And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, 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; Thus saith the Lord God; Woe unto the foolish prophets, that follow their own spirit, and have seen nothing! O Israel, thy prophets are like the foxes in the deserts. (Ezekiel 13:1 to 4)
I spent some time looking this chapter over and saw a specific theme running through it. In actuality, the same theme runs throughout much of the book of Ezekiel, but it’s pronounced quite definitely here. The Lord told him to prophecy against the prophets of Israel who claimed to be speaking for Him but were lying and deceiving the people. Sadly, the same thing is happening in far too many churches today.
I mentioned it previously, but I’ll say it again: they’re of the spirit of Hananiah. They have always been resident among God’s people, but, because of the times that we’re in, they seem to be much more prevalent. These are the ones who are prophesying “Peace”; yet there is no peace. According to the Lord, they’re “foolish prophets, that follow their own spirit, and have seen nothing”. As I’ve said, and will continue to say, there are numerous believers who are walking truthfully and earnestly and are seeking Him with their whole heart and mind and soul and spirit. Then again, there are numerous pseudo-Christians who are tossing their coins into a trumpet. As the Pharisees would advertise that they were “being faithful and worthy” by allowing their giving to be heard by all around, these people make it known that they’re “upstanding believers”; yet their facade is extremely sheer.
Scattered amongst them all are those who claim to be speaking for God. In many instances they truly believe that they’re hearing from Him; but far too often they’re simply parroting tradition. Their intention isn’t to mislead, though what they speak ultimately does, because they really aren’t hearing from God. Now don’t get me wrong. Just as with ministers and believers and preachers and teachers, many prophets are earnest with Him, and many DO hear from Him. But there are far too many who don’t; and one is one too many.
The Lord says they’re like “foxes in the deserts”, or, as it translates in Hebrew, “jackals among the ruins”; and there are a couple of portions of Scripture that come to mind.
Catch the foxes, the little foxes ravaging the vineyards just as our vineyard is in flower. (Song of Songs 2:15, The Koren Tanakh, The Magerman Edition, First Hebrew-English Edition, Copyright © 2021, Koren Publishers Jerusalem Ltd.)
The same day there came certain of the Pharisees, saying unto him, Get thee out, and depart hence: for Herod will kill thee. And he said unto them, Go ye, and tell that fox, Behold, I cast out devils, and I do cures to day and to morrow, and the third day I shall be perfected. (Luke 13:31 and 32)
Though there are only six references to foxes in the Word, the general concept is a negative one. They speak of destruction, of opposition, of sin, of enemies of progress, and of desolation. That, then, is exactly what the Lord has always said about the rebellious and about those who have falsely claimed to speak for Him. According to Him they’ve failed to help believers to prepare for the time to come when they’ll be confronted with situations that they’ll never have expected and which will overwhelm multitudes. After all, so many preachers and teachers and other ministers have declared the “doctrine” of the rapture to be fact that far too many in the church will be devastated to find out that “there [will be] no peace”. Those who warn the church that there’s no rapture are generally ostracized, and those who state that the Lord’s judgment upon the rebellious within His body is impending are deemed to be false prophets. However, the Jews reacted the same way toward those who were speaking the same things; and the truth of what they rejected ultimately became apparent. You see, far too many of those who claim to be prophets are of the spirit of Hananiah. He spoke of the soon coming of restoration and peace and freedom; yet God, through Jeremiah, called him a deceiver who made the people to believe a lie. It happened then, and it’s happening today.
The Lord also refers to what the false prophets have been speaking as a wall that was daubed with untempered mortar. That basically means that the mortar was unproven, and translates as whitewashed; which brings me to the following portion of Scripture.
Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness. Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity. (Matthew 23:27 and 28)
What we need to understand is that we speak those things that are in our heart. Those things that the prophets today are putting forth contradict the Word and the Spirit of God; so they have to package it to be acceptable to the multitudes. They’re having success for the time; but the day is fast approaching when God will send forth His judgment, and their facade will come tumbling down.
Likewise, thou son of man, set thy face against the daughters of thy people, which prophesy out of their own heart; and prophesy thou against them, 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? (Ezekiel 13:17 and 18)
When I read this, I did what I believe quite a few others have done, which was to pose the question: “What in the world does this mean?!” Well, the context was fairly plain, but the terminology was rather vague. Consequently, I turned to a couple of other sources for some understanding. The first was from the Hebrew translation of verse 18.
So says the Lord God: Woe to those women who sew ribbon-amulets onto the joints of every arm, who make veils for the heads of people of every stature, in order to hunt others’ lives; you hunt the lives of My people, but your own lives you preserve? (“The Koren Tanakh”, The Magerman Edition, First Hebrew-English Edition, Copyright © 2021, Koren Publishers Jerusalem Ltd., POB 4044, Jerusalem 91040, Israel, POB 8531, New Milford, CT 06776-8531, USA)
And the second were notes that I referred to from E.W. Bullinger’s work called (“The Companion Bible”, The Authorized Version of 1611 (KJV), originally published in 1922, notes and appendixes by E.W. Bullinger, Kregel Publications, Grand Rapids, MI. 49501). Now, I didn’t just use these resources as they are, but as the Lord spoke to me through them. First, I want to try to explain these things in their literal sense, and then what the Lord is saying to us today.
As I said, the Authorized Version speaks of the women “that sew pillows to all armholes”; but the original Hebrew speaks of those who “sew ribbon-amulets onto the joints of every arm”. Since the word “pillows” in Hebrew means “to conceal, to hide” then the idea was that they were creating things to hide the fact that God’s hand was raised and stretched forth in judgment against the people. This could be seen in the prophecy of Isaiah: “Lord, when thy hand is lifted up, they will not see” (Isaiah 26:11). The same concept can be found in the book of Genesis where our first parents sewed fig leaves together to make aprons for themselves after they had sinned and knew that they were naked. At the same time, the ribbon-amulets were basically good luck charms which were purported to protect the wearer from harm and misfortune. God was completely against them, but they were highly popular amongst His people nonetheless. Also, the kerchiefs were wraps that wound closely around the head in an attempt to cover the eyes so that, again, God’s hand of judgment couldn’t be seen. Since “stature” meant “high or lofty” then this portion was speaking about coverings made for those who ruled so that they would be blind to what was about to happen.
God, through Ezekiel, has been tossing a stick into a pack of dogs: the one that yelps is the one that was hit. Thus, He’ll issue warnings of His impending judgments, because He knows that there will be those who will hear them, realize that He’s been speaking to them, and will submit to Him. By that they’ll have delivered themselves from those judgments. However, there will also be many who will refuse to believe that He’ll judge His people, and will turn a deaf ear to His Spirit until they’ll ultimately lose everything.
The reason so many will reject the warnings is because the word that they’re hearing is touting peace and safety. With everything that’s happening in the world today, that message is particularly comforting. But the issue with it lies in the fact that it’s actually just a whitewashed wall. The concept is beautiful, but it’s actually an empty promise. You see, because so many of God’s people are looking forward to the “rapture”, then that shows they’ve forgotten the purpose of the church. The Lord didn’t save us for our sake as much as for the sake of others. Remember a couple of things. First: there will be multitudes who will be looking for help in the days of tribulation; and, second: God has promised to protect us in those times of trouble. Unfortunately, far too many leaders in the church are giving the people false hopes. They’re perpetuating the whitewashed wall; and they’re failing to prepare them to stand in the day of battle. Instead, they’ve created the ribbon-amulet of the “rapture”. It’s the false hope of delivery by escape rather than the true protection through God’s Spirit.
The time will come, though, when He’ll tear all of that down and will prove what He’s been saying all along. He’ll bring down the whitewashed wall of false promises, and He’ll rend the ribbon-amulets and the kerchiefs of blindness; and He’ll set His people free. Whereas they’ve been under the delusion of “the prophets that prophesy out of their own hearts”, there will no longer be “vanity, nor divine divinations”. He’ll deliver His people out of their hands, and all people will know that He is Lord.