A Pilgrim's Guide
Whitewash or Godliness? From Idolatry to GloryA message from Ezekiel
As you know I love to study and write about the prophets, and Ezekiel is in no way an exception! Some of his themes can be hard to get to grips with, but don’t let that put you off! The main thrust of his message is perfectly clear, and the main thrust of this Pilgrim’s Guide is a fairly detailed overview of chapters 13 and 14, which follow the revelation of unspeakable unfaithfulness amongst religious leaders in Jerusalem.
Whilst we must not fall into the trap of identifying Old Testament people and places with contemporary parallels, it is still both precious and important to recognise the way in which ancient Scriptures can speak to events in our own times, and that the Holy Spirit uses them to help us discern what He is saying to the Church today.
We will touch on the themes of prophecy and idolatry, and look at how these have been playing out in present-day America. For, just as Judaism embraced the whole of the Jewish world view in Ezekiel’s day, Christianity – specifically Christian nationalism – has played a very significant role in the recent US election.
In particular, we will consider a vital principle that may be unfamiliar to you – that when our hearts are filled with idols, the Lord sometimes allows us to think we are hearing Him when what we are actually hearing is coming via the distorting ‘ear-lens’ of our idols.
Ouch! The path to deception is a very well-trodden one.
Yet the book of Ezekiel is also gloriously a book about the way God renews the work of His Spirit in the lives of individuals and communities. Though the prophet must address the tragedy of ‘Ichabod,’ when the Lord’s glory departs from His temple, he is also permitted to experience God’s majesty and splendour in a way no man has done before or since. The glory of the Lord is wonderfully present at the beginning of Ezekiel’s ministry, as it is also at the end.
I think this overview will resonate deeply in your spirits as you dive in.
Whitewash or godliness? From Idolatry to Glory
A message from Ezekiel
There are standout moments in Jewish history that continue to have relevance and application for all times. One such was when Israel decided to appoint a king to rule over them. Another was the struggle that ensued centuries later: on the one hand between the people (misled as they were by influential false prophets) who believed fervently that God’s favour upon the appointed king and his capital city was so great that He would never allow any lasting harm to come to Jerusalem, and on the other the handful of true prophets, who had the unenviable task of warning that their conduct and indifference to God would lead to the Lord allowing the dreaded Babylonians to come and sack their city. These solitary truth-speakers stand out in relief, as they dared to sound warnings that were sharply at odds with the commonly accepted viewpoint. All faced not only mockery but extreme suffering as the result of being branded as traitors.
Just as Samuel’s take on Israel wanting to be like the other nations in having a king was at variance with his fellow elders in the nation, so subsequent prophets such as Jeremiah and Ezekiel repeatedly issued call to righteous living that were for the most part not heeded seriously enough – certainly not to a point sufficient to avert God’s judgement on the land. But the words we read today, and the godly examples that we follow are most assuredly not those of the smooth talking ‘peace’ prophets!
Watching events unfurling in Washington and across America in recent days have brought both Samuel’s warnings and the words and example of Ezekiel himself sharply to mind. Let’s ponder these in some detail, both because it is always valuable to soak ourselves in the Word of God, but also to see if the Lord has specific comparisons to make with regard to our own day – for ‘founder father’ Thomas Paine was more right than even he knew when he declared that ‘the cause of America is in a great measure the cause of all mankind’.
From the beginning of Trump’s re-election campaign, I had a strong sense that the Lord was giving the American electorate the chance to decide whether they wanted to reappoint a man whose character, and policies, they had had plenty of time to become acquainted with to ‘rule’ over them. For many this led them to revere him as a ‘strong’ leader, whilst a roughly equal amount of people saw in him someone wide open to the influence of an entirely different strong man: one whose character was deeply unsavoury, whose policies so unpredictable that he ended up targeting and being at odds with many other interest groups and nations – even with America’s traditional allies.
Outperforming polling predictions, as he had done in the past, and achieving very nearly 50% of the popular vote, we can imagine the venerable prophet-judge introducing him to the crowd in what was his farewell message and saying,
Now here is the king you have chosen, the one you asked for; see, the Lord has set a king over you. If you fear the Lord and serve and obey Him and do not rebel against His commands, and if both you and the king who reigns over you follow the Lord your God – good! But if you do not obey the Lord, and if you rebel against His commands, His hand will be against you, as it was against your ancestors. (1 Sam. 12:13-15)
Although the new king gave the appearance of being eager to promote the cause of the Lord, Samuel soon found that he could not trust Saul’s integrity, and warned the elders that he foresaw great chaos and difficulties lying in wait as a result of making this choice: both because of the demands that he would make, and the immense dangers he would bring upon the country through his self-seeking narcissism. As he increasingly thrust away the man God had given to serve him (David), whilst enriching the people he favoured, the time would come when people would cry out to the Lord for relief – but would find themselves trapped by their choice and obliged to live with the reality of both who they had appointed and what they themselves had chosen. (1 Sam. 8:14-18)
Jesus Himself sounded numerous and very strong warnings about false christs emerging, but also against leaders who lived to boost their own self-image. One cannot but think of the idolising of Donald Trump that is so deeply embedded in large sectors of the evangelical Church, and grieve for both the self-interest that this appeals to, and the lack of discernment concerning the consequences that following such an unstable leader is likely to lead to.
One sign of idolatry is the furious response that is triggered when a false person or vision is challenged. You may well have seen that when people (and even prophets) sound warnings against Donald Trump, it is met with a furious response from his highly partisan Christian base. Citing the defence that God uses flawed leaders, which is certainly true! and that we should give him much slack because he is a ‘baby’ Christian, they double down on their passionate belief that Trump is God’s appointed leader. This he may well be, in much the same way that King Saul was, but it in no way dispenses with the need to look deeper to see if his words and actions are in keeping with God’s Spirit.
Do they not realise that by such reckoning he fails at the first hurdle, in that his heart is set, not to honour the person of Jesus and to enhance the cause of His Kingdom, but is rather directed towards elevating the empire that he is working so hard to establish? For the last eight years we have seen a steep hardening in Trump’s attitudes, with little or nothing being reported in the run-up to the inauguration to indicate that a change for the better is in the air, despite his apparent exhortation to read the Bible (which, of course, provides the clinching factor for many that, despite his shockingly wayward ways, he really is the Lord’s anointed because of the fundamental support he has been taking care to give the appearance of lending towards traditional values concerning certain major ethical issues).
One of the most common mistakes we often make, and which has led to multiple casualties in the Body of Christ, is that when a leader shows particularly exceptional gifting, there is often a tendency to idolise that person, and to deliberately overlook and excuse character failings that ought to have given much pause for thought. Each major fall that then occurs (usually as the result of a fundamental lack of humility and accountability in that leader’s life) then comes as a disastrous ‘own goal’ for the Church, with each such one causing many to trust the Church still less, and disinclining them too to look more closely to the founder of the Church.
With the faithful servant heart that had long characterised his lengthy ministry, Samuel encouraged the people that although there would be many upheavals in the days ahead, they were not to be afraid, but must rather serve the Lord with all their heart. He promised that the Lord’s ears would still be open to their cry, and that although the central figure in the nation would now be the far less godly figure of the king, he himself would not ‘sin against the Lord by failing to pray for them.’ To the end of his days he urged people to remember what great things the Lord had done for them, whilst also warning them most fervently that if they were to persist in doing evil, there could not but be the most serious consequences. (See 1 Sam. 12: 20-25)
The tenor of these verses, which are taken from what we might call his farewell speech, make it clear that Samuel was far from being caught up in the general euphoria. Rather, he was grief-stricken that, after working so hard to direct the nation in godly ways, his warnings were being brushed aside. Faithful to his calling, he cannot but spell out the very real dangers he foresees this new king as posing, even whilst he is at pains to reassure people of the Lord’s ongoing faithfulness and commitment to them. To that end, he refuses to take umbrage at being ‘overruled’, and pledges to continue to pray and labour on their behalf to instruct them in the way of the Lord, to prepare them as a nation for the intense upheavals he foresees in the years to come.
This, then, is the association I felt the Lord placing on my heart long before America swept to power a man who right up until his last election rally continued to bad-mouth his opponents, and, with some considerable justification, to boast that he has ‘a movement like no one has ever had before.’
What, then, of the spirit that we see Donald Trump unleashing right across the nation, and of the beliefs underlying so many of his policies, that we would dare to compare with the false visions and lying divinations that the Lord warned did not spring from His heavenly council, and which would lead to such serious consequences? (Ezek. 13:9ff).
What is in our heart when we enquire of the Lord?
One of the elders of Israel came to me and sat down in front of me. Then the word of the Lord came to me: “Son of man, these men have set up idols in their hearts and put wicked stumbling blocks before their faces. Should I let them inquire of Me at all?” (Ezekiel 14:1-3)
These elders had come to visit Ezekiel before, but they did so again, drawn as if by a magnet, hoping perhaps to get an answer to the question that was surely uppermost in their mind: how much longer would they remain in exile from the Promised Land? The question would have been entirely legitimate one, were it not for the fact that the Lord had already provided the answer by the mouth of the prophet Jeremiah in telling the people that it would last for 70 years. What the Lord gave Ezekiel instead was a hugely sobering challenge: that the Lord had seen the idols that these people had set up in their heart. Not a visible idol be it said, for that would be a flagrant contravention of the commandment not to make any graven image, but the equally as pernicious invisible ones that set the core tone and direction for their lives.
It is right and proper, indeed a great gift, for people to bring their enquiries to prophets, but both enquirer and responder must be careful to approach the Lord with hearts open to hear what He has to say, rather than to come heavy laden with preconceived ideas of what God should say or do about the things that are concerning them. His perspective will always exceed our own understanding, and often take us by surprise. The question is: are we truly open to hearing it?
When we recall that the Lord warns that He will turn His face from those who place their trust in someone or something other than God Himself – even to the point of not acknowledging us before our Father in Heaven – then we realise just how crucial an issue this really is.
Therefore speak to them and tell them, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: When any of the Israelites set up idols in their hearts and put a wicked stumbling block before their faces and then go to a prophet, I the Lord will answer them Myself in keeping with their great idolatry. I will do this to recapture the hearts of the people of Israel, who have all deserted Me for their idols.’ (Ezek. 14:7 NIV, cf Matt. 10:32-33)
God answers according to the idols that dominate our hearts
When the Lord asked the elders who came to visit the prophet whether He should let Himself be enquired of by people who have put sinful stumbling blocks in their hearts, the question not only presumed a negative answer, but went on to describe something far worse again: that God would respond to their questions by answering in keeping with the idols in their hearts. (Ezek. 14:3-4) The more convinced we are that a certain person or movement is of God, the more likely we are to ‘hear’ that it is indeed so – for what we put first in our heart inevitably comes to dominate our thinking in such ways.
We have found it seriously disquieting to hear certain well-known prophets proclaiming, for example, that Donald Trump has the heart of King David. How can that be when David was a man who loved God with all his heart, and who was always quick to repent deeply when convicted of his sin? The merest glance should be enough to convince us that quite other is the stance of Donald Trump.
Others are actually going so far as to claim that what Trump has faced by way of the legal processes against him that got as far as reaching court are akin to what Jesus experienced during His biased and unjust trial! Words fail when one compares the nature of the charges being proffered and the utter differences in character. Are not such comparisons so misguided as to be perilously close to blasphemous?
Somebody who listened to my nonpolitical talk The Rock of Eternity and the Age to come commented that they had discerned rather that the spirit in Donald Trump is rather more akin to that which we saw in the well-documented case of King Nebuchadnezzar, that the Babylonian mega-narcissist. Would the Lord not finally have to bring him face to face with eternal accountability, she wondered, for the simple reason that he is showing himself to be a champion of himself and of greed?
An important point to note is that when God does move in judgement, it is at least as much with a view to cleansing as to retribution. This is a principle we find enshrined throughout the Scriptures, and hinted at very clearly in 14:5, where the Lord says that even when people receive false answers as if from Him, that He will allow this in order to ‘recapture the hearts of the people of Israel, who have all deserted me for their idols.’ (Ezek. 14:5, NIV) This is such a precious, and perhaps insufficiently taught principle, but it is worth considering this verse in various other versions. The Amplified Bible, for example, renders it, ‘in order that I may take hold of the heart (mind) of the house of Israel who are all estranged from Me because of their idols,’ whilst the NLT puts it thus: ‘This is because I want to touch their hearts. I want to show them that I love them, even though they left Me for their filthy idols.’
Taphas, the Hebrew word the NIV translates to ‘recapture’, literally means ‘to lay hold of, grasp, or capture’. What a wonderful reminder this is of God’s intense and relentless desire to draw people back to Himself. It reminds me very much of His promise to wall or ‘hedge in’ Hosea’s wayward wife, in order to woo her back to the path of true faithfulness. Gomer thus becomes powerfully representative of the whole unfaithful house that Israel had become. (See Hosea 2 and especially verses 6 and 14. Cf https://biblehub.com/ezekiel/14-5.htm) Seize and grip our own hearts, Lord, in such a way as to promote this lifegiving fear of You!
In Your dealings with us, Lord, You do not always choose to ‘speak’ by literal words, but oftentimes allow circumstances to work out in such a way that those who are willing to humble themselves will see clearly what is going on, and be moved to recognise their shortcomings and to repent accordingly. We recognise that those who do so will always be in a minority – but do You not love to work through an anointed remnant whose hearts You have touched and shaped most deeply?
Therefore say to the people of Israel, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Repent! Turn from your idols and renounce all your detestable practices! (Ezek. 14:6)
Chapter 14 moves on in verses 6-8 with a huge call to repent and turn away from their abominations. There is so much to recognise and to own, however, before our hearts are ready to repent.
“You’re no different. So there’s no excuse for you – whoever you are that judges others; it’s yourself you condemn because you behave in the same way. You agree it’s fair that God should condemn those who do that sort of thing, don’t you? Then, how do you think you are going to escape? You condemn others, but you’re in the habit of doing precisely what they do! If God hasn’t destroyed you for it, yes – if He’s putting up with it, and being generous to you – is that any reason for you to be careless of what might happen? Are you stupid? Don’t you know that He’s being kind, hoping that will make you sorry for what you are doing?” (The Letter to the Romans, Michael Perry, Creative Publishing)
There is something fundamentally wrong – grotesque even – in the way that one man has been more than happy to be exalted, even into the place that belongs rightly and exclusively to our Lord Jesus Christ; for this is what has effectively been happening in many churches as well as political circles across America. It is one thing for Trump to claim that God is on his side (as a result of surviving two assassination attempts), but that is a far cry from him humbling himself to say that he is on the Lord’s side as His servant.
Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Salvation is not by Trump, but neither does it comes by hating and denouncing those who think – and vote – differently from ourselves.
It is when we reach verse 8 that the penalties for idolatry and false visions are spelt out in accordance with the terrible phrase we came across earlier, that the Lord is turning his face against idolaters – just as He did against the women who were prophesying out of their own imagination. (Ezekiel 13:17)
The spiritual process that is at work in all this is revealed in 14:9, where we hear of the Lord enticing or deceiving these ‘prophets’ to utter falsities in order to test His people. These are not at all the terms in which we are accustomed to think about what we might call the ‘mechanics’ that are involved in prophecy, if we can put it like that. What we are encountering here, however, is same process that is described in 1 Kings 22:20-23, with the same word, pittah, being used to describe the lying spirit that the Lord and His council specifically sent to deceive and mislead Ahab’s compromised prophets.
Wherein lay their error? In Ezekiel 13:17-23 we read that their deception owes much to the superstitious and magical practices that they were following. Combined with that was the widely held but ultimately mistaken belief that God had as it were bound Himself to always protect Jerusalem. That this had been shown to have been a fallacious hope when the first wave of exiles were forcibly removed from Judah did not succeed in changing their outlook; it awaited the return of Nebuchadnezzar’s armies for a second time, intent on sacking the city, to convince them to think again.
Another probable explanation is that we are dealing with the BC equivalent of, ‘It’s the economy, stupid!’ God certainly had told the people to settle down in Babylon, but is it not possible that these enterprising Jews had adapted so well to Babylonian culture that they had begun to conform to the patterns and expectations of the world around them, in precisely the way that Paul warns us against doing in Romans 12:2?
Turning to look at America, we should be clear that the primary motive of most in the MAGA movement has more to do with a desire for power and wealth than with truly being concerned for moral and spiritual standards – although they are very willing to ‘politicise’ moral issues towards that goal. Love of money and lust for power has long been a crying sin in God’s sight, leading to a willingness to embrace almost anything that will further those dubious aims.
The sins of ‘Babylon’ extend far beyond people’s wealth and bank balance, however, to include matters pertaining to sexuality and false philosophies – which is a back-handed way of saying that there is every bit as much need for so many on the Democrat side to repent for devising and supporting ways of living that are quite at variance with putting the way of the Lord first.
Since the word of the Lord is impartial and neither-sided, salvation cannot be achieved any more by liberal policies than it can by Conservative values, or the ‘anything goes’ policies of Donald Trump. It is only by the grace of God. In His sight, no one is holy by their own efforts – for it is impossible to please Him without faith. “For the Lord your God is the God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, mighty, and awe-inspiring God, showing no partiality and taking no bribe.” He will bring “trouble and distress for everyone who does evil . . . but glory and honour and peace to everyone who does good . . . For there is no partiality with God.” (Heb. 11:6, Deut. 10:17, Rom. 2:9-11)
The very thought that people could be looking to anything else for their salvation is deeply disturbing and frankly idolatrous. And yet, to judge by these verses from Ezekiel 13 and 14, much that certain prophets are claiming to hear today stem less from the throne room of God than from having set up idols in their hearts as a result of an over affiliation with party allegiance, reinforced on the one hand by the great populist ‘wave’ in Trump’s favour, and, as regards the Christian vote, by decidedly OTT charismatic expectations.
Ministering as Ezekiel was to a shocked and discouraged group of exiles, it is no wonder that many were turning to those who appear to possess special magical powers. (Ezek. 13:17ff) Rather than reminding God of all His goodness to them – for to remember in such ways is to invite God to act – this feels more like a desperate bid to get back to how things were in more prosperous days. But if the Lord has not sanctioned the practices they were using, then how could their prayers not be in vain? They would have fared so much better had they been willing to face up to the reasons why they were in exile, rather than just hoping to escape from it.
Trusting in the temple
The Jewish people had been so certain that God would protect the sanctuary, but in God’s sight there was no longer anything left that was worth protecting! The emptiness of their religion had been exposed, leaving the temple as just a shell of the real thing. I have often thought that there are no more empty people in the world than those who once were walking with the Lord and even moving in the power of the Spirit, but who have now turned their back on God. When the people heard that Nebuchadnezzar was again advancing towards the city, they did return to the temple to pray, but it was too late. They had trusted in the temple of the Lord rather than in the Lord of the temple – and, exactly as He had warned that He would do, He turned His face from them. (7:22) The very emptiness of their faith invited such an end, and offered no path to deliverance when the time of testing came. It is a point we do well to bear in mind. No human pride in our achievements, no confidence in our mighty armies, no power of billionaires can ultimately save a nation if the Lord has called time on the idolatry that lies behind it.
(For those who want to glimpse just some of the changes to the times and seasons that Trump is now implementing, see these newsletters from Heather Cox Richardson. See for example 25 November 2024 and 14 November 2024
Trump truly is changing the times and the seasons economically. People do not fully know what they are letting themselves in for – but they have no excuse for it. Beware, oligarch-ridden America: you have never been in more danger at the time when you think you are most powerful.
A Message for all seasons
Although Ezekiel’s words and dramatically acted out parables were addressed to this specific group of exiles, far from the Promised Land, what he was actually describing was nothing less than God’s heart and ways towards all nations. That is why we find such astonishing promises concerning both Egypt and Ethiopia coming to know the Lord in the book that bears his name. (Ezek. 29:6)
The Lord commonly does ask a lot in terms of sacrificial prayer and action from those who see and feel as He does. Remember Isaiah being commanded to walk around barefoot and without any form of outer garment for three long years as a sign of the terrible trouble that was going to befall Egypt and Ethiopia! (Is. 20: 3) But nobody, not even Jeremiah from amongst the whole company of prophets, identified with the sins of his people more intimately that Ezekiel did. Nobody else had been expected to lie on their side for an all-but-unimaginable 390 days to bear the burden of the sins of the House of Israel, only to be immediately followed by a further 40 days on his right side to bear the iniquity of the House of Judah.
We do well to look to Norman Grubb’s classic biography of Rees Howells to find a modern-day equivalent, as the Lord led his prophet-intercessor to make extreme sacrifices in order to see multitudes come to the Lord. David Brainerd likewise.
In Ezekiel the Lord had found a prophet dedicated to seeking God, and committed to furthering His purposes amongst the people – and yet by no means indifferent to the afflictions of his fellow countrymen, both here in exile and back in the beleaguered citadel of Jerusalem.
‘Why would you die, o house of Israel?’ Ezekiel pleads, his words extending to embrace both individuals and the wider community alike. ‘Why will you not turn from your disastrous ways?’ (33:11) ‘After all, God has made provision to forgive your sin.’ Although Ezekiel powerfully emphasises people’s personal responsibility at a time when only too many were prone to blaming their troubles on their hereditary or personal circumstances, his message cuts through such finer distinctions, insisting that national and corporate groups have a shared responsibility, even one that may extend over many generations. In this Ezekiel aligns closely with other great prophets such as Moses, Samuel, Daniel, Ezra, and Nehemiah in confessing the sins of his people as a body, for God does hear and heed such corporate expressions of repentance.
At the same time, one cannot depend on even this being sufficient. Nineveh may have been saved when it responded to Jonah’s message, but later it would pay a fearsome price for its cruelties. On a much less dramatic level, I have often noticed how people who live in cathedral cities feel subconsciously reassured by the presence of their cathedral. Whilst at one level that is really lovely, it can also serve as an excuse for not making any effort to seek the Lord’s help and salvation for themselves.
In this case, no identificatory offering would have been enough to save Judah now, no matter how righteous or how fervent the people who were praying. There was much prayer for Kyiv in the thirteenth century to be saved from the Mongol mob, but it was not to be. There was much prayer, too, when the massive Russian armoured column advanced towards it in the early spring of 2022. On that occasion, God did indeed send His angels and forestall a seemingly overwhelming invasion force.
Even though Ezekiel was speaking within a specific historical context to the Jewish exiles in Babylon, his message extends, therefore, through the centuries, down to the present day, addressing those who know themselves ultimately to be exiles here on Earth, but who want to see as much of God’s Kingdom come as possible in their lifetime. It is a message that pierces complacent assumptions that all will automatically be bound to go on getting better – and that even if certain sins are rife in the nation (and even in the hearts of its leaders) then God will forgive all anyway, ‘because it’s His job to do so’.
Not necessarily. Yes, it His nature and His joy to forgive, but even so, this is not something that societies should count on automatically unless they are also making serious efforts to live for His glory, and to align themselves with His will. Is it ultimately not better to be confronted with our sinfulness than to draw false comfort from presumptuous delusions?
Among the prophets who wanted to hear nothing but Easy Street reassurances and other such ‘smooth things’ would doubtless have been those same false prophets who had caused Jeremiah such problems back in Jerusalem. We in our own day are likewise in trouble because we have diluted the word of God to such an extent that the great majority of church-goers these days in the Western world now incline toward embracing some form of universalistic standpoint, whereby it is assumed that all will be welcomed into everlasting light when they die, seemingly irrespective of whether or not they have sought to live wholeheartedly for the Lord. Again, better far to face up to the very stark and clear realities concerning eternal judgement that Jesus spells out so frequently in the gospel stories, and which modern-day theologians have gone to such lengths to water down – or even to dismiss out of hand. A moment’s serious reflection should surely make them realise: who are they and who are we to think that we know better, and more, about the life that is to come (which after all lasts for the whole span of eternity), than the Son of God? The logic is absurd, and yet this is effectively the line of thinking that countless multitudes have swallowed almost unthinkingly. Jesus did not mince His words. He did not promise that all would fare well in eternity, but warned rather that there are two ways through life, leading to two entirely different destinations – and that the majority of people do not strive to enter by the narrow and less travelled way.
All this places a great responsibility on the prophet, for we too can experience the judgment of God for settling for compromise and ‘whitewashing’ matters that really do need dealing with – without, for all that, falling into the equal and opposite trap of ‘majoring on minors’.
It is so precious and so important to find in the chapters that describe the terrible judgment of God coming on the nation, a precious mark being placed on the foreheads of the ones the Lord would save. People fear the mark of 666 in Revelation, but more important by far is to fear not having the mark of the Lord on our foreheads. (The image is taken from the final letter of the Hebrew alphabet, the taw, which is in the form of a cross) ❌ It is also the first letter of Christ in Greek.
From this little remnant of ‘marked’ men and women, though few these days would be aware of it, would stem the mighty Church of Christ. The fire that burns also purifies and prepares, and those who are cleansed by it would tell the people in Haggai’s day to consider their ways and to realize why these things have happened. But these elders did no such thing.
The vast majority of those who were engaged in idolatrous practices in Ezekiel’s day likewise would have had not the slightest idea that they were guilty of taking the Name of the Lord God in vain, and thereby breaking the third commandment. (Deut. 5:11) Most people assume, if they think about such things at all, that the Lord was simply warning people not to go round swearing and blaspheming. What He was – and is – really concerned about is people taking His Name, the Name that is above every name, and seeking to use it purely to further their own ends.
Many who would never dream of engaging in the black arts yet hope that they can experience power to put a spell on others, just by invoking the divine Name. Even for those of us who have genuinely placed our hope in the name of Jesus can find ourselves inclining not so much just to lift matters to the Lord for Him to attend to, but seeking rather to impose our own will on others. And that, in truth, runs the risk of trespassing into the realms of witchcraft.
The temptations to wield power in such ways (purely for other people’s benefit, of course!) can be strong and tempting. Whenever we find ourselves praying along the lines of ‘Make X do Y,’ (or hear others doing so) it should be at least an amber coloured flag. Are we truly exercising the authority of the Lord in the way He fully intends and expects His followers to do – after all so many of the ‘prayers’ in the New Testament took the form of authoritative commands rather than just well-intentioned petitions : to the storm ‘be still,’ to the blind eye or the deaf ear ‘be opened – or are we just assuming that we know what it is best for X to do?
Truth and falsehood often run so close to one another. What the false prophetesses were doing in Ezekiel 13 amounted to trying to avail themselves (and in many cases to make a living out of) something that was not theirs to peddle: that is, the power that truly does reside within the name of God.
As we see further on in the book of Ezekiel, the Lord’s whole intention is to deliver His people in such a way that they will know that He is the Lord. (Ezek. 13:21,23) That phrase, ‘know that I am the Lord’, is unique to the book of Ezekiel. It recurs nearly sixty times. This is His will and purpose that all men everywhere should know Him, and lift up holy hands in prayer. (1 Tim. 2:8)
It is a deeply encouraging thought that we can take just one of those many examples and turn it into prayer. For example, the specific promise I referred to earlier in Ezekiel 29:6 that tells us that ‘all the inhabitants of Egypt and Ethiopia shall know that I am the Lord,’ and use that promise as a springboard to pray for those nations – even for those many tribes and regions where there is currently little or no witness to Jesus’ saving power. (Ethiopia is actually one of the world’s oldest majority Christian countries. Even to this day 67% would identify themselves as Christians. And there is far more evangelistic outreach in Egypt than in any other Middle Eastern country, for all that many believers feel extremely pressurised and isolated.)
How like the words of Jesus Ezekiel’s are in piercing to the very heart of the matter in warning that sin leads to death. His words are like an x-ray that cuts through all pretence and excuses. Let’s never forget for one moment the great revelation Ezekiel had had in chapter 8, in which he saw ‘a figure like that of a man’ before being lifted up by the Spirit from his place of exile in Babylon to witness the terrible things that were happening back in the house of God in Jerusalem. ‘Sharper than any double-edged sword,’ the writer to the Hebrews reminds us, ‘the word of God judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.’
How urgently many parts of today’s compromised Church need to hear those verses! Just a few years ago a friend, training for ordination in the Church of Wales, found himself the only Bible believer on the course, and facing really horrible mockery for doing so. And all this at the hands of the people who are the future leaders of the Church!!
As surely as there have been all too many preachers in the past who have preached and proclaimed God’s judgement in harsh and far from compassionate ways, it was perhaps inevitable that the pendulum has swung too far in the opposite direction, with the result that large parts of the contemporary church have now swung to the opposite extreme, to the point where many are unwilling to warn anyone of anything – unless it be to come down heavily on anyone who dares to speak against their liberal positions. That’s when the eleventh commandment they have created comes into force: ‘Thou Must Tolerate’ but then, with a sharply ironic twist, ‘- and if you don’t, we will judge you!’
In which case we need to remember the 12th commandment that Alex Buchanan, a very genuine prophet of the Kingdom came up with: ‘Thou shalt bash on anyway!’
On the face of it, it is entirely right and proper that these elders were willing to seek God, but what they were actually seeking were not challenges but reassurances. No wonder the Lord commanded Ezekiel, ‘Say to those who prophesy out of their own imagination: “Hear the word of the Lord! This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Woe to the foolish (wicked) prophets who follow their own spirit and have seen nothing!”’ (Ezek. 13:2-3)
When people who make no effort to seek or honour God on a daily basis, and yet still assume that He ought to come through for them when they are in need, He is so gracious that He does indeed hear the least cry that is directed towards Him. We must be sure to respond to the help that He sends with gratitude, though, lest we be found to be like the nine lepers who were healed but did not return to thank the Lord Jesus. It seems incredible, doesn’t it, but of course it means that although their sores may have gone, they failed to enter into any meaningful relationship with the only One who can heal the deeper sores of our sinfulness. Whereas gratitude leads to a fuller relationship by far.
Many are subconsciously reluctant to seek God too earnestly in case He says or reveals something that they have not wanted to face. Much wiser just to settle in advance that whilst God will answer our prayers, the form in which He does so may not be in the least what we had expected. So much so that we may struggle to see it as an answer to our prayers at all, but incline rather to consider it a rejection of it. As a wonderful antidote to that, you are highly likely to have come across the thoughts that an unknown Confederate soldier scribbled down, and which were found in his pocket when he died on the battlefield.
I asked God for strength, that I might achieve.
I was made weak, that I might learn humbly how to obey.
I asked for health, that I might do greater things.
I was given infirmity, that I might do better things.
I asked for riches, that I might be happy.
I was given poverty, that I might be wise.
I asked for power, that I might have the praise of men.
I was given weakness, that I might feel the need of God.
I asked for all things, that I might enjoy life.
I was given life, that I might enjoy all things.
I got nothing that I asked for – but everything I had hoped for.
Almost despite myself, my unspoken prayers were answered.
I am, among all men, most richly blessed.
God’s weighing maching – and the glory beyond
Truly, God weighs the things that come our way in line with His purposes for our lives, and with our strengths and our giftings. We do well to remember, however, that His weighing machine looks nothing like those outsize Daleks on seaside piers and in our GP waiting rooms! In fact, we would not even be able to recognise them as a pair of scales at all!
Seeing things as we do from a human viewpoint, we worry about how large and heavy a particular circumstance is, but He is all the time taking note of our loving willingness and obedience in following Him despite it. And so it is that even our sufferings and afflictions – though they will surely be less than those of Ezekiel – will have their place in preparing us, as him, for the greater weight of glory beyond, and our transformation from glory to glory by His Spirit. (2 Cor. 4:17, 3:18)
How precious that the book of Ezekiel, like the Revelation itself, opens with visions of God’s kavod ‘heavy’ glory, and ends with it too. Having seen so many things that had driven the glory from His sanctuary, and left the land Ichabod, (the glory has departed) what a joy it is to read in Ezekiel 43:1-5 of the glory returning:
‘I saw the glory of the God of Israel coming from the east. His voice was like the roar of rushing waters, and the land was radiant with his glory. The vision I saw was like the vision I had seen when he came to destroy the city and like the visions I had seen by the Kebar River, and I fell face down. The glory of the Lord entered the temple through the gate facing east. Then the Spirit lifted me up and brought me into the inner court, and the glory of the Lord filled the temple.’
The glory of the Lord will fill the earth, and we by His mercy will be part of His new creation.
A brief reflection on mystic visions
The figure Ezekiel saw in Ezekiel 8 is traditionally understood to be a picture of Christ’s flaming zeal for God and passion for the purity of His house, combined with His wrath against idolatrous worship. Those who are ‘mystically’ sensitive may well be accorded such experiences. The annals of Church history are full of such accounts. It may may well be that amongst your own friends and acquaintances are some who have been permitted glimpses of the holy and heavenly work that has been commissioned in the courts of the Lord, just as they are gifted likewise to discern the particular shenanigans that the powers of darkness are up to.
The prophet’s task is a challenging one, and we need insight and heavenly wisdom in receiving and sharing prophecy. It is important to welcome true insights, and it is just as important to discern and reject those that are false. There have been so many counterfeit and political prophecies of late, so many ‘smooth’ words lacking in cutting-edge truth – with all too many believers falling prey to the belief that Donald Trump is a type of King David, or even Jesus.
Paul takes no pleasure in false prophecy. He found joy instead in those who, like his young protégé, Timothy, have hearts that are set fully on serving Christ and become attuned and aligned to His interests only. (Phil. 2:20-21)
We see something happening at the secular level in the temptation to compromise that many of Donald Trump’s top picks for senior Cabinet places will undoubtedly experience, when even their most cherished views and values are expected to be subservient to the President’s whims and wishes. For never in modern times has so much power been concentrated in the hands of someone who is most unlikely to wield it in godly ways.
It would be so easy to indulge in a sentimentality (which we would much prefer to call compassion) that inclines us to give the comforting answer rather than to declare things as they truly are in God’s sight. But how can cures be sought and applied unless we know how big the problem is? No wonder the Lord was obliged to challenge the false prophets: and in Ezekiel 13:1-16 we see that he had found a rare person through whom He could do so both strongly and safely.
Prophets walk a tightrope between loyalty to God and obedience to their earthly masters. Where they fail in this respect, they inevitably end up joining the ranks of those to whom the message of judgement was addressed.
For these are rebellious people, deceitful children,
children unwilling to listen to the Lord’s instruction.
They say to the seers, “See no more visions!” and to the prophets,
“Give us no more visions of what is right!
Tell us pleasant things, prophesy illusions.
Leave this way, get off this path, and stop confronting us with the Holy One of Israel!” (Isaiah 30:9-11)
The danger of prophesying ‘out of our own minds’ (Ezek. 13:2) is all but inevitable if we have not stood in the presence of the Lord, and heard Him speaking in the council of the Lord, (Jer. 23:21, 32) and are therefore only too willing to whitewash over real sin (or to ‘greenwash’ our own achievements). These are phenomena we are only too accustomed to seeing these days in certain political circles. How can such platitudes and misleading statements fail to dishearten the righteous, whilst also strengthening those who have no fear of the Lord in their lives? (Ezek. 13:10-17, 22-23) God is not mocked; it is His firm resolve to raise His people up above the prevailing mediocrity.
The principle that the genuine prophets spell out again and again in the Scriptures is that if sin is not faced over a period of time, there cannot but be consequences, for ‘as we sow so shall we also reap.’ (Cf Is. 30;12-14) It is our task and privilege as intercessors to do our best to hold this judgement off as long as we possibly can, even as Abraham sought to do for the cities of the plain, until or unless there is no more we can do to forestall the inevitable. Until then, God uses the prayers and even the very presence of righteous men to save churches, companies or even nations – rather as in the mythical story of the little Dutch boy who put his finger in the hole in the dyke, and so saved low-lying Holland from being flooded.
Ezekiel had been commanded to dig through a hole in order to reach the place where he could see the abominations that were going on back in Jerusalem, for God is always at pains to give His reasons for judgement.
The reason for this is both immediate and very far-reaching. In the short term the abominable idol of Asherah, the goddess of love, had been set up in the temple. Like oil and water, or mercury and water, the two just don’t and cannot mix or belong together. The presence of Israel’s God likewise does not mix with the many other gods that society, consciously or unconsciously, is following.
Better to do away with false church altogether where the Lord was not worshipped in holiness, for the Lord will not cease leading the faithful after that happens. There is grief and sadness that such a thing should be required, but there is also divine anger, and to some extent we share in this, because practices are being followed in this secret worship that, deep down, worshippers know is not in accordance with the law of God.
These people (whether Democrats or Republicans in political terms, or Episcopalians or whoever in denominational terms) have made the cardinal mistake of thinking that they can do as they please, and that God will never find them out. It is like a child playing hide and seek, who covers his face with his hands, boasting cheerfully that he can’t be seen, yet quite unaware that he has left his butt sticking out from behind his hiding place!
And so a time came when God effectively decided that there were simply too many ‘breaches’ in the wall of the nation for even the fingers of the strongest, purest people in the nation to forestall, leaving the way wide open for the force of the water to do it worst. (Ezek. 14:12-23)
Such would be Jerusalem’s fate, and such we fear could so easily be the fate of deeply polarised and compromised America – and Britain, too, for by turning the camera in a different direction, we are obliged to acknowledge that whatever sins America is guilty of, we are sure to find their counterparts over here also.
Concerningly, many things may have to worsen still more, for as the Lord warned Ezekiel, “Son of man, do you see what they are doing—the utterly detestable things the Israelites are doing here, things that will drive me far from My sanctuary? But you will see things that are even more detestable.” (Ezekiel 8:6, ‘even greater abominations.’)
In the midst of all this gloom, it is so important to remember that Isaiah is not the only ‘evangelical’ preacher, for Ezekiel is another such. In 33:11, for example, we read, ‘As surely as I live,’ declares the Sovereign Lord, ‘I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live. Turn! Turn from your evil ways! Why will you die, people of Israel?’ The people could have been downhearted and despairing because of the sins of the past, but the assurances given here are a wonderful reminder that our past can be forgiven, the slate wiped clean and a new beginning be made.
Often regarded as the father of Judaism, should we not see Ezekiel rather as the preacher of the new birth and the clean heart? Like Isaiah and Jeremiah, he was also a prophet of that coming age of the Spirit, in which the righteous requirements of the law would be fulfilled by those who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. (Romans 8:4) When Ezekiel commanded people to be holy because the Lord is holy, he was not calling people to keep their distance from others whom they might regard as less holy than themselves, any more than Jesus did. He who was and is holiness rather than someone who just preached it was ever the first to reach out to people in the midst of their sins and needs, and to meet with them there.
Ezekiel undoubtedly had a tremendous sense of the holiness of God, just as Isaiah did, but he had an equal appreciation for his eagerness to bestow the Lord’s grace and pardon. Though there is much about judgement in his oracles, he, like Isaiah, clearly looked on this as God’s strange work: something that is alien and far from congenial to His nature, but one that is nevertheless essential, for not to respond when people act wickedly and refuse to repent would convey the impression that He was ethically and morally indifferent in the face of genuine sin. It was always His primary aim that people should know that He is the Lord, even when He was obliged to send them into exile among the nations, even then knowing well that He would eventually gather them once again into their own land.
Then the people of Israel will no longer stray from Me, nor will they defile themselves anymore with all their sins. They will be My people, and I will be their God, declares the Sovereign Lord. (Ezekiel 14:11, 39:28)
God will not share His richest blessings with those who are harbouring hopes of finding something better in their worldly pursuits. May the Lord renew a burning desire in us to honour Him in all that we do. Already we have a foretaste of Ezekiel’s spirit in these moving words of Frederick Faber:
None honours God like the thirst of desire . . .
Then pray for desire, for love’s wistfulest yearning,
For the beautiful pining of holy desire;
Yes, pray for a soul that is ceaselessly burning
With the soft fragrant flames of this
Thrice happy fire. For the heart only dwells,
Truly dwells with its treasure,
And they who love God cannot love Him by measure,
For their love is but hunger to love Him still better.
For the lack of desire is the ill of all ills;
God loves to be longed for, He loves to be sought,
For He sought us Himself with such longing and love:
He died for desire of us, marvellous thought!
And He yearns for us now to be with Him above.
Postscript – What happened next? The greater glory beyond
Chapters 4-24 of Ezekiel are primarily concerned with God’s dealings with the nations, preparing for the time when He will pour out His Spirit upon all people in readiness for the great moment when His Headship and universal rule will come to pass on Planet Earth. Even representatives from nations that caused Israel strife and trouble over millennia will be found amongst the redeemed – although judgement still needed be pronounced and visited first on the people of God, both on Judah, and the subsequent people of His new covenant. (That’s us folks!) (1 Peter 4.17f)
There are only glimpses here, but we look forward with joy to the day when every aspect of life – political, as well as judicial, economic and agricultural, rather than only the outwardly spiritual or social – will be redeemed for His glory.
All this is envisaged in outline here as elsewhere in the Scriptures.
As the Chief Shepherd who draws together all who love Him, Jesus nurtures, protects, and sanctifies His people, whatever their denominational background. (Ezek. 37.24) Whether we serve primarily in a pastoral or a prayerful capacity (in which case chapter 34 is especially relevant), God’s great concern is for His holy Name to be honoured among the nations. (Ezek. 35: 22, 23, 36, 38).
He promises that:
‘I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put My Spirit in you and move you to follow My decrees and be careful to keep My laws.’ (Ezek. 36:25-27).
As both prince and king (nasi’ and melek, Ez. 37:24-25) Jesus is the ultimate Royal, and far more than a mere symbol of His people’s unity. There is nothing of the tyrant about Him, but He will nevertheless rule the nations with a rod of iron. (37.25) And His dwelling place will be in Jerusalem, as foreseen in the powerful image that Revelation 21:3 takes up beautifully,
I heard a loud shout from the throne, saying, “Look, God’s home is now among His people! He will live with them, and they will be His people. God Himself will be with them. I will be their God, and they will be My people. (NLT)
All this glorious harmony and unity will come about not by human effort, but by the power of His Spirit. Yet there is much for each of us to do in the meantime to both hasten the day and, in some mysterious way, contribute to it.
Then He said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Come, breath, from the four winds and breathe into these slain, that they may live.’” (Ezek. 37:9 NIV)
The word for breath is our old friend ruach, the breath, wind or spirit of God. It reminds us of Jesus breathing on His disciples, so that they received the Holy Spirit. (John 20:22) Glory!
Chapter 36 is a wonderful recital of all the things that God will do by His own sovereign working. Right at the end of it comes a beautiful moment when the Lord says, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Once again I will yield to Israel’s plea and do this for them . . .’ (36:37)
In other words, He invites us to play our part, however small, in this great work of redemption and re-creation, promising to hear our prayers. Do not despite the day of small beginnings! Each act of faithful prayer, outreach, and service the we make is the equivalent of one more stone in the Lord’s temple – and enough stones combine to bring about God’s glorious redemptive purposes.
Jesus really will return to Earth, and when He does, He will carry out the divine ‘separation’ that He spoke of so often: the moment when earthly tyrants will be overthrown, and all wrongs righted. Nothing unholy will be permitted to persist as our present era comes to an end and Jesus ushers in the new one. (Matt. 25:31-46; cf Rev.21.27)
Many of us will be familiar with the beautiful song ‘Bring him home’ from Les Miserables, But how much more glorious is the Lord’s promise of Ezekiel 39:27 ‘When I have brought them home from the nations and have gathered them from the countries of their enemies, I will be proved holy through them in the sight of many nations.’ By His grace ‘we will be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is’. (1 John 3.2)
‘He has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead – all who have this hope purify themselves, just as He is pure.’ (1 John 3.3)
Undeserving though even the best of us are, God will be at the centre of His people’s lives, just as He is in His perfect city, so beautifully named the Yahweh-shammah: ‘The-Lord-is-there.’ What a perfect note to end this reflection on. For He will not only be ‘there’ in Jerusalem, but we will continue to have the inestimable privilege of being God’s temple, in whom His Spirit dwells. (1 Cor. 3:16)
Photo by Aakanksha Panwar on Unsplash