Therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah Because ye speak vanity, and have seen lies, therefore behold, I am against you, saith the Lord Jehovah.
God speaks here against the prophets of Israel. They told the people what the people wanted to hear, and God's verdict falls on their words rather than their behaviour. Two questions follow. What made their message false? And what does it mean when God says He is against them?
The verse opens with "because." The sentence rests on a reason, and the verses just before give it: these men prophesied out of their own hearts and had seen nothing. One commentator treats this as the root offence, and explains why God cannot let it pass.
To prophesy out of your own heart is to make sure of judgment from God. However gracious and merciful He is, He must be jealous for His majesty and His truth, which such prophecy completely misrepresents and profanes. What end could there be, for themselves and for those who followed them, but destruction? Such men did not fear Jehovah and did not have His secret. They had only falsehood and divination, since they said, "Jehovah says," when He had not sent them — and still they made people hope that the word would come true.
They had seen nothing, and still spoke as if God had shown them something. In Israel a prophet was expected to bring God's own word, not his own opinion. So a man with nothing to say had one option left.
The word the prophet spoke was not something produced out of a man's own "inner consciousness," as people describe it today. It was not a spiritual mind guessing at the future from what it could see in front of it. What they claimed to bring was not a human judgment at all, but the judgment of God Himself. So it was not their own saying, but Jehovah's saying. This was so well known in Israel that even the false prophets had to make the same claim. If they saw nothing, they had to pretend that they saw.
The declaration is personal. God does not simply disapprove of the message. He takes His stand against the men who bring it. He said the same thing about prophets like these in Jeremiah, and one commentator sums up why.
They had no authority at all. If they had made His people hear His words, they would have turned them from their evil way. Jehovah fills heaven and earth. He was not ignoring them. He took note of those who prophesied lies in His name. If they had His word, let them speak it faithfully. "Is not my word like fire, declares the LORD, and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?"
The chapter also names what these men left undone.
In Ezekiel's day the prophets should have been men who had gone up into the breaches, proclaiming the faithful word of Jehovah, while also seeking, if possible, to build up the wall that had been broken down, so that it might stand in the battle, even in the day of Jehovah.
A message with nothing in it still drew a crowd. It asked nothing of the hearer.
False teachers would claim the path is not as narrow as Scripture makes it. What marked the false prophets in Ezekiel 13 was that they made it very easy for people to go along, because they prophesied out of their own heart. The serious thing was that they followed their own spirit and paid no attention to the words of God.
Commentators apply this chapter to the present day. They place the danger inside God's people, not outside.
It is painful but profitable to trace the progress of religious corruption; it arises not from without, but from within. No outward temptation, it seems, could have brought the people of Judah to rebel as boldly as corrupt prophets and a corrupt priesthood did.
The test of a teacher is where the message comes from.
Every man who prophesies out of his own heart, who speaks his own mind, whose preaching and teaching does not follow the word of God, is a false prophet, a blind leader of the blind. Like the false prophets in Israel, the false teachers in Christendom are the cause of the spiritual state of the people who profess to belong to God. They are self-called and self-sent. Behind them stands the father of lies.
- Source. The offence is not a slip in delivery but a wrong origin — a message drawn from a man's own heart rather than from God.
- Pretence. Having seen nothing, they had to act as though they had seen, borrowing God's name to carry their own opinion.
- Opposition. God does not withdraw. He notes those who speak lies in His name and stands against them.
- Appeal. Such preaching spreads because it widens the road and asks nothing of the conscience.
- Safeguard. Decline starts inside the people of God, through teachers they accept. So test every teaching by the word of God.
And my hand shall be against the prophets that see vanity and that divine lies they shall not be in the council of my people, neither shall they be written in the register of the house of Israel, and they shall not enter into the land of Israel and ye shall know that I [am] the Lord Jehovah.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
Because, yea because they have seduced my people, saying, Peace! and there is no peace; and one buildeth up a wall, and lo, they daub it with untempered [mortar] --
God sends Ezekiel against prophets who kept telling a doomed city that all was well. Their comfort was only a wall with a coat of plaster over it — "whitewash" in the ESV, "untempered mortar" in older translations.
God says these prophets misled His people. One writer shows how they did it, and what was hiding under their wall.
They claimed to be angels of light — as Satan's agents among God's people always do — but the evil that flourished around them told the truth about them. These were the men who swarmed everywhere, the more so as the true prophet of the Lord grew scarce. They banded together and backed up one another's words. One built up a wall, and another coated it with untempered mortar, and it could never stand the storm that was at hand. God would bring it down to the dust and expose the foundation it stood on: a lie, all through, a lie that could only destroy those who trusted in it. Their promise of peace could only provoke war, and their pretended safety could only provoke God to sweep away the refuge of lies.
Untempered mortar is mortar that will not hold. The problem here is the material itself.
Making mortar meant treading clay. The false prophets promised peace to Jerusalem when God was threatening judgment. Their work was like building a wall and daubing it with untempered mortar: God's wind would blow the wall down. Ezekiel 13:10-15. This teaches a lesson we need — we must build everything for God with God's materials, or it will not stand.
The same coating goes onto souls today, wherever preachers try to make the gospel simple.
There is much reason to fear that many preachers today, in their efforts to make the gospel simple, lose sight of two things. One is the eternal necessity of repentance. The other is the essential necessity of the work of the Holy Spirit. Without these, so-called faith is only a human exercise. It fades like the morning mist and leaves the soul still in the region of nature, satisfied with itself, daubed with the untempered mortar of a merely human gospel. That gospel cries, "Peace, peace," where there is no peace, but the most pressing danger.
One writer applies the picture to the ruin of Judah, and names the one thing that could have saved her.
You cannot avoid so sad an end by "daubing with untempered mortar" — by trying to heal divisions while glossing over the evils that led to them, and so failing to hear the voice of God in them. One course, and one alone, would have saved Judah: real self-judgment and a broken spirit before the Lord, causing the people to "tremble at His Word."
One writer applies verses 10-15 to a day still ahead, when the leaders of Israel trust a peace that leaves God out.
At that time they will believe that they are at last firmly settled in their land, and that an age of peace without God has begun. They will say, "Peace," when there is no peace. They will build a wall of protection around themselves and daub it with untempered mortar. But a stormy wind will tear it apart, and great hailstones will destroy it in the wrath of God.
For anyone who works with souls, the warning becomes a short list of rules.
Let us avoid everything that would lead to such disastrous results, whatever it costs our own reputation for success in the work of the Lord. Never daub the wall with untempered mortar, saying, Peace! peace! when there is no peace. Never hurry a soul into confession. Never treat sin lightly. Preach truth as well as grace. Emphasize repentance.
- Wall. The people build the shelter themselves. The prophets only add the coating, so the false comfort belongs to both.
- Daub. The prophets add a coating that hides the cracks. It is mortar that will not bind.
- Storm. God Himself sends the wind and the hail. The test is not how a wall looks in calm weather. It is whether it stands when His judgment strikes.
- Exposure. When the wall goes down, God uncovers the foundation: a lie all the way through. Covering evil never removes it. It only destroys those who trusted the cover.
- Alternative. What would have saved Judah still saves today. It is honest self-judgment, trembling at God's Word, and building only with God's materials. Preach truth as well as grace, and never treat sin lightly.
say unto them which daub it with untempered [mortar] that it shall fall there shall be an overflowing rain, and ye, O great hailstones, shall fall, and a stormy wind shall burst forth.
Ezekiel is speaking to prophets who promised safety to Jerusalem. God names the storm that will hit their plastered wall: flooding rain, hailstones, and a wind that tears. What happens to a defence that looks finished but was never built to hold? (The ESV says "whitewash." Older translations call it "untempered mortar," and the writers below use that older wording.)
God's charge falls on the coating, not on the wall. One commentator calls such a defence a sham, and shows who stands behind the storm:
He will not have His people led away to their ruin while the ones who mislead them go unpunished. Least of all will He hear the holy name of peace twisted to selfish mischief. It is like a wall of defence built, but only smeared with mortar that will not hold. What is it but a sham? "It shall fall" is the word to the builders. "An overflowing shower comes, and you, O great hailstones, shall fall, and a storm of wind shall tear it." The Lord pledges Himself to such a judgment. Every refuge of lies will be torn down, and both the misleaders and the misled will be destroyed. They will know, with dread, that it is God who is judging the false prophets and their vision of a peace that is no peace.
The wall does not just collapse. God brings it down far enough to show what it stood on. The judgment destroys, and it also exposes.
The scarcer the true prophet of the Lord became, the more these men swarmed around. They banded together and confirmed one another's words. One built up a wall and another smeared it with mortar that would not hold. It could never stand the storm that was at hand. God would bring it down completely to the dust, so that the foundation it was built on would be uncovered — a lie, all the way through. It could only work the destruction of those who trusted in it.
The coating failed because of what it was made of. That rule reaches far past Ezekiel's day:
The false prophets promised peace to Jerusalem when God threatened to bring judgement. Their work is compared to building a wall and covering it with mortar that will not hold. God's wind would blow down the wall. Ezek. 13:10-15. This teaches a needed lesson: everything built for God must be built with God's materials, otherwise it will not stand. Compare 1 Cor. 3:11-15.
Commentators also read the picture forward. One sees the same wall and the same storm in a day still to come for Israel:
They will believe at this time that they are at last firmly settled in their land, and that an era of peace without God has begun. They will say, "Peace, and there is no peace." They will build a wall of protection around themselves and cover it with mortar that will not hold. But a stormy wind will tear it, and great hailstones will consume it in the wrath of God (Ezek. 13:10-15).
Another aims the same picture at Christendom — the world of people who call themselves Christian. Its comfort, he warns, is not kindness:
We dare not try to prophesy smooth things — to cry peace, peace, when there is no peace, but obvious ruin and judgment close at hand. What possible use is it to smear the wretched walls of Christendom with the untempered mortar of human thoughts and opinions? "Use," did I say? It is positive cruelty. As surely as God is in heaven, the stormy blast of divine judgment will before long demolish those walls and sweep them away.
Another writer turns the warning into plain advice for anyone who helps another soul:
Never smear the wall with mortar that will not hold, saying, "Peace! peace!" when there is no peace. Never hurry a soul into confession. Never treat sin lightly. Preach truth as well as grace. Emphasize repentance. Do not count your chickens before they are hatched, nor break the shell to hatch them. If you do, they will not be strong.
- Coating, not building. They covered the wall instead of strengthening it. A covering that will not hold makes a defence a sham, and God's word to its builders is that it will fall.
- Materials decide. Everything built for God must be built with God's materials, or it will not stand.
- The storm uncovers. God pledges Himself to this judgment. He brings the wall down to the dust and lays bare its foundation — a lie all the way through that destroys everyone who trusted it.
- The pattern returns. Commentators apply the same picture forward: to a day when Israel trusts a peace without God, and to the smooth words spoken over Christendom today.
- Kindness that kills. Crying "peace" where there is no peace is not mercy but cruelty. The honest way is to preach truth as well as grace, and to stress repentance.
And lo, when the wall is fallen, shall it not be said unto you, Where is the daubing with which ye have daubed [it]?
The wall here is not brick and stone. It is a false message. Prophets in Israel told a doomed city it was safe, and others coated their words to make them look solid. When the storm brings that wall down, one question is left: where did the coating go? (Older translations call the covering "untempered mortar.")
The picture comes from ordinary building work. Builders smeared plaster over a wall to give it a finished face. The prophets did the same for a doomed nation.
The false prophets promised peace to Jerusalem when God threatened to bring judgement. Their work was like building a wall and daubing it with untempered mortar: God's wind would blow the wall down. Ezek. 13:10-15. This teaches a needed lesson. Everything built for God must be built with God's materials, or it will not stand.
Verse 12 is the moment the covering is gone and the base lies bare. The weather alone did not bring the wall down. What went into it from the start did.
Yet these were the men who swarmed around, and the scarcer the Lord's true prophet became, the more of them there were. They banded together and backed up one another's words. One built up a wall and another daubed it with untempered mortar, and it could never stand the storm that was at hand. God would bring it right down to the dust, so that the foundation it was built on would come to light — a lie, all through, which could only destroy those who trusted in it. Their promise of peace could only bring war, and their pretence of safety only moved God to sweep away the refuge of lies.
One writer also reads the passage as pointing forward. In that reading, the leaders of the Jews make a covenant that leaves God out, and the same storm falls on the shelter they build.
Isaiah 28:14-20 speaks of this covenant as a God-defying covenant on the part of the leaders of the Jews. At that time they will believe they are settled in their land at last, and that an age of peace without God has begun. They will say, "Peace," when there is no peace. They will build a wall of protection around themselves and daub it with untempered mortar. But a stormy wind will tear it apart, and great hailstones will destroy it in the wrath of God (Ezekiel 13:10-15).
The wind, rain and hail are not random. They are the test that shows what a person was resting on all along.
Heaven is silent today: no fiery bolts proceed from there to drive the guilty into eternal woe. But before long a real hurricane of divine wrath will burst out. It will reveal beyond dispute where men stand. Every unreal structure will then totter and fall. A fine moral and religious front will not shield anyone from judgement who has not trusted the Saviour and His precious blood as a lost sinner. As the prophet declared ages ago: "the hail will sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters will overwhelm the shelter" (Isa. 28:17). Happy, eternally happy, is the man who has built on Christ, the Son of God. This foundation will stand, and this alone.
One writer applies the image to preaching in Christendom — the whole professing Christian world. Smooth words that leave people in danger are not kindness at all.
Of what possible use is it to daub the wretched walls of Christendom with the untempered mortar of human thoughts and opinions? "Use," did I say? It is positive cruelty. As sure as God is in heaven, the stormy blast of divine judgment will soon demolish those walls and sweep them away.
This turns into plain rules for preaching and for helping a troubled soul.
Never daub the wall with untempered mortar, saying, Peace! peace! when there is no peace. Never hurry a soul into confession. Never treat sin lightly. Preach truth as well as grace. Emphasize repentance.
The same warning covers how believers handle trouble among themselves. Smoothing over a division is whitewash too.
You cannot avoid such a sad result by "daubing with untempered mortar" — trying to heal divisions by glossing over the evils that caused them, and so failing to hear the voice of God in them. One course, and one alone, would have saved Judah: genuine self-judgment and brokenness of spirit before the Lord.
- Coating. Plaster on a wall gives a finished look. The prophets' promise of peace did the same for a doomed city.
- Cracks. Lies went into the wall from the base up. No coating on the surface could hold it against the storm.
- Collapse. God's wind, rain and hail bring it to the ground. Verse 12 asks where the coating went; the foundation now lies bare.
- Exposure. The storm shows beyond argument where each person stands. Only what rests on Christ survives.
- Correction. Anyone who speaks for God must use God's materials: truth as well as grace, repentance pressed home, sin never treated lightly.
Therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah I will cause to burst forth a stormy wind in my fury; and there shall be an overflowing rain in mine anger, and hail-stones in fury for utter destruction.
The wall in this chapter was never real protection — it was a screen of comfortable words that other men whitewashed to look solid. Here God speaks in the first person: the storm that levels it is not bad weather but His own wrath, and it tests everything we build and every message we preach.
False prophets multiplied as true ones grew scarce, and they backed up each other's words. When God brings their wall down, the fall uncovers what it rested on.
These men swarmed in ever greater numbers as the true prophet of the Lord grew scarce. They banded together and confirmed one another's words. One built up a wall, and another daubed it with untempered mortar, which could never stand the storm that was at hand. God would bring it down to the dust, so that everyone would see the foundation it stood on — a lie, all through, which could work nothing but the destruction of those who trusted in it. Their prophesying of peace could only provoke war. Their pretence of security could only provoke God to sweep away the refuge of lies.
These men spoke out of their own hearts and put God's name on it. That is why the sentence falls so hard.
To prophesy out of your own heart is to ensure judgment from God. However gracious and merciful He is, He must be jealous of His majesty and truth, which such prophets utterly misrepresent and profane. What could be the end for themselves and such as followed them but destruction? They were like foxes in the ruins, full of craft and mischief.
The wind that bursts out here is not loose weather.
God uses the wind, as He uses everything else, to work out His purposes with man. Exodus 10:13; Psalm 135:7; Ezekiel 13:13.
The hail turns a mercy into a weapon.
The hail brings the thought out sharply — the frozen drops of rain. Those gentle showers that water the earth so it can bring forth its fruit are turned into death-dealing wrath! For a world that rejects Christ, wrath is stored up for the day of wrath, and the hail is a picture of it (Exodus 9:22; Haggai 2:17; Psalm 18:12; Revelation 16:21).
Untempered mortar was a coating daubed on to make the wall look finished. The failure was in the material, and that carries a rule far past Ezekiel's day.
The false prophets promised peace to Jerusalem while God was threatening judgment. Ezekiel compares their work to building a wall and daubing it with untempered mortar: God's wind would blow the wall down (Ezekiel 13:10-15). This teaches a needed lesson. Everything built for God must be built with God's materials, or it will not stand (compare 1 Corinthians 3:11-15).
Some writers see this pattern repeated in a future time of false security.
At that time they will believe they are settled in their land at last, and that an age of peace without God has begun. They will say, "Peace," when there is no peace. They will build a wall of protection around themselves and daub it with untempered mortar. But a stormy wind will tear it apart, and great hailstones will consume it in the wrath of God (Ezekiel 13:10-15).
Soothing words in the face of judgment look kind. One writer applies the picture to Christendom — the professing Christian world — and gives them a harder name.
What use is it to daub the sorry walls of Christendom with the untempered mortar of human thoughts and opinions? "Use," did I say? It is nothing less than cruelty. As certainly as God is in heaven, the stormy blast of divine judgment will soon demolish those walls and sweep them away.
The alternative is not harshness. It is refusing to let anyone feel safe on a foundation that will not hold.
Never daub the wall with untempered mortar, saying, "Peace, peace," when there is no peace. Never hurry a soul into confession. Never treat sin lightly. Preach truth as well as grace. Emphasize repentance.
- The lie — Prophets speaking out of their own hearts put God's name on their own ideas. God is jealous of His truth, and judgment follows.
- The wall — Comfortable words are a wall that others plaster over. Whatever we build for God must use His materials, or it will not stand.
- The storm — Wind, rain and hail are His servants, so what would have watered a harvest comes down as wrath instead.
- The exposure — When the wall falls, everyone sees its foundation: a lie all the way through, and it destroys those who sheltered behind it.
- The warning — Plastering over coming judgment is cruelty, not kindness. Preach truth alongside grace, and never treat sin lightly.
And I will break down the wall that ye have daubed with untempered [mortar], and bring it down to the ground, so that the foundation thereof shall be discovered; and it shall fall, and ye shall be destroyed in the midst thereof; and ye shall know that I [am] Jehovah.
Ezekiel 13 turns from the nation's rulers to its prophets — men who told a doomed city that all was well. Here God tears down the wall they coated, and the coaters die inside it. (Older translations call the whitewash "untempered mortar," the wording the writers below use.)
The picture comes from ordinary building work, where the mortar decided whether a wall stood.
Mortar was made by treading the clay (Nahum 3:14). The false prophets promised peace to Jerusalem when God threatened to bring judgment. Their work is like building a wall and daubing it with untempered mortar: God's wind would blow down the wall (Ezekiel 13:10-15). This teaches a needed lesson. Everything built for God must use God's materials, or it will not stand: compare 1 Corinthians 3:11-15.
These prophets had no word from God, so they supplied one themselves.
To be a prophet out of one's own heart is to ensure judgment from God, who, however gracious and merciful, must be jealous of His majesty and truth, which are utterly misrepresented and profaned. What could be the end, for themselves and for those who followed them, but destruction?
God takes the wall right down to the ground to show what was underneath. The fall condemns the builders and everyone who leaned on their work, and it shows who the Lord is.
The scarcer the Lord's true prophet became, the more these men swarmed around. They banded together and confirmed one another's words. One built up a wall and another daubed it with untempered mortar. It could never stand the storm that was at hand. God would bring it right down to the dust, so that its foundation would show — a lie all through, which could only destroy those who trusted in it. Their prophesying of peace could only provoke war, and their pretence of security could only provoke God to sweep away the refuge of lies. However much men misrepresent Him, He must still and always be the Lord. Against the men who misrepresent Him He will be found to be Jehovah — the unchanging One.
One writer reads this passage as more than history. The same false confidence returns at the end, when Israel's leaders announce peace without God.
They will believe that they are at last firmly established in their land, and that an era of peace without God has begun. They will say, "Peace, and there is no peace." They will build a wall of protection around themselves and daub it with untempered mortar. But a stormy wind will tear it apart, and great hailstones will destroy it in the wrath of God (Ezekiel 13:10-15).
One writer applies the image to divisions among believers.
"Daubing with untempered mortar" cannot avoid such a sad outcome. It tries to heal divisions by glossing over the evils that led to them, and so fails to hear the voice of God in them. One course, and one alone, would have saved Judah. That was genuine self-judgment and brokenness of spirit before the Lord, causing the people to "tremble at His Word."
That leaves a stark choice, which one writer puts as a question.
Is it better to bear before men the shame of nakedness and the reproach of the apostasy and ruin of the churches, or to daub with untempered mortar and keep up an appearance before men that is not true in the eyes of God?
- Materials — The wall failed because of what it was made of. Build for God with God's materials, or it will not stand.
- Source — The mortar came from men prophesying out of their own hearts. Speaking for God without a word from God secures His judgment.
- Exposure — God levels the wall on purpose, so its foundation shows: a lie all through, destroying everyone who trusted it. Then they know who the Lord is.
- Repeat — The same wall goes up again at the end. Israel's leaders announce peace without God, and a storm tears their shelter apart.
- Choice — The plaster always comes off. So judge yourself honestly now, instead of keeping an appearance God already sees through.
And I will accomplish my fury upon the wall, and upon them that daub it with untempered [mortar], and will say unto you, The wall is no [more], neither they that daubed it,
Ezekiel 13:15 ends God's case against the prophets who promised Jerusalem peace: their wall falls, and they fall with it. Where the ESV says "whitewash," older translations say "untempered mortar" — the useless coating the writers below keep returning to.
A wall of defence that will not hold is worse than useless. God's answer goes to the men behind it.
He will not let anyone lead His people away to ruin and go unpunished. Least of all will He hear men twist the holy name of peace for selfish mischief. It is like a wall of defence that men build and then smear with mortar that will not hold. What is it but a sham? It shall fall, is the word to the builders.
The failure here is one of materials. And the rule holds far beyond Ezekiel's day.
The false prophets promised peace to Jerusalem when God threatened to bring judgement. Scripture compares their work to building a wall and covering it with mortar that would not hold. God's wind would blow the wall down. Ezek. 13:10-15. This teaches a needed lesson: anything built for God must be built with God's materials, or it will not stand. Compare 1 Cor. 3:11-15.
God does not just let the wall fall. He brings it down until what it stood on is in plain view.
These men swarmed around, and the scarcer the true prophet of the Lord became, the more of them appeared. They banded together and confirmed one another's words. One built up a wall and another covered it with mortar that would not hold. That wall could never stand the storm at hand. God would bring it right down to the dust. Then the foundation under it would come to light — a lie, all through. That lie could only destroy the people who trusted in it.
The wall and the men who coated it go down together. Kelly shows how slow God is to reach this point.
What an awful thing it is when the enemies of God morally compel Him to be their enemy! He is long-suffering and rich in mercy, slow to wrath. But when more patience would ruin His saints and compromise His own honour, He declares war on those who undermine His glory by hypocrisy... Jehovah pledges Himself to such a judgment. He will level every refuge of lies. Misleaders and misled will be destroyed alike. Both will know, with dread, that it is God judging the false prophets and their vision of a peace that is no peace.
Mawson reads verses 10-15 as more than past history. He sees Israel building the same false shelter in a day still to come.
At that time they will believe they are settled in their land for good. They will think an era of peace without God has begun. They will say, "Peace, and there is no peace." They will build a wall of protection around themselves and cover it with mortar that will not hold. But a stormy wind will tear it, and great hailstones will consume it in the wrath of God (Ezek. 13:10-15).
Mackintosh turns the image on anyone who preaches comfort where God has announced judgment.
We dare not try to prophesy smooth things. We dare not cry peace, peace, when there is no peace, but obvious ruin and judgment close at hand. What use is it to cover the wretched walls of Christendom with the useless mortar of human thoughts and opinions? "Use," did I say? It is downright cruelty. As surely as God is in heaven, the stormy blast of divine judgment will soon demolish those walls and sweep them away.
The alternative is plain speech about a person's guilt.
It is our duty and privilege to do His work well: not to cover things over with mortar that will not hold, nor to heal a wound lightly. If the conscience must be conquered and the pride of man humbled, then the first and main effort must be to show a man his guilt. We must "open his eyes" to what he has done and is. Then he can take his true place before the God of infinite love and holiness.
- The wall — a defence that looked strong and held nothing. God calls it a sham long before the storm arrives.
- The whitewash — the promise of "peace" that made the sham believable. It was not God's material, so it could not hold.
- The wrath — God levels the wall until its foundation shows: a lie all through. The coating hid nothing.
- The workers — the wall goes, and the men who coated it go with it. Those who misled and those who were misled fall together.
- The warning — covering over what God has condemned is not kindness but cruelty. Plain words that open a person's eyes are the kindness he needs.
the prophets of Israel who prophesy concerning Jerusalem, and who see a vision of peace for her, and there is no peace, saith the Lord Jehovah.
Ezekiel 13 closes by naming the men God has been describing. They were prophets who spoke over Jerusalem, promising peace to a city already marked for judgment. Their story raises a question for every generation: what do you do when God's message and the popular message clash?
The chapter's charge is not that these men were careless, but that their source was themselves. William Kelly weighs what that means before God:
To be a prophet out of one's own heart is to ensure judgment from God. However gracious and merciful He is, He must be jealous of His majesty and truth, which such prophesying utterly misrepresents and profanes. What could be the end, for themselves and for those who followed them, but destruction? They were like foxes among the ruins, full of craft and mischief.
Why was there no peace to announce? F. B. Hole points to the order God Himself keeps:
Notice that purity comes first, before peace. If we think about it we will at once realise that this must be so, since everything is from God. He never compromises with evil, and so there can be no peace except in purity. Again and again this was the burden of the prophets.
What made these prophets popular was that following them cost nothing:
The false prophets in Ezekiel 13 made it very easy for people to go along. The reason was that they prophesied out of their own heart. The serious thing was that they followed their own spirit and paid no attention to the words of God.
Earlier in the chapter, God pictures the false message as fresh plaster smeared over a wall that cannot stand. Older translations call that plaster "untempered mortar"; the ESV calls it whitewash. C. H. Mackintosh applies the image to religious life that refuses to face its own condition:
I know people do not like to hear such teaching. Smooth things are far more agreeable and more popular. But we must speak the truth. We dare not try to prophesy smooth things — to cry peace, peace, when there is no peace, but obvious ruin and imminent judgment. What possible use is it to daub the wretched walls of Christendom with the untempered mortar of human thoughts and opinions? "Use," did I say? It is positive cruelty.
Kelly weighs what it means when men force God to stand against them:
What an awful thing it is when the enemies of God morally compel Him to be their enemy! He is long-suffering, full of mercy, and slow to anger. But patience carried on any longer would ruin His saints and compromise His own honour. So He declares war on those who undermine His glory by hypocrisy and block His holy will for His people. And the anger of the LORD matches His majesty.
Kelly also shows how the punishment answered the message:
The character of the sin is remembered in the punishment. Did the false prophets soothe the national feeling of the Jews by promising a quick return from exile? They themselves would never see the land from which the enemy drove them out. So they would learn who and what their God was, whose name they had trifled with.
The positive side follows. If the fault was making things easy, then honest work with souls will not skip the uncomfortable step:
As His servants and messengers to the souls of men, it is our duty and privilege to do His work well. We must not daub with untempered mortar, nor heal lightly. If the conscience must be conquered and the pride of man humbled, then the first effort must be to show a man his guilt. We must "open his eyes" to what he has done and what he is. Then he may take his true place before the God of infinite love and holiness, in utter hatred of himself and his ways.
J. T. Mawson sees the same false confidence over Jerusalem in days still to come:
They will believe at that time that they are at last firmly established in their land. They will think an era of peace without God has begun. They will say, "Peace, and there is no peace." They will build a wall of protection around themselves and daub it with untempered mortar. But a stormy wind will tear it apart, and great hailstones will destroy it in the wrath of God.
- Source. These prophets spoke "out of their own heart." Kelly says a message that starts in a man, not in God, ends in destruction — for the speaker and for those who follow him.
- Substance. Peace cannot come before purity. God never compromises with evil, so a peace built over unjudged sin has nothing holding it up.
- Appeal. They made the road easy. They followed their own spirit and paid no attention to God's words.
- Cost. Smoothing over ruin is not kindness. Mackintosh calls it cruelty: plaster hides a wall's weakness but never cures it.
- Storm. The wall falls, and God Himself declares war on the men who daubed it. Mawson sees the same false confidence in a future peace made without God, which wind and hail will destroy.