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Context No. 3917 of 4322 · Ezekiel

Context · Reflection

Ezekiel 40:1-5: in context

1In the twenty-fifth year of our captivity, in the beginning of the year, in the tenth day of the month, in the fourteenth year after the city was struck, in the same day, the LORD’s hand was on me, and he brought me there. 2In the visions of God he brought me into the land of Israel, and set me down on a very high mountain, on which was something like the frame of a city to the south. 3He brought me there; and, behold, there was a man whose appearance was like the appearance of bronze, with a line of flax in his hand and a measuring reed; and he stood in the gate. 4The man said to me, “Son of man, see with your eyes, and hear with your ears, and set your heart on all that I will show you; for you have been brought here so that I may show them to you. Declare all that you see to the house of Israel.” 5Behold, there was a wall on the outside of the house all around, and in the man’s hand a measuring reed six cubits long, of a cubit and a hand width each. So he measured the thickness of the building, one reed; and the height, one reed.

In the twenty-fifth year of the exile, God gives Ezekiel a great vision, setting him on a high mountain to see the plan of a restored temple, measured out by a man with a measuring reed. And before the vision unfolds, God gives Ezekiel a threefold charge: look with your eyes, hear with your ears, and set your heart on all that I will show you; declare all that you see to the house of Israel.

This charge is worth taking to heart ourselves. God did not want Ezekiel to be a passive or distracted observer; he was to give his full attention, his eyes, his ears, and his heart, to what God revealed. Truly receiving what God shows us requires this kind of attentiveness. It is possible to look without really seeing, to hear without listening, to let God's word pass by without setting our heart on it. God calls for more: a wholehearted attention that takes in what he shows and holds it in the heart. And Ezekiel was to declare it; what he received attentively, he was to pass on to others.

Do I give God's word the wholehearted attention Ezekiel was charged to give, looking, listening, and setting my heart on all he shows me, rather than letting it pass by half-noticed?

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