Ezekiel 13:10

Four times in chapter 13 it says at the end of a verse: ‘And then you shall know that I am the LORD’. Chapter 13 is a prophecy against false prophecy and lies. Again, I think it is helpful to look at nature of these lies:

‘"Because, indeed, because they have seduced My people, saying, 'Peace!' when there is no peace--and one builds a wall, and they plaster it with untempered mortar—‘ (Ezekiel 13:10)

It is the same as in Jeremiah and Isaiah – the false prophets are making people feel secure when they oughtn’t. In effect they were promoting sin by saying everything was alright when the people were sinning liberally.

Further on, the prophecy turns against women who wear magic charms on their sleeves (and veils for hunting souls, though I’m not sure what this means!), in order to divine things about people. And verse 19 seems to suggest that they used these magic charms in judging people guilty or innocent in criminal charges. And yet they were killing innocent people and strengthening the wicked.

The lies are all about promoting evil, and covering consequences. That’s the way it had been all the time, as we have seen from the two previous major prophets. And I don’t think it is much different today. ‘It’s okay to worship any way you want, God understands!’, ‘Women preaching is a gift from God, because they can connect so well’, ‘Dress however you like, because we are trying to reach the people’, ‘There’s no real such thing as sin, only mistakes which you can learn from’, ‘Gay people can be Christians too, God loves everyone for who they are’. Recognise the lies? None of the lies are aimed at making you feel bad. All justify some form of sinful behaviour. And I can’t help but notice the analogy that Ezekiel (or really God) makes – it’s like plastering a wall with untempered mortar. At the first storm or wind, the wall will fall down. Now here, God promises to send a storm so that the wall will fall down. But what does this analogy remind you of? The wise man and the foolish man. Indeed, we sang the song just last Sunday in Sunday School. Build your house upon the Lord Jesus Christ. Such beautiful words. And Jesus was the Word. The revelation of the Truth. We don’t build our house on Him by believing lies, however ‘nice’ they might sound. When the storms come, they will be like untempered mortar. Useless.

How do we know these lies? Some of the ones I proffered before were very obviously lies to us, although some mightn’t have been. How do we tell if they are more subtle? Well the only answer is to read and read and read the Bible, study it, know it, understand it.

And I come back to my original thought: why is God interested in bringing this storm against the shaky house? Why demolish this sugar-coated evil? So that we will know that He is the Lord. That is His reason. For HIS glory. And so that we might know it. What a faithful and loving God we serve!