Ezekiel Receives His Calling

Eze 2:3 And he said unto me, Son of man, I send thee to the children of Israel, to a rebellious nation that hath rebelled against me: they and their fathers have transgressed against me, even unto this very day.

Eze 2:4 For they are impudent children and stiffhearted. I do send thee unto them; and thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD.
Eze 2:5 And they, whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear, (for they are a rebellious house,) yet shall know that there hath been a prophet among them.

Thus sayeth the Lord God; Lord: Adonay, God; Yehovih, Jehovah or Yahweh. Ezekiel heard from Adonay Jehovah. In the book of Ezekiel his name is spoken 217 times. Ezekiel was sent as a priest and a prophet to the children of Israel and Judah to warn them and to call them to repentance, but they were impudent children. Impudent; qasheh, hard hearted, stubborn, stiff-necked, and paniym ; face. They were hard in face, stubborn and defiant children. They were also stiffhearted, chazaq, hard and leb, inner man, the will, the heart, in understanding. They were hard in face, stiff-necked and hard of heart. Now how would you like to be called to preach to these people? We have seen people like this, strong willed, arrogant, full of evil, rebellious and often they aggressively oppose the word from God and yet we warn them with God's word.

Israel had a history of rebellion against God.

Moses spoke of their rebellion

Deu 31:27 For I know thy rebellion, and thy stiff neck: behold, while I am yet alive with you this day, ye have been rebellious against the LORD; and how much more after my death?

The prophet Isaiah spoke of them

Isa 65:2 I have spread out my hands all the day unto a rebellious people, which walketh in a way that was not good, after their own thoughts;

Why was Ezekiel sent to such a hard hearted people? I suppose because God is long suffering.

2Pe 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

Another reason for sending Ezekiel is that God does nothing without first telling his people. They may not respond and repent "yet shall know that there hath been a prophet among them." Learn from this when you go to witness to a people; you are called to speak his word. The response is up to them. We are called to deliver the word of God clearly, if they oppose God, they will oppose you. Be faithful and he will bring the increase.