EZEKIEL 2:3
And He said to me: “Son of man, I am sending you to the children of Israel, to a rebellious nation that has rebelled against Me; they and their fathers have transgressed against Me to this very day. [NKJV]
“Son of man,” He said to me, “I am sending you to the Israelites, to a rebellious nation that has rebelled against Me. To this very day they and their fathers have rebelled against Me. [BSB]
In this Bible verse above, God was sending the Son of man to the rebellious house of Israel. Even the Lord Jesus Christ said He was sent to the lost house of Israel. But the word used here was not "Lost" but "Rebellious."
But learn this about God, (if you have not learnt it already): Though He knows people are rebellious, stubborn and would not hear, yet He would keep sending Prophets, Messengers, Evangelists, Preachers, to those who are adamant and rebellious. He's not sending His Messengers to them only when He knows they would hear or receive those Messengers; but sending His Messengers to them even when He knows they would not hear, believe or receive those Messengers. Remember the parable of the Vineyard Owner and the Tenants: and how the Vineyard Owner kept sending his Servants to the Tenants, and the Tenants kept killing, mocking, disgracing or ignoring, the Messengers. Yet, the Landlord kept sending Messengers until He sent His only begotten Son, knowing they might kill Him, which they did. (Mark 12).
In this Bible verse above, God clearly said He was sending Ezekiel to a rebellious People, known for being rebellious to God and to His Messengers. He knew the risks involved and knew the chances of them receiving the Messenger's message was very low. What kind of investor would risk investing His Lives, Resources, Times, into an investment that he already knew would not yield substantial benefit or outcomes? God does.
It took me time to understand the difference between "Soul-Winning" and "Soul-Witnessing." I had been discouraged to keep preaching because I was not winning any soul or converting anyone of the sinners/unbelievers. I considered those who when they preach and make altar-calls, get thousands of people running to give their lives to Christ as very successful preachers, and I desired to be like them. But the Lord has not called me to be like them, not even in messages. I'm like Ezekiel here, sent to the rebellious people or to those who most probably may not even hear or receive my messages. Later I may show you in "Ezekiel 2:5" how almost all the great prophets and men of God in the scriptures were sent to or sent when there were hardened, stiff-necked, rebellious, stubborn or difficult, people; and how somehow God multiplied signs, wonders, wisdom and show of knowledge, through those Messengers because of the resistance in those rebellious, stubborn, stiff-necked, people.
When God instructed the Son of man to stand upon his feet for God to speak to him, the Spirit of God entered Ezekiel and made him upright standing. The Spirit of God remained in him to enable him hear what God or what the Spirit of God was saying to the churches.
The churches here were the Israelites then: they were rebellious nation, and have rebelled against God even till that time when God sent them into captivity while Ezekiel received the visions, for so it was in the nature of their fathers who rebelled against God. Therefore, those you call Israelites, parading themselves as God's people on earth among the nations, were "Rebellious People" since the days Moses knew them till after the Lord Jesus Christ was crucified and rejected by them. As it is written,
From:
[Deuteronomy 9:24] — "You have been rebellious against the LORD from the day that I knew you."
To:
[Acts 7:51-52 AMP] — “You stiff-necked and stubborn people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you are always actively resisting the Holy Spirit. You are doing just as your fathers did. Which one of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? They killed those who proclaimed beforehand the coming of the Righteous One, whose betrayers and murderers you have now become;
The Phrase "Rebellious People" were sometimes replaced by the Phrase "Stiff-necked People." One who is Rebellious is also Stiff-necked. Both were used in this Bible reference:
[Deuteronomy 31:27] — "For I know your rebellion, and your stiff neck: behold, while I am yet alive with you this day, you have been rebellious against the LORD; and how much more after my death?"
That was Moses' final impression about the Israelites he had led for forty years. But know this, it's sad for your departing leader/master, departing father/mother or mother -in-law, departing pastor/priest, or even your Lord/God Himself, have this testimony to say in his/her final review and record about you, "You were rebellious, stubborn, stiff-necked or unfaithful etc." Such is fall to your reputation/name in grace. Therefore:
[Hebrews 13:17 AMP] — Obey your [spiritual] leaders and submit to them [recognizing their authority over you], for they are keeping watch over your souls and continually guarding your spiritual welfare as those who will give an account [of their stewardship of you]. Let them do this with joy and not with grief and groans, for this would be of no benefit to you.
I have experienced a father who, when he was near dying had sorrow and disappointment in one of his sons that was rebellious and very disrespectful towards him. Though the aged father did not curse that son, but he grieved and bore that record of bad reputation that his son had, and then died knowing that son as rebellious son or he was ashamed of being his father/progenitor. Tell me, how can that son ever have a good name when he was "Son of Sorrow," "Ichabod," "Jabez," "Evil son" etc that killed his parents in sorrow or killed joy and hope in his parents?
There's biblical way to tell whether you are a wise son or a foolish and shameful one: that's by either the Joy or Sorrow you bring to your father and mother. How can you be a wise son/daughter when your father and mother are grieving in the Lord? As written:
[Proverbs 10:1] — "The proverbs of Solomon. A wise son makes a glad father: but a foolish son is the heaviness of his mother."
[Proverbs 15:20] — "A wise son makes a glad father: but a foolish man despises his mother."
[Proverbs 19:26-27] — "He that wastes his father, and chases away his mother, is a son that causes shame, and brings reproach. Cease, my son, to hear the instruction that causes to err from the words of knowledge."
[Proverbs 23:24-25] — "The father of the righteous shall greatly rejoice: and he that begets a wise child shall have joy of him. Your father and your mother shall be glad, and she that bore you shall rejoice."
If they were rebellious, as their fathers were rebellious, it meant their fathers were not counted among those elders of old that "Obtained Good-Report by faith." I don't know what you have been obtaining by your faith: either obtaining healing by faith, obtaining miracles by faith, obtaining houses/cars by faith, obtaining breakthroughs or moving mountains by faith, etc. But here is one of the wisest things you should channel your faith to obtain because the spiritual elders or matured spirit-souls are only interested in obtaining that by their faith - that is "Good Report;" and know this, a good name (good report) is better than riches, money or power in this world. Therefore it is written,
[Hebrews 11:1-2] — "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good report."