Ezekiel 13:21, commentary and pictures

God speaks to false prophetesses who hunt souls with flattering soothsaying devices, and promises to tear away their kerchiefs and deliver His people out of their hand so they shall no more be hunted as prey. At the root their sin is easing consciences in sin and seducing others by lying divination, saying the Lord saith when He has not sent them, making the heart of the righteous sad and strengthening the hands of the wicked by promising him life. That rescue exposes their deception and makes known that He is the LORD, both to the people delivered and to the false prophets themselves. All claims to prophecy and gifts of the Spirit joined with breaking the law of God are vain vision, seen in setting aside the seventh-day Sabbath for a man-made Sunday and in calling His holy law Jewish while pressing for human enactments. The prophecy is fulfilled in the last days, when teachers who sow the wind from pulpit and press reap the whirlwind in war and final storm, their wall daubed with untempered mortar falling under hail while God renders justice and His people trust in the coming of the Lord.

Kerchiefs, Hunting, and Rescue

The verse is spoken to false prophetesses who hunt souls by flattering, soothsaying practices, sewing pillows and employing kerchiefs and other deceptive devices to ensnare God's people. Its striking figures, such as pillows for the armholes or elbows or joints of the hands, refer to customs that are not well known. The root of what is condemned is easing the consciences of souls in sin and seducing others to sin, as set forth in verses 19, 22, and 23.

The Lord declares that He will tear away their kerchiefs, break their hold, and deliver His people out of their hand. They shall be no more in their hand to be hunted or used as prey. This deliverance exposes their deception and makes known that He is the LORD. That knowledge is shared both by the rescued people and by the false prophets themselves, who shall know that He is the LORD when His people are freed from being hunted.

In its surrounding prophecy this rescue accompanies judgment on those who falsely promise peace and assurance when danger is near. They trust in a wall built by a false prophet and daubed by others with untempered mortar, but the unsound wall falls and destruction comes. The chapter warns against deceptive teaching and exposes the dangers facing God's people, calling the church to give warning and to correct teaching that has been done superficially or falsely.

Lying Prophecy Against Law

The condemnation falls on those who have seen vanity and lying divination, saying the Lord has said what he has not said when he has not sent them, and who make others hope that they will confirm the word. With lies they make the heart of the righteous sad and strengthen the hands of the wicked so that he should not return from his wicked way, by promising him life.

Claims to prophecy and the gifts of the Spirit joined with breaking the law of God are a vain vision and a lying divination. Those who cry Lord, Lord, profess faith and claim many wonderful works in his name while working iniquity and teaching that the commandments are abolished are self-deceived, have no vision from God, and their religion is vain. Even their prayer is abomination, and they will perish at Depart from me, for God does not bestow the precious gifts of his Spirit on those who turn away from hearing the law, since antinomianism and the Spirit cannot go together.

The false work is building a wall and daubing it with untempered mortar by compromising the word of God, changing the law and breaking the everlasting covenant. It covers sectarian prejudice with boasts of large charity and Christian tolerance while saying I am of Paul and I of Apollos and I of Cephas and I of Christ, which is carnal and walking as men and yields only incohesive particles that cannot make a permanent solid structure. God destroys that wall and those who daubed it, while the true building fitly joined together grows up into a perfect building in Christ without the sound of a hammer when all are of one mind and of one judgment speaking the same thing.

The verse applies to setting aside the plain command to keep the seventh day as the Sabbath of the Lord for an inferred one-seventh portion of time for rest never mentioned by the Lord or his inspired servants, always made to fall on a day made popular by tradition and the statutes of men. It applies to Sunday as a man-made institution with no word from the Lord to support it, falsely given the sacredness and commands of the seventh-day Sabbath as Christ's gift to the church, whose unsupported wall built with untempered mortar will be exposed and swept away when the coming storm arrives. It applies also to professed ministers who call God's holy law Jewish, treat it with contempt and set it aside which Christ lived and died to honor and magnify, while pressing human governments to enact their own amended code.

There is great danger in trusting the lying words of men instead of knowing the truth and trusting in it. Those who believe lies are not excusable for failing to find out the truth. Even when a great multitude agree in practicing what has no scriptural authority but only the word of man, every one of them will be ashamed when God's presence shows them to be transgressors.

Fulfilled in Last Days

Ezekiel 13:21 is a prediction of the present time now fulfilled, showing the responsibility resting upon religious teachers. Israel's prophets are like foxes in the deserts who have not gone up into the gaps nor made up the hedge for the house of Israel to stand in the battle in the day of the Lord. They have seen vanity and lying divination, saying The Lord saith when the Lord has not sent them, and have made others to hope that they would confirm the word. With lies they have made the heart of the righteous sad and strengthened the hands of the wicked that he should not return from his wicked way by promising him life, and God will tear their kerchiefs and deliver His people out of their hand so they shall be no more in their hand to be hunted.

The chapter belongs with Isaiah 30 and Ezekiel 22 as prophecy concerning the same time and people: the professed people of God in the last days. It foretells professed ministers of Christ who call God's holy law Jewish, treat it with contempt, and set it aside which Christ lived and died to honor and magnify, while pressing human governments to enact their own amended code. They make God like themselves and bring law, religion, and civil government into contempt, sowing the wind from pulpit, lobby, platform and press and reaping the whirlwind in the oncoming wars of anarchy, all of which God foretold. God will tear His people from their hand and render justice to all, so all and especially the poor should trust Him, be patient and stablish their hearts unto the coming of the Lord as the only sure hope.

The prophecy is connected with the great hailstorm under the seventh plague of the final plague, when hail as heaven's artillery accompanies the battle of the great day and the shaking of the heavens and earth. It is fulfilled in the exposure of teachers who claim the Lord has spoken when Scripture gives no such teaching. Their unsupported institution, like a wall built with untempered mortar, will be exposed and swept away when the coming storm arrives, as seen in Sunday as a man-made institution with no word from the Lord to support it.