Ezekiel 2:1–10

Read the passage.

When Ezekiel sees the enthroned Lord God Almighty, he falls on his face in fear and worship, because the holiness of the Lord can not abide sin. But the Lord tells him to stand on his feet because He has a mission for him. He addresses Ezekiel as “Son of man”, which means he is a human, that is, a descendant of Adam. It sounds the same as Jesus’s favorite way to refer to Himself in Scripture, but the (specific, prophesied) Son of Man that He refers to is from Daniel’s vision where He receives the authority to rule the world from the Father at the end of the age. Cheekily, Jesus can also use the meaning we see here as well, since He is also fully human.

Ezekiel’s mission, like the prophets before him, is to speak the words of the Lord to Israel. Because they are a rebellious nation, impudent and stubborn (vv. 3–4), he is not to expect responses like Jonah got from the Ninevites. However he isn’t necessarily to expect the response Jeremiah got, where no one at all listened to God’s warnings. He should be prepared for opposition, in the form of words, but he also shouldn’t be afraid of what they say.

Ezekiel is also given instructions to not be rebellious like his people, but to eat what the Lord gives him. And the Lord gives him a scroll to eat. It is written on both the front and back, which is very strange, for human scrolls at least. In prophetic visions, scrolls of judgement from God tend to have writing on front and back. (Zech. 5:3 and Rev. 5:1) Indeed, this scroll has words of lamentation, mourning, and woe. Ezekiel’s message will not be a happy one.

Let us always be concerned with pleasing You our Lord and Savior, than with pleasing anyone else.