"Moreover he said unto me, Son of man, eat that thou findest; eat this roll, and go, speak unto the house of Israel." (Ezekiel 3:1)
The previous chapter ended with a roll that was written with “lamentations, and mourning, and woe” (Ezekiel 2:10), and here the Lord commanded him to eat what was placed before him. Therefore, just as Ezekiel had no say in the matter, neither will we. We may not want to bring hard messages to our brethren; but God will have chosen us and commissioned us, and we have to obey Him to the exclusion of all that we feel. But we’ll find out something that we won’t have expected: what He’ll give us to speak will bring a combination of sorrow and joy to our spirit. The sorrow will come because of the rejection of God by many, while there will be joy when others will turn back to Him.
God will send us to the churches to speak what He’ll give us to speak, and they’ll understand exactly what they’ll be hearing. You see, He, through us, will be requiring strict obedience and complete sacrifice. The reason that they’ll understand what they’ll be hearing? It’s because that’s what He’s been saying all along. They may have had selective hearing, having chosen to pay heed only to His words of blessing; but they’ll come face to face with Him, with no place to hide. Thus, some will finally surrender; but many will remain obstinate, convinced that we’ll be false prophets and heretics.
However, despite the opposition that will come against us, the Lord will have prepared us to stand. Yes, we’ll know that the Lord is the One Who will be standing with us and strengthening us, but, at the same time, He knows that we could possibly draw back in the face of their onslaught. Therefore, this preparation includes something that not very many people have noticed. I realize that God’s statement to Ezekiel that He made “thy forehead strong against their foreheads” (verse 8) could be referring to conflicts in the animal kingdom, still, I see something more. You see, the entire frontal cortex of the brain is considered to be the center for action of one kind or another: skeletal movement, eye movement, speech control and emotions. The largest part of this, called the prefrontal cortex, is responsible for internal, intentional mental action, which is also referred to as reasoning. So, when God told Ezekiel that He had made a change to his forehead, He made a major change in everything that Ezekiel did, thought and said. And, by extension, He’s going to do the same for us. What we’ll do (skeletal movement), our spiritual vision (eye movement), what we’ll say (speech control), how we’ll react (emotions), and how we’ll reason will all be under the control of the Spirit of God; and we’ll do and say only those things that He commands us.
However, we need to understand something: even though we didn’t technically seek the Lord for what He’s called us to, still, He’ll be commissioning us because of our innermost desire to be used by Him. And though we’ve known that doing what He commands us to do comes with a price, it’ll be somewhat disconcerting to find out that, in many instances, He’ll be the One exacting the price.
But there’s something that you need to realize here; and it’s something that you could easily overlook. God told Ezekiel: “When I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die; and thou givest him not warning” (Ezekiel 3:18). Did you catch that? God will first speak to every one of His people, many supernaturally, in an attempt to turn them around and to draw them back to Him. Sadly, many will ignore His drawing, as they have been for the longest time. Consequently, when He sends us to them, and we speak the same things, then some will realize that it was indeed the Lord speaking to them; and they’ll heed the Spirit and will submit to Him. Yet many others will stand in defiance.
So, the responsibility that the Lord will put on us will be, not necessarily to bring them a word that they’ll never have heard, but one which He’ll have brought to them in one manner or another; and we’ll basically be corroborating it. The word that we’ll be bringing them, then, will be that judgment HAS been determined for the church, and that they, therefore, will have a decision to make: will they heed the word of the Lord and turn back to Him, or will they continue on their path to judgment?
There’s something that we need to realize here: we won’t be able to go to them unless the Lord sends us. And even then, we’ll only be able to speak what He tells us. However, that doesn’t mean that we’ll stand idly by while they continue on their downward spiral. You see, just as with Ezekiel, much of what we’ll bring to them will be performed. In other words, we won’t be using words, but demonstration. But whether they hear it or see it, the responsibility to obey falls squarely on their shoulders; while the responsibility to bring it to them falls squarely on ours.
