“Some hard-headed people”
By Rev. Michael Stonhouse
Meditation – Saturday, May 20, 2023
Ezekiel 3:4-17 (Forward, p. 22) CEV p. 842
Reading the Scriptures, I sometimes wonder whether they have somehow made a jump in time, some sort of time warp. I say this because sometimes they seem to be speaking directly to my own time and to the people that I know and associate with. Here, for instance, God is talking about hard-headed people, stubborn people, people who are set in their ways and unlikely to listen much less change. As I read this, I cannot help but think that he might have been talking to my own family, and yes, even to me, for we all can be a pretty stubborn bunch.
But, as a counter measure to Israel’s ingrained stubbornness, their ingrown hard-headedness, God sets out someone just as stubborn, the prophet Ezekiel. He is to be just as stubborn as they and is to go to them with God’s message regardless of whether they want to hear it or not, and regardless of whether they will listen or not. Indeed, he is to listen carefully to God’s words and ponder them, and then to go bravely and share them with this stubborn ‘lot’.
And, it is interesting, and perhaps a bit instructive, to see how God has engineered this ‘encounter’ with Ezekiel and how Ezekiel responds to it. He has experienced the glory of God, which is pretty awesome even in itself, He has supernaturally received a scroll covered on both sides with words of sadness, mourning and grief and told to eat it, and He has received a vision of a series of wheels turning within wheels. All of this is pretty heady stuff, and Ezekiel is quite overwhelmed and dazed, shocked, by what has happened to him. Moreover, he feels that he has been left helpless, that God’s power has taken over and taken complete control over his life. In this, Ezekiel is not exactly ‘a happy camper’. He is annoyed and angry over this turn of events, over how God has treated him. He is no longer able to do ‘just as he wants.’ Nevertheless, Ezekiel does as he is told and warns his people, the Israelites, on behalf of God.
And so, not only do I often feel in solidarity with the stubborn people who just won’t listen and who won’t change, sometimes I often see myself in the same boat as Ezekiel. Sometimes I am upset or disappointed, or quite frankly, angry, with where God takes things, or with what God has allowed to happen—with the sabotage, for instance, of all the plans our local church had made prior to the onset of the pandemic.
But then I have to realize that I am not in charge—I don’t get to ‘call the shots’, and neither am I in control. All of that must simply be left to God. The best, then, that I can do is wait and listen and then do as He says.
That is a hard thing to do for us stubborn, hard-headed people, but that is what He requires.
Forward notes: “He said to me: Mortal, all my words that I shall speak to you receive in your heart and hear with your ears; then go to the exiles, to your people, and speak to them. Say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God’; whether they hear or refuse to hear” (verses 10-11).
“There is a recurring theme in the prophetic call narratives of the Old Testament. Isaiah volunteers to be God’s messenger, but the message is not good: destruction is coming, but the people won’t listen. God’s blessing was on Jeremiah before his birth, but God says the people will resist the message and fight him. And God tells Ezekiel to proclaim the word regardless of the reception he receives.
“When I think about these great prophets and their complicated call stories, I feel encouraged. We are called to live justly and to walk in love and mercy. We are called to share that message faithfully. But we are not called to change other people’s hearts and minds; no matter how much we want to, changing hearts is the domain of the Spirit. Our task is to remain faithful and proclaim God’s future in word and action. Our faithfulness is our prophetic heritage to the world.”
Moving Forward: “Remember to let God be God—in your heart and life.