Read: Ezekiel 1:1-3:15, Hebrews 3:1-19, Psalm 104:1-23, Proverbs 26:24-2

You must give them my messages whether they listen or not. But they won’t listen, for they are completely rebellious! (Ezekiel 2:7)

Relate: Whenever a speaker is about to be announced on a stage, the emcee will first give a list of their titles and accomplishments. There are actually dozens of websites (and even a class) to teach you how to introduce someone. Just imagine if you were given the task of introducing Ezekiel.

You: OK, Ezekiel, first I need your qualifications. What do you do?

Ezekiel: I’m a prophet.

You: OK, and?

Ezekiel: …

You: Well, um, what were you before that?

Ezekiel: Nothing, well, I was an exile.

You: I see… Great. Well, what about your experience. What experience do you bring to the table?

Ezekiel: I lay on my side for a few hundred days, then I rolled over. I broke a hole in my wall and carried everything out of it. I cut my hair and scattered it around the city.

You: I don’t see how…

Ezekiel: Speaking of seeing, I once saw this really cool wheel, inside another wheel, and it had four faces and…

You: Nevermind. What about accomplishments. What did you accomplish?

Ezekiel: Nothing.

React: He was a prophet, but nobody listened. He was faithful, in a faithless generation. The worst part about it, he knew this would be the case right from the start. Would I be willing to obey God if He called me to invest my life into something and then told me, upfront, that I would fail? Would you? Ezekiel’s calling is one of radical obedience. It is one that I love to admire, but I’m not so good at emulating.

Respond:
Dear God,
Help me to get past the “what’s in it for me” type of attitude. Sometimes I think I love the idea of serving You far more than the reality. Help me to have such a love for You that my response to Your calling will always be instant and unquestioning. Let me live a life of worldly failure, if that’s what living a life for You looks like.
Amen