There is a fascinating description in Ezekiel 2 & 3 of how God prepared Ezekiel to carry out his God appointed assignment. Let’s do a 4S study of these chapters: spread, sort, structure, summarize.
When you spread out what is said in these chapters four things are emphasized: Eat, Enjoy, Exhort, and Endure.
When God gave Ezekiel a message to proclaim to the people He told him in 2:8 to “Open your mouth and eat what I give you.” More vividly it says in 3:1, “Son of man, eat what is before you, eat this scroll; then go and speak to the house of Israel.” He opened his mouth and God gave him the scroll to eat.
In verse 3 it says that he was “to eat this scroll I am giving you and fill your stomach with it.” When he ate it “it tasted as sweet as honey in (his) mouth.” There is a unique, enjoyable taste when one eats or studies the Word of God and fills his stomach, that is, his mind and heart with it. This describes an intense absorption or digestion of what you read and study.
You will not be able to declare God’s Word to others with conviction and authority if you have not first eaten and enjoyed it, or applied it to your own life. Then you are ready to exhort others with God’s Word.
But as you exhort others you will have to be ready to endure their opposition, if not outright rebellion. That is why God reminds Ezekiel over and over again, “do not be afraid!”
God makes it very clear to Ezekiel that his task would not be easy, but he had a divine imperative to speak God’s Word to those to whom God sends him. So do we!
