There are a few boxes on the side of my house covering some electrical parts that are involved in converting sunlight to electricity for my use. I don’t know much about them or the process, but I know there is a large red sign on each of them warning about the danger of the high voltage inside. I, and anyone else near those boxes, have been duly warned. If I mess around with the box contents and get electrocuted, I can’t say Tesla didn’t warn me.
We have warning signs almost everywhere now. Ladders have labels warning against climbing too high or while drunk, electric blow dryers have warnings not use them while in the shower, even blenders warn against sticking your fingers in the blades while the power is on. The reason the manufacturers do this is that we are stupid. Individually, many of us seem smart, but as a collective of humans, we will choose the dumb thing to do more often than we realize. If you doubt this, look at the Bible. God is described frequently as a shepherd, and humans are most often described as sheep: Like sheep we have all gone astray (Isa 53:6), feed my sheep (John 21:17), leaving the 99 others to go after the one lost sheep (Luke 15:4).
And when we’re not being described as foolish like sheep, we’re equated with donkeys for being “stiff-necked” and stubborn.
Every warning sign we see on products that tells us not to do something that seems dumb is there because someone else did that same dumb thing, and then blamed the company when they got injured. How many of us have seen signs that said, “Wet Paint” and had to prove it for ourselves? We spend much of our lives stuck between stubborn and stupid, but God loves us anyway. He continually reaches out to us, even though so many of us will continue to ignore his call.
At least humanity is consistent. This isn’t a new problem we developed in the 21st century. God tells Ezekiel to share his message, despite knowing most people will reject it:
And he said to me, “Son of man, stand on your feet, so that I can speak with you.” And the Spirit came into me as he was speaking to me, and it set me on my feet, and I heard the one speaking to me. And he said to me, “Son of man, I am sending you to the Israelites, to nations who are rebelling, who rebelled against me, they and their ancestors, they transgressed against me until this very day. And the children are impudent and stubborn, and so I am sending you to them, and you must say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord Yahweh!’ And they, whether they listen or whether they fail to listen, for they are a rebellious house they will know that a prophet was in their midst. — Ezek 2:1–5 (LEB)
We need to remember who and where Ezekiel was. He was a prophet warning the Israelites from Babylon. He witnessed the sacking of the Temple and Jerusalem and then was exiled with other Israelites to Babylon in fulfillment of the warnings God gave through Moses in the latter part of Deuteronomy. They had been warned repeatedly about what disobedience would yield and did it anyway. There’s that stubborn/stupid aspect at work again.
The Israelites were in exile, as a direct result of doing what they were specifically told not to do, in fulfillment of prophecy from hundreds of years earlier. You would think they’d be ready to pay attention this time. Apparently not. God tells Ezekiel to warn them even though many of them will ignore the warning. He says that at least they will know a prophet was in their midst. In other words, when the bad stuff inevitably happens, they’ll remember they were warned. They (like the drunkard falling off the top of a ladder, or the lady blow-drying her hair in the shower, or the guy trying to free an apple chunk from his blender blade with the power still on) will suffer the results of failing to heed the warnings they were provided.
Yet God keeps reaching out to us. Just as he did for the Israelites. He is much more patient than any of us could hope to be.
That’s love.
Blessings,
Fr. Austin