Inviting Revival: A Study of Ezekielናሙና

Mary Poppins quipped, “A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down,” but Ezekiel needs to swallow words of lamentation, mourning and woe! Ezekiel ate the scroll. He did not just take the scroll from the Lord’s hands, unroll it before the people and proclaim, “Thus says the Lord God!” He opened his mouth and he ate it and then the Lord said, “Go!” I think this order of events is significant. First of all, once he ate, the message became part of him. He fully committed himself to it. He filled himself with God’s Word and then he went and spoke to the people.

The application is simple: we cannot speak words of truth in our homes, churches, workplaces and communities if we have not eaten them ourselves by committing to fill ourselves with God’s Word.

God called Ezekiel to stand up in front of his kinsmen, deliver a difficult message, and depend on their rejection. Do you have someone in your life whose attention you are struggling to gain? Maybe it’s a spouse, a stubborn child, a difficult boss, coworker or friend. When we speak God’s Word into a person’s life and they reject the message, we should not take it personally. God is who they are ultimately rejecting.

When God places someone in our lives with whom we feel compelled to speak truth, we need to follow these directives God issued to Ezekiel:

Fear them not.

Receive God’s Word in your heart and hear with your ears.

Tell them, “Thus says the Lord God…”

And then we pray! Don’t give up on that person to experience revival. Ask God to harden your forehead and strengthen your resolve. God did not give up on Israel. He committed to sending messages to them even though He knows very few of them will initially listen. We must have the same diligence in sharing His message of hope with a rebellious world!

Contrarily, those who would likely heed God’s warnings to repent proved to be the opposite of whom we might think. Not Israelites, but foreigners. God would call Ezekiel to issue warnings to the surrounding nations inviting them to repent, just like He did Israel. God’s ways are not like ours. He does unexpected things. Revival comes when we stop trying to make sense of our lives and realize God’s ways are beyond us. Whatever God asks of you today, fear not.