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Spirit of False Prophecy & Idolatry 13-14

PRAY

Introduction

o Scripture tells us that in the ‘last days’ (OR ‘last day’ OR ‘latter time’ i.e. the time between the comings of Christ—now), there will be false teachers and teaching that will threaten to ensnare the Church (cf. 1 Tim 4:1)

o Indeed, we are called to ‘test the spirits,’ as it were (1 John 4:1)— is it of Christ OR of the ‘antichrist’

o False teaching has been around since the Fall, when man’s foolish heart was darkened, and certainly was an issue during Ezekiel’s time (also in Jeremiah’s overlapping ministry)

o What forms of false teaching were there? What were they believing and saying that proved to be a snare for the people?

o As we look at and part of 14, I want us to also ask: What are similar forms of false teaching around today? How have we been negatively influenced? What can we learn from God’s words through the ?

o Stop this video and read Ezekiel 13:1-14:11, if you have not already done so…

Spirit of False Prophecy & Idolatry

1. False hope (13:1-16)

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a. False vs. true prophets (True—Deut 18:18; 2 Chron 18:13; Jer 1:9)—key characteristic: they tell the people (and kings) what they want to hear rather than what God says

b. Characteristics of the false prophets in Ezekiel’s day:1

i. They follow their own spirit / prophesy from their own hearts (not from the Lord), yet say it is the ‘word of the LORD…declares the LORD’ & expect the LORD to fulfil their word! (13:2-7)

ii. They feed (like scavengers [e.g., jackals]) on the people (13:4-5)—interested in their own status and how they can exalt themselves at the expense of the people

iii. Speak ‘peace’ where there is no peace (13:10)

1. ESV Ezekiel 13:10 Precisely because they have misled my people, saying, 'Peace,' when there is no peace, and because, when the people build a wall, these prophets smear it with whitewash,1

2. ESV Jeremiah 6:14 They have healed the wound of my people lightly, saying, 'Peace, peace,' when there is no peace.

3. The false prophets ‘whitewash’ the walls of the people— ESV :28 And her prophets have smeared whitewash for them, seeing false visions and divining lies for them, saying, 'Thus says the Lord GOD,' when the LORD has not spoken.

4. Rather than exposing the sins of the people (that they might repent), they instead ‘whitewash’ their sins (hypocrisy)2

1 Cf. Thomas, Ezekiel, 112-114. 2 Block, Ezekiel, 1:407. 3

5. Note—parallels with the woes on the Pharisees (Matt 23:27; cf. Paul before the council of chief priests [Acts 23:3])—cover for hypocrisy

6. God will judge such teachers and prophets c. Application:

i. There are certainly false teachers/prophets in our day who pose a threat to the Church

ii. However, we must also be careful of false notions in our own minds about our relationship to God and our sins

1. How much of your thinking about God and yourself comes from your own mind rather than the word of God? (Note—if the word of God does not dwell richly in you or if you simply don’t read it, your thoughts will be from your own mind and spirit and not the Lord!)

2. False ‘peace’ / ‘whitewash’? (presumption)

3. False ‘doom’? (despair)

4. Solution—gospel (Christ) d. Judgment (13:11-16)

i. Ezekiel uses judgment images packed with significance—storm, deluge of rain, hailstones

ii. God will break down their whitewashed walls and lay the foundations bare (the wall will be no more, nor 4

those who whitewashed it)—reminds one of Jesus’ warning at the end of the Sermon on the Mount (Matt 7:27)

2. False Control & Power (13:17-23)3

a. These women (witches) also prophesy from their own minds

b. Their methods—obscure, but involve ‘magic bands’ on the arm/hand and ‘veils’ on the head; involved ‘black magic’ associated with these symbols (13:17-18)

c. Their goals—to exercise power and control over the people (exiles) (// voodoo spells over people in Haiti); to enslave people (fear); ‘hunt for souls’—alluring and capturing souls

i. It is probable that this practice was a result of syncretism with Babylonian witchcraft and paganism4

ii. Note—all of these descriptions find parallels with how Satan is spoken of in Scripture; i.e. literally demonic activity

iii. Application—this all seems pretty bizarre to most of us (though, as I said, there are more direct parallels in other parts of the world & perhaps with certain aspect of the occult in this country); however, we must ask whether there are certain sinful tendencies of these things in our lives

1. Magic ‘rabbits-foot’ superstition

3 Cf. Block, Ezekiel, 1:412-417. 4 Block, Ezekiel, 1:415. 5

2. Sinful desires to manipulate and control others; desire to manipulate God and His working in your life (e.g., ‘discerning’ God’s will for your life)

3. Forms of syncretism (in terms of outlook on life, afterlife, view of God, etc.)

iv. They profaned the Name— ESV Ezekiel 13:19 You have profaned me among my people for handfuls of barley and for pieces of bread, putting to death souls who should not die and keeping alive souls who should not live, by your lying to my people, who listen to lies.

1. They lived off the people

2. They inverted the ethical order—they disheartened the righteous falsely and encouraged the wicked (v.22)

d. Their Judgment (13:20-23)—God will tear of the bands and veils and deliver His people from their hand (God is the ‘good shepherd’ [chapter 34])

e. Transition—in addition to false teaching / prophesy, there has always been idolatry present, as a result of the Fall—Ezekiel goes on to expose idolatry even among the elders of …

3. False gods (14:1-11)

a. Note—the ‘elders’ of the people are also exposed in chapter 8 and chapter 20

b. Main charge against them—ESV :3 ", these men have taken their idols into their hearts, and set the stumbling block of their iniquity before their faces. Should I indeed let myself be consulted by them? (cf. 8:10-12)

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c. Issue of ‘internal idolatry’—not merely outward objects of worship (Application)

i. Reminder—God is not fooled by outward appearances, for He looks upon the heart (everything is laid bare before Him—both, convicting and encouraging!)

ii. When we read about idolatry in the OT, we realize that we also have idols, but because many OT examples involve fashioned objects and outward forms of divination, we tend to distance ourselves from such sins

iii. However, here, we see that idols of the heart are also involved—this we can certainly identify with

iv. Remember—an idol is something that we cling to for security and satisfaction in the place of God

v. Examples:

1. Greed / money

2. Self-image (social media)

3. Pleasure / entertainment (sports, etc.)

vi. Some tests to ‘discover’ your idols:5

1. “Your religion is what you do with your solitude”6

2. What do you devote your time to?

5 Keller, Counterfeit Gods, 168-170. 6 Temple as quoted in Keller, Counterfeit Gods, 168. 7

3. What do you spend your money on?

4. Evaluate according to your emotions: what must I have to be fulfilled or feel significant?

vii. Why do people choose a substitute over God himself?7

1. Prevents accountability to God

2. We can meet idols on our own terms (because they are our own creations—i.e. worship the creation rather than the Creator [Rom 1:25])

3. They are ‘safe’ and controllable

4. Appeal—people only need to face themselves (not the Holy One)

viii. “Should I indeed let myself be consulted by them?” (14:3b)

1. The audacity of man—to prefer another ‘god’, but still would like some help from the true God?!

2. In essence, the elders were coming to Ezekiel as if he was a ‘fortune-teller’8 (Application—do we? [just want answers, but do not really want to listen to and obey God’s word?])

7 Wells, God in the Wasteland, 53 (quoted in Carson, The Gagging of God, 208). 8 Block, Ezekiel, 1:426. 8

3. The only answer or word they will receive is a word of judgment (14:4-5, 7-8, 10): ‘lay hold of their hearts’ (i.e. seize them for their sin)9

4. God says he will make them a ‘byword’ and ‘cut them off’ (14:8)10

a. Byword—make them a proverbial example of disaster and covenant curse (cf. Deut 28:37; 1 Kgs 9:6-9)

b. Cut off (from his people)—this phrase occurs 36X in the Pentateuch; refers to at least excommunication, probably death (cf. Lev 20:2-5)

5. They were ‘estranged’ from the Lord, due to their idolatry (i.e. cannot serve two masters)—How are we tempted to try to hold on to both, God and our idols? (you cannot—beware: the times are coming when this will be even more tempting)

d. Call to repentance (14:6)

i. ESV Ezekiel 14:6 "Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord GOD: Repent and turn away from your idols, and turn away your faces from all your abominations.

ii. This call assumes that there is hope for forgiveness and deliverance from judgment (will God call us to repent and then not forgive? Remember—He commands us to

9 Duguid, Ezekiel, 183. Block points out that this phrase appears in contexts where prisoners or captives are apprehended (Ezekiel, 1:427). 10 Block, Ezekiel, 1:431. 9

ask for forgiveness [Lord’s Prayer]: will He then not give it?!)

iii. The question is not will God forgive us if we repent— rather, the question is will we repent?

e. Note on Divine Sovereignty and Human Responsibility11

i. ESV Ezekiel 14:9 And if the prophet is deceived and speaks a word, I, the LORD, have deceived that prophet, and I will stretch out my hand against him and will destroy him from the midst of my people Israel

ii. Note—similar to Deut 13:1-5, where we read that the will of the Lord was to test the people through false prophets; if the people refuse to listen to true prophets of the LORD, then He will judge them with lying prophets who will tell them what they want to hear (cf. 1 Kings 22)

iii. Note—perhaps Ezekiel’s audience would not have been hung up on this as much as we can be (due to our Western modernistic context)12

iv. God’s sovereignty over all things extends even to lying prophets (via permission, but not ‘bare’ permission— i.e. leave another to do as they will, with no control)

v. WCF 5.4— The almighty power, unsearchable wisdom, and infinite goodness of God so far manifest themselves in His providence, that it extendeth itself even to the first fall, and all other sins of angels and men, and that not by a bare permission, but such as hath joined with it a most wise and powerful bounding, and otherwise ordering and governing of them, in a manifold dispensation, to His own holy ends; yet so, as the sinfulness thereof proceedeth only from the creature, and not from God; who, being most holy and righteous, neither is nor can be the author or

11 Cf. Duguid, Ezekiel, 185-187. 12 Duguid, Ezekiel, 186. 10

approver of sin. (Note—not the doer of sin, but controls it for his holy purposes)

vi. The real question is not why does God allow sinners to follow the delusion they want to follow, but rather, why He saves any sinners at all!13

f. Word of hope (14:11)

i. ESV Ezekiel 14:11 that the house of Israel may no more go astray from me, nor defile themselves anymore with all their transgressions, but that they may be my people and I may be their God, declares the Lord GOD."

ii. Purifying judgment—the result will involve a remnant (of grace) which will engage in repentance, and enjoy a covenant relationship with the LORD

iii. Application—Think about how Christ was judged for your sin, so that you might be redeemed and no longer be slaves to sin, but be holy and blameless in His sight—in covenant relationship with God!

13 Duguid, Ezekiel, 187.