if I had it to do again, would I be a pastor

"Now, son of man, take a sharp sword and use it as a barber's razor to shave your head and your beard. Then take a set of scales and divide up the hair. When the days of your siege come to an end, burn a third of the hair with fire inside the city. Take a third and strike it with the sword all around the city. And scatter a third to the wind. For I will pursue them with drawn sword. But take a few strands of hair and tuck them away in the folds of your garment. Again, take a few of these and throw them into the fire and burn them up. A fire will spread from there to the whole house of Israel." (Ezekiel 5:1-4)


If I had it to do again, would I be a pastor? The answer, I will have to admit is yes.

The church has not always been good to me, but at the same time, I have been called and commissioned by the Almighty God, Maker of heavens and earth, and how in the world could I possibly turn that down.

It occurred to me that Ezekiel, while he may have loved his people, really got tired of them and may very well not liked them.

Ezekiel is standing around when God commanders him to be his prophet. It never says in the Bible but I wonder how much the desire of the person to be God’s prophet really played into the mix. Isaiah was jumping up and down to go do what God said, but he didn’t have many good results. Hosea wasn’t exactly thrilled with God’s choice of a worn out prostitute for his wife, but did it. Jeremiah and Moses both were extremely reluctant and ended up with a lot of results. Jonah refused and got punished then reluctantly went. Without wanting it, he was supremely successful and was mad because of it. Desire had little to do with being chosen by God.

God has Ezekiel do a lot of stuff for him so that Israel would see and know it was the will of the Lord. And they did, even though they didn’t like Ezekiel or his message.

Okay Ezekiel, lay on one side for a long time and then on the other. It is uncomfortable, Lord. Too bad. Do it anyway. Okay, Ezekiel, take a sword, alright, you can use a sharp one, and shave your head and beard. Do some stuff with the hair so everyone can see it. You know, Lord, you can’t get a sword very sharp. I will probably cut myself. Too bad, do it anyway.

So he did. Israel watched (or at least their official appointed representatives did) and ignored his warnings and were destroyed. So everything he did was for basically nothing, except to show us that God was trying to get his people to come back.

Was his life wasted? Well, he is considered one of the major prophets, so that means that he was important in God’s line of people.

But the point is that sometimes the choice of God is not necessarily happy to the chosen. It is always good, and one’s life is never wasted in service to God, but at the same time. It would be nice if his people would actually listen and not try to shoot the messenger because they did not like the message.

The people in Hebrews 11 always amazed me.

32 And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson and Jephthah, about David and Samuel and the prophets, 33 who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, 34 quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies. 35 Women received back their dead, raised to life again. There were others who were tortured, refusing to be released so that they might gain an even better resurrection. 36 Some faced jeers and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. 37 They were put to death by stoning;[e] they were sawed in two; they were killed by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated— 38 the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, living in caves and in holes in the ground.
39 These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised, 40 since God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.

But what deprivation.

The people to whom the prophets went negated their work and their positions and places, yet they remained faithful. As will I.