Briers and thorns

“...though briers and thorns are with you and you sit on scorpions.” (Ezekiel 2:6)

Now there is an inspiring job description!  

God sent the prophet Ezekiel to Israel and the surrounding nations to reveal their rebellion against God.  He was to be a hammer of judgment against an anvil of stubborn resistance.  And he was not to fear their closed hearts, their dismaying faces, their angry words, ““...though briers and thorns are with you and you sit on scorpions.”

Does God always call His people to this sort of thing?  Are the lives and ministries of the prophets and the apostles and Jesus Himself examples for us of what we ought to expect?  Are we to endure thorns and scorpions and crosses?  

We probably know the right answer to that question.  We are told many times and in many ways throughout Scripture that God’s followers swim against the current.  But these great people demonstrate faith at its extremes.  And there are many Christians today who are enduring them.  But what about us?  Where do we find ourselves in the intersections of our ordinary lives and the Kingdom of Heaven?

While our lives may not resemble the extraordinary features of Ezekiel, Paul, and Jesus, we are alike in this: we are called with a purpose.  Like them, we are sent as emissaries from the Kingdom of Heaven.  Perhaps Paul gives us a clue about how we embrace our mission when he says that when we are weak, then we are strong (II Corinthians 12:10).

I look forward to hearing God’s Word together on Sunday…no actual scorpions will be present.

+Steve E