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!

Ezekiel 12:2

"Son of man, you dwell in the midst of a rebellious house, which has eyes to see but does not see, and ears to hear but does not hear; for they are a rebellious house.” (Ezekiel 12:2)

What a state! The house of Israel not only did not see or hear, but they had the ears and eyes there for them to do it – they just rebelled against doing it! It is one thing to not be able to see because you don’t know how or because you don’t have very good vision – it is another thing entirely to have perfect 20/20 vision and shut your eyes or turn the other way. That’s what Israel was doing. They had the prophets, clearly warning them of their evil idolatrous ways and the consequences it would bring, and yet as a whole they decided to ignore it. In their own pride, self-pity, pleasure, or whatever other motive caused them to rebel, they brought the destruction upon themselves.

And here we take a step back and gaze in awe again at the applicability of the prophets to our own times. Notice the application here falls down severely upon us, the church. Who have ears to hear and eyes to see if not for us? But how much do we acquiesce in seeing and hearing what God says to us? I would suggest we refuse a large portion of the time. As a whole.

How do we see? How do we hear? Through His Word, through His faithful servants who teach it, through His Holy Spirit, speaking to us, convicting us. Through prayer. They are not hard concepts to grasp, but to realize them, I have learnt slowly, takes a lifetime of dedication.

Sometimes prayer seems like a waste of time. Sometimes it doesn’t feel like God hears. Better things could be done through action, rather than waiting around speaking about it. Has this ever been your thought? Or sometimes you feel really all your prayer is doing is telling yourself not to act a certain way: ‘Lord, let me not make this decision in haste...’ ie. Steven, make sure you don’t make a hasty decision. I’m sure we’ve all had thoughts like that. I know I have countless times. But the Bible says prayer is important, and if God is real, He is everywhere, and can hear everything we say. So keep praying, pray faithfully for others and praise God.

Sometimes it is hard to hear the Spirit. Was it really the Spirit who prompted you? Can you be sure it wasn’t your own mind, or just a natural coincidence that led you to this conclusion? I find listening to the Spirit, knowing His work in my heart, extremely difficult. For a person of hard science and calculations, the rather abstract concept of a Spirit convicting me isn’t exactly easy to follow. However, no less do I trust it, and no less do I strain to listen. Maybe someone can teach me about this. Maybe it is all about patience. Wait on the Lord.

How many of us read scripture daily? And how many read Scripture daily? There is no value in reading the Bible as a book, as a text, a compilation of words written by wise people thousands of years ago. There is no good reading the Bible as a ritual, as a tradition, as a task. If God had intended there to be value in that, He would not have inspired it. It would not be the Living Word. But such as it is, it can only be read in deep prayer, with a keen ear for Him who would speak through it, cutting like a double-edged sword to the heart. I am afraid that this is not always the case as I do my daily ‘devotions’, and thus another ear is turned against what the LORD has to say.

How long will this continue? How long will we fool ourselves with blank eyes and our own music in our ears, blocking that which the Lord has for us? What will it take for God to wake us up? I guess we’ll have to listen and watch out if we are to ever know.

Ezekiel 11:5

Ezekiel 11 continues Ezekiel’s vision where he is in Jerusalem (whereas in reality he is in Babylon). He sees 25 leaders of the people, who God says are ‘devising iniquity’. I found the passage quite difficult to understand, but I think the leaders that he sees are currently actually remaining in Jerusalem, but instead of going about normal life, and rebuilding after the devastation of the siege (see vs. 3), they are afraid, and inspire fear in the hearts of the remnant. Neither do they turn back to God, but instead carry on the traditions followed by the Gentile nations all around them. Thus God says that he will bring the sword upon them on the border of the city. I am not sure of the significance of the border of the city, but the significance of the sword is made clear when one of the leaders that Ezekiel sees falls down dead midway through his prophecy. Ezekiel is mortified, and he asks God whether the whole remnant will be done away with, but God reassures him, saying that although they will be scattered, they will be brought back to Israel and they will rebuild it. The verse that struck me was this verse:

‘Then the Spirit of the LORD fell upon me, and said to me, "Speak! 'Thus says the LORD: "Thus you have said, O house of Israel; for I know the things that come into your mind.’ (Ezekiel 11:5)

Here the LORD equates things that the house of Israel has said, with things that have come into their mind. How often do sinful things stop with our minds? How often do they reach our minds before we stop them going any further? We may think we are better off that way – and in some respects it is better that way, because at least our exemplary appearance is maintained, but God can see to the heart, and He knows. And what starts in the mind will inevitably reach our actions if we do not fight it. In effect, what we think, we are saying.

Let’s examine our minds, and be careful of what we find there. Let’s be brutally honest with ourselves because the mind can be the breeding ground of so much evil.

Ezekiel 10

It’s hard to understand Ezekiel 10, properly that is. He sees the cherubim and the massive impossible wheels again, with eyes all around them. The whole chapter is a description of them and the glory of the LORD. What I take out of it is how great God is. What things we are going to see when we get to heaven! Is that not something to look forward to? Sometimes life on earth is not exactly the best. There’s good days and bad days. But heaven is all good. And so good we can’t even describe it!

Ezekiel 9:4

Ezekiel’s prophetic vision continues, with God calling men with deadly weapons (battle-axes to be precise) to the temple, and one with a tunic and an inkhorn (I’m guessing that’s what they used to write with). He tells the man with the inkhorn to go and mark some people in Jerusalem, and the men with battle-axes are to follow him and kill everyone he doesn’t mark. I find it interesting those people that the tunic-man was to mark were these:

‘and the LORD said to him, "Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and cry over all the abominations that are done within it."’ (Ezekiel 9:4)

Those who sigh and cry over the abominations done. Not the people who don’t do them. The people who hate the very fact that they are done. Are we like that? Do these things affect us?

Ezekiel 8:15

Ezekiel 8 is about the LORD showing Ezekiel the sins of his people, wakening him to their sinfulness before he starts his huge ministry to them. He takes him in a vision to the temple where he looks inside at what they are doing. Each thing he sees is worse and worse. Each time God says:

‘Then He said to me, "Have you seen this, O son of man? Turn again, you will see greater abominations than these."’ (Ezekiel 8:15)

It is like God is showing him bit by bit how evil the nation is so that Ezekiel can understand what he is up against.

I think at times God does the same to us. Opens our eyes to our own sin to show us what we need to fix. There is always more, but with God’s help we can keep on defeating it, keep on uprooting the evil that sits in us. But we have to want to. And we have to hear God’s voice, showing us where it is.

Ezekiel 7:27

‘The King will mourn,
The prince will be clothed with desolation,
And the hands of the common people will tremble.
I will do to them according to their way,
And according to what they deserve I will judge them;
Then they shall know that I am the LORD!’ (Ezekiel 7:27)

We notice that the seemingly terrible judgment being prophesied in this chapter (and the chapter preceding) is only ‘according to what they deserve’. God is a just God, not a violent and reckless punisher. This brings back to us the effect our sin has on God. God will only ever deal with us justly, but sin is a severely punishable thing. But we are made righteous by the blood of Jesus Christ, the perfect One.

Secondly, we notice that yet again, God’s purpose for doing all this is so that they would know that He is the LORD! This reminds us yet again that He is King, Creator, Supreme Judge and Master of the universe. He is the end of all things. For us to know that is obviously utterly important in view of the scriptures. Let’s not forget it.