Ezekiel 13-14

Bible study with Dr. Chuck Missler

EZEKIEL 13: GOD JUDGES THE FALSE PROPHETS

As Chapter 12 denounced the false expectations of the people, so this chapter denounces the false leaders who fed those expectations
Cf. Deuteronomy 13:1-3; Deuteronomy 18; Jeremiah 23, 29; 1 Timothy 4:1; Revelation 13

Don’t regard the evidence of a miracle as the mechanics to focus our allegiance. We should be aware of doctrines of demons. Satan also performs miracles. The key here is the MESSAGE. If the miracle does not reflect the glory of Jesus Christ, then it is not the doctrine of God.

2 Timothy 3:13
Deception is reflexive. Those who deceive are so skilled that they start to believe their own lies.

Hosea 4:17
Ephraim (representative of the Northern Kingdom) is joined to idols, married to vain. He has become blinded by his own deceptions. People who set out to deceive, deceive first and last themselves. Let those who choose this suffer the consequences.

Matthew 15:14
If the blind lead the blind, both shall fall in the ditch.

False Prophets
There were two classes of false prophets:

1) Those who were representatives of some object of worship other than the true God, e.g., Baal, Moloch, et al. (cf. Elijah’s contest with the prophets of Baal; 1 Kings 18:19.); and

2) Those who falsely purported to speak in the name of YHWH (Cf. Micaiah’s opposition to the prophets of Ahab; 1 Kings 22:5-28).

Some of the strongest denunciations of these deceivers are by Jeremiah, who opposed them on moral, personal, and political grounds (Jeremiah 23:9-32). During the dying gasps of Jerusalem, Hananiah opposed him at home (Jeremiah 28); Ahab, Zedekiah, and Shemaiah opposed him in Babylon (Jeremiah 29:15-32).

Ezekiel in this chapter also exposes the false prophets and the false prophetesses.

The false prophets prophesy out of their own hearts (Ezekiel 13:1-3)
The sin of the men denounced was that they prophesied out of their own hearts and followed their own spirit instead of the Spirit of YHWH (Jeremiah 14:14; 23:16, 26). Not only was the message of the false prophets untrue; it was also dangerous (Deuteronomy 13:1).

The false prophets are like foxes (Ezekiel 13:4)
The fox is cunning (Luke 13:32; the term is applied to Herod Antipas). It spoils the vine and its fruits (Song of Solomon 2:15; Israel being the vineyard, Psalm 80:8-14; Isaiah 5:1-7). It burrows among ruins (Nehemiah 4:3; Lamentations 5:18).
Thus, the false prophets were crafty, laid waste the vineyard of the Lord of hosts (Isaiah 5:7), made their profit out of the ruin of Israel, and made that ruin worse.

The false prophets failed to repair or restore gaps and hedges of Israel (Ezekiel 13:5)
This verse contains two distinct images.

There were breaches in the walls of Jerusalem, literally and spiritually, and the false prophets had not been “repairers of the breach” (Isaiah 58:12; Psalm 106:23).

The hedge of the vineyard of Israel had been broken through (Isaiah 5:5), and the false prophets had done nothing to restore it (Ezekiel 22:30).

The day of battle, the day of the Lord, had come, and the false prophets were betraying the people instead of helping.

The false prophets believe their own lie and lead others into their lie (Ezekiel 13:6-8)
Cf. 2 Thessalonians 2:11

Ezekiel 13:7 
Have you not seen false visions and uttered lying divinations when you say, “The LORD declares,” though I have not spoken?

Divination: To gain knowledge of secret things by superstitious means -- This was forbidden in Israel (Exodus 22:18; Numbers 23:23; Deuteronomy 18:10-11). Divining was disparaged (Ezekiel 13:7, 9, 23; 21:29; 22:28; Micah 3:6, 7, 11).

God pronounces a 3-fold judgment against the false prophets (Ezekiel 13:9)
Cf. Luke 10:20; Revelation 3:5, 20:15

1. They shall not be in the assembly of my people (Genesis 49:6; Psalm 89:7; 111:1)

2. Their names shall be omitted from the register of the house of Israel (Ezra 2; Daniel 12:1; Nehemiah 7; Exodus 32:32-33; Isaiah 4:3; Malachi 3:16) -- To be excluded from the list would deprive an individual of the rights of citizenship (cf. Ezra 2:62). They would die as captives in a foreign land.

3. They shall never return to the land of Israel (Ezekiel 20:38; Jeremiah 29:32).

“My People” is expressed 7 times in this chapter. God pronounces heavy judgment on the false prophets because of the endearment to Him of His people that these false prophets are deceiving.

The work of the false prophets comes to nothing because it was unsound (Ezekiel 13:10-16)
The prophets compounded Israel’s difficulties by hiding problems that needed to be exposed. Again, instead of leading the people toward God’s righteousness, the false prophets created lies and false comfort that allowed the people to continue to drown in their sin.

God would thus bury the false prophets beneath the collapsing walls, and indeed, they were (cf. Isaiah 25:12; Lamentation 2:2; Amos 9:1).

“Whitewash” or “mortar” are impure and ineffective. It does not hold together and thus the results are frail and fall apart. The analogy here is that unless the LORD built it, it has no meaning, no sustenance. Here, the prophets made prophecies that were not of the LORD, and indeed their prophecies came to nothing.

1 Thessalonians 5:3
While people are saying, “Peace and safety,” destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.

2 Peter 2:1-3
But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lordwho bought them—bringing swift destruction on themselves. Many will follow their depraved conduct and will bring the way of truth into disrepute. In their greed these teachers will exploit you with fabricated stories. Their condemnation has long been hanging over them, and their destruction has not been sleeping.

God also condemns false prophetesses (Ezekiel 13:17-23)
This is the only Old Testament passage where God speaks out against the false women prophets.

Gifted Women
Several godly, gifted women are referred to in Scripture as prophetesses:
Miriam (Exodus 15:20,21)
Deborah (Judges 4:3-5)
Isaiah’s wife (Isaiah 8:3)
Huldah (2 Kings 22:14-20)
Anna (Luke 2:36)
The four daughters of Philip (Acts 21:8-9)

The prophetesses, or rather sorceresses, were counterparts of the false prophets, forerunners of the modern palmists, fortune-tellers, mediums, etc.

“Magic charms” were covered amulets, false phylacteries that were used by false prophetesses to support their demonic fortune-telling schemes.

The sorceresses also imputed magic influence upon their inquirers by the tying of knots and the shrouding of the persons in veils varying in length according to their stature.
God will thus go against their lying ceremonial tricks by which they cheat His people and deliver His people out of the false prophetesses (Cf. Amos 8; Micah 3; Zechariah 13). The good news is that His people are delivered in spite of the false prophets.


EZEKIEL 14: GOD JUDGES THE IDOLATERS

Ezekiel now turns to the wickedness of those who inquired of God but whose hearts were with their idols all the time (Ezekiel 14:1-11).

The presence of a righteous man (Ezekiel) among a sinful people (Israelites) will not save the land when God brings His judgments upon it (Ezekiel 14:12-23).

Ezekiel 14 is divided into two major sections:
(1) The prophecy against the idolatry of the elders
(2) The certainty of the destruction of Jerusalem

Ezekiel 14 outlines why God judged the city of Jerusalem as He did. The principles that are put down here are operative today also—God continues to judge nations!

Israelites desert God to set up idols in their heart instead (Ezekiel 14:1-5)

Samson
Samson was a man who pretended to be God’s man, and the Spirit of God did come upon him at times. The Holy Spirit—never his hair—was the secret of his power. But there came a day when he went out and “… he wish it not …”

He knew not that the Spirit of God had departed from him (Judges 16:20; Leviticus 5:17). He had kept toying and playing with sin and at the same time wanting to be God’s man.

REPENT (Ezekiel 14:6)
Throughout both the Old and New Testaments, repentance is God’s message to His own people, those who profess to belong to Him.

God will answer the idolaters (Ezekiel 14:7-9)
The man whose heart was divided in its allegiance to God would receive no knowledge through a prophet but would be answered by God Himself in deeds (Cf. Leviticus 17:8-10; 20:3, 5, 6).

False prophets can often quote an abundance of Scripture and still be wrong. The best illustration of Ezekiel’s meaning is the story of God letting false prophets deceive Ahab, to bring him to his death (1 Kings 22:19-23).

It is YHWH who sends the “lying spirit” in 1 Kings 22:20 -23. It is He who in the latter days shall send men “strong delusions” that they shall believe a lie (2 Thessalonians 2:11). In both cases, it is implied that delusion is a righteous judgment of this sin.

When a man sins against spiritual light, he brings on himself spiritual blindness. This does not relieve him of responsibility, however, for always the principle of “no other gods before me” obtains (Cf. 2 Kings 22:15-23:3).

God will judge the idolater and his consulting false prophet (Ezekiel 14:10-11)
Both the idolater and the false prophet that he consults would be punished, for the double purpose of deterring Israel from unfaithfulness (Cf. Isaiah 4:4) and of restoring Israel’s relationship with God (Cf. Ezekiel 11:20).

God uses false prophets to His glory
God can use and has used false prophets. There are a few examples in Scripture:
A lying spirit causes Ahab’s ruin (1 Kings 22:13-23)
The witch of Endor (1 Samuel 28:7-20)

God used false prophets to judge them for condoning disobedience.

However, when a person did what the false prophet told him to do, why did God also judge that person who got hooked?
Perhaps the most dramatic example is illustrated in 2 Thessalonians 2:8-11. There is an ultimate lie, a wild, extreme lie – THE Lie – that the deceiver will unleash on the world at that time. God Himself is going to permit this “strong delusion” in order to deceive, “Those in whom there is not the love of the truth that they might be saved” (2 Thessalonians 2:10).

2 Thessalonians 2:8-12
And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow with the breath of his mouth and destroy by the splendor of his coming. The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with how Satan works. He will use all sorts of displays of power through signs and wonders that serve the lie, and all the ways that wickedness deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness.

If we choose a path of deception, we will walk ourselves right into the ultimate deception to which there is no escape. A vivid example of this is Pharaoh of Exodus 5-12.

Israel’s coming judgment is unavoidable (Ezekiel 14:12-20)

The Four Sore Judgments
The prophet declares that “when a country sins,” God sends one of his four judgments against it (Cf. Ezekiel 5:16-17; Revelation 6; Leviticus 26):
– Famine (Ezekiel 14:12-14)
– Wild beasts (Ezekiel 14:15-16)
– Sword and war (Ezekiel 14:17-18)
– Plague (Ezekiel 14:19-20)

Whether Israel reaped God’s blessings or His Four Sore Judgments was entirely up to them – It was their choice. They had been given truthful warnings up front – as have us:
– Leviticus 26:1-2, 14-15, 17
– Leviticus 17:17, “slain” = sword
– Lev 26:20, “land shall not increase” = famine
– Lev 26:22, wild beasts
– Lev 26:25, plague

Men should see both the severity and the goodness of YWHW. In each of these there was a ground of comfort for men who asked the question, which Abraham asked of old, “Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” (Genesis 18:25) His punishments had not been arbitrary or excessive.

Ezekiel 14:23
You will know that I have done nothing in it without cause, declares the Sovereign LORD.

They had also been as a discipline leading men to repentance.

After his two signs (Ezek 12:1-20) and five messages (Ezek 12:21-14:23), Ezekiel then delivered a series of three parables (Ezek 15-17) to show that there was no possibility of deliverance for Israel.

3 Righteous Men: Noah, Daniel, or Job
Even if the righteous Noah, Daniel, and Job were there, the Israelites wouldn’t listen to them – and they wouldn’t be able to save them anyway! During Noah’s time, not one person heeded the warnings of Noah during the near 100 years that Noah took to build the Ark. The Babylonians knew Daniel, and they knew he was God’s man. However, the Israelites also did not heed Daniel’s warnings.

This passage is a tribute to these 3 righteous men and how they were spared: Noah (Genesis 6:18), Daniel (Daniel 1:6-20, 2:17-18), and Job (Job 42:7-10) (Cf. Ezekiel 14:16-20; Jeremiah 15:1).

1) Noah, the patriarch, looms on the horizon of history in epic grandeur

2) Daniel is the brave hero in a tyrant’s court, and the man of skill and science in a civilized society. Though Daniel’s prophecies mostly were later than those of Ezekiel, his fame for piety and wisdom was already established, and the events recorded in Daniel 1:1-2:49 had already transpired.

3) Job belongs to the region of pastoral life, and his tragic story carries us out among the Bedouin.

All three were holy men, true to God and upright in life. The greatest fact in a good man’s character is his goodness, and it constitutes a bond of union between all the true people of God.

All three were faithful in circumstances of isolation. They all had to break from prevalent habits and dare to stand alone:
• Noah: Against the world’s sin and impenitence
• Daniel: Against heathenism
• Job: Against a false orthodoxy

All three were sorely tried. The faith of each was assailed in a severe and most exceptional manner.

All three were victorious by means of firm fidelity—by obedience, patience, faith, steadfastness. They conquered, and they conquered in quiet ways—by obedience, patience, faith, and steadfastness.

Jeremiah 15:1-3
Then the LORD said to me: “Even if Moses and Samuel were to stand before me, my heart would not go out to this people. Send them away from my presence! Let them go! And if they ask you, ‘Where shall we go?’ tell them, ‘This is what the LORD says: “‘Those destined for death, to death; those for the sword, to the sword; those for starvation, to starvation; those for captivity, to captivity.’ “I will send four kinds of destroyers against them,” declares the LORD, “the sword to kill and the dogs to drag away and the birds and the wild animals to devour and destroy.

There are also “four sore judgments” documented in Jeremiah, with the declaration that not even the presence of Moses and Samuel would avail to save the people. They were selected by Jeremiah as examples of the power of intercession (Exodus 32:11, 12; 1 Samuel 7:9; 12:23).

The holy men selected in Ezekiel’s passage spoke of the exceptional saintliness that had been powerless to save the generation in which they lived. Noah was unable to save the evil race before the Flood; Job was unable to save his sons (Job 1:18); Daniel, though high in the king’s favor, was unable to influence Nebuchadnezzar to spare the people of Judah and Jerusalem.

Uselessness of Intercession
Ezekiel’s focus here was that Jerusalem was not going to be spared. Even if Noah, Daniel, and Job could have been there, they could only save themselves because of their own righteousness; their righteousness would not save those around them. The thrust of this passage was the Jerusalem was NOT going to be spared. Noah, Daniel, and Job were specified in particular as having been saved from overwhelming calamities for their personal righteousness.

Contrast the judgments here with the judgments of Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis 18. Abraham asked God if there were 10 righteous there, would He spare the city. Ten were not found. One was Lot. Lot had to get out of there first, before the city was destroyed. God preserved Lot before judging. In fact, the angels pointed out that they could not even produce the judgment until Lot got out of there. Getting the righteous man out was a condition for the judgment to go forth.

Again, the intercession of even the holiest of men cannot avert God’s judgments:

1) Noah, though a righteous man, could not by his intercession have preserved the old world from being drowned.

2) Job, though a righteous man, could not preserve his children from being killed by the fall of their house.

3) Daniel, though a righteous man, could not prevent the captivity of his country. The holiness of any man can only avail for himself.

Though Noah, Daniel, and Job united to plead for Jerusalem, their intercession would be all in vain.

1. This was contrary to expectation
There is power in intercession; there is a special power in the intercession of a “righteous man” (James 5:16); there is a still greater power in united prayer (Matthew 18:20). Yet, here the union of three of the very best men, selected from all ages, could not secure the safety of Jerusalem. Though Noah, Daniel, and Job united to plead for Jerusalem, their intercession would be all in vain.

2. The cause of the predicted failure of such an intercession was hardened impenitence
God is more anxious to save than we are to plead for salvation. But it would be unjust and injurious to spare the impenitent on any plea. He sent his Son to save the world, an infinitely greater act than the most impassioned pleading of the best men. Therefore the failure cannot be attributed to His hardness.

3. The intercession of Christ succeeds where that of the best men fails
Yet Christ shed tears over Jerusalem, and Jerusalem perished. Why? His prayers are worth those of ten thousand Noahs and Daniels and Jobs.

“He ever liveth to make intercession for us,” and he alone, bearing the weight of the whole world’s guilt, makes atonement for the sins of all men with ample sufficiency. If they’re penitent!

God’s judgment will leave behind a rem (Ezekiel 14:21-23)
The application to Jerusalem finds no righteous persons within it. And what wicked survivors will escape all four judgments, in apparent exception to the principle enunciated above, will be a grim proof to the exiles of God’s righteous judgment on Jerusalem.