One of the most frustrating realities a believer faces is that their calling and ministry may be directed to ground that is, by and large, not very fertile. In our Western culture the mindset is that whatever is undertaken is proved successful in direct proportion to the market share it captures. God’s economy does not work like that. Whereas there are many approaches which have altered their message in order to be more palatable to the greatest number of sympathetic recipients, God’s demand is that the unaltered truth of His Word and ways be preached and adhered to regardless of the degree to which others adopt it or not.

It is important to bear in mind that Ezekiel is not being called to carry a message to a people group who have never heard of God before; he is called to people claiming to already belong to God’s house. No one can be labeled “rebellious” if they don’t know what they are rejecting and whom they are rebelling against. They are not merely acquainted with the truth, they are acutely aware of and running in willful opposition to it.

Today we have Ezekiels in our midst who are probably just as frustrated as Jeremiah and Ezekiel were in their day. It is quite an extraordinary burden to fulfill God’s calling in an environment where positive results will be little or nothing. “But you shall speak My words to them whether they listen or not”. In the Parable of the Sower the seed of God’s Word was cast on a variety of soils, only one of which was consistently productive, but the sower casts the seed on all the soil regardless.

In most professions one can almost certainly know immediately and for certain whether they are successful based on how many people embrace and purchase their product or service. In times of great apostasy such as this final one in which we find ourselves today, the vast majority already know what God has to say through us and choos to continue according to their own desires and wishes. Most often they resist what they hear by hurling responses which sting like thistles, thorns, or sitting on a scorpion. We are to “neither fear their words nor be dismayed at their presence“. Upholding His truth may not endear us to them, but it is the dearest of desires to God. _††_†

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