What’s For Dinner? Part 3 Series

Ezekiel 3: 16 – 27

‘What’s for dinner’ Part 3

“16 Now it came to pass at the end of seven days that the word of the LORD came to me, saying, 17 “Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel; therefore hear a word from My mouth, and give them warning from Me: 18 When I say to the wicked, ‘You shall surely die,’ and you give him no warning, nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life, that same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood I will require at your hand. 19 Yet, if you warn the wicked, and he does not turn from his wickedness, nor from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but you have delivered your soul. 20 “Again, when a righteous man turns from his righteousness and commits iniquity, and I lay a stumbling block before him, he shall die; because you did not give him warning, he shall die in his sin, and his righteousness which he has done shall not be remembered; but his blood I will require at your hand. 21Nevertheless if you warn the righteous man that the righteous should not sin, and he does not sin, he shall surely live because he took warning; also you will have delivered your soul.” 22 Then the hand of the LORD was upon me there, and He said to me, “Arise, go out into the plain, and there I shall talk with you.” 23 So I arose and went out into the plain, and behold, the glory of the LORD stood there, like the glory which I saw by the River Chebar; and I fell on my face. 24 Then the Spirit entered me and set me on my feet, and spoke with me and said to me: “Go, shut yourself inside your house. 25 And you, O son of man, surely they will put ropes on you and bind you with them, so that you cannot go out among them. 26 I will make your tongue cling to the roof of your mouth, so that you shall be mute and not be one to rebuke them, for they are a rebellious house. 27 But when I speak with you, I will open your mouth, and you shall say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD.’ He who hears, let him hear; and he who refuses, let him refuse; for they are a rebellious house.”

Numbers are interesting things. There is a lot to be learned if you do a review in the Bible when it comes to a certain number. For Example, with the number 4 we see that it many times refers to the earth. Such as [1] north, [2] south, [3] east, and [4] west for points of a compass. The seasons are broken down as [1] winter, [2] spring, [3] summer, and [4] fall.

The number 5 is seen as God’s Grace. The number 6 is man and the number 7 is that of perfection or completion. For example, the 7 days of creation.

In the book of Ezekiel we read that 7 days was a time set for mourning. Ezekiel sat in ‘Bitterness’ not being mad at God, but rather mourning for the spiritual deadness of his brethren.

Having completed his mourning Ezekiel was ready for day 8 or sometimes known as a ‘new beginning’. Our Lord God now spoke to Ezekiel and told him He had a job for him to do – be a watchman.

If you have ever served in the military, you will have experienced this position as a watchman or also referred to as ‘guard duty’. It has to be the most boring job you can ever do, yet it is probably the most important job there can ever be. Your duty first of all is to stay awake. If you do not do that then you cannot do what this valuable position requires – to give warning of any approaching enemy and secondly to be ready to act for the preservation of those you are watching over.

There is a problem though with this spiritual position assigned by our Holy Commander in Chief. The people did not understand His job classification. You see the enemy [Satan] planted some phony watchmen as revealed in Isaiah 56:10 - 12, “10 His watchmen are blind, They are all ignorant; They are all dumb dogs, they cannot bark; Sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber. 11 Yes, they are greedy dogs which never have enough. And they are shepherds who cannot understand; They all look to their own way, every one for his own gain, from his own territory. 12 “ Come,” one says, “I will bring wine, and we will fill ourselves with intoxicating drink; Tomorrow will be as today, and much more abundant.”