Why did God tell Ezekiel to eat a scroll? In Ezekiel 2:1 through 3:15, God commissions the prophet by handing him a scroll — and telling him to eat it. Dr. Toby Holt explains this strange command and what it teaches about God's Word.

God calls Ezekiel to preach to a stubborn, rebellious people who likely will not listen. He gives him a scroll filled with "lamentations and mourning and woe," and commands him to eat it — to take God's Word fully into himself before speaking it. Amazingly, the scroll tastes sweet as honey. Repeatedly called "son of man," Ezekiel foreshadows Christ — sent to His own people, and rejected.

Questions this study answers:

1. Why did God tell Ezekiel to eat the scroll? To picture taking God's Word deep within himself before proclaiming it. A true messenger must first internalize the message.

2. Why did the scroll of "woe" taste sweet? Because God's Word, even when it warns of judgment, is good and life-giving. Its truth is sweet to those who receive it.

3. How is Ezekiel like Christ? Both are called "son of man" and sent to God's own rebellious people. Ezekiel's hard calling foreshadows the Savior who would also be rejected.

"Son of man, eat what you find; eat this scroll, and go, speak to the house of Israel." — Ezekiel 3:1 (NKJV)

Dr. Toby Holt is President of New Geneva Theological Seminary, and his sermons have been downloaded more than 1.9 million times on SermonAudio. Find more verse-by-verse Bible teaching at newgeneva.org; support this ministry at newgeneva.org/give.

When the book of Ezekiel opened in chapter 1, it was a sad, depressing sight. Chapter 1 began with

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this depiction of a lonely Jewish priest who was celebrating his 30th birthday on the riverbanks

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in Babylon in a refugee camp. It was actually called Tel Aviv. Now, what was Ezekiel doing

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there? Why was he in Babylon? Well, again, as we talked about last week, the people of Judah

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had been naughty. Years earlier, the people in Israel, the northern kingdom, had been taken over

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by the Assyrians because God was judging them. God judged the ten tribes of Israel by sending

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the Assyrians to take them into exile. Now, you would have thought that the remaining two tribes,

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there's only two left, right? The remaining two tribes down in Judah, you would have thought that

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they would have said, hey, hey, hey, what happened to them, we're not going to let happen to us.

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The errors, the sins, the bad choices they made, that's not going to be us.

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We're going to fly right, and God will preserve us as we do.

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Well, what we see in Scripture is that they did last a little bit longer than the northern kingdom,

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but in due time, due to their sins and their apostasy,

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God judged his own remaining two tribes, even in the city of Jerusalem,

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even if it cost the destruction of the city and his own temple.

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That's how much God hates sin, that he would destroy his own temple.

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In fact, he's done it twice in history.

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You ever wonder if God will judge his own?

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You ever wonder if God really hates sin, even when it is conducted among those who call themselves his children?

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Yes, he does.

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And he was willing to destroy his own temple multiple times to prove this point.

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With that said, southern kingdom of Judah did not learn the lessons of the northern kingdom.

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And so in time, God sent King Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians in.

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And the first thing they did was they took from Jerusalem the best and brightest.

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They didn't waste the city entirely at that point, and they didn't take everyone at that point.

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They went into the city, and they found the best and the brightest, and that's the ones they took in the first exile.

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So Ezekiel, this priest, was one of the first exiles that was taken out of Jerusalem, and he would never see it again, except in visions, which we'll talk about in the weeks to come.

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So with that said, that's the dynamic.

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That's the circumstance.

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He's sitting on a river bank, a man who had been trained to be a priest,

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on the very day, the 30th birthday.

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That's when you began public ministry as a priest.

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He's not in the temple.

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He's not in Jerusalem.

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He's by the river.

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But then something happens.

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Specifically, he has a vision.

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The very first verse of Ezekiel 1, we read this.

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It came to pass in the 30th year, in the fourth month, on the fifth day of the month,

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that I was among the captives by the river Chebar,

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and the heavens were opened and I saw visions of God. Now what kind of visions did we talk about

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last week? What did Ezekiel see? Well among other things he saw this fiery chariot. Remember he saw

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the clouds like they were on fire. There was a whirlwind, there were clouds, fire and lightning

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was in them and within the clouds there was a chariot. Beneath the platform, beneath the firmament

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there were angels. They had four faces. They had four sides. They also had wheels that were

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turning and spinning, wheels that interlocked with one another so that the chariot could go

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in any number of different directions. Last week, we talked about some of these figures and what

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they meant, what they represented and the like. Needless to say, for our purposes today, it was

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an impressive sight. Here was the throne of God manifest in a way so striking, so powerful,

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depicting the omniscience, the omnipotence of God himself. Ezekiel sees this and his reaction is,

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of course to fall down now back in the end of chapter one on top of the chariot the chariot's

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really not the most impressive part on top of the chariot Ezekiel had seen a figure on top of this

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chariot which by itself we could spend weeks studying on top of it was the most important

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part of it and that was a figure last week we read this in verses 26 through 28 of chapter one

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above the firmament over the heads of the cherubim was the likeness of a throne an appearance like a

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sapphire stone. The likeness of the throne was the likeness of the appearance of a man who was high

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above it. And from the appearance of his waist and upward I saw were the color of amber, and the

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appearance of fire all around within it. And from the appearance of his waist downward I saw, as it

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were, the appearance of fire with brightness all around, like the appearance of a rainbow in a

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cloud on a rainy day. So was the appearance of the brightness all around us. This was the appearance

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of likeness, of the glory of the Lord.

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Again, one minute, Ezekiel's sitting there

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by the riverbank, all alone, by himself,

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skipping rocks, wondering about his future.

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The next minute, his world is rocked

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because God shows up.

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God shows up, and he tells this young man,

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as we're going to see in a moment,

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he tells this young man that, yes,

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your priestly ministry, such as it is,

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it's over, or at the very least,

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it's not going to turn out the way you thought it would.

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however, however, your prophetic ministry, that's just beginning. All right, let's look at what God

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says to Ezekiel. Let's return to today's reading, beginning at chapter two, verse one.

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And he said to me, son of man, stand on your feet. You remember Ezekiel had fallen down at the very

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end of chapter one. Stand on your feet and I will speak to you. Then the spirit entered me. When he

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spoke to me, he set me on my feet and I heard him who spoke to me. And he said to me, son of man,

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I'm sending you to the children of Israel, to a rebellious nation that has rebelled against me.

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They and their fathers have transgressed me to this very day, for they are impudent.

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They are stubborn children.

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I'm sending you to them, and you shall say to them, Thus saith the Lord.

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Now ask for them, whether they hear, whether they refuse, for they are a rebellious house.

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Yet they will know this, that there has been a prophet in their midst.

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All right. At the end of chapter one, the young man who knows Ezekiel had seen a vision of God

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himself. Then he'd fallen down. And here in the start of chapter two, God lifts him up. God lifts

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Ezekiel up. He says, son of man, stand on your feet and I will speak to you. Now, before we go

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any further, why does God call him son of man? I ask that question because God's going to call

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him a lot. Across the bulk of this book, we're going to hear God address or have Ezekiel be

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addressed as the Son of Man 90 different times throughout the book. Now, that's a good question,

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but it's even a better question when you remember that the only other person that's called Son of

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Man with that sort of recurrence is who? Jesus. You have Ezekiel called the Son of Man roughly

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90 times. You have Jesus called the Son of Man roughly 90 times throughout the New Testament.

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Why is this? There's a lot of different theories as to what this might imply. One of them,

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that I'm personally inclined towards is this. Ezekiel, much like Moses or much like David,

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Ezekiel was meant to be seen as a type of Christ, a type of foreshadowing and anticipation of the

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Messiah who would one day come. There was things about Ezekiel's ministry that were supposed to

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be understood as anticipating the Jesus who would come. And you see that in a lot of different

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regards. You know one of the main ways you see that? How old was Ezekiel when he started his

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ministry? 30. How old was Jesus when he started his ministry? 30. Both of their ministries, both

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the ministry of Ezekiel and the ministry of Jesus, ran predominantly from age 30 to 33. Now, Ezekiel

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lived longer than that, and there's a couple very small instances later in his life where there were

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certain prophecies and visions that were granted to him, but the bulk of Ezekiel's ministry was

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confined to this same window of 30 to 33. Now beyond that, not everyone is both a prophet and

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a priest. Ezekiel was. Jesus, of course, is prophet, priest, and king, but for Ezekiel to hold this dual

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office is somewhat suggestive of the Christ who would come. Furthermore, both of these guys, Ezekiel

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and Christ, were sent to God's people. They were not necessarily sent to Nineveh or to foreign or

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pagan nations, but they were sent to God's people, and both of them would be rejected, rejected by

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God's people. There's a lot of ways, a lot of parallels we can see, and we'll build on them in

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the weeks to come. But there's parallels by which we can see Ezekiel, this prophet, as a type or

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anticipation of the Christ who would come. That may be one of the reasons he's referred to as the

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Son of Man. So verses one through five, God says, all right, Son of Man, stand up. I'm going to send

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you to rebellious people. They're not going to listen to you, but they'll know this. When you're

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done speaking, they'll know there had been a prophet among them. There'd been a prophet in

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minutes. Now we call this a commission. We call this a commissioning. This is what had occurred

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here. Verses three and four, God says, I'm sending you. This is a charter, a mandate that comes from

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on high. God looked at all the people, all the options, and of his own sovereign volition,

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he says, that guy, that's the guy I'm sending. So he says, son of man, I'm sending you to the

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children of Israel, to a rebellious nation that's rebelled against me. Their fathers have transgressed

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against me to this very day. So this wasn't God just acting on a whim. This isn't God just getting

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bent out of shape in a moment, but he had been patient for a long time. He says their fathers

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did this, their fathers did this, and they continue to do it to this day. And I'm sending you Ezekiel

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to them to explain what's gone on, to explain why they're in Babylon. You're going to be one of the

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guys to do that. Other men like Jeremiah would do the same thing, but you're going to be one of the

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to explain why, why this has been fallen, you're also going to tell them what the future holds.

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And it holds both good news and bad. On the one hand, everyone thinks that they're going to get

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home like in six months from now or a year. Not going to happen. They're going to be in Babylon

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how long? Seventy years. Tell them to get comfortable because they're going to be there

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for a while. So on the one hand, that's bad news, right? They're going to be there for a while. And

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Ezekiel, you need to be one of the guys that's going to tell them this sort of bad news.

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But there's also good news, that at the end of 70 years, they're going to come back.

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That I'm not done with these children, no matter how rebellious they've been.

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Ezekiel, I'm sending you with this message.

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Now with that, 7 verses 3 and 4, embedded in God's words to Ezekiel, is this concept.

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He says to Ezekiel, I'm sending you to people who clearly don't like me.

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They don't like my law, they don't want to do what I've said.

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They don't like me.

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So guess what, Ezekiel?

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They're not going to like you.

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He lowers the bar of expectation here significantly for Ezekiel.

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And says, they don't like me and they're not going to like you.

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You know, one of the hardest parts of ministry is trying to help people who don't want to be helped.

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One of the hardest parts of evangelism is what?

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Trying to save people who don't want to be saved.

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Or at the very least, who don't acknowledge anything that they need to be saved from.

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This is one of the hardest parts of ministry.

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Trying to do what God has called you to do.

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Go to those people that God has sent you to, only to find that they're resistant.

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Or worse yet, rebellious, as was the case here.

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Now, not every job works that way.

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If you and I were to dismiss, and let's say we went down to Gulfport, right?

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We went down towards the beach, and we were to hand out dollar bills.

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The standard is handing out dollar bills.

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Everyone comes up, they get a dollar bill.

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Guess what?

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You'd be the most popular man or woman in Gulfport, right?

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You'd have people coming from all over.

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There'd be posts on social media,

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come see this guy's giving away free money down by the beach.

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You'd be the most popular person.

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Everyone would come to you.

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Now, what would happen if you went to that same corner,

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same time of day, with a sandwich board or something

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that says, Jesus loves you?

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What's going to happen?

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People will see that, and they'll cross the street.

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They'll go the other way to avoid an encounter with you,

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to avoid some sort of interaction.

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When you're offering the gospel,

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you have what people desperately need,

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But it's not something that they want.

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Well, this is true of those that Ezekiel was sent to as well.

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They didn't want what he was going to offer.

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They hadn't wanted God's word through all the mediums that he had provided it.

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Remember what Moses, Moses had done all these amazing fascinating things through the power of God.

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The minute he goes up, 40 days he goes up to Mount Sinai.

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He's gone a little too long.

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Their tummies start to rumble with rage.

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They get angry and they say, well, what to do now?

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Gold calf.

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The people, whether it was in Moses' time, Isaiah's time, Ezekiel's time, Jeremiah's time,

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their tendency was to reject God, his mandate, his word, his laws, his decrees, his prophets.

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In fact, they usually killed the prophets.

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So God says, Ezekiel, this is what your future holds.

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All right, let's see what God has to say next about the nature of opposition that Ezekiel would encounter.

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Let's look at verses 6 through 8.

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And you, son of man, do not be afraid of them.

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Do not be afraid of them or afraid of their words,

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although briars and thorns are with you,

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although you dwell among scorpions.

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Do not be afraid of their words.

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Do not be dismayed by their looks,

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although they are a rebellious house.

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You shall speak my words to them,

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and whether they hear or whether they refuse,

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for they are a rebellious house.

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You, son of man, hear what I say to you.

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Do not be rebellious like them.

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Do not be rebellious like that rebellious house.

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Open your mouth and eat what I will give you.

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You know, there was a point in Christ's ministry.

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There was a point when he gathered his disciples close.

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Because he knew what he was sending them in to do.

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The disciples were given a commission, right?

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Jesus gave them a commission.

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He made them his disciples.

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He called them to himself.

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And then he ultimately sends them out.

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But Jesus knew the sort of opposition that they would face.

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He knew the sort of danger that they would face.

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And so he tells them.

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He gathers his men.

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he says, hey guys, guys, I'm sending you out like sheep among the wolves. I'm sending out like sheep

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among the wolves. In verse 6 of today's reading, God's saying the same to Ezekiel, the same message,

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same thing. He says, Ezekiel, you are being sent into a spiritual environment that's going to

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include briars, thorns, scorpions. I used to, I used to think that ministry could only be

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effectively accomplished, that my job could only be effectively done once all the obstacles or

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difficulties or briars or thorns had been removed or somewhat minimized. In other words, I thought

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this. I thought you have to have the optimal environment. You come into a setting, and I was

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in a church plant initially, so that made it easier, but you come into a setting, come into

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an environment, and you create the most optimal environment you can in ministry. You minimize all

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the thorns and briars and difficulties and hardships and the like. And then once your

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scenario is finally optimal, once things are the way you really want it to be, then you can get

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down to ministry. Then you roll up your sleeves and say, all right, I've got the optimal situation.

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Everything is the way that it should be. And now the things are the way it should be. Now I can

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really get ministering. But then I read Paul. And I read about Paul being beaten. And I read about

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Paul being shipwrecked. I read about Paul being in jail. And I looked at Paul's ministry and I

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couldn't find a scant minute where everything was going fine for Paul, where everything about

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his circumstance was lined up the exact way that Paul might have wanted it to be. It just doesn't

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happen. The ministry is wonderful, but I tell you, it is difficult. There are briars, there are

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challenges, there are difficulties. And if anyone goes into ministry thinking we can eradicate those

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things and then get started. No, they will be with you every step of the way. That's just the norm

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in Scripture. It's the biblical model. The Bible doesn't predicate effective ministry on idealized

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situations. Now, the prophets, like the Apostle Paul, were case in point to this. The prophets,

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it was always terrible circumstances for them. There was always thorns. There was always briars.

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There was always wolves. There was always scorpions in their path. And rather than try to clear cut

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those out of the way, thinking that you could finally get an idealized spiritual garden to

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operate within, they just had to deal with it. They just had to cope. God doesn't say,

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I'm going to remove all these things and then you'll get started. He says, no, this is going

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to be what you'll face throughout your ministry. Difficulties, hardships, people who don't

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necessarily like you. It'll be a briar patch you will never escape. And furthermore, furthermore,

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In Ezekiel's case, God made him no promises how it would turn out.

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No promises.

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He says, whether they listen to you or whether they don't,

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they'll know this much, that a prophet had been in their midst.

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And so, in effect, what God does is he says, Ezekiel, you be in charge of Ezekiel.

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Be the holy, righteous, devout man I've called you to be.

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Preach my word, and trust I will do my good pleasure with it.

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The moment of Ezekiel's commissioning.

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wasn't the people's obedience that was being tested it was the prophets all right let's see

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in verse 8 god says son of man hear what i say don't be rebellious like that rebellious house

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but open your mouth and eat what i give to you let's see in our next set of verses what it was

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that god gave to ezekiel to eat let's look in verse 9 through the first part of chapter 3

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verse 9 now when i looked there was a hand stretched out to me and behold the scroll of a

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book was in it. Then he spread it before me, and there was writing on the inside, and there was

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writing on the outside. This means it was comprehensive of all that God had intended him

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to read or to hear or to ingest in this case. It's comprehensive. There's writing on the inside and

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the outside, and written on it were lamentations of mourning and woe. Moreover, he said to me,

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son of man, eat what you find. Eat this scroll, and then go speak to the house of Israel. So I

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opened my mouth, and he caused me to eat the scroll. And he said to me, son of man, feed your

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belly, fill your stomach with the scroll that I give you. And so I ate, and it was in my mouth

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like honey, honey and sweetness. You know, I have a lot of experience eating things.

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And over the years, I've learned, I've learned a few things about food. Now, among the things I've

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learned is that when you eat or ingest something, whatever that something might be, what you've

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consumed at that point becomes a part of you, whether you like it or not. If you eat something,

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what you eat is broken down, and then it's broken down in ways that theoretically will contribute

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to your overall body or health. Of course, you could eat something that's poisonous, which does

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the exact opposite. But with that said, what you eat has an effect on you. Well, here in these

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verses about this scroll, there's a lesson here with regards to what Ezekiel was asked to eat.

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Specifically, he's asked to eat a scroll and then to speak to the house of Israel. Now, why

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a scroll. You don't find that on most menus. Why a scroll? Well, in this case, it's because of what

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the scroll represents. The scroll represents something beyond just itself. It represents

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the words of God, the laws of God, the precepts of God, and the consequences. Remember the

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lamentation of mourning and woe? The consequences of not obeying the laws of God. He says to Ezekiel,

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I want you to eat this. I want this to be part of you. I want you to ingest this. And it's only

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then, after you've ingested something that typifies the Word of God, that you'll be equipped to go and

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speak to the people of God. Let's look at what he took the people in verses 4 through 11.

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Then he said to me, son of man, go to the house of Israel and speak with my words to them.

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For you are not sent to a people of unfamiliar speech and of hard language, but to the house

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of Israel. Let me stop there for a minute. Sometimes we send missionaries, right? We

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commission missionaries and we send them out into four nations. Well, God says the biggest

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mission field around is in the house of my people. The biggest mission field in Ezekiel's day was not

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necessarily the people outside the doors of Israel, but rather it was within the body, within the

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visible nation. It's probably not that dissimilar in our own day and age. One of the greatest mission

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feels for the church, it's probably already within the church. Probably already people

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sitting in pews, not unlike ours, across this country, across this world. In this case,

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he says, son of man, go to them. Go to Israel. Go to my people. Go to my nation. People that

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aren't unfamiliar language, they're not outside your doors, but to the house of Israel. Not

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too many people of unfamiliar speech with words you cannot understand. Surely, had I

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sent you to them, they would have listened. Oh, what irony there. If I was to send you

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to the people and pagan nations. They would have listened more so than my rebellious children.

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You start to see why God's so irritated at this time. He says, if I had sent you to them, verse 6,

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they would have listened, but the house of Israel will not listen because they will not listen to

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me. For all the house of Israel, they're impudent. They're hard-hearted. Behold, I've made your face

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strong among their faces and your forehead strong against their foreheads. Like Adam and stone,

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harder than flint. I've made your forehead. Do not be afraid of them. Do not be dismayed at their

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looks, though they're a rebellious house. Moreover, he said to me, son of man, receive into your heart

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all my words that I speak to you. This is like eating the scroll. Receive into your heart the

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words that I'm speaking to you. Hear them with your ears and then go, verse 11, go get to the

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captives, to the children of the people and speak to them and tell them thus saith the Lord, whether

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they hear you, whether they refuse. You know, off to the side of my yard, we have what looks like a

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grassy area, but if you actually look closer, you'll find that there's a big slab, a huge slab

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of sandstone of some kind. It's just impervious. You can't dig around. You can't really do anything.

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You can't plant grass on it. It won't grow because it can't get rooted at all. Now, as I've looked at

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this part of the side yard, there's a lot of things in the back of my mind I think I can accomplish.

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I think I'm far handier than I really am. So I look at this and I think, I could do that in

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ground pool, no problem, or I could accomplish certain wonderful, you know, garden or something.

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The reality is I probably can't do any of it either way, but I certainly can't do it as long

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as that rock is there. I don't have a chance of doing anything. I can't even lay sod down

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as long as this rock is here. I'd have to first hammer or chisel or dynamite or what have you,

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this thing out of the yard. But that's in verses 4 through 11. God tells Ezekiel that he's going

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to have a tough ministry, because the people, if they didn't listen to God, they're not going to

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listen to him. That's the bad news. But in verse 8, he says something encouraging. He says, Ezekiel,

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I'm going to make you like a rock. You know the people I'm sending you to? They're hard-headed.

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Hard-headed and hard-hearted. But you know what I'm going to do with you? I'm going to make your

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head harder. Like adamant stone, harder than flint, I will make your forehead. Do not be afraid of

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them. Do not be dismayed of their looks, although they are a rebellious house. God looks at Ezekiel

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and he says, yeah, you're going to some of the hard-headed, hard-hearted, most stubborn, most

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impudent people on the face of this planet. But in order for you to effectively minister to people

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that are that hard to deal with, I'm going to do something for you. I'm going to make your head

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harder still. You know, being hard-headed in our culture, we consider that a bad thing, right?

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If you say, so-and-so, boy, he's a hard-headed guy, right? That's not something you want to hear

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because it implies to us arrogance. It implies to us someone's just committed to doing something,

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whether it's right, wrong, smart, dumb, or what have you. I mean, hard-headed is not necessarily

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good. In the biblical context, especially here in Ezekiel chapter 3, it is a very good thing.

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I assure you, we need more hard-headed men in our own day and age. You know, not long ago,

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I was reading Jeremiah, and God says almost the same thing to one of Ezekiel's contemporaries,

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to jeremiah he said this in jeremiah 15 he says jeremiah you shall stand before me right if you

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take the precious out from the vial you will be as my mouth let them let the people return to you

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but you must not return to them and i will make you to this people a fortified bronze wall and

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they will fight against you but they will not prevail against you because i'm with you to save

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you and deliver you. Being a prophet was a hard job because you were sent to people that were

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bound and determined to reject what you said and to desire to kill you. But God tells Jeremiah,

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God tells Ezekiel, he says, worry not. I got this. I got this. Don't you be worried. You see their

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dirty looks, their angry looks. You see all this stuff. Don't you shrivel back. You keep doing what

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I sent you to do. You preach the word. You tell them what they need to hear, and I will make you

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like a bronze wall before them. They'll throw themselves at you. They will absolutely do

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everything they can to knock you off of your ministry or to just knock you off, period.

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I won't let them. Stay strong. Preach what I've told you to preach. You know, being a pastor or

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a priest or a prophet, you don't have to be the strongest person in the world than yourself.

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And you don't need your circumstances to be ideal.

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We've already covered that.

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But you certainly don't have to be stronger than your adversaries.

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That's not the way it's ever worked.

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Was Moses, the guy who could barely speak, was he stronger than Pharaoh?

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No.

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Even Moses acknowledged that.

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That in and of himself, he couldn't contend against Pharaoh.

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Was David stronger than Goliath?

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Not by a country mile.

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In fact, he was the run of the litter.

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He was the last guy when they were picking out kings.

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He was the last of all the children they went to.

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God loves to take that which is weak and infuse within them a strength to accomplish that which

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they could otherwise not do by themselves. What made weak individuals strong? God.

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God can do anything he so desires. He can take that which is weak and silly and stupid at times

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and strengthen it and use it in ways that no one could see coming. And that's what he says,

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I'm going to do with you, Ezekiel. All right, let's look at our final verses here. Point being

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that God is with his people and he would be with Ezekiel. Let's look at verses 12 through 15.

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Then the Spirit lifted me up, and I heard behind me a great thunderous voice. Blessed is the glory

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of the Lord from his place. I also heard the noise of the wings of the living creatures that touched

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one another, and the noise of the wheels beside them, and a great thunderous noise. And so the

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Spirit lifted me up and took me away, and I went in bitterness in the heat of my spirit. But the

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hand of the Lord was strong upon me. Then I came to the captives at Tel Aviv, who dwelled by the

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river Chebar, and I sat where they sat, and I remained there astonished among them for seven

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days. So God gives him the commission. He tells him what to expect. He tells him what he's called

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to do, and he says, I'll be with you as you do it. And then to prove the point, he picks up Ezekiel.

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He could have said, all right, now go your way. It's a mile down the road. Turn left, and you'll

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be there. He doesn't do that. He picks him up and there Ezekiel is in the air with the sound of the

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angel's wings beating. They call it like thunderings. The wheels are turning. The wings are beating.

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The fire is still fiery. God takes him in that power, in that authority. Even though Ezekiel

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says, I went in the bitterness of my spirit and the heat of my spirit, but the hand of the Lord

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is strong within me. God does something to Ezekiel the way he lifts him up before he deposits him

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where he needs to be to show him, I'll be with you. If I was with you in air, with the strength

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and the wheels and the angels and the cherubim and the fire, then I'm going to be with you when

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you open your mouth to the people. All right, so these were verses 12 through 15. He is now sitting

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by the river Chebar, having had this experience. You know, there's only one other guy that comes

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to mind who was taken up to heaven in a fiery chariot. Only one other guy who was taken up in

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the clouds in a fiery chariot do you know what i'm talking about elijah elijah was taken up into

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heaven in a fiery chariot did elijah come back no i mean not you know the transfiguration but

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no elijah was one and done the chariot is sin this divine chariot comes down scoops up elijah

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is taken up to heaven the difference with ezekiel is that ezekiel got a ride in the chariot but

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Ezekiel was taken back. Why? Because his ministry wasn't done. In fact, it was just getting started.

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Instead of going up to heaven, God drops Ezekiel back on the earth in the very refugee camp in

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which he lived in an area called Tel Aviv. And for seven days thereafter, Ezekiel didn't say

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anything. He just sat there astonished. He sat there and he considered what had just happened.

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And at some point, his mind probably drifted to,

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now what am I going to do next?

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What do I do next?

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Well, I hate to end on a cliffhanger, but I'm going to end on a cliffhanger.

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Next week, we're going to see what happens next.

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Ezekiel now has his commission.

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He's now back with his people.

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And in the second half of chapter 3,

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we're going to see that a special title is going to be given to Ezekiel.

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He's going to be called the Watchman.

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We'll talk about the Watchman next time.

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Let's pray.