If I saw Ezekiel on the street would I think he was crazy?

In the second half of chapter 3 God gives Ezekiel warnings about the consequences of not following though on God's warnings to His people. God clearly told Ezekiel that his responsibility was to warn the people whether they listened or not. He then indicates that this is going to cause such consternation among them that they will bind Ezekiel in his house. But first he is told to go and lock himself in his house. The result of these events seems to be that Ezekiel will himself become so stunned by the message and possibly by the treatment of his people that he will be unable to speak for some apparently lengthy period of time and will only be relieved from this when God gives him some specific warning for the people.

This part of the story amazes me because I am quite sure that if someone in the church did this today, that we would all assume that they were mentally ill and have them locked up. So, from that perspective, binding Ezekiel in his house does not seem to be a very different solution to what we would do in the 21st century.

So how do we evaluate the impact of our Christian message? God calls each Christian to be a radically transformed and radically transformational in the lives and society that we live in. Yet none of us want to be locked up as insane, so what do we do, or better, what should we do?

In reality, I think that we just do not evaluate the Christian message much at all. We do this in both meanings of evaluate. That is, we do not take the time to count up its profits and losses because we are terrified that if we do, we might just be evaluated by others as crazy. We also do not evaluate it in the sense of placing a value on it. Ezekiel did not have this luxury. God placed the value - if you obey you and the people may live; if you do not obey, you will both die. God also forced him to evaluate it in the more common meaning of evaluate, the first one above, that is to look at the profits and losses. In this case the losses exceed what I would want - that is to be judged to be a danger to society.

Lord, give me the grace to see the profit of following You to be so high that any consequence is more than worth the cost!

Ezekiel 3:1-15

This section is an interesting study in cause and effect.

The first cause is that God told Ezekiel to eat the scroll and actually fed it to him. The effect was sweet in his mouth, food to his stomach, and filling for his body. This is what God's word is to be to me as well - a sweet taste in my mouth, food to meet my immediate needs and nutrition for my long term survival as a Believer.

But the next cause and effect is also typical of my life as a Christian. Ezekiel was given a very specific task - to go to the exiles to preach repentance. In this case the Lord made it clear that the result would not be so pleasant. The task was to take a message of judgment to a stubborn people, and not just any people, but Ezekiel's own people, who were going to be angry, rebellious and stubborn. So the result of this cause - the mission - would not be pleasant and nurturing. It would be difficult and challenging in every way.

In fact, the result of this commission was that Ezekiel was embittered and full or rage. The bitterness and rage seem to be the result of seeing the people through God's eyes. So, although God's word was sweet and good for him, the final result was a very difficult task that filled him with negative emotions.

What can I learn from this? My problem right now is that I am in a set of challenging and difficult situations - health issues and difficulties in ministry, in particular. In reading this I realize that I have not been allowing the Word to be sweet, filling nutrition to my life. Without this, Ezekiel could not have stood the rejection and anger of his fellow exiles and without this I cannot bear the constant sense of isolation that I am experiencing in both health and ministry areas.

Lord, let me look to You and Your Word for all I need!