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Ezekiel: The Call of A Watchman

When I think of OT priests and prophets, one thing I constantly marvel at is their strength and the type of bizarre and fearful things God was able to do through them and in them. But there seems to be a common thread, one thing linking all of them, and it’s this “I am absolutely nothing without You” mentality they all seemed to have when it came to their relationships with God. It’s almost like they didn’t even care about their lives, and could be said to have been almost careless in the way they lived, in their service to the Lord.

Take Moses, for instance, going to a pagan god-king to demand that he release his own slaves, because your God asked you to. When you actually think about it logically, it begs the question: Is your head correct, Sir? Or even look at Nathan, calling the anointed king of Israel, who was a fierce warrior in his own right, a cheat and a thief to his face.

A whole David???? The same David who killed the person who dared to announce the death of Saul, who was even his enemy? That’s who you’re doing boldness with? He was just lucky that David already knew and loved the Lord, and had a heart given to repentance, because if it had been someone like Ahab who had ancestral wickedness flowing through his veins, he would have seen signs and wonders.

Other prophets like Hosea, Isaiah and Jeremiah saw their own personalised versions of shege as they gave their lives in the service of the Lord, and only they can explain how it must have felt to live as they did. We’ll be dissecting what it truly means to be a man sent by God today, and what it practically could look like when one is completely and totally sold out, even if it means utmost destruction to one’s own body.

I honestly wonder how men were able to get to this point in their faith journey as far back as OT times, and it’s marvellous to think about when you realise that they lived before Jesus walked the earth, before the Holy Spirit was even poured out on men. All they had at the time was the blood of bulls and rams, great but far-between periodic deliverance from their enemies, and swift judgment for foolishness of mind and body. But they didn’t know Jesus, nor did they have the Holy Spirit.

So when you look at things objectively, through the lens of Biblical information and honesty, it’s absolutely amazing that men could be and do all that they could, and it just goes to show you the greatness of God’s power.

And it also makes sense that Jesus was given the keys to hell, to liberate those who had gone before with the understanding of faith and complete submission to the Lord, because after all these things that God did through them, it only makes sense that they witness paradise with Him. But now, beloved, we will be looking at the life of one of those prophets, and how his disposition towards God and His instructions would surely have been taken for madness in today’s world.

Today, we see the man named Ezekiel, and try to take a walk in his shoes to understand what total submission to God looked like to him, what it looks like today, and how we can learn from him how to do life in obedience and purpose.

So the very first time we meet Ezekiel, he’s seeing something completely out of this world, and I mean that literally. Ezekiel chapter 1 begins with a description of Ezekiel’s first recorded vision as he lived amongst the Israelites who had been captured in war (Ezekiel 1:1-3). Just imagine sitting down randomly one Tuesday afternoon, contemplating how life has changed drastically since you became a slave, and the next second, you start seeing a whirlwind out of nowhere (Ezekiel 1:4). Nobody else is seeing this thing, but you are. Imagine the confusion, wonder and sheer fear he must have felt.

But the whirlwind was just an introduction to the wonders he was about to behold, because in the next instant, he saw a huge cloud that looked like it had a fire burning in it, and it was surrounded by a light that seemed to come from inside it. Actually, sit for a second and imagine what it looked like. Hold that picture in your mind, because there’s more to come.

Next, from that burning bright cloud, 4 of the strangest living creatures he had ever laid eyes on emerged (Ezekiel 1:5). The descriptions of just their faces in Vs 6-11 are enough to make you want to stay awake at night, not to think about what seeing them completely in person would be like. Check it out in Ezekiel chapter 1 for the full graphics of the vision. It’s better than a cinematic box office thriller, I can assure you. You can never imagine anything like this.

But hold on, Ezekiel didn’t just wake up and start seeing visions. Well… technically he did, but it is clearly stated that he was a priest, already consecrated and given to the labour of God among his people, and God’s hand was already on his life (Vs 3). That was his identity. And this identity was so true that God chose to manifest His greatness through his life, and so Ezekiel began to see.

He saw this one vision of the living creatures and the One who sat on His throne, and he fell flat on his face (Vs 4-23). That’s how serious this thing is. God spoke to him, showed him a glimpse of true glory, and Ezekiel needed the Spirit of God to enter him and set him on his feet again (Ez. 2:1-2). He couldn’t even stand by himself; he just could not. Stand before the Lord????? It’s not an easy thing. Ask Isaiah.

Anyway, the Lord was planning to send him to the people of Israel, He even warned him from the beginning that they were stubborn (Vs 3-7), and if you allow me, we can stay here for the rest of the year. Because those people?!!! Let’s just say that it is well. God literally had to warn Ezekiel that, “it won’t be easy o, these ones have coconut head, but you’ll still go because I want you to go”. And then began the weirdness.

So… Apparently God showed him a scroll with writing on it, like an A4 sheet with words on both sides, and these words were of sadness, woe, and wailing (Vs 7-8), like the litany of men’s problems. But then God told Ezekiel to eat it. As per, eat the scroll with the words on it. Yes dear, you read right: eat what was basically paper (Ezekiel 2:1).

But that was not even the part that scattered my head, because then Ezekiel opened his mouth!!!! Just like that o. God didn’t force him to eat it, didn’t even need to cause it to enter his stomach magically. No, no. This man actually opened his mouth, and God caused him to eat the scroll.

That single act of unhinging his jaws is one of the most important things that happened in the entire book of Ezekiel, as far as I’m concerned. Because in that singular action, I understand how Ezekiel could have been and could have done everything else that he did. Do you know why? Because it highlights the total surrender of his heart. He didn’t ask any questions, didn’t even try to negotiate or understand what was happening, or why God was asking him to do it. He wasn’t bewildered at the command, no matter how outlandish it seemed. And even if he was, he just did what he was told to do, and in one action, he embodied complete agreement with God’s plan for his life, a perfect obedience to His instructions and surrender to His purpose. All in one act.

Well, weirdly enough, the scroll tasted like honey in his mouth, not papyrus (Ez. 2:3). But when he had eaten it, the Lord gave him further instructions on how to go about his task, because again, Israel no dey hear word, and then the Spirit of God took him home (Vs 4-14). Talk about a Divine trip. But omo, my guy sat in one place in astonishment for one week after that experience (Vs 15), and who can blame him? He was just reasoning his life and this work that he was about to start. Where would he start from? What would he even do?

Interestingly, throughout this season of bewilderment, it was never reported that it ever crossed his mind to reject the mission he had been given, or try to negotiate the terms, or anything of the sort. When he had thought and thought, it got to the point where the Lord decided to help him before his mind would break, and He gave Ezekiel a job title and description, so that at least he could have a better understanding of his assignment. God called him a Watchman, one who literally watches out for the people in case the enemy comes (though in the form of sin in this case), who warns the wicked to turn, and the righteous to remain in righteousness (Ezekiel 2:16-23).

Now, when you’re given the job description after an interview, the next thing to do is resume the role, right? Well, Ezekiel jumped right in and started off with a banger. The very next phase of his work began with direct instructions from God to lock himself inside the house, bound and mute (Ezekiel 3:23-27). Yeah, your eyes weren’t deceiving you. You read that properly. God was the one who told Ezekiel, His own prophet, to do these things and told him that He would only loosen his tongue when Ezekiel needed to pass a message to the Israelites from God.

You would think that’d be the height of it, ba? Lol, well like old Nollywood marketers would say, “watch out for part 2”. Because up next, Ezekiel was to draw Jerusalem on a clay tablet, and one can only imagine how stressful it must have been because those things were not small or smooth. Then, he was to set an iron plate before this tablet and wage war against it. As in, a full blown dramatic production complete with a proper siege, battering rams and a camp (Ezekiel 4:1-3). God was basically telling Ezekiel to act a drama, like children do when they imagine roles for themselves to play. And this full grown man, someone’s LOML and servant of the Most High God, he did it. With no shame, no concern for what people would say, nothing but an obedience to God that utterly transcends emotions and opinions.

You’d think after such a hard launch into the prophetic, that God would give him space to breathe ba, that this was a lot to do and maybe that’ll be all, right? Lol. Up next, God instructed Ezekiel to stay in his house and lie on one side of his body, laying the iniquity of the house of Israel on it, for three hundred and ninety days (Ezekiel 4:4-5), one day for every year the children of Israel lived in sin.

A full calendar year and then some, on one side of your body. For people whose heads were full of sawdust and breeze. And like that was not bad enough, when he finished with the left side, guess what followed? Of course, the right side! My guy was to turn to the right and do the same thing, this time for 40 days on behalf of Judah (Ezekiel 4:6), the cousins with slightly better mental capacities, as witnessed by the difference in time. And in all that time, not only he would be prophesying against Jerusalem, but God Himself was going to restrain Ezekiel so that he would stay in one place and finish the task (Ezekiel 4:7-8).

At this point, I’ll be very honest with you, I laughed. I laughed very very well, because truly, God knows who to pick for some battles. Because let’s be sincere, you and who will do that one????? Begging your finest pardon Sir, but You said what???? He should do what?! Assuming it was for Judah alone I’d have said okay, because at least those ones had small sense here and there, from time to time they showed promise, but Israel??? The same people that did gold bonanza to make baby goat to replace God while He was still leading them to the promise land? Those people? Omo, everybody would have answered their daddy’s name o. All man for himself, God for all of us. But that’s just me so guess what? Ezekiel still did it.

Just try to think about it, having to do all of this just to pass a message to people who weren’t even going to listen 99% of the time. All of that time, all of that energy, having to face the initial confusion of the people around you and their eventual worry that you had completely lost your mind. Imagine getting home one day and meeting your dad in bed, rationing his food and water for the next year.

Why? Because God told him to. He lies on one side throughout that day and the next, and when you ask why, he says the same thing. So you dismiss it as a weird church thing and go about your usual business. But imagine you travel to visit him again in three months, and he’s still lying on the same side you last saw him in, still barely eating rationed meals made with cow dung for fuel (Ezekiel 4:7-8) and they tell you he hasn’t moved in all that time. Wouldn’t you worry and panic?

Now imagine Ezekiel actually doing it himself for a total of four hundred and thirty days. A full year and three months. Ezekiel obeyed God to lie in bed for a full year and three months, and don’t get it twisted, this wasn’t a holiday. He was not lounging in PJ’s and watching Netflix. He was literally carrying the sins of the people on His body, on his mortal flesh, because he chose to submit himself to the purpose of God. Now, where have we heard that before? Why does it sound very familiar? Maybe because it sounds almost exactly like what the God who gave this instruction, would eventually come and do by Himself. Yuuuuuppppp, that sounds about right.

This specific phase of Ezekiel’s ministry bears a striking resemblance to the plan of redemption in Christ. Like many other tales of many other people in the OT, it is a type and a shadow of what was to come. A type because, although it is very similar, Ezekiel was a man and he still needed God’s help to carry the burden, he needed to be restrained so he wouldn’t turn and give up. He still needed God, especially in his obedience. And of course it was a mere shadow compared to what Christ endured for us.

Ezekiel bore the sins of the men of one nation for 430 days with God’s help, but afterwards, Israel still needed to offer the blood of bulls and rams for the atonement of their sins, because Ezekiel was just a man, sinful in nature too like the rest of us. Plus, he didn’t die during this ordeal (definitely by the grace of God), and the Bible is pretty clear that the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23), and the death of animals was just not going to cut it. Our Lord Jesus, God actually made flesh, carried the sin of the whole world by Himself, because He is God and to be honest, who can actually help him? God paid for our sins with His own life, Jesus submitted in greater measure than Ezekiel or any other man could ever hope to do the divine, overarching plan to save us from eternal damnation.

Ezekiel’s submission was a sort of preface, like all who had gone before him and all who have come after. A preface to how God always planned to do for us what we clearly can see that we cannot do for ourselves, even in obedience and complete submission. Even in these, man is inadequate to save himself. In Ezekiel’s example, we see a clear, direct pointer to our perfect Example. God Himself, in Christ.

We also see the power of this total submission to God, because even as Ezekiel’s prophesies eventually caused a turnaround, Christ’s sacrifice completely overhauled sin, death and damnation. In one act of obedience, all these things were rendered powerless in the lives of believers. Scratch that, in our lives as believers. Because He did it for us, for me. It makes me giddy to even think about, but it also really makes me think.

And so, today I’ll leave you with the question lingering in my head when I think of Ezekiel and everything God did through him:

Without worrying about what anyone would think or say, without asking for explanations or needing to plan ahead, what do you think God can do through your own submission, if you’d submit to His will completely?

Calvary Greetings to you and yours,

Gabrielle.

Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash