13:1,2
In the previous chapter Ezekiel had been addressing the misconceptions of the people, how had these misconceptions come about? It was through the teaching and preaching of the false prophets. Jeremiah had to deal with false prophets (Jer 23:9-40). God tells Ezekiel to prophesy against them. How does he do this? By proclaiming God’s truth. Prophecy is not so much about prediction as declaring God’s truth, and it is God’s truth that foretells and determines the future, not the lies of false teachers and false prophets. The false prophets prophesied out of their own imaginations. Likewise, false teachers teach out of their own ideas. To these people God says “Hear the word of the Lord!”.
13:3-7
The false teachers are addressed as fools. In Hebrew this is a much more severe rebuke than it seems to us in English. They followed their own spirit and had seen nothing. They were like jackals among ruins, just scavenging for what scraps they could find. If they were true prophets they would have been repairing the walls, speaking the truth of God. For it is only when a people build upon the truth of the Lord that they can truly rebuild. Their visions were false, and they spoke lies. Even claiming that their words came from God! They taught and prophesied lies, as do false teachers today.
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