When God Calls the Reluctant: Ezekiel’s Impossible Mission
What’s Ezekiel 2 about?
God commissions Ezekiel to be His prophet to rebellious Israel, calling him “son of man” and warning him that his audience will be as stubborn as thorns and scorpions. It’s a divine job interview where the Boss is brutally honest about how difficult the assignment will be, yet still expects complete obedience.
The Full Context
Picture this: it’s 593 BC, and the cream of Jewish society has been dragged off to Babylon as exiles. Among them is a young priest named Ezekiel, whose world has been turned completely upside down. The temple where he should have been serving is hundreds of miles away, and his people are scattered like sheep without a shepherd. Then, in the most spectacular way imaginable, God shows up with a vision that would make Hollywood special effects look like child’s play – wheels within wheels, four-faced creatures, and a throne room that defies description (Ezekiel 1).
Now comes chapter 2, where God gets down to business. This isn’t just about giving Ezekiel a mystical experience to write home about – this is a commissioning ceremony with the highest possible stakes. The exiles are struggling with massive questions: Has God abandoned us? Are the Babylonian gods stronger? Should we just assimilate and forget about being God’s people? Into this crisis of faith steps Ezekiel, but his message won’t be what anyone wants to hear. God is preparing him for the most thankless job in human history: being a prophet to people who absolutely don’t want to listen.
What the Ancient Words Tell Us
The phrase that jumps out immediately is ben-adam – “son of man.” God uses this term for Ezekiel over 90 times throughout the book, and it’s fascinating when you dig into it. In Hebrew, this isn’t some lofty title – it’s literally “son of humanity” or “child of dust.” It emphasizes Ezekiel’s mortality, his complete dependence on God, and his solidarity with the human condition.
Grammar Geeks
The Hebrew word qasheh (rebellious/obstinate) that describes Israel comes from a root meaning “to be hard.” It’s the same word used for Pharaoh’s hardened heart in Exodus. God is essentially saying, “Ezekiel, you’re dealing with people who have Pharaoh-level stubbornness.”
When God tells Ezekiel to speak “whether they listen or refuse to listen” (Ezekiel 2:7), the Hebrew verb for “refuse” (chadal) means to cease, desist, or simply stop trying. God knows these people have already mentally checked out, but the message must still be delivered.
The imagery of thorns and scorpions in verse 6 would have been particularly vivid for Ezekiel. In the desert regions around Babylon, both were constant, painful realities. God isn’t sugarcoating this assignment – He’s saying, “Every conversation will feel like walking barefoot through a thorn patch while scorpions nip at your heels.”
What Would the Original Audience Have Heard?
For Jewish exiles hearing this message, the “son of man” address would have been both humbling and encouraging. In a culture where prophets were often seen as larger-than-life figures, God is emphasizing that His spokesman is thoroughly, completely human. No superhuman powers, no special immunity to pain or discouragement – just a regular guy who happens to have an extraordinary calling.
Did You Know?
In ancient Near Eastern cultures, when a king commissioned someone for a difficult task, they would often provide detailed warnings about the challenges ahead. This wasn’t to discourage – it was to ensure the messenger understood the gravity of their mission and wouldn’t quit at the first sign of trouble.
The repeated emphasis on Israel’s rebellion would have stung. These exiles still thought of themselves as God’s chosen people, yet here’s God Himself calling them a “rebellious house” (bayit meri) four times in just a few verses. The Hebrew word meri doesn’t just mean disobedient – it carries connotations of bitter defiance, like a child who not only refuses to obey but does so with contempt.
But there’s also hope embedded in this harsh diagnosis. By sending a prophet at all, God is demonstrating that He hasn’t given up on His people. Even scorpion-like hearts can potentially be softened by the right word at the right time.
But Wait… Why Did They…?
Here’s what’s genuinely puzzling about this passage: Why would God send a prophet to people He already knows won’t listen? Verse 5 basically admits the mission will fail – “whether they listen or refuse to listen, they will know that a prophet has been among them.” So what’s the point?
The answer reveals something profound about God’s character. This isn’t about success rates or conversion statistics. It’s about witness. Even when people reject God’s message, they can never later claim they weren’t warned, weren’t offered a chance to repent, weren’t loved enough to receive a messenger.
Wait, That’s Strange…
Notice that God doesn’t promise Ezekiel success, prosperity, or even basic respect. The entire job description is essentially: “They’ll hate you, reject your message, and treat you like dirt. Now go do it anyway.” What kind of recruitment strategy is that?
Think about it this way: when a doctor tells a patient they have cancer, the goal isn’t necessarily to make the patient happy with the news. The goal is to provide information that could save their life, even if it’s initially devastating to hear. Ezekiel’s role is spiritual oncology – diagnosing a terminal condition in hopes that shocking truth might motivate people to seek the cure.
Wrestling with the Text
This passage forces us to grapple with some uncomfortable realities about both God and human nature. God’s foreknowledge of rejection doesn’t stop Him from extending grace – He sends prophets even to people He knows will reject them. That’s either cosmic foolishness or cosmic love, and the text clearly leans toward the latter.
There’s also something deeply honest about God’s approach here. He doesn’t sell Ezekiel a bill of goods about how rewarding ministry will be. No promises of packed synagogues or best-selling scroll sales. Just the raw truth: “This will be hard, they won’t listen, and you have to do it anyway.”
“Sometimes love looks like telling people what they desperately don’t want to hear, precisely because not telling them would be the cruelest thing of all.”
The “son of man” designation takes on even deeper significance when we remember that Jesus would later use this same title for Himself. Both Ezekiel and Jesus were fully human messengers bringing God’s word to rebellious people who would ultimately reject them. Both were warned in advance that their missions would involve suffering. Both went anyway.
How This Changes Everything
For anyone who’s ever felt called to a difficult task – whether it’s confronting a friend about destructive behavior, standing up for justice in an unjust situation, or simply speaking truth in a culture that prefers comfortable lies – Ezekiel 2 is both warning and encouragement.
The warning: Don’t expect applause. Don’t measure success by popular reception. People might treat your attempts at love like attacks, your offers of help like insults.
The encouragement: You’re in good company. God Himself regularly sends messages that people reject. The goal isn’t to be liked; it’s to be faithful. Your job is to deliver the message with integrity – what people do with it is between them and God.
This passage also revolutionizes how we think about “failed” ministries or relationships. That conversation with your rebellious teenager that ended in slammed doors? That attempt to share your faith with a skeptical friend who laughed? That effort to bring reconciliation to a fractured relationship that was rebuffed? None of these are failures if they were done in love and truth. They’re acts of witness.
Key Takeaway
God’s love sometimes looks like sending messengers to people who will reject them, because not sending anyone would be giving up on them entirely. Faithfulness to the message matters more than favorable reception of it.
Further Reading
Internal Links:
External Scholarly Resources:
- Ezekiel: A Commentary (Old Testament Library) by Moshe Greenberg
- The Book of Ezekiel: Chapters 1-24 (NICOT) by Daniel Block
- Ezekiel’s Hope: A Commentary on Ezekiel 25-48 by Margaret Odell
Tags
Ezekiel 2:1, Ezekiel 2:5, Ezekiel 2:7, prophetic calling, divine commission, rebellion against God, faithfulness in ministry, son of man, prophetic ministry, difficult callings, God’s persistence, spiritual witness, rejection of God’s messengers
