Ezekiel Chapter 14
Saturday, 01/10/26 at 09:15
Solitary Man
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Eze 14:1 Then came certain (eesh – man) of the elders (zaw-kane – ancient, senators) of Israel unto me, and sat before me.
We have been on quite a ride so far, haven’t we? Throughout Ezekiel, God is not very interested in preaching a broad and balanced message. In fact, Yahweh seems to be interested in one topic only, and that is judgment. Yehovah’s choice of sermons is about as opposite as one can get in comparison to the typical church of today, where everything but the judgments of the Lord are taught.
Once again, we see another example where the name of Israel is used interchangeably for Judah. Some think that these may have been men sent from Judah, who may have heard about Ezekiel’s ministry. Remember these words are being given around 592 BC, about halfway into the reign of the last king of Judah, whose name is Zedekiah (597-586 BC). I tend to believe that this would be a collection of elders that lived alongside Ezekiel in Babylon.
As we will see in verse 3 onwards, Yahweh sees right through their facade. Pretending to come to enquire of the Lord in all sincerity, God reveals to Ezekiel their hypocrisy. We will delve more into that idea at the proper place. The point is that once you have begun to be used by the Lord, you will begin to attract a crowd, both good and bad. My heart is warmed when someone takes the time to write a short note informing me how something that I’ve been led to write has ministered to their soul. But others have occasionally shown up as well, who, over time, reveal other motives. Some are happy until I speak against their pet doctrine. Some ran away as soon as I spoke positively of the Jews. Others want me to endorse their writings, and are offended when I decline. People are full of mixed motives, but the Lord sees everything.
Let us always strive to keep a pure heart before the Father, one without guile.
Eze 14:2 And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
If we think that eventually God will take up another topic other than judgment, we are mistaken. Ezekiel has been given a very specific message, and God is not shy about repeating it in every conceivable manner, in the hopes that each variation will reach someone else.
Eze 14:3 Son of man, these men have set up (aw-law – to ascend, rise up) their idols (ghil-lool – a log) in their heart, and put the stumblingblock (mik-shole – obstacle, enticement) of their iniquity (aw-vone – moral perversity) before their face: should I be enquired of at all (daw-rash daw-rash – to frequent, or seek, or ask) by them?
Later in the book, we will come across a passage where Yahweh elaborates on the true nature and motives of these fake seekers:
Eze 33:30 Also, thou son of man, the children of thy people still are talking against thee by the walls and in the doors of the houses, and speak one to another, every one to his brother, saying, Come, I pray you, and hear what is the word that cometh forth from the LORD.
Eze 33:31 And they come unto thee as the people cometh, and they sit before thee as my people, and they hear thy words, but they will not do them: for with their mouth they shew much love, but their heart goeth after their covetousness.
Eze 33:32 And, lo, thou art unto them as a very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice, and can play well on an instrument: for they hear thy words, but they do them not.
One can almost feel the insincerity and hypocrisy of the people described here. They feign love and devotion, but God knows their hearts. How many souls regularly attend a house of the Lord today, and can raise hands to heaven, sing and even weep with the best of them, but sooner or later, in an unguarded moment, their true nature bursts forth in a moment of rage, unforgiveness, malice, or some other evil manifestation. The key is that no matter how they speak, in their day to day life they refuse to obey the commandments of the bible.
The truth about these outwardly pious ones was that they were idolaters. First and foremost, all sin begins from within. Their hearts were tempted and carried away by the promises of success and pleasure in the carnal realm by the gods of their neighbors round about. Remember that the northern kingdom had been overrun for well over a hundred years by now. Judah would have been very familiar with the saturation of the various idols being worshipped just to the north of them. In their own land, Manasseh, and other wicked kings like him would have immersed Judah in these abominations for many years. Yehovah was speaking through Jeremiah at this very season about this:
Jer 15:4 And I will cause them to be removed into all kingdoms of the earth, because of Manasseh the son of Hezekiah king of Judah, for that which he did in Jerusalem.
The chronicler also spoke of the inevitability of judgment, due to the exceedingly wicked actions of this one king, even though Josiah did more than anyone to reverse course:
Ki 23:24 Moreover the workers with familiar spirits, and the wizards, and the images, and the idols, and all the abominations that were spied in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, did Josiah put away, that he might perform the words of the law which were written in the book that Hilkiah the priest found in the house of the LORD.
2Ki 23:25 And like unto him was there no king before him, that turned to the LORD with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his might, according to all the law of Moses; neither after him arose there any like him.
2Ki 23:26 Notwithstanding the LORD turned not from the fierceness of his great wrath, wherewith his anger was kindled against Judah, because of all the provocations that Manasseh had provoked him withal.
2Ki 23:27 And the LORD said, I will remove Judah also out of my sight, as I have removed Israel, and will cast off this city Jerusalem which I have chosen, and the house of which I said, My name shall be there.
While Josiah did his best to restore the worship of the one true God, these idols had taken root very deep in the people’s hearts, and were not so easily removed. It would have been one thing for Josiah to force the destruction of the outward manifestation of idol worship by destroying the statues, altars and groves. It is quite another to purge the desire for illicit things permanently out of their hearts. As we can clearly see, as soon as Josiah died, the people wasted no time in reverting back to their evil ways:
2Ki 23:29 In his days Pharaohnechoh king of Egypt went up against the king of Assyria to the river Euphrates: and king Josiah went against him; and he slew him at Megiddo, when he had seen him.
2Ki 23:30 And his servants carried him in a chariot dead from Megiddo, and brought him to Jerusalem, and buried him in his own sepulchre. And the people of the land took Jehoahaz the son of Josiah, and anointed him, and made him king in his father’s stead.
2Ki 23:31 Jehoahaz was twenty and three years old when he began to reign; and he reigned three months in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Hamutal, the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah.
2Ki 23:32 And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, according to all that his fathers had done.
Just to be clear, the Jeremiah mentioned above has nothing to do with Jeremiah the prophet! The key here is that there was no slow transition back to the wicked ways of Manasseh. No, the king and the people wasted no time in imitating the wickedness of the past evil kings, such as Manasseh. This goes to show that you cannot force righteousness on a person. While it is up to rulers to carry the sword to mete just retribution upon the wicked, only the Spirit of God can permanently do a work upon a man’s soul.
Note the progression here. If your heart has been carried away by something other than God, you will eventually find an excuse to set it before your face. While these men were actually engaged in worshipping logs and statues and images depicting the various gods of the pagan, one should never fall into the trap of walking in an attitude of smugness and condescension, just because most of us do not fall down in front of an effigy.
In Jesus’ time, he spoke of this exact same sin. While the Pharisees would never bow down to a pagan idol, they suffered from the same heart condition as these men in Ezekiel’s day, only it was not so obvious for all to see:
Mat 15:7 Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying,
Mat 15:8 This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me.
Mat 15:9 But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.
Jesus calls all their religious practice vanity, that is, utterly worthless. So too did these men, who were feigning interest in the word of the word via the lips of Ezekiel, but in reality engaging in an utterly worthless endeavour.
Remember that idolatry is the worship of images. In this verse, these idolaters are placing the thing that makes them stumble right before their face. Is there any more perfect a description of our modern day idolatry? Does not almost everyone walk around with their cell phone stuck in their faces? Unlike these men, who would occasionally slip away to go in secret and bow down before their idol or their image, we openly stick our stumbling block before our faces, seemingly without ever ceasing! And I believe the worship of cell phones is just as prevalent within the church as it is without.
I still cannot forget the image of this one woman whom I was observing in one of the last services that I attended at the last physical church that I went to. It did not matter what part of the service was underway, during the two plus hours, she could not stop looking at her phone for more than 30 seconds! Whether we were singing, or the preacher was preaching, she could not put down her phone for more than half a minute. From my vantage point, it looked like she was simply scrolling through a few favorite apps over and over, vainly checking to see if there was a new message or post or whatever the heck she was so assiduously attempting to locate. She simply could not stop, no, not even for a single minute! And this was during a church service! God help her when she was actually alone and had free time!
She had placed the stumbling block of her iniquity before her face, and nothing and no one (not even Jesus) could ever make her step away from her idol.
Why is so much of the church acting exactly like the world? And I’m not talking about the clearly apostate churches, such as the mainline denominations. I am speaking about the charismatic, the Pentecostal, and the Evangelical churches. The ones who preach the born again message, the ones who understand the need to give your heart to Jesus. Why are we allowing and tolerating our people to place these idols before their faces? Not only are we staying silent over this gross sin, but many places allow these abominable practices to continue while the service takes place!
Once again, the straw that broke the camel’s back, so to speak, as to why my wife and I left that last church, was that during the last service we attended, not only was the pastor looking at his cell phone while worship was proceeding, not only were several parishioners checking their phones during the service, but at seven different instances someone’s phone rang, and they actually took the call, or texted something in return, all without a peep of rebuke from the pulpit! I guess if the pastor is texting while we’re supposed to be focusing our attention on worshipping the Lord, than anything is permissible, is it not?
And this was the most charismatic, believe in the gifts of the Spirit church in my city!
Are we not in the same boat as these elders? Does not Yehovah thunder from the heavens? Can you not feel the outrage in heaven, that these gross idolaters would dare to enquire of Him? How dare they! These profligate sinners, these practitioners of falsehood, these ancient men with such a divided heart, do they think the Lord of heaven and earth would tolerate such effrontery? Do they imagine that this holy God, whom they have blasphemed with their actions all the day long, would deem it fit to answer their inquiry with what is a fresh word from God?
And we wonder why there is almost no genuine word of the Lord in our lands today. Why would God waste his time with a bunch of idolaters? We say we love the Lord, but we love social media more. We say our hearts belong to Jesus, but facebook gets the bulk of our daily free time. We say we desire to be used by God, but we cannot even free ourselves from the enslavement of the dopamine hits and addictions of lusting after likes, reposts, subscribes, followers, and all such other diabolical traps that the enemy has set for us.
Did not Jesus say that if your hand offends you, cut it off? Can you not see that this verse directly applies to us today? If what you carry in your hand is an offense to God, cut it off! Throw it away! Shut it off, and use it for what it was originally intended to be – a telephone. Not a device of enslavement and control.
Eze 14:4 Therefore speak unto them, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Every man of the house of Israel that setteth up (aw-law) his idols (ghil-lool) in his heart, and putteth the stumblingblock (mik-shole) of his iniquity (aw-vone) before his face, and cometh to the prophet; I the LORD will answer (aw-naw – eye, take note of, pay attention to) him that cometh according to the multitude (abundance) of his idols (ghil-lool);
Uh oh. At first glance, this sounds good. God will answer the petitioner! But of course, as we read on, we will see that this sort of behavior is considered about as egregious as it gets. For the one whose heart is completely devoted to another god, and then to pretend that they still care what Yehovah says, is the ultimate insult. What this is saying is that this person thinks that Yehovah is so stupid, that he wouldn’t recognize the deceit in this man’s heart. And to make matters even worse, this man’s worship of other gods is something that he practices out in the open, or before his face. At least in Jesus’ time, the Pharisees had their deceitful hearts hidden behind religious rituals which presented a public face of piety. While Jesus saw right through their ‘fakeness’, here Yehovah needs to do no such thing. Their idolatry is out in the open for all to see. And yet they have the gall to insouciantly approach the prophet of the Lord to enquire of this holy God, the one who demands that you shall not have any other gods before you!
The last part of the verse is the key. Taken in context with the following verses, God is going to deceive them. According to verse 9, Yahweh himself will deceive the false prophet, which the idolaters will be attracted to. So how I see this is that God will not speak to the idolater via a genuine prophet, but will turn their heart toward the false prophets, and God himself will put lying words in the false prophet’s mouth, in order to ensure that judgment falls on both the false prophet and his followers.
We will expand on that startling truth later on. Right now, this verse is saying that if anyone is brazen enough to not even attempt to hide their divided loyalties, and then act as if they are a real servant of the one true God, well, they are in for a nasty surprise.
Eze 14:5 That I may take the house of Israel in their own heart, because they are all (kole – the whole) estranged (zoor – turned aside in profanity, to become a foreigner, to commit adultery) from me through their idols (ghil-lool).
Even though there are obvious exceptions such as Ezekiel and Jeremiah, at this point in Judah’s history, the percentage of apostates in the land is so great that God uses the word kole to describe the amount of people that have departed from him. Kole means the whole. In other words, in God’s mind, it is as if the entire nation has turned away from him. The word zoor means to turn aside as an adulterer, to become profane. They have committed spiritual adultery. I don’t know if a stronger word can be found to try and describe just how far they have departed from Yahweh and his ways.
And why has this occurred? What is the cause of this great departure from the faith? Idols.
Why can’t we grasp this concept? Until and unless we are ready to acknowledge that everything that we embrace in our life, and I mean everything, can become a potential idol, then we will never repent. I strongly believe that most Christians think that they have never committed idolatry, simply because we don’t have a statue in the house that we bow down or pray to. Now I know that many Protestants believe that all Catholics do this, having their churches filled with statues, icons, and images. And sadly, many Catholics are guilty of exactly that. I don’t care if any Catholic or any other person from a faith tradition is reading this. If you are praying in front of a statue, especially one of a human being such as Mary, you are in very dangerous waters. Why not gather your courage, and dump all that religious baggage, and spend the rest of your days developing your personal relationship with Jesus? You can rest assured that you need no human mediator between you and the Savior. I know for some of you that will seem hard, but Jesus is always asking us to do the hard thing, not the easy. Why take the chance that you are displeasing to the Lord? Purify your faith practices.
But beyond all that, cell phones are such an obvious example of gross idolatry because they are all about devoting your soul to images. While they may not be an image of Ashtoreth or Moloch, does that really matter? Does it really matter if your idol is your facebook page, or your addiction to texting one another every 5 minutes? Does it matter if your addiction is the stock market ticker, or the sports scores? Does it really matter if you are addicted to headline news, or even to addictively devouring each and every news story that feeds your conspiracy paranoias?
If Jesus is supposed to be above all, then it stands to reason that he should be king, at least when it comes to our free time. Are we choosing to give him the best part of our day, or the leftovers, if there is actually any left? If your heart desires something above God, you will choose to expose yourself to the things that make you fall. For example, if you lust in your heart, you will find an excuse to look at lustful things (ie, you will put them ‘before your face’). Thus you will continue to fall further and further into bondage.
If you are an idolater, you should never pretend that you actually care for the things of God, lest the most grievous punishment that is described in this chapter is meted out to you.
Eze 14:6 Therefore say unto the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Repent (shoob – turn back, turn around), and turn (shoob) yourselves from your idols (ghil-lool); and turn away (shoob) your faces from all your abominations (to-ay-baw – morally disgusting and abhorrent).
Frankly, I was a little startled to find this verse here, at this late stage of Judah’s history. For those of you who studied Jeremiah with me, there was more than one verse where God told Jeremiah NOT to pray for these people. Imagine that. God actually commanding someone not to pray! If this sounds strange or unbiblical, or some OT (Old Testament) thing, remember that the apostle John said the same thing:
1Jn_5:16 If any man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask, and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death. There is a sin unto death: I do not say that he shall pray for it.
Apparently, the whole nation of Judah had ‘sinned a sin unto death’.
Jer_7:16 Therefore pray not thou for this people, neither lift up cry nor prayer for them, neither make intercession to me: for I will not hear thee.
Jer_11:14 Therefore pray not thou for this people, neither lift up a cry or prayer for them: for I will not hear them in the time that they cry unto me for their trouble.
Jer_14:11 Then said the LORD unto me, Pray not for this people for their good.
Three times God told Jeremiah not to pray for those left in Judah.
The only thing I can think of here, is that God is offering those already exiled one final chance to repent. While it seemed that that ship had sailed for those still left in Jerusalem, these that God had plucked away in the first two deportations still had an opportunity to turn things around.
But like most serious sinners, the odds of them actually listening at this hour were very low.
This is such an important truth. The longer you wait to repent, the harder it will be. The less you will want to. The less it will even cross your mind. The more sarcastic you will become to the true things of God. The less and less opportunity you will have. You will never know when the opportunity extended to you will be your last.
Eze 14:7 For every one of the house of Israel, or of the stranger (gare – foreigner, alien, sojourner) that sojourneth in Israel, which separateth himself from me, and setteth up (aw-law) his idols (ghil-lool) in his heart, and putteth the stumblingblock (mik-shole) of his iniquity (aw-vone) before his face, and cometh to a prophet to enquire of him concerning me; I the LORD will answer (aw-naw) him by myself:
Whether you were ‘grafted in’ to the family of God, as all Gentiles have been (Rom 11:17), or you were a direct descendant of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the punishment is the same. Just as we rejoice that we Gentiles share in the same gifts as the Jew through the Messiah, so we need to fear that we all share the same consequence, should we rebel as they have done.
Notice the word separateth. As you can separate yourself from the world, so you can separate yourself in the opposite direction, from God. And remember, we are speaking about God’s own people. We all know that our sins separated all of us from God. But somehow we don’t realize that those same sins can re-separate you from that same God, should you use your free will to walk away from the one who saved you in the first place. Why is this so hard to understand? What sort of devious hold has satan put on such a large part of the church? How has he enabled so many Christians to think that they are untouchable, just because on one certain day in their past, they sincerely gave their lives to Jesus?
Do you think that is enough? Do you really believe that that is all that God requires? Do you actually cling to the fantasy that even if somehow you start to go astray, that all that will happen is that God will take you home early, so you won’t be damned? Do you really believe that the following verse applies to all Christians, all the time, in every situation?
1Co 11:28 But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup.
1Co 11:29 For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body.
1Co 11:30 For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep.
1Co 11:31 For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged.
1Co 11:32 But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world.
Note that Paul said many, not all. In God’s mercy, certain young, immature believers may ‘sleep’, or be killed by the Lord, before their sin takes them to a place of eternal damnation. But we can find many scriptures that warn the believer that they must ‘endure to the end’. Especially so called mature believers, who should know better. These exiles certainly should have known better. Remember these are the elders of the land. They’re not some new believer.
God is continually tying a person’s thoughts and his actions together. Note he is not condemning them just over their idolatrous thoughts, but that they actually put those thoughts into action. Now that does not make Jesus’ teaching on sinful thoughts invalid. All that we see here is that God is bringing total judgment on a nation that not only has a wayward heart, but they have chosen to act on those rebellious thoughts, and are living in open hostility to the commandments of the Lord. Breaking the first and second commandments – how much more rebellious can one get?
Now the subject in this verse is what God will do when a man (or woman) that is enslaved to their idols, has the audacity to come to a real man of God, and ask for guidance. Yahweh says that he will most certainly have an answer ready for that man. But it will not be what that person expects.
Eze 14:8 And I will set my face against that man, and will make him a sign (oth – monument, omen) and a proverb (maw-shawl – pithy maxim, simile, maxim), and I will cut him off (kaw-rath – to cut, as in a covenant by passing between the pieces) from the midst of my people; and ye shall know that I am the LORD.
Before we begin to break this down, let us ponder the words of Matthew Henry from this commentary:
No outward form or reformation can be acceptable to God, so long as any idol possesses the heart; yet how many prefer their own devices and their own righteousness, to the way of salvation! Men’s corruptions are idols in their hearts, and are of their own setting up; God will let them take their course. Sin renders the sinner odious in the eyes of the pure and holy God; and in his own eyes also, whenever conscience is awakened. Let us seek to be cleansed from the guilt and pollution of sins, in that fountain which the Lord has opened. [end]
A man full of idols, who dares to approach God without fear, nor repentance, provokes the Most High in a manner that few others may ever exceed. The nerve, the presumption, the disturbing absence of any fear of the Lord, is hard to fathom. A man such as this has zero fear of Yehovah. This is why nothing is worse than lacking a fear of God. You may think you are filled with the love of God, yet if you can brazenly wallow in, and publicly boast of, your vile and obscene open rebellion such as these public idolaters did, then you are guaranteed to raise the wrath of Yehovah to heights unimaginable. How reckless and unbelievably stupid wicked man is! And nothing is worse than those who truly believe that their religion acts as a cloak to cover all maliciousness. Nothing is more foul than the man who says ‘once saved, always saved’, yet his deeds betray his idolatrous heart.
Yahweh says that he will take a special interest in such a one. He will make him a sign, a sign that will be seen, even as a monument. He will become an omen, a proverb, and not for the good. Even as God can cut a covenant with us for our salvation and protection, so he can cut us off from his people, and by extension, from his presence forever. All this to make his name known in the land.
We have this idea that God is made known in revival. When God shows up to save and heal, people know that he is the Lord. That is true. But in verse after verse, God wants it known that he is made known when he judges. When he kills and destroys the sinner. Especially when the sinners are those who claim to know him. Nothing stirred the wrath of the Father more than when his own children turned their backs on him and went their own way.
At first glance, you may chafe at such a thing. Shouldn’t God be more angry at the globalists? The communists? Antifa and the Chinese? At the Democrats and the Liberals? No, he is not. He is far more angry at his church. His wayward and backslidden church. His rebellious and idolatrous church. Why? Because we should know better. If we say we truly know him, then why are our cell phones glued to our hands? Why are we married to our televisions? Why do our kids come before him? Every practice, every rehearsal, every toy and gadget that we never deny them, do we treat our God the same way? Do we never deny what God asks of us? If our children ask something, anything, no matter how foolish, no matter how frivolous, no matter how wasteful, do we always give in? But when our Father in heaven asks us something, do we always respond? Or is it more of a hit and miss? Our children get perfect response, but God gets half and half. And we wonder why God is not among us. Why God is not answering our prayers. Why God has abandoned most churches in the west.
Eze 14:9 And if the prophet be deceived (paw-thaw – to be open to delusion, deception, entices, being silly) when he hath spoken a thing (word), I the LORD have deceived (paw-thaw) that prophet, and I will stretch out my hand upon him, and will destroy (shaw-mad – bring to nothing, overthrow, pluck down, perish) him from the midst of my people Israel.
In this verse, it is understood that God is now switching gears and is speaking of the false prophet, not Ezekiel. Here is a detailed description of the specific type of punishment that the presumptuous man of idols can expect. God will lead him to enquire of a false prophet. He will get a ‘witness’ in his heart that when he hears a true prophet such as Ezekiel, he will think that he has a ‘check’ in his spirit, that what he is hearing is not of God. So he will go to the internet, to his favorite prophecy website, that serves up a smorgasbord of mostly false prophecies, and be led to a particularly juicily erroneous person, and be given a ‘witness’ in their heart that their lies and nonsense is absolutely from the Lord!
Notice it says that Yehovah himself has deceived the false prophet. Not the devil, not their own heart, not their denomination, but Yehovah himself. God does pay us back according to our ways. A heart that does not want to walk in the true ways of the Lord will be given over to whatever their wicked heart truly desires. Maybe they want fame, so God will give them a false message that will attract thousands and thousands of people. Maybe they refuse to repent of a certain sin, so God gives them a word that condones that sin, and they draw many other like minded sinners to follow them. They are given ‘words’ that justify their greed, or their witchcraft, or their condemnation of the righteous. All the true people of God that oppose and expose them are called rebellious and are guilty of ‘touching God’s anointed’.
I love that nuance of the word paw-thaw. One of its meanings is being silly. We can all think of examples of absurd words that fools on the internet have babbled. We have all seen people act like they are in the throes of severe Parkinson’s disease. One man rocks continually. Another man suddenly jerks and spasms, as he supposedly ‘prophesies’, as if someone is applying a taser to his buttocks every few seconds. And yet God says that he has ‘paw-thawed’ that prophet himself. God has chosen to make a fool out of him, for all the world to see. And the purpose of all this is to utterly destroy that man out of the midst of the church. God will see to it that he perishes, never to rise again, or be remembered, except maybe as a sign and a proverb and a warning of the folly of unrepentant sin.
Eze 14:10 And they shall bear the punishment of their iniquity (aw-vone): the punishment (aw-vone) of the prophet shall be even as the punishment (aw-vone) of him that seeketh (daw-rash) unto him;
The prophet who is wicked enough to try and give an actual word to a wicked man shall cause both to go down in flames. False prophets will always prophesy, should there be a call for them to do so. As long as someone is willing to pay, they will play. The punishment is utter destruction. Not just temporal, but eternal.
Hear this, and hear this clearly. God will throw the false prophet and all his idolatrous followers into hell. They will not just be killed physically. These are reprobates, those who have departed from the faith. The false prophet willingly has abandoned the truth of God’s word, and has sought knowledge from sources other than God. God will use these lost ones, and sometimes will directly place a word in the false prophet’s mouth, in order to permanently lead astray certain types of sinners that God has judged unworthy of eternal life. Thus, God seals their doom while they are still living, as they will follow the instruction of the false prophet, even unto death. For example, they may prophesy that you are loved by God, that he is pleased with you, that you have no need of any repentance, and that great blessing is just around the corner. Meanwhile, the truth is that you are a practicing idolater (you are addicted to your cell phone), you have read a teaching similar to this one and you rejected it, claiming it was too judgy, and your self centered heart led you to the currently popular false prophet of the hour, where you found confirmation that you are on the right path. And God led you there. And God put a lying word in his mouth. And the purpose of all that is that both you and the false prophet end up together in hell, where you both belong.
Now do you see why Ezekiel is no one’s favorite book of the bible? Hard truths, but truths nonetheless. Do you have the courage to continue to face the truth of your spiritual condition? Or shall you be like the man who put his hand to the plough, but looked back? Jesus said such a man was unfit for the kingdom of God.
Eze 14:11 That the house of Israel may go no more astray (taw-aw – vacillate, dissemble, be seduced, wander) from me, neither be polluted (taw-may – fouled, ceremonially contaminated) any more with all their transgressions (peh-shah – revolt, rebellion); but that they may be my people, and I may be their God, saith the Lord GOD.
There is a reason as to why the Lord chooses to act in this way. No, it is not to fulfil some sort of sadistic impulse. No, he does not enjoy watching his children suffer, and be tossed into the eternal fire. He will use the example of the sinner, whom he knows is too far gone to turn back, as a shocking and terrifying example to the rest of us. And the purpose is so that none of us who read this will ever be tempted to go down that same road.
Oh, the mercy and the deep, deep love of our God! He could have chosen to let these worst of sinners go their own way, and quietly die unnoticed. They would have still ended up in hell, but no one would have learned anything from their folly. Instead, he intentionally causes them to sin even more spectacularly than they would have without his assistance. He leads these idolatrous ones to the false prophet, in whose mouth he places a deceitful word. As a result, both this prophet and his hearer end up being destroyed in some sort of spectacular fashion, one that cannot be hid. Perhaps they get exposed for their insatiable greed, as the Copelands of the world have been today. Perhaps they are exposed for their silly antics, as the Hinns have been, and many others who have such a fond taste for the flamboyant and the absurd. Perhaps their so called prophecies are exposed for the lies that they are, as when a certain famous TV preacher said that God would kill him unless the people gave him something like 10 million dollars to cover his debts. When a rational person, whose beliefs encompass a sound and well rounded understanding of the teaching of the entire bible and not just their favorite parts, encounter such ones, we are disgusted and warned not to be like them. The fear of God is increased in our life. If God is able to take such promising ministers and turn them into such fools when they went astray and refused to repent, then what is to prevent him from doing the same to us?
God does not want us to wander away from him. And wandering is a good word to use. Very few run away from the Lord, as Jonah seemed to have done. No, most of us sort of wander off the narrow path for a bit. The first time maybe we just stepped off the path for a moment, but quickly realized what we had done, and immediately ran back to the narrow path. But next day, we wandered a little further. And took a little more time before we returned. Before we knew it, we’re taking expeditions to the broad road, which seemed to promise so many more adventures. There were sights and sounds and smells that we never encountered on our own narrow path. It all seemed so exciting. Until we decided it was time to go home. And we found out that we had lost our way. We didn’t know how to go home. Our hearts had grown so cold, so hard, that soon we decided that it wasn’t even worth the effort. And only by the grace of God, often after a long, hard season in the wilderness, did his mercy and his love find us and return us to the sheepfold.
When you go astray, your transgressions and your rebellions will defile and pollute you. Why, oh why, is the following verse not hammered into us as often as it takes:
Heb_12:14 Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord:
Instead, the importance of tithing is hammered into us again and again by evil and covetousness pastors, who have zero faith that God will meet their needs, and that it is up to them to beat the sheep over their heads again and again, in order to ensure that the money keeps flowing in!
If you wish to know what should occupy your mind, as far as one goal in life, it is the pursuit of holiness. Not evangelism, not tithing, not church attendance, not raising a family, not loving your spouse, not feeding the poor. All those things are right and good and wonderful. But it is not the main thing that God requires. If we want to be God’s people, and to have God consider us as his own, he did not say you have to lead 10 people to the Lord. He did not say that you have to raise 5 kids. He did not say that you must work in a soup kitchen. He did not say that you must of given me at least 10% of all that you own. No, he said in order to be considered his people, and in order for him to be your God, you must be free from pollution. You must not be defiled. You must not be foul. You must be free from contamination. Holiness is the key. God wants purity. Not simply outward purity (though I must admit many Christians leave much to be desired in this area), but primarily inward purity. What are your thoughts fixed on? Loving and pleasing and obeying God, or thinking about checking your email? Searching your heart for hidden sin, or texting your kids, compulsively keeping tabs on them? Meditating on the statutes and ordinances of Yehovah, or checking facebook?
Only you can decide what to do with your life. Cellphone, or God? Computer, or Yahweh? Laptop, or Jesus? Contamination, or purity? Defilement, or holiness? To see God at the end of the road, or not to see him?
Decide.
Eze 14:12 The word of the LORD came again to me, saying,
Ezekiel was quite a prolific prophet in his day. Yahweh will not stop speaking until he has exhausted every simile, every metaphor, every parable that he can possibly use in order to try and get people to recognize the deadly and dire spiritual condition that they are currently in.
Eze 14:13 Son of man, when the land (eh-rets – the earth, world, can also mean country or nation) sinneth (khaw-taw – to miss the mark) against me by trespassing (maw-al – to cover up, to act treacherously) grievously (mah-al – with treasonous falsehood), then will I stretch out mine hand upon it, and will break the staff of the bread thereof, and will send famine upon it, and will cut off (kaw-rath) man and beast (be-hay-mah) from it:
God opens this portion of scripture by specifically warning of famine. A famine that will destroy both man and beast. We see judgments such as this being fulfilled right before our eyes, as the cabal has deceived us into using the false pcr test to fraudulently claim that man or animal is sick, when they are not. As a result, literally millions upon millions of animals have been slaughtered in the 2020’s, with no sign of this abating, at least in the west outside of America. Thankfully America now has someone in charge who at least provides some hope that these evil, demonic practices may be reversed. And yet here in this verse, the bible says that ultimately, the destruction of man and beast came from God.
Now some may argue that since covid, and everything that sprang from it was a fraud, that all the evil came from the devil and not God. But that is not what the bible teaches. In bible days, God primarily used 4 instruments to destroy – the sword (war), famine (starvation), pestilence (plague), and wild beasts (wild animals). Today, God has more tools at his disposal, due to the wicked devices of men. We have biotech, computing power, AI, synthetic plagues, technology to poison the skies and pronounce sickness when there is not any. We have weapons that can sterilize the planet, and EMP’s that could take us back to the stone age in an instant. So, if someone decides to employ any one of these weapons, is it without the knowledge and tacit approval of God? If we were a faithful nation of believers, serving the Lord with all gladness, do you think the mass murder of covid would have ever been allowed to take hold in our nations? Of course not. It was God who allowed the covid scamdemic to take place. Our sins have brought all this about. We are fighting for our very continual existence due to our rebellions, idolatries, and immoralities. We have abandoned God, and God has abandoned us. Just as in Israel, just as in Judah, so now in the modern day western world.
This is why the book of Ezekiel is so crucial for us to not only grasp, but also to embrace and believe. As long as you entertain doubts as to who is sending the judgments into our midst, then you will disregard the warnings and the lessons in this book.
Just how much horror has to be unleashed before we, too, will acknowledge the hand of the Lord behind all of this? Or shall we cling to the doctrines of Laodicea, right to the bitter end, which state that God is love, and only love. He only wants good things for us, as he has a wonderful plan for our life. Ignore sin. Ignore idolatry. Continue to clutch those phones, as a toddler would clutch their mother’s hand. Do not let go. Continue to listen to only smooth things. And die.
God says that a fundamental component in sinning is the covering up aspect of it. It also contains the element of treason. In other words, treasonous covering up of one’s actions. Wilfully, knowingly disobeying any command of God is really an act of treason against the king. If your conscience convicts you, and you don’t want to stop, then you will in some form or fashion cover up your action. You may simply cover it up to yourself. That is, you either don’t think about it, or you rationalize it away, or you convince yourself that you can’t help it. If you continue in such behavior, God will send famine into your soul. When a nation or a planet decides to continue in such behavior, God will send famine to the entire land.
I contend that the entire planet is in this period that is spoken of here. The entire planet had turned their back on the commandments of God. Ironically, here in late 2025, the only nation that seems to be practising consistent righteousness is the state of Israel. Faithless, Messiah denying Israel. Israel, the one nation on the globe that everyone else seems to hate with the most irrational hatred imaginable. Israel, the only nation in the history of mankind that warns their enemy’s civilians when and where they are going to attack, so they can evacuate. Israel, who sends food to their enemies, while at war with them. Israel, who continually releases hundreds of psychotic mass murderers for a single hostage in return. Israel, who bears more hatred, more lies, and more propaganda against it, than the rest of the world combined. Israel, the one country that so many ‘Christians’ love to hate. No nation ever in the history of warfare acted more righteously than Israel has in this latest war against Hamas.
I am so sick and tired of believer after believer, who in the last year or two, one by one, expose the wickedness in their heart, by turning on Israel with one lie or another. Someone said anti-Semite is a made up word, because it sounds better than Jew hater. I totally agree. It is absolutely sickening how many believers, especially in America, try to cover up their hatred for God’s people with various forms of replacement theology, or made up words, or any and every sort of nonsensical excuses.
What I am seeing and what I must denounce is the alarming amount of Catholics who continue to hate the Jew. I know that traditional Catholicism has always had this deep streak of Jew hatred in them. And the main reason is that over the last 2000 years, the Jew was the one tribe that could not be coerced into converting to Christianity. They stubbornly held onto their Judaism, and their tribal identity. While so much of the pagan world, especially in Europe, eventually outwardly converted to Christianity, the Jew persisted in remaining aloof. As a result, countless pogroms were instituted against the Jew. And in response, the Jew learned to never trust the Christian. The terrible pinnacle of all this wickedness culminated in the Jews believing that it was Christian Germany that created the Holocaust. As a result, most Jews, even today, still believe that it was Christians who were behind the Holocaust. And that is one false belief that is very hard to reverse.
So many American podcasters are all so bent out of shape in thinking that the Jewish lobby somehow controls all aspects of American politics. This would be extremely funny, if it wasn’t so tragic and pathetic. The fact is that every entity lobbies. All countries. All companies. All industries. The pharmaceutical industry lobby dwarfs all others. The defence lobby is unimaginably massive. But all that these so called ‘Christian’ commentators can complain about and condemn is the Jewish lobby. Little Israel, who now has no friend left in the world but America. Israel, who is the only nation that comes with a specific blessing for those who support her, and a specific curse for those who are against her. And these idiots behind their microphones have nothing else to talk about than ‘evil’ Israel!
Sinful man boggles the mind at times, do they not?
Eze 14:14 Though these three men, Noah (rest), Daniel (judge of God), and Job (hated or persecuted), were in it, they should deliver but their own souls (nephesh) by their righteousness (tsed-aw-kaw – moral virtue, rightness), saith the Lord GOD.
At around the same time back in Jerusalem, Jeremiah was receiving a similar message:
Jer 15:1 Then said the LORD unto me, Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my mind could not be toward this people: cast them out of my sight, and let them go forth.
Between the word of the Lord in verse one, and this latest word beginning in verse 12, it seems as if God has now passed his absolute final verdict on the land. In verse 6, he was still pleading with the people to repent. Now, he is saying it is too late.
In effect, if God assembled his heavenly all star team, those who had his ear more than any other humans who have ever lived, it would make no difference. If Noah, Daniel and Job could not get God to change his mind, then who could? Similarly, God said that even Moses and Samuel would have no more success than these three.
In case some are wondering how Daniel could be included in such a seemingly ancient and illustrious list, remember that he was part of the first deportation to Babylon in 605. Soon after he began his service to the king, so he would have have distinguished himself for about a dozen years by this time.
What these 3 are noted for was their ability to deliver others. Noah was able to spare his entire family (Gen 6:18). Daniel was the means of saving his companions (Dan 2:17-18). Job’s friends were spared due to his intercession (Job 42:7-8).
However, at this time, and in this place, even if these 3 were here, they would not be able to do any such thing. They would only be able to deliver themselves. Later we shall see God clarify what he meant even more precisely. They would not be able to save their own immediate family members. This is how corrupt and defiled everyone had become.
Think of it. These 3 great men, perhaps the greatest intercessors in history, would not be able to save a single soul. Throw in Moses and Samuel from Jeremiah, and you have the 5 best intercessors of all time (let’s not quibble over Abraham). And they could not do a thing to alter the judgment of the Lord by the smallest fraction.
What an astounding passage! Do you understand what this means? How relevant and practical it is for each and every one of us? How this should help frame our theology, our most cherished beliefs?
In short, just because God chooses to use someone to do some great thing at a specific moment in time, that does not mean that any one of us can simply go and ‘claim’ that verse as our own, and expect it to work in our situation. Noah could plead for his 7 family members before the flood, and God granted him his request. But that same Noah could not plead for the same family members if he had happened to be alive at the time of Ezekiel! They would have all died! How much more can we not claim something as universal, if the truly great and holy men of God could not do so.
This helps to explain this verse:
Act 16:31 And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.
All of us have heard sermons preached on how we need to stand on this verse, because the word of God promises us that if we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, not only shall we be saved, but all our household.
This verse in Ezekiel puts the lie to that nonsense. The verse in Acts was spoken to a specific person. Note that there is no instance when that promise was repeated to anyone else. If it was such a universal promise, do you not think that Paul would have mentioned it in at least one of his letters to the churches?
But we do have scripture that promises the exact opposite. That is, that no matter who you are, or what God did through you in the past, there is no guarantee that he will do the exact same thing again. It all depends on what situation you find yourself in, and God’s will for you at that time.
Regarding Acts 16:31, it is possible that God may quicken that passage to you, and by the Spirit ask you to stand on that verse. And then it is up to you to stand and believe, regardless of how long it takes. But to try and teach that this verse is an absolute promise to all believers for all time is not true. Otherwise, why have millions of family members of believers perished over the last 2000 years?
No, we don’t have the power and the authority that we think we have. It all sounds so cocky and arrogant, does it not? People proclaiming that they have all authority down here to trample upon serpents and scorpions and all that. If they are so sure of themselves, then why don’t they go to Afghanistan, and trample all over the Taliban? Go and ‘declare’ and ‘proclaim’ in Gaza. Or how about in China? No, just like the prosperity preachers dare not take their vile nonsense to India, or other poverty stricken areas of the planet, they only preach it where the ignorant and the gullible can make their words come true. Thus, it is easy to manipulate rich people in the west to give you their money. Because they are already prosperous, the false teachings seem to work. Other lies, such as telling people to go and claim that all their relatives will end up in heaven no matter what because of Acts 16:31, takes a little bit of cognitive dissonance. We focus on the testimonies of conversion, and quietly not talk about all those children who died in their sins. We pretend they never happened, or lie to ourselves and say they probably repented in their heart, though they never made a public confession.
We just love to lie to ourselves, do we not?
What this verse tells us is something terrifying, but equally liberating. Even the giants of the faith are completely limited in what they can do. God created them for a specific time and place, to do a specific thing. If they were born out of season even their great character would be of no use in thwarting the will of God just because they wish it so. If God says that he is going to destroy us, and the decision is final, then it is final.
The question is: Is it final for us? I believe so. I hope that I am wrong.
Because I cannot say for sure, I still pray for the land. Recently, I seem to be hearing that it is too late to be praying for Canada per se. But it is never too late to pray for the people within. Most are simply lost and blinded. There is always hope for the sinner, unless he is one of the truly wicked, in which case there is no hope at all. But that topic is for another day.
Eze 14:15 If I cause noisome (rah – evil, grievous) beasts to pass through the land, and they spoil (shaw-kole – suffer abortion, destroy) it, so that it be desolate (shem-aw-maw – a devastating astonishment), that no man may pass through because (paw-neem – in the face of) of the beasts:
For literal and rhetorical reasons, God switches to another one of his 4 typical horsemen of judgment. Wild animals would occasionally invade and wreak havoc in the land. While this was not an all encompassing judgment as the other 3 (war, hunger, disease), it must have been terrifying when it did occur nonetheless.
I feel in my spirit that there is something more here for us than meets the eye. Could wild beasts represent whatever they have unleashed in our bodies via the mRNA vax? I may be stretching things here, but just because our modern day ‘wild beasts’ are tiny, they are no less destructive. God can choose to punish us however he likes. Whatever it was that the eugenicists of today unleashed upon an unsuspecting planet, it certainly was evil, and it certainly was deadly.
Once again, please take note the God causes this evil to be unleashed. Stop apologizing for the word of God! Most Christians just cannot bring themselves to admit that God creates and sends evil. Especially upon his own children. But if you reject this truth, you might as well tear every prophetic book out of the bible. All the major and minor prophets (maybe you can still retain the book of Daniel) have to go. The book of Revelation also has to be taken out.
Get it through your religious brain. God creates evil.
Isa_45:7 I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.
And in our current verse, as well as in literally many dozens of others, God sends the evil. And he sends it upon his own people, when they deserve it. And let us not forget the fact that we certainly deserve it! We love to speak about God’s grace and mercy, as to how he didn’t give us what we deserve. Instead he gave us the cross. But should we choose to walk contrary to this God of grace, get ready for the God who sends evil to, first of all, get us to repent. But eventually, to simply punish us, then to finally wipe us off the face of the earth, as he is about to do to Judah here.
Note that these evil beasts somehow suffer abortions, or miscarriages to occur. Was that not one of the main characteristics of the jab – spontaneous miscarriages? And was not the result a land of desolation? We cannot reproduce fast enough to replace ourselves. Invaders have come to take our place. They are ruining our communities. Our lands are no longer our lands. The fact that no man could pass through reminds me of the travel restrictions during covid. Some of us were prisoners in our own land. We could not leave the country. Some of us could not travel to other provinces. One of our provinces even set up several zones that most could not cross for a time. All to condition us for their final solutions.
Eze 14:16 Though these three men were in it, as I live, saith the Lord GOD, they shall deliver neither sons nor daughters; they only shall be delivered, but the land shall be desolate (shem-aw-maw).
Here things become crystal clear. Noah, Daniel and Job could not even save their own children. Combining it with verse 14, 18, and 20, it is clear that they could not intercede and save any other human being, including their wives. No one. And not only people, but the land as well. They would have no power to stop the judgment on the land itself.
This concept of judging the land shows us that our sinful choices hurt the innocent. While the land is not a person, the land suffers when innocent blood is shed on it. If God’s presence and blessing leave a land, then the land itself becomes cursed. Left in the hands of the demons and the wicked, they will destroy it. I am reminded of when the Hebrew people began returning to the land of Judah in the 1920’s and 1930’s. Places that the lazy Arabs left as deserts and swamps, the Jews, through exceedingly hard manual labor, cleared the land and made it productive once again. It is truly one of the greatest stories of our time, but almost no one knows it. But when the Israelis turned Gaza over to the Palestinians, countless greenhouses and other tokens of civilization were destroyed, and all effort went into building terror tunnels which Hamas could use in their eternal war against the Jew.
Sometimes your prayers are too late. No matter how wonderful and intimate a relationship you have with the Father, no one, not God himself, can force someone to be saved. Eventually there comes a time and a place in an individual, in a tribe, and in a nation, where additional prayers are a waste of time. Only God knows when that moment takes place. If unsure, keep praying. If you truly believe your nation has reached this moment, then pray for the individuals. Almost always God will preserve a remnant. Who knows whose names are yet to be added to that roll?
Eze 14:17 Or if I bring a sword upon that land, and say, Sword, go through the land; so that I cut off (kaw-rath) man and beast from it:
God’s punishments are many and varied. First, he spoke of famine. Then, he speaks of wild beasts (I cannot help but think of Antifa when I hear wild beasts!). Now, he speaks of the sword. Even though we love to sing of Jesus as the prince of peace, sometimes God calls for war. As David told Gad the prophet, it is much better to fall into the hands of an angry God, rather than in the hands of men.
2Sa_24:14 And David said unto Gad, I am in a great strait: let us fall now into the hand of the LORD; for his mercies are great: and let me not fall into the hand of man.
So even in a time of total judgment, is it not better to hope in the Lord’s mercy, rather than in man’s? In whose hands do you think you stand a better chance of surviving, Yahweh’s or Antifa’s? Yehovah’s or China? But sometimes God’s wrath is kindled in such a manner that he sends the worst of the heathen to come and kill all life. Like today. The globalists are not happy with simply killing people. They are murdering livestock and farm animals as no other generation ever has.
Where is PETA when you need them? Because everyone in those radical, left wing groups cared nothing for right and wrong, don’t expect them to show up just because 100 million innocent, healthy chickens are being killed. But let a white woman wear a mink coat, and there they are, throwing paint on it, screaming obscenities at the poor soul. Children of Belial, spawns of satan, bereft of even the most basic humanity, I shudder to think of what their day of judgment shall look like.
Eze 14:18 Though these three men were in it, as I live, saith the Lord GOD, they shall deliver neither sons nor daughters, but they only shall be delivered themselves.
Regardless of the punishment God chooses, these 3 righteous men have no power to change God’s mind. This is so important. Righteousness is not to be used to plead for the wicked. No, not even if they are your own children! Obviously God did not think much of these men’s families. In Noah’s case, it was almost more of a necessity that he needed to save some alive in order to repopulate the earth. So he did Noah a favor and spared his own flesh and blood. And look at how that turned out. A short while after the flood, Ham’s infamous incident with his father’s nakedness. In Job’s case, only his wife survived his trial, and she was no treasure as far as her faith was concerned (Job 2:9-10). In Daniel’s case, nothing is known of his immediate kin.
So God had spared some of their families previously, but even then it wasn’t as if they all had some special power that could guarantee the life of all their children. The point is that God tends to hear the prayer of the righteous much more consistently than the ones who are not so faithful. All 3 of these men would be considered to have the ear of God. Think of how Job was allowed to air his complaint with God, preserved for all of eternity. Think of Daniel, how God sent an angel to give him words of prophecy, and words of comfort, as he afflicted his soul in his prayer closet. Noah was said to have found favor in the eyes of the Lord. But now, none of that matters. All they could hope for if they lived in Ezekiel’s day, and found themselves in Judah, would be to save themselves.
Eze 14:19 Or if I send a pestilence (deh-ber – murrain, plague) into that land, and pour out my fury (khay-maw – hot poisonous rage and wrath) upon it in blood, to cut off (kaw-rath) from it man and beast:
The fourth, and perhaps the most terrifying of all of the ‘big four’, so to speak, is genuine plague. Covid was not a genuine plague. It was the greatest deception ever carried out in the history of mankind. Because we love fantasy and delusion so much, because we choose to believe lies such as evolution, abortion being a right, men can become women, climate change being real and man made, diversity is strength, and on and on, God chose delusion as our initial serious punishment. But note that as in Ezekiel here, covid was simply round one. Worse, much worse is coming.
By the time God is into round four of destroying his people, his wrath has been kindled to a white hot poisonous rage. This plague will end up shedding much blood. Blood denotes death. It does not have to be by murder, or direct killing in war. God can choose to shed blood (kill) in any way that he desires. A painful, lingering death by disease can be one of the ugliest ways to go. I have seen family members get taken by cancers of various kinds, and it is not pretty.
Once again, God mentions the fact that the judgment falls on man and beast. Thus, your food supply will be cut off. Innocent animals will also pay the price for your folly, not just innocent people. Some think that God would never kill children. And I say, why not? Would it not be just and right and appropriate to kill our children, since we have killed millions of God’s children while still in the womb? How is it okay for us to kill children, but God somehow cannot? What is a more devastating punishment for a parent than if their children are taken away? While I certainly am not saying that every child killed, whether by murder, or vaccine, or any other method, is a direct judgment of God, when God does judge us, everything is on the table. If you’re not convinced, read Deuteronomy chapter 28 and Leviticus chapter 26. No one can explain things better than Yahweh himself.
Eze 14:20 Though Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, as I live, saith the Lord GOD, they shall deliver neither son nor daughter; they shall but deliver their own souls (nephesh) by their righteousness (tsed-aw-kaw).
For the fourth and final time, God references these 3 champions of the faith. No matter which of the four judgments that he sends, the result will be the same. I believe that God repeats himself 4 times in case someone goes all legalistic on him, and says ‘well, if God sends famine, then no one can reverse it, but he didn’t say the same thing if he sent war’. Well, God thought of your evil thinking. Trying to find a loophole so you can convince yourself these judgments somehow do not apply to you and your situation, God specifically speaks of his 4 well known general modes of judgment so as to cover all bases.
While these 4 judgments are by no means meant to be some sort of comprehensive list, for the biblical reader it is meant to teach us that God may choose any instrument that he wants when he has decided it is time for us to pay for our sins. But didn’t Jesus pay for our sins? Yes, on an individual level. But if a nation chooses leadership that pursues a path of wickedness, consequences follow. Don’t get personal salvation mixed up with national safety. The prophets were used to bring many words of judgment to the nations. While most messages were for God’s own people, there were also several words pronounced against those nations that surrounded Israel, or had any sort of direct dealings with them.
Another vital clarification that Yehovah adds in this verse is that these 3 men are delivered because they are walking in holiness. That is, their lifestyle is blameless before God, walking in all his commandments. Note tsed-aw-kaw is not something that you can practice once, and store up to pull out in the future. No, it must be a continual thing. That is, it must be something that is your continual lifestyle. Your holiness is what will preserve you. Note that these men did not try to say that they were Hebrews, or Jews, or sons of Abraham, or that they faithfully visited the temple, or performed all the sacrifices, or paid their tithes, or gave many offerings. No, it was their walk with the Lord that God took into account when he was deciding who to spare, and who to kill.
Remember that.
Eze 14:21 For thus saith the Lord GOD; How much more when I send my four sore judgments (sheh-fet – sentence) upon Jerusalem, the sword, and the famine, and the noisome beast, and the pestilence (deh-ber), to cut off (kaw-rath) from it man and beast?
While any one of these 4 judgments would be enough to destroy a nation, how much worse will it be when I send all 4 at once? This is meant to convey the depth of God’s anger. How many ways can God try to tell us that this kind of behavior will lead to nothing but the scariest outcomes imaginable? God is not kidding here. He is not speaking in parables, nor in riddles. This is not a generic pronouncement on his hatred of evil. No, this is him saying again and again, the end has come. I have put up with your gross, disgusting, obscene, perverse, abominable, filthy, degeneracies and vile pollutions long enough. Words now fail me. How many ways must I express myself? Do you not yet understand? Do you still not get it? This is the end. No more second chances. It is over. Prepare to be consumed. And prepare to be consumed via every evil way imaginable.
Eze 14:22 Yet, behold, therein shall be left a remnant that shall be brought forth, both sons and daughters: behold, they shall come forth unto you, and ye shall see their way (deh-rek – a road of path or course of life) and their doings (al-ee-law – exploits, work, performance): and ye shall be comforted (naw-kham – to ease oneself, though it can also mean to be sorry or repent) concerning the evil (rah) that I have brought upon Jerusalem, even concerning all that I have brought upon it.
Initially, I had interpreted this verse as meaning that God will preserve a godly remnant, even in the time of total judgment. But when I started to read some commentaries, I quickly realized that there was a second way of looking at things, as Ellicott’s commentary reveals:
In this and the following verse it is promised that a remnant shall be brought from Jerusalem; and it is clearly implied that they shall come to Babylonia. There the present exiles shall see them, and thus be comforted. But in what sense comforted? The connection absolutely decides this: “when ye see their ways and their doings, ye shall know that I have not done without cause all that I have done in it.” That is, when you see the wickedness, of this remnant, you will cease to mourn over the judgment, for you cannot but perceive that it was a righteous act of God. [end]
The key here is looking at the last 2 verses together. The next verse will make the claim that Yahweh did not destroy Judah without reason. But if you look at the survivors, you will quickly perceive exactly how truly wicked that they really are, and you will begin to understand why they had to be wiped out.
This teaches us, of course, to always interpret scripture in context. Before you jump off and run with the first thought that comes to your mind, keep reading. Often subsequent verses help to clarify the former ones. Or, you may have to peruse other books in the bible to confirm a particular interpretation. Too many times charismatically inclined individuals think that God is peeping and muttering in their brains 24/7, which leads them down the path of all sorts of presumptuous folly. Just because something suddenly appeared in your mind, does not necessarily mean that it’s from God! It could be from your favorite TV show, your nagging wife, your overbearing mother in law, your horrible boss, or your favorite novel. Or, it may be from the devil himself! Be not so quick to attribute every thought and voice to God. Always let scripture interpret scripture.
From this verse we see that even though Yehovah has seemingly declared Jerusalem and Judah haram, that is, under the ban, dedicated to total destruction, he always reserves the right to spare a few. These often serve as a sign and a warning to others. Sometimes it is as an object of shock and horror, as if to say, ‘see what happens to those who rebel against the one true God’. In this case, you will observe these survivors’ character, and that is what will shock you. Instead of being humbled, they are defiant. Instead of understanding how they are solely to blame for their fate, they will blame everyone and everything but themselves. You will observe their words and their works, and then you shall fully understand why a people such as this had to be removed from off the face of the earth.
This is something that modern believers cannot grasp. The crusaders of old understood this. People who lived in a more or less continual state of war with their neighbors understood it. Certain tribes, certain people groups, have corrupted their deh-rek, or course of life, so fully and so foully, that they are beyond repair. Their stupidity and their lies have become so entrenched in the culture that any hope for reversal has long past. The only thing one can do with something that is totally rotten is to get rid of it. Just like a rotten piece of fruit, there is nothing one can do to make it edible again. The only thing you can do is throw it out. Jesus tried to teach us this very same thing:
Mat_5:13 Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.
Joh 15:6 If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.
So while these exiles would be in a state of utter shock and dismay, verging on a suicidal despair, God wants them to first witness the small band of escapees that he will spare. Go and talk to them. Find out what they believe, and how they behave. See that, even after total judgment, their hearts are not changed one bit. And you will then at least understand a little bit as to why I had to do what I did.
In the book of Jeremiah, we read of the antics of the remnant after Nebuchadnezzar had destroyed Jerusalem and the temple. Amazingly and appallingly, they still refused to repent. They would not hearken to the word of the Lord from the only man whose prophecies proved to be completely accurate. They were the unsavable, but God allowed them to continue to live, as a living witness as to why this nation had to be removed at this point in history.
Eze 14:23 And they shall comfort (naw-kham) you, when ye see their ways (deh-rek) and their doings (al-ee-law): and ye shall know that I have not done without cause (khin-nawm – devoid of cost, reason or advantage) all that I have done in it, saith the Lord GOD.
In this final verse God reveals the correct interpretation of the previous verse. That is, these are not some holy remnant that God spared. No, they are a sample of the type of people that filled the land. By observing their character, you can see why they had to be killed. They were such vile figs (as God told Jeremiah), that they were good for nothing but to be thrown out. These people could not be rehabilitated. They were past the point of repentance. In short, there was simply nothing that God could do with them. And that is a scary thing.
At the very least, at least you exiles, who thought that you had received the worst of the judgments, at least you could take some comfort in knowing that those whom I had left behind in the land were in some ways even worse than you. That is why I had left them in Judah and Jerusalem, because I knew what I was going to do with them. Take comfort in that at least I let you live, though it is in a pagan land. At least you still have your life.
These words would have been hard to accept by this remnant. All their false prophets were saying the exact opposite. They were predicting a short stay in Babylon, and any day now, God would being them back into the promised land. Yes, there was a bit of a punishment, but that is now all over with. Rejoice, for your day of redemption draweth nigh!
Uh, sorry, no. Not going to happen. You wicked, evil, idolatrous men still don’t get it, do you? This is not temporary, as you think it is. You are going to be here for awhile. Look at these dregs that I spared. Do you see anything godly in them? Do you not see people that are totally depraved, even by your own wicked standards? You people in exile are bad enough, but take a close look at this pitiful remnant. Consider their morals and their lifestyle, and can you now see why there was no choice as to why I had to kill them all?
God has a reason for everything that he does. Sometimes he shares it with us, oftentimes he does not. It is not up to us. He is the boss, and we must humbly accept whatever level of information he chooses to share. Sometimes he will let us know why a certain calamity has come upon us. Often he will not. Here, God was under no obligation to explain anything to these idolaters. But for his own reason, he decided to do so. Perhaps if they saw just how rotten these few survivors really were, maybe they would stop and consider their own spiritual condition. Most likely not. But you cannot accuse God of not trying to break through their blindness.
Remember that we are still 5 or 6 years away from the actual destruction of the temple. Almost no one would believe that this was actually going to occur. So as to how many, if any, believed anything that Ezekiel was saying, is not known. But all we have to do is look around us. We are living in an eerily similar spiritual condition in our own lands today. Exactly how many believe that we have already been judged, that the sentence has already been pronounced, and that the destruction is assured? Or is everyone still preaching 2 Chr 7:14, where if we just repent a little, God will heal our land, and we will go back to what it was like 50 years ago?
My friends, that ship has sailed a long time ago.
Solitary Man
solitaryman.substack.com
