“Son of man, speak to the elders of Israel, and say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord Yahweh, Have you come to enquire of me? As I live, says the Lord Yahweh, I will not be enquired of by you.' ”
Note the continued use of ‘son of man'. It was a constant reminder to Ezekiel that he was but an earthly man, and yet we must also see in it that he was a man who was special to God, a man apart, a chosen instrument, a man set apart for God's service. Its frequency was such that it became a semi-title.
But the reply that he had to give to the elders was an indirect one. It was no oracle responding to their questions, but a declaration of why they were in their present condition, and a refusal to acknowledge their right to ask Him anything.
It is most people's assumption that when they are in some kind of trouble they can come to God and he is always ready to listen. Here, however, we learn differently. These men who represented ‘His people' had come with that assumption, and they now learned that God would not speak with them. He would not resolve their problems. They were in rebellion against Him, revealed by the abominations they committed (see Ezekiel 18:10-13; Ezekiel 18:24), therefore He was deaf to their pleas.