And go to the exiles, to your people, and speak to them and say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God,’ whether they hear or refuse to hear.” Ezekiel 3:11 ESV
I have friends who are teachers. Some will soon be going back to their classrooms; others have already started their new school year. I believe that my teacher friends could probably relate on some level to the prophet Ezekiel. Ezekiel was being sent to talk to people who were not going to listen to him.
Ezekiel has seen some incredible visions from the Lord. In chapter 1, Ezekiel describes some heavenly beings that he saw. They have wings, and multiple faces, and wheels, and they fly, and I guess they roll, and it all seems kind of terrifying to me! I guess it was terrifying to Ezekiel, too, because at the end of chapter 1, he says that he fell on his face.
Actually, Ezekiel fell on his face because he had seen the Lord. But the Lord called him to stand back up, and so Ezekiel stood. God had an assignment for the prophet. He had a message that He wanted Ezekiel to take to the people.
It was kind of a bad point in history to be a prophet...
The children of Israel are kind of scattered at this point. Because of their rebellion and disobedience, and because of the sins of their leaders, God has allowed many of the people to be taken into captivity. Ezekiel himself is among the exiles in Babylon. The people are living in a foreign land, held captive by a foreign king, living among people who spoke a foreign language. It's just not the best circumstance in which to find oneself.
Among the exiles, there are some guys going around calling themselves prophets, claiming to have messages from the Lord. They're promising the people freedom and deliverance and telling the captives what they want to hear. But these prophets were lying.
Jeremiah called out these false prophets in Jeremiah 29 (the context of a verse - Jeremiah 29:11 - that most of you are probably very familiar with), announcing to the people that they should not listen to the false prophets. Jeremiah shared with them the truth - that they would be in Babylon for seventy years. But the people didn't want to hear that message. They wanted a message of deliverance, and they weren't really interested in the truth.
So here comes Ezekiel, fresh off a scary awesome amazing encounter with the God of the universe. Ezekiel has a message for the people. It's not a good message. It's not particularly encouraging. This is not the message that is going to gain Ezekiel favor with men. It is a rebuke and a lament.
The Lord warns Ezekiel up front that the people are not going to listen, and He makes it clear that this is not Ezekiel's problem. Ezekiel's assignment at this point was simple - tell them. Later on, Ezekiel's assignments will become much more difficult, but this one was not complicated. "Give the people the message, whether they listen or not."
Often, we get overly concerned about outcomes. We get so focused on results that we fail to give proper concern to the process. We tend to measure our success or failure by what others say or do in response. We do that because that is how the world system is designed.
Many teachers miss the opportunity to help children develop vital skills because the pressure is to produce good outcomes on tests - outcome versus understanding. Companies produce poor quality products when they emphasize quantity over quality, pressuring employees to work quickly rather than carefully. In the wake of the Olympics, around the world will be found many young adults lacking purpose and direction because their lives to this point have been so focused on winning a medal in their sport that they've never been given to chance to learn basic skills for living.
And in our Christian lives, we can get so focused on outcomes - or perceived and potential outcomes - that we become effectively paralyzed. We may find ourselves so afraid that someone will respond negatively to our witness that we fail to witness. I sometimes find myself failing to write because I believe my reach to be too small to make an impact.
We are living in uncertain and volatile days. It is tempting to refrain from speaking the truth for fear of backlash. We find ourselves tiptoeing around everyone's feelings and opinions and politics, not wanting to offend, and so we fail to speak the truth. We are called to speak the truth in love, yes (see Ephesians 4:15), but we are called to SPEAK THE TRUTH.
God did not call Ezekiel to share His Word with any promise of good outcome. He just told him to tell the people what He said. Period.
In later chapters, God points out to Ezekiel again that he is not responsible for the outcome, but there is a qualifier: he is not responsible for the outcome as long as he has shared the message. If he failed to warn the people, then Ezekiel would bear responsibility.
Like Ezekiel, we are responsible for sharing the message. We cannot control the outcome, but we must make the truth known.
The truth our world needs in these crazy days can be found in God's Word. We've got to get past our fear of people and begin acting on our love for people. When we love someone, we tell them the truth. They may not listen, but we've got to try!
...Just a thought...
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