Eat All the Words He Gives

Ezekiel 2:1-10 

1 And He said to me, "Son of man, stand on your feet, and I will speak to you." 2 Then the Spirit entered me when He spoke to me, and set me on my feet; and I heard Him who spoke to me. 3 And He said to me: "Son of man, I am sending you to the children of Israel, to a rebellious nation that has rebelled against Me; they and their fathers have transgressed against Me to this very day. 4 For they are impudent and stubborn children. I am sending you to them, and you shall say to them, 'Thus says the Lord GOD.' 5 As for them, whether they hear or whether they refuse—for they are a rebellious house—yet they will know that a prophet has been among them.

6 "And you, son of man, do not be afraid of them nor be afraid of their words, though briers and thorns are with you and you dwell among scorpions; do not be afraid of their words or dismayed by their looks, though they are a rebellious house. 7 You shall speak My words to them, whether they hear or whether they refuse, for they are rebellious. 8 But you, son of man, hear what I say to you. Do not be rebellious like that rebellious house; open your mouth and eat what I give you."

9 Now when I looked, there was a hand stretched out to me; and behold, a scroll of a book was in it. 10 Then He spread it before me; and there was writing on the inside and on the outside, and written on it were lamentations and mourning and woe.

Ezekiel was told to hear what God was to tell him.  To enable the prophet to hear and understand, the LORD put His Spirit in him for that time, unlike now in Christ where we have Him living constantly in us (John 14:16-17, Romans 8:9, 1 Corinthians 3:16, 6:19, 2 Corinthians 6:16, Ephesians 1:13).  Before Christ came and rose again, God’s Spirit filled men and women only to enable them to hear and understand so that they could speak for God to His people.  Here Ezekiel was filled and heard the commission to go and tell the rebellious people of Israel of their sin and their consequences of rebellion against the Divine.  God let the prophet know also that their stubbornness and impudence of a stiff-necked and hardhearted mindset would likely result in refusing to hear him, though the possibility of some hearing was left open.  This rebellious people were not to scare Ezekiel no matter the response to God’s word to them through his mouth.  God assured and charged him that even their response as a poisonous scorpion or their thorns of resistance should not be allowed to hinder him from speaking all of His word faithfully to them (Jeremiah 23:28-29).  Even now we are to speak the gospel faithfully as we trust the message to break hardened hearts and not our own wisdom or persuasiveness (1 Thessalonians 2:4-5).  God alone convicts through the hearing of His word and understanding given by His Spirit of sin, righteousness, and judgment as John 16:8-11 has told us.  No matter their response, Ezekiel was to tell them of their sin and to repent.  Therefore, he was told to open his mouth to take in those words as symbolized by a small book similar to John in Revelation 10:9-11.  He was to take in whatever message God gave him to speak, not worrying about how bitter or sweet the message to the hearers.  This book given him had words of sorrow, woe, and sadness, which is the bad news of the fallen human nature of sin in the larger sense.  This is why the good news of Jesus Christ who died as an atonement and sacrifice for that sin must be understood in context of the bad news of our lost state in sin within us all from birth or it makes no sense.  Nobody can turn from sin without understanding the full weight and consequences of it.  That was the bitter book of words given to Ezekiel for rebellious Israel and to us all.  May we therefore also eat the full counsel of God to speak His word faithfully.  His word is powerful (Hebrews 4:12) enough to do the work which we ourselves are incapable of by human persuasion or reasoning.  May we eat all the words He gives and speak them faithfully.