Ezekiel 1:1-3 Devotional

Ezekiel is an audacious character. He is the saint that I am comforted by when I feel like I'm the only one making bold moves. God is our only comfort, but He loves to use His instruments in relating to us. It is only a great privilege of mine that Ezekiel is one of these instruments. One of the great bold moves he makes (to me) isn't preaching to a people who won't listen, believing what he's seeing from God or trusting in God's plan. The greatest move he makes is found in the first three verses of his book.

Only three verses! Each one dictates power, authority and truthfulness. I do not say this figuratively but in a literal sense! What is Ezekiel's bold move and how does it conduct power?

Ezekiel's bold move is stating that he saw the heavens opened and visions of God (v.1). How does this statement equate to a bold move? This is a bold move because he's saying what literally happened. Imagine if your friend or family member recalled a paranormal story, where it's difficult to understand or imagine where he's coming from. You would consider the story told to be crazy or a figment of their imagination. It doesn't make sense, because most supernatural stories do not provide a context before it happened. Most like to go straight into what happened. Ezekiel (through the Holy Spirit) saves the best for last. He gives his age (thirtieth year), the time (fourth month - fifth day) and place (by the river of Chebar). This is enough to suffice that Ezekiel is providing details for what occurred. He isn't trying to craft a narrative or make a beautiful poem. He goes straight into context, before providing anything else.

Ezekiel is ahead of his time. Ancient historians, archaeologists and readers alike love to see details like this. These details are priceless to us. If Ezekiel hadn't begun with context, we wouldn't understand what he was writing about. It would've looked more like poetry or a fictional story. Ezekiel was seriously showing us that he wasn't being figurative.

If he's serious about what he's writing. This indicates power - the power of trust.