Eze 3 | TNotes

Summary for Ezek 3:2-3: 3:2-3 ^a Although the scroll looked bitter, Ezekiel found it as sweet as honey when he ate it. Adam’s disobedience turned bitter, but Ezekiel’s obedience became pleasant and satisfying. Psalm 119:103 ^b also describes God’s words as “sweeter than honey.”
Summary for Ezek 3:4-7: 3:4-7 ^c Ezekiel was sent to God’s people, the people of Israel, whom one would expect to be eager to listen to the Lord. However, it would have been easier for the prophet if he had been sent to people with strange and difficult speech who could not understand him. This hard-hearted community refused to obey the Lord.
Summary for Ezek 3:8-9: 3:8-9 ^d God would make Ezekiel as thoroughly persistent in presenting God’s message as the people were in rejecting it.
3:10 ^e Ezekiel first had to internalize God’s messages himself before delivering them to the exiles among whom he lived.
3:11 ^f whether they listen to you or not: The Lord’s message was not subject to debate, negotiation, or rejection; things would happen as he said.
3:12 ^g May the glory of the Lord be praised in his place! In the Hebrew text, this exclamation of praise is odd in both placement and grammar. The alternate reading (see textual footnote) is based on emending a single Hebrew letter.
Summary for Ezek 3:14-15: 3:14-15 ^h The Spirit lifted me up: Ezekiel was brought back from his visionary experience to the ordinary world of the exiles. Ezekiel regularly experienced the powerful impact of the Spirit’s transporting him to another location (see also 8:3 ⁱ; 11:1 ^j, 24 ^k; 40:1-3 ^l; 43:5 ^m).

• After the Spirit departed from him, Ezekiel experienced the conflicting emotions associated with his commission. As a prophet who spoke for God, he began to feel the bitterness and turmoil of God’s anger against the sins of his people.
3:15 ⁿ The exact location of Tel-abib in Babylonia has not been determined.

• As one of the exiles, Ezekiel was overwhelmed by the prospect of this fearsome judgment. As with Job’s counselors, no words were possible at first, and he sat silently for seven days (see Job 2:13 ^o).
Summary for Ezek 3:16-19: 3:16-19 ^p Ezekiel was called to be a watchman, a familiar image for Old Testament prophets (see Isa 56:10 ^q; Jer 6:17 ^r; Hos 9:8 ^s). The watchman was a lookout for the community. He was responsible for providing advance warning of approaching enemies so that the people could take refuge in time. In this case, the enemy they had to fear was not a human invader but God. As difficult as his task was, the blood of those he failed to warn would be on his head if he remained silent.
Summary for Ezek 3:20-21: 3:20-21 ^t The prophet spoke to two classes of people, the righteous and the wicked. Ezekiel was to express his message indiscriminately, for both the righteous and the wicked would be judged on the basis of their response to his words (cp. Matt 13:3-9 ^u, 18-23 ^v). Those who heeded him would receive life; those who rejected his message would receive death, even if they had previously been righteous. Faith in the Lord’s word through his prophet was the sole criterion that divided those who would live from those who would die.
Summary for Ezek 3:22-23: 3:22-23 ^w The Lord summoned Ezekiel out into the valley, into a wilderness that was away from other people.

• Although this was the second time he had seen the glory of the Lord, it was not something to which Ezekiel had grown accustomed. Its awesome magnificence prostrated him.
Summary for Ezek 3:24-25: 3:24-25 ^x Ezekiel was God’s prisoner, shut ... in his house and tied with ropes. It is not clear whether these were literal ropes used to express the hostility of his fellow exiles toward the prophet, or a vivid image of their opposition and his restricted mobility among them. His complete captivity was striking, including the limitation placed on his speech (3:26-27 ^y); it would be a sign to the people.
Summary for Ezek 3:26-27: 3:26-27 ^z Even Ezekiel’s tongue was under arrest, bound to the roof of his mouth except when God freed it to speak his words of judgment. He was not physiologically incapable of speaking, but his communication was so restricted by God that he could only deliver the message of disaster that God gave him; all other speech was prohibited. This made Ezekiel’s role more limited than that of most prophets, who were free to intercede for and mediate between God and his people. Ezekiel could not speak on their behalf because the time for dialogue between God and his people had passed. No further appeal was possible against the coming judgment. Ezekiel’s speech would be restricted until the news of Jerusalem’s fall arrived (24:27 ^aa). At that point, with the completion of God’s judgment on his people, the prophet’s tongue would be freed to intercede for them again.