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Ezekiel Chapter
Thirteen
Ezekiel 13
Chapter Contents
Heavy judgments against lying prophets. (1-9) The
insufficiency of their work. (10-16) Woes against false prophetesses. (17-23)
Commentary on Ezekiel 13:1-9
(Read Ezekiel 13:1-9)
Where God gives a warrant to do any thing, he gives
wisdom. What they delivered was not what they had seen or heard, as that is
which the ministers of Christ deliver. They were not praying prophets, had no
intercourse with Heaven; they contrived how to please people, not how to do
them good; they stood not against sin. They flattered people into vain hopes.
Such widen the breach, by causing men to think themselves deserving of eternal
life, when the wrath of God abides upon them.
Commentary on Ezekiel 13:10-16
(Read Ezekiel 13:10-16)
One false prophet built the wall, set up the notion that
Jerusalem should be victorious, and made himself acceptable by it. Others made
the matter yet more plausible and promising; they daubed the wall which the
first had built; but they would, ere long, be undeceived when their work was
beaten down by the storm of God's just wrath; when the Chaldean army desolated
the land. Hopes of peace and happiness, not warranted by the word of God, will
cheat men; like a wall well daubed, but ill built.
Commentary on Ezekiel 13:17-23
(Read Ezekiel 13:17-23)
It is ill with those who had rather hear pleasing lies
than unpleasing truths. The false prophetesses tried to make people secure,
signified by laying them at ease, and to make them proud, signified by the
finery laid on their heads. They shall be confounded in their attempts, and
God's people shall be delivered out of their hands. It behoves Christians to
keep close to the word of God, and in every thing to seek the teaching of the
Holy Spirit. Let us so trust the promises of God as to keep his commandments.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on Ezekiel》
Ezekiel 13
Verse 2
[2] Son
of man, prophesy against the prophets of Israel that prophesy, and say thou
unto them that prophesy out of their own hearts, Hear ye the word of the LORD;
That prophesy —
Out of their own deceiving hearts, not from God.
Verse 3
[3] Thus saith the Lord GOD; Woe unto the foolish prophets, that follow their
own spirit, and have seen nothing!
Foolish prophets —
Foolish prophets are not of God's sending: for whom he sends, he either finds
fit, or makes fit. Where he gives warrant, he gives wisdom.
Their own spirit —
Not the spirit of God.
Seen nothing —
God hath shewed them no vision.
Verse 4
[4] O
Israel, thy prophets are like the foxes in the deserts.
Thy prophets —
Thy prophets, not mine.
Like the foxes —
Hungry, and ravening, crafty, and guileful.
In the deserts —
Where want makes them more eager after their prey.
Verse 5
[5] Ye
have not gone up into the gaps, neither made up the hedge for the house of
Israel to stand in the battle in the day of the LORD.
Ye — Vain prophets.
Gone up — As
in a besieged city, whose wall is broken down, a valiant soldier would run up
into the breach to repel the enemy; so true prophets partly by prayer, and
partly by doctrine, labour to preserve God's people.
Hedge —
The house of Israel is the Lord's vineyard, through the hedge whereof many
breaches are made.
To stand —
Not with arms, but with fasting, prayer, and repentance.
Verse 6
[6] They have seen vanity and lying divination, saying, The LORD saith: and
the LORD hath not sent them: and they have made others to hope that they would
confirm the word.
Vanity —
Things that have no foundation.
Verse 9
[9] And
mine hand shall be upon the prophets that see vanity, and that divine lies:
they shall not be in the assembly of my people, neither shall they be written
in the writing of the house of Israel, neither shall they enter into the land
of Israel; and ye shall know that I am the Lord GOD.
Mine hand — My
power striking them.
In the assembly —
Have no seat among the rulers, nor voice among the counsellors.
Written —
Not registered among those that return, Ezra 2:1,2.
Enter —
They shall never come into the land of Israel. They shall not be written in the
book of eternal life, which is written for the just ones of the house of
Israel, saith the Chaldea paraphrast.
Verse 10
[10]
Because, even because they have seduced my people, saying, Peace; and there was
no peace; and one built up a wall, and, lo, others daubed it with untempered
morter:
Peace —
They told sinners, no harm would happen to them. And those are the most
dangerous seducers, who suggest to sinners that which tends to lessen their
dread of sin, or their fear of God. These are compared to men who build a
slight tottering wall, which others daub with untempered mortar; sorry stuff,
that will not bind, nor hold the bricks together: doctrines not grounded on the
word of God.
Verse 14
[14] So
will I break down the wall that ye have daubed with untempered morter, and
bring it down to the ground, so that the foundation thereof shall be
discovered, and it shall fall, and ye shall be consumed in the midst thereof:
and ye shall know that I am the LORD.
Ye shall know —
Those that deceived others, will in the end be found to have deceived
themselves. And no doom will be more fearful, than that of unfaithful
ministers.
Verse 15
[15] Thus
will I accomplish my wrath upon the wall, and upon them that have daubed it
with untempered morter, and will say unto you, The wall is no more, neither
they that daubed it;
Accomplish —
Fulfil what my prophets foretold.
Verse 18
[18] And
say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Woe to the women that sew pillows to all
armholes, and make kerchiefs upon the head of every stature to hunt souls! Will
ye hunt the souls of my people, and will ye save the souls alive that come unto
you?
Sew pillows — A
figurative speech, expressing the security, which they promised to every one
that came to them.
Kerchiefs —
Triumphal caps, which were made by these prophetesses, and put upon the head of
every who one consulted them, and by these they were to interpret, as a promise
of victory over the Babylonians.
Stature —
That is, of every age, whether younger or elder, which usually is seen by their
stature.
To hunt —
All this is really spreading a net, as hunters do, to catch the prey.
Will ye save —
Can you preserve them alive, whom you deceive by your promises?
Verse 19
[19] And
will ye pollute me among my people for handfuls of barley and for pieces of
bread, to slay the souls that should not die, and to save the souls alive that
should not live, by your lying to my people that hear your lies?
Pollute me —
Pretending my name for what I never spake.
My people — My
own people.
Handfuls of barley —
For a mean reward.
To slay —
You denounce evil to the best, whom God wilt keep alive.
To save — Declaring
safety, to the worst, whom God will destroy.
Verse 20
[20]
Wherefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against your pillows, wherewith
ye there hunt the souls to make them fly, and I will tear them from your arms,
and will let the souls go, even the souls that ye hunt to make them fly.
There — At
Jerusalem.
Grow —
You promise a flourishing, growing, state to all enquirers; and this is the net
with which you hunt souls.
Tear them —
With violence, and suddenness.
Verse 23
[23]
Therefore ye shall see no more vanity, nor divine divinations: for I will
deliver my people out of your hand: and ye shall know that I am the LORD.
See no more vanity|-They shall see all their
predictions vanish, which shall so confound them, that they shall pretend no
more to visions.
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on Ezekiel》
13 Chapter 13
Verses 1-23
Verses 1-3
Them that prophesy out of their own hearts.
The false prophet
To be a false prophet seems to us, indeed, an enormity. To have
the great gift and trust of prophecy, and then to misuse it; to be admitted, if
we may so speak, of God’s council, and then to sink that heavenly teaching in
earthly and sensual thoughts,--this seems so high a measure of guilt, that we
wonder not at the “woe” pronounced against it. Nay, as we read, we set our
“amen” to it, little thinking that in so doing we may be, in truth, sealing our
own condemnation. We see not that this very sin is that which doth most
constantly beset us also; that many a ministry which seems to man’s eye without
reproach is indeed stained with the self-same guilt as that wherewith these
prophets were defiled; that, in spite of its fair outline, the “woe” of the
Almighty is gone forth against it. If we examine the testimonies against these
false prophets which abound throughout the Books of Jeremiah and Ezekiel, we
shall find that God does not charge them with altering His message wilfully and
of set purpose to deceive. The charges are rather, that they are themselves
deceived (Jeremiah 5:13; Jeremiah 10:9; Jeremiah 14:14; Jeremiah 23:16; Lamentations 2:14; Ezekiel 13:3; Ezekiel 13:7; Ezekiel 13:9). It was not, apparently,
that the false prophet knowingly altered the message he had received, but that
for some cause or other there was this peril incident to his office, that he
might be deceived and become a deceiver in some sense unconsciously; and then,
if we look closer, we shall see that various causes are given for the fearful
fall of the false prophet, and that they are all of one complexion--that they
are what we call moral causes. Uncleanness of life, covetousness, softness of
spirit, luxury, fondness for the pleasures of this life, these and many such
like moral faults are expressly mentioned as the causes of this spirit of error
and lies which filled these men and brought on them God’s fearful “woe.” The
prophets prophesied lies, because they “followed their own spirit, and had seen
nothing.” And now, if from the case of false prophets we turn to that of those
who were faithful, we shall be brought to the same conclusion: we shall see,
that is, that the distinction between them and the prophets of lies consisted
not in their exclusive possession of those supernatural illapses of knowledge,
to which we are apt to look, as making all the difference between one and
another, but in the use which, from their spiritual and moral condition, they
were able to make of these gifts. Look at the prophet who never “prophesied
good” of the wicked king, but always “evil”; and see whether it was not in that
noble gift of venturing all for the truth of God, wherein in very deed he
differed from the earthly-minded sycophants, who made horns of iron, and
prophesied, that as with them the Syrians should be pushed unto entire
destruction. Or take, as a sufficient proof, the case of the prophet Jeremiah.
To him was opened, by a special revelation, the speedy coming of God’s judgments
upon Judah, which nothing but the absolute submission of Jerusalem to the King
of Babylon could turn aside. So far he learned by revelation; but having
learned thus much, mark his after history; see the constantly recurring moral
temptation to tamper with this truth, to which he was subjected: the violence
of the princes--the rage of the people--the feebleness of the king--their
private interviews--the bribes offered to buy off his faithfulness--the miry
dungeon of Malchiah; each of these was a temptation to lower down his message;
to utter it less boldly, less frequently; less simply--to suppress it, to alter
it. But against them all he stood firm, and why? Because a deep and abiding
sense of God’s greatness and truth and awfulness lay beneath all other things,
as the very foundation of his mind; and this kept him ever firm and constant.
In an utterly unfaithful age and nation, remaining faithful when well-nigh
everyone around him failed, he preserved untainted, amidst the crowd of lying
seers, the truth of God’s anointed prophet. So that here we are brought to the
same point: the blindness of the false prophet was the fruit of failing in his
moral probation; the ghostly insight of the true prophet was kept quick and
piercing, by his faithful cleaving to God amidst the ordinary temptations of
life. And if this be so, surely this is exactly our condition, as far as
concerns the ministry of the Word; and these woes against deceived prophets
stand written on high, in their characters of fire, to warn us upon our
ordinary way. For we also have our message: that which was given to the old
prophets by special revelation we have plainly written for us in the page of
Holy Scripture. Nor can we doubt that, if this message be delivered faithfully
and wisely, it will produce an evident result in awakening sinners and building
up the saints. We may see, moreover, that in our case the cause of failure is,
in fact, the same as in the prophets of old. First, our own perceptions become
obscured. For it is only by the teaching of the Holy Spirit that we can really
enter into the deep mysteries of redemption. Impurity cannot lay hold upon
purity. There are many doors of holy teaching, which open only to the key of
love; and there is in love a marvellous power of understanding, a wonderful
forecasting of the future; for love is a great reader of secrets. Even in
earthly things, which are but a shadow of the true, we may see this. What an
interpreter of hidden meanings is a loving spirit! how quick and piercing is it
in reaching to the inner wishes, feeling, and intentions of another! And so
doubtless it is where the love of God dwells in an earthly heart. The man is
free, as it were, of the counsels of God. He reaches on to great things at
unawares. In doing common duties, as they seem to him, he is sowing good seed
for a distant day; he is reaching out far beyond the present, anticipating
God’s future doings. Nor, secondly, can our own views of God’s truth become
thus obscured without their impairing in an equal degree our power of conveying
the message to others. First, this state of heart must destroy the reality of
our teaching. We shall prophesy a lie; for we shall prophesy of truth itself as
if it were a lie. There is nothing that our people feel more readily than this
unreal declaration of God’s message. There is no close work with the heart or
the life; but all is exhausted in mere form, or else in general appeals to the
feelings, or in yet more fruitless addresses to the understanding, as the case
may be. What., then, is this but to prophesy a lie? And this is not all. There
can be little of a true loving earnestness in such ministry. There may be an
apparent zeal as to forms, or as to preaching, and its other more external
parts; but there can be little true sympathy with the wants and sufferings of
man’s heart, because there is little knowledge of them. There can be little of
that deep earnest casting forth of the inmost spirit to meet another’s wants,
which oftentimes makes silent sympathy in one man far more expressive than a
multitude of words in another; and which, as by some heavenly influence,
soothes and opens and wins the sufferer’s heart. I may not detain you to trace
out all the characters of that earnest seeking after God’s truth to which we
are bound; its faintest sketch may supply us with much ground for profitable
thought. First, then, if we would attain to it, we must live in the habitual
and devotional study of God’s Word. The great importance of this habit is not
so much that we may understand obscure passages, still less that we may be
discoverers of new truths, as that our whole tone of thinking and feeling may
be attuned to things Divine. But then, to this we must add an humble use of
every means that God has given us for understanding His Word rightly. By the
ordinances of the Church; the testimony of succeeding generations; the judgment
of humble and holy men; the witness borne to various truths by all the saints,
living and departed, reformers, fathers, and antiquity; by each of these in
their place, we humbly hope that God may teach us better how to understand His
Word. Secondly, we must watch earnestly for the leading of the Spirit of the
Lord. We must believe that this gift is in the Church, and seek to use it
lawfully; we must remember how the Spirit of God does teach us, not by
conveying to our minds direct propositions, but by clearing off those moral
clouds which would dim all our perceptions of truth; by teaching our hearts, by
giving us reality, earnestness, love, and a bold humility,--those mighty
masters of the secret things of God. We shall therefore cooperate with Him by
watching diligently our own hearts; by guarding them against the beginnings of
worldliness; by seeking after a deeper humility of spirit; knowing that pride
above all things breaks and distorts the images of heavenly truth which are
cast forth upon our minds; that pride in the heart of the learner makes all
teaching vain; that humility can learn great lessons from any teacher. And
lastly, as the bond which is to hold together all these various elements, we
must, if we would be faithful prophets, seek after eminent holiness of life.
This will give us an insight into God’s truth in its reality; this will open to
us our own hearts, and so the hearts of our brethren; this will set us in the
way of those blessed breathings of the Holy Spirit which fall ever upon the
still waters of holiness, and waft on most noiselessly those who always haunt
them into the secrets of the Lord. This will enable us to live ever with Him
even in this world of shadows. (Bishop S. Wilberforce.)
False prophesying
1. What is the specific charge made against false prophets? That they
speak out of their own hearts, and that they follow their own spirit. How prone
are all men to do this!
2. Every man now prophesies out of himself. Let us beware how we
degrade a right into a perversion of liberty and a mischievous use of
independence. There is a right of private judgment, there is an individuality
of conscience: but no judgment is complete that does not measure itself with
other judgments, and no conscience is complete that is not in touch with other
consciences; for the last conscience is the result and expression of spiritual
chemistry, combination, intermixture, divinely conducted. There may come a time
when personal testimony must be delivered with burning emphasis, and when a man
is compelled to enclose himself within a solitary altar; all these concessions
do not interfere with the central and dominant truth that no prophecy is of
private interpretation, and that all secret prayer needs to be brought out into
the open air of the Church, that there it may bloom in its completest beauty.
3. False prophets excite false hopes: what other could they do? “They
have made others to hope that they would confirm the Word.” A liar is very
careful to maintain some foothold upon the confidence of society. He who is all
false himself can only live upon the trustfulness of others. So, then, the
false prophet is the creator of false hopes; and if there be counterfeit coin
makers in our neighbourhood, it would not be an unwise thing to put out our
coin upon the table and look at it very carefully; and as there are false
prophets who have excited false hopes, it would not be unwise to take our hopes
one by one, and conduct upon each of them an unsparing analysis, saying, What
is it? what is its reason? what is its purpose? what is its value? what is its
origin? how is it supported by evidence? how is it ennobled by sacrifice? Any
hope that will not accept the test of sacrifice is a false hope.
4. False prophets had, however, some little ground to work upon: they
mistook the imaginary for the real: “Have ye not seen a vain vision?” That is
the difficulty. If there was absolutely nothing, we should have a clear course;
but we have lying definitions, we have occasional dreams, and peculiar
impressions; and people who resent the idea of accepting a theology made by the
Church adopt an astrology or a theology of their own, founded upon cobwebs,
built upon mist, and pointing to nothing. Let us pray God to cleanse our
vision, lest, seeing men as trees walking, or trees as men walking, we confound
the reality of things; and above all, let us say to one another, Brother, help
me, and I will help some weaker man, Let us have our strength common.
5. What course does the Lord pursue against such falsity? “I am
against you, saith the Lord God.” We know, then, exactly what strength we have
to encounter. It is only omnipotence. We have sometimes wondered how it is we
do not succeed. There need not be any wonder about it; for our failure arises
from one of two causes: either, first, that God is against us, in the sense of
judging us to be false; or God is trying us to develop our strength. Let us
adopt the second conclusion where we can, for it will cheer us and help us on
many a weary day.
6. What further course will the Lord take against these false
prophets? He will destroy them. They build a wall; He sends hail down upon it,
and brings the wall all to pieces. We need not go to the Prophet Ezekiel to
know if this is true. What walls we have built! What strength we were going to
have! We had already drawn out a hundred programmes, every one of which ended
in pounds, shillings, and pence; and a hundred more, ending in honour, fame,
influence; and another hundred, ending in herds and flocks, and abundance of
family connections and great peace, and long days: and whilst we were filling
our mouth with the wind the Lord touched us, and we fell down as dead men. If
the Lord, then, is so set against falsehood, what will He do for us? He will
speak the truth, He will send angels of truth, messengers of mercy and love.
Beware lest we have all our truth on paper, in propositions, innumerable and
well detailed dogmas: we must first have it in our souls, hearts, lives; we
must be prepared to live for it and to die for it, and then it will grow,
accumulate, multiply; and we shall begin to see, with the ever excellent
because ever modest philosopher, Sir Isaac Newton, that we have only gathered a
few shells on the shore, while the great ocean of truth lies all undiscovered
before us. Such modesty well becomes men who were born yesterday and may be
forgotten tomorrow. (J. Parker, D. D.)
Verse 4
Thy prophets are like the foxes in the desert.
False prophets like foxes
1. These creatures are lovers of grapes, as we know by a common
proverb; and consequently they did much damage in such countries as Judea,
which abounded with vineyards, as is noted in Song of Solomon 2:15, not only by
devouring the grapes but also by making holes in the walls and fences, whereby
they laid open the vineyards to other ravenous beasts as well as to themselves.
Just so did the false prophets to the cities of Judah: they did not only
beguile people of their substance, by the character which they assumed, and the
figure which they made among them; but by their false doctrines and subversions
of the genuine will and Word of God they broke down the walls and fences from
about them; I mean that blessing and protection of the Almighty which was
annexed to the obedience of His own laws.
2. In another respect did these prophets resemble the foxes in the
deserts, that they could make breaches, but had not the faculty of stopping
them up again. They did not call the people to repentance; or if they did, it
was but such a superficial fast as we read of (Jeremiah 36:1-32), at which they read his
prophecy, and then cut it in pieces and threw it into the fire. Their making up
of their breaches this way was but like the labour of unfaithful builders; one
laid the stones in the wall, and others daubed it with untempered mortar.
3. These false prophets resembled foxes in their fraudulent
practices. By crafty speeches and cunningly devised fables they misled the
hearts of the simple. They studied how to suit their discourses to the various
tempers of the people whom they conversed with; to prophesy smooth things to
the stout-hearted, and terrible things to the timorous, that they might keep
them all in the way which they would have them to walk in.
4. These false prophets had another property of foxes, which was a
prowling ravenous appetite. When they came out of their colleges into the
vineyard, they resolved that the making of their fortune, the arriving at a
plentiful condition, a goodly heritage, should be the first and greatest of all
their cares. So little were they concerned for the welfare of the people over
whom they pretended to be guardians and spiritual watchmen, that they would
sell their souls, as God complains here, for handfuls of barley and morsels of
bread.
5. As foxes are of the number of unclean beasts, so these prophets
were men of corrupt minds and loose morals. How prone they were to prevaricate
with God, and seduce the people, to counterfeit a Divine mission, to run when
they were not sent, to prophesy out of their own heart without a revelation, to
proclaim their visions of peace when there was no peace, is abundantly set
forth in this chapter. (W. Reading, M. A.)
False prophets like foxes
The prophets are like foxes: ruins are congenial to them; a
condition of decay is their proper sphere; there they can burrow as their
instincts prompt them. The main idea, however, is that their operations only
increase the devastation, and Undermine and bring down anything that may yet be
standing. In a declining and disastrous time the minds of men are excited and
feed on the wildest schemes; and, feeling themselves helpless, they readily
turn to those who pretend to speak to them in God’s name. And it only adds to
their ruin when those to whom they turn have no higher wisdom than themselves.
(A. B. Davidson, D. D.)
Verses 10-12
One built up a wall, and lo, others daubed it with untempered
mortar.
The wall daubed with untempered mortar
I. The text speaks
of a wall. Men look about them to discover some sort of wall or other behind
which to shelter from conscience and Divine threatening. I suppose this is
because conscience is not quite dead in any man. In some men it has been so
drugged and chloroformed that it never seems to act with anything like vigour,
and when it speaks it is only with a still small voice, and not at all with the
thunder which its voice ought to have to the mind of men; yet that little relic
of conscience, which with a microscope you can detect in all men, needs to be
pacified, and men are glad if by any lie, however barefaced, they can create an
excuse by which they may go on quietly in their sins.
1. Perhaps the greatest wall behind which men shelter themselves is
that of utter indifference to anything like Divine truth. Some silly dancer at
the opera, some new invention, some novel trick of legerdemain, some fresh
anything or nothing, and the world is all agog; but as to things which will
outlast sun and moon, and stand fast when yon blue heaven, like a scroll, has
been rolled up and put away--these all-important things our wiseacres think but
trifles, and they continue trampling God’s eternal truth beneath their feet, as
swine do trample pearls, and rushing madly after the bubbles of this world, as
though they were all that men were made to hunt after.
2. Numbers, however, are not quite so stupid, so besotted, so blind,
so brutalised as to put up with this. Like a crying child, their conscience
will be heard. Like a horse leech, it ever cries “Give, give,” and will not be
content. Who comes next? Who is the anointed one of Satan to quiet this spirit?
Who will yield a quietus to a mind alarmed? See the wall of ceremonies behind
which many rest so contentedly.
3. You may be building another wall, namely, that of
self-righteousness. How many have been piling up their wall, and gathering
their wood, their hay, their stubble, with which to erect a defence to screen
themselves from God by their own doings?
II. Whenever a man
tries to build a wall behind which to shelter, he always finds a volunteer band
of ready assistants.
1. For instance, a man who is easy in his pleasures, how many will
help him to continue at his ease! “He is right,” says one; “You are a good
fellow,” says another; and they both try to keep him in countenance by their
company.
2. Another company of scoffers will loudly boast themselves, and cry,
“Yes, you are all right in continuing in neglect of God and of Divine truth,
because the saints are no better than they should be. I remember what So-and-so
did once--he was a deacon; and I know the inconsistencies of Mr. Zealous, and
he is one of the parsons.”
3. A numerous body of daubers gather at the sign of the “Sneerer,” in
Atheist Street; and with their doubts, or their supposed doubts, of inspiration
and biblical authenticity, are ready to daub and plaster any amount of wall an
inch thick.
4. If the wall be built of ceremonies, how many are busy daubing
that! What multitudes of books are streaming from the press, books of ability,
too, all going to show that salvation is infallibly connected with a mechanical
process, conducted by specified officials, and not a spiritual work independent
of all outward performances!
III. The Word of God
declares that this wall will not stand. The wall to which Ezekiel alludes is
one of the cob walls in the East, daubed with bad mortar, which had not been
well tempered, that is to say, not well mixed with the straw which they use in
place of the hair which we use in England; when the rain comes, it softens the
whole structure of such a wall, melts it, and washes it quite away. Such a
deluge as that is coming ere long to try and test every human hope.
1. It comes to some men when they enter upon times of spiritual
trial.
2. But if the test come not thus it will usually come at death.
3. And if death does not do it--for some men die like lambs, and like
sheep are they laid in the grave; but the worm shall feed upon them--if death
does not do it, the judgment shall.
IV. If we shall be
found lost at the last, it will be an everlasting reproach to us that we once
accepted the false helps of our friends. “Where is the daubing wherewith ye
have daubed it?” That voice may proceed from many lips.
1. It may come from the lips of Jesus. “I said unto you, ‘Come unto
Me and live,’ but you would not come; you refused the refuge which I presented
to you, and you chose your own works, and rested in ceremonies of your own
devising, and now where is the daubing wherewith ye have daubed it?”
2. I could imagine such a voice as that coming from a faithful
minister, or other Christian labourer, who may have honestly pointed out to you
the one and only way of salvation.
3. And there shall come another voice, with quite another tone-a
hoarse and horrible voice--a voice full of malice and grim laughter, which
shall say, “Where is the daubing wherewith ye have daubed it?” You shall
understand it to be the voice of him who once deceived you--the fallen spirit,
the devil.
4. There shall be heard amidst that thick darkness and horrid gloom,
that never shall be broken by a ray of light, another voice which once you
knew. Perhaps the husband shall hear the voice of the wife, who shall say, “Ah!
where is the daubing wherewith ye have daubed it? You would not let me go to
the house of God; you laughed me out of my religion. I was once a young woman
unmarried, who cared for the things of God in some respects; you courted me and
enticed me away from my father’s God, and then you laughed me out of my prayers
and Sabbath worship; you have laughed me into hell, but you cannot laugh me out
of it again.”
5. And then, last of all, your own conscience, from which you never
can escape, which is, perhaps, the worm that never dies, and the flame which
kindles the fire of remorse that never shall be quenched, your conscience will
say to you, “Where is the daubing wherewith you have daubed it?” (C. H.
Spurgeon.)
Prophets feeble and yielding
The figure incisively describes the futile projects of the people
and the feeble flattery and approval of the prophets. When a weak man cannot
originate anything himself, he acquires a certain credit (at least in his own
eyes) by strong approval of the schemes of others, saying, “Right! I give it my
cordial approval, and, indeed, would have suggested it.” What made the prophets
whitewash the wall which the people built was partly the feeling that from the
place they occupied they must do something, and maintain their credit as
leaders even when being led; and partly, perhaps, that, having no higher wisdom
than the mass, they quite honestly approved their policy. Being sharers with
them in the spirit of the time, they readily acquiesced in their enterprises. (A.
B. Davidson, D. D.)
False hopes
I. What are the
foundations of this fabric?
1. It is built upon falsehood. Observe, it is here imputed to these
false prophets that they led the people to suppose that their state by nature
was not one of enmity with God,--that, in fact, they were at peace with Him.
Now, this falsehood is manifest. We are not at peace by nature. We all know
that God has a strife with man, a righteous ground of controversy with every
man born into the world. Our first conscious thoughts are those of disaffection
and dislike to holiness; and our first voluntary actions are to take up arms
against God. We, then, are not at peace, but at enmity with God. How was this
breach to be made up? Usually, a vanquished foe expects to buy peace at a large
price; but we had nothing to pay. It remained, therefore, that the benignant
Being with whom we had been carrying on this fruitless and ungrateful warfare
should Himself originate a scheme of reconciliation. We know that Christ is our
peace, and our only peace. He brings peace, He preaches peace, He bestows
peace. “To as many as received Him, gave He power to become the sons of God.”
“Being justified by faith, we have peace with God.” This is the foundation, and
other can no man lay. He who shall dare to build on any other shall see the
fabric perish before the overflowing shower, and the stormy wind shall rend it.
2. It is not laid deeply enough. In the fourteenth verse it is said,
with regard to this foundation, “The foundation thereof shall be discovered,”
laid bare, open to the sight of the beholder. The image is commonly used in
Scripture to denote that which is superficial and unsound. Everything that is
to be firm strikes deeply into the ground. Job speaks of having “the root of
the matter” in himself; and the stony ground, hearer, fell, we are told,
because there was in him no depth of earth. What is the kind of foundation here
spoken of? Doubtless, we must take it as applying here to a religion which
rests upon slight convictions of sin,--little sense of its heinousness and
guilt. The Spirit convinces of sin, to lead to Him that shall take all sin
away. The Spirit of God opens no wounds, except with a view the more
effectually and kindly to bind them up.
3. Another element of this unstable foundation is presumption, an
unwarrantable appropriation of the promises; as if the benefit of an amnesty could
be extended to those who were still in an attitude of rebellion; as if the
promises of salvation could still be held out to those who continued in
unrepented sin. This is strongly marked in the latter part of the twenty-second
verse. It may be a grievous error in a teacher, according to the first part of
that verse, to make the hearts of the righteous sad, whom God hath not made
sad; but surely it is a much more grievous error to hold out the promise of
life to those to whom, as yet, God has not given peace. Our Lord must be our
example here.
II. What are the
walls of this fabric? In other words, by what supports and excuses do men keep
this unsound and unscriptural hope together? “One built up a wall, and others
daubed it with untempered mortar.” The meaning of the prophet’s allusion will
be best explained by a reference to Jewish domestic architecture. Although hewn
stones were employed for the purpose of very large buildings, for small houses
a tile was commonly used, formed of white clay and baked in the sun. These
tiles were cemented together by mortar, which, as among ourselves, was made to
acquire a certain adhesive property by means of straw and chaff. Travellers
tell us that whole villages are formed of houses built with this white clay or
tile, and they tell us, further, that after rain the filth occasioned by the
dissolving of the cement will make the ways in front of the houses perfectly
impassable; whilst, if the mortar which has been used has been very badly
tempered, that is, very imperfectly mixed with the straw or the chaff, it is no
uncommon thing to see the house fall down entirely, under the violence or
dissolving action of the rain, the very effect which we see alluded to in the
text. What a picture have we here of the refuges which worldly men make for
themselves against that day, when judgment shall be laid to the line and
righteousness to the plummet! Oh, how many of these slight walls are people
running up every day! There is the wall of evil example, by which a man
fortifies himself in his low standard of personal and practical godliness by
what he sees in someone around him. There is the wall of pretended necessity;
the urgent claims of daily life making it, as he alleges, impossible for him to
attend to the cares of his family and the interests of his soul. There is the
wall of constitutional impediment, the pretence that something in our peculiar
temperament and constitution or circumstances makes it so difficult for us to
attend to the things of our salvation. There is the wall of perverted doctrine,
where men, waiting for some impulse from above, knowing that Divine grace must
begin the work, say, they can do nothing themselves, they must wait till God by
His Spirit changes their hearts. And then there is the wall of good intentions,
the purpose of serving God, but not now, the miserable promise that we will
give to God the remnant of our days, that He shall have the reversion of our
“convenient season.” Oh, how many of these flimsy fabrics will fall, and do
fall daily, before the first breath of the Divine displeasure. But observe,
further, it is said that when one built the wall, another daubed it with
untempered mortar. This seems to intimate to us that foolish and unconverted
men are in the habit of encouraging each other in their foolish hopes:
justifying one another in their vain excuses; each confirming the
reasonableness of the other’s pretences, and then going away confirmed and
strengthened in his own.
III. These false
hopes shall be thrown down. This false builder shall wake and see the crumbling
of his own wretched wall; this mere dauber shall see the melting and dissolving
of his own untempered mortar, that God alone may be exalted in that day, and
that every unscriptural and unauthorised, unsanctioned hope may perish. And oh,
will not the weakness and instability of this wall appear before this hurricane
of Divine indignation comes upon us? When the silver cord is loosed, and the
golden bowl is broken; when the pitcher is broken at the fountain, shall we not
then perceive that we have been building upon a treacherous foundation? But
then, if we feel it in that day, what shall we feel in that remoter time, when
the storm of the Divine indignation shall come upon the whole world? (D.
Moore, M. A.)
The false prophet
The false prophets are much in evidence up to the point of the
fall of Jerusalem. Ezekiel accuses them of the crime of the hireling shepherd:
they used the flock to make wages, and so became the type for all time of those
who make
“The
symbols of atoning grace
An
office key.”
The
false prophet gained favour with the military party in the nation, by his
telling advocacy of a vast and well-prepared army and of brilliant foreign
alliances, he won favour with the clerical party by not demanding too much
virtue, either from the individual or from the State. As a class they had a
ready apology for every shifting policy. True, the apology, although always
ready, was only an apology--or, to use the prophet’s own figure, it was only a
daubing of the ill-built wall with untempered mortar (Ezekiel 13:8-16)--“that is to say, when
any project or scheme of policy is being promoted, they stand by glozing it
over with fine words, flattering its promoters, and uttering profuse assurances
of its success.” The daub, in hiding the infamy, hurries the disaster. “Ye, O
great hailstones, shall fall; and a stormy wind shall rend it.” When the scheme
has failed, when God has suddenly intercepted a people’s mad pride, the false
prophet may be--may be--called to account: “Lo, when the wall is fallen,
shall it not be said unto you, Where is the daubing wherewith ye have daubed
it?” But it may happen, in a nation’s downfall and the daze of its calamity,
that the moral collapse is so complete that the man who daubed the wall escapes
unblamed--but not the man who was honest enough to say plainly from the first
that it was a mere daub! But, blamed or not of the men he has misled, the false
prophet shall not go unpunished. “I the Lord will answer him by Myself.” Above
all things, may God’s mercy save us from having, under such conditions, to bear
God’s answer, by Himself! (H. E. Lewis.)
Verse 16
Which see visions of peace for her, and there is no peace.
Peace, and there is no peace
I. They “see
visions of peace” who preach and speak what is pleasing rather than what is of
truth and of God. A people’s folly will find exponents. But truth perverted
will be avenged. False doctrine is but untempered mortar.
II. They “see
visions of peace,” and “there is no peace.” Who neglect duty and still hope for
reward. Foolish dreamers are they who look for fortune, or learning, or piety
without careful attention and unremitting diligence.
III. They “see
visions of peace” when “there is no peace” who live in sin and worldliness, and
hope for everlasting salvation. (Homiletic Magazine.)
Verse 18
Woe to the women that sew pillows to all armholes.
Pillows for all elbows
There is often something very quaint and forcible about the
imagery of the old prophets. It lays hold upon you and impresses you much more
effectually than if they had delivered their message in plain though powerful
language. The image of the text is easily understood. Ezekiel has been
commissioned to lift up his voice against the many false prophets who both in
Jerusalem and among the exiles are misleading the people by announcing
salvation without repentance, and grace without judgment. He is so indignant at
their feebleness and effeminacy, that he describes as women, and pronounces his
woe upon the persistency of their endeavours to accommodate themselves and
their teaching to the wishes and desires of the community. A true peace, real
security, genuine tranquillity, could be obtained only by fearlessly and
bravely laying bare the truth, however stern and uncomfortable it might be, and
not by covering it up with devices calculated to hide its hideousness and
soften its painfulness. Now, this old trade of sewing pillows, of making
cushions for all elbows that feel the hardness and uncomfortableness of
unwelcome facts, is not yet extinct. In truth, it is specially prosperous at
the present time. Let me, however, not be misunderstood. Discomfort has no
merit in itself. You come across people occasionally who evidently think it
has--irritating, troublesome people, with certainly nothing in them of the
spirit of Ezekiel’s false prophets. They glory in making you uncomfortable.
Every painful incident or troublesome piece of news that comes to their
knowledge is seized upon with avidity, eagerly communicated, and secretly
gloated over. Your distress and anxiety is meat and drink to them. The only
excuse for the infliction of pain, whether of body or mind, is the sincere
desire to bring about thereby a more thorough and lasting immunity from it; the
earnest wish to show a man that the position he is occupying may for the time
be pleasant, but, being deceptive, it can end at last only in trouble more
serious than that which you unwillingly bring upon him. Our times, I have said,
are effeminate. We dislike everything that disturbs our peace of mind, or
ruffles the serenity of our conscience. We are adepts at hiding unwelcome
facts, and toning down unpleasant truths. Let me just indicate one or two
directions in which we are specially ingenious and industrious in sewing
pillows for our elbows. We are so, I think, in regard to the doctrines of our
Christian faith. The Christianity taught and professed nowadays is, it seems to
me, often of a very emasculated character. I very much doubt if the great mass
of professing Christians have any other creed than a vague trust in the mercy
of God, which they hope will save them from all ill in the world to come, but
which allows them to go on with comparative comfort, satisfying their desires
in the world that now is. If Christ had anything to do with their salvation,
they do not see clearly what it is; they may believe He was a good man, more
than a man, perhaps, whose words they gladly accept, so far as they are
agreeable and comforting, and whose example they cannot but admire, though they
make no serious effort to imitate it. Just let a man live a fairly decent and
respectable life, outraging in no gross manner the properties and standards of
civilised society, and they believe all will be well with him; God will not be
hard on him. They know little or nothing of a complete surrender of the soul to
God as their Father, to Christ as their Saviour, to the Holy Ghost as their
Sanctifier; of the necessity of that new birth which gives an entire change to
the bias of the will, and which makes life henceforth one long endeavour, even
amid failure and weakness, to conform to the pattern of the perfect Christ;
they do not apprehend the bearing upon human life and destiny of the momentous
facts of our Lord’s incarnation, death, resurrection, and ascension. Life would
scarcely be one whir poorer to them if these events had never taken place, This
being so, they have none of the Lord’s anxiety, nor the anxiety of His
apostles, to bring the world into the kingdom of God. There is another
direction in which our love of ease and comfort continually shows itself--the
manner in which we persistently hide from ourselves the misery of the world
around us. Everywhere pain is racking fair human bodies; secret anguish is
tormenting human souls; sin in its hydra-headed forms, through drunkenness and
lust and anger and godlessness, is working ruin incalculable. At our very doors
it is so; in every city of the empire it is so; in distant lands it is so. The
cry of perpetual torment rises to heaven; the wail of woe ascends day and night
from the trampled and despairing, from the suffering and the dying, from the
sinning and sinking of our kind, our brethren and sisters for whom Christ died.
You know this; secretly you know it; but you do not want to know it, so you
lock up the knowledge of it, like the gaunt skeleton it is, in the inmost
chamber of your mind, and act as if you were aware of no such hateful presence.
It is marvellous what power we have of putting out of sight, and even out of
mind for a time, what is disagreeable to us, of shutting our ears to what we do
not wish to hear, of persuading ourselves that, after all, things are not so
bad as some would have us believe, of settling down comfortably on our
cushions, and taking our ease. But the skeleton will not always remain in its
inner chamber; it will stalk abroad in due season, whatever we do, and
overwhelm us with fear and shame. And there is one other direction in which we
are in constant danger of weakly sewing pillows for our elbows, of concealing
from ourselves painful facts--that is, as regards our present condition and
future prospects in the sight of God. We quieten ourselves by saying, “Let not
your heart be troubled, all is right; sin cannot be the dreadful thing it is
made out to be; do as well as you can; God is merciful.” As for the inevitable
and dreaded future, we shut it off from view. Nothing is to be gained by
concealment but temporary peace of the most delusive kind. If we were so
hopelessly sunk in sin that there was no rescue from it, if death were for us
the end of all things, if at the last judgment we had no Advocate with the
Father, then there might be some reason for seeking to bury out of sight facts
so hateful and irremediable; but with the blessed Gospel of our Lord
proclaiming salvation from sin, with the great fact of the resurrection of
Christ from the dead attesting that death is but the gate into a higher and
nobler life, with the promise of His perpetual intercession at the right hand
of the Eternal Judge, why should we hesitate to know the worst that can be
known? It is not incurable. The quicker and the better we know it, the more
curable it will be, and the sooner will come our true peace. (James Thomson,
M. A.)
Pillows for armholes
The people of the East are generally indolent and voluptuous. The
art which they most study is the art of making themselves comfortable. Enter an
Eastern divan, or the saloon of the more aristocratic mansions, and you will be
struck with the ingenuity and expense with which provision is made for bodily
ease and sensual enjoyment. Odours and perfumes of sweetest fragrance are
diffused through the room; fountains or vases of coldest water help to cool the
heated air of the tropics. The sides and corners of the room are cushioned all
round, whilst movable cushions of every form and size, richly embroidered and
ornamented, are spread on the couches and chairs, and even on the carpet. When
this love of ease and luxury was carried to excess, cushions were provided not
only for the head and shoulders and back, but for the arms and for every joint,
that every part of the body might lie softly and feel comfortable. The words of
our text might be rendered “pillows for all arm joints”--including the
armholes, the elbows, and wrists. And their use is significant of the greatest
ease and luxury. Some suppose that Ezekiel refers to the abandoned women whose
vile and detestable ways are graphically described in the Book of Proverbs
(chaps. 6, 7). These interpret the words of the prophet almost literally; they
regard these “pillows and kerchiefs” as literal pillows and kerchiefs with
which they furnished their chambers and decked their persons to allure souls
into their snares, and ruin them. They represent these women as of the class
who, for a pittance of remuneration, sell themselves to the lowest vice. But
whilst, no doubt, some were of this dissolute character, I do not think that
the passage is to be interpreted literally; I believe it is best interpreted
figuratively. The meaning is almost identical with the “wall of untempered
mortar.” The prophets predicted safety when there was none. The prophetesses
predicted ease, prosperity, and luxury when there should be none. They did, as
it were, sew beautifully soft pillows and cushions, to put under every limb and
joint of the sleepers, to make their repose more undisturbed and their sleep
more profound; and, singing their lullaby o’er the lethargic people, they
said,--“Peace, peace, when there was no peace.” Therefore, saith God,--“Woe to
the women who sew pillows to all armholes.” We may vary the figure a little, to
adapt it to modem times and this Western region. Activity and motion
characterise our times and country. Let us, then, change the figure, and adapt
it to our customs. We do not lounge in luxurious divans and voluptuous saloons:
we are in the hurry of business, bustling hither and thither. A large
proportion of the people are always on the roads and thoroughfares of the land.
And what an accommodation to us are these ever-multiplying railways, linking
together not only the larger towns, but even the populous villages, into a
network of iron roads. And what a comfort, to those who can afford it, are our
first-class carriages, with their softly cushioned seats, their resting plates
for the arms, and “pillows for all armholes.” One could almost sleep there as in
his own bed, and travel hundreds of miles without seeing the inside of a house.
Now, all this is very well, when one can afford it, and the place of
destination is such as you desire. But supposing you were allured and enticed
into such a conveyance by fair speeches and flattering promises; supposing it
were made so comfortable on purpose to allay your fears and deceive you as to
the probable end of your journey,--would all this comfort satisfy you, were you
apprised by some kind angel that you were in that easy, smooth fashion to be
conveyed to a lunatic asylum or a prison, to end your days amongst madmen or
felons, or to be launched headlong over a steep precipice to sudden
destruction? I trow not. No; you would one and all start up, and indignantly seek
to be set down, if possible; feeling that for such an end, the ease of the
conveyance and the smoothness of the path were no compensation whatever. “Ah
yes,” I think I hear someone say,--“yes, I see; you mean the rich sinners, who
fare sumptuously every day,--who never know what it is to want a luxury or a
comfort,--who have little work and much pay,--who spend on an article of fancy
more than would keep a poor family for twelve months,--who can commit great and
many sins, and cover them over with gold and silver, so that they shall never
be mentioned,--who pacify conscience with wine or alms, and appease society by
their high social standing.” No! I rather mean you than them. Those you have
mentioned may be included in the list; but so, in all probability, are you. Of
course you may be startled, you may be offended when I say so,--mean you. The
rich sinner may have his pillow,--you have yours. There is no more common
pillow for sinful and fatal lethargy than the one you are sleeping on, which
has this inscription: “It is not I.” “I am not the person meant; it is the rich
man; it is the hypocrite; it is my neighbour; anybody but me.” In other words,
thousands are continuing in their sins and vicious career, because they never
apply the warnings and descriptions of God’s Word and servants to themselves.
Tell them, “Except ye repent and be converted, ye shall all perish,” they say,
“It does not mean me; I have nothing to repent of, or if ever I had, I have
long ago repented; it must be some other sinner.” You will now see what I mean
by the use of pillows, after a figurative sense. I mean the various devices and
delusions by which sinning is rendered easy, and the way to perdition made
smooth. So common are these pillows, that it is rare indeed for any person to
be without one of some kind, and many have more than one. I have already
described one. A second is a misappropriation of heavenly material to earthly
and wicked purposes. It is made from a perversion of the eternal decrees of
God, and mistaken notions of Divine sovereignty. This is a pillow on which many
a sinner has slept soundly and fatally. The cushion has two sides: on the one
side is Election, and on the other is Reprobation. And nosy they lie on one
side, and now on the other, and all your preaching and warning cannot rouse
them. Where shall we look for a third pillow? There is the pillow of
Procrastination. I speak of this in general; no pillow is more frequently used,
more comfortable to lie upon, and sin upon, than this: “I admit the Bible is true,
the minister is right; I am a sinner; Christ is a Saviour; I am a dying man; I
must stand before the judgment seat of God; I must go to heaven or hell,
according to my faith and character here. But then, the trump is not yet to be
sounded; I am not expecting to die at present; I hope to live a good while
longer; I should like to enjoy the pleasures of life as long as possible, and
at some more convenient season I will repent; I will seek Jesus as my Saviour,
and I hope through Him to die happily, and ultimately reach heaven.” But what
if your sleep become heavier and deeper every day, so that the voice of warning
or mercy no longer can reach your heart, and you perish in your sins? A fourth
pillow is the hope of escaping detection. “No eye saw me; it will never be
known.” This is a most wretched, yet common delusion, Sin will out. You cannot
long tamper with the intoxicating cup, and not give evidence of intemperance.
You cannot long prove unfaithful to your marriage vows, and not be looked down
upon as a base and abandoned man. You cannot long embezzle the money entrusted
to your care and rob your master, but soon suspicion will be excited, and proof
sufficient to convict you transpire. You cannot long live inconsistently with
your Christian profession as a member of Christ’s Church and keep up the
semblance of godliness, but soon some act of dishonesty or immorality will
declare that you are but a whited sepulchre and a vile hypocrite. Or if you do
escape the detection and chastisement of your fellowmen, you cannot escape from
the omniscience of God, who will judge everyone according to the deeds done in
the body. (R. Bruce, M. A.)
Judgments denied none the less sure
The Chaldeans were to capture Jerusalem. God said so. False
prophetesses denied it, and to quell the anxieties of the people employed a
significant symbol by sewing little pillows under the arms, as much as to say:
“Whenever you feel these soft pads at the arm sleeve, bethink yourselves all
shall be easy and well.” But alas for the delusion: Notwithstanding all the
smoothness of the prophecy, Jerusalem went down in darkness and fire and blood.
It is not more certain that you are here this morning, not more certain that
that is a window, not more certain that that is a ceiling, not more certain that
that is a chair, not more certain that that is a carpet, than it is certain
that God has declared destruction to the finally impenitent. Universalism comes
out and tries to quell this fear, and wants to sew two pillows under my arm
sleeves, and wants to sew two pillows under your arm sleeves. (T. De Witt
Talmage.)
Verse 22
Because with lies ye have made the heart of the righteous sad.
The baleful influence of infidelity
I. Infidelity
exerts a baleful influence upon the righteous. Note the charge, “Because,” etc.
1. It casts a shadow upon his pathway. It is the shadow of midnight.
Leaves him to grope his way in darkness. Ignoring God’s Word, it points to “the
light of nature,” and says, “This is sufficient, walk here!” But these are
questions that the voice of the winds, the hills, the stars do not answer, “Can
sins be forgiven? If so, how?” In the hour of trial nature’s light grows dim.
The mariner may follow the stars till the storm at midnight; then the
lighthouse.
2. It is a blight to his sweetest joys. “Because with lies ye have
made the heart of the righteous sad, whom I have not made sad.” God makes the
righteous glad, not sad. True religion is as the oil of joy to the heart. The
righteous have “songs in the night.” But as frost is to the flower, so is
unbelief to the better impulses of the heart. What ray of hope, what ground for
rejoicing does infidelity afford? Ah! it is the ruthless hand that snatches
away the staff upon which the struggling soul rests.
3. It seeks to undermine his hopes--strikes at the very foundation of
them (Psalms 11:3). Ah! he may sit down in
sadness and heave an unending sigh. He may hang his “harp upon the willows.”
II. Infidelity
exerts a baleful influence upon the wicked.
1. It encourages him to follow his own inclinations as his guide. The
false prophets are described as those “that follow their own spirit, and have
seen nothing.” So they taught all to do. And so is the spirit of infidelity in
all ages of the world. The depraved heart is its criterion.
2. It encourages him to continue in sin--“That he should not return
from his wicked way.” It advocates no such return. Nothing to turn
from--nothing to turn to. Nay, it rather “strengthens his hands.”
3. It encourages him to dismiss from his mind all thought of the
future. It cries to the sin-stricken soul, “Peace, peace. Think not of the
hereafter; there may be none, no heaven to gain, no hell to shun. Be at peace!”
It is opposed to God, good men, and bad men. It must be destroyed--Wall of
bulrushes must fall--“There shall be an overflowing shower.” “And ye shall know
that I am the Lord.” (M. L. Bibb.)
Making the righteous sad
That is a severe indictment. It was brought by God, and was
addressed to the false prophets, and especially to the lying prophetess, who
exercised their evil ministry in the days of Ezekiel. In holy wrath, the Lord
hurls this flaming impeachment upon these cruel and deceitful ministrants, “Ye
have grieved the heart of the righteous: whom I have not made sad.” (Revised
Version.) We are here introduced to sad people. They were righteous--God
declares them such. But they were full of grief. Grief and righteousness are
often associated. But the sadness of these grieved ones was not imposed by God.
He recognises the sorrow, but disavows it. “I have not made” them “sad” is His
express word of repudiation. Sometimes sadness is from God. He doth not willingly
grieve the children of men. Especially reluctant is He to grieve those who are
covenanted unto Him. But anon He does it. Sadness is one of God’s methods of
education for His righteous ones. “Thou didst it,” the saddened righteous can
confidently and resignedly say in certain of life’s calamitous hours. Let all
the sad inquire whence cometh their sadness. From what fountain does the dark
and turbid stream arise? It may spring from yourself. Has some strong besetting
sin wrecked your gladness? Sadness often originates in temperament. Do not
blame God if you are melancholic; blame your yielding to your temperament.
Grace can enable a man to rise above his temperament. If self makes a man
presumptuous, it full as often makes him despondent. The worry of these worrying
days frequently issues in sadness. O righteous one! Thy sadness is not the
frown of thy God. Thou art cumbered with much serving. The pace of life is
exhausting thee. God has not made you sad. Nerve and body and brain are
overwrought. Sadness is wrought, all too often, by our fellow men. Why are you
sad? “An enemy hath done this.” An ingrate friend is responsible. A prodigal
child. A remorseless creditor. A thankless debtor. Oh, the inhumanity of
humanity! Charge not God foolishly because of sadness. Asperse not the kind
Lord. Satan often seeks to ruin us by sadness. Quite as often as by pleasure he
seeks to spoil us by grief. Sadness is one of the fiercest of his “fiery
darts.” Beware of Giant Despair, O pilgrim. I am sure we far too often charge God
with our sadness. It is well we should weigh this ancient disclaimer of His:
“Whom I have not made sad.” Trace your sadness to its true source. It may be
that God has done it. But it may be He is in no wise responsible. Some impose
sadness upon the righteous in God’s name. That is exactly what these false
prophetesses did. The Almighty charges them with the high crime. He says, “Ye
have made the heart of the righteous sad.” They had spoken in Jehovah’s name.
They professed to be His forthtellers, but they lied. They spake “out of their
own hearts.” What awful things have been done in God’s name! Men have stolen
the livery of heaven to serve the devil in. In the name of God mankind has
accomplished its worst infamies. Men have lied and persecuted and slain,
claiming the while that they thereby fulfilled the counsel of God. Let us see
if this wrong-doing is not perpetrated even in our time. Do not some confound
religion and sadness? Assuredly they do. But, thank God, they are not
synonymous. Religion and seriousness are essentially allied, but not so
religion and sadness. “Say ye to the righteous, It shall be well with him.” The
work of righteousness is not sadness, but peace and assurance. Do not measure
the depth of a man’s piety by the length of his face. Sadness is far oftener
the consequence of a disordered liver than of a righteous heart. Beware, above
all things, of prophet or prophetess representing righteousness as essential
sadness! Here is a great test of a ministry. Is it generally saddening to the
righteous? Then it is undivine. They are no true prophets who make the heart of
the righteous sad. Sadden the evil-doer by all means. Make him to pierce
himself through with many sorrows. But do not sadden the righteous. Dr. A.B.
Davidson renders my text, “Ye have discouraged the righteous.” So they showed
how essentially ungodlike was their ministry. God never discourages the
righteous. He is “the God of all encouragement.” He ministers every form of
legitimate encouragement. God is the supreme encourager. Fellow servant of God,
is yours a saddening ministry to the saint? Then there is surely a grave
wrongness in it. Let all whose ideal and endeavour it is to be righteous be of
good cheer. Refuse to be loaded with sadness in God’s name. “Be glad in the Lord,
ye righteous, and shout for joy, all ye that are upright in heart.” How had
these godless prophetesses accomplished their beglooming ministry? The Lord
supplies the answer, and in no measured terms: “With lies ye have made the
heart of the righteous sad.” They had uttered false predictions of calamities
which were to descend upon the godly. False teaching usually has a saddening
effect upon the righteous. Truth sometimes makes God’s people sad, but it is
not intended to do so. But “lies” palmed off as religious truth make the heart
of the righteous sad. They often encourage and delight the evil-doer. They give
him warrant to take his licence. Today, as in days past, we can readily see
false teaching working upon the righteous its unkindly work. This is true of
teaching which is intrinsically false. Inveracious theologies sadden the
righteous. What evil presentations we sometimes hear and read! He is
represented now as a despot, and now as morally indifferent. A false theology
makes the heart of the righteous sad. Has not erroneous teaching concerning the
Bible the same effect? If its inspiration were the dubious thing it is
sometimes declared to be, it would indeed be a miserable estate in which the
righteous are found. When the Word of God is described as a farago of myths and
legends and forgeries, is not the heart of the righteous sad? False teaching
regarding the atonement works kindred sorrow. Paul said, “We joy in God, by
whom we have received the atonement.” Destroy that cardinal truth, and you make
the heart of the righteous sad. Resolve the death of Christ into a martyrdom,
an ethical example, the supreme historic instance of altruism, and you dry up
the freshest spring of gladness which humanity knows. Preach the doleful
tidings that our moral chains must weight us long as we live beneath. And by
such erroneous teaching the heart of the righteous is fatally saddened.
Proclaim that there is no privilege of assurance for God’s children. And again
you plunge the righteous in nocturnal gloom. But this sadness is evoked not
alone by indoctrination which is inherently false, but by that which is such
relatively. When true teaching is perverted in its application, it has the
value of false teaching. This was the fallacy of which Job’s comforters were
guilty. They were capable theologians. Their theology was true in its essence,
but false in its application. Thereby they made Job’s heart sad with sore
sadness. We must study the relativity of truth. Truth misapplied is as untruth.
Assurance is a glorious truth, and a radiant possibility for all, but preach it
as essential to salvation, and you must make the heart of the righteous sad.
There is a Divine retribution for such as give sadness to the righteous. In the
two verses which precede the text, the particular punishment of these false
prophetesses is described. And the verse of my text adds that it is “because
with lies ye have made the heart of the righteous sad.” In the verse which
follows the threat of God is repeated. All who effect this saddening of the saints
shall suffer for their deed. This principle has worldwide application. Let
ministers and teachers of religion beware lest God judge them for this
disservice to His people. Oh, the delicacy of our office who speak God’s
messages! Masters and mistresses need to watch their ways in this regard. Take
heed lest inadvertently you make the heart of a righteous servant sad. Friends
and acquaintances should be alert to prevent this evil. A thoughtless word may
arouse the anger of God by creating sadness in His righteous ones. Restrain
unkind speech. Parents may grieve right-doing children. Oh, pray that the
judgment of God may never light on us because we have made the heart of the
righteous sad! We do a godly deed when we cheer the righteous. Is not that plainly
implied in this word of Jehovah which we are studying? We are never more
clearly “God’s fellow workers” than when we hearten God’s people. Be sure you
are a true minister of Christ if you encourage the righteous. They greatly need
good cheer in these strenuous days. They have grievous burdens to bear. Covet
to be an encourager! Strive to uplift the heart of God’s people. Do you ask how
you can accomplish this grateful ministry? Speak cheering words. We can hearten
the righteous by kindly acts. Eloquent deeds have a sonority which no eloquent
speech can attain. A timely gift may fill a sad heart with melody sweeter than
an angel’s song. Our very deportment may accomplish the service of God upon sad
souls. There is a Gospel in some men’s smile. Faces may be benedictions.
Righteousness is the ultimate cure of sadness. Does not this text proclaim that
gospel? Character is the final secret of gladness. They who hate evil and do
righteousness are anointed with gladness above their fellows. The righteous
have a right of gladness. This is especially true in the Christian
dispensation. Christian righteousness is realised by faith in the crucified and
risen Lord. Such as believe rejoice in the Lord, and this joy none can take
from them. (D. T. Young.)
──《The Biblical Illustrator》