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Ezekiel, as a good and faithful servant of the Lord communicated his experiences and the Word of the Lord which had been given him. Eze. 11:25 In His utter faithfulness, the Lord was not through warning the people of Israel. The Word of the LORD was to come to him again declaring that as the son of man he was living in the midst of a nation of spiritually rebellious people. Eze. 12:1 They were not ignorant of the word and will of the Lord, for they had the ability to see with their own eyes and accordingly fully comprehend what they had seen. They had ears of hearing and thus heard and completely understood what they were hearing. But, chose to ignore the communication of the Lord with them. In seeing, they refused to see and in hearing they turned a deaf ear. Therefore they were termed a rebellious house. We can realize the heart of the Lord in a situation such as this by the words delivered through Samuel to king Saul. Rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. The result of this attitude is rejection by the Lord. 1 Sam. 15:23.
There is to be found here a foreshadowing of the condition of the hearts of the people when the Son of man, the Lord Jesus would come ministering as the Messiah. The Son of God, the Son of man. Jesus came with a message of salvation, of deliverance, but the same rebellious spirit that we find in the day of Ezekiel prevailed until the Lord Jesus gave them a little history lesson concerning their forefathers. He would have gathered them and blessed them, but they refused. Therefore their house was left unto them desolate. Mt. 23:37-38 History does indeed repeat itself. Generation after generation man is born in sin and iniquity and unless he receives a change of heart from the Lord will repeat the iniquity of the forefathers. This is so apparent in the dealings of the Lord with Israel to whom He said; ìall day long I have stretched out my hands unto a disobedient and gainsaying people. Rom. 10:21.
The Lord uses various means to attract the attention of people. When they refused His Word he commanded Ezekiel to perform a strange act which He knew would attract their curiosity. Rather than use the door of his dwelling place, Ezekiel was to dig through the wall and then remove his stuff from place to place, making certain that it was obvious and observed by the people. With his face covered (as were their hearts) he could not see the ground. All during the day and into the twilight he was in action. He quickly drew their attention and they came to him asking what he was doing.
The Lord knows how to get our attention, one way or another. Eze. 12:2-7.