‏ Ezekiel 13

* Heavy judgments against lying prophets. (1-9) The

insufficiency of their work. (10-16) Woes against false

prophetesses. (17-23)

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. 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. 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.