Ezekiel 2:3-5

B. Ezekiel Warned 2:3-5

TRANSLATION

(3) And he said unto me, Son of man, I am sending you unto the children of Israel, unto rebellious nations who have rebelled against Me, and they and their fathers have transgressed against Me until this very day; (4) and the sons are hard of face and stout of heart. I am sending you unto them and you shall say unto them, Thus says the Lord GOD! (5) But as for them, whether they will hear or refuse (for they are a house of rebels), then they might know that a prophet is in their midst.

COMMENTS

In this paragraph God sets forth the difficulties which Ezekiel would confront in his ministry, the duty which would be his as God's spokesman. He likewise seeks to encourage Ezekiel in the discharge of his ministry.
Ezekiel was to be God's representative to the children of Israel. In earlier prophets the term Israel is used of the Northern Kingdom which was carried away captive in 722 B.C. The kingdom of Israel, as distinct from the kingdom of Judah, had long since ceased to exist by the time of Ezekiel. Thus Israel here is not the Northern Kingdom. The term is used two ways in the Book of Ezekiel. Sometimes Ezekiel employs the name Israel for all of the people who had joined in the covenant with God at Sinai. In other words, Israel is the entire Hebrew community of faith. On other occasions Ezekiel refers to the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem as Israel. After the destruction and. deportation of the Northern Kingdom of Israel the inhabitants of the Southern Kingdom claimed this honored title for themselves.

Ezekiel's mission was ultimately to the whole contemporary generation of Israelites, both those who were in Judah and those who were in exile. To be sure his ministry had impact back in Judah, at least in the period between 593 and 587 B.C. But verse 11 indicates that his immediate audience was near at hand his fellow exiles. However, Ezekiel does not clearly distinguish between Israelites in Judah and those in Babylon. Often he seems to ignore the miles that separate the two groups.
The audience is described as rebellious nations who have rebelled against Me. The plural nations may be a reference to Israel and Judah.[107] However, the term nations (goyim) usually is restricted to the heathen peoples as over against God's people. Perhaps the word is here used contemptuously. Israel and Judah have become, by virtue of their rebelliousness against God, no better than heathen nations. The plural also points to the fact that the children of Israel at this time are not one nation, but are scattered and disunited.

[107] Fisch (SBB, p. 9) thinks the two nations intended were the two tribes Judah and Benjamin who formed the Southern Kingdom after 931 B.C. In Genesis 35:11 Israel's tribes are called nations.

In the word rebellious which recurs in the early Chapter s of the book there may be an allusion to the insane and suicidal rebellions which fool-hardy patriots were continually plotting. Nebuchadnezzar was the God-ordained ruler of the world, and to rebel against him was to be in rebellion against the will of God. Over a dozen times Ezekiel refers to his auditors as a rebellious house, lit., house of rebellion.

As God evaluated the history of His people, He saw little or nothing to commend. Four negative qualities had characterized God's people through the years. They were rebellious, sinful, impudent, and stubborn.
The present generation had rebelled against the Lord. They had refused to adhere to strict monotheism. In their apostasy the present generation was but following the example of their fathers, for they too had transgressed against the Lord. This deplorable disobedience had continued to that very day (Ezekiel 2:3).

The sons, i.e., the present generation, are further described as being hard of face and stout of heart. The first phrase describes the brazenness of the hardened sinner who displays no shame, who has forgotten how to blush. The second phrase describes that stubborn, unyielding disposition which continues in the path of error in spite of repeated warnings and harsh chastisements.

Ezekiel's mission field did not look promising! God wanted him to have no illusions about this work. There was little prospect for success. The important thing, however, was that Ezekiel was to preach only the word of God. His message was to be characterized by and punctuated with the phrase thus says the Lord God (Ezekiel 2:4). The Hebrew here is -adonai YHWH, My Lord Yahweh. Ezekiel frequently makes use of the double term. In English versions when the word LORD or GOD is written in all caps it is an indication that the personal name of God Yahweh is being used.[108]

[108] The four letter personal name of God in the Old Testament was YHWH, For centuries this name was not pronounced on account of reverence for it. Readers would substitute the Hebrew -adonai (Lord) for YHW-'H. When the Hebrew word -adonai preceded the sacred name, they substituted -elohim (God). By capitalization the English translations have alerted the modern student to the use of the personal name in the original.

Ezekiel was not required to be successful, only faithful. The important thing was that these people would come to realize that a prophet had been in their midst (Ezekiel 2:5). They would be forced to recognize Ezekiel as a true prophet when his predictions of calamity came upon them.