The dumb prophet – a tough call.
3 vv 24-26 Then the Spirit came into me and set me on my feet. He spoke to me and said, “Go to your house and shut yourself in. There, son of man, you will be tied with ropes so you cannot go out among the people. And I will make your tongue stick to the roof of your mouth so that you will be speechless and unable to rebuke them, for they are rebels.
If there is one thing you expect a prophet to be able to do it is to get out among the people and announce the God-given message. So what does God do? Shuts him up in his house and strikes him dumb! How on earth can a prophet do what needs to be done under those conditions? Ezekiel is going to have to struggle to find a way to get God’s messages across to these rebellious people.
This is precisely the problem all preachers face even today; how are they to get God’s word across to people who are not predisposed to listen – it is the age old problem of getting to grips with communication skills.
If you get time to read the whole book – not too daunting a task in the August holiday – you will find Ezekiel turns to drama; he puts on public shows that make people stop and think. We find a typical reaction in our reading for Thursday – ‘. Then the people asked, “What does all this mean? What are you trying to tell us?” (Ezekial 24) It even included some pretty distasteful action as in Ezekiel 4:12 ‘ Prepare and eat this food as you would barley cakes. While all the people are watching, bake it over a fire using dried human dung as fuel and then eat the bread. ‘ If that sounds disgusting – that’s exactly how Ezekiel’s neighbours must have felt.
Sure thing – Ezekiel got noticed, and eventually the messages got through!
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