Encouragement From Ezekiel!

Yvonne and I have started reading through the book of Ezekiel in the Bible for our devotions together. It’s amazing how applicable God’s word is to our situation in trying to minister to young military men and women. Sometimes it gets discouraging when time after time we try to reach out to young men and women in uniform, and they are not interested in what we offer. We reach out to them in love, providing a safe, home and family environment, where they can have fun, play games, eat, and fellowship together. Basically, offer them a home away from home, with family and everything. And yet, so often there seems to be so little interest.

I totally understand the hectic schedule of military men and women. Their job is not like that of a civilian who may work from 9 to 5 and then goes home, and has his or her evenings and weekends free to do what they want to do. Young servicemen and women have to work around the clock in rotating shifts. Then on top of their “normal work day” they have “duty days” where they are restricted to their base or ship, and have to stand “watches” anywhere from two to four hours in length. Many of our military people are worked to exhaustion. Sleep often becomes a precious commodity! And simply having some alone time, time to run personal errands, shop, get hair cuts, manicures and pedicures, or simply to do laundry, is really limited.

But, I’m concerned about these young people spiritually. David Kinnaman and Thom Rainer in their books “You Lost Me: Why Young Christians Are Leaving Church…And Rethinking Faith” and “The Millennials: Connecting to America’s Largest Generation” address the attitudes and beliefs of young adults between the ages of eighteen and thirty something; saying that almost three quarters of that generation believe the Christian church is irrelevant. They don’t necessarily consider themselves ‘hostile’ toward Christianity or religion, but simply indifferent toward it. Well over half of those who say they attended church when they were younger teens, do not attend any longer. God called Yvonne and me to reach these young adults: those who do not believe; those who may once have believed, but who have turned away from Jesus Christ or the church; and those who may still believe, but have enormous pressure coming against them to draw them away from the faith.

So, what does all of this ‘concern’ have to do with what we read in Ezekiel? God sent Ezekiel to speak to the people of Israel. What God said to Ezekiel, He could just as easily have said to Yvonne and me in our situation. Let me show you what I mean. Listen now as God speaks to Ezekiel. I am using the New International Version. In Ezekiel 2:3-4 God said, “Son of man, I am sending you to the Israelites, to a rebellious nation that has rebelled against me; they and their fathers have been in revolt against me to this very day. The people to whom I am sending you are obstinate and stubborn. Say to them, 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says.'”

Rebellious? Obstinate? Stubborn? Wow! Those are some pretty harsh sounding words from a “loving” God!

But just in case Ezekiel was thinking that maybe he wouldn’t go and speak God’s word to them, because they probably wouldn’t listen, and his speaking to them probably wouldn’t do any good anyway, listen to what God tells the prophet in Ezekiel 2:7, “You must speak my words to them, whether they listen or fail to listen, for they are rebellious.” God told Ezekiel He had to speak to them either way. Whether they listened or not did not make any difference at all!

In Ezekiel 3:5-7 God acknowledged that it would have been easier for Ezekiel to go to a foreign country where he didn’t understand their language, than to go to his own people. The people in the foreign country would have listened to his message. God tells the prophet “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." The prophet was to go to the people God sent him to; and he was to speak God’s word to them even though they would not listen. God explained to Ezekiel the reason the people would not listen to him, was because they were not willing to listen to God.

Then in Ezekiel 3:17-21 God gave the example of a watchman. I love it when God uses a military example that I can relate to! A watchman is just like a marine or soldier standing guard duty. God said,

“Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel; so hear the word I speak and give them warning from me. When I say to a wicked man, 'You will surely die,' and you do not warn him or speak out to dissuade him from his evil ways in order to save his life, that wicked man will die for his sin, and I will hold you accountable for his blood. But if you do warn the wicked man and he does not turn from his wickedness or from his evil ways, he will die for his sin; but you will have saved yourself.”

“Again, when a righteous man turns from his righteousness and does evil, and I put a stumbling block before him, he will die. Since you did not warn him, he will die for his sin. The righteous things he did will not be remembered, and I will hold you accountable for his blood. But if you do warn the righteous man not to sin and he does not sin, he will surely live because he took warning, and you will have saved yourself.”

So, Yvonne and I will keep reaching out to young soldiers, sailors, marines, and airmen. Whether they listen or not is really not the point. We will continue sharing His word with these young men and women, believing that God will grant us favor with some, and some will listen to the message.