Ezekiel 13 Devotional
by Pastor Lawrence

If there were one group of people that we would not expect a prophet to challenge and rebuke, it would his fellow prophets. It would be like a police officer giving a speeding ticket to another policeman. But every now and then there are some in every profession who have no business serving in that capacity, even within the House of God. In this very difficult time of trial and hardship, a number of men and women had arisen in Israel claiming to be prophets merely in order to put food on their table. For a few handfuls of barley and a few scraps of bread they would conjure up just about anything they thought that the people wanted to hear in order that they might get paid. The Lord had not given them any visions nor had he sent them to the people of Israel to speak in his name, yet they repeated the common formula that they had heard from true prophets saying, “Thus says the Lord.”

Without a doubt, the Lord is a jealous God who is jealous over his own namesake and who is also jealous over his own people, so this would not be tolerated for long. The Lord informed Ezekiel of his duty not only to correct God’s people but to shut the mouths of those who claimed to have visions from God and who claimed divine his will on behalf of his people. Unlike Ezekiel who was called to be a watchman on the walls to protect God’s people, these men were like jackals seeking to tear down the walls that would protect them from the enemy. Instead of standing in the gaps or in the breaches of the walls to fend off attack, these men were hiding in the safest part of the city. And instead of fixing the walls that were crumbling, these men were whitewashing them so that they wouldn’t have to do any work and as a result, the people felt secure when they ought not to be. The key concern here is that these men were not serving the Lord nor were they serving Israel; they were serving themselves and the people would suffer for it. They were preaching peace when there was no peace, telling lies to God’s people merely to fill their own bellies.

Ezekiel’s job was to call out these sins and even to name names pointing out the false prophets in Israel condemning them for their false works and assuring them that they would not be included in the council of God’s people, nor enrolled in the house of Israel, nor allowed to enter into Jerusalem when God’s people would return to the land of promise.

Likewise, God called Ezekiel to confront the false prophetesses of Israel who promoted a strange mixture of the faith with some form of pagan magic seemingly to ward off the power of the enemy against them. They would sew magic bands for the people to wear on their wrists and make special veils for the people to wear on their heads serving as a talisman to bring comfort to those who feared the worst. But instead of bringing God’s people comfort from the Lord, it led either to a false sense of confidence apart from God and true repentance or else to an even greater sense of dread of what was to come since someone else might be able to overcome these charms with and even greater charm or power. Thus these women were giving comfort to those who should not have been comforted and promoting an unhealthy fear in others that was not their prior. Again, these women were promoting such things out of their own self-interest and not for the good of God’s people and they would be judged for their actions.

God told Ezekiel to prophesy against them promising that He would rip off their veils and their magic bands that had enslaved Israel and bring the worst of their fears down upon the heads of these false witnesses, thus delivering His people out of their hands. On that day, God promises that all of them would know that He is the Lord.

In our day and age, there aren’t as many prophets that need to be confronted as there are false preachers and false pastors who speak peace to those who have no right to the peace of God, comforting the masses with a false gospel that does not include true faith and repentance, that does not warn others to turn from their wicked ways but instead assures the wicked that God loves and welcomes them just as they are. There are thousands of such prophets and prophetesses in our country today that can be found in false churches in every town in synagogues of Satan. But that is not the only place that you’ll find them. Every now and then they sneak into true churches and lull God’s people to sleep through their lies. They are much more subtle than their more liberal counterparts and they honestly believe that they are doing good and serving the Lord, but they are genuinely deceived. You will know them by their fruits. So test the spirits and do not believe everyone who claims to speak on the Lord’s behalf. There will always be wolves in sheep’s clothing, so beware what you listen to and whom you follow. True servants of God will always promote the name of Jesus, the cross of Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit to promote righteousness and holiness in all those in whom He dwells.