4 And he said to me, “Son of man, go to the house of Israel and speak with my words to them. 5 For you are not sent to a people of foreign speech and a hard language, but to the house of Israel— 6 not to many peoples of foreign speech and a hard language, whose words you cannot understand. Surely, if I sent you to such, they would listen to you. 7 But the house of Israel will not be willing to listen to you, for they are not willing to listen to me: because all the house of Israel have a hard forehead and a stubborn heart. 8 Behold, I have made your face as hard as their faces, and your forehead as hard as their foreheads. 9 Like emery harder than flint have I made your forehead. Fear them not, nor be dismayed at their looks, for they are a rebellious house.” 10 Moreover, he said to me, “Son of man, all my words that I shall speak to you receive in your heart, and hear with your ears. 11 And go to the exiles, to your people, and speak to them and say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God’, whether they hear or refuse to hear.”
12 Then the Spirit lifted me up, and I heard behind me the voice of a great earthquake: “Blessed be the glory of the Lord from its place!” 13 It was the sound of the wings of the living creatures as they touched one another, and the sound of the wheels beside them, and the sound of a great earthquake.14 The Spirit lifted me up and took me away, and I went in bitterness in the heat of my spirit, the hand of the Lord being strong upon me.
We are told in 14 that Ezekiel 'went in bitterness, in the heat of my spirit'. This may, in some sense, refer to the mixed emotions of the prophet, and in this connection, we should bear in mind the tremendous thing that had happened to him and the stringency of the commission that had been given to him. It would be a queer man in such a situation who was not mixed in his feelings. More probably, however, it may mean that, being caught up into the vision of the glory of the Lord, he entered into sympathy with God in His righteous indignation against His people. This may be more near to the truth; for if a man is in the spirit, and feels the message of God, he cannot just turn on his prophetic proclamation as a kind of performance, and then go away, having delivered his message, without feeling anything. If he is a real man, if he has felt the pressure of the divine hand in his message as he has proclaimed it, that pressure does not leave him when he goes down the pulpit steps. He is still all churned up inside, he still feels like weeping if nobody responds, he still feels the bitterness and the indignation of God against a rebellious people as God feels it. Ezekiel was so caught up into the divine mind and heart that he shared the divine suffering. This also is a true mark of the prophetic spirit.