This is not the sort of job description one wants to receive
but then it seems to be the prophet’s lot. Ezekiel is sent to speak truth to a
nation of rebels, obstinate and stubborn. Isaiah is sent to a people “ever
hearing but never understanding… ever seeing but never perceiving.” (Isaiah
6:9) Jeremiah is made to be a “fortified city, an iron pillar, a bronze wall”
to stand against the kings of Judah, the officials, the priests and the people
of the land. (Jeremiah 1:17) I’d prefer to be a kinder, gentler prophet like
the “Comfort, comfort, ye my people” Isaiah (40:1) or the “I know the plans I
have for you says the Lord” Jeremiah. (29:11-13) But the healing words cannot
not be heard unless harsh ones till the soil of stubborn souls in the same way that
the “Thus says the Lord” truth to be told about us makes us receptive to the good
news of the Gospel. “Come let us reason together. Though your sins are scarlet
they shall be as white as snow…” (Isaiah 1:18) Bad news becomes good news when
we receive the corrective word of the Lord as an invitation and not a condemnation.
Or as Ezekiel will say much later ‘As
surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord, I take no pleasure in the death
of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live.” (33:11)
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