Ezekiel chapter 13

vs 1

Moving on...

vs 2

So there are a bunch of prophets in Israel presently, but they're not saying what God tells them, they are just making stuff up. So God has a special little message for them.

vs 3

Well, if you're going to hear a message from God about you and your job, it starting with "Woe" is probably not good. Being called foolish or wicked isn't a great start either. See, this is the sort of thing that screws people's faith over. You have people out there pretending to be prophets, and just making things up. And so people just think that, "Well, if that guy's making it up, aren't they all just making it up?" Which is of course illogical, but people think it anyway, because God did not thankfully create us with an overabundance of logic.

vs 4

They yap and no-one lives there?

vs 5

Now, you could think that this was a message about the hole in the wall that Ezekiel just put there, and about how they hadn't fixed it. And you know what, that could be a good object lesson. But the real truth is that the only thing that can keep Israel safe is God, and they haven't been maintaining their relationship with him, they've just been poking holes in it the whole time.

Funny, you don't often think that it's the prophets' job to protect the city.

vs 6

There's two things here that are just flabbergasty. The first is that they lie to people in what they say, and say that the lies come from God. Now, if you're relying on someone to be a messenger from anyone, let alone God, and they lie about it, that's pretty harsh.

The second is that these guys not only lie, but they then put words in God's mouth and expect him to back them up. I mean, if they were just lying and knew that nothing was going to happen, embraced their charlatanism, that would at least be something. But no, they actually thought they could fake God out. Well, he's got news for them.

vs 7

The answer of course is yes, you are a pack of liars.

vs 8

Uh oh. The prophets are now enemies of God. He's just ignored them for a time, let them rubbish his name, but now everyone is copping the wrath, and the prophets are no exception.

vs 9

So God just disowned them. Just totally wrote them out of his people. Far out. I mean, I wasn't expecting that. That's like hell on earth - God has said, "No, you don't belong to me anymore. You don't get to say you are God's people anymore. Go find somewhere else to die." The enormity of this statement is horrifying.

vs 10

So because people looked up to them, and they took a position of leadership and authority and messed with it, and they haven't actually been helping, they have been tricking people and mastered by their desires, now they will cop it.

vs 11

You built something flimsy, and now God is going to tear it down, and tear it down in a huge and cinematic kind of way. God doesn't mess around.

vs 12

Ha! Oh, that is such a fantastic question from God there. When your crappy solution fails, people will come and say, "Why didn't your paper mache wall save us, prophets?" And then maybe the people will realise that they were dumb to believe them in the first place. Maybe. Everyone loses - the prophets lose their positon, and the people lose their skerrit of hope.