But the house of Israel will not hearken unto thee, for none of them will hearken unto me. For all the house of Israel are hard of forehead and stiff of heart.
God tells Ezekiel the outcome of his ministry before it begins: his own people will not listen to him. The problem is not the prophet or his words: they are refusing God Himself, and behind that refusal lie a hard forehead and a stubborn heart.
Israel would not listen to Ezekiel because they would not listen to God. One writer draws out what that means for anyone God sends.
The Lord truly sends a servant, who does His will and stands for Him. To reject that servant is to reject the Lord Himself... Blessed is the servant who, through grace, is so hidden behind his Lord that he loses himself in the Lord's aims and interests. He thinks only of HIS honour and HIS claims. Such a person will learn, as Samuel did, that when people refuse his message, they are rejecting God's word and not his own.
The verse names two things: a hard forehead and a stubborn heart. One writer ties them together.
They are children whose faces are as shameless as their hearts are hard. Their heart showed in their faces, so nothing could be hidden any longer. God sends to them knowing this full well. Against their blasphemous words He sets the speech of the Unchangeable One whom they have refused.
This is said about God's own people, not about outsiders. One writer states the comparison at full strength.
Ezekiel 3. The Lord testifies that Israel is even more hardened than any of the heathen nations. The people have "a hard forehead and a stubborn heart."
Nearness to God did not make them safer. William Kelly turns this into a rule:
And these were not the heathen; the heathen were never so bad as that. It is God's people when in a bad state that are worse than anybody. That is a thing that many cannot understand and do not believe... The more light there is, if people are not faithful, the worse they are... And therefore the nearer you are to the blessing, if the blessing is not yours, the more guilty you are.
If God knew in advance that they would not listen, does that excuse them? One writer answers plainly.
God knew that they would reject the prophets and messengers He sent to speak to them. Through them He offered forgiveness and mercy, if only they would repent. (See Ezek. 3:7-9.) Even so, He sent them, rising up early and sending them. Did God's knowing in advance how they would treat the messengers of His mercy make them less responsible? Surely not.
God gives Ezekiel a job with the failure written into it. So what keeps such a servant going?
Now we have the charge given to the prophet. As we see at once, he is to speak to a people who will not hear. The only hope is that here and there some ears may be open to receive it. There is no encouraging hope about the success of the message... 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 — and in rejecting His messenger, Israel would be rejecting the Lord.
The nation's refusal is not the end of the story. Darby points to what God kept doing while Israel stayed hard:
Though the house of Israel was hardened, God marked out a remnant... The prophet was to warn people one by one... Israel had revolted, but the one who listened to the word would still live. God was acting in His patient grace.
- Refusal. Refusing a servant God has truly sent is refusing God. Ezekiel was not the real target.
- Root. Their faces had stopped hiding their hearts. God sent His word knowing that.
- Reason. Israel was harder than the surrounding nations. The closer the blessing you refuse, the greater your guilt.
- Responsibility. God knew they would not listen and still sent prophet after prophet. Knowing the outcome never excused the hearers.
- Resolve. The servant gets no promise of visible success. His encouragement is that the Lord is with him, and grace still reaches the one who listens.
Behold, I have made thy face hard against their faces, and thy forehead hard against their foreheads.
God answers a rebellious audience not by softening the message but by hardening the messenger. The picture is matched — face against face, forehead against forehead. What strength does God give a servant when He already knows the hearers will refuse?
The equipment fits the assignment. One writer points to the state of the people that called for it:
Ezekiel 3. The Lord testifies that Israel is even more hardened than any of the nations around her. The people are "impudent and hard-hearted." So Ezekiel needed a forehead made as hard as the hardest stone, to speak to them the word he had to declare, saying, "Whether they will hear, or whether they will refuse."
Ezekiel's own name carries the same idea. The hardening says something about God as well as about the prophet:
The prophet's name means "the Mighty One makes strong" or "firm." That name marks the whole book. God applies it plainly at the very start. He gives Ezekiel his charge against a people "hard of brow and stiff of heart," and declares that He has made his face hard against their faces, and his forehead hard against their foreheads. This means more than the strengthening Ezekiel needed for his difficult position. It shows the attitude of Jehovah Himself towards them.
Older translations read "hard against their faces" here. That wording is why this writer sees God's own stand toward the people in it.
Why the forehead? In Scripture, the forehead is where a person's character shows in public:
Forehead… used as a symbol of manifest character. Israel in apostasy is described as having a harlot's forehead, refusing to be ashamed (Jeremiah 3:3). God made Ezekiel's forehead as hard as the hardest stone, because Israel's forehead was hard, and he had to contend with them (Ezekiel 3:8-9)… God set a mark on the foreheads of those who sighed and cried over the abominations done in Jerusalem, and the rest of the people were to be killed (Ezekiel 9:4, 6).
So the contest is open and visible. Their shamelessness is on their faces; God writes an answering firmness on his.
The hardened forehead is not raw nerve. It rests on the sight of God's glory already given to him. That sight makes fear of people look out of place:
The prophet lives among a people who are like briars and thorns, wounding and entangling anyone who comes near them, and like scorpions with a poisonous sting. 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! How badly he would represent the majesty of the God they were dealing with! And how badly, sadly, do we represent Him if we show such fear at all. God has put a sweeter message in our mouths. He has shown us the glory of the Lord more wonderfully than even Ezekiel saw it here.
Hardness of forehead in God's servant grows out of dependence, not self-confidence. One writer ties this courage to tears, and to the sense of being unable to meet the storm:
The godly dependence is there. So are the tears for the church of God, and the deep, honest self-searching of a man who feels completely unable to meet the storm. Where this character is in the man of God, there follows: "God has not given us a spirit of cowardice."… Be not afraid of their faces! There is nothing to fear! The position is a difficult one. You cannot hold it except in dependence. But once you are in it, there is not one single enemy to dread.
It is worth noticing what the strengthening did not do. It did not make the errand pleasant, and it did not guarantee a hearing. God sent him with the outcome left open — whether they would listen or refuse.
- Cause — Israel's hardness came first. God calls them impudent and hard-hearted, more hardened than the nations around them. Only then does He harden His prophet.
- Gift — The firmness is made, not mustered. "The Mighty One makes strong" is what Ezekiel's own name means. The hardening also shows God's own settled attitude toward the people.
- Sign — The forehead is the part everyone can see. Israel wore shamelessness there; God writes an answering hardness on His servant's face.
- Source — Fearlessness rests on the vision of glory already given. A person who has seen the glory of the Lord has no business being afraid of briars, thorns and scorpions.
- Result — Firm, yet dependent. The one who feels unable to meet the storm is the one who can be told: do not be afraid of their faces. There is not a single enemy to dread.
As an adamant harder than flint have I made thy forehead. Fear them not, neither be dismayed at them, for they are a rebellious house.
God says this to Ezekiel just before sending him to a people with stubborn faces and hard hearts. He does not promise an easier audience. He promises a harder prophet. So what does God give a servant He sends to people who will not listen?
The word behind "emery" (older translations read "adamant") is not mainly about a jewel. It points to something that cannot be broken.
Shamir. Ezekiel 3:9; Zechariah 7:12. Translators once rendered it "diamond" in Jeremiah 17:1, but it stands as a symbol of extreme hardness, "harder than a flint." The same word elsewhere appears as "briars." It means any "sharp point" — so a diamond point, or anything hard.
The choice of the forehead matters. In Scripture it is the part of a person that shows what they really are.
Metsach, "forehead," stands as a symbol of open, visible character. Scripture describes Israel, in her turning away from God, as having a prostitute's forehead and refusing to be ashamed (Jeremiah 3:3). God made Ezekiel's forehead as hard as the hardest stone, because of the hardness of Israel's forehead — these were the people he had to struggle with (Ezekiel 3:8-9).
Ezekiel's own name carries the sense of this verse. The hardness God gives him says something about God, not only about the man.
The prophet's name means "the Mighty One makes strong," or "firm." That name marks the whole book, and it is plainly applied at the very start. God gives him his charge against a people "hard of brow and stiff of heart," and declares that He has made his face hard against their faces, and his forehead hard against their foreheads. This means more than the strength he needed for a hard position. Much more, it shows the attitude of the Lord Himself toward them.
The gift matches the resistance. Israel's condition, not Ezekiel's temperament, called for a face like stone.
The Lord testifies that Israel is even more hardened than any of the surrounding nations. The people are "defiant and hard-hearted." So Ezekiel needed a forehead as hard as the hardest stone, in order to speak to them the word he had to declare, "whether they hear or refuse to hear."
The prophet has already seen the glory of the Lord. That sight, not a change in his hearers, is what steadies him. Fear in such a man would misrepresent the One who sent him.
The prophet lives among such a people. They wound and tangle anyone who comes near them, as briars and thorns do, and they sting like poisonous scorpions. Yet the man God has allowed to see His glory need not be afraid among them. How unfitting any fear of man would be in such a man, and how poorly he would represent the majesty of the God these people had to deal with! And how poorly we represent Him if we show any such fear — we, into whose mouths God has put a sweeter message, and to whom He has revealed the glory of the Lord more wonderfully than Ezekiel saw it here.
The post God gives is hard to hold, but it holds no real danger.
Do not be afraid of their faces! There is nothing to fear! The position is a difficult one, and you cannot hold it except in dependence on God. But once you are in it, there is not one single enemy to dread. This is true liberty and confidence — standing in the gap for the Lord, an unusual service, but no less safe.
Christ took the same firm face. In Him that firmness went together with a heart full of love.
Knowing this fully, our blessed Saviour says, "Therefore I have set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be put to shame. He who vindicates me is near" (verses 7-8). He stood in the place of man, but He relied completely on God's help (verses 7 and 9). Still, the path meant not only the shame, the beating and the spitting we have spoken of, but death itself. With His heart full of love and His face firm like a flint, He pressed on with holy resolve, and He was put to death.
- Their hardness. Israel had a hard forehead and a stubborn heart. Commentators note they had grown harder than the nations around them.
- His hardness. Against that, God gives a forehead like the hardest stone. The word pictures extreme hardness, "harder than a flint." The forehead itself stands for character on open display.
- God's own stance. The prophet's hard face is more than equipment for a hard job. It displays God's own attitude toward a people who scorned Him.
- The cure for fear. The man who has seen the glory of the Lord need not be afraid. Showing fear of men would misrepresent the God who sent him.
- The pattern. Christ set His face like a flint. Firmness of face joined to a heart full of love — that is the true shape of this gift.