A call to yieldedness

Throughout the bible, prophets were used by God to warn the people, to speak God’s messages and to serve as examples to the nations. Much of a prophet’s life was dictated by the Lord himself and it looked strange to outsiders. But as we will see, prophets were first and foremost yielded to the word of God. Their allegiance was to God and not to men hence they were able to undergo ridicule and silliness for God’s sake. In the book of Ezekiel, we see these same patterns at play. What I find interesting in all of this is that prophets never chose the life of a prophet, they were for the most part regular men doing regular things until they were called by the Lord. Once they accepted the call, their lives changed forever. As believers in the Lord, it is not any different. Once we accept Christ and become his followers, our lives change forever and we become his. From the life of Ezekiel, I’d like to draw some quick lessons that speak to living a yielded life that can be applied to our Christian walk.

The first lesson I would like to highlight from the life of Ezekiel that is also valuable to us is that the choice to accept the Lord’s call is given to us. God chose Ezekiel and told him that He made him a watchman over the house of Israel (Ezekiel 3:17). In addition, God commanded Ezekiel to go speak to the house of Israel and give them warnings from Him. However, Ezekiel could have decided that this was not what he was going to do or that he was not fit for the job as some had said in the past. Essentially, Ezekiel could have said no to God. Granted, God can be very persuasive because I do not know how one can say no to Him after seeing the vision Ezekiel saw (Ezekiel 1). When we look at the call of Moses by God, we see that Moses almost said no to God, which means if Moses had refused the task, God would have accepted that and would have gone to someone else. Similarly, when Jesus came into this earth, it had always been highlighted that Jesus chose willingly to die on the cross (John 18:10). He willingly accepted the call from the Father to die. God never forces anyone to do anything. He pleads with us but He never forces. In our Christian walk, God remains true to Himself, He does not coerce us into becoming His sons and daughters, He simply bids us come. He pursues us but He waits for us to respond to His love. That is why we have to make a conscious decision to confess Him as our Lord and saviour. God wants us to be in a right state of mind when we say yes to Him, He is a good God and there is freedom in Him, not coercion. Even in the beginning, we see that God gave a choice to Adam. Indeed, Adam was given liberty to name the animals that the Lord presented to him. Furthermore, Adam was given a choice to obey the commandment of not eating the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil. In his freedom, Adam chose to disobey God.

The second lesson that can be drawn from the life of Ezekiel that is also valuable to us is that once you have accepted the Lord’s call, your life is no longer your own. It belongs to the Lord. This means, you literally have forfeited your rights to anything except that which the Lord wants. It becomes His will over your will. Ezekiel proves this when he receives instructions from the Lord. Indeed, God tells Ezekiel to do several things we might consider nonsensical such as shutting himself inside a house; making a clay tablet drawing on it the siege of Jerusalem; lying down on the left side for a certain time adding to it the sins of Israel, then lying on the right side for another set time. And in case you thought this was enough, God tells Ezekiel to shave his beard and hair and to weight the hair for another instruction (Ezekiel 5). Truly, Ezekiel’s life was not His own anymore, it served as an example, it was a reenactment of what the Lord was about to do to the nation of Israel. The goal was for Ezekiel’s life to cause a stir in the people’s heart to the point that they come to repentance. Similarly, as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, we are called to offer our bodies as “living sacrifices” (Romans 12:1). By definition, a sacrifice is dead or about to die. The sacrifice does not speak, it does not have an opinion, its only existence is to be sacrificed. Therefore, for us to be “living sacrifices” to the Lord, we must surrender our opinions, our way of life, our ideas, and everything that constitutes a self-centered approach to Him. Dying to self is the only way to move forward in the Christian life. This means putting forward the desires of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22; Colossians 3:12) instead of the desires of the flesh (Galatians 5:19; Colossians 3:5). It means thinking of others as more significant than ourselves as Paul instructs us to do in Philippians (Philippians 2:3). It means trusting in the Lord with all our heart and not leaning on our own intelligence but acknowledging Him in all of our ways (Proverbs 3:5-6). Complete surrender is not easy but it is the requirement for all those who have accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as Lord and saviour.

The final lesson that can be seen from Ezekiel’s life is that God chooses the people He wants to work with. Everyone that has been used by God was chosen specifically by God to do His work. As God chooses, He also prepares an office for you to walk in. In the case of Ezekiel, he was a watchman and he was a prophet. Ezekiel was supposed to warn the people, to stand in the gap and notify the Israelites of any incoming danger as he prophesied the word of God to them. The same pattern is seen in the life of Jeremiah the prophet: first, he was chosen by God before he was even conceived (Jeremiah 1:5). Second, God was clear to Jeremiah about the reason why He chose him (a prophet to the nations). God is very transparent and there is no ambiguity in Him. God does not just stop at choosing us, He chooses us for a reason, to do His will. He always has better plans for us than we can have for ourselves. As believers in the Lord Jesus, we too were chosen by God to be holy and blameless in his sight (Ephesians 1:4). Not only that, God chose us for every good work He had prepared in advance for us to do (Ephesians 2:10). We were chosen and saved for more. God’s plans are always better than our small skewed one dimensional plans. He can be trusted with the end because He knows the beginning from the end. He knows all things. And He holds all things in His hands. As a matter of fact, God’s track record is flawless. Anything that He has promised He has always delivered on. His words do not come back to Him void. He has never failed and He will never fail.

The further I get into Ezekiel, the more I realize the difficulties of a surrendered life to God. Ezekiel, like other prophets before Him had to do things that were not very straightforward for us. The instructions given by God were at times not making sense yet these prophets obeyed. They offered their lives as testimonies for the world to see. They were pioneers in many things, they felt the heart of God and they felt the heaviness of the sin of their nation in their heart. It is as if they were privy to share the burden of God and His love for His people. As Christians, the Lord calls us to be light of the world and salt of the earth (Matthew 5:13-14). Part of fulfilling that command is by learning to live a life of yieldedness to the word of God. Will you yield yourself to your Maker and Lover?