Ezek. 2: The Commission

And he said unto me, Son of man, stand upon thy feet, and I will speak unto thee. (Ezekiel 2:1)

As I previously said, the Lord is preparing a company of believers to go forth to His church with His words of warning about the impending judgments. The majority of Christians are not prepared because they haven’t been told. Far too many ministers either can’t accept that judgment has been determined or are too afraid to broach the subject on the chance of alienating the people.

There’s something that I’ve seen at various times and which I think bears repeating here, because it shows a relationship. The term “son of man” is used a hundred and seven times in the Old Testament, with ninety-three of them being found in the book of Ezekiel; and eighty-eight times in the New Testament, seventy-eight of them being used by Jesus of Himself in the Gospels. What I’m trying to show you is that there’s a definite relationship between Jesus and Ezekiel in that sense; and, just as Jesus came to throw down the gauntlet, exhorting the people to make a decision between continuing in their rebellion or turning back to the Father, so did Ezekiel. That, then, takes us to the present, and the fact that this will be the same commission for which God is raising up a company of believers.

Now, for the sake of, I guess you’d say, ease, I’ll be referring to this company of believers in a personal manner. In other words, instead of constantly speaking in the third person, I’ll be speaking in the first. Don’t get me wrong: I’m not doing it to claim that I have a definite part in this company. Rather, there are two reasons. First: as I said, it’s a little easier to refer to “I’ and “me” as opposed to “this company of people”. And second: personalizing it tends to personalize it for the reader as well.

So before He’ll send us forth, we’ll have to receive a word from Him. This won’t be something that we’ll “feel impressed” or “led by the Spirit” to bring forth. Rather, this will be a message that we’ll receive directly from Him. We’ll be the prophets to the church which haven’t been heard from since the days of the early fathers. Also, the word that we’ll bring will be a divisive unifier. By that I mean that it will divide between the light and the dark, the wheat and the tares, the faithful and the rebellious; and through that division, the faithful will be unified with the faithful, and the tares with the tares. If you think about it, though, that’s what God’s Word has always been.

The Lord is going to commission us to go to “a rebellious nation that hath rebelled against me” (Ezekiel 2:3). For this I want to clarify a couple of things, because far too many Christians misunderstand what the Lord is saying.

Judgment has been ordained for God’s people from the first days, just exactly as it was when natural Israel, under the headship of Jeroboam, separated from natural Judah and went almost immediately into apostasy. The church has experienced an almost constant progression of faithful leaders and false, of faithful believers and rebellious; yet the Lord has declared that His church will be “a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish” (Ephesians 5:27). Yes, there are multitudes of Christians who lay claim to that right now; but reality begs to differ, and that leads me to the next point.

Whenever judgment is mentioned, the first thing many Christians think is condemnation; and because true believers have been redeemed from God’s judgment, then many of them reject the idea of judgment for His people. What they fail to understand is that the judgment that is coming to the church is not judgment in the sense of condemnation, but, rather, it’s a cleansing and a purifying to bring her into the likeness of Jesus Christ. After all, Jesus didn’t come just to be a substitutionary sacrifice, but He also came as an example of what His people will be. Consequently, since we’re all quite distant from what we should be, then it’s going to take times of testing and sacrifice such as very few have ever experienced.

There’s something else that I want to clarify here; and that has to do with who will be the recipient of the judgments. God doesn’t take pleasure in the need to judge His people; but, at the same time, He knows that without it many would falter and fall in rebellion. We need to realize, however, that His judgment is conditional. By that I mean that He’s not going to judge every one of us the same. He knows what each of us needs to bring us into His likeness, and He then addresses it accordingly, whether with severity or not. He doesn’t judge someone for rebellion when they’re faithful. In essence, then, His judgment is subjective, but it’s always effective.

So there’s one thing that we need to understand when the Lord sends us to His people: many of them will come against us in varying degrees. Some will declare us to be liars and heretics, some will ignore us, while others will hear what God will be saying. As I’ve said, judgment has been determined and WILL come to pass; but He’ll be offering them an opportunity, through us, to turn back to Him, and to keep themselves from that judgment. Therefore, it’s imperative that we stand strong against those who will come against us, and to speak what the Lord will require us to speak. You see, many of the shepherds entrusted with guiding the flock have failed to uphold that trust. Paul wrote that “all Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness” (2 Timothy 3:16); yet, for whatever reason, these shepherds have watered down their messages to allow everyone to feel comfortable. That comes with a hefty eternal price. Instead of presenting God’s truth, and the obedience and change of life that He demands, they’ve consistently fed their people a diet of blessings without sacrifice. Consequently, we’ll be bringing the word to them that should have been brought; and they’ll no longer have the option of lazy Christianity. They’ll have a decision to make, and there will be eternal consequences.