Sometimes God Gives You What You Want and It's Not Good

In Ezekiel 24, the prophet was given a case of Mutness from God, with a sign that it would not leave until the day the city fell. 

All the way back in chapter three, he spoke about it:

Ezekiel 3:26–27 (ESV) And I will make your tongue cling to the roof of your mouth, so that you shall be mute and unable to reprove them, for they are a rebellious house. 27 But when I speak with you, I will open your mouth, and you shall say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD.’ He who will hear, let him hear; and he who will refuse to hear, let him refuse, for they are a rebellious house.

Later in chapter 24:

Ezekiel 24:27 (ESV) On that day your mouth will be opened to the fugitive, and you shall speak and be no longer mute. So you will be a sign to them, and they will know that I am the LORD.”

In Ezekiel 33, we come to the fulfillment of that promise as his lips are loosed to declare God's Word to the exiles headed off to Babylon. 

Ezekiel 33:21–22 (ESV) In the twelfth year of our exile, in the tenth month, on the fifth day of the month, a fugitive from Jerusalem came to me and said, “The city has been struck down.” 22 Now the hand of the LORD had been upon me the evening before the fugitive came; and he had opened my mouth by the time the man came to me in the morning, so my mouth was opened, and I was no longer mute.

Altogether, he was unable to talk for 7.5 years. That's incredible. 

The question has to be, why? Why did God make this mouthpiece unable to talk during the last 7 years of Israel's wandering? Because sometimes God gives you what you want. They didn't want to hear from God, so God cut off the message from His servant. 

Be careful what you want. God may let you have it. 

When the judgment fell and his mouth was opened the message confronted the exile's thoughts that just as Abraham took possession of the land as one man they would surely take possession in their lowly estate. God said, no way. 

Ezekiel 33:24–26 (ESV) “Son of man, the inhabitants of these waste places in the land of Israel keep saying, ‘Abraham was only one man, yet he got possession of the land; but we are many; the land is surely given us to possess.’ 25 Therefore say to them, Thus says the Lord GOD: You eat flesh with the blood and lift up your eyes to your idols and shed blood; shall you then possess the land? 26 You rely on the sword, you commit abominations, and each of you defiles his neighbor’s wife; shall you then possess the land?

God will give you what you want. He will also not let you get what you desire. Here, God makes clear the land was unfit for them. They had not made good use of it. They turned it into a despot, as all the nations around them did in their land. 

You have to understand that the Lord's tactics are extreme, reserved for those who refuse to hear and pretend to hear His Word only to completely ignore Him. God reveals this to Ezekiel in the last portion of the chapter. Notice the stark description of a people hearing but never doing God's Word. 

Ezekiel 33:30–31 (ESV) “As for you, son of man, your people who talk together about you by the walls and at the doors of the houses, say to one another, each to his brother, ‘Come, and hear what the word is that comes from the LORD.’ 31 And they come to you as people come, and they sit before you as my people, and they hear what you say but they will not do it; for with lustful talk in their mouths they act; their heart is set on their gain.

The Lord warned that the deceitfulness of wealth and the cares of this world would choke out the Word from those who heard Him. This is not new. We must always be on guard regarding money. It promises what only God can provide. More than that, it shuts our hearts toward His Word, and we are left unchanged when we hear it. 

We may not think of this enough, but our desires can lead us into spiritually dark places. Israel learned the hard way so that we could learn from them and surrender our desires to God. 

Give us hearts that desire You, Oh Lord.