Commentary - Ezekiel 13:1-16

Bird's-eye view

In this chapter, the Lord turns His attention from the idolatry of the elders (ch. 12) to the malpractice of the prophets. The spiritual rot in Israel goes all the way to the top. The problem is not simply that the people have gone astray; it is that their spiritual guides are actively leading them astray. God commissions Ezekiel to prophesy against the prophets, to engage in a sort of spiritual civil war. The charge is simple and devastating: they are speaking from their own hearts, following their own spirits, and have seen nothing from God. They are spiritual entrepreneurs, not appointed ambassadors.

Their failure is twofold. First, it is a failure of courage and duty. They are like foxes scavenging in the ruins, not masons repairing the breach in the wall (vv. 4-5). They have not prepared the people to stand in the day of battle. Second, their message is a damnable lie. They offer a counterfeit peace, a message of soothing affirmation, when God has decreed judgment. Their work is like applying a coat of whitewash to a poorly constructed wall, making it look sound when it is ready to collapse. God promises that His storm of wrath will not only knock down the flimsy wall but will also wash away the whitewash and consume the false prophets in the rubble of their own making. The purpose of this entire demolition project is the vindication of God's name: "And you will know that I am Yahweh."

Outline

Commentary

Verses 1-3

1 Then the word of Yahweh came to me saying, 2“Son of man, prophesy against the prophets of Israel who prophesy, and say to those who prophesy from their own heart, ‘Hear the word of Yahweh! 3Thus says Lord Yahweh, “Woe to the wickedly foolish prophets who are walking after their own spirit and have seen nothing.

The first thing to notice is the source of true prophecy. "The word of Yahweh came to me." True revelation is objective, external, and authoritative. It is not a feeling welling up from within. Ezekiel is a "son of man," a messenger under orders. His task here is a difficult one: to prophesy against the established prophets. This is not a friendly debate at a theological conference; this is a declaration of war.

The core of the accusation is that these other prophets "prophesy from their own heart." Their source is internal and subjective. They are "walking after their own spirit." This is the original sin of the Garden, the desire to be one's own source of truth. Because their source is themselves, the result is that they "have seen nothing." They are a closed loop of self-deception. God pronounces a "Woe" upon them, a formal curse. They are not just mistaken; they are "wickedly foolish." Their folly is not an intellectual slip-up; it is a moral and spiritual rebellion against the living God.

Verses 4-5

4O Israel, your prophets have been like foxes among waste places. 5You have not gone up into the breaches, nor did you build the wall around the house of Israel to stand in the battle on the day of Yahweh.

The imagery here is sharp and insulting. These prophets are not noble lions or watchful eagles. They are "like foxes among waste places." Foxes are opportunistic scavengers. They are sneaky, they are destructive, and they thrive in ruins. They do not build anything; they simply take advantage of the decay. This is what the false prophets were doing to the covenant community of Israel. They were contributing to the ruin, not reversing it.

Verse 5 outlines their dereliction of duty. A true prophet, a true pastor, is a watchman on the wall. His job is to "go up into the breaches" and "build the wall" of spiritual defense for God's people. This means preaching hard truths, calling out sin, and fortifying the people with sound doctrine so that they can "stand in the battle on the day of Yahweh." These men have done none of that. They are spiritual cowards and shirkers. They have left the people exposed and defenseless before the coming judgment, which is the ultimate pastoral malpractice.

Verses 6-7

6They behold worthlessness and lying divination who are saying, ‘Yahweh declares,’ when Yahweh has not sent them; yet they wait for the establishing of their word. 7Did you not see a worthless vision and speak a lying divination when you said, ‘Yahweh declares,’ but it is not I who have spoken?’

Their visions are "worthlessness" and their divination is a "lie." The Hebrew for worthlessness, shaw, is often connected to idolatry. And that is what this is. When you prophesy from your own heart, you have made an idol of yourself. The pinnacle of their arrogance is to attach God's name to their self-generated nonsense. To say, "Yahweh declares," when Yahweh has not sent them is to take the Lord's name in vain in the most profound way. It is spiritual identity theft.

And notice the pathetic nature of their hope: "yet they wait for the establishing of their word." They preach their lies and then cross their fingers, hoping it all comes true. They are trying to speak reality into existence, a prerogative that belongs to God alone. God's Word is effectual; it accomplishes what it says. Their words are just empty noise. God confronts them directly in verse 7 with a rhetorical question that is a searing indictment. You said I spoke, but it was not me. You are liars.

Verses 8-9

8 Therefore, thus says Lord Yahweh, “Because you have spoken worthlessness and beheld a lie, therefore behold, I am against you,” declares Lord Yahweh. 9“So My hand will be against the prophets who see worthless visions and utter lying divinations. They will not be in the council of My people, nor will they be written down in the register of the house of Israel, nor will they enter the land of Israel, that you may know that I am Lord Yahweh.

Because of their lies, God declares Himself to be their personal enemy. "Behold, I am against you." There can be no more terrifying sentence in all the world. This is not passive disapproval; this is active, divine opposition. "My hand will be against" them.

The judgment that follows is a threefold excommunication. First, "they will not be in the council of My people." They are kicked out of the leadership. Second, "nor will they be written down in the register of the house of Israel." They are stripped of their citizenship. Their names are blotted out from the covenant roll. Third, "nor will they enter the land of Israel." They are exiled from their inheritance. This is a complete and total cutting off from the people of God. And the great purpose behind this severe judgment is the glory of God. He does this so that the remnant "may know that I am Lord Yahweh." God will vindicate His own name by destroying those who have profaned it.

Verses 10-12

10It is definitely because they have misled My people by saying, ‘Peace!’ when there is no peace. And when anyone builds a wall, behold, they plaster it over with whitewash; 11so tell those who plaster it over with whitewash that it will fall. A flooding rain will come, and you, O hailstones, will fall; and a stormy wind will break out. 12Now behold, the wall will fall. Will it then not be said to you, ‘Where is the plaster with which you plastered it?’

Here we get to the heart of their deceptive message: "Peace! when there is no peace." This is the perennial lie of the false prophet. It is the gospel of cheap grace, of unconditional affirmation. It is telling a people rushing toward judgment that everything is fine. The people, in their sin, are building a flimsy, unstable "wall" of false security. The false prophets come along and, instead of pointing out the shoddy construction, they "plaster it over with whitewash."

The whitewash is the soothing sermon, the positive message, the assurance that God is a cosmic teddy bear who would never bring judgment. It makes the wall look solid, but it does nothing to fix the underlying structural problems. God promises to send a storm of judgment, and this storm will test all walls. The whitewash will be washed away, and the wall itself will collapse. The question in verse 12 is dripping with divine sarcasm. When the whole thing comes crashing down, people will ask, "What happened to that lovely coat of paint?" The superficial solutions of false religion are always exposed by the reality of God's judgment.

Verses 13-16

13Therefore, thus says Lord Yahweh, “I will make a stormy wind break out in My wrath. There will also be in My anger a flooding rain and hailstones to consume it in wrath. 14So I will pull down the wall which you plastered over with whitewash and bring it down to the ground, so that its foundation is laid bare; and it will fall, and you will be consumed in its midst. And you will know that I am Yahweh. 15Thus I will spend My wrath on the wall and on those who have plastered it over with whitewash; and I will say to you, ‘The wall is gone, and its plasterers are gone, 16the prophets of Israel who prophesy to Jerusalem and who see visions of peace for her when there is no peace,’ declares Lord Yahweh.

God makes it clear that this coming storm is not a random weather event. "I will make a stormy wind break out in My wrath." This is a personal, intentional act of divine judgment. He will pull the wall down, bring it to the ground, and lay its foundation bare. God's judgment is a great revealer of truths. It exposes the sandy foundations of all humanistic religion.

And notice the fate of the plasterers. When the wall falls, "you will be consumed in its midst." The false prophets will be buried in the rubble of their own lies. Their false system will collapse on top of them. God's wrath is spent on both the wall and the whitewashers. The conclusion is stark: "The wall is gone, and its plasterers are gone." The entire enterprise of false religion, from the gullible congregants to the lying prophets, will be wiped out. The final verse summarizes the whole affair. They saw visions of peace for a city that was under the sentence of death. Their optimism was a damnable heresy.

Application

The temptation to prophesy from our own hearts is a perennial one. Every pastor faces the choice between building with solid stone and slapping on a coat of whitewash. The people often want the whitewash. They want to be told "Peace!" when there is no peace. They want their flimsy walls of self-righteousness and compromise to be affirmed and decorated.

The modern evangelical world is awash in this kind of whitewash. It is the therapeutic gospel that never mentions sin or repentance. It is the seeker-sensitive model that removes all offense from the cross. It is the progressive Christianity that paints over the clear teachings of Scripture on morality. It is the prosperity gospel that promises health and wealth as a foundation for life. All of it is whitewash on a crumbling wall.

The call for the faithful church is to be wall-builders, not wall-plasterers. We are to go into the breaches, to preach the whole counsel of God, to repair the ruins. This means speaking of sin, judgment, and wrath, because without them, the gospel of grace, substitutionary atonement, and justification by faith has no meaning. We must build on the only foundation that will stand in the storm, which is the rock of Jesus Christ and His finished work. The storms of judgment will come, for individuals and for nations. When they do, all the whitewash in the world will do no good. Only a house built on the rock will stand.