“When I say to a wicked man, ‘you will surely die,’ and you do not warn him or speak out to dissuade him from his evil ways in order to save his life, that wicked man will die for his sin, and I will hold you accountable for his blood.”
~ Ezekiel 3:18
Hi James and Ellen,
Have you ever tried to eat a book? Your grandpaa is quite sure that your dad and/or ma would not be happy with you if you tried to eat a book. God told Ezekiel to eat a scroll. A scroll 2600 years ago would be like a book today. For about twenty-two years, Ezekiel was a watchman for God. Ezekiel was responsible as God’s watchman to confront God’s specially chosen guys and gals who had been taken away into exile by the Babylonian army after Nebuchadnezzar and his Babylonian army overran and devastated Judah’s land area including the city of Jerusalem. Ezekiel – who was a priest and whose names means strengthens, was deported from the city of Jerusalem and taken along with a large number of God’s specially chosen guys and gals into exile by the Babylonian army to Babylonia. A watchman’s job during the time that Ezekiel lived on planet Earth was to keep the guys, gals and kids who were living inside the walls of a city informed about the progress of a battle with an enemy army. A watchman would keep watch from one of the highest points on the wall of his city and he would send reports of what he saw to the guys and gals who were living in his city. A watchman was to advise the gatekeepers of his city of any approaching guy or guys. Prophets – like Ezekiel, were tasked by God to be spiritual watchmen. Ezekiel had been God’s spiritual watchmen in the city of Jerusalem before Nebuchadnezzar and his Babylonian army did a number on Judah’s land area. The responsibilities that Ezekiel had as a watchman for God in the city of Jerusalem – before Nebuchadnezzar and his Babylonian army overran and devastated the city of Jerusalem, was not to just warn God’s specially chosen guys and gals who were living in the city of Jerusalem of their impending doom but it was also to teach the guys and gals who were living in the city of Jerusalem that God was going to hold each individual guy and gal responsible and accountable for his or her own way of life and personal behavior. God gave Ezekiel a really thick skull – like the hardest stone found anywhere, so that he would have the strength and courage to do what God was wanting him to do – which was to try to teach His specially chosen guys and gals something which they refused to learn.
Ezekiel – in Ezekiel 3, wrote what it was like for him to eat a scroll. The scroll that God told Ezekiel to eat was His written word. The scroll tasted sweet – like honey, to Ezekiel as he ate the scroll. Ezekiel found God’s words to be literally sweet during a very bitter period of time in the history of God’s specially chosen guys and gals. After he had finished eating the scroll that was God’s written word, Ezekiel suddenly found himself translated or carried by God’s Spirit to Tel Abib – a place on the Kebar River, to connect with some of God’s specially chosen guys and gals who had been exiled to this place. It took Ezekiel seven days to recoup from being suddenly translated or carried by God’s Spirit to another place that was a good ways away from where he was being kept in Babylonia. How would you like to have God’s Spirit suddenly carry you from where you are living in Delaware to where your grandmaa and grandpaa are now living in Colorado? Your grandpaa thinks that when God’s Spirit translated or carried a guy from one place to another that it took place instantaneously – which would mean that if God’s spirit translated or carried you from Newark that you would be instantaneously in Colorado Springs. What God’s Spirit did to Ezekiel seemed put Ezekiel into a kind of a spiritual shock. Ezekiel was given very clear instructions by God as to what He expected him to do and what would happen to him if he did not do what He asked him to do. Verse 18 says, “When I say to a wicked man, ‘you will surely die,’ and you do not warn him or speak out to dissuade him from his evil ways in order to save his life, that wicked man will die for his sin, and I will hold you accountable for his blood.” God made it very clear to Ezekiel that he was not to only warn His specially chosen guys and gals who had been exiled to Tel Abib; he was to tell them that they were going to die for having disobeyed Him. If one of God’s specially chosen guys and gals did not listen to or obey what Ezekiel was warning him or her about, it would become the problem of this specially chosen guy and gal; it would not affect Ezekiel’s future. Ezekiel’s task – as it was given to him by God, was to warn His specially chosen guys and gals and to do everything possible to try to persuade them to return to obeying God and to doing everything God’s way. God knew exactly what His specially chosen guys and gals were like – that they were an obstinate, stubborn bunch of guys and gals who really did not want anything to do with Him but . . . God kept on giving His specially chosen guys and gals opportunities to turn back to Him.
Your grandmaa and grandpaa are spiritual watchmen for God today to His specially elected guys, gals and kids. Your grandpaa knows that he is not gifted as an evangelist. Your grandpaa knows that he is not a linguist. Less than a year after your grandmaa and grandpaa arrived in Bolivia to join the South America Mission field missionary team that is there, the Bolivian South American Mission Field Director – Bob Davids, asked your grandpaa to take on as a minor allocation regular trips by train to a railroad town called Chochís. Your grandpaa on one of his trips to Chochís gave an evangelistic call after he showed a film outdoors against the front of the evangelical church that is in Chochís. When your grandpaa finished speaking, a young gal went to you grandpaa to tell your grandpaa that she wanted to make a decision of faith. Your grandpaa is quite sure that the young gal did not understand what he had said when he spoke but . . . your grandpaa just knows that God is Who makes a heart change; that it is not because of what guys like your grandpaa or Ezekiel do or say. What kind of watchmen do you hope to be one day for God?
Ezekiel 3 (454)