The Purpose of Unrelenting and Offensive Ezekiel

I've been enjoying my new ESV Study Bible, and ran across this excellent paragraph last night regarding the mesage of the book of Ezekiel in the introduction:

"Ezekiel's message was unrelenting...Ezekiel's uncompromising message is matched by language that often seems hard and sometimes offensive. If there is no softening his language, at least it appears that the grandeur of Ezekiel's vision of God rendered much of the earthly reality he observed as sordid, and worse. The appropriate response, in Ezekiel's terms, is not simply revulsion but repentance and a longing for the restoration of God's glory." ESV Study Bible, 1496.

Language that is offensive and hard must be eventually accompanied by language that is restorative. Hard word's for the sake of harshness and shock value should never be the attitude of the Christian, rather it should be for the sake of repentance and restoration. Having a purely positive and upbeat message is dishonoring to God because resurrection comes through a cross and repentance comes through understanding that sin is sickening to God.

Thank God for Ezekiel, it keeps us from the extreme of evangelical perpetual positivity and prosperity and the extreme of having a potty-mouth and cussing for the sake of being cool and "cultural" connectivity.