Ezekiel 3 this morning. Opens with God’s command to the prophet, “Eat this scroll.” (Makes me think of the marvelous little book by Eugene Peterson entitled with this same phrase: “Eat This Book.”) The way the Spirit works & moves & is described in Ezekiel takes my breath away.

For example, in 3:11 God tells the prophet to go to the exiles & speak to them whether or not they listen. Very next words in 3:12: “The Spirit then lifted me up & I heard a loud rumbling sound behind me—bless the glory of the Lord in his place!” Might be fair to say, sometimes

God tells a prophet “Go” like He did Abram in Gen 12 and the prophet just goes. On his own 2 feet. Other times, maybe when God’s had enough & isn’t in the mood to wait for the dude to meander & pack, He just picks him up, feet dangling, & carries him where he wants him to go.

Makes you wonder sometimes if God’s motto is “We can either do this my way or my way.” The only difference between the latter and the former is how long & drawn out we want the thing to be. Anyway, I’m trying to get to 1 more point because it’s so telling. In Vv5-6 the Lord says,

“You are not being sent to a people of unintelligible speech or a different language but to the house of Israel—Not to the many peoples of unintelligible speech or a difficult language whose words you cannot understand. No doubt, if I sent you to them, they would listen to you.”

Get that last statement? He’s, in essence, saying to Ezekiel, “people who can hardly understand a single word you’re saying would end up listening to you better than the very people who speak your same language.” Isn’t that how it goes sometimes? I mean, conceptually speaking?

That old adage, “familiarity breeds contempt?” The old, “Who do you think you are?” Sometimes the last person on earth we will let speak to us is the person who’s one of us. But here’s the other thing: If that’s you & you’ve been talking your head off, trying to biblically reason

with someone among your own people, you’re not responsible for whether or not they listen. That’s between them & God. Your part is to be obedient. To speak boldly & as boldly in love as in truth. So don’t assume you’ve failed if nothing you’ve said has made a whit of difference.

You be obedient. As much as you can discern the will of God, human as we are & as unclear as it can sometimes be, speak when the Holy Spirit seems to leads and rest your tongue & don’t waste your breath when He doesn’t. You can’t make people listen. You can’t make people change.

But YOU can listen. YOU can change. I can listen. I can change. Listen, if you & I were already complete - no more transformation required - we’d be in the Holy Presence. That Spirit would already have reached down for us and carried us away.

Till then, let’s feast on the Book.