Ezekiel was a prophet fired within the hearth of history to herald God's message to a defiant people. His bold confidence and torturous symbolic actions proclaim the sincerity of this inspired prophet to all generations. Ezekiel's course, charted by God, traversed the dangerous terrain of a society polluted by sin. His prophetic eye probed forward, tracing the landscape of his time and people with a steady, cold gaze. He was a horseman raised up in the saddle, riding the path of an ancient history, firmly gripping the reigns and allowing no detours for his pleasure or the beast's repose.

History is a galloping horse set loose in time and space. It is a brute reared in nature; a creature of the wild. Although tamed by its riders, its eyes flash a demonic savageness. As an offspring of nature, history is brazen and surprising. As a beast saddled and bit broke, history responds to the hands at the reins.

The beast is ridden. History is under direction; it must serve riders greater than itself. The Omega Prophecy is a disclosure concerning the riders of history. These lords rule at the reigns and direct the destiny of our planet. Human destiny, therefore, can be foreseen. It is revealed by a look into the forward glances of those who control the brute of nature. God and man are the lords of history. The last pages of the human saga will be written within their decisions.

God and man exercise authority over worldly events. If we come to an understanding concerning these agencies, then we can speak with clarity about the future. On the other hand, we may understand all that there is to know about the elemental flux of science, and still have no clear destination for our planet. One cannot determine the course of a galloping horse by dissection. Similarly, knowledge of a mindless universe cannot produce a destination.

Agency--force of will--directs human history. God and man are agents within history. There are also other spiritual agencies which influence our destination. The Omega Prophecy, however, is a travel-log into the human heart. Demonic powers enter there, do damage there, and must be left there. The history we encounter is traced in flesh and blood. Human history is a trail forged upon the soil of our planet as God and man interact within events both material and supernatural.

Ironically, I am more certain of the divine Actor than of the human factor. In the Salvation History of Israel, and in the Incarnation, Death, and Resurrection of the Messiah, Jesus, the will of God is clearly shown to be the power of love. Man's will is less predictable. Man is a demigod born of soil and spirit. Once perfect in goodness and love, man is now inclined toward self-service and darkness. Humanity pulls history in a direction that fights the hand of God, but in the end, accomplishes His purpose.

God's purpose is not discovered from nature, but it is disclosed by understanding God's intervention within nature. God has chosen to reveal Himself through a singular race of people. The ancient and seminal people of Israel testify to a great, true religion. Israel's revelation of God grew to embrace all races through the Christian Church. The epic stages of contact between God and man are recorded in a book of history called the Bible.

On the basis of this record as it reveals the character of God and man, The Omega Prophecy sets before you a vision into the future. It assumes the fallenness of man and the holiness of God. It considers the social and political realities of past and current history. It prophesies a conclusion to history. And finally, it affirms the mystery of faith that sees the light of divine love dawning through a dark horizon.

The Omega Prophecy is a statement concerning past, present, and future history directed by God and man. History is not merely events, even as the game of baseball is not simply a series of interactions involving a ball diamond, balls, bats, and uniforms. The players make or break the game. The players, not the setting, determine the direction for all events on the playing field. Bad weather or good, it is their decisions and actions which will lead the game into the ninth inning of play.

On the playing field of history, the agencies of God and man determine the outcome. History is the record of these agencies seeking expression within nature. Natural events, like a fine harvest or a devastating cyclone, are the building blocks molded by God and man into sequel events that prosper or harm humanity. No naturally occurring event is "good" or "evil" until it has been touched by the force of willful agency. Once touched, the profane can become sacred, or the sacred can be profaned.

The will of God has been constant through the span of human society. God works against chaos. Salvation History discloses a God of love. God is the great Lover who both begot and gave birth to humanity. Most awesome to the mystery of God is that His love conceived the existence of creatures who exercise a force of will and creativity. Mankind is not a race of robots. We are created with the ultimate force of the universe--greater than atomic power. We possess a divine force of will.

God's creation of humanity included the ability to interact with Him and with the environment. God also invested within Mankind the divine quality of love. Sadly, the Fall of Paradise erased our original purity of love, and distorted our decisions. We no longer reflect the authority of God perfectly within our choices. Man has become a rebel against God and at odds with his fellows. The story of history has ever since been one of the loving Father seeking out His returning prodigals within the rebel's camp. This is the real story of Salvation History as it was voiced clearly by Ezekiel to a people long ago.

Ezekiel exposes the recurrent cycles of apostasy and repentance. Israel would of its own choice leave the covenant made with God, then suffer the hurtful outcomes of its action, and finally cry for deliverance. The unending love of God would then be directed into the events of history so that His children would be delivered. Once delivered, the children would again slip into apostasy, and this cycle continues into our generation.

Ezekiel was commissioned to be a prophet at a time when the people had slipped into a terrible apostasy. Israel had become a house of rebels who played the harlot to every dark whim of the human heart. They had forsaken the God who led them out of Egypt with a mighty hand and delivered them time after time by sending judges to overcome the crisis. Ezekiel saw Israel's cheating heart underneath its fancy pretenses at ritual life, and his words were molten lava exposing and searing Israel's lust for rebellious living.

Ezekiel's encounter with God and Israel allows me to set before you some of the primary components to history that will be drawn out in later chapters. I am thinking here of human agency as it is expressed in man's tendency to seek self-serving existence. I understand Ezekiel's history to demonstrate the cycle of God's people who dive and soar between apostasy and faithfulness.

I am thinking of Salvation History as the revelation of God at work within a series of divine actions, each of which comfort the faithful and convict the criminals. And finally, the account of Ezekiel's commissioning allows me to set before you one example of the prophetic call, and the implications which it has upon the prophet and all history.

The Omega Prophecy holds past history up to the modern eye so that we might learn to see our reflection. The record from the book of Ezekiel, and the history of the nations from which it was cast, contain the timeless elements of warning and hope. These elements are meaningful for us today. We can learn from past history and seek to avoid its pitfalls at present. Given the power of our new technologies for destruction, and our lifestyles which threaten our very existence, we must learn.

Briefly, I now proceed with a comment upon Ezekiel's prophetic mission. Seeded within the survey of Ezekiel's commission are foundational elements to prophecy in general, and my own understanding of the part I play within The Omega Prophecy.

Ezekiel's world was in flux. Two great empires were voracious to attain power and dominance. The great Chaldeaan Empire was beginning to crumble. The Chaldaean power--New Babylonia--had been struck out of the Assyrian rock by the Chaldaean prince Naboplassas. Weakened internally after the death of Asshurbanapal, and threatened by the arm of the Median Empire, old Assyria had fallen to the rule of the Babylonians.

The Chaldaean power had taken control of the ancient Assyrian culture. Assyria, which traced its roots to the great Sumerian City States from which Abraham had migrated; Assyria, benefactor of the Codes of Hammurabi, and Assyria, near conqueror of the civilized world: This great nation had become the vassal state to Babylon. But New Babylonia was not to last; its iron was also rusting under corrupting powers. By the time of Ezekiel, Babylon was being slowly corroded from within and without its national borders.

Babylon benefited from the past accusations of Assyria. Sargon II had given Assyria Israel to the north, and the last of the Hittite states about 125 years before Ezekiel's prophetic ministry. To these conquests were soon added the remnant Aramaean states; the city of Sidon fell and gave up the Phoenician power, and Egypt was wrested from the Ethiopian Dynasty. By 668 B.C., Assyria had reached its peak of power under Asshurbanapal. This peak was short-lived. By 652 B.C. Asshurbanapal was losing control of the empire. In Babylon his own brother was promoting insurrection. Pstamik I had liberated Egypt, and guerrilla warfare was flourishing in the Syrian desert. Most ominous to the fate of the Assyrian Empire was the awakening force that was beginning to cast its dark shadow upon Assyria, and later Babylon, from the northwest.

The Median Empire, Persia, was growing in power. Like a young giant flexing his muscles, King Cyaxares of the Median Empire began to storm south around 625 B.C. He thundered against New Babylonia and Babylon shook and lost territory to Cyaxares. The Chaldaean Empire took the blow as it struggled to hold together the conquests it still possessed. Among its past trophies remained Israel, to this had been added the more recently acquired Judah.

At home, Judah was in disorder. Its rightful king, Jehoiachim, had been taken in exile to Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar II then named a puppet king to the throne of Judah. This action split the nation. Some Israelites supported the exiled king, and other the appointed king. Ezekiel apparently considered Jehoiachim as the rightful king, since he dates the events of his ministry according to Jehoiachim's reign.

Under the puppet king, the political situation of Judah was very unstable. The people slid further and further away from the faith of the Patriarchs. A clear, ringing voice for morality faded as the Israelites mingled the faith of the Patriarchs with the pagan life-styles of their neighbors. The Israelites lost control of their destiny because they did not know right from wrong.

As the reigns slipped from their paralyzed hands, their future became a blur of possibilities that no longer expressed the influence of a united conscience. Lacking unity and direction, Israel's people grew insecure. The Israelites feared daily that new threats might endanger their security or forfeit their lives. A malaise of sadness covered the land as people mourned for relatives who had been taken away into exile.

For the most part, the standard of living for those taken captive to Babylon may have been better than the comforts remaining for those left behind. Babylon was rich and filled with beautiful gardens; art and culture flourished behind its guarded walls. It was as an exile in Babylon that Ezekiel prophesied against Judah. Here, displaced in a foreign land, Ezekiel spoke harsh words against his people. He had heard such words before as a child while running the streets of Jerusalem--words spoken by a prophet who would continue to prophesy even through the terrible siege of Jerusalem.

The prophet Jeremiah had come upon the scene before Ezekiel's exile. He had no doubt influenced the development of Ezekiel's theology. Unlike Ezekiel, Jeremiah remained in Judah and prophesied God's word directly to Jerusalem. Jeremiah was horrified by the adaptations that the covenant people were making to other beliefs and gods. Throughout the land, pagan temples were drawing Israelites into the nature cults of Ba'alism. The sins of an apostate people could only bring one judgment from God.

The fall of Jerusalem in 586 B.C. resulted in the spoliation of Judah. The yoke of Jeremiah had come to rest upon the people. Jerusalem had been punished. God was at work in the decisions of her conquerors. The vast plans and conquests of foreign kings fitted into a greater design that only the prophet could see. Judah had certainly been sightless to its present danger. Years ago it had witnessed its northern twin fall to Sargon II. Yet it blindly dismissed the warnings of God's inspired prophets. Israel's history was a travesty of corrupt king after corrupt king leading a people who had traded their birthright for porridge as they served the Canaanite god Ba'al.

Judah's only two faithful kings, Hezekiah and Josiah, had by God's grace attempted to instigate reform in the nation. These kings sought to return Israel to a genuine faith in Yahweh, but could not control the secular and pluralizing environment. The forces of Ba'al were too strong. The Deuteronomic reform, which held great promise for recapturing the faith of the Patriarchs, sparked in the midnight of Israel's apostasy, and then vanished.

Ezekiel's prophecy took hold in the cross currents of cultural decay and political intrigue. Only the power of God could give foundation to the prophet's words as they were spoken into the shifting sands of Judah's social condition. There was a social schizophrenia apparent within the people. Contradictory notions attempted to bridge two opposite perceptions. Israel maintained an attitude of false assurance, hoping that God would protect them according to His covenant--no matter what they did. And yet, with the conqueror's sword already having inflicted such great wounds, they experienced a sense of God's apparent absence.

Israel had lost the ability to see its sin. No longer was there a defined belief in God according to the revelations given to the Patriarchs, but rather a vague nature cult was taking the place of Yahwehism. The Israelites accepted the blended religion as a valid expression of religious faith. Fertility was worshipped and passions burned like hot coals fanned by the lusty hearts of its followers.

Nature cults stimulated the base impulses of Israel's children through an emphasis upon fertility rites to insure the process of life. Sexual licentiousness was whitewashed within sacred ritual by Ba'al cult centers and instituted into the worship life of proselyte Jews. Base living became an appropriate expression of faith by a lost and spiritually blind nation. As Israel settled into the Promise Land (in the days that ensued the fall of the United Kingdom), the fertility rites of Ba'al became far more attractive to the people than the way of the Patriarchs.

The will of the people became obsessed and driven by its baser impulses. Jeremiah illustrates Judah's condition by comparing her to a wild ass, who, in the frenzy of animal heat, sniffs the wind for a mate--any mate! The sweet passion of procreation was a gift from God, but dark hearts had turned it into a demon which ruled their members. Israelites sought sex for pleasure and utility, often sacrificing their infant children to Ba'al gods. In frustration, Jeremiah cries out concerning Judah, "Who can control her lusts?"

It was not, however, the lust of animal passion which so angered the God of Israel. Their sin was much broader than one instance and circumstance of lust. Apostasy was their great evil. The people had willfully turned from Yahweh to serve the idols of nature. The beast had become god. Therefore Jeremiah declares before the court of heaven:

12 Be appalled at this, O heavens, and shudder with great horror," declares the LORD. 13 "My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water. (Jeremiah 2 NIV)

Were the people of Israel fearful of Yahweh's response to their wickedness? The majority of the people were either content to mindlessly wallow in the pagan lifestyle, or else they found false comfort in God's covenant. The seduced Israelite either lived for the moment, or claimed the love of God with little or no thought to repercussions against sin by a God who was also holy.

God's love had sought out Abraham and covenanted with him to make Abraham's descendants a great people among all nations. Since God had made a covenant with their Father Abraham, many Israelites took misguided comfort in God's promise. Faulty thinking reasoned that God must protect His people at all costs. Moreover, it became assumed by many that the adaptations made by Israel to the Ba'al rites were part of God's providential leading within a new environment. False prophets and priests encouraged the people in their apostasy by telling Israel that their new fertility practices were accepted by God and necessary for agrarian survival.

Jeremiah shatters this deception. He turns the argument around and insists that the Abrahamic covenant means that God will not tolerate evil and undisciplined living within His people. Jeremiah lashes out against the prophets and priests who were placing their approval upon the accommodations to pagan living. Jeremiah's words tear into the religious whitewashing, exposing the hidden evil and injustice within the establishment.

Judah must not depend upon God to continue His gracious tabernacle with a house of rebels! God will be faithful, proclaims Jeremiah, to His covenant with Abraham, but this means that God will use His left hand to purge the iniquity that He sees in the body of Israel. "Do not trust in deceptive words and say, 'This is the temple of the LORD, this is the temple of the LORD, this is the temple of the LORD,'" warns Jeremiah.

If Israel does not amend her ways, then God's gracious covenant with Abraham will mean judgment. God's promise to Abraham included the assurance that God would protect the true seed of Abraham from corruption. The people are deceived if they believe that the covenant that God made with Abraham meant that God would graciously accept any kind of behavior from His covenant people. "You are trusting in deceptive words that are worthless," proclaims Jeremiah, and then adds these rhetorical questions from Yahweh:

[9] "'Will you steal and murder, commit adultery and perjury, burn incense to Baal and follow other gods you have not known, [10] and then come and stand before me in this house, which bears my Name, and say, "We are safe"-- safe to do all these detestable things? [11] Has this house, which bears my Name, become a den of robbers to you? (Jeremiah 7 NIV)

God will not continue to deliver a people whose evil speaks against His holy name and character. Flesh and blood children of Abraham can be made from the rocks in the field, but children of faith are those who seek after God's will (as Abraham did). Of course God will be faithful to His promises, but God's promise produces a two-edged sword.

God's promise to Abraham brings both blessing to the faithful and judgment upon the wicked. True Israel will be held in the cleft of God's hand, and the chaff will be sifted through the fingers of His wrath. This was the word that Israel did not wish to hear. So it was through Jeremiah, and later the son of a Zadokite priest, that Yahweh made clear His covenant relationship with Israel. Even as a child, Ezekiel was being prepared by God to speak His word to the people.

Shortly before the armies of Nebuchadnezzar had forced Jehoichim to a dishonorable surrender, Ezekiel was being trained for the priesthood. His father Buzi was a Zadokite priest at the Jerusalem temple. Buzi was responsible for much of Ezekiel's education. Ezekiel's work and writings indicated that he was an educated, perhaps brilliant, man. Moreover, like Jeremiah, he was both a priest and a prophet.

In 598 B.C. Ezekiel was forced into exile and taken north to Babylonia. Not much can be said of Ezekiel's personal life. Whether he was married before or after the exile is not known. Yet he, unlike Jeremiah, was married. Beyond this short note concerning Ezekiel's background, the facts of his personal history are beyond determination from the historical records.

If Ezekiel's response to the death of his wife provides us with any clues concerning the molding of his character, we may say that the prophet's whole life was conformed to his mission. Nothing mattered but his calling. Ezekiel's willingness to embody severe symbolic actions supports the notion that the prophet's life had become a divine instrument. Ezekiel became a living tool in the hand of God. Like a sickle at harvest, the prophet was thrust through the events of Israel's history and the circumstances of neighboring nations.

Five years after his exile, Ezekiel received his prophetic commission from Yahweh. It is with the specifics of his calling, as recorded within Ezekiel 2:1-5, that we now examine the nature of the call as it came to a particular prophet. The prophetic calls are not all the same, but they do demonstrate certain elements in common.

God came to the prophets in different ways. Yet at the time of the call, the prophet in the making senses the presence of God. God sought out Ezekiel through the wonder of an ecstatic vision. Yahweh called to Samuel and Jeremiah as an audible voice. In a variety of forms God comes. When God comes the prophet feels unequal to his calling--often seeking to avoid it. Jeremiah claimed to be too young and Jonah headed out to sea--all to avoid the call. Ezekiel fell to the ground overwhelmed by the magnitude of God's presence. Human power fails the prophet when God approaches, but the Holy Spirit enables Ezekiel, and those called, that they may bear the great weight of God's message to the people.

Throughout history, the term prophet has been claimed by, or appointed to, a variety of individuals. Some prophets have been divinely appointed. Many prophets, however, were beguiled by Satan, or became willing tools in his service. Human sin and greed have brought, and will continue to bring, false prophets into history. The Twentieth Century mind must also ask the psychological question concerning the professed prophet, since we are a generation dominated by the influence of this study.

The bottom line is that all prophets are not genuine and all prophesy is, consequently, not God breathed. Every prophetic word, therefore, must be tested within the community of faith.

The test of the prophetic message lies both in the court of history and the council of the heart. If the message is true, history will disclose the prophet's insight. The historical record, however, does not tell us all. It does not necessarily reveal the prophet of THE LORD. Prophets outside of the Judeo-Christian community have, and will continue to, predict accurately the veneer of future events.

True facts of history are known only to God. Mankind only has perceptions of truthful outcomes. The historical record, therefore is not self-evident, and requires the Holy Spirit to disclose its factual content. The Holy Spirit is the final arbitrator for truth. The community of faith can trust the Holy Spirit to open and close the inner ears of those who hear the message. The inspired prophet's message will soften hearts and harden hearts because it is God-breathed.

The prophetic word is tested externally and internally--objectively and subjectively. The probing light used within both tests is the deeper wisdom of Scripture. The Bible discloses the golden thread of history as God establishes a certain people to carry His message of redemption to all people. The Salvation History of God, recorded within the Bible, is the yardstick used by His people to measure the claims of all prophecy and its relevancy in understanding historical events. While in the land of the Chaldaeans, on the bank of the Kebar River, the golden thread of history becomes interwoven within the life and words of one of Israel's greatest prophets. While exiled in a distant land, Ezekiel will be confronted by the living God--the great LORD GOD. This theophany, or special presence of God with the prophet, reduces human language to ashes.

Chapters one and two of the Book of Ezekiel are not simply poetic interpretations of Ezekiel's commissioning as a prophet. Indeed, the inspired prophet must marshal all his poetic skills to communicate the vision of transcendence as the immanent LORD comes to speak with a finite creature--yet the event itself is rooted in history, not metaphor.

This gripping beginning to Ezekiel's ministry forever connects the prophet's words to transcendent truth. After His experience on the bank of the Kebar River, Ezekiel knows the awesome extent of God's power and dominion. Ezekiel must carry within his heart and message the paradox of a God who is unbounded by His creation, and yet, a God who is fully present within what He has made and sustains. The message that Ezekiel carries to the people of Israel comes from the LORD GOD who is sovereign over, beyond, and within creation--a God who knows all and controls all.

As the skies quake before the wind, we are reminded of God's approach in Genesis 1:2 and Daniel 7:2. It is the LORD GOD who comes to make His terrifying appearance before the prophet. The approach of God in this grand theophany moves Ezekiel into the center stage of Salvation History. Personal addresses from YAHWEH had become rare since the Patriarchs and Exodus. The call of Ezekiel demonstrates that the LORD GOD has come to be clearly witnessed within His people's salvation. Ezekiel is not being sent before Israel and the nations with the word of a little god, a carved idol, the property of a single nation. Ezekiel is sent to herald the message of YAHWEH--the LORD GOD--the Mighty One who created the heavens and the earth as all other powers and principalities watched in passive wonder. Now this same One and only Creator God comes as Judge; the Keeper as one who prunes the vine of Israel.

God's people had become a house of rebels. Ezekiel is sent with the word of God in judgment against the sinful adaptations of Israel as it borrowed from the plurality of beliefs within its environment. His message comes not by route of earthly wisdom, but rather as revelation from the God whose throne is established in heaven. Since the prophet's message is endowed from heaven, its pronouncement carries authority and power.

YAHWEH draws near to Ezekiel to call him as a prophet to the rebellious house of Israel. A mere man stands before a sky torn open. The court of heaven is exposed and the LORD GOD, as judge, approaches the earth in the glory of His absolute power from the realm of eternal truth. Here the commissioning of Ezekiel begins as God calls to His prophet, "Son of man, stand upon your feet and I will speak to you."

The voice of God causes a dramatic shift within the prophet. Ezekiel, transfixed by the sight of the heavenly visitation, is mortified as the focus of God's coming becomes evident. God has not merely come to show His presence. God has come to speak with a singular creature. Ezekiel falls to the ground as he realizes that it is to him that the LORD GOD of hosts has come to speak.

At first Ezekiel did not know the voice of God. An indefinite "He" speaks. Later, Ezekiel will describe his visits with God as, "the hand of YAHWEH came to me." The first encounter with God demonstrates that God had never before confronted Ezekiel in this way.

The first chapters within the Book of Ezekiel reveal a prophet who is learning to know the voice of YAHWEH. God comes to call a man of dust. Ezekiel must learn to know God's voice as he walks out in faith. With each step, the prophet's confidence and intimate knowledge of God's Word becomes established.

Future chapters within Ezekiel's prophecy leave behind the indefinite "He." Ezekiel quickly learns to proclaim that "YAHWEH" has come to him with a Word. The prophet's obedient response to God's voice recalls the Patriarch at Ur. Ezekiel demonstrates the faith of Abraham. His confident awareness of the approach of YAHWEH is soon captured by the phrase "the word of YAHWEH came to me"--demonstrated from 6:1 and subsequent chapters within the Book of Ezekiel.

As the voice speaks to Ezekiel from the awesome visitation, the first words heard are "Son of Man." This phrase recalls the Book of Genesis as humanity is brought into being within the loins of "ADAM"--the Hebrew equivalent to MAN. Created in perfection, Man rebels. Adam's sin creates a race fallen and under a curse. Two sons will are born after the Fall to Adam and Eve. One son murders his brother. Rebellion is cast in bloodshed, and each generation of Mankind shows hands marked by rebellion and shed blood.

Judah continued the rebellion of Eden. It was a house of Cains. Ezekiel must not forget that he is a member of this household. Like Cain, he is a son of Adam and heir to the weakness of Mankind. God begins his word to Ezekiel by reminding him that he is not above the sin that scars humanity and all Israel. The prophet is not to stress his office, but his message. Ezekiel is not so much the "one selected by YAHWEH," as he is a sinner called and enabled.

Ezekiel is a Man. He is a child of dust. The phrase "son of man" is used ninety-three times in the book of Ezekiel. Throughout his prophetic ministry, this phrase fixes Ezekiel to his origin as a fallen creature. Ezekiel, like all men, is made and formed from dust. He is a spirit-breathed creature intended to live in the light of holiness and yet remains trapped with his entire race within the dark caverns of depravity. "O Man," calls the LORD GOD to Ezekiel. "O Man, remember that you are but dust, and to dust you shall return."

Ezekiel is a trained priest. He knows of the Fall of Adam and Eve. He has knowledge of the accounts concerning the Patriarchs. He knows full well that in the covenant with Abraham, God was setting His beloved children back upon the path of life. Sadly, Ezekiel also understands from the history of the Patriarchs and the Deuteronomic material that Israel was constantly detouring from God's will. Israel was a continuing offender against YAHWEH'S covenant.

Israel's past history revealed sin. No less, in his own day, Ezekiel sees rebellion and unfaithfulness. Confronting this sin, Ezekiel is called to announce YAHWEH'S word of judgement--a consuming fire against rebellion within the house of Israel, a house in which the prophet also lives. Like fire that burns without consuming its kindling, the word of God will blaze from this mortal's heart, and yet he will live. God preserves His prophet within grace. Ezekiel is not saved because of any special merit within his station. At the very beginning of Ezekiel's call, the prophet is reminded that he is in blood partnership with those whom God will punish within the furnace of his Holy wrath.

Ezekiel, as with all the Major Prophets, fully understands his relatedness in unity to the very people to whom he is called to bring the message of judgment. He will suffer through the same historical circumstances as the rest of Judah. Ezekiel is a Hebrew. He thinks like a Hebrew. He sees a oneness within the family of Jacob that also includes him.

Ezekiel hears God's address and falls to the ground. God then commands the prophet to stand upon his feet. This command is really an invitation of grace. Ezekiel, like Moses (Exodus 3:5), is on holy ground in the presence of Yahweh. The theophany substantiates the holy, and the holiness of God has driven our Hebrew priest prostrate to the ground. Ezekiel lies lifeless, like Adam, before the first Man was God-breathed and filled with life. From the dust, Yahweh graciously calls and empowers Ezekiel.

According to ancient custom, only friends of the king were permitted to stand in his presence. Servants and subjects were required to be prostrate before their ruler. Only the friends of the king were invited to stand and talk with him. This social privilege and exchange did not alter their respective places. The king remained king and subject remained subject. The king continued to rule, but the subject had been granted a gracious access to the king's private court. When Ezekiel stands in the presence of Yahweh, he is invited into the inner confidence of God.

"And when he spoke to me, the Spirit of THE LORD possessed me and stood me upon my feet, and I heard Him speaking to me." God invites the creature to stand in His presence. Ezekiel, as a friend, is permitted to counsel with God. Yet the prophet is unable to support himself before the King of kings. He is too weak. Therefore the Spirit of God graciously empowers Ezekiel. The prophet becomes God-breathed. Only filled with God's Spirit can the prophet stand before God. The strength is not in him.

This verse expresses the same two-fold action of God's grace as it is revealed in the New Testament. Here, as it is seen again and again throughout the Bible, the paradox of faith and practice is expressed. God is the one who calls and invites the rebel. God is also the one who makes the enemy capable of friendship. In Baptism God both calls and enables the person to stand before the throne of grace. Ezekiel was prostrate before God and invited to stand in His presence, but only the power of the Spirit could accomplish the deed.

Not only has God invited Ezekiel into His presence as a friend; not only does the text insist that God must enable the prophet so that he can respond to the invitation; but the Hebrew expresses that the prophet's continued work depends upon the Spirit of God. Ezekiel will give the word to Israel in the charisma of the Holy Spirit. The message that the prophet carries is not his own. It is a special trust given and sustained by the Spirit's work. The outward expression of the Holy Spirit's work is manifest within the inward charisma of the prophet. The Spirit is at work within the prophet. The Spirit confers the charisma, but the charisma is not important in itself. It is the Spirit, the Numen of God, that is the active Agent within the prophet. The community of faith errs when it focuses upon the outward Charisma of the prophet. The Holy Spirit is not at work within the prophet to exult him, but to make known the will and presence of God.

The faith of the Patriarchs and prophets was always in a personal God. The Patriarchs may have believed that nature was filled with spirits, but there was only one Numen of Yahweh. Abraham's faith was not a form of primitive animism; the Spirit works not from, but to all the created order. The Spirit is not generated within the prophet, but is at work within his message. The Holy Spirit is the power of God working within the prophet. The charisma of the prophet is only a product of that word kindled by the Spirit.

This word, however, is too heavy for the prophet to carry to the people. When Jeremiah is called, he seeks to avoid the weight of taking the message to Israel. Ezekiel cannot even bear his own weight before God. The Hebrew language makes clear Ezekiel's passive condition before God. It carries the implication that the Spirit must also continue to hold up the prophet. Ezekiel is literally lifted up, and continues to be supported by, the Spirit. The ongoing effectiveness of the prophet's mission will depend upon the work of Yahweh's Spirit, and not the prophet's own strength.

God has invited Ezekiel and brought him graciously before His presence. He has given the prophet the charisma that is the product of His own Spirit. Through the Holy Spirit, God will continue to enable Ezekiel as he delivers the message. Now, possessed by the Spirit and standing before God, the prophet is able to hear the full weight of God's word to Israel. "And he said to me, 'Son of man, I send you to the people of Israel who are rebels; they have rebelled against me, and they and their fathers have transgressed against me even to this very day." The immanent voice from the transcendence continues to address the prophet. God once again reminds Ezekiel that he is a son of Man--a fallen creature in the presence of his Maker! The Spirit has mysteriously enabled the prophet to hear the message. God tells Ezekiel that he is being sent to the house of Israel. The phrase being sent forth, both in the Hebrew and the Greek traditions, carries the connotation of a divine plan given as a task to the prophet or apostle.

There remains in God's call to go forth the element of response. Even as in Baptism, each child is called and enabled to walk in the new life. Still, the baptized child may not claim the promise and power, and choose to walk another direction--back into death. Ezekiel has been called and strengthened by God. He is to faithfully go forth and herald the word of THE LORD. In faith Ezekiel does respond to the call--obediently he goes to Israel as a reed upon which the Spirit of God will blow.

The word that Israel would hear is a word of judgment. The people have become a nation of rebels. Israel has compounded sin upon sin, generation throughout generation. The people have set themselves up as gods. The root of all sin lies in our disbelief concerning God's will for us. Sin turns our thoughts inward as if there were no God other than the idols cast from the images of own desires. Martin Luther called sin and rebellion a "heart turned in upon itself."

To be a sinner is to be a rebel in the dominion of God's creation. The title "rebel" is given to those who live in the house of Israel. Israel's sin has made them hard and stubborn against God and His will. The act of rebellion captures the volitional element within sin. Sin is an arbitrary act of will expressed in terms of a rebellion against the authority of God. We misunderstand sin if it is cast as a legal term merely describing incidents within our lives, and the lives of others, which break the laws of God. The deeper meaning of sin is discovered within the agency of a fallen people. Sin is the activity of self-centeredness, and it exposes the rebel as an enemy of God.

Ezekiel is called as prophet to a house of rebels. Israel's defiance spans the breadth of generations. As surely as God acted upon Israel's cry for deliverance in Egypt, He is preparing to act upon their shouts of insubordination. Israel will not be allowed to rest upon a covenant that they have not honored. God is about to use the arm of Babylon to crush the rebellion of an apostate people.

Throughout history God has used the forces of nations and nature to accomplish His purpose. Ezekiel will testify concerning God's veiled judgment behind Babylon's invasion. The fact that Babylon threatened the security of Judah was apparent to all. What lay hidden behind Babylon's threat was the will of God. Yahweh would use the plans of earthly kings to accomplish His wider design. Ezekiel is sent to reveal the hand of God. Babylon will devour Judah because God has passed judgment upon a house of rebels.

"The people are also stubborn and impudent: I send you to them; and you are to say to them, thus says THE LORD God." Ezekiel goes to a people who have become fixed and committed to a lifestyle that is wicked and idolatrous. The Hebrew literally states that the people had become "hard-faced and stiff-hearted." According to the Hebrew understanding, the heart was the seat of planning and volition. Sin is a condition of the heart--of will. It is from the cold and inflexible heart of an apostate people that rebellion is born.

The people of Israel, the remnant of Judah, have demonstrated their corruption through a heart that is so wretched that only God's gracious action can restore the broken relationship: "A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will take out of your flesh the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh."

The prophetic word does more than bring an indictment. It is instrumental in God's process of restoration. At God's call to speak to the people, the prophet understands that his function is more than to inform. The word that Ezekiel speaks is the divine word. It comes from above. It has actual power to effect the results of God's judgment.

The prophetic word acts upon history. The word molds the present to forge the future. It has two different impacts. The rebel is cast, like hot iron, between the hammer and anvil of God's wrath. The faithful saint, however, is carried through the midnight of judgment and death to see the bright morning star. God's word is death to the rebel who lives darkly in the present, but it is the promise of life to the children of light who seek after a better tomorrow.

The word is instrumental upon the events they expose or predict. Through the word, God creates and recreates history. The word is also instrumental upon the prophet. The agency of God has a dynamic effect upon the prophet. The God-breathed word animates the messenger. The prophet becomes possessed by the message. Even when the prophet would rather not speak, he finds that the message compels him to go forth.

The prophet is important to God, but not to the message of God. God invests intrinsic worth to all human life, but the prophetic function transcends the prophet's personality. Ezekiel is called to speak the prophetic word. When he is instructed to say to Israel, "Thus says THE LORD God," he identifies to the people the power behind the message; a message whose significance is not rooted in a specific individual. The prophet is not without sin, but personal sin hinders not the power of God's word delivered through the prophet.

The people of Israel shared a dynamic concept of language. When a true prophet spoke, it was like opening Pandora's box. Once opened the damage was done. If Ezekiel were a true prophet of Yahweh, and if he spoke a word of judgment, then the people heard more than an unfavorable prediction. They experienced the unleashing of a power that would result in doom and death should they not repent.

The fruitless hope of an apostate people is that the prophet of judgement is a false prophet. Only the true Word of God is powerful. A false prophet has no power within his message. Israel then, like people today, eagerly listened to the placating prophets and obliging optimists. Ezekiel knew that when he spoke God's word of judgment he would be disputed and rejected. Yet his instructions are clear. He is to speak the words that he has been given. He is not to be influenced by how the people will receive the words.

"And whether they will listen to you or close their ears to you (for a rebellious house may choose to do anything), one thing is certain, they will know that there has been a prophet among them." Ezekiel is called and commissioned to proclaim the word of God to Israel. The task was formidable. This clarification comes as a word of grace. Ezekiel is reminded not to be concerned about the peoples' response or the efficacy of the word itself. The house of Israel, after all, is a den of rebels, and who can expect a favorable response from usurpers? Ezekiel is assured that God's word will not fail. It is not dependent upon those who hear the message: God's word will carry the day in Israel!

Israel--Judah, the very chosen of God, continued to be a rebel in God's kingdom. After the death of King David, the United Kingdom split. A king ruled to the south and another to the north. The land to the south was called "Judah." Judah carried the title "the house of Israel" after the Northern Kingdom snapped to Babylon. Judah did not learn from God's punishment of its northern twin. Judah did not listen to Jeremiah or Ezekiel, and further despoiled the vineyard of God and invited His wrath.

Ezekiel's obedient response to God's call made him a suffering servant who would take the abuse of a nation. Had Israel remained faithful to God, then Ezekiel would not have been called into the torturous mission of the prophet. Perhaps he would have lived a quiet life as a priest upon a pastoral hillside near the city of Jerusalem--a country pastor. As it was, Ezekiel risked life and limb before the people, and often in difficult and painful symbolic acts.

It would seem unlikely that anyone would be eager to take on the prophetic task of proclaiming God's judgment in the very heart of the rebel camp. Jeremiah certainly was reluctant to take up his prophetic mission. Ezekiel's existential reaction to the task of proclaiming the message is illustrated in the eating of the scroll. It was the scroll of bitter lamentation, but it came to taste as sweet as honey in the mouth of the prophet who faithfully spoke the word of Yahweh.

Ezekiel was called to proclaim God's word to Israel. As a result, he would suffer both physical and emotional pain. Ezekiel was, like Jeremiah, scorned and rebuffed by the public. Yet for Ezekiel, there was a consolation that is not indicated in the book of Jeremiah. The words did become sweet. And one thing is certain, the people did know that a prophet had been among them.

So we turn the last pages in our backward glance to this ancient man of God. History and Scripture concur that his word was true. In what now follows, you will read another word addressed to modern ears. The truth of what I present awaits its final test. God must prove His word within history. I, like every saint, am merely a reed formed out of the dust of creation and a note in the Spirit's song: It is the musician who brings life to the reed. It is the Spirit who brings meaning to the word. Soli Deo Gloria.


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[All contents copyright © 1980, 1998 David Anderson]