2:7
God is making no bones about the issue, there is no attempt to sugar-coat the matter. Ezekiel is being sent to a rebellious people who have shown no inclination to listen to God in the past, and are unlikely to do so in the near future. Their willing to listen or otherwise is not the issue. Ezekiel must speak God’s words to them. Now we should look at the whole of Ezekiel. The first two thirds or so is pretty grim! It is essentially a depiction of the depravity of the people. But the final third is about God changing the heart of people. We need to give full weight to both these aspects. One is the total depravity of mankind, to put it in TULIP terminology, the other is the irresistible grace of God. If we follow the “people are quite nice really and would really like to hear about Jesus” route we will soon become disillusioned and achieve little. If we follow God’s route then we will see the fruit of the gospel.
2:8
In contrast to the people, Ezekiel is to listen to what God has to say to him. Again, this goes against the direction that we often hear today, which stresses the importance of listening to the world. Now there is some value in this, in at least being aware of how the world thinks, and Paul said he became all things to all men. But the world is corrupt and its thinking is corrupt, so why would a sensible person want to take the world’s wisdom on board? We need to listen to God. We are not to be rebellious like the world, but are to feed on the word of God. We are to eat what God gives to us.
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