Bible Commentaries
Ezekiel 2

Verses 1-10

Chapter 2

And he said unto me, Son of man ( Ezekiel 2:1 ),

Now this is a title that Ezekiel uses quite often. It is a title that Jesus uses in the New Testament concerning Himself. It is a title that was used here for Ezekiel, and quite often the Lord refers to Ezekiel as son of man.

He said unto me, Son of man, stand upon thy feet ( Ezekiel 2:1 ),

Now you remember he fell on his face when he saw this whole thing, saw the throne of God and the brightness and the flashes and all. He fell on his face, and he heard a voice of one speaking. And the voice said, "Stand up."

and I will speak unto thee. And the spirit entered into me when he spake unto me, and set me upon my feet, that I heard him that spake unto me ( Ezekiel 2:1-2 ).

First he saw, now he is hearing this word of the Lord.

And he said unto me, Son of man, I am sending you to the children of Israel, to a rebellious nation that hath rebelled against me: and their father's have transgressed against me, even unto this very day. For they are impudent children, they're stiffhearted. And I send you unto them; and you shall say unto them, Thus saith Jehovah God ( Ezekiel 2:3-4 ).

So, he is now commissioned by God to go, not to the house of Judah only, but to the whole children of Israel.

And they, whether they hear, or whether they will forbear, (for they are a rebellious house,) yet shall they know that there has been a prophet among them ( Ezekiel 2:5 ).

I'm going to send you to speak in My name, and whether they listen or not doesn't matter. They are a rebellious people. When you're through, they're going to know that there was a prophet among them.

And thou, son of man, be not afraid of them, neither be afraid of their words, though briers and thorns be with thee, and you do dwell among scorpions: don't be afraid of their words, nor be dismayed at their looks, though they be a rebellious house ( Ezekiel 2:6 ).

Now, he's telling him, "Hey, they're not apt to receive you. They're rebellious, they're impudent children, and they may take the thorns and pull the thorns across you. A method by which they would punish people is take these thorns and pull them across a person's body. They have some really heavy thorn bushes over there. But don't worry about that.

For you are to speak my words unto them, whether or not they listen. But thou, son of man, hear what I say unto you; Don't you be rebellious like that rebellious house: open your mouth, and eat that which I give to you. And when I looked, behold, there was a hand that was sent unto me; and, lo, [there was a scroll of a book within it, or] there was a roll of a scroll [actually] therein; And he spread it before me; and it was written within and without: and there was writing therein, which were lamentations, and mourning, woe ( Ezekiel 2:7-10 ).

So, the Lord says, "You know, now you're to eat what I set before you." And the Lord sets before him this scroll. And he opens it out and all of these woes and lamentations and mournings are written therein.

The eating of it, of course, is symbolic, even as in the book of John. John was given the scroll and he did eat it. And when it was in his mouth, sweet as honey, but in his belly it was bitter. Here he is told to eat the words. Now, you read of a person devouring a book. We say, "Oh, he really devoured that book." Now you don't mean that he roasted it and put ketchup on it and took his knife and fork and ate the thing. But he absorbed it, and even as your food becomes a part of your being, so words, ideas, thoughts can become a part of your being as you absorb them. They affect your life. So he is told to eat, to digest in a sense, or eat, devour the words that are here.

We are to feast on the Word of God that it might become a part of our lives. We're to have an appetite, a hunger for the Word of God. And as we partake or eat of God's Word, it is as it was to Ezekiel, sweet, it was good, the Word of God. "