Main Idea: God will not fulfill promises that are not His.
A Look at the Text:
In today’s text, the sights of God’s justice move from Jerusalem’s king to its prophets.
These prophets spoke confidently in God’s name, although He had not spoken (Ezek. 13:6-8). God was against them and would bring them to ruin. They promised “Peace!” when God was not sending peace (Ezek. 13:10).
While the walls were metaphorically cracked and the foundation was unstable, they whitewashed or plastered the walls without addressing the problem (Ezek. 13:10-11). In effect, they were putting a band-aid over a mortal wound. On judgment day, those walls would be broken down (Ezek. 13:11-14).
Even more, there were false prophetesses in Israel who likewise spoke their own ideas. They unsettled the righteous and gave hope to the wicked rather than calling the wicked to turn from their ways (Ezek. 13:22).
God was not going to uphold promises that weren’t His, and He would not validate messengers He did not send.
Bringing it Home:
We live in a day and age where many claim to represent God, but frequently they are representing a god of their own making. People remake God in their own image. They craft a god that never makes them uncomfortable.
Tim Keller once powerfully asserted:
“Only if your God can outrage and challenge you will you know that you worship the real God and not a figment of your imagination. . . . If your God never disagrees with you, you might just be worshiping an idealized version of yourself.”
In Jerusalem, there were many who were misrepresenting God. “Peace!” was a much more palatable message than “Doom!” but the question shouldn’t have been what was palatable, but what was actually true.
We must fight the temptation to cater to the preferences of other people or even ourselves. Instead, our goal should be to be biblical rather than to be popular.
We must speak the truth in love and strive to faithfully represent God and what He has actually said in His Word, and then leave the results in His hands.
Challenge:
Does my understanding of God ever make me uncomfortable, or have I watered down the God of the Bible?