God's Command, God's Effect

Ezekiel 2:1-2 ESV

1 And he said to me, “Son of man, stand on your feet, and I will speak with you.” 2 And as he spoke to me, the Spirit entered into me and set me on my feet, and I heard him speaking to me.

This month what we are going to be looking at is what has always been one of my personal favorite narratives throughout the entire Bible, and that narrative is the dramatic call that God gave to Ezekiel the prophet.

We find this narrative in the second chapter of Ezekiel, so if you haven’t already done so, go ahead and get your Bibles out and turn them to Ezekiel, chapter 2. And when you get there, you will see that there are ten verses in this chapter, and it is my plan to spend all four Sundays in September covering these ten verses.

Now, when we think of the books in the Bible that fall under the genre of “Prophets” we usually tend to think of Isaiah, or Daniel, maybe even Jeremiah, but Ezekiel usually isn’t very high on the list for a lot of us.

But I believe that just as you can find wonderful treasures in every other part of the Word of God, there are also wonderful treasures to be found in Ezekiel’s prophecy, and I believe that we all will be amazed to see just how wonderful these treasures are as we work through this narrative.

Now, when we read the books under the genre of “Prophets”, the books from Isaiah to Malachi, we see two commonalities throughout them all. We see that the prophet’s message was almost never received and embraced by the people who they prophesied to, and because of this fact, we also see that when God called these men to the office of prophet, they almost always balked at the calling and asked God if He was sure that it was them who He wanted to use.

I know that Pastor Gail has told me several times, and he has probably told many of you that in order to legitimately serve God’s people as a pastor, you must be called by God. Because if you aren’t called by God to the task of legitimate pastoral ministry, there’s no way that you would ever want to do it, and if you did do it, you wouldn’t do it effectively.

And you know, that is certainly something that I agree with. I remember when I first felt the call to pastoral ministry, I questioned it, I wondered if this is what God was actually calling me to, and if He was, I wondered if He was making the right call.

But it’s not just me who struggled with this calling, we see throughout the Scriptures several men who struggled with this call.

We see this in the prophet Isaiah. Turn your Bibles over to Isaiah, chapter 6, verse 5, where we read:

Isaiah 6:5 ESV

5 “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!”

God appeared to Isaiah, calling him to his mighty prophetic office and Isaiah said, “Not me! I am a man of unclean lips!”

We also see this in the case of Jeremiah the prophet. Go ahead now and turn your Bibles to the book of Jeremiah, chapter 1, verse 6, where we read Jeremiah saying:

Jeremiah 1:6 ESV

6 “Ah, Lord God! Behold, I do not know how to speak, for I am only a youth.”

Jeremiah was called by God to speak His Word, and Jeremiah said, “You can’t seriously expect me to do that! I can’t do that!”

But in both of those particular situations, God came to these men, and He showed them that while they themselves could not fulfill the prophetic office through their own strength, they could, and they would through God’s strength as He touched them and enabled them to do what He commanded them to do.

In the first chapter of the book of Ezekiel, we read of something rather strange. We read of how the heavens were opened and Ezekiel the prophet saw visions of God. These visions were so powerful and overwhelming that Ezekiel fell to his face.

Ezekiel had just been in the presence of the Living God, and he knew that he was not worthy to be in God’s presence, therefore he humbly fell to his face in worship and in fear.

But it is written that after Ezekiel fell to the ground, that he heard the voice of One speaking. Go ahead and turn your Bibles again, this time, back to our reading in Ezekiel, chapter 2. Let’s take a look at verse 1. Verse 1 tells us what Ezekiel heard from the One Who was speaking to him, when it says:

Ezekiel 2:1 ESV

1 And he said to me, “Son of man, stand on your feet, and I will speak with you.”

You see, at this time Ezekiel was a priest, but all of that was about to change, because here we see that God is calling him to fulfill the prophetic office.

Now, like we just said, when Ezekiel saw these visions of the Lord, he fell to the ground, and when God makes His presence knownamong someone, they have no choice but to fall before Him, recognizing their own powerlessness.

But now we see God commanding Ezekiel, “Stand on your feet!” God is telling Ezekiel that while he is naturally weak and unfit to serve God, God is going to make him worthy and able to do what He commands Ezekiel to do.

Thus, God tells Ezekiel to rise from the ground, to stand on his feet so that He can speak to him and tell him what he is to do in service to his God.

Well, that’s nice and all, but can that even happen? Like I said, Ezekiel, just like any other man, falls in the presence of God as he recognizes his absolutely powerless state.

It would be like me going to a dead corpse and saying, “Get up!”, it’s not going to happen! But God is not like me or any other man, God is God! In Him there is power… all power! He holds life and death in His hands and can give life to whomever or whatever He pleases, and He can take life from whomever or whatever He pleases.

It was as when Jesus came to the tomb of Lazarus. Lazarus had already died and been in his tomb for four days. And when Jesus came to the tomb, He told those present to roll the stone away that guarded the tomb. And with a loud voice, Jesus commanded, “Lazarus! Come forth!”

Now, if some other guy, any other guy would have stood there and according to his own strength said what Jesus said right then and there, the body of Lazarus would have remained completely still.

But Jesus wasn’t just any other guy, no, He was and is God Himself. Therefore, when Jesus commanded Lazarus to come forth, suddenly the previously dead corpse of Lazarus breathed and pumped blood and came forth as was commanded.

And when we look again at our reading, this time at verse 2, we see that what God commanded of Ezekiel in verse 1 was being accomplished.

Once again, verse 2 reads:

Ezekiel 2:2 ESV

2 And as he spoke to me, the Spirit entered into me and set me on my feet, and I heard him speaking to me.

As God spoke to me Ezekiel says… So, when God speaks something, what happens?

Well, we just spoke about the example from the Gospel of John concerning the raising of Lazarus when God spoke. We also see way back in the book of Genesis, that when God said, “Let there be light!” there was light. When God said that the waters should be divided, they were divided. When God said that dry land shall appear, it appeared.

In other words, when God commands something when He wills something to happen, it must happen! It has no choice but to happen.

So, when God commanded Ezekiel to stand upon his feet so that he may hear the Word of God, that’s exactly what happened.

But interestingly, this verse tells us how and by Whom Ezekiel was able to suddenly stand before the presence of God in order to receive His Word.

It is written, the Spirit entered into me and set me on my feet, and I heard Him speaking to me.

Now, there are a lot of spirits in the world, but this spirit has a capital S, what does that signify? That means that this is the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit is Who? He is God!

So, God commanded Ezekiel to stand upon his feet and to hear the Word of God, and Who is it that made sure that God’s commandment was carried out? Not Ezekiel, but God Himself!

This is our God! It is He Who calls that which is dead and gives it life! It is He Who calls the one who is weak and powerless and spiritually dead and breathes the breath of life into them!

You see friends, if you today are a sincere born-again believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, then you need to know and/or be reminded that you were once dead! You were spiritually dead, cut off from God, unable to legitimately serve Him, unable to legitimately worship Him, unable to do anything that truly pleases Him. But as I said, if you are a born-again believer, you have literally been born again! You who were once spiritually dead have been given spiritual life!

And that is not through your own power or reasoning or any kind of decision that you made, rather, it is through the power of God coming upon you as a result of His undeserved grace!

And just as Ezekiel was empowered to fulfill the office that God established for him after He filled him with His Spirit, so have we as believers been filled with His Spirit and are now able to fulfill the office that God has established for us!

Now, what is that office? Well, God calls those who believe on Him to a number of different ministries, as Paul the Apostle tells us, we are a body, and each part of the body has its own function and purpose. But the one office that God has called every believer to is that of a herald.

A herald is an official messenger who brings news. You see, anyone can bring news, but a herald is one who has been directly commissioned by the official source to bring the news that is being shared.

Now, like I said, God has called every believer to be a herald. That means that every believer is one who has been directly commissioned by the official Source, by God Himself to bring news.

But what news could that be? The news that it is He Who gives life! The news that it is He Who makes that which is old, new. The news that this spiritual life is and can be found in the blood of Jesus Christ alone, to the praise and glory of God alone!

And when God chooses to speak through us, His heralds, guess what happens? The same that happens every time that God speaks, things change, things happen, things come to life!

You see beloved, this is why it is imperative that we share the Gospel. It is imperative because God has made us able for one, but it is also imperative because God has willed that it is through people like you and I sharing that Gospel that He speaks to those we speak to and gives them life!

Beloved, let us be faithful to the commission of God as we serve as heralds of this most precious news!

Amen?