31 He told me, "Son of man, eat what you see. Eat this book. Then go and speak to the family of Israel." 2 As I opened my mouth, he gave me the scroll to eat, 3 saying, "Son of man, eat this book that I am giving you. Make a full meal of it!" So I ate it. It tasted so good - just like honey. 4 Then he told me, "Son of man, go to the family of Israel and speak my Message. 5 Look, I'm not sending you to a people who speak a hard-to-learn language with words you can hardly pronounce. 6 If I had sent you to such people, their ears would have perked up and they would have listened immediately. 7 "But it won't work that way with the family of Israel. They won't listen to you because they won't listen to me. They are, as I said, a hard case, hardened in their sin. 8 But I'll make you as hard in your way as they are in theirs. 9 I'll make your face as hard as rock, harder than granite. Don't let them intimidate you. Don't be afraid of them, even though they're a bunch of rebels." 10 Then he said, "Son of man, get all these words that I'm giving you inside you. Listen to them obediently. Make them your own. 11 And now go. Go to the exiles, your people, and speak. Tell them, 'This is the Message of God, the Master.' Speak your piece, whether they listen or not." 12 Then the Spirit picked me up. Behind me I heard a great commotion - "Blessed be the Glory of God in his Sanctuary!" 13 - the wings of the living creatures beating against each other, the whirling wheels, the rumble of a great earthquake. 14 The Spirit lifted me and took me away. I went bitterly and angrily. I didn't want to go. But God had me in his grip. 15 I arrived among the exiles who lived near the Kebar River at Tel Aviv. I came to where they were living and sat there for seven days, appalled.
16 At the end of the seven days, I received this Message from God: 17 "Son of man, I've made you a watchman for the family of Israel. Whenever you hear me say something, warn them for me. 18 If I say to the wicked, 'You are going to die,' and you don't sound the alarm warning them that it's a matter of life or death, they will die and it will be your fault. I'll hold you responsible. 19 But if you warn the wicked and they keep right on sinning anyway, they'll most certainly die for their sin, but you won't die. You'll have saved your life. 20 "And if the righteous turn back from living righteously and take up with evil when I step in and put them in a hard place, they'll die. If you haven't warned them, they'll die because of their sins, and none of the right things they've done will count for anything - and I'll hold you responsible. 21 But if you warn these righteous people not to sin and they listen to you, they'll live because they took the warning - and again, you'll have saved your life."
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Ezekiel 3:1-21
Commentary on Ezekiel 3:1-11
(Read Ezekiel 3:1-11)
Ezekiel was to receive the truths of God as the food for his soul, and to feed upon them by faith, and he would be strengthened. Gracious souls can receive those truths of God with delight, which speak terror to the wicked. He must speak all that, and that only, which God spake to him. How can we better speak God's mind than with his words? If disappointed as to his people, he must not be offended. The Ninevites were wrought upon by Jonah's preaching, when Israel was unhumbled and unreformed. We must leave this unto the Divine sovereignty, and say, Lord, thy judgments are a great deep. They will not regard the word of the prophet, for they will not regard the rod of God. Christ promises to strengthen him. He must continue earnest in preaching, whatever the success might be.
Commentary on Ezekiel 3:12-21
(Read Ezekiel 3:12-21)
This mission made the holy angels rejoice. All this was to convince Ezekiel, that the God who sent him had power to bear him out in his work. He was overwhelmed with grief for the sins and miseries of his people, and overpowered by the glory of the vision he had seen. And however retirement, meditation, and communion with God may be sweet, the servant of the Lord must prepare to serve his generation. The Lord told the prophet he had appointed him a watchman to the house of Israel. If we warn the wicked, we are not chargeable with their ruin. Though such passages refer to the national covenant made with Israel, they are equally to be applied to the final state of all men under every dispensation. We are not only to encourage and comfort those who appear to be righteous, but they are to be warned, for many have grown high-minded and secure, have fallen, and even died in their sins. Surely then the hearers of the gospel should desire warnings, and even reproofs.