Pastors may comfort us and prophets discomfort us, but don’t we really need both? Let’s look at one prophet’s duty in Ezekiel 3.
Was Ezekiel to eat a scroll, then go and speak to the house of Israel?
Then he told me, “Son of Man, eat! Eat what you see—this scroll—and then go talk to the house of Israel.” So I opened my mouth and he fed me the scroll. Then he told me, “Son of Man, fill your stomach and digest this scroll that I’m giving you.” So I ate it, and it was like sweet honey in my mouth. (Ezek 3:1-3 ISV)
To whom was Ezekiel sent? Would other nations have listened to him, like Nineveh listened to Jonah?
And he said unto me, Son of man, go, get thee unto the house of Israel, and speak with my words unto them. For thou art not sent to a people of a strange speech and of an hard language, but to the house of Israel; Not to many people of a strange speech and of an hard language, whose words thou canst not understand. Surely, had I sent thee to them, they would have hearkened unto thee. (Ezek 3:4-6 KJV)
Was God disappointed in Israel, because she was even worse than the nations around her?
Therefore, thus says Lord Yahweh, ‘Because you have more turmoil than the nations which are all around you and have not walked in My statutes, nor done My judgments, nor done the judgments of the nations which are all around you,’ therefore, thus says Lord Yahweh, ‘Behold, I, even I, am against you, and I will execute judgments among you in the sight of the nations. And I will do among you what I have not done and the like of which I will never do again because of all your abominations. (Ezek 3:7-9 LSB)
What would be some of the consequences experienced by a nation practicing idolatry and abominations?
Therefore, fathers will eat their sons among you, and sons will eat their fathers; for I will execute judgments on you and scatter all your remnant to every wind. Therefore as I live,’ declares the Lord God, ‘Because you have defiled My sanctuary with all your detestable idols and with all your abominations, I definitely will also withdraw and My eye will have no pity, and I also will not spare. A third of you will die by plague or perish by famine among you, a third will fall by the sword around you, and a third I will scatter to every wind, and I will unsheathe a sword behind them. (Ezek 3:10-12 NASB)
What knowledge will come as the result of a nation punished by God?
Then my anger will cease and my wrath against them will subside, and I will be avenged. And when I have spent my wrath on them, they will know that I the Lord have spoken in my zeal. I will make you a ruin and a reproach among the nations around you, in the sight of all who pass by. (Ezek 3:13-14 NIV)
What will the nations around Israel learn from her punishment?
So it shall be a reproach, a taunt, a lesson, and an astonishment to the nations that are all around you, when I execute judgments among you in anger and in fury and in furious rebukes. I, the Lord, have spoken. When I send against them the terrible arrows of famine which shall be for destruction, which I will send to destroy you, I will increase the famine upon you and cut off your supply of bread. So I will send against you famine and wild beasts, and they will bereave you. Pestilence and blood shall pass through you, and I will bring the sword against you. I, the Lord, have spoken. (Ezek 3:15-17 NKJV)
What lesson should we in New Testament churches learn from Israel’s bad examples?
These things happened as a warning to us, so that we would not crave evil things as they did, or worship idols as some of them did. As the Scriptures say, “The people celebrated with feasting and drinking, and they indulged in pagan revelry.” And we must not engage in sexual immorality as some of them did, causing 23,000 of them to die in one day.
Nor should we put Christ to the test, as some of them did and then died from snakebites. And don’t grumble as some of them did, and then were destroyed by the angel of death. These things happened to them as examples for us. They were written down to warn us who live at the end of the age. (1 Cor 10:6-11 NLT)
Pastors may comfort us and prophets discomfort us, but don’t we really need both? You decide!
