First UMC
Eat. Go. Speak.
Ezekiel 2:1-10 NRSV
Ezekiel 3:1 NRSV
Ezekiel, meaning God strengthens, was a priest during the demise of the southern nation of Judah. He was part of the first wave of exiles taken to Babylon under the siege of King Nebuchadnezzar. The Temple was still standing as was Jerusalem when the book of Ezekiel begins. The people of Judah will need to be strengthened by God if they have any hope of surviving the coming rampage.
Eat.
Without this text, firmly established at the authoritative center of our communal and personal lives, we will founder. We will sink into a swamp of well-meaning but ineffectual people who are mired unmercifully in our needs and wants and feelings.
Eugene H. Peterson. Eat This Book
Go.
You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea and Samari, and to the uttermost ends of the earth.
Acts 1:8
Speak.
Language is the primary way in which God works.
Eugene H. Peterson. Eat This Book
Three take-aways from God’s request to Ezekiel:
1. God often speaks a word during non-optimal times. The difficult days are the most pressing times for a “word from the Lord.”
2. While we all would like to be given the word of faith, hope and love,..sometimes the message God needs delivered is lament, mourning, and grief.
3. Refuse to put your self-worth on the results. God asks us to be faithful alone...not successful.