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Ezekiel Ch3 verses 4 & 7 He then said to me: “Son of man, go now to the people of Israel and speak my words to them………… But the people of Israel are not willing to listen to you because they are not willing to listen to me, for all the Israelites are hardened and obstinate.
Just imagine if God told you to go and share his message of salvation with a group of people, but before you went he told you that they would not take any notice of you. You, like me, would probably think what a waste of time, why on earth should I bother? Regardless of this God told Ezekiel to go and tell the Israelites the message God had given him.
The context for the book of Ezekiel is that the Israelites had been taken into captivity by the Babylonians [the captivity spoken of by Jeremiah, and why he lamented so much], and they were feeling sorry for themselves. In this situation, you would have thought that they would have welcomed Ezekiel’s message, welcomed the fact that God was still speaking to them, but no their obstinacy prevailed.
We may feel the same when it comes to speaking to others of our faith, we may expect to be dismissed before we start, and apprehensive of the response. Like Ezekiel, God calls upon us to speak of his love and salvation to those around us irrespective of their response. God will ultimately judge everyone by how they have responded to his message of salvation, we are not called to judge, but we are called to make sure that everyone hears that message.
Dear Lord Jesus, please give us the boldness to speak to those around us of the salvation offered to all through the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Amen