"False Prophets" June 12 Readings: Ezekiel 13-18

Today's Reading - Ezekiel 13-18

I have been so busy at the Southern Baptist Convention, I simply FORGOT this. My humblest apologies.

Background

In today's readings we see some of the vivid, graphic prophetic words of Ezekiel. The description of Israel as the adulterous wife is especially graphic and would have been shocking to the hearers. God takes sin, especially idolatry, seriously.

Devotional - False Prophets

There were many prophets in Israel, not just the men of God about whom we read in Scripture. These were the false prophets, the ones who told the people what they wanted to hear. As we read in Ezekiel 13:1-7 and 10-12, look at the characteristics of false prophets.

1. They prophesy out of their own imagination. 2-3

The word of God must be interpreted and applied, but it is not subject to our imagination or reinvention. We do not get to make it say what we want it to say. These false prophets created their own prophesies out of their own spirits and had "seen nothing." They had no word from God.

We proclaim a "sure word of prophecy" from the Bible and are not to make it up.

2. They were jackals. 4-5

A jackal among the ruins - that is how God described these false prophets. They were predatory. Instead of blessing the people they were using the people for their own good. They were consuming the flock of God instead of caring for them.

3. They declared the false message of "Peace." 6-7, 10-12

The whole point of the gospel is to give us peace with God through the blood of Christ. That is truth. The false gospel is to declare that we have peace with God without bothering to repent or seek forgiveness through Jesus.

The false prophets preached that Judah had peace with God without calling them to repent. Peace without repentance, without turning away from sin - that is the key marker of the false prophet. That is why people love false prophets and kill the real ones. The real man of God says, "Your sin is an offense and you must turn away." The false prophet says, "God doesn't care how you live."

Father, may we be obedient to your word and listen to those who preach it truly, rejecting the false prophets. 

Think and Pray

Think about the way you view God and the way you read the Bible. Does it conform to the truth or to the message of the false prophets?