Be Still And Know

Ezekiel 2:6-7 We all want to be loved, and listened to with joy and appreciation. But any servant of God also needs to be ready to keep going whatever the response to their message. Ezekiel was told by God that he needed to be ready for the worst possible reaction. I have very little experience of living with threats, but I can imagine how painful and trying it must be. To be surrounded with threats “like nettles, briers and stinging scorpions” sounds terrible - and if you have ever lived in the tropics with the constant potential threat of scorpions, you will get the point! They are often very small, but their sting is terrible. God told Ezekiel not to be afraid or dismayed, both of which seem like perfectly reasonable responses to overwhelming threat. Ezekiel needed to know that he was doing God’s work - and so he had no need to be afraid or dismayed. If ministering to the exiles had been his own idea, and he had been doing it in his own strength, fear and dismay may have been the inevitable consequ