And he said unto me, Son of man, all my words which I shall speak unto thee, receive in thy heart, and hear with thine ears;
Ezekiel has just eaten the scroll God handed him. Now God tells him where His words must land before they ever leave his lips. The order is striking: heart first, then ears.
One writer explains why that order matters.
It is most important to see that a lack of spiritual perception is the result of deadness of feeling in the heart. Spiritual sight, hearing and memory are all affected by a coarse, dull heart. When the Lord commissioned Ezekiel as His messenger to the house of Israel, He said to him, "All my words that I shall speak to you receive in your heart, and hear with your ears."
One writer places Ezekiel among the prophets whose very words came from God.
Of Jeremiah and Ezekiel, we have the Lord's testimony to the inspiration of their predictions. To Jeremiah God said, "Behold, I have put My words in your mouth" (Jer. 1:9). So he would speak the words of God. To Ezekiel the Lord declared, "You shall speak My words to them, whether they will hear or whether they will refuse; for they are most rebellious" (Ezek. 2:7).
To receive in the heart is more than listening. One writer names what it cost Ezekiel, and how it tasted.
We must receive and eat the Word — that is the spiritual lesson. Ezekiel obeyed. It was self-surrender, and though the message was a hard message, yet it was sweet to him.
One writer turns this into a rule for anyone who handles the Bible.
Eating, in its scriptural sense, means taking the Word and making it your own. These prophets were to make the messages God gave them to deliver their own. To widen the application: the Bible is not a book of information to collect and then repeat. It is the voice of God to the soul that reads it. You must hear it for yourself before you can rightly pass on what you have heard. A well-known servant of the Lord once said he never read a chapter of the Bible in order to speak on it. When asked why he read it, he replied that it was for his own profit and building up.
Another writer names the damage done by skipping this step.
Note the thought underneath it. What the servant of God gives out as prophecy or teaching he must first eat, digest and take in himself. Nothing does more spiritual damage than to proclaim and parade knowledge of truth we have not yet made our own in meditation, in prayer, in experience. Fresh truth tastes sweet and thrilling as honey. But once it is digested and taken in, it always displaces flesh and self and the world, and that is a bitter process.
Receiving is not the last step. One writer traces what the chapter does with the word once it is in the prophet's heart.
God sent the prophet to Israel, certain that they would not hear. They were shameless and hard-hearted, but the prophet faced them with a forehead as hard as stone. (Verses 1-9) Receiving God's word in his heart, he was to go with a "Thus says the Lord." (Verses 10, 11)
God sends him to people who will refuse him. One writer asks what keeps such a servant going.
There is no encouraging hope about the success of the message. Yet whether they would hear or refuse, they should know that a prophet had been among them. If he is not to have the encouragement of visible success, all the more must he find it in knowing that the Lord is with him — the One whom Israel would reject by rejecting His messenger.
- Heart — God names the heart before the ears. A dull heart deadens spiritual sight, hearing and memory alike.
- Words — what he receives is not information to collect and repeat. It is God's own words, and those are the words he must speak.
- Eat — receiving means eating. He makes the message his own before he delivers it, and it tastes sweet even though it is hard.
- Speak — only then comes "go and speak." Truth paraded before it is digested does real damage.
- Stand — God sends him to people who will refuse to listen. His encouragement is not success but knowing the Lord is with him.
and go, get thee to them of the captivity, unto the children of thy people, and speak unto them, and tell them, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, -- whether they will hear or whether they will forbear.
Ezekiel lives among the Jewish exiles in Babylon. Here God tells him where to go and what to say. That raises two hard questions. What does a messenger do when God tells him in advance that his hearers will not listen? And what is he answerable for if nothing changes?
The prophet does not argue a case of his own. He must say, "Thus says the Lord GOD." Those words settle where the weight of the message lies.
"And you shall speak My words to them, whether they will hear, or whether they will refuse; for they are most rebellious" (Ezek. 2:7)... So the authority of a testimony from God does not depend on the verdict man may pass on it. The testimony will itself judge man.
Before God tells him to go and speak, He has the prophet eat the scroll. One writer draws a rule from this for anyone who passes on God's word.
By eating — taking the act in its scriptural sense — we understand that the Word was to be taken in and made his own. These prophets were to make the messages they were sent to deliver their own. The Bible, and this applies more widely, is not a book of information to collect and then repeat. It is the voice of God to the soul that reads it. So a man must hear it for himself before he can pass on rightly what he has heard.
God sends him to his own people, the exiles living at Tel-abib by the river Chebar. One writer reads the name of the place as a picture of what was wrong with them.
Tel-abib means "the mound of green corn." What a picture that name gives of their hopes springing up again in this land of captivity — a mere green mound by the waters of the destroying river... How complete their ignorance, how childish the self-confidence of this hope against hope, a hope with no faith to support it!
The people he must live among are dangerous company. Yet fear of them would say something false about the God who sent him.
The prophet lives among a people who wound and entangle those who come near them, as briars and thorns do, and whose sting is poisonous, as a scorpion's is. Yet the man who has been allowed to see the glory of Jehovah need not be afraid among them. How out of place any fear of man would be in such a man, and how badly he would represent the majesty of the One they had to deal with!
God removes the usual encouragement in advance. The messenger's support has to come from somewhere other than visible results.
There is no encouraging hope about the success of the message. Yet whether they heard or refused, they would know that there had been a prophet among them. If he is not to have the encouragement of visible success, all the more must he find it in knowing that the Lord is with him — the Lord whom Israel would reject in rejecting His messenger.
Yet one writer warns against turning this into an excuse for fruitless preaching.
It is true, and wonderfully true, that God is glorified and Jesus Christ magnified when the truth is unfolded, whether men hear or refuse. But should that fact be allowed to weaken, in the smallest degree, the eager desire for results in souls? We do not believe it for a moment. The preacher should look for results, and should not be satisfied without them.
The nation as a whole is written off, yet the sending continues. The reason is that God is now dealing with people one by one.
Although the house of Israel was hardened, God marked out a remnant, and in this way. The prophet was to warn people one by one; this was the work he was given. If his word was received, the one who listened would be spared... So the people are no longer judged as a whole, as they were when everything depended on the public conduct of the nation or of the king. Israel had revolted, but still the one who listened to the word would live. God was acting in keeping with His patient grace.
- Eat — the scroll goes in before it goes out; God's word is to be made your own, not gleaned and repeated.
- Go — he is sent to his own people in exile, whose green mound of hope was confidence without faith.
- Speak — "Thus says the Lord GOD" means the authority is God's, and it stands whatever verdict men pass on it.
- Whether — told in advance that they will refuse, he draws his courage from the Lord being with him. Even so, a preacher should look for results and not be content without them.
- One — the nation as a whole is past pleading with, yet the warning goes out because whoever listens will live.