Ezekiel 13:2, commentary and pictures

God commands Ezekiel as His mouthpiece among the captives to prophesy against the prophets of Israel who prophesy, summoning those who speak from themselves to hear the word of the Lord. To prophesy out of their own hearts is to speak from one's own heart, mind and spirit rather than from God, following one's own spirit and running without being sent and having seen nothing. They falsely present their own invention as the Lord's word, saying the Lord saith when He has not spoken, speaking vanity and lying divination that leads others to hope God will confirm what He will not confirm, so God is against them. The breach they refuse to repair is the removal of the seventh-day Sabbath from God's law and the promotion of Sunday in its place, and the wall they build with untempered mortar is the claim that this humanly altered law will bring peace, made without a Thus saith the Lord and destined to collapse. By leaving the people unprepared they leave them unable to stand in the battle in the day of the Lord, so the wall, its builders and those who daub it will fall in the final conflict under the great hailstorm of the seventh plague.

Words and Historical Setting

Ezekiel's work lay among the Israelite captives in Babylonia, beginning around 595 B.C. and continuing until around 574 B.C., after God had revealed His glory to him. The verse stands within the opening twenty chapters as warning and reproof to his people. In that setting Ezekiel served as God's mouthpiece among the captives, while Jeremiah prophesied in Jerusalem.

The verse is God's command to prophesy against the prophets of Israel who prophesy, summoning those who speak from themselves to hear the word of the Lord. Those who prophesy out of their own hearts stand condemned and must hear what the Lord says. Their work is compromise of the word of God instead of taking it just as it reads. The chapter warns against false teaching that misleads God's people and leaves spiritual defenses damaged and in need of repair.

To prophesy out of one's own heart means to speak from one's own heart, mind, ideas and spirit rather than from God. It is to follow one's own spirit, to run without being sent, and to have seen nothing. Such teaching originates in human invention and lacks Scriptural authority. Religious teaching must therefore rest on what God has revealed, not on human feelings or invention.

These prophets falsely present their own message as the Lord's word, saying the Lord saith when He has not spoken or sent them. Their message is vanity and lying divination. By cunning promises they make others hope and trust that God will confirm words He will not confirm. Because they have spoken vanity and seen lies, God is against them. Those who devise lies and lead others to trust them face condemnation.

Marks of False Prophets

The verse exposes prophets who are light and treacherous and headstrong, who profane holy things and the sanctuary, do violence to God's law, despise God, cause His people to err, and strengthen the hands of the wicked. They speak from their own heart having seen nothing, running without being sent and prophesying without God having spoken to them. They are like sly, cunning foxes that deceive people, try to ensnare souls, and evade the truth proclaimed by faithful watchmen.

Such prophets compromise the word of God instead of taking it just as it reads, changing the law and breaking the everlasting covenant, and building a wall and daubing it with untempered mortar that will not stand. They unite profession of faith with disregard of the commandments, teaching that the commandments are abolished, crying Lord, Lord while working iniquity as lawlessness and violation and transgression of the law. Because they turn away from hearing the law and do not keep the will of the Father, they have no true vision from God, and antinomianism and the Spirit of God cannot go together. Their religion is vain, and no matter how loud their profession and claimed gifts of prophecy and many wonderful works done in the name of Jesus, which are vain vision and lying divination, they will perish when Jesus says Depart from me. Their boast of large charity and Christian tolerance covers unchanged sectarian prejudice, and their work produces carnal division where one says I am of Paul and another I of Apollos, contrary to being of one mind and one judgment and all speaking the same thing, when the building fitly joined together grows into a perfect building in Christ without the sound of a hammer.

Their false claims, made while claiming to deliver the Lord's word, lead people to trust human words instead of truth, and those who devise lies and lead others to trust them face condemnation. They speak from their own minds instead of delivering God's word, and their false teaching turns people from the truth and encourages false hope, leading them to take sin lightly. They teach what is untrue and prophesy lies in His name, making others trust a lie, and even if themselves deceived they still destroy the souls of those who believe them. The cry of the false prophet has ever been peace and assurance in time of danger.

As counterfeits, their existence proves that one or more true prophets exist, including in the last days when some depart from Scriptural truth to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils and false christs and false prophets arise to show great signs and wonders. A mark of the counterfeits is claiming intercourse with the dead, though the dead know not anything. The chapter describes the same people and time as Isaiah 30:8-11, professed people of God led astray by prophets speaking from their own hearts, whose leaders falsely assure them of peace while the people violate God's law, leaving them unprepared for coming judgment. The church's claim that earthly prosperity and universal dominion will last for ages before the day of judgment is such false prophecy spoken from one's own heart rather than from the word of the Lord, because the kingdom of the Lamb is introduced by judgment.

Sabbath Breach and Judgment

The breach left unrepaired in the people's defense is the removal of the seventh-day Sabbath from God's law and the promotion of Sunday in its place. The wall built with untempered mortar is the claim that this humanly altered law will bring peace, put forward with cunning promises and arguments from human authority without a Thus saith the Lord. That work upholds an unsound religious teaching, a man-made institution with no word from the Lord to support it, and the wall weakly coated with untempered mortar is destined to collapse and fall.

To declare Sunday a sacred, holy and hallowed day, and to say that the holiness and commands of the Sabbath have transferred to it without biblical warrant, is human invention that fulfills the rebuke to prophets who speak from their own hearts. The same self-directed rebellion teaches that God gave only one seventh portion of time for rest, which neither the Lord nor His inspired servants ever mentioned, while Scripture plainly commands keeping the seventh day as the Sabbath of the Lord. Departing from God's command to keep the Sabbath from sunset to sunset and substituting a humanly chosen order is following one's own spirit rather than God's command. Promising to make the Bible the test on the Sabbath question and then turning from the Bible to trust in tradition and human authority only is seeing vanity and lying divination, saying The Lord saith when He has not sent, and making others hope the word will be confirmed, so that God is against those who do so.

By failing to repair the breach, false prophets leave the people unable to stand in the battle in the day of the Lord, and for that failure they are excluded from Israel's register and inheritance. Preparation is therefore needed now to stand in that day, rather than being misled by erroneous popular teaching that leaves spiritual defenses damaged and in need of repair. The wall, its builders, and those who reinforce it will fall in the final conflict. Their boast of large charity and Christian tolerance covers unchanged sectarian prejudice, and their work produces carnal division, one saying I am of Paul and another I of Apollos, instead of being of one mind and one judgment and all speaking the same thing as a building fitly joined together growing into a perfect building in Christ.

The hail imagery of the chapter is a parallel prophecy of the great hailstorm accompanying the battle under the seventh plague in God's final judgments.