He said to me, "Son of man, stand up on your feet and I will speak to you." – Ezekiel 2:1

Today's Scripture Reading (June 10, 2023): Ezekiel 2

Many years ago, we tried an experiment. We attempted to combine conventional seating for our worship times, with some tables and chairs at the back of the room. The change allowed those attending to choose between the traditional seating for worship in rows and offering worshipers an option to sit at tables with their coffee and notes. Our experiment didn't last very long because we saw a sudden increase in complaints about the service. Both the music and the teaching time came under increased scrutiny, and almost all of the complaints came from those sitting at the tables. Somehow, sitting at the table seemed to create distance between the elements of the service and those who attended, and those seated at the tables became critics rather than participants in the service. It was a thought-provoking revelation for us, and we quickly removed the tables and returned to the traditional seating plan.

Traditionally, when a Rabbi or a teacher spoke, he was also the one who would sit. The audience or disciples, the ones receiving the teaching, stood. In our comfort-seeking society, we allow people to sit. Still, the logic behind having the audience stand is that if they stood, there was a greater chance that they would pay better attention to the teaching and retain more of what was being taught. And so, the people stood to listen to a rabbi.

When Ezekiel comes face to face with God, the first thing he does is fall prostrate in worship. It is one of the postures of worship, although not one we often see in our world. It is a posture I have been known to adopt occasionally, especially when praying alone. But it is a posture explicitly designed for worship and prayer. So, Ezekiel lays prostrate before his God. But that isn't where God wants him. So, God instructs him to stand and face him because he wants Ezekiel to really listen to what he has to say. 

And God addresses him as the Son of man. Son of man is a phrase that has evolved during Judean history. Here, it is simply as it says. The word used is "ben Adam" or Son of humanity. It reflects Ezekiel's place in the system. God was the Creator of the universe, and Ezekiel was just the Son of the created. He was a member of the race of Adam, but one to whom the Creator of the world had invited to stand before him.

Over the intertestamental period, the phrase "Son of Man" would take on a Messianic symbolism. And so, when Jesus begins to minister in Judea, Son of Man becomes a title that would have informed his listeners that he considered himself to be the Messiah, a meaning that the phrase didn't possess when God used it to indicate Ezekiel.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Ezekiel 3