Listen Closely

 

Tuesday, March 1, 2022

On July 31 of my thirtieth year, while I was with the Judean exiles beside the Kebar River in Babylon, the heavens were opened and I saw visions of God….  “Stand up, son of man,” said the voice. “I want to speak with you.” 

Ezekiel 1:1, 2:1

Ezekiel was thirty years old and he heard the voice telling him to snap to attention; he was about to hear something important.  In my mind’s-eye I can see Ezekiel jumping to his feet to listen closely, as if his father had just called him by his full name. 

I know that voice; it sounds just like my mother when she used my full name:  Russell Jay Brownworth, pay attention!  My Mom never took me to the woodshed (we didn’t have one, but you know what that means). 

There were times to push the envelope in seeing how much extra time you could get playing outside – and there were times to stand up and be quiet, or, as we liked to call it, listen or die!  This was one of those times for Ezekiel.  When the voice of an angel speaks, humans need to snap-to-attention. 

Angels are messengers (that is the strictest sense of what the name implies, God’s messengers).  They have no message of their own, they are a delivery system to convey God’s message to humanity.  And this angel’s message to Ezekiel was God’s Word, prepared for a very stubborn-minded group of people.  Ezekiel was to be faithful in delivering it, and even if they disobeyed, this message would stand as evidence to their stubbornness.

I’ve always had a bit of stubborn in me.  That may be why I developed a little deafness when it came the use of my full name.  It’s not that I didn’t pay a price.  As I said, Mom never took me to the woodshed for correction, but she knew my father’s full name, and he didn’t hesitate to make sure I understood the importance of listening closely to what Mom had to say.  It’s no wonder I always thought of my Dad as something of God’s messenger in our house!

For You Today

Evidence of God’s messages is all around us, in every part of creation, and in every relationship, and thought.  Sometimes you just have to stand up and listen closely!

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!  

[1] Title image:  Pixabay.com  Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©