Ezekiel 1-3

So, I am looking for the next place in the Bible to read and I decided on Ezekiel. For those of you that don't know, Ezekiel is a book full of prophecy and some pretty hard to understand imagery. I want to assure you I have no clue about most of it, but I do want to go through it along with a commentary on Ezekiel and see what good things God has stored in there.

One of the main themes of the first three chapters (and I'm guessing the whole book) is that the house of Israel is rebellious, obstinate and stubborn. The whole reason for Ezekiel's call to go to the people and tell them what God had to say was because they refused to listen to God at all. These people did what they wanted irregardless of what God taught. Not to much different from Christians today. Many of us do whatever we want no matter what God has spoken through His word. We listen and then do what suits us best. It's no wonder our faith is so weak and we have so many issues. Obedience leads to health and when we choose our way over obedience we are once again walking away from God.

One thing I found really fascinating was the commentators explanation for the 4 faces of the living creatures. He says that the four faces (man, lion, eagle and ox) represent that God is supreme and rules over man, wildlife, birds of the air and livestock. It is the idea that God is supreme over everything. He also says that the motion of the wheels and the eyes on everything refer to God as all-knowing and always present. Neat ideas.

Here are a few verses:

2:7 - You must speak my words to them, whether they listen of fail to listen, for they are rebellious.

3:7 - But the house of Israel is not willing to listen to you because they are not willing to listen to me, for the whole house of Israel is hardened and obstinate.

3:11 - ...whether they listen of fail to listen.

3:14 - ...I went in bitterness and in the anger of my spirit, with the strong hand of the Lord on me. - I am not sure how to take this. It could be that Ezekiel was mad the experience was over. It could be that he was angry with a righteous anger. Maybe he was mad God had called him. For some reason he was pretty upset.

3:18-21 - When I say to the wicked, 'You will surely die,' and you do not warn them or speak out to dissuade them from their evil ways in order to save their lives, those wicked people will die for their sins, and I will hold you accountable for their blood. But if you do warn the wicked and they do not turn from their wickedness or from their evil ways, they will die for their sins; but you will have saved yourself.
Again, when the righteous turn from their righteousness and do evil, and I put a stumbling block before them, they will die. Since you did not warn them, they will die for their sins. The righteous things they did will not be remembered, and I will hold you accountable for their blood. But if you do warn the righteous not to sin and they do not sin, they will surely live because they took warning, and you will have saved yourself. - WOW! Talk about accountability. God says that when we withhold the truth because we are afraid of how people will react, we are held accountable for what happens to them. See, we want to choose accountability, but it has already been chosen for us when we accepted Christ. We are accountable for all those we know. We can complain and moan about that much like some of the prophets did early on or we can embrace it and start helping people get right with God.