SCRIPTURE: Ezekiel 13
OBSERVATION/APPLICATION:
Their visions are false and their divinations a lie. Even though the LORD has not sent them, they say, “The LORD declares,” and expect him to fulfill their words. [Ezekiel 13:6]
Ezekiel accuses the religious leaders of being false to God and to the people, making up messages from God that make them and the people feel good.
They claim to speak for God, but they do not belong to God.
As Jesus says to the religious leaders of His day, You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies. [John 8:44]
A messenger for God will be known by whether they themselves listen to God.
Whoever belongs to God hears what God says. The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God.” [John 8:47]
To hear means more than to hear with the ear, it means to listen and obey.
A messenger for God will be known first of all as one that lives out what God says.
The religious leaders that Ezekiel and Jesus challenged did not live out God’s message.
“‘Because they lead my people astray, saying, “Peace,” when there is no peace, and because, when a flimsy wall is built, they cover it with whitewash, therefore tell those who cover it with whitewash that it is going to fall. [Ezekiel 13:10-11]
“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean. [Matthew 23:27]
Their words are hollow, they look good but they do not reflect reality – whitewashed tombs!
We are all messengers for God, we all speak for Jesus as His witnesses.
Is our message mere words, do our words reflect the truth of our own lives?
Though we spend time listening to God in the bible, or in sermons, or in bible studies, are we really listening – that is, obeying and applying what God says?
Throughout history God’s people have fallen into the trap of empty religion, going through the motions but not being challenged or changed within.
This is a serious issue, one that we need to watch out for in ourselves.
Am I listening to God, am I living out the truth of what I say?
Do my deeds match my words?
Am I practicing what I preach?
PRAYER:
Lord, as one who prepares a message every day (through this blog) and every week (through a sermon), I sense the gap between what I say and what I do. I admit this, but I need help to change this. Help me to listen to You, really listen!
True prophets and false prophets. Which?
This passage is about those who listen to their own words, rather than the Word of the Lord. Their visions, their practices and their own ways and they still proclaim that they expect to the Lord to make their word, visions really happen. But they are empty words and will not happen because they are not walking in His SonShine.
Listen to the Word. Doing the Word. These belong together. To listen means to do. Otherwise, I too am a false prophet. Open my ears Lord and open my eyes Lord so that I may walk in Your light. Not my ways but Your ways. Your will be done in my life. My life needs to be a Word and Deed ministry. Use me Lord, fill me Lord by Your Spirit as an instrument of Your peace.
1. Make me a channel of your peace:
Where there is hatred, let me bring you love;
Where there is injury, your healing pow’r,
And where there’s doubt, true faith in you.
2. Make me a channel of your peace:
Where there’s despair in life let me bring hope;
Where there is darkness, – only light,
And where there’s sadness, ever joy.
3. O Spirit, grant that I may never seek
So much to be consolded as to console,
To be understood as to understand,
To be loved as to love with all my soul – .
4. Make me a channel of your peace.
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
In giving to all that we receive,
And in dying that we’re born to eternal life.