Ezekiel 2:1

EZEKIEL'S COMMISSION FROM GOD TO ISRAEL

The thought here and into chapter three is continuous with that of the preceding chapter, all of these things being directly connected with God's call of this great prophet as a witness to Israel.

In this short chapter, God gave to Ezekiel the description of his mission. It would be to a stiff-necked, hard-hearted, rebellious people. Following the captivity of the northern kingdom, the southern remnant in Judea, including a few defections from the northern group, had become in fact "the united Israel." At this point in time, Israel was no longer a mighty nation but a discouraged remnant of captives in Babylon.

Despite this, the whole "house of Israel" is in this chapter (Ezekiel 2:3) called a rebellious nation, "the last term, here, being the very word used in the Old Testament for the Gentiles."[1] This shows the total alienation of the nation from God. We may therefore take the word "rebellious" as the key to Israel's attitude throughout the prophecy of Ezekiel.

It was the fulfillment of the prophecy of Hosea (Hosea 1:9) in which the third child of Gomer was named "Loammi," the same being a prophetic declaration concerning Israel that, "They are not God's people, and that he, Jehovah, will no longer be their God."

Dummelow gives the following summary of God's commission to Ezekiel.

"It came in three stages and upon three different occasions. The principal one of these is the 1st, which came immediately after the amazing vision of Ezekiel 1 and which occupies all of Ezekiel 2 and Ezekiel 3:1-13. The second came seven days later, among the exiles at Tel-abib (Ezekiel 3:14-21); and the third was connected with a repetition of this vision, apparently in the neighborhood of Tel-abib (Ezekiel 3:22-27)."[2]

Ezekiel 2:1

"And he said unto me, Son of man, stand upon thy feet, and I will speak with thee."

Matthew Henry commented upon the need for God to send just such a messenger as Ezekiel to Israel. "Although they still retained the name of their pious ancestors, they had wretchedly degenerated. This passage declares that they had become Goim, nations, the word commonly used in that era for Gentiles."[3] The other sacred writers agree with what is written here. "The children of Israel had become as the children of the Ethiopians" (Amos 9:7). "They had become traffickers, the ancient word for Canaanites" (Hosea 12:7). This last word shows that Israel had degenerated to a condition in which they were no better than the ancient pagan Canaanites whom God had removed from Palestine in order to repeople the land with Israelites!

The warning for Christians in all of this is, that if the moral and righteous integrity of Christians deteriorates to a condition in which they are no longer truly distinguished from the unregenerated masses around them, they are doubtless doomed, no less than was ancient Israel, to lose their status and to incur the wrath of God. "Without holiness, no man shall see God" (Hebrews 12:14).

"Son of man ..." (Ezekiel 2:1). Amazingly, this designation of Ezekiel occurs no less than ninety-three times in this prophecy.[4] From the term's usage in Daniel 7:13 and Daniel 8:14, it came to be recognized as a Messianic title, the very one, in fact, that was especially preferred by Jesus Christ, "because it was intended as both a concealment and a revelation of the Saviour's true deity."[5]