Ezekiel 3

Ezekiel eats the scroll and is commissioned as God’s prophet to a stubborn people in exile. God promises to make him as hard as they are, appoints him a watchman who must warn them, and then tells him that for a time he will be shut in at home and made silent until God opens his mouth.

Ezekiel 3:1

God tells Ezekiel to eat the scroll before he speaks. The messenger must first take in the message himself. Only then is he sent to Israel. God’s word is meant to be received inwardly before it is given out.

BSA: eat (“consume, devour”): The word suggests taking the message in fully, not just reading it over.

See also: Jeremiah 15:16; Revelation 10:9-10.

Ezekiel 3:2

Ezekiel opens his mouth, and God Himself feeds him the scroll. He does not take it by his own effort. The word he will speak is God’s gift, placed in him by God’s own hand.

Ezekiel 3:3

Ezekiel is told to fill his stomach with the scroll, and it tastes as sweet as honey. God’s word is sweet even when its contents are hard, as the scroll’s words of lament and woe were (2:10). To belong to God and carry His word is a joy.

BSA: sweet (“pleasant, delightful”): Even a hard message is delightful to receive because it comes from God.

See also: Psalm 119:103.

Ezekiel 3:4

Ezekiel is sent to Israel with God’s words, not his own ideas. He is a messenger, and the message belongs to the One who sends him. His task is to pass on faithfully what he has received.

Ezekiel 3:5-6

God notes that Ezekiel is not sent to foreigners with a strange language. He is sent to his own people, who understand him perfectly. The humbling point is that outsiders would have listened. Israel’s problem is not confusion but refusal.

BSA: unfamiliar (“strange, unknown”): A foreign tongue would be a real barrier, yet God says even that would be easier than Israel’s hard hearts.

See also: Matthew 11:21.

Ezekiel 3:7

Israel will not listen to Ezekiel because they will not listen to God. Rejecting the messenger shows what they think of the One who sent him. God describes them as hard-headed and hard-hearted: stubborn in will and unyielding within.

BSA: listen (“hear and obey”): In Scripture to listen means more than hearing; it means to obey, so their problem is a refusal to submit.

Ezekiel 3:8-9

God promises to make Ezekiel’s face and forehead as hard as the people’s. A forehead like diamond, harder than flint, pictures a courage that will not break under pressure. God does not remove the opposition. He strengthens His servant to stand firm in it.

BSA: dismayed (“completely broken, shattered”): God warns against being shattered inwardly by their hostile looks.

See also: Isaiah 50:7; Jeremiah 1:17-19.

Ezekiel 3:10-11

Ezekiel must first listen closely and take God’s words to heart, then go to his fellow exiles. He is to say, ‘This is what the Lord GOD says,’ whether they hear or not. His job is faithfulness, not results.

BSA: heart (“your innermost being, mind and emotions”): The message must reach the whole inner person before it is spoken to others.

Ezekiel 3:12-13

The Spirit lifts Ezekiel up, and he hears a great rumbling: the wings of the living creatures and the wheels from his earlier vision. A voice praises the glory of the LORD in His dwelling place. Even in Babylon, God’s glory is real and on the move.

BSA: rumbling (“quaking, shaking”): The sound is like an earthquake, showing the overwhelming power of God’s presence.

See also: Ezekiel 1:24.

Ezekiel 3:14

Ezekiel goes in bitterness and anger of spirit, with the strong hand of the LORD upon him. He is not a cheerful volunteer. He feels the weight of God’s judgment against his people, yet the LORD’s hand holds him firmly and does not let him turn back.

BSA: bitterness (“emotional pain, discontent”): Ezekiel’s heart is stirred and pained by the message he must carry.

Ezekiel 3:15

Ezekiel arrives at Tel-abib among the exiles by the River Kebar, a canal in Babylonia. For seven days he sits among them, stunned. Before he speaks, he shares their place and feels their grief. Good messengers first sit where the people sit.

BSA: overwhelmed (“desolate, devastated, astonished”): He sits stunned and silent, shaken by what he has seen and heard.

Ezekiel 3:16-17

After seven days God’s word comes, appointing Ezekiel as watchman. A watchman stood on the city wall and sounded the alarm when danger approached. Ezekiel is to hear from God’s mouth and warn the people on God’s behalf.

BSA: watchman (“to observe and warn”): He is to keep watch and cry out, not to keep quiet about what he sees coming.

Hebrew: צֹפֶה (tsofeh, H6822) — “watchman, lookout.” This is the word for a sentry on a tower who looks out for approaching danger. His whole duty is to see and to sound the alarm.

See also: Isaiah 62:6; Ezekiel 33:7.

Ezekiel 3:18

If God warns that a wicked man will die and the watchman stays silent, the man dies in his sin, and the watchman is held responsible for his blood. The weight is serious. Silence about danger is not kindness. God cares about every life.

BSA: responsible (“accountable, liable”): The watchman answers to God for failing to speak.

See also: Acts 20:26-27.

Ezekiel 3:19

If the watchman does warn and the wicked man still refuses to turn, the man dies in his own guilt. The watchman has done his duty and has saved himself. Faithfulness is measured by the warning given, not by whether people respond.

BSA: turn (“repent, change direction”): The warning aims at a change of direction, a real turning away from the wicked way.

Ezekiel 3:20

Even a righteous man may turn away from righteousness into sin. If he is not warned, he dies in his sin, and his earlier good deeds are not remembered. The watchman is again held responsible. A good start is not a guarantee. Believers need warning too.

BSA: stumbling block (“obstacle, hindrance”): God lets a test or obstacle lie in the path of one who has already turned toward sin.

See also: Ezekiel 18:24.

Ezekiel 3:21

When the righteous man is warned and heeds it, he truly lives, and the watchman has saved himself too. A timely warning is a gift of life. God uses a faithful word from one person to keep another from falling.

BSA: heeded (“paid attention to, took warning from”): Life came because he took the warning seriously and acted on it.

See also: James 5:19-20.

Ezekiel 3:22

The hand of the LORD comes upon Ezekiel again, and he is told to go out to the plain, where God will speak with him. God often meets His servants away from the crowd, in a quiet place set apart for listening.

BSA: plain (“valley, low area of land”): A broad open valley, a place of solitude where he could meet God.

Ezekiel 3:23

Ezekiel goes out and sees the glory of the LORD, just as at the Kebar. He falls facedown. The same God who appeared before is still present with His servant. Seeing His glory leaves a person humbled and low.

BSA: facedown (“on my face, in reverence”): His posture shows awe and worship before the holy God.

See also: Ezekiel 1:28.

Ezekiel 3:24

Ezekiel is too overcome to stand, so the Spirit enters him and sets him on his feet. God does not only command; He enables. Then he is told to shut himself in his house, a strange command that begins a time of withdrawal.

BSA: feet (“upright, enabled to stand”): The Spirit’s power raises him so he can hear and obey.

See also: Ezekiel 2:2.

Ezekiel 3:25

God says Ezekiel will be tied with ropes and prevented from going out among the people. Whether this means actual bonds or the people’s restraint is not made clear. Either way, his freedom to move among them is taken away for a time.

BSA: bound (“tied, restricted”): His movements will be held back so that he cannot go out among the people.

Ezekiel 3:26

God makes Ezekiel’s tongue stick to the roof of his mouth so that he cannot rebuke the people. He will speak only when God gives him a message. A prophet’s silence is also part of the message: a rebellious people no longer gets a steady stream of warnings.

BSA: stick (“to cleave, stick firmly”): His tongue clings fast, which pictures complete silence until God releases it.

See also: Ezekiel 24:27.

Ezekiel 3:27

When God speaks, He will open Ezekiel’s mouth, and Ezekiel will say, ‘This is what the Lord GOD says.’ Each hearer is left free to listen or refuse. Ezekiel speaks only on God’s word, and the response belongs to the hearers.

BSA: open (“enabling, setting free”): God frees Ezekiel’s mouth, so his speech is by God’s permission and power alone.

See also: Revelation 22:11.