Commentary - Ezekiel 3:4-11

Bird's-eye view

In this passage, we see the raw and unfiltered nature of a true prophetic commission. God is not sending Ezekiel to a people group that will be impressed with his credentials or won over by a winsome personality. He is sending him into the teeth of rebellion, to his own kinsmen, the house of Israel. The central point is this: the effectiveness of God's Word is not contingent on the receptivity of the audience. God tells Ezekiel up front that they will not listen. This is not a mission trip designed by a modern church growth committee; there are no metrics for success that involve numbers or positive feedback. The sole metric is faithfulness. God commands His man to speak His words, and then, in a glorious display of sovereign grace, equips him for the inevitable conflict by making his resolve harder than their rebellion. This is a foundational text for any minister of the gospel, reminding us that our task is proclamation, not persuasion, and our strength for the task comes from God, not from within ourselves.

The passage dismantles every excuse a man might make for avoiding a difficult ministry. Is there a language barrier? No, God says you speak their language perfectly. Are the people just ignorant? No, God says that if He had sent you to foreigners, they would have listened, which is a stinging indictment of Israel's privileged position and hard heart. The problem is not a failure to communicate; the problem is a settled rebellion in the heart of the hearers. And because their rebellion is against God Himself, He is the one who must fortify His messenger for the confrontation.

Outline

Context In Ezekiel

This passage follows Ezekiel's dramatic calling in chapters 1 and 2, where he sees the vision of God's glory and is commanded to eat the scroll containing God's words of lamentation, mourning, and woe. Having ingested the Word of God, which was sweet in his mouth, he is now given his specific marching orders. The sweetness of communion with God is immediately followed by the bitterness of the task ahead. This section, from 3:4-11, clarifies the nature of the opposition he will face. It is not external or foreign, but internal and familial. He is a prophet to his own people, the exiles in Babylon, who have carried their rebellious hearts with them from Jerusalem. This sets the stage for the confrontational ministry that will characterize the first major section of the book, where Ezekiel pronounces God's judgment on Judah and Jerusalem.

Key Issues

Verse-by-Verse Commentary

Verse 4: Then He said to me, “Son of man, go now, come to the house of Israel, and you shall speak with My words to them.

The commission begins with a simple, direct command. "Go now." There is an immediacy to it. This is not a career path Ezekiel is to ponder, but a duty he is to undertake at once. The title "Son of man" emphasizes his humanity, his creatureliness, in contrast to the glorious God who is speaking to him. He is a man, sent to men. And what is his task? To "speak with My words to them." This is crucial. The prophet is a herald. He does not invent the message. He does not conduct surveys to see what the people want to hear. He is a deliveryman, and the package he carries contains the very words of God. All authority in preaching resides here. If the words are the preacher's own, they are nothing but air. If they are God's words, they carry the authority of the Creator of the heavens and the earth.

Verse 5-6: For you are not being sent to a people of unintelligible lips or a difficult tongue, but to the house of Israel, nor to many peoples of unintelligible lips or a difficult tongue, whose words you cannot understand. But I have sent you to them who should listen to you;

Here God systematically removes all the standard excuses. Ezekiel cannot claim that the mission is too difficult because of cultural or linguistic barriers. He is being sent to his own people, the house of Israel. He speaks their language, he knows their history, he understands their customs. The problem will not be a failure to comprehend his sentences. God is making it clear that the lines of communication are wide open. The failure, when it comes, will be entirely moral and spiritual, not intellectual or cultural. Then comes the sharp, ironic twist. If God had sent him to these foreign nations, "they should listen to you." This is a profound indictment of Israel. The pagan nations, without the benefit of the law, the covenants, and the prophets, would have shown more spiritual sense than God's own chosen people. This is the principle Jesus later invokes concerning Nineveh and the Queen of the South, who will rise up in judgment against the generation that rejected Him. Greater privilege always brings greater responsibility, and when rejected, greater condemnation.

Verse 7: yet the house of Israel will not be willing to listen to you, since they are not willing to listen to Me. Surely the whole house of Israel is stubborn with a strong forehead and stiff heart.

God does not sugarcoat the reality of the mission. He tells Ezekiel plainly: they will not listen. Why? Because the quarrel is not ultimately with Ezekiel. "They are not willing to listen to Me." When a congregation rejects the faithful preaching of the Word, they are not having a personality conflict with the pastor. They are shaking their fist at the God who sent him. This is an immense comfort and clarification for the faithful minister. The rejection is not personal; it is theological. The description of Israel is stark: "stubborn with a strong forehead and stiff heart." The Hebrew pictures a brazen, shameless defiance (a strong forehead) and an unyielding internal rebellion (a stiff heart). This is not simple ignorance; this is high-handed, defiant sin. They have set their faces and hearts like stone against their Maker.

Verse 8-9: Behold, I have made your face as strong as their faces and your forehead as strong as their foreheads. Like diamond stronger than flint I have made your forehead. Do not be afraid of them or be dismayed before them, though they are a rebellious house.

What is God's solution to this brazen rebellion? It is not to soften the message or to find a more charming messenger. God's solution is to make His prophet harder than the opposition. He meets their hard-heartedness with a divinely-hardened resolve in His servant. "I have made your face as strong as their faces." This is a supernatural impartation of courage. God does not send a man into a spiritual war without spiritual armor. The imagery intensifies to "diamond stronger than flint." Flint was a notoriously hard stone, used for sharp edges. But God makes Ezekiel's forehead like adamant, a stone that can cut anything. The prophet's God-given resolve will be superior to the people's sinful obstinacy. On the basis of this divine provision, the command comes: "Do not be afraid." Fear in the face of such opposition is natural. But for the man equipped by God, it is unnecessary. To be dismayed by their rebellious glares is to forget that your own forehead has been fortified by the Almighty.

Verse 10: Moreover, He said to me, “Son of man, take into your heart all My words which I will speak to you and listen with your ears.

Before Ezekiel can proclaim the word, he must first receive it deeply himself. It is not enough to hear it with the ears; he must "take into your heart all My words." The message must grip the messenger before it can be delivered with any integrity. A preacher who is not himself mastered by the Word he preaches is just a clanging cymbal. The truth must be internalized. It must shape his own soul. This is the foundation of all powerful ministry. The man of God must be a man of the Word, not just in his study, but in the very fiber of his being.

Verse 11: And go now, come to the exiles, to the sons of your people, and you shall speak to them and say to them, whether they listen or whether they refuse, ‘Thus says Lord Yahweh.’

The commission is now repeated with its final, liberating condition. Go to the exiles, your own people. Speak to them. And here is the key: "whether they listen or whether they refuse." Success in this economy is redefined completely. It has nothing to do with results, responses, or conversions. Success is simple obedience. Did you go? Did you speak? The outcome is God's business. This frees the minister from the tyranny of results and the fear of man. His only responsibility is to be faithful. And what is the content of the message? It is summarized in the closing formula: "Thus says Lord Yahweh." This is the ultimate authority. The message is not a series of helpful suggestions. It is a sovereign declaration from the covenant Lord of all. This is the ground on which the prophet stands, and it is immovable.

Application

The principles laid out for Ezekiel are timeless and directly applicable to the church today. Ministry is, at its heart, a declaration of God's Word to a world that is, by nature, a rebellious house. We are not called to be successful, but to be faithful. We are not called to craft a message that will sell, but to proclaim the message we were given, "Thus says the Lord."

When we face opposition, whether it is the hard-faced rebellion of the culture or the stiff-hearted resistance within the church, our recourse is not to marketing strategies but to God. He is the one who makes our foreheads like diamond. Our courage is not self-generated; it is a gift of grace for the task at hand. We must not fear the faces of men when we have the promises of God.

And finally, we must be men and women who have taken the Word into our own hearts. A hollow proclamation is a powerless one. The truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ must transform us before we can ever hope to be instruments of its proclamation to others. Our duty is simple, though not easy: hear the Word, internalize the Word, and speak the Word, leaving the results to the sovereign God who gave it.