There is no institution in itself so good but it may be corrupted and turned to evil purposes. Prophecy was given to the Hebrew people as a token of Jehovah's interest in them and care for them. The intention was to afford national guidance and consolation, to give to religion an intellectual character, and to counteract any tendency to formalism which a misunderstanding of the sacerdotal and sacrificial system would naturally encourage. Prophecy was especially adapted to those Israelites who were far from Jerusalem, the scene of sacrifices and of festivals; and the children of the Captivity were, in an especial manner, indebted to the prophets for the counsel, the inspiration, the encouragement, which they needed in their banishment from the land of their fathers. Amongst these exiles in the East there arose self-seeking, ambitious, hypocritical, and pretentious men, who assumed the prophetic office, ministered to the prejudices of their fellow countrymen, and often led them astray by their erroneous advice. Against such men Ezekiel was commissioned to raise his protest, in language of severe denunciation and warning.

I. THE PROFESSION AND CLAIMS OF THE FALSE PROPHETS. The men here exposed were not prophets of any heathen deity, ministers of any idolatrous religion. They claimed to be servants of Jehovah, and to speak in his name to their fellow countrymen. They prefaced their statements and their advice with such language as Ezekiel here quotes: "Hear ye the word of the Lord;" "The Lord saith." Doubtless there were those who were conciliated and attracted by such claims, but who would have resented any summons addressed to them in the name of a heathen deity.

II. THE PRACTICAL CONTRADICTION OF THEIR PROFESSION AND CLAIMS. In terms figurative, yet impressive and conclusive, Ezekiel exhibits the hollowness of the pretences advanced by these lying leaders of the people. They are "like foxes in the waste places" - cunning, crafty creatures, who make their dwelling in the ruins and the wreck of a deserted city. So the prophets who profess to guide the people really prey upon them, and are most at home in the destruction and desolation which they have bellied to effect. They have not taken their place in the breach, they have not helped in the defence of the city, they have not stood in the van of the battle, when the enemy has made an assault. Here is the practical test, which reveals the worthlessness of all professions of patriotism, of all claims to leadership.

III. THE REAL INSPIRATION OF THE FALSE PROPHETS. The secret is disclosed; the explanation of the illusion is given. The false prophets prophesy out of their own hearts; they follow their own spirit; they have seen nothing; the Lord hath not sent them; theirs is a lying divination; they have spoken vanity, and seen lies. In a word, professing to derive their commission and their message from the Eternal, the All-wise, they simply utter what commends itself to their own opinion, what serves their own interest, what agrees with their own sinful prejudices. This accounts fur the unwisdom and worthlessness of their advice. They who follow them may expect to be misled.

IV. THE CONDEMNATION OF THE FALSE PROPHETS. "Woe unto the foolish prophets, saith the Lord God;" "I am against you." This condemnation is apparent from several facts.

1. Their predictions are falsified, and their counsels brought to nought.

2. They mislead the people to destruction.

3. They bring confusion upon themselves. This sentence is pronounced in language very plain and very smiting. The hypocritical pretenders to a Divine commission are excluded from the register of the house of Israel, and are denied entrance into the land of Israel. All their plotting and lies are not only unmasked; they issue in confusion and destruction to themselves. - T.

The work of God's prophets is made more difficult by the competition of pretenders. They cater for popularity by predicting only what is pleasing to flesh and blood. Hence they bring discredit on all God's revelations. In Ezekiel's day the false teachers were specially busy in Jerusalem, confronting and counteracting Jeremiah; and the sad effect of false hopes was felt at Chebar as well as in Judaea.

I. CARNAL AMBITION IS OFTEN THE PARENT OF FALSEHOOD. The prophecies and counsels of Jeremiah ran counter to all the prejudices and predilections of the people. Their fleshly nature rose in arms against such possible disaster. Heedless of God and God's plans, they would create for themselves a better fortune. The worldly wise among them, gifted with superior speech, resolved to outrival God's prophets - to become candidates for popularity - to aspire alter political power. Amidst a nation's disaster and weakness there is always opportunity for the crafty to gain some sinister end. They countenanced any intrigue that promised temporary advantage. Under pretence of patriotic zeal, they sought mainly, if not wholly, a personal elevation.

II. CAUSAL AMBITION LEADS TO SELF-ASSUMPTION. It is very likely that, at the outset, these false prophets deceived themselves. They imagined that they saw a way out of the catastrophe, and urged the rulers, against Jeremiah's advice, to pursue that way. If it was pleaded that God had ordered otherwise, these men set up a counter authority. Stung by the suggestion that their counsel was not equal in value to that of Jeremiah, they boldly claimed to be the messengers of God. In their fanatic zeal they deemed their sagacious plans to have been given them from heaven. They were too much bent on gaining their end to inquire carefully into this matter. Where was the proof that Jeremiah or Ezekiel was more favoured to receive Divine intelligence than they? The end would justify the means! Heedless of consequences, they would publicly claim to speak as the ambassadors of God.

III. SELF-ASSUMPTION EMPLOYS SOPHISTICAL ARTS OF SPEECH. They are described as foxes - notorious for cunning - yea, cunning as hungry foxes in the desert. All their wits were exercised to weave the most plausible web of argument. Every possible circumstance favourable to their designs was seized upon, and made to prop their nefarious policy, until what they had induced others to believe, they believed also themselves. They ensnared themselves in their own nets. From knaves they gradually became fanatics. Careless about the exact truth at the beginning, they lost at length the power to discern between truth and falsehood.

IV. SELF-ASSUMPTION IS DEAD TO THE INTERESTS OF OTHERS. In the fifth verse the prophet accuses them thus: "Ye have not gone up into the gaps, neither made up the hedge for the house of Israel to stand in the battle." They used others, as the monkey did the cat's paw. Where arduous toil, and especially where serious danger, appeared, they were conspicuous by their absence. Truth makes men at all times courageous, but falsehood corrodes the metal of a man's bravery. These pretentious prophets desired the honour and the advantage; the risks they devolved on others. Honest men were made the ladder by which they sought to climb.

V. SELF-ASSUMPTION IS SURE TO COLLAPSE. Vaulting ambition overleaps itself. The frog that would swell its dimensions to the size of a bull destroyed itself.

1. False teachers make God their direct enemy. "I am against you, saith the Lord God." The God of truth hates hypocrisy. All falseness shall be like empty thistle down, which the wind scatters.

2. They shall be excluded from the circle of honour. They had assumed to be heads and leaders in the councils of the nation; they shall be dishonoured, and cast out of the deliberative assembly. The false shall be, sooner or later, excommunicated - blackballed.

3. Their posterity shall become extinct. There shall be none to perpetuate their name. New honour often comes to the memory of a righteous man from children of renown. Such honour and satisfaction shall be denied to them. They shall perish root and branch.

4. They shall not participate in the coming restoration. "Neither shall they enter into the land of Israel." The distinctive possession which God gives shall be for the true Israel, "even for those who have no guile." In the time of Israel's real prosperity there "shall not come into them the uncircumcised or the unclean." He is a Jew who is one inwardly. - D.

And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, prophesy against the prophets of Israel, etc. This subject has already been introduced in Ezekiel 12:24. In that verse we have as it were the text, and in this chapter the sermon. It has been suggested that this chapter should be read in conjunction with Jeremiah 23:9-40. "The identity of phrases and ideas forces upon us the conclusion that the author of the one must have had the other before him. We know that Jeremiah's writings were forwarded to the Jews in Chaldea (Jeremiah 29.), and there is therefore no reason to doubt that Ezekiel took up a well known prophecy to enforce and apply it to his companions in exile. They probably had read Jeremiah's words as applying to others than themselves. Ezekiel now would teach them that it is not at Jerusalem alone that false prophets are to be discovered and reproved. The present chapter, therefore, must be taken as addressed to the Jews in exile, which agrees with the whole tenor; see for instance ver. 9" ('Speaker's Commentary'). Two principal lines of thought are followed by the prophet, viz. the sin of the false prophets, and the judgment of God upon them because of their sin. And these lines of thought are not kept separate from each other, but they interlace each other. We will notice each apart.

I. THE SIN OF THE FALSE PROPHETS. Certain prominent features of their sin are brought into view.

1. Their prophecies were self-originated. They prophesied "out of their own heart" (ver. 2); they "followed their own spirit, and had seen nothing" (ver. 3). In the case of the true prophet, a communication was received by him from God which he communicated to the people, or a vision was unfolded to him which he afterwards made known to them. There was an objective reality of that which he was conscious of within himself; his consciousness of the things which he published arose from their verity impressed upon him by the Spirit of God; his consciousness as a prophet was a consequence of Divine influence. But the things proclaimed by the false prophets had no existence except in their own mind and heart; they were entirely subjective, having no objective truth answering to them. And they were not sent of God (ver. 6); they had not received any commission from him; yet they presumed to speak in his Name, and to impose upon the people their own imaginations as communications received from him.

2. Their prophecies were untrue. "They have seen vanity and lying divination, that say, The Lord saith; and the Lord hath not sent them," etc. (vers. 6, 7). "Thus saith the Lord God; Because ye have spoken vanity, and seen lies," etc. An example is given of their lying prophecies: "They have seduced my people, saying, Peace; and there is no peace," etc. They encouraged the Jews in Jerusalem to believe that they had nothing to fear from the Chaldean powers (cf. Jeremiah 14:13; Jeremiah 28:1-4). And when the people endeavoured to strengthen themselves by the coalition with Egypt, they encouraged them in that course; for as we understand it, that is the meaning of the prophetic figure: "When one buildeth up a wall, behold, they daub it with untempered mortar." The figure itself is thus explained by Dr. Kitto: "It is a wall made of beaten earth rammed into moulds or boxes, to give the parts the requisite shape and consistence, and so deposited, by the withdrawal of the mould, layer by layer, upon the wall, each layer drying in its place as the work proceeds. The blocks are usually of considerable size, and are of various quality and strength, as well as cost, according to the materials employed, and the time expended upon them. The simplest are merely of earth, or of earth compacted with straw. This is the kind which the prophet had in view, and which is used in Devon and in Morocco, as well as in the East. It cannot stand against heavy rains; and therefore, unless the climate be very dry, it requires to be faced or coated with a tempered mortar of lime or sand, as a fence against the weather. Without this the body of the wall is liable to the contingencies described by the prophet" ('Daily Bible Illustrations'). The people built their slight and flimsy wall of political alliance against the Chaldeans, and the false prophets coated it with their untempered mortar of vain assurances of safety; and the people believed them to their own dread discomfiture.

3. They claimed Divine authority for their lying prophecies. They said, "The Lord saith," although he had not spoken unto them. Great was their presumption and impious daring in making this high claim. "They counterfeit," as M. Henry says, "the broad seal of heaven, than which they cannot do a greater indignity to mankind, for hereby they put a reproach upon Divine revelation, lessen its credit, and weaken its credibility. When these pretenders are found to be deceivers, atheists and infidels will thence infer, They are all so."

4. Their influence was destructive. It was so in two ways.

(1) Negatively. They made no attempt to save the people from the ruin which was coming upon them. "Ye have not gone up into the gaps, neither made up the fence for the house of Israel, to stand in the battle in the day of the Lord." When a city is besieged and a breach is made in its walls, the leaders of the defence take prompt measures for stopping the breach. The Lord had come against his people as a besieger by reason of their sins, but these false prophets, who aspired to be leaders of the people, made no effort to save them (cf. Ezekiel 22:30). They rid not call for that repentance and reformation which might have averted the approaching ruin, as it did in the case of Nineveh (Jonah 3:5-10). They did not call upon God in prayer to spare the sinful people, as Moses did on several occasions (Exodus 32:11-14, 31-34; Numbers 14:13-24; Psalm 106:23). False prophets are not likely to be famous intercessors.

(2) Positively. They actively promoted the ruin of the people by assuring them of peace and safety when there was no peace, and peril was imminent and sine. They were "like foxes in the waste places" for destructiveness. Nowhere in the sacred Scriptures are foxes mentioned because of their cunning, but because of their injuriousness (cf. Song of Solomon 2:15). "The foxes here correspond to the ravening wolves in Matthew 7:15, and the grievous wolves in Acts 20:29, representing false teachers." Terrible is the injury which is wrought by corrupt religious teachers (cf. Isaiah 9:16; Jeremiah 12:10; Jeremiah 50:6; Acts 20:29; 2 Peter 2:1-3).

II. THE JUDGMENT OF GOD UPON THE FALSE PROPHETS. This judgment is expressed generally in ver. 8, and in a way that should have awakened serious concern. "Behold, I am against you, saith the Lord God." When God is against any one, nothing can be really well with him. "if God is for us, who is against us?" If God is against us, who is for us in any true sense? But the judgment is set forth with something of detail in vers. 9-16. It has two chief features.

1. Their exclusion from the community of Israel. (Ver. 9.) They had sought prominence and distinction among the people, and had attained their object; but a complete reversal of their position awaited them. They should not have won a place among the chosen people; their names should be erased or omitted from the authorized register of the Israelites; and when the exiles returned unto their own land, they should not return with them. As Fairbairn says, "Inheriting the curse of the covenant," they should be cut of from among their people.'" There is, perhaps, in this a hint of a darker doom, even the omission of their names from a much more important register (Luke 10:20; Philippians 4:3; Revelation 21:27), and their non-recognition by the Lord Jesus Christ (Matthew 7:22, 23).

2. The total overthrow and ruin of both themselves and their work. (Vers. 11-16.) Their work was to be swept away by overwhelming forces. The stormy wind, the overflowing shower, and the great hailstones represent the Chaldean army. That army would make an utter end of the vain hopes which the false prophets had originated and fostered. No work can be stable which is begun and carried on against the will of God. Every wall which is built in defiance of his laws will soon fall into ruin. And in the case before us the presumptuous and foolish builders were ruined with their work. "it shall fail, and ye shall be consumed in the midst, thereof." The wail of delusive hopes, which they had daubed with untempered mortar, would be thrown down, and Jerusalem would be destroyed, and in its fall the false prophets would be ruined. "Thus will I accomplish my fury upon the wall, and upon thegn that have daubed it with untempered mortar," etc. (vers. 15, 16).

APPLICATION. Here is solemn warning against false prophets and teachers, who are not confined to any one age or people. When God is represented as love without righteousness, or mercy without judgment; when men are assured of salvation without repentance for sin or renewal of heart; when peace is proclaimed to men who are living in sin, - then the spirit of the false prophets of Ezekiel's age is reproduced. We are warned in the New Testament of the rise of false Christs and of many false prophets (Matthew 24:11; Mark 13:22), of "false apostles, deceitful workers" (2 Corinthians 11:13), of some who "would pervert the gospel of Christ" (Galatians 1:7), and of "false teachers who shall bring in destructive heresies" (2 Peter 2:1). Wherefore let Christians take heed what they hear and read and receive. Happily, the test by which to prove religious teaching is not abstruse or difficult. Does it agree with "that which is inscribed in the writing of truth?" Does the teaching of man harmonize with the eternal law of God? Does it "make for righteousness"? "If any man willeth to do his will, he shall know of the teaching, whether it be of God, or" whether the teachers "prophesy out of their own heart." Vigorous physical health is cue of the most effective safeguards against the diseases which assail the body. And when the heart is susceptible to Divine influence, and the conscience loyally responds to the will of God, and the life is governed by that holy will, the man is not in much danger of being misled by erroneous teaching. - W.J.

Ye have not gone up, into the gaps, etc. Our text suggests the following observations.

I. THE PRACTICE OF SIN EXPOSES MEN TO THE GREATEST DANGERS. The text suggests the figure of a besieged city, in the walls of which breaches have been made, through which the enemy rushes in to fight with its inhabitants and to take possession of its treasures. There is perhaps a reference to the approaching siege of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans, in which that city would fall because of the sins of its inhabitants. So sin makes wide gaps in the defences of a people, deprives them of the Divine protection, and exposes them to the assaults of their enemies. The sins of the people of Sodom and Gomorrah made the wide breaches which let in the fiery flood which consumed them. The sins of the Israelites in the wilderness on one occasion made a gap in their defences through which the plague entered and slew fourteen thousand and seven hundred persons (Numbers 16:41-50). The sin of Achan in coveting, stealing, and concealing some of the spoils of Jericho, in defiance of express commands, opened a wide breach through which the enemies of Israel rushed, and put them to ignominious flight, and slew six and thirty of them (Joshua 7.). And when David sinned in numbering the people he made a gap through which the pestilence entered and destroyed severity thousand men (2 Samuel 24.; cf. Isaiah 42:24, 25).

II. THE CONTINUED PRACTICE OF SIN LEADS ON TO A CRISIS IN WHICH JUDGMENT WILL BE EXECUTED UPON SLYNESS. That crisis is here called "the day of the Lord." "The day of Jehovah," says Schroder, "is the time fixed by him with reference to the reckoning to be given in to him." It seems to us more correct to say that it is "the time of the arrival of the judgment." This crisis was rapidly drawing near to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. If sinners persist in making the gaps, it is certain that their punishment will enter thereat and seize upon them. Sinful character and conduct advance towards maturity, and when that is attained, if not before, the sinner, or the community of sinners, will meet with just retribution. "Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." The forbearance and long suffering of God with The wicked are very great; but if these be trifled with and presumed upon, he will cease to exercise them, and will appear for the execution of his judgment (cf. Romans 2:4-11).

III. IT IS THE DUTY OF THE FAITHFUL SERVANTS OF GOD TO ENDEAVOUR TO GUARD THE IMPERILLED PEOPLE AGAINST THE DANGERS WHICH THREATEN THEM. When the people by their sins have exposed themselves to their enemies, it behoves the faithful to go up into the gaps, and to make "up the fence for the house of Israel to stand in the battle in the day of the Lord." This may be done:

1. By preaching repentance to the guilty people. When the people of Nineveh repented, the destruction of their city, which had been threatened because of their sins, was averted. If the prophets bad summoned the people to repentance, and the people had responded truly to that summons, then would the broach in the fence have been made up, and they would have been able "to stand in the battle in the day of the Lord." "There is no better wall than reformation of life." "If they have stood in my council, then had they caused my people to hear my words," etc. (Jeremiah 23:22).

2. By presenting intercession for the guilty people. There are a number of impressive examples in the sacred Scriptures of the servants of God stepping into the gap and saving the imperilled people by their prayers (cf. Exodus 32:11-14, 31-34; Psalm 106:23; Numbers 14:13-24; Numbers 16:41-48; 1 Samuel 7:8-10). God has often graciously heard the cry of his faithful servants on behalf of the guilty, and turned aside from them the stroke of his judgment. He has spared the wicked for the sake of the righteous.

IV. FALSE PROPHETS AND UNWORTHY LEADERS IN THE CHURCH OF GOD ALTOGETHER FAIL IN THIS IMPORTANT DUTY. These false prophets had "not gone up into the gaps, neither made up the fence for the house of Israel to stand in the battle in the day of the Lord." They had neither preached repentance to the people, nor pleaded with God on their behalf; but had positively encouraged them in their sinful and false security; therefore the judgment of the Lord fell upon them to their utter overthrow. "I sought for a man among them, that should make up the fence, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it: but I found none," etc. (cf. Ezekiel 22:30, 31). "False prophets cannot pray." They have neither "interest in heaven nor intercourse with heaven." And they have no heart to make a stand against the sins of their people, and so save them from ruin.

CONCLUSION.

1. How great a curse to a community are corrupt religious teachers and leaders! They lure the people to ruin, while they assure them that all is well.

2. How great a blessing to a community is the presence of godly and praying persons! They are "the salt of the earth;" they are saviours of society. - W.J.

It has often been observed regarding the recorded discourses of the Lord Jesus, that his severest denunciations were directed against the hypocritical professors of religion, especially such as misled their fellow men into error and sin. The same may be said of Ezekiel; his language, when exposing the hollow pretensions of the false and foolish prophets, who by their advice were leading the people into destruction, becomes almost invective. The particular offence of which these hypocrites were guilty was this - they encouraged the people, in opposition to the declarations of Jehovah by his prophets, to believe that the nation stood in no special danger; they professed to "see visions of peace" for Jerusalem; and they by this means hindered the people from repentance and reformation, in which alone lay the possibility of salvation. In Ezekiel's view these false prophets pretended to build up the edifice of national stability and prosperity upon unsound foundations and with untempered mortar; all defects were smeared with plaster and concealed from an ordinary observer. The prophet, however, foretold the approach of torrents of rain and hailstones, by which the worthlessness of this pretentious work should be revealed, and the work should be utterly destroyed.

I. AN INSECURE FOUNDATION AND STRUCTURE. Spiritual work is often compared to the labour of a builder. The wise and faithful teacher and counsellor lays a sound foundation, builds with strong and approved material, carries out a wise plan with patience and efficiency, and brings his work to a prosperous issue when the topstone is laid with rejoicing. Far otherwise is it with the worldly and crafty, who build for their own selfish purposes, who are careless as to the basis upon which they rear the edifice, as to the substance, and the workmanship. All they care for is the appearance presented by their work. When they labour professedly for the good of their fellow men, they are like the builder who uses rotten stone and daubs it with untempered mortar. The structure is for a time imposing to the eye of the beholder; defects are hidden, and all looks well. Those who mislead the Lord's people are in the habit of saying, "Peace!" when there is no peace. Their visions are illusive, and their prophecies are falsehoods.

II. STORM AND RAIN. The plausible appearance is but for a season. Time tries all. There is ever a day of reckoning at hand. The prophet of the Lord reminds pretenders and hypocrites that an overflowing shower, great hailstones, and a stormy wind shall come. The anger and fury of the Lord wilt not always be restrained. It was so in the history of the Jewish people. Smooth things had been prophesied, but not with Divine authority. The peace was superficial and brief. The calamites which false counsellors had represented as imaginary proved to be an awful reality. What, then, became of the work which had been carried out with loud professions of authority, and which had appeared to the unobservant so fair and sound? The wall was broken down, the daubing disappeared, and they who daubed it were no more seen. "Who can abide the day of his coming.?" In the hour of trial there is no security save in a Divine foundation, in workmanship wrought upon Divine principles and in accordance with Divine plans. The building which is of God shall stand. But the worthlessness of all beside shall be made manifest. What is not of God shall be swept away by the flood and tempest of inevitable judgment.

APPLICATION.

1. The solemnity and responsibility of the ministry to souls are impressively taught in the imagery of this passage. Let every man take heed what and how he builds.

2. The importance is made apparent of applying to wise and faithful counsellors It is not the learned, the prudent, the pretentious, who must needs be right and trustworthy. Let every man try the spirits, whether they are taught of God. - T.

In order to make the lesson more impressive and more abiding, it is repeated in the form of a parable. Our generous God takes immense pains to engrave his truth on human hearts.

I. NATIONAL POLITY IS ANALOGOUS TO A BUILDING. As the human body requires some sort of material dwelling to protect it from external evils, so society requires some system of national administration that shall protect it against external foes. That administration, to be successful, must be a combination of wisdom and strength - an edifice both moral and material. If a nation cannot withstand all invaders by means of its armies and its fortresses, it must maintain itself by means of mutual treaty and mutual concord. Some defence it must have.

II. THIS BUILDING WAS FRAMED WITH SLENDER AND SUPERFICIAL MATERIALS. The weakness and rottenness of the walls were concealed with untempered plaster and with mere whitewash. An unsound and leaky ship is made no more seaworthy by painting her in gay colours. Plausible words do not make a sound policy, neither does good raiment make an honest man. Solid foundations and sound materials are essential to make a wall safe or a national policy prosperous.

III. THERE WAS AN EVIL CONSPIRACY. "One built up a wall, and, lo, others daubed it with untempered mortar." Evil men will do. in combination with each other, deeds they would not venture on alone. Union is strength, even in wickedness. The base policy would commend itself all the more to popular acceptance if it had the support (apparently independent) of several advocates. It is a crime to lend ourselves to an enterprise merely because it has the sanction of numbers. The quality of its supporters must be pondered.

IV. TESTING EVENTS WERE AT HAND. Every wall or building is designed to resist wind and rain. If it cannot do this, its purpose is vain. If it succumbs to storm, it is worse than useless; it adds to the peril. It is safer to be in the open field during a storm than to be within a rickety house. The very provision made for security, if it be ill founded and ill constructed, becomes a new danger. The Jews were aware that extraordinary danger was imminent, and therefore ought to have been the more careful in their sound defence of the state. Recklessness is only sham courage, and is the foe of wisdom.

V. OVERTHROW WAS CERTAIN. If God be against our plans, success is impossible. No human undertaking can resist Omnipotence. The destruction was foretold, but the warning only excited ridicule. It was not simply that the cunning policy of these men should be overthrown - that would be a small evil; but the overthrow would be destruction to their persons and destruction to the kingdom. They were involving a nation in disaster. We know not where the mischief of evil deeds will end.

VI. GREAT REPROACH WILL ENSUE.. "Lo, when the wall is fallen, shall it not be said unto you, Where is the daubing wherewith ye have daubed it?" The surrounding nations were eagerly watching how this nation, which boasted of Jehovah as their God, would deport itself. If it was seen that the princes and captains were bolstering up the kingdom with craft and intrigue and falsehood, they would despise their professed faith - yea, despise their God. The names of these foolish builders would be bandied about as a byword and a reproach. Their ill fame would follow them through many generations. Perpetual discredit and reprobation are a part of God's punishment. - D.

Because, even because they have seduced my people, saying, Peace; and there was no peace, etc. We have in our text -

I. FALSE PROPHETS PROCLAIMING A DELUSIVE SALVATION. The false prophets of Israel assured the people that by reason of their alliance with Egypt they were quite safe against Nebuchadnezzar the King of Babylon, and should soon be utterly independent of his control. Thus "they seduced the people, saying, Peace; and there was no peace" (cf. Jeremiah 6:14; Jeremiah 23:16, 17; Jeremiah 27:14-16; Jeremiah 28:1-4, 15; Jeremiah 29:8, 9). The conduct of these ancient prophets has its analogue in spiritual relations. When religious teachers proclaim their own fancies or speculations as Divine revelations; when they present the traditions and creeds of men as the saving truth of God; when they lead men to expect salvation apart from sincere repentance for sin, and hearty faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and loyal obedience to his will, - then are they false prophets, "saying, Peace; and there is no peace."

II. SINFUL AND MISGUIDED PEOPLE TRUSTING IN A DELUSIVE SALVATION. The Jews believed their false prophets, and strengthened their alliance with Egypt, and cherished their vain hope of safety, independence, and prosperity; and the false prophets encouraged them in this course. The misguided people built up a slight wall, and the misleading prophets daubed it with untempered mortar. And in spiritual things men are building walls for their personal salvation apart from Jesus Christ. Some build the wall of external morality. They are diligent in the cultivation of correct and virtuous conduct, without any vitalizing and inspiring faith and love. Their gospel is one of good works and of fancied personal merit. A delusive confidence is theirs. Others build the wall of theological orthodoxy. They hold what they regard as a sound creed, and in some cases are zealous in maintaining it against everything and every one that appears opposed to it, and because of this they consider that their salvation is sure. But their assurance is vain. Others build the wail of Church membership, deeming their eternal interests secure because they are members of a Christian Church. But their names may be enrolled in the register of a true Church on earth, but have no place "in the Lamb's book of life." And others build the wail of religious observances. They have been duly baptized and confirmed, they partake of the communion of the body and blood of our Saviour, and are exemplary in their attendance at public worship, and therefore they conclude that their salvation is assured. Perilous, and if persisted in fatal, is their delusion. Flimsy walls are these, each and all of them. Yet there are not wanting religious teachers to encourage builders such as these, and to daub their slight walls with untempered mortar.

III. FALSE HOPES OF SALVATION SWEPT AWAY BY THE GREAT GOD. "Say unto them which daub it with untempered mortar, that it shall fall," etc. (ver. 11).

1. A period is approaching when the works and hopes of men will be severely tested. "There shall be an overflowing shower; and ye, O great hailstones, shall fall; and a stormy wind shall rend it." Our Lord spake in a very similar strain of his hearers, and how they and their works would be tried. "Whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them," etc. (Matthew 7:24-27). And St. Paul wrote, "The fire shall prove each man's work of what sort it is." The testing time sometimes occurs in this life. Change of circumstances, temptation, affliction, the near approach of death, each of these sometimes proves a crucial test of the character and the hopes of men. And after death "God shall bring every work into judgment, with every hidden thing, whether it be good or whether it be evil."

2. In the great testing time no works and hopes shall abide but those which accord with the will of God. The slight wall of these foolish builders, daubed with untempered mortar by these false prophets, would be rent and destroyed by the storms of God. The Chaldean army would soon shatter the unsubstantial fabric of their vain hopes, and destroy both them and their city. And in the spiritual testing every faith which does not work through love, and cleanse the heart and life, will prove a fatal delusion. Every character which is not founded upon Christ, and fashioned after his, will be found ruinously defective (cf. Isaiah 28:16, 17; 1 Corinthians 3:11).

IV. THE UTTER FAILURE OF THE VAIN HOPES WHICH THEY ENCOURAGED WILL COVER THE FALSE PROPHETS WITH REPROACH AND SHAME. "Lo, when the wall is fallen, shall it not be said unto you, Where is the daubing wherewith ye have daubed it?" The detection of false prophets is certain, and will certainly be followed by bitter derision. "What cause," says Greenhill, "bad these prophets to blush, when God brought Nebuchadnezzar to besiege the city, when the wails were broken down, and they discovered to be false prophets, and their foundation, with which they upheld the hope of this people, to be lies, flatteries, and false divinations!" Unspeakably terrible will be the retribution of those who, professing to make known the will of God, have misled others in respect to the things which make for their eternal peace. The bitter reproaches of those whom they have ruinously deceived, and the just punishment adjudged them by the holy Lord God, will be a doom of intolerable anguish.

CONCLUSION.

1. Let religious teachers regard it as of supreme importance that their teaching be in harmony with the will of God.

2. Let every one earnestly inquire upon what foundation, with what materials, and in what manner, he is building his personal character and his religious hopes. - W.J.

Women have always played an important part in the religious history of every nation, sometimes for good, sometimes for evil. The Scriptures, with their proverbial impartiality, record instances of both kinds - of women who rendered signal service to their people by their fidelity to God, and of women who used their influence to corrupt and to mislead those over whom their power extended. Of the prophetesses whose pretensions are exposed in this passage we know nothing from other sources of information. But if curiosity is unsatisfied, enough is here revealed to justify us in thinking of these women as a very pernicious element in the Hebrew nation at the era of the Captivity.

I. THEIR SEDUCTIVE AND IMPOSING ARTS. It is not important for us to understand all the allusions in this passage. Whatever were these pillows and kerchiefs, it seems char that they were used in connection with superstitious divinations, and were intended to impress all beholders with a sense of the dignity and mysterious powers of these sorceresses. The mystic veil that robed the tall form of the prophetesses, the paraphernalia with which such persons were wont to invest themselves, tended to inspire reverence and awe, as if for a supernatural power revealed in the stately presence and authoritative voice.

II. THEIR MERCENARY ENDS. There is something picturesque and striking in the description given by the prophet of the poor, deluded victims who resorted to the sorceresses, carrying with them "handfuls of barley and pieces of bread" - the common tribute paid in such cases and to such persons. Probably the women loved to exercise power and to exact respect; yet with most of them the motive was mercenary, and they were content to deceive others if they could enrich, or even support, themselves.

III. THEIR PROPHECIES. The term could only have been applied to their utterances in irony. For it is evident

(1) that their inspiration came from their own heart, and

(2) that the substance of their so called prophecies was false.

They were animated by a desire to please those who resorted to them; and this they did to gratify their own prejudices or to display their own worldly wisdom. In such communications there was nothing that deserved the name of prophecy; for a prophet is one who speaks in the place of God, and who shows no regard to the person or to the wishes of those addressed. It was no spirit of rivalry or of jealousy which induced the Prophet Ezekiel to speak thus severely of these female impostors; it was for the public good that their deceptions should be exposed.

IV. THEIR PERVERSION OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. They are said to have hunted the souls of the Lord's people; and this they did by their perverse and unjust oracles. The language used concerning them is very remarkable, and it could not have been used through mere delight in antithesis. It is said that the ministry of the "prophetesses" was "to slay the souls that should not die, and to save the souls alive that should not live." They were reproached with their attempt to subvert God's righteous providence: "With lies ye have grieved the heart of the righteous, whom I have not made sad; and strengthened the hands of the wicked, that he should not return from his wicked way." A more scathing denunciation could not have been uttered than this; these women strove to overturn the moral order, to encourage the rebellious, and to depress the just and godly!

V. THEIR UNMASKING AND EXPOSURE. The God of truth and rectitude declared himself opposed to these seducers of his people. The symbols of their delusive arts should be stripped from them. Their hypocrisy should be unveiled, and their pretences should be ridiculed. The means by which they had been wont to ensnare men should be taken from them. Their reputation and their power should be destroyed, and their influence should come to an end.

VI. THE DELIVERANCE OF THEIR VICTIMS. Those whom the false prophetesses sought to entangle and to capture were the Lord's people; and the Lord claimed his own. It was his purpose to deliver them out of the hand of their spiritual toe, and to let the hunted souls go free. The means by which this result was to be brought about are not stated; but the resources of the Omnipotent were sufficient to ransom and liberate his own. Thus it should be made apparent to all observers that the Lord reigneth, and that he is ever mindful of his own. - T.

Moral evil is sadly contagious. The boastful, arrogant temper of the false prophets spread to the women also. It was a time of great excitement - a national crisis, in which all political considerations were intermingled with religion. Amid the general panic of fear, women as well as men were stirred to action. The party who sought God and desired to know his will were a small minority. The major part of the people, both men and women, were carried away by a spirit of carnal wisdom. They cared far more to secure personal advantage than to please God. But the gravamen of their offence was that they falsely assumed to speak in the stead of God.

I. SELF-MADE RELIGION IS VAIN. In every age men have ventured to invent for themselves religious creeds and forms. The human mind has chafed against God's requirements as being irksome and severe, and the world has carved out a religion that shall be self-pleasing, a lullaby to conscience, a sedative to fear. The doctrines and creeds have been spun out of men's self-consciousness, and have had no foundation outside themselves. In the pride of their heart they have imagined that Reason was a god, and that this internal god was supreme. They see vanity and prophesy falsehood.

II. THIS SELF-MADE RELIGION IS LUXURIOUS. All its beliefs and practices are regulated by pleasure. What ministers to present enjoyment is tolerated; what is unpleasant is denounced. "They sew pillows to all arm-holes." Bodily ease is paramount. To crucify the flesh is a heresy. To wear a jewelled cross upon the breast is an ornament, and is therefore approved; but to obey commands which are a burden to the flesh, to bear Christ's cross of pain and reproach, this is contemned. He who really desires acceptance with God may well suspect any religion that panders to bodily pleasure. "He who is a friend of the world is an enemy of God."

III. SELF-MADE RELIGION SEEKS EARTHLY ADVANTAGE. "Will ye pollute me among my people for handfuls of barley and for pieces of bread?" These self-styled servants of God really cared nothing for the honour of God. They did not scruple to profane his Name, and to trample on sacred things, if only they could gain a pitiance of bread thereby. They made merchandise of religion. It was a religion toe the body, not for the soul. They acted as if gain were godliness. So is it ofttimes now. If religion would ensure prosperity to secular business, many men would profess to Do religious. But if religion frowns upon fraud and deceit, they will eschew it as unfriendly to their worldly prospects. Yet, in the long run, godliness is favourable to every human interest. "It is profitable for all things."

IV. SELF-MADE RELIGION IS HOSTILE TO RIGHTEOUSNESS. These false prophets sought "to slay the souls that should not die, and to save the souls alive that should not live." It seeks to frustrate all God's purposes, to overturn the very foundations of righteousness. God's plan of government is to make righteousness contribute to life. "The just shall live by faith;" "The soul that sinneth, it shall die." But this self-made religion of proud men strives to arrest the processes of God's rule, and endeavours to make the worst things appear the best. "It puts darkness for light, and light for darkness." It would fain slay the righteous; for the godly are as thorns in the sides of the hypocrite. It seeks to confuse men's ideas of truth and error, of right and wrong.

V. THIS SELF-MADE RELIGION IS INJURIOUS BOTH TO THE WICKED AND TO THE RIGHTEOUS. "Ye have made the heart of the righteous sad, whom I have not made sad; and strengthened the hands of the wicked, that he should Lot return from his wicked way." It is God's wise intention that, in proportion as men are righteous, they should have joy. This is theft encouragement and, in part, their reward. He who seeks to prevent this is fighting against God. But it is a greater wrong still to encourage the wicked in their evil ways. The pains and disappointments which the wicked experience are the thorns with which God would hedge up their way and turn them back. He who promises heaven to sinners is a confederate in their sin, and shall share their punishment. Such a one is a soul-murderer. On his skirts is indelibly fixed the blood of human souls. To encourage false hopes is treason against humanity.

VI. SELF-MADE RELIGION SHALL SUFFER A COLLAPSE. Sooner or later the bubble will burst, for it has no foundation in truth or in reality. It is a mirage of men's heated imagination, and cannot long endure. The God of truth will, in his own time, appear; will scatter to the winds the flimsy fancies of men; and the mischief they have sought to do to others shall return in tenfold disaster upon their own heads. If men will not know and acknowledge God in the day of his kindness, they shall recognize him in the night time of his vengeance. Falsehood cannot perpetuate itself. Like Jonah's gourd, it springs up in a night, and in a night it perishes. But the truth, like its Author, is omnipotent, and must prevail.

"Truth, crushed to earth, shall rise again,
The eternal years of God are hers.
But Error, wounded, writhes with pain,
And dies amid her worshippers."

Likewise, thou son of man, set thy face against the daughters of thy people, etc. God sometimes raised up and inspired women to be prophetesses to his people. Miriam (Exodus 15:20), Deborah (Judges 4:4), Hannah (1 Samuel 2:1-10), and Huldah (2 Kings 22:14-20) were genuine prophetesses of the Lord in the times of the Old Testament. And in the time of Ezekiel there were false prophetesses - women who pretended to possess Divine inspiration, and to speak with Divine authority, but who "prophesied out of their own heart," and grievously misled the people. Greenhill suggests that they probably exceeded the false prophets in doing mischief; "for women, by reason of the tenderness of their nature, sweetness of their voices, respect amongst men, have the advantage to insinuate their opinions, and persuade more powerfully, especially when they have a repute for holiness, and are esteemed prophetical, as these were." There are difficulties in the interpretation of this paragraph; but, happily, the permanent moral instruction which it conveys is not obscure. It sets before us -

I. THE ACCOMMODATING AND FLATTERING CHARACTER OF FALSE PROPHECY. The pretended prophetesses are spoken of as "the women that sew pillows upon all elbows, and make kerchiefs for the head of persons of every stature." The precise meaning of these pillows and kerchiefs is very uncertain; but it seems to us that they should be interpreted figuratively. The aim of these false prophetesses was to make the people feel secure and at ease. They represented the state of national affairs as safe, comfortable, and full of promise. They thus ministered to a delusive repose and pleasure. They, in this respect, resembled the prophets who said, "Peace, when there was no peace," and who daubed the flimsy wall of false hopes with the untempered mortar of deceptive assurances. As M. Henry expresses it, "They did all they could to make people secure, which is signified by laying them easy, and to make people proud, which is signified by dressing them fine with handkerchiefs." False prophets, preachers, and teachers whom God hath not sent make it their object to say what will please the people and bring popularity to themselves.

II. THE PERNICIOUS POWER OF FALSE PROPHECY.

1. It is blasphemous towards God. "Ye have profaned me among my people." They blasphemed the sacred Name by employing it to authorize their false and evil communications. Moreover, as Hengstenberg remarks, "They profane God among the people, inasmuch as they assign him a friendly position towards sin."

2. It is ruinous to man. The false prophetesses are charged with hunting the souls of the Lord's people, slaying the souls that should not die, and strengthening "the hands of the wicked, that he should not return from his wicked way, and be saved alive." They encouraged sinners in their sins by assuring them that they were secure. The propagation of religious error is destructive of the health and life of souls. Such errors act as deadly poisons upon the moral life of those who receive them.

III. THE SELFISH MOTIVE OF FALSE PROPHECY. "Ye have profaned me among my people for handfuls of barley and for pieces of bread." They prophesied for their own profit, not for the good of the people. "There is nothing so sacred," says M. Henry, "which men of mercenary spirits, in whom the love of this world reigns, will not profane and prostitute, if they can but get money by the bargain. But they did it for poor gain; if they could get no more for it, rather than break they would sell you a false prophecy that should please you to a nicety for a beggar's dole, a piece of bread or a handful of barley; and yet that was more than it was worth." False and corrupt teachers are never actuated in their work by zeal for the glory of God or the good of men. They seek their own popularity or power, their temporal enrichment or comfort. Our Lord said, "I seek not mine own glory." And the true Christian minister can say, with St. Paul, "I seek not yours, but you."

IV. THE READY ACCEPTANCE OF FALSE PROPHECY. "Your lying to my people that hearken unto lies." Isaiah speaks of people who say to the prophets, "Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits." And there are people still who would rather hear pleasing fallacies than unpleasant truths; who wish to be soothed and comforted rather than summoned to repentance and conversion. What madness is theirs? "Is it wise in the man who has nearly ruined his constitution by intemperance, to ask the physician to tell him that he is in good health, and is carrying on a harmless course of indulgence? Is it wise in the man who is washing his property by neglect or extravagance, to persuade his friends to hush their reproving voice, and flatter him that his prosperity is secure? Would the deceit in the former case change the condition of the patient? or the falsehood in the latter repair the fortunes of the spendthrift? How much greater is the folly of the sinner, who, instead of turning from sin to God, through faith in Christ, and thus getting rid of his alarms by abandoning his course of sin, refuses to change his conduct, and asks for a false representation of his condition! He is walking to the edge of a precipice, and solicits those who see his danger to tell him that he is safe" (James).

V. THE JUDGMENT OF GOD AGAINST THE AUTHORS OF FALSE PROPHECY.

1. He will strip then of their seductions. "Thus saith the Lord God: Behold I am against your pillows," etc. (vers. 20, 21). When the Chaldeans took Jerusalem, slew its inhabitants, or seized and carried them into captivity, the seductions of these false prophetesses were completely destroyed. They would "no more see vanity, nor divine divinations." They would be put to utter silence and clothed with guilty shame. Teachers of error must sooner or later be confounded; for in its conflict with truth falsehood must ultimately be completely vanquished.

2. He will defeat their designs. "I will let the souls go, even the souls that ye hunt to make them fly [or, 'as birds'];... and deliver my people out of your hand, and they shall be no more in your hand to be hunted." The dark designs of the false prophetesses would be frustrated by God, and they themselves would be involved in the dire miseries that were coming upon the people of Jerusalem. Every one who cherishes purposes and is engaged in enterprises which are opposed to the holy will of God is advancing to total and terrible disappointment.

3. He will convince them of his own Being and supremacy. "Ye shall know that I am the Lord" (see our notes on these words in Ezekiel 6:7, 10; Ezekiel 11:10). - W.J.