Ezekiel 11 finds the prophet having to suck up his fear of man and obey the Lord. Just like Peter, who found out that denying Christ was much worse than the fear of man, we too should obey God the first time. Ezekiel was face to face with 25 leaders of Israel. They were the "big shots," and I'm sure there was some fear there about prophesying to them. 'What if they don't receive the word? What if they get mad and kill me?' These were some legitimate fears, but God was giving him instructions, and he followed them.
They had been using a phrase amongst themselves, as arrogant leaders of Israel: "This city is a cooking pot, and we are the meat." When Ezekiel made reference to that ("'This city will not be a pot for you, nor will you be the meat int it; I will execute judgment on you at the borders of Israel.'"), I bet it got their attention. 'Someone's been reading our mail!' hehe. I bet they got the "fear of the Lord" real quick. One of the guys died right there on the spot.
I want to obey the Lord. Sometimes I assume that God is going to want me to do something weird. But beyond that, I need to face the prospect of Him asking me to do anything. Once I can face that and step out in obedience on the "hard stuff" or the stuff that I don't really feel like doing, then I think I'm growing a little bit and some of the other obedience things will come a little more naturally.
The Word says that "the fear of man is a snare." Ain't that the truth?
Posted by Doug Van Pelt at August 22, 2005 09:44 AM