Ezekiel 2:2














Every prophet is a missionary; every true missionary is a prophet. In an inferior sense of the word, he is a mediator - a mediator between God and man.

I. THE MISSIONARY CHARACTER OF THE PROPHET. He is one "sent." He goes not to this difficult and responsible work by the impulse of his own reason or will. He is in the employ and under the direction of another - of One whom he cannot disregard. He cannot go or stay, as he pleases, he is a servant. The Son of God himself has undertaken similar work. He was "sent" into our world on an errand of kindness. "As thou hast sent me, so have I sent them."

II. THE MISSIONARY'S UNPROMISING FIELD OF ACTION. "I send thee to the children of Israel, to a rebellious nation." The possession of outward advantages, or of special Divine favours, does not ensure gratitude or obedience on the part of men. In Eden, man transgressed. In Canaan, the glory of all lands, the Hebrews rebelled. Righteousness is not conveyed by blood relationship. The piety of Abraham did not descend in the line of natural posterity. But rebellion is a weed that grows freely in the degenerate soil of the human heart. The people of Israel, in Ezekiel's time, were hardened in sin. The evil had become inveterate by long centuries of vicious habit, sad all the alternate measures of kindness and severity which God had employed had failed to reduce the people to submission. Though now in exile and disgrace, yet "to that very day" the rebellious spirit continued. Nor were they even ashamed of the past. No blush tinged their cheeks. All right feeling seemed petrified within!

III. THE MISSIONARY'S INSTRUMENT. He is armed simply with the authoritative Word of God. What he hears from God, that, and that alone, may he speak! He is not allowed to elaborate, from his own judgment, conditions of reconciliation. He is not to rely for success on the inventiveness of reason, nor on beguiling acts of sophistry, nor on the persuasiveness of subtle rhetoric. He is to proclaim everywhere, "Thus saith the Lord!" Authority is the weapon on which he is to rely - not human authority, but Divine. He is to be simply the mouthpiece of Deity. But, being this, he will become the power of God and the wisdom of God. His business is to speak Divine truth with all the pathos of Divine love.

IV. THE MISSIONARY'S ENCOURAGEMENT. Whether the people would hear, or whether they would forbear, was still an unsolved problem so far as the prophet was concerned. God had not given to him the promise of visible and direct success. But whether they accepted or rejected the Divine overtures, the end which God anticipated would be realized. The people should have this conviction inwrought in their minds, viz. that a messenger from God had been among them. This was all that Ezekiel might confidently expect. This was the goal at which he was to aim, viz. to convince them that he was God's prophet - to commend his mission to the consciences of the people. Hence, if no other end was gained, he was not to feel depression of soul. Whether the people relented or further rebelled, he was to continue his simple work; and rest assured that God would defend his own cause, and bring final good out of present evil. - D.

And the Spirit entered into me.
Mark the course of a river like the Thames; how it winds and twists according to its own sweet will. Yet there is a reason for every bend and curve; the geologist, studying the soil and marking the conformation of the rock, sees a reason why the river's bed diverges to the right or to the left; and so, though the Spirit of God blesses one preacher more than another, and the reason cannot be such that any man could congratulate himself upon his own goodness, yet there are certain things about Christian ministers which God blesses, and certain other things which hinder success.

( C. H. Spurgeon.)

The Rev. F.B. Meyer has a firewood factory in connection with his church, where employment is provided for men and boys. A circular saw is used for cutting through beams of solid timber. Until recently, this saw was worked by a crank, turned by twelve or fifteen men. But it was slow, hard, and expensive work. At last, says Mr. Meyer, we were driven to something more expeditious, and bought a gas engine. And now, the saw, driven by this engine, does in two or three hours as much work as it did formerly in a day, and at less than a tenth of the cost. It is the same saw; but the difference lies in the power that drives it. It used to be driven by hand power, now it is driven by an equivalent for steam, and the only thing we need to do is to keep the connecting band tight. "It is not a question," continues Mr. Meyer, "as to our abilities or qualifications, but of the power behind us. If that is nothing more than human, it is not surprising that the results are miserably poor. But if we link ourselves to the eternal power of God, nothing will be impossible to us. 'All things are possible to him that believeth.'"

People
Ezekiel, Israelites
Places
Chebar
Topics
Causeth, Ears, Entered, Raised, Spake, Speaking, Spirit, Spoke, Spoken, Stand, Voice
Outline
1. Ezekiel's commission
6. His instruction
9. The scroll of his heavy prophecy

Dictionary of Bible Themes
Ezekiel 2:2

     3120   Holy Spirit, descriptions
     3236   Holy Spirit, and Scripture
     3272   Holy Spirit, in OT

Ezekiel 2:1-7

     7758   preachers, call

Ezekiel 2:2-5

     3224   Holy Spirit, and preaching

Library
Endurance of the World's Censure.
"And thou, son of man, be not afraid of them; neither be afraid of their words, though briars and thorns be with thee, and thou dost dwell among scorpions; be not afraid of their words, nor be dismayed at their looks, though they be a rebellious house."--Ezekiel ii. 6. What is here implied, as the trial of the Prophet Ezekiel, was fulfilled more or less in the case of all the Prophets. They were not Teachers merely, but Confessors. They came not merely to unfold the Law, or to foretell the Gospel,
John Henry Newman—Parochial and Plain Sermons, Vol. VIII

Epistle xxxvi. To Maximus, Bishop of Salona .
To Maximus, Bishop of Salona [113] . Gregory to Maximus, &c. When our common son the presbyter Veteranus came to the Roman city, he found me so weak from the pains of gout as to be quite unable to answer thy Fraternity's letters myself. And indeed with regard to the nation of the Sclaves [114] , from which you are in great danger, I am exceedingly afflicted and disturbed. I am afflicted as suffering already in your suffering: I am disturbed, because they have already begun to enter Italy by way
Saint Gregory the Great—the Epistles of Saint Gregory the Great

Epistle Xlv. To Theoctista, Patrician .
To Theoctista, Patrician [153] . Gregory to Theoctista, &c. We ought to give great thanks to Almighty God, that our most pious and most benignant Emperors have near them kinsfolk of their race, whose life and conversation is such as to give us all great joy. Hence too we should continually pray for these our lords, that their life, with that of all who belong to them, may by the protection of heavenly grace be preserved through long and tranquil times. I have to inform you, however, that I have
Saint Gregory the Great—the Epistles of Saint Gregory the Great

St. Malachy Becomes Bishop of Connor; He Builds the Monastery of iveragh.
16. (10). At that time an episcopal see was vacant,[321] and had long been vacant, because Malachy would not assent: for they had elected him to it.[322] But they persisted, and at length he yielded when their entreaties were enforced by the command of his teacher,[323] together with that of the metropolitan.[324] It was when he was just entering the thirtieth year of his age,[325] that he was consecrated bishop and brought to Connor; for that was the name of the city through ignorance of Irish ecclesiastical
H. J. Lawlor—St. Bernard of Clairvaux's Life of St. Malachy of Armagh

Ezekiel
To a modern taste, Ezekiel does not appeal anything like so powerfully as Isaiah or Jeremiah. He has neither the majesty of the one nor the tenderness and passion of the other. There is much in him that is fantastic, and much that is ritualistic. His imaginations border sometimes on the grotesque and sometimes on the mechanical. Yet he is a historical figure of the first importance; it was very largely from him that Judaism received the ecclesiastical impulse by which for centuries it was powerfully
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament

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