by Amanda Beatie
“You shall speak My words to them, whether they hear or whether they refuse…” Ezekiel 2:7
Ezekiel is a book of the Bible that few people are familiar with and even fewer feel they can relate to. It’s easy to admire Ezekiel from a distance, marveling at his surrender to the Lord, gawking at his eccentric modes of prophecy, and being secretly thankful that God hasn’t asked us to do the same crazy prophetic demonstrations He required of Ezekiel. Yet this book is crucially important for us in our generation today. The word of the Lord remains timeless and true across the centuries, calling us to stand as messengers of God in the midst of the ever-increasing corruption of the age in which we live. The decree of Ezekiel 2:7 is poignantly relevant to us today, where the Lord commands His prophet, “You shall speak My words to them, whether they hear or whether they refuse.”
The phrase, “whether they hear or whether they refuse,” appears three times in chapters 2 and 3 of Ezekiel. God ends chapter 3 with a statement that rings with unsettling finality: “…He who hears, let him hear; and he who refuses, let him refuse…”
It’s amazing how severely the human heart recoils at this phrase. Generally, our desire is to speak God’s words to people—and then they hear. As much as we want to rightly perceive and proclaim the word of the Lord, there’s something in us that still is squirming and fighting, something that wants to make it palatable. For most of us, there’s something in us that still coddles to the fear of man, wanting to present something to the world that will be broadly accepted. He who hears, let him hear; and he who refuses… well, shouldn’t we soften things up a bit to try and convince him? Shouldn’t we find a less confronting, gentler way to win him over? Don’t we need to meet him in the middle? Can’t we negotiate on this one a little bit, Lord?
But God didn’t leave Ezekiel that option. He says, in no uncertain terms, “You shall speak My words to them, whether they hear or whether they refuse…” (Ez. 2:7) God wasn’t interested in gaining anyone’s approval. He was interested in turning their hearts. He wasn’t concerned about public relations; He wanted corporate repentance. He wasn’t seeking good polls so He could be elected as president; He was calling for a heart change so that He would be loved and revered as God. Well-meaning prophets tried to deliver a message that would set forth only His kindness in Jeremiah 23:16-17, and they ended up completely misrepresenting His heart. They spoke of peace and prosperity to those who were rebelling against God, when the cry of the Lord’s heart was to warn them of impending disaster to drive them to repentance. They disobeyed the Lord, compromised their own message, and strengthened the wicked in their evildoing in one fell swoop. God doesn’t want publicists and spin-doctors; He wants messengers who will deliver His word rightly—whether the people hear, or whether they refuse.
Yet it’s important to recognize that God wasn’t calling Ezekiel to cause people to refuse any more than He was expecting him to make them hear. God wants to reach out to human beings. He doesn’t get sadistic pleasure out of offending and angering people. Jesus Himself rebuked the teachers of the law for “laying heavy burdens on men’s backs,” in regards to the commandment of God (see Luke 11:46). He indicts the priests of Malachi’s day for causing “many to stumble at the law [the word of God]” (Malachi 2:8). God’s zeal and love for His people thunders through Jeremiah 23:1, saying, “Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of My pasture!” God’s goal is not to wound and offend, and He does not take it lightly when His messengers uphold that as their objective.
However, His goal is to do whatever it takes to get through to hardened hearts. He sees things from a perspective we’ll never fully know. He knows precisely what it will take to win hearts to Himself, and He knows who will believe and who will refuse.
The point is that God means what He says and says what He means. We are neither
called upon to apologize for Him or to assist Him with His tact. Our part in
the process is to agree with His heart, to long for His desires, and to love
like He does, no matter what the message. Our part is to speak faithfully what
He has given us to say. Our job is to speak His word as He so commands us. It
is His job to turn the hearts.
I believe the Lord is looking for people who will stand as friends of God in this hour. He is raising up those who will know His heart—both His love and His unflinching commitment to righteousness—those who will give themselves to the knowledge of God and the understanding of His word. He is inviting us to stand with Him, to share in His heart and to declare it rightly. He is calling forth the messengers who fear God alone, so that whether the message is heard or refused, the word of the Lord will be spoken. The call that went forth to Ezekiel is still sounding in our day…who will rise up to answer?
to comment to the author e-mail: amandabeattie@ihop.org