And as he spoke to me, the Spirit entered into me and set me on my feet, and I heard him speaking to me.
Ezekiel lies flat on his face by the river Chebar, undone by the vision of God's glory, and a voice tells him to get up. Then the Spirit comes into him and sets him upright. Commentators ask why God would not speak to a man in the dust, and what standing on your feet has to do with carrying a message.
Word and Spirit together
A voice speaks, and then the Spirit acts. One writer treats this pairing as a settled pattern.
Arno Clemens GaebeleinThe Spirit followed the Word that spoke — "and the Spirit entered into me when He spoke to me." So the Word and the Spirit are always connected. Then Ezekiel received his commission. He is sent to a defiant, hard-hearted people. His message is to begin with: "Thus says Jehovah-God." The sender is the Lord; the message is from Him.
Why God would not leave him lying down
The command to stand is not a rebuke of Ezekiel's reverence. It is the answer to it. Lying face down says something true about a creature before God, but it cannot say everything God wants said.
Numerical Bible NotesGod recognizes how weak His instrument is, and that weakness calls out Jehovah's might to sustain it. We see this at the very start here: "Son of man, stand on your feet, and I will speak with you." And not only that, but the Spirit enters into him to make him stand. He cannot even listen to the message while lying face down. That posture may truly express the nothingness of the creature in the presence of God, but it cannot express God's grace towards him. We see this all through the history of the prophets — in Daniel, and again with John the beloved. God cannot utter His thoughts to one lying face down in the dust before Him. This does not suit the blessed Speaker.
The same writer takes the moment further.
Numerical Bible NotesThis is already a foretaste of what lets us say we have not received the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, "Abba! Father!" That cry has not yet come in Ezekiel's case, since he belongs to an earlier time. Still, the spirit of fear is told to depart, so that God's words may have their fitting character.
A posture that can hear
One writer gives a plain, practical reason for the change of position.
W. G. Turner"Son of man, stand on your feet, and I will speak with you," was the word spoken to Ezekiel by the river Chebar. Why? Because a man standing up feels quite different from one lying down. He is in a posture of alertness, attention, and to such a one God can communicate His will.
The name he is given as he rises
He is set on his feet to hear a title, and it is not a comfortable one. It marks God as now speaking from outside Israel, and it points beyond Ezekiel to Jesus.
William KellyGod shows this new attitude in another way too — by the title He gives the prophet who has fallen on his face, here in chapter 2 and from then on. The voice spoke from the likeness of the glory of Jehovah, and the words were, "Son of man, stand on your feet, and I will speak with you." God called Daniel this once (Dan. 8:17), and Ezekiel more than a hundred times. It is the title Jesus took as the rejected Messiah who should suffer, be exalted, and return in glory as the Son of Man. His servants carry the same title, because they are tied to the glory of God — the God who now declares Himself outside Israel, and even judges Israel by the Gentiles.
Standing among thorns and scorpions
Being set upright is not a promise of an easy errand. It is what makes fear of people out of place.
Numerical Bible NotesAmong such a people the prophet lives, as briars and thorns wound and entangle those who touch them, as scorpions are poisonous in their sting; yet he who has been allowed to see the glory of Jehovah need not be afraid among them. How unfitting any fear of man would be in such a person, and what a poor picture he would give of the majesty of Him with whom they had to do!
Summary
- Word. God speaks first; the Spirit follows the speaking. The two are always connected, and Ezekiel must begin his message with "Thus says Jehovah-God."
- Spirit. The command "stand" carries its own power. Ezekiel does not lift himself; the Spirit enters and makes him stand.
- Feet. God will not talk to a man lying in the dust. Awe is right, but grace wants a listener upright and alert. It is an early taste of the Spirit who makes sons cry "Abba! Father!"
- Name. The first title he hears standing is "Son of man." Ezekiel bears it over a hundred times; Jesus later took it as the rejected One.
- Errand. God raises him to send him, not to make him comfortable. The man who has seen the glory of God has no business fearing briars, thorns and scorpions.