of man, or sons of Adam. Therefore, we are all infected by sin. We all need to be “in Christ” rather than “in Adam”. 1 Corinthians 15:22 says “For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.

Receive Christ as your Lord and Savior if you have not done so.