Ezekiel 13:8, commentary and pictures

God stands opposed to prophets who speak empty words and present false visions as His message. To speak vanity and see lies is to say The Lord saith when He has not sent them and has not spoken, seeing nothing but what comes from their own heart and spirit. Their deceptive work is a poorly built wall daubed with untempered mortar that He will tear down with overflowing shower, stormy wind and hail, and by failing to go up into the gaps and build the hedge they leave the people unable to stand in the battle in the day of the Lord. The neglected breach is the Sabbath commandment where Sunday was substituted for the Sabbath, so the wall is the weak human tradition of the change of the Sabbath and the daubing is the contradictory human reasons used to defend Sunday and excuse changing God's law where no Thus saith the Lord exists. They further seduce the people by saying Peace when there is no peace, promising peace through human conferences, laws and politics, but that false refuge will fail in the storm and give way to wars and judgment upon lawbreakers.

Language and Setting

God stands opposed to prophets because they have uttered emptiness and envisioned falsehood while claiming it as his message. That emptiness is empty words and empty claims, and those lies are false visions, false revelations and untrue sights presented as if they came from him. Such prophets follow their own ideas, deny him by disobedience to his word and law, and give false assurances while leaving the people unprepared to stand in the battle in the day of the Lord. In one instance this was prolonging the days of the 2300-day vision and encouraging trust that they would confirm the word, and more broadly it is giving Israel false hope and promising peace where there is none. The neglected work is the Sabbath commandment, hidden rather than restored, so that the people are not prepared for Christ's return.

To speak vanity and see lies is to say The Lord saith when the Lord has not sent and has not spoken. It is having seen nothing, but only what comes from one's own heart and spirit and following one's own spirit. Such claimants are prophets of evil and not sent by God, light and treacherous, profaning the sanctuary, doing violence to his law, headstrong and despising him, causing his people to err and strengthening the hands of the wicked, even by claiming intercourse with the dead. They make others hope they will confirm the word, while turning from the Bible to tradition and human authority only. Their work appears especially in the last days among professed churches, including claims to be prophets to civil government predicting that Christ's kingdom will come through politics and that a good time is coming, which is not coming; and as counterfeits their existence proves that one or more true prophets exist.

In context their deceptive teaching is a poorly built wall daubed with untempered mortar, which God will tear down. They have not gone up into the gaps and have not made up a hedge, refusing the work due at that time of building up the gap so the people may stand in the battle in the day of the Lord. That gap is the restoration of the Sabbath, the special preparation saints need to stand at the second advent. Those who reject the Sabbath and teach others to disregard it will not belong to the assembly of his people, and this concerns the time just before and during the still-future battle of the day of the Lord. Within the churches the breach in the wall has been badly covered, a false and unreliable teaching that misleads rather than prepares people to stand in judgment, and the work built on it will soon be tested.

Untempered mortar is human argument with no Thus saith the Lord, incohesive material with no coherence or strength to make the wall firm and steady. It upholds a wall built on sand, a weak and tottering wall of the change of the Sabbath built up by one denomination and daubed by all who try to support the change. Compromising his word, changing his law and breaking the everlasting covenant is building such a wall, covering sectarian prejudice with boasts of large charity and Christian tolerance while remaining divided and carnal, which cannot make a permanent solid structure. The wall may stand in the summertime of history but will fail when the overflowing shower falls in anger with stormy wind and hail sweeps away the refuge of lies. That fall brings ruin on the wall and on all who have sheltered themselves by it, and builders and daubers come under his opposition and suffer its fate.

The aptness of the illustration stands even though its use for the Sabbath change is denounced as fanciful, and so long as no better application can be found it will continue to be so used. Whether the prophecy was given and intended to predict this work is another question to be well considered before such use is made, since New Testament writers often apply prophecies with And to this agree the words of the prophet when not originally designed for that purpose. The false prophets are like foxes in the desert with many holes to one den, stealing upon unsuspecting prey and slipping away when hunted by faithful watchful messengers. When trapped they dodge from one contradictory defense of Sunday to another, saying the Sabbath was abolished at the cross, then that it was changed by Christ and the apostles, then that it is only a seventh part of time and no day in particular, till at last like foxes forsaking the den they say they will not keep the Sabbath even if it is true. The breach they would not repair is in the fourth commandment where the papal church substituted Sunday for the Sabbath, and the vanity and lies are preaching the first day as the Sabbath while saying The Lord saith when he has not sent them.

The chapter is connected with the voice of God and the battle of the great day, when utter destruction comes upon the earth. It is connected with the great hailstorm associated with the seventh plague, with the wrath poured out in the seven last plagues ending with great hailstones from heaven upon lawbreakers while false teachers cry peace when there is no peace.

Marks of False Prophets

God stands opposed to prophets who speak empty words and claim false visions as his message when he has not sent them and has not spoken. They follow their own ideas and their own spirit, having seen nothing but what comes from their own heart, yet they say the Lord says. They are light and treacherous, profaning the sanctuary, doing violence to the law, headstrong and despising God. They cause his people to err while they strengthen the hands of the wicked, including by claiming intercourse with the dead, and they leave the people unprepared to stand in the battle in the day of the Lord.

They make others hope that they will confirm the word, while their lies mislead the people. They sadden the righteous and encourage the wicked to remain in sin by promising them life and peace. They deceive and exploit God's people for outward advantage, using traditions to make void God's law while falsely claiming divine authority for their teaching. Their outward appearance cannot hide their harmful deeds from God, and their false refuge and assurances will fail and will not protect them when his judgment comes in the day of the Lord.

Their work appears especially in the last days among professed churches as false and unreliable teaching within the churches, a breach in the wall badly covered with untempered mortar that misleads rather than prepares people to stand in judgment. As counterfeits their existence proves that one or more true prophets exist. In one past fulfillment they falsely prolonged the days of the 2300-day vision and encouraged people to trust that they would confirm God's word.

Sabbath Breach and Sunday Wall

The neglected breach, gap and hedge that the false prophets fail to build is the Sabbath commandment, the breach in the fourth commandment where the papal church substituted Sunday for the Sabbath. Their failure to go up into the gaps and make up the hedge leaves the house of Israel unable to stand in the battle in the day of the Lord, because they hide the Sabbath and do not warn and prepare the people. That restoration of the Sabbath is the special preparation saints need to stand at the second advent when wrath is poured out in the seven last plagues ending with great hailstones, while instead these teachers cry peace when there is no peace. Those who reject the Sabbath and teach others to disregard it speak vanity and see lies by preaching the first day as the Sabbath, saying the Lord saith when the Lord has not sent them and making others hope they will confirm the word, and they will not belong to the assembly of God's people in the time just before and during the still-future battle of the day of the Lord.

The wall in the prophecy is the weak and tottering wall of the change of the Sabbath built up by one denomination and daubed by all who try to support the change. Sunday observance in this setting is a human tradition, a human institution and a counterfeit sign unsupported by any word from God, an unsound wall built with untempered mortar that will fall and be torn down by the coming storm. Untempered mortar means the arguments used to bolster the idea of a change, mortar with no coherence nor strength that will not make the wall firm and steady. Speaking vanity and seeing lies is the work of daubing that wall, upholding Sunday with contradictory human reasons where no Thus saith the Lord exists to defend the change of God's law and the replacing of the seventh day with Sunday. Such a wall may stand in the summertime of history, but when the overflowing shower falls in anger with stormy wind and hail sweeps away the refuge of lies, ruin comes on the wall and on all sheltered by it, and the falsehood with those who build and support it will fall and will not help the people stand in the final conflict.

Like foxes in the desert with many holes to one den, stealing upon unsuspecting prey, they dodge from one contradictory defense of Sunday to another when trapped. They say first that the Sabbath was abolished at the cross, then that it was changed by Christ and the apostles, then that it is only a seventh part of time and no day in particular, till at last like foxes forsaking the den they say they will not keep the Sabbath even if it is true. That seventh part of time was never mentioned by the Lord nor by any inspired servant, but is inferred from Scriptures that plainly command the seventh day as the Sabbath of the Lord, so urging the inference while refusing the commanded day brings teachers under God's opposition. The unsupported claim that Sunday received the seventh day's sacredness and commands as Christ's gift to the church is likewise vanity and lies.

They promise to make the Bible the test on the Sabbath question and then turn from the Bible to tradition and human authority only. Declaring a day holy by human assertion presents a false claim as the Lord's word, makes void God's commandment by tradition, and sets aside the fourth commandment by following their own spirit having seen nothing, with empty words and lying divination. Their specific falsehood is that God's law was broken or changed, that Jesus abolished part of his Father's law at the crucifixion with the Ten Commandments abolished and the fourth left out when the others were re-enacted. Instead the breach in the law was made later by the power called the man of sin, and the chapter sets out the certain destruction of such teachers, with hail falling on lawbreakers and not on those who keep the law.

The illustration aptly fits this work and automatically applies itself to it, even though Sunday advocates denounce the reasoning as fanciful, and so long as no better application can be found it will continue to be so used. Whether the prophecy was given and intended to predict this work is another question to be well considered before such use is made, since New Testament writers often apply prophecies with And to this agree the words of the prophet when not originally designed for that purpose. Its words are nevertheless fulfilled in such teaching that hallows Sunday without scriptural testimony.

Peace Promises and Final Judgment

God stands opposed to prophets who speak empty claims and lying visions as if from him, and in context those prophets seduce Israel by giving false hope and crying peace where there is none. Their peace message is not his message, for there is no peace in their assurances, and their misleading word leads people to trust in a wall that will fall and bring ruin on all who relied on it.

That false peace is promised through human conferences, resolutions, laws and treaties, and through claims to be prophets to civil government who predict that Christ's kingdom will come by politics and that a good time is coming. Such claimants speak vanity and lying divination out of their own heart while saying the Lord has spoken when he has not sent them, and they are prophets of evil not sent by God. That coming good time is not coming.

War cannot be abolished by civil governments because war is inherent in the natural heart of man. Only Jehovah the Creator through Jesus Christ can create the heart anew, so true peace comes only in heart service to Christ the Prince of Peace. The human peace work is a wall daubed with untempered mortar that shall fall under overflowing shower, great hailstones and stormy wind, and wars and revolutions will break out at an unexpected hour when all appears serene. Apostate Protestantism will likewise deceive with promises of peace when there is no peace and will lead the world toward Armageddon.

Professed ministers of Christ who speak such vanity and lies sow wind by ignoring the basis of his government, his holy law, calling it Jewish and treating it with contempt while demanding that human governments enact their amended code into civil law. From pulpit, legislative lobby, platform and press they bring law, government and religion into contempt. That sowing reaps the whirlwind in the oncoming wars of anarchy.

Law Obedience and Responsibility

God stands opposed to false teaching that excuses disobedience, including servants who hide their eyes from his Sabbaths and make no difference between the holy and the profane. Faith does not question his commands or Christ's example but obeys because God has said it, unlike Eve over the forbidden fruit, Saul over obeying commands, Naaman over dipping in the Jordan, and Nadab and Abihu over strange fire. He is against those who profess faith in Jesus and claim the gifts of the Spirit while breaking his law, for their claimed prophecies and works are vain vision and lying divination. Since iniquity means lawlessness, violation, disregard and transgression of his commandments, loud profession of Lord, Lord and many wonderful works done in the name of Jesus do not prove true gifts but are self-deception that will perish at Depart from me, because he does not bestow the precious gifts of his Spirit on those who reject his law, so that antinomianism and the Spirit cannot go together.

Those who compromise his word, change his law and break the everlasting covenant build a wall and daub it with untempered mortar. They cover sectarian prejudice with boasts of large charity and Christian tolerance while remaining divided and carnal, but such incohesive material cannot make a permanent solid structure. Builders and daubers come under God's opposition and suffer the fate of the wall and its daubers. Those who accept such lying teachings are responsible for failing to seek truth even when many agree with them, and when God reveals their wrongdoing they will be ashamed. Such teachers reject the Sabbath and teach others to disregard it, and they will not belong to the assembly of God's people.

The prophecy concerns his professed people in the last days, addressed to the same time and people as Isaiah 30:8-11 and Ezekiel 22 where people reject his law yet are falsely reassured that all is well. It belongs among readings on false prophets alongside texts supporting the continuing authority of his law and Sabbath. It concerns the time just before and during the still-future battle of the day of the Lord. In this application teachers evade his law by making a gap in it and building a false teaching in its place, then patching it with weak arguments when criticism exposes it. The particular gap is the Sabbath precept commanding worship of the true God through a recurring weekly memorial.