Ezekiel 13:13, commentary and pictures

The wall daubed with untempered mortar is false teaching and false assurance that covers wrongdoing and builds a false sense of security. The stormy wind, overflowing shower, and great hailstones are God's fury and anger breaking apart and consuming that deceptive work. Daubing over sin means crying peace when there is no peace, with smooth teachings and fair speeches that cover wrong, undermine plain testimony, and deceive many. It means leaving grave sins unreproved and unforsaken, holding known wrongdoers in fellowship and excusing their sins as small, and having unfaithful leaders withhold the plain message with flimsy excuses when cutting reproof is required. Dangerous false teaching must be exposed rather than covered with reassurance, with sin and impenitence named plainly, and those who excuse sin must repent, confess, and forsake their wrongs instead of accepting reassurance that leaves wrong uncorrected.

Judgment on the False Wall

The wall coated with unsound plaster is false teaching and false assurance that hides wrongdoing instead of exposing it, and it builds a false sense of security that cannot endure divine inspection because God is holy and true. Dangerous error of this kind must be uncovered rather than smoothed over with reassuring words, for concealment leaves deficiencies hidden while judgment approaches. The fragile, whitewashed structure represents religious instruction that lacks soundness, and its promised safety collapses when tested.

The rending storm wind, the overflowing downpour, and the great hailstones are the outpouring of divine fury and anger that tears apart and consumes that deceptive work. They fall upon the wall of false assurances raised by those who announce peace where no peace exists, destroying the covering they have built. Misleading teaching that obscures truth meets this same overthrow, while faithful, wisely handled Bible truth breaks down prejudice and reaches hearts. False sympathy that comforts a person yet leaves sin unconfessed and unforsaken belongs to the same daubing, and it ends in ruin.

No plastering with unsound material can make a breach secure, and God will lay it bare and destroy it in judgment. Kindness or attention that withholds needed truth does harm rather than strengthening those who receive it. Attempts to cover over the harm caused by mistaken decisions fail for the same reason, since only bringing the heart into divine light brings remedy.

Human restrictions and obstructions set up against reproving truth are walls of this same sort, erected to keep reproof, rebuke, exhortation, and calls to put away error from reaching the people. They are hostile measures to block the message, including efforts no longer to permit those bearing sacred truth to go forth without hindrance. Such barriers cannot stand, for truth goes onward and upward to the end and is not stopped by them. God raises up prepared men of opportunity, places His Spirit upon them, and sends them through these walls to proclaim His word undiminished and powerful, lifting the voice like a trumpet to show the people their transgressions and the house of Jacob their sins.

Ways of Daubing Over Sin

To daub with untempered mortar is to cry peace, peace when there is no peace, declaring peace where God has not spoken peace, and such false assurances draw His answering judgment. It is to speak smooth things and fair, flattering speeches that cover over wrong, mince the matter and refuse to call things by their right name, undermining the effect of plain testimony against wrongdoing. That covering betrays holy trust, for to give influence and sympathy to smooth-tongued traitors is to side with the enemy and deceive many to their ruin.

Daubing is to give a testimony that is not clear-cut and to leave sins of a grave character cherished among professed Sabbathkeepers unreproved and unforsaken. Unless an awakening convicts and converts them they will die in their sins, and because they received great light and precious opportunities without obeying the truth and purifying their lives by it, remaining earthly-minded and corrupt in thoughts and practices, their punishment will be heavier than that of Sodom and Gomorrah. It is to whitewash heinous sexual sin, regard it lightly and fail to show disgust and horror at it, calling darkness light and light darkness and making evil appear good. Those who so regard sin and seek to permit unrepentant sinners to come into the church are unfit for any leading responsible position until they entirely reform and view sin and sinners from an altogether different standpoint.

Daubing is to hold known commandment-breakers in full fellowship and approbation, excusing their sins and calling them a small thing instead of laying the ax at the root of the tree. It covers dishonoring parents, taking the name of God in vain, and desecrating worship with unsubdued carnal passions, impatience, fretfulness and faultfinding, when relatives and church members plaster over those sins and build a false wall God will tear down in wrath. Those so covered are far from God and far from the truth, the Spirit of God is withdrawn from them though they know it not, Satan is pleased, and self-justification with anger and exaltation in their own eyes is nourished.

Daubing is to plaster outwardly over a breach in a religious institution without a decided break from wrong, where the workers lack the faith that works by love and purifies the soul. It is especially the work of associates who try to patch up the breach made when men take responsibility on their own shoulders to rebuild what God swept away, covering transgression and mistake with false support and justification rather than stepping aside to humble the soul before God, seek His guidance and change of heart, and let Him work upon the heart to bring the light of heaven. Only the Spirit of God can undo that damage and bring real reformation, and pardon for such wrong responsibility comes for the sake of God's cause and His name's glory only through conversion and humbling the heart before Him.

Daubing is the work of unfaithful stewards and leaders who act in an underhanded, two-sided manner in responsible positions, withholding the plain message God gave and failing to deal frankly and openly with wrong. Instead of coming close to the erring, praying with and for him, and perseveringly setting matters before him as God pointed out in order to save his soul, they cover wrongs with smooth dealing, frame flimsy excuses when plain reproof is required, turn away from the counsel of God, and try to cover up the impression God would make upon wrongdoers. It is to tell a man that everything he has done is all just right when it is not, to bury reproofs and put a false construction upon them, to act indifferently with a self-sufficient spirit, and so to give the work a wrong mold of disorder and dissension centered on self, which hurts souls, mars God's work, and lays responsibility on the one who withholds reproof if souls stumble and fall and are lost. Plain correction from Scripture, rather than a misleading covering over error, is necessary before a man can be trusted as a shepherd.

Daubing is to disguise error and cover unsound teaching and a false message instead of presenting Bible truth honestly and wisely, and that deceptive work God will expose and destroy in judgment. It is to cover spiritual defects with unsound instruction and to give guidance without the inward cleansing and reform that make it true. It is to soften truth to spare error and to clip the message instead of giving cutting rebuke, which leaves corrupting views in the camp, while unsparing reproof exposes them and leaves the people in a better state. It is to uphold a person's delusion and call evil good, building a false security like a wall covered with untempered mortar that God's anger will bring down in storm to expose and judge those who refused His warnings.

Plain Faithfulness Instead of Covering

Dangerous false teaching and false doctrine must be exposed rather than covered with reassurance, for the storm and hail declare judgment on a wall covered with untempered mortar that hides wrongdoing instead of naming it. Truth names sin and impenitence plainly, refusing to make unsound work look sound. Those who excuse sin and resist correction must repent, confess their wrongs and forsake them rather than accept reassurance that leaves the wrong uncorrected, because the false assurances of Ezekiel 13:10-16 will be destroyed in anger. Those ready to plaster over the breach must get out of the way, humble the soul before God, seek His guidance and change of heart, and let Him work upon the heart to bring the light of heaven upon the soul. This applies especially when men take responsibility on their own shoulders to rebuild what God swept away and associates cover the transgression and mistake with false support and justification, and pardon for such wrong responsibility comes only through conversion and humbling the heart before Him for the sake of His cause and His name's glory.

Only the Spirit of God can undo the damage of outward covering and bring real reformation where a religious institution has been covered over outwardly without a decided break from wrong. That condition exists where workers lack the faith that works by love and purifies the soul. Bible truth must instead be handled wisely and presented faithfully on every possible occasion, meeting unbelievers with wise counsel and instruction so that prejudice is broken down and souls are reached, rather than giving a superficial or unsound presentation. This is the duty particularly urged upon Christian physicians, who must learn to handle subjects of Bible truth wisely and not cover truth with misleading teaching. God requires things to be set in order by men of decided fidelity who will lay the hand upon a wrong work and say this is not according to the will of God. Such men come close to the erring, pray with and for him, and perseveringly set matters before him as pointed out in order to save his soul, bearing straightforward testimony without self yet without harshness, instead of acting in an underhanded, two-sided manner that withholds the plain message and fails to deal frankly and openly with wrong. That miserable covering work hurts souls, mars God's work, leaves Him with a controversy against those accountable for the neglect, and brings His condemnation.

There must be a decided, deep work of searching that refuses to heal the hurt slightly and cry peace, peace when there is no peace. It means digging deep, stirring up pestilent matter and purging it away, dying to self and becoming Christlike, in malice children but in understanding men. It also means separating from those who doubt and reject God's pleading face to face after He has taken hold to set things right, so that meekness and righteousness are sought in order to be hid when fierce anger comes to consume the daubed wall. Weak charity that covers a multitude of sins left unconfessed and unrepented must cease, for it comes from failure in thorough, plain dealing of brother with brother and friend with friend. Those who have done this daubing work must weep and pray and confess the lack of discernment that countenanced evil, for it is time for a strong work to break from Satan's chain. In its place there is required stronger faith in the love of Christ and greater appreciation of that love, adding true charity to brotherly kindness, with obedience to the law of God as the fruit of gospel repentance, and with faith, hope, love and every kind of charity magnified.

To daub with untempered mortar means to clip the truth and hold peace instead of lifting the voice and declaring faithfully what God has shown. A messenger who does this will meet his message in the judgment with no excuse, will have the blood of souls upon his garments, and will rest under the curse of God. Those who remain shut up in darkness and deception and refuse thorough confession and reformation will continue until Jesus leaves the sanctuary and they are weighed in the balance and found wanting.