“Ethiopia, and Libya, and Lydia, and all the mingled people,
and Chub,
and the men of the land that is in league, shall fall with them by the sword.”
Ezekiel 30:5
As a college student, I recall the feeling of horror when my name was called by the teacher. I had been zoned out, my brain struggling to stay awake through the end of our late -night classes. I was listening… I thought; though I couldn’t remember exactly what was said, or what I should have been looking at in my textbook. But the second the teacher said, “Mr. Braden, can you go ahead and read the next line?” Instantly, I felt more awake than I had ever been in my life!
Now, as a teacher and preacher, I can read a room full of students. The difference between the studious, the listener, and the disinterested are extremely visible. I can tell the instant a person tunes me out. It happens frequently when I ask them to turn to a second reference in their Bibles, or when I tell the truth about their political party. (That’s a big one) Occasionally, it still happens that a person’s mind just wanders off, maybe led away by the cares of life, or maybe deadened by the weariness of the day. Whatever the case; there is one sure-fire way to snap back to attention: bring them personally into the conversation.
Other Real Turn-offs
We love to blend into the crowd when the preaching and teaching gets complicated. Our mind gets tired easily, it gets hard to follow when we are tasked with making an application for ourself.
Things get even tougher when the sermon gets pointed. When its our lifestyle that is being condemned, our habits that are judged, our preferences that are questioned, we tend to shrink away. Every good sermon will reprove eventually, and when it’s your turn– do you avert your attention to lessen the impact?
Ezekiel had prophesied long, hard, and with great detail against Egypt. His words against Egypt were couched in the bigger picture of God’s judgment of the whole of Northern Africa. He proclaimed outrageously negative truths. The Egyptians started to glaze over.
Until Ezekiel started naming names.
“Listen here, Chub.”
I understand that“Chub” is most likely a place, not a person. But since it occurs just once in Scripture- here- it must have struck those dreary-eyed Egyptians. God called them out of the crowd. He singled them out, because He wanted them back into the conversation.
I’ve been called out before, and I’ve done the calling out, too. It’s not a good feeling, is it? How do you react when you get singled out? When the Lord does it, know that it is for your good.
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