Even Daniel, Noah and Job

"Son of man, when a land sins against Me by persistent unfaithfulness, I will stretch out My hand against it; I will cut off its supply of bread, send famine on it, and cut off man and beast from it. Even if these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they would deliver only themselves by their righteousness," says the Lord GOD. – Ezekiel 14.13-14

This is a pretty neat passage. We know by now that Ezekiel was sent to a hard hearted, stubborn, not-hearing, rebellious people. They refused to listen to Ezekiel and they refused his offer of God’s righteousness.

I would guess that Ezekiel would have a bit discouraged. All that work and nobody would listen.

That’s not all that unusual. In the story of the rich man and Lazarus the rich man begged for someone to go and talk his brothers. Abraham, ‘he wouldn’t listen is someone came from the grave to talk to him.’ Even Jesus could not get everyone to listen. He God tells Ezekiel that the people would not listen even if Noah and Daniel and Job came to them. If they did the only ones who would leave with God’s righteousness would be Daniel and Noah and Job.

So we can’t let it get to us when people won’t listen. God must be working on their hearts, or no matter who we are, they are not going to listen. All we do is because of Who He is. All God requires that we are faithful and leave the results us to Him. We won’t hold us accountable for their hard hearts.