Day 227, or August 15th. Be content to do your best.
Our thoughts today are rooted in Ezekiel 3 verse 19.
But if you do warn the wicked person, and they do not turn from their wickedness or
from their evil ways, they will die for their sin, but you will have saved yourself.
And now the big picture surrounding this verse.
Ezekiel is one of two prophets who reside in Babylonia and minister to the Jews in exile.
Like his fellow prophet Daniel, he began his life in Judah before being scooped up and
brought to Babylon by the invading Babylonian army.
The Bible confirms Daniel's removal, but we have to rely on the historian Josephus
to clarify Ezekiel's.
His name means God Strengthens, which is a very helpful name to remind God's people
that he is always ready to strengthen them during their exile.
As part of his prophetic responsibility, he was also to relay to the Jews God's warning
of Jerusalem's coming destruction, due to the sins of the Jewish people.
When God commissions Ezekiel by the river Kibar, in the area where Iran and Iraq meet
today, he was thirty years old, the age when he would have been able to enter the priesthood
if he had remained near the temple in Jerusalem.
God, however, called him to be a prophet instead.
His ministry lasted over twenty years.
He was probably born and greatly influenced during the godly reign of Josiah, king of
Judah, the last godly king to reign.
And now, today's action step.
We can so easily feel inadequate when we see what a small impact we often make in the lives
of others.
That is probably why God reminds Ezekiel that it is not his responsibility to determine
how people react to what he says.
He simply has to say it and then leave the rest to God.
So many times we try to do the work of the Holy Spirit and persuade our hearers with
as much eloquence as we can muster.
Remember, the apostle Paul said, he didn't rely on eloquence but on the power of God.
He reminds us in 1 Corinthians chapter 2 verses 4 and 5.
And we should do the same.