Going to the valley
This week's study is on Ezekiel 3:22-23:
These verses are part of Ezekiel's description of his encounters with God. They had just finished talking about ministry and the importance of delivering God's message, when God tells Ezekiel to go out to the valley for the next conversation. Does that seem strange to anyone else? God is infinite and omnipresent. Ezekiel shouldn't have to travel anywhere to be able to talk to God because God will always be everywhere. And yet God asks him to make the journey.
Ezekiel is in a place where he can either obey God's voice or rationalize it away. "Why should I go to the valley? God just comes and gets me when he needs me anyway. And what if it's not God? Then I miss valuable ministry time by going off on some wild goose chase. Maybe I'll pray about it." But Ezekiel goes and obeys and is rewarded for it. He sees the glory of God and is overcome with awe.
When God asks something of us, it's not so much for him as it is for us. God could have delivered his message to the Jews in exile himself, the same way he met with Ezekiel. He could have revealed his glory to Ezekiel right where he stood in these verses, instead of making him go all the way out to the valley. But if he did that, Ezekiel wouldn't have had a role in God's plan. He would be in a relationship with God in which he has no function, no purpose, nothing to contribute. When God commands something of us, he's empowering us and offering us the gift of inclusion in what he is creating.
I can imagine Ezekiel on his journey to the valley wondering what God is going to say to him there. There's anticipation, a bit of the thrill that comes from separation and reunion, and a knowledge that he means something to God. God has chosen him for what he is doing. He is valued. Would he have sensed that if God just showed up to his house like a weekly TV show instead?
When we follow the path God has invited us on, we see his glory. When we reach the place we were asked to go, and we see what we were invited to see, we can't help but be in awe of God's plan.
The hand of the Lord rested on me there, and he said to me, “Get up, go out to the valley, and I will speak with you there.” So I got up and went out to the valley, and the glory of the Lord was standing there, just like the glory I had seen by the Kebar River, and I threw myself face down.
These verses are part of Ezekiel's description of his encounters with God. They had just finished talking about ministry and the importance of delivering God's message, when God tells Ezekiel to go out to the valley for the next conversation. Does that seem strange to anyone else? God is infinite and omnipresent. Ezekiel shouldn't have to travel anywhere to be able to talk to God because God will always be everywhere. And yet God asks him to make the journey.
Ezekiel is in a place where he can either obey God's voice or rationalize it away. "Why should I go to the valley? God just comes and gets me when he needs me anyway. And what if it's not God? Then I miss valuable ministry time by going off on some wild goose chase. Maybe I'll pray about it." But Ezekiel goes and obeys and is rewarded for it. He sees the glory of God and is overcome with awe.
When God asks something of us, it's not so much for him as it is for us. God could have delivered his message to the Jews in exile himself, the same way he met with Ezekiel. He could have revealed his glory to Ezekiel right where he stood in these verses, instead of making him go all the way out to the valley. But if he did that, Ezekiel wouldn't have had a role in God's plan. He would be in a relationship with God in which he has no function, no purpose, nothing to contribute. When God commands something of us, he's empowering us and offering us the gift of inclusion in what he is creating.
I can imagine Ezekiel on his journey to the valley wondering what God is going to say to him there. There's anticipation, a bit of the thrill that comes from separation and reunion, and a knowledge that he means something to God. God has chosen him for what he is doing. He is valued. Would he have sensed that if God just showed up to his house like a weekly TV show instead?
When we follow the path God has invited us on, we see his glory. When we reach the place we were asked to go, and we see what we were invited to see, we can't help but be in awe of God's plan.
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