Eat What I Give You!

Ezekiel 2:6-8 ESV

6 And you, son of man, be not afraid of them, nor be afraid of their words, though briers and thorns are with you and you sit on scorpions. Be not afraid of their words, nor be dismayed at their looks, for they are a rebellious house. 7 And you shall speak my words to them, whether they hear or refuse to hear, for they are a rebellious house.

8 “But you, son of man, hear what I say to you. Be not rebellious like that rebellious house; open your mouth and eat what I give you.”

Have you ever heard the term, “Peer pressure”? Peer pressure is usually used in reference to children in the pre-teen and teenaged stages of their lives. It refers to when one’s peers influence him or her into doing something that they normally wouldn’t do, and more times than not in this context, it is something negative that one’s peers are influencing them to do.

I remember when I was in my early teenage years, I dealt with a lot of peer pressure. I had been a very well-behaved kid for the most part early on in childhood, but when I was about 12 or 13 years old, I started smoking cigarettes, smoking marijuana, drinking alcohol, misbehaving in class, and getting bad grades.

And the main reason why I started doing this was because that’s what my friends were doing, and they encouraged me to do the same, and I wanted them to keep liking me, so I did it.

But sadly, after a while, this new kind of behavior had become so prevalent in my life that I forgot who I really was. And it was several years until God brought me out of that life and put me on the track that I’m thankfully still on today.

But even now, that old fleshly nature rears its ugly head from time to time and tries to get me to go back to who I was before God changed me. And in those moments, a big part of me wants to go back, wants to just fall in line with what my flesh wants.

For this reason, it is imperative that I love the Lord more than I love my sin nature, and even more, it is imperative that I love the Lord more than I love the opinion that others may have of me.

Well, you know, it’s not as though we deal with peer pressure only when we are kids, even as adults we deal with it. I mean, we all want to be liked. Nobody wishes for or wants people to not like them.

And because of this, because of our desire to be liked by others, sometimes we find ourselves willing to compromise on some things that we should never ever compromise on. And quite often what we find ourselves compromising on is truth concerning God.

What I mean by that is that there are times when we may hear one attacking the truth of the Gospel, or when we may hear someone outright questioning God Himself and attacking His character and we sit there and do and say nothing about it, don’t take any kind of a stand.

And sometimes in the midst of all of this, we even go so far as to be like Peter and outright deny the truth when faced with the pressure of the world.

We may hear someone attacking the truth of the Gospel, attacking the character of God and we go from just not saying anything about it, to even nodding our heads in agreement when asked if we agree with their statements, and all because we don’t want to be put in an uncomfortable situation. And also, because we don’t want to be disliked by anyone.

So, quite often the pressure becomes too much, and we just give in because we feel as though it will be easier that way.

Now, it isn’t just us who deal with this temptation to deny God in order to save our own skin; godly men and women of all ages have been tempted to do this. Sometimes they have succumbed to this temptation, other times they have stood firm in the Lord and in His Gospel even though they knew that it was going to cost them their popularity and possibly bring on the persecution of the world.

But today in our reading, what we see is the formula to overcoming this particular temptation of the world.

As we have been working through this narrative concerning God giving Ezekiel the prophetic call we have seen first, how God enabled Ezekiel to even receive the call when God filled Ezekiel with His Spirit.

Then we saw the nature of the call when God told Ezekiel that He has going to send him to a rebellious, impudent, stubborn people who would refuse to listen and adhere to his message. But even though that was the case, Ezekiel was still to declare the Word of God to this people.

Now, in our reading for today, we see God describe to Ezekiel what it is going to be like when he carries out the call that God has given to him. And we see how Ezekiel should react to the reception that he will receive from this people.

First, let’s look at what God says it is going to be like for Ezekiel when he carries out the call that God has placed on him. We read of this in the first part of verse 6, where it says:

Ezekiel 2:6a ESV

6a And you, son of man, be not afraid of them, nor be afraid of their words, though briers and thorns are with you and you sit on scorpions.

So, right after God calls Ezekiel to his prophetic office, the first thing that He tells him is to not be afraid of those he prophesies to. So obviously there is something about this calling that God placed on Ezekiel’s life and the people whom God called him to prophesy to that has the potential to invoke fear in Ezekiel.

God tells Ezekiel that going and proclaiming His Word to this people will be like walking through briers and thorns that rip your clothing and tear at your skin, causing much pain. God tells him that going and proclaiming His Word to this people will be like sitting on scorpions which sting and extract deadly venom.

So, what God tells Ezekiel in advance is that the calling that He has placed on his life is going to be painful, it’s going to be uncomfortable, and it’s going to be dangerous. Yet God tells him not to fear even though this will be the case.

But the Lord just said that Ezekiel’s ministry would be like going amongst painful thorns and venomous scorpions, so why should he not fear?! Because the One Whom Ezekiel represents and speaks for and Who endorses Ezekiel is infinitely greater and more powerful than any kind of threat that could ever come his way.

And God goes even further in describing the character and nature of the people that Ezekiel will prophesy to when He tells him in the second part of verse 6:

Ezekiel 2:6b ESV

6b Be not afraid of their words, nor be dismayed at their looks, for they are a rebellious house.

What God tells Ezekiel here is that he should not be surprised when those he is prophesying to respond in scorn. God tells Ezekiel that he should not be surprised at all by this, for the people that he is prophesying to are a rebellious house, therefore it is in their nature to rebel. And because it is in their nature to rebel, he shouldn’t be surprised when they do.

It would be like going to pet a dog whom you have heard is prone to bite people and then get really surprised when it tries to bite you as well.

Or to make it even more applicable to us here today, why are we surprised that those of the world are becoming more and more hostile to the truth? Is it not in their nature to reject and fight against the truth? Does Scripture not tell us that this kind of opposition will come and become worse and worse as time goes on?

Jesus tells us: “In this world you will have tribulation…” “If the world hates you, know that it has hated Me before it hated you.” “A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you.”

These were the words of Christ to any and everyone who would ever follow Him… so why are we surprised that the world is waxing worse and worse? Why are we surprised that the world is reaching new depths of depravity? It is the world’s very nature to be rebellious, to be hostile to God, to be utterly depraved. So, the fact that the world exhibits these attributes most certainly should not surprise us.

God had made this extremely plain to Ezekiel in our reading for today. He had reminded him that the people that He was sending him to prophesy to are a rebellious people who naturally despise God, the truth of God, and the ways of God. Thus, Ezekiel most certainly should not be surprised when these people he prophesies to rejects him because the message that he brings, is a message from God Himself.

And in verse 7, we read once again the commission that God gives to Ezekiel. In the very beginning of verse 7, we read:

Ezekiel 2:7a ESV

7a And you shall speak my words to them,

After God describes the people to Ezekiel, after He tells him that they are a rebellious people who are stubborn, who are hostile to the truth, who hate to hear the Word of God, after He tells him all of this, he reminds him that these are the very people that God is sending Ezekiel to speak the Word of God to.

In the second half of verse 7, God tells Ezekiel that there will be some who hear the prophecy that God gives to Ezekiel who will hear and heed to it. But He also says that because they are such a rebellious house, there will also be many others who hear the Word of God and who will despise it, hate it, and persecute those who bring it.

But God tells Ezekiel that regardless of how the people whom he prophesies to reacts to his messge, the reaction that God demands out of Ezekiel is one of loyalty, fidelity, and obedience.

Let’s take a look at verse 8 of our reading where we see God relaying this fact to Ezekiel:

Ezekiel 2:8 ESV

8 “But you, son of man, hear what I say to you. Be not rebellious like that rebellious house; open your mouth and eat what I give you.”

God makes it plain to Ezekiel that the reception that he is going to receive from those he prophesies to is going to be mainly negative. Most of those who hear the Word of God from Ezekiel will disbelieve, scoff, hate, and ridicule. But even though that is the case, God commands Ezekiel to stay absolutely faithful to Him every last step of the way.

The society that he lived in and that he prophesied to was a rebellious society, a society rebellious to God. Yet Ezekiel was to stand apart and opposed to this rebellious society.

That was not going to be easy. That society demanded its members to join in the rebellion against God, and if you wouldn’t join the rebellion, they expected you to keep your mouth shut and to not proclaim the truth of God in their midst for any reason whatsoever.

But God told Ezekiel that even though that was the case. Even though that society was going to tell Ezekiel to keep his mouth shut, that it was still his responsibility to disobey what that society told him and to take a stand for God. To, as our reading says, open his mouth and eat only what God gives him.

As has been said and as we can clearly see all around us, we live in a time, in a place, and in a society that is rebellious as well. It is a society that is drifting deeper and deeper into depravity, deeper and deeper into its own hatred for God.

And what this society demands of everyone is that we join them in their rebellion against God. That everyone sees things their way and accepts their way of thinking and living. And if you are one who takes a stand for the truth, that’s ok, as long as you keep your mouth shut about it.

But if you say that you take a stand for the truth, yet refuse to make this stand public, refuse to proclaim the truth, if just keep your mouth shut about it, well then can you really say that you stand for the truth?

God calls us today to non-conformity, to not conform to our godless society, to not just sit and be quiet while the world is in such defiant rebellion against its Maker.

May we today do as God commanded Ezekiel! May we open our mouths and eat, take in, live by what God gives to us, live by every word that proceeds from His mouth and stand by it and for it in a godless, rebellious society!

Amen?