Open, Eat and Speak

As long as the Friday night Bible studies at church have been going, I typically bake a dessert to share and enjoy.  One of the most memorable (and funny!) moments involved a picky eater years back.  It was obvious she was not impressed with the appearance of the dish, looking at it like a person who noticed they stepped in vomit in a carpark.  Undeterred by her misgivings, I urged her to give it a try.  Hesitantly she placed the smallest morsel in her mouth and froze.  With pursed lips without chewing once, her body instinctively recoiled within from the foreign specimen.  Our eyes locked as she slowly reached for a serviette (napkin in OZ) and right in front of me spat the food (she didn't want in the first place) into it.  It was the funniest, weirdest moment ever in my history of baking.

This amusing situation was brought to mind by a passage I read today of God speaking to the prophet in Ezekiel 2:7-8:  "You shall speak My words to them, whether they hear or whether they refuse, for they are rebellious. ⁸ But you, son of man, hear what I say to you. Do not be rebellious like that rebellious house; open your mouth and eat what I give you."  The order of God's command to Ezekiel entreated him to exercise faith:  to open his mouth and eat whatever God gave him.  As God created our bodies and knows the nutrients we need to survive and thrive, He knows what we need to receive His word by hearing and to live accordingly.  It was not up to Ezekiel to inspect what God offered before he would submit to "trying it."  It was not enough for him to take a bite.  Ezekiel was called to open his mouth by faith in God, receive all God said--chew it up and swallow it down--and then boldly speak forth God's word to a rebellious house.

It is no sin to be a picky eater concerning desserts, but it is sinful to rebel against God in unbelief.  The book presented to Ezekiel was filled with lamentation, mourning and woe.  Ezekiel would have been rebellious to pick and choose what he would say, ignoring God's pronouncement of judgment and camping on promises of peace and rest.  God chose Ezekiel as His prophet to say words God knew His people would not hear, but that wasn't to deter Ezekiel at all.  It was possible Ezekiel could have been rebellious like them, so God warned him from walking according to their folly.  Medicine may not taste good to our tongues, but it has properties designed to promote healing, alleviate pain or other negative symptoms and works to restore our bodies to full heath.  God urged Ezekiel to open his mouth in faith to receive all God spoke to him, and we ought to do the same.

No one can take someone else's medicine for them, yet part of God's ordained process was for Ezekiel to receive God's word by faith and for him to walk according to it.  He was doing more than simply delivering a message, for God's message was intended to correct, instruct and guide Ezekiel as much as the rest of the children of Israel.  The scriptures are not provided as ammunition to fire at others who err but are practical spiritual nutrition for us and to those with whom we speak.  We are not to urge other people to "try" what we refuse to taste ourselves.  Having tasted and seen God is good, we are thus equipped and prepared by God's grace to open our mouths and exhort others to walk by faith in God too.