And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man
prophesying against the prophets of Israel that prophesy, and say
thou unto them that prophesy out of their own hearts, Hear ye the
word of the Lord; Thus saith the Lord God; Woe unto the foolish
prophets, that follow their own spirit, and have seen nothing! O
Israel, thy prophets are like the foxes in the deserts. Ye have not
gone up into the gaps, neither made up the hedge for the house of
Israel to stand in the battle in the day of the Lord. They have seen
vanity and lying divination, saying, The Lord saith: and the Lord
hath not sent them: and they have made others to hope that they
would confirm the word. Have ye not seen a vain vision, and have ye
not spoken a lying divination, whereas ye say, The Lord saith it,
albeit I have not spoken? (verses 1-7).
The first charge brought against the false prophets is that they
prophesy out of their own hearts. It has been also translated "who
prophesy from their own mind without having seen." Here we have a divine
definition of the false prophets in a very concise form. Their words
came out of their own hearts, they were not founded upon the vision of
the Lord, the message He gives by His Spirit, but the product of their
own minds. They gave expression to the thoughts of their own darkened
hearts and paid no heed whatever to the revelation of God. And here let
us be reminded of what is written in the New Testament concerning the
same class of men who are predicted to appear especially at the close of
the present age, doing a work in Christendom which fully corresponds to
the work of these false prophets in Jeremiah's and Ezekiel's day. "But
there were false prophets also among the people (Israel), even as there
shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable
heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon
themselves swift destruction. And many shall follow their pernicious
ways, by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of" (2
Peter ii:1-2). Jude in his Epistle gives a more complete picture of
them. He speaks of these false teachers of Christendom as "speaking evil
of those things which they know not, but what they know naturally (as
natural men, unregenerated) as brute beasts, in those things they
corrupt themselves" (verse 10). "Their mouth speaketh great swelling
words (a divine definition of modern day 'pulpit oratory'), having men's
persons in admiration because of advantage" (verse 16). They were
mockers who walk after their own lusts; having not the Spirit (verse
19). The Apostle Paul speaks of them as wolves (Acts xx:29) and our Lord
warned of them. "Beware of false Prophets, which come to you in sheep's
clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves" (Matt. vii:15).
And such false teachers, men who pose as religious leaders, are doing
their dreadful and delusive work throughout the professing church. Every
man who prophesies out of his own heart, who utters his own mind, whose
teaching and preaching is not according to the oracles of God, who pays
no heed to what the Lord has said is a false prophet. And such abound in
the closing days of the church on earth. Hundreds of men who are
accredited religious teachers ignore the visions of God, have no heart
and no ear for what the Lord has revealed, yea, more than that, they
reject the inspiration and revelation of the Word of God and in its
place preach and teach the opinions of their own corrupt and darkened
minds and the traditions of men. A true prophet of God and a true leader
is altogether subject to the Word of God. His one business is to expound
the Word of God. He speaks as the oracles of God. He does what is
written in 2 Cor. x:5: "Casting down imaginations (the working of the
mind apart from the Word of God) and every high thing that exalteth
itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every
thought to the obedience of Christ." The Apostle Paul is a perfect
example of such a true mouthpiece of the Lord. Naturally gifted with a
keen mind, learned and cultured, yet he wrote to the Corinthians, "And
I, brethren, when I come to you, came not with excellency of speech or
of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God. For I determined not
to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ and Him crucified"--"And
my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom,
but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power" (1 Cor. ii:1-4).
And like the false prophets among Israel the false prophets and teachers
in Christendom are responsible for the deplorable conditions of the
professing people of God. Instead of sounding God's warning they cover
up and lead the people into the dark, where they are themselves. The
responsibilities of those men who deny the authority of the Bible, who
prophesy out of their own hearts is far greater than any pen can
describe.
And what else did the Lord say about them in Ezekiel's message? "They
have seen vanity and lying divination, saying, The Lord saith, and the
Lord hath not sent them." Here is the root of the matter. The Lord never
sent them; He never called them into the office of a prophet or teacher.
They are self-called and self-sent. Being therefore not the chosen
instruments of the Lord, knowing not His Word nor obeying His Spirit,
they become the instruments of "lying divination." Behind their messages
of a false hope and false peace stands the father of lies. 1 Kings
xxii:19-23 throws important light upon this. It was a lying spirit who
possessed the false prophets in Ahab's times. Even so it is predicted of
the last days that the people will give heed to seducing spirits and
doctrines of demons (1 Tim. iv:1).
Therefore thus saith the Lord God; Because ye have spoken vanity,
and seen lies, therefore, behold, I am against you, saith the Lord
God. And mine hand shall be upon the prophets that see vanity and
that divine lies; they shall not be in the assembly of my people,
neither shall they be written in the writing of the house of Israel,
neither shall they enter into the land of Israel; and ye shall know
that I am the Lord God. Because, even because they have seduced my
people, saying, Peace; and there was no peace; and one built up a
wall, and, lo, others daubed it with untempered mortar: Say unto
them which daub it with untempered mortar, that it shall fall: there
shall be an overflowing shower; and ye, O great hailstones, shall
fall; and a stormy wind shall rend it. Lo, when the wall is fallen,
shall it not be said unto you, Where is the daubing wherewith ye
have daubed it. Therefore thus saith the Lord God; I will even rend
it with a stormy wind in my fury; and there shall be an overflowing
shower in mine anger, and great hailstone in my fury, to consume
it. So will I break down the wall that ye have daubed with
untempered mortar, and bring it down to the ground, so that the
foundation thereof shall be discovered, and it shall fall, and ye
shall be consumed in the midst thereof, and ye shall know that I am
the Lord. Thus will I accomplish my wrath upon the wall, and upon
them that have daubed it with untempered mortar and will say unto
you: The wall is no more, neither they that daubed it; to wit the
prophets of Israel which prophesy concerning Jerusalem, and which
see visions of peace for them, and there is no peace saith the Lord
God (verses 8-16).
And next the message pronounces the condemnation and punishment of these
false prophets. The Lord is against them. His hand is to be upon them
for punishment. Three things are mentioned in which their punishment is
going to consist: they are to be excluded from the assembly of God's
people; they will be outcasts like lepers and such they were; their
names are not to be mentioned in the writings of Israel; their memory
will be blotted out, their names forgotten; finally they were not to
enter into the land of Israel. This is not too severe if one thinks of
the souls these false prophets destroyed and the wicked work they did,
for it is wickedness to reject the Word of God and substitute for it
human inventions.
A more solemn word is pronounced in the New Testament against those who
continue in Christendom the pernicious and deceiving work of these false
teachers. It is written, "If any man defile the temple of God, him shall
God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are" (1 Cor.
iii:17). That is, believers constitute the temple of God, that is, the
church. The church has for its foundation the Truth of God, the doctrine
of Christ. A rejection of the doctrine of Christ, so common in our day,
defiles this spiritual temple of God. It is the worst profanation. And
the false leader with his work corrupts the best, the holiest. "Him
shall God destroy!" May God's people heed the warning to have no
fellowship with such who as hirelings do the work of false prophets.
And these false prophets seduced the people. The delusion consisted in
saying, Peace, and there was no peace. This is a characteristic of those
who follow not God's revelation but their own hearts. While God has
threatened a world which lieth in the wicked one, an age which is evil
and which never can be anything but evil, with judgments to come, they
preach peace and safety.
He describes them as building a wall and then putting some untempered
stuff, a whitewash, upon the wall. The wall is for defence. They
invented all kinds of schemes and policies, political, religious and
religious-political. This was done to sustain their false messages and
false hopes. Then to hide the defects, they whitewashed their walls,
they glazed it over with nice and high sounding phrases. Such is the
case to-day. Oh! the schemes, the religious-political combinations which
are used to accomplish certain ends which are nowhere authorized by the
Word of God. And the whitewash, the enticing, beautiful words which are
used to cover it over and make it appear as being secure! And Ezekiel
was commanded to say to these whitewashes, "It shall fall!" A great
storm with wind and flood would strike it and the wall, the schemes and
inventions of men were to collapse (see Matt. vii:26-27). Even so the
judgment came upon Jerusalem and the land of Israel and swept away the
false prophets and what they had built up. Another judgment will sweep
over Christendom and sweep away the "destructive critics," the false
teachers and leaders of delusive movements which flourish everywhere.
Then the divine mockery: "Lo, when the wall is fallen, shall it not be
said unto you, where is the daubing wherewith ye have daubed it?" (verse
12). When God fulfills His predictions written in the Word, when a
boasting, Christless civilization, an apostate church are engulfed in
the judgment with which this present age ends, where will be the nice
sounding whitewash of the false prophets?