Eze 2 | EE | STEP | ‘Son of man, you must stand up on your feet’, the LORD said to me. ‘Then I will speak to you.’

Ezekiel 2

God chooses Ezekiel to be his messenger

1 ‘Son of man, you must stand up on your feet’, the LORD said to me. ‘Then I will speak to you.’ 2 His Spirit came into me while he spoke. He made me stand up and I heard him speak to me.

3 ‘Son of man’, he said. ‘I am sending you to Israel’s people. They are people who have not obeyed me. Their nation has turned away from me. They and their fathers have never obeyed my rules. 4 I am sending you to a people who do not listen to me. They think that their ideas are better than mine. This is what you must say to them. “This is what the great, powerful LORD says.”

5 They may listen or they may not listen. But they will know that you are a prophet. They are not an obedient people. But they will know that I have sent a prophet to them. 6 You, son of man, must not be afraid of them or their words. You may feel like you have sharp branches all round you. You may think that they can bite you like animals. But they cannot hurt you. Do not be afraid of what they say. They are all against me. 7 You must speak my words to them, whether they will listen or not. They are a people that do not obey me. 8 But you, son of man, must listen to what I say to you. Do not turn against me, like those bad people. Open your mouth. And eat what I give you.’

9 Then I looked and I saw a hand. It held a very long piece of skin. Someone had written words on the skin. The hand offered it to me. 10 When the hand opened the skin, I saw words on both sides of the skin. I read them. They were not happy words, but were very sad. ^{▼▼2:10 In those days, people wrote books on skins of animals. Usually they would only write on one side of the skins. But here there were words on both sides of this skin.}