Inviting Revival: A Study of Ezekielናሙና

Ezekiel beheld God’s glory and this next part of the vision explains why. God called Ezekiel to prophesy to his fellow political prisoners. When God says “speak to my people Israel,” his audience are those who have been exiled with him in Babylon and the nation of Israel no longer exists. God referring to the exiles as “my people Israel” revealed God’s promise to eventually return them to their land and reestablish their nation.

While the exiles are political prisoners, they are not locked up in cells like our modern day prison system. However, they believed offering sacrifices in the temple secured God’s favor and absolved them of their sins. Their inability to worship devastated them, signifying their distance from God. Furthermore, Jewish laws held rigid guidelines against interactions among Gentiles as well as various food consumption. Relocating to Babylon, surrounded by pagan temples and practices proved shocking to the Jewish exiles. Have you ever felt displaced in your life even when surrounded by people you know?

Ezekiel is held captive by an enemy nation, but God knows he will fear his own countrymen over the Babylonians. Interesting! God likens Ezekiel’s fellow exiles to scorpions: a hard-to-see predator that emerges unexpectedly. In other words, as Ezekiel prophesies, his fellow captives will seek to wound him over his words. God explains: My people are rebellious and will not want to repent.

God repeats the word rebel or rebellious multiple times in Ezekiel 2, evoking an emotional response from Ezekiel’s audience. Their King Jehoiakim rebelled against Nebuchadnezzar leading to their deportation and detainment in Babylon. They had become stripped of their possessions, positions, families, and seemingly, God’s presence. I’m sure Ezekiel would have preferred to deliver messages of hope, love and forgiveness to share with his people, but that was not what the Lord asked of him. At least initially. The scroll scripted a season of judgment awaiting them.

Is the Lord asking something hard of you today? Ask the Lord to expand your vision of Him– high and lifted up, seated in glory. Ask Him to posture your heart to listen to Him and grace to be obedient in whatever direction He places on your life. It is often through the hard that we fully encounter all that is holy. And when we try to put God into the box of human logic, we have instantly made Him too small. We cannot explain the fullness of who He Is nor understand all that He is doing. He is high and lifted up, seeing the end from the beginning, and knows what He is doing with our lives– even when it’s hard.