Friday, February 21 – Ezekiel 12, 13

1. Can you see and hear the LORD working and directing in your life?

2. Are there any breaches in the wall of your local church community? Any exposure to fear, confusion and false information about GOD’s character and will?

3. Can you discern a false prophet from a true prophet?

Ezekiel 12 is a message from the LORD to the people exiled with Ezekiel in Babylon. Ezekiel lived among a rebellious people who refused to use their ears to hear and their eyes to see. Seeing and hearing is a choice.

They had the word of GOD, the institution of the priesthood, the sacrifices, the temple, and the prophets who spoke to them, but they chose not to see or hear and refused to align their lives to the LORD’s Word. It wasn’t that they couldn’t but that they wouldn’t.

So, the LORD made a sign out of Ezekiel for the sake of the people. Ezekiel had to sacrifice his pride to get the attention of a people who had repeatedly rejected the word of the LORD. The LORD asks this from all of us, though in different ways. Most of the time, ministry demands personal sacrifice without spotlights, cheering crowds, fame, or fortune. It is not possible to do ministry without a personal cost. We’re all called to sacrifice ourselves for the sake of the lost.

The LORD was hoping that perhaps the exiles would pay attention to Ezekiel’s street performances, reconsider their attitude, and respond with repentance. But the people responded with a proverb, ‘Time passes, and prophecies come to nothing.’ In other words, nothing is going to happen. They took Ezekiel’s message with a grain of salt. Ironically, the LORD’s mercy in delaying the judgment was used as an excuse to continue in their sin and rebellion.

So, the LORD responded with a new proverb, “Every prophecy will be fulfilled!’ If I say it, it will happen.”
But the people responded, ” Yeah, okay, but it will happen in the distant future, not in our lifetime.” This is how Israel responded to God’s word! They did not deny that Ezekiel was speaking God’s word, but they reasoned that whatever he was announcing was too far away to matter.

The evil heart in every generation will either mock the word of GOD by saying that His word will not be fulfilled or that its fulfillment is in the far distant future and not in their day. The scoffers of GOD’s word always tend to either deny or delay the judgments of GOD (2 Peter 3:3-10).

In Ezekiel 13, the LORD deals with the false prophets who are trying to manifest their ideas. They contradict what the LORD is saying through Ezekiel by claiming that the LORD will deliver Jerusalem from the Babylonians and that everyone in exile will come home soon.

Instead of repairing the broken walls, these false prophets did what jackals do; jackals take advantage of ruins to burrow under and make their homes there. Broken walls refer to people’s broken defenses and exposure to danger; the people were exposed to fear, confusion, and false information about GOD’s character and will; this was the “broken or breached walls”. The false prophets used people’s confusion, fear, and worries for their gain. So, the LORD would fight against these false prophets and would (1) evict them from Israel’s community, (2) erase their names from Israel’s record books, (3) and expel them from Israel’s land. GOD would completely eradicate them from Israel. There is no greater punishment for an Israelite than to be entirely cut off from all that it means to be an Israelite.

The sin of these false prophets was that they lied about peace and never spoke of repentance. Their message was like an unsafe wall whose defects had been covered up with a façade to give the impression of strength and stability where there was none. When the Babylonians did come, everyone realized too late that the self-appointed prophets were frauds.

The LORD also spoke against female false prophets; He called them “hunters of souls”. They made a living from selling their amulets, magic charms, superstitious lies, and misleading promises to vulnerable and scared people. GOD is against any product that is used to trap and ensnare His people in fear and superstition. These women also encouraged the ungodly to continue in their sins and never invited them to repent of their wickedness; instead, they discouraged the righteous with their lies, visions, and predictions.