Ezekiel’s Commission

"And he said to me, 'Son of man, stand on your feet, and I will speak with you.' And as he spoke to me, the Spirit entered into me and set me on my feet, and I heard him speaking to me. And he said to me, 'Son of man, I send you to the people of Israel, to nations of rebels, who have rebelled against me. They and their fathers have transgressed against me to this very day. The descendants also are impudent and stubborn: I send you to them, and you shall say to them, 'Thus says the Lord God.' And whether they hear or refuse to hear (for they are a rebellious house) they will know that a prophet has been among them.' " (Ezekiel 2:1-5, ESV) [Read Ezekiel 2:1 - 3:37]

The vision Ezekiel saw of the Lord God arising out of a cloud and revealing Himself to him in chapter one came after, or as a part of, his call to ministry. We could spend much time discussing the unusal vision and still not exhaust its majesty or the effect it had upon Ezekiel. The important thing (as I see it) is that it led to Ezekiel's commission, an assignment from God of the work He had for him to do among the captives of Israel in exile in Babylon (and, consequently, even to all since and to us today, as Ezekiel was included in the canon of the Scriptures).

First, God has to get our attention. He does that in ways uniquely related to God's nature and to the response of the person being called and commissioned. It may seem unusual that in chapters 2 and 3 of Ezekiel, there are five distinct commissions from God for the prophet. Ezekiel's commission is similar to that of Isaiah and Jeremiah. God sent them also to a people who were stiff-necked and hard of hearing and responding to the message from God. And likewise, in this first stated commission of Ezekiel, God warned him that he was being sent to a rebellious people, stubborn and impudent. The prophet was to be faithful in its delivery, whether his hearers heeded the message or not. That same holds true of any messenger God commissions today, whether a pastor, a missionary, or a Christian who is compelled to share a testimony with someone he contacts.

The terminology "Son of man" is used 87 times in the book of Ezekiel. It emphasizes the fact that Ezekiel is mortal. But it also harks back to the important question asked in Psalm 8: "What is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him? Yet you have made him a little lower that the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet...O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!" (Psalm 8:4-6, 9 ESV). The Messiah called Himself "Son of man," thus identifying himself with mankind. And in the many designations of Ezekiel as "son of man," he, too, though called and commisioned by Almighty God for the task of taking God's message to the people, was a human being assigned a heavenly-ordained job. "Go and preach to these people, Ezekiel, even if they do not heed the message!"

Behind every Christian's life should be the keen awareness of being on mission for God. Some, like Ezekiel, have a special calling and commission. But all, if we only will hear and heed the claim of God upon our life, have our own calling and commission. Dr. E.L. Allen in his expostion of Ezekiel (The Interpreter's Bible, Vol. 6, "Ezekiel" [Nashville, Abingdon, 1956], p. 77) states: "Let us count it an honor when God assigns us His most difficult tasks, for, like a wise general, He sends His best officers on His most exacting enterprises. In this sense, we must learn to say 'Yes' to life, and volunteer for the battle where it is fiercest." Ezekiel's assignment was to his own people, Israel, captives in Exile. Little did he realize that we in the 21st century would be reading his words and receiving inspiration and instruction from them. This is how God works in His magnanimous purpose and plan. Selah!

c Ethelene Dyer Jones; Thursday, September 30, 2010