Year 6, Day 129: Ezekiel 3

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Prophet

• Prophet: A prophet is one of the fivefold ministry categories that is used throughout the Bible and especially lifted up in Ephesians 4:11. The prophet is primarily concerned with whether or not the people are hearing the voice of God.  The prophet is also concerned about whether or not the people are responding to God’s voice.

God instructs Ezekiel about being a prophet.  Ezekiel is told that that his job will be hard.  He is told that the people are stubborn.  In fact, he is told that they won’t listen to Him.  The reality for many of us is that we are called to proclaim God to the world.  But we can’t force people to listen.  Many of the people to whom we talk just won’t listen.  Remember what we learned in the last few days?  Success is determined by our obedience to God, not by whether we convert the world.

Then, God tells Ezekiel that he is to go and lock himself in a room.  At first, this sounds rather un-prophet-like.  After all, what good is a prophet that never goes into the world to speak?  What we have to remember is that while God bound Ezekiel to the house, God did not bind him in isolation.  God simply didn’t let Ezekiel go out and about.  In other words, as a prophet Ezekiel had to learn that the real people that he will be able to reach are the ones who come looking for God’s truth.  Ezekiel can take God’s truth anywhere, but it will only find harvest when it finds fertile soil because a person wants to find it.

This brings us back to the scroll.  Ezekiel sees that the scroll is full of words of lament and mourning.  But the scroll is sweet in his mouth.  The work of a prophet is hard and difficult.  It’s not easy experiencing rejection.  It’s not easy pouring yourself into the lives of others only to get no response. But when our frame of reference is right, we are reminded that all obedience to God is sweet work.

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