Ezekiel 22:28, commentary and pictures

Her prophets cover wrongdoing with weak assurances of peace in time of danger, claiming divine authority for messages of vanity and lies that God never spoke. Like mortar that cannot harden or bind, their teaching cannot repair the breach or withstand judgment, but will fall under God's anger like a daubed wall in storm and hail. In Ezekiel the breach is the breaking of God's law by priests who profaned His holy things and hid their eyes from His Sabbaths, leaving the land unclean in the day of indignation when no man stood in the gap. That breach is above all the tearing away of the Sabbath from the heart of the law, and the slight wall built in it is Sunday sacredness set in its place without divine command, which ministers daub by declaring it holy by God's authority. Though spoken to the Jews, the warning belongs to the last days, when professed believers trample God's holy day and invent excuses to evade its claims, and their refuge of perverted word and tradition cannot protect them when sudden destruction comes.

Words and Imagery

Untempered mortar is false prophecy that sees vanity and divines lies, saying Thus saith the Lord God when the Lord has not spoken and claiming divine authority for what God never spoke. It offers empty, deceptive assurances and visions, presenting lies as divine messages and speaking in the name of God what He never spoke. This includes saying God commanded a thing when God has not spoken it, and making the commandment of God of none effect by such claims, as when the first day of the week is asserted to be the Christian Sabbath, the day of rest and worship, though nowhere has God blessed and hallowed the first day as He did the seventh and there is no divine command for Sunday in either Testament. Such teaching assumes the very thing that needs proof, and great men are not always wise or honest in making such claims, so people need willingness to look for themselves to see what God really has spoken. In this judgment message the false teaching accompanies leaders' rejection of God's law and profaning of holy things, covering priests who have violated God's law, profaned holy things, put no difference between holy and profane and between unclean and clean, and hid their eyes from His Sabbaths, and it is spread over a land not cleansed nor rained upon in the day of indignation, the day of the Lord's coming.

The daubing covers over the people's wrongdoing with false assurances instead of exposing it. The corrupt prophets claim to see visions and speak for God while pronouncing words God had not spoken, and their false teaching helps conceal wrongdoing rather than bring it to light.

As mortar, the false teaching is weak and defective, like covering a defective wall with material that cannot harden or bind, cannot hold together or withstand judgment, and cannot keep the wall from falling. It is a weak, misleading defense that covers error and corruption, including confused claims about the Sabbath that conceal God's Sabbaths and profane Him, and fraudulent arguments and excuses used to defend Sabbath breaking. It cannot repair the breach in God's truth, and only the restoration of His downtrodden truth can do so, while religious leaders who violate God's law and profane holy things, hide their eyes from God's Sabbaths, and fail to distinguish holy from profane or clean from unclean falsely claim divine authority while covering error with teachings that cannot stand. The collapse of the wall they build will overtake those who neglect their duty to warn.

All authority of the ministry is conditioned on teaching the Word of God, so any ministry that does not teach the Word has no authority because it has no Word, but only untempered mortar.

The cry of the false prophet has ever been peace and assurance in time of danger. They claim to speak for God and promise peace though God has not spoken, healing the breach slightly and lulling the people into deeper slumber with peace, peace when there is no peace, so they will not hearken to warning. In this way their false teaching hides the breach made in God's law by violating the Sabbath and fails to prepare the people to stand in the battle in the day of the Lord, while professed people of God walk in violation of His precepts in outward act and in thought and motive and do not know that sudden destruction will come upon them. The same false peace smooths over sin and assures people of safety despite their conduct.

Setting in Ezekiel

The verse belongs to a judgment message against priests who violated God's law and profaned His holy things, putting no difference between holy and profane and between unclean and clean, and hiding their eyes from His Sabbaths so that He is profaned among them. That false prophecy covered their wrongdoing, offering empty visions and lies while claiming the Lord had spoken when He had not, and making His law void through tradition. Though addressed to the Jews, the warning also applies when judgment is delayed, for neglect of duty will surely bring punishment.

It is spread over a land not cleansed nor rained upon in the day of indignation, the day of the Lord's coming. At that time God sought for a man to make up the hedge and stand in the gap before Him for the land that He should not destroy it, but found none, because they had 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.

The chapter records the sins that led to Israel's dispersion, identifying idolatry together with Sabbath desecration as bringing the people into trouble. The priests were carried away by pagan apostasy to violate God's law and profane His Sabbath day, and sun-worship brought Sunday as its worship day in place of the Sabbath of Jehovah. In its original setting this included false prophets saying Nebuchadnezzar would not come against Jerusalem.

Like a wall daubed with untempered mortar, the false assurance of peace shall fall under an overflowing shower and great hailstones and stormy wind. When the overflowing shower falls in God's anger and hail sweeps away the refuge of lies, the daubing will fail to sustain the wall. Its foundation of sand will bring ruin on the wall and on those who sheltered themselves by it.

Sabbath Breach Defended

The breach or gap is the breach torn in God's law, in the heart of His holy law, by violating and removing the Lord's Sabbath and trampling upon His holy day. False teachers cover that breach in God's law with false assurances, claiming that God has spoken when He has not, and their deceptive covering hides the wrongdoing instead of exposing it. Their false teaching fails to restore the Sabbath and fails to prepare God's people to stand in the battle in the day of the Lord. The battle of that day is now on, with thousands refusing to stand in the gap and trampling God's holy day while a few turn their feet from trampling the Sabbath, and brave men are called to stand in that gap like soldiers holding a broken fortification until the Master comes with reinforcements.

The papacy built a slight wall in that breach, and Sunday sacredness is that papal creation built by assuming God's prerogative to annul the Sabbath commandment He enacted and create a new day to take its place. It was made without scriptural reason, as a sign of infallibility and badge of authority and divine right. The daubing is ministers' efforts to sustain Sundaykeeping and to set Sunday in place of the seventh-day Sabbath, claiming God commanded it when He has not spoken. There is no divine command for Sunday in either Testament, so the defense assumes the very thing that needs proof.

The many reasons urged for Sunday are contradictory, fraudulent arguments and excuses used to defend Sabbath breaking and to hold up that tottering wall of human creation. They include misapplied texts and twisted claims that the first day is the Christian Sabbath and day of rest and worship, and that the old Sabbath was made for the Jews. Such teaching falsely claims divine authority for human assertions, makes the commandment of God of none effect, and does not hold together or withstand judgment, just as untempered mortar cannot harden or bind the wall. It may hold up the wall in the summer time of the world's history, but when the overflowing shower falls in God's anger and hail sweeps away the refuge of lies, the untempered mortar will fail to sustain the wall, and its foundation of sand will bring ruin on the wall and on those sheltered by it.

The prophets oppose Sabbath reform by misleading the people with false visions and lies while claiming that God has spoken when He has not. Their false assurances conceal the truth, excuse disobedience to God, conceal God's Sabbaths and profane Him, hide their eyes from His Sabbaths, and belong to the same class that encourages setting aside the fourth commandment. They falsely declare a day holy by God's authority when Scripture gives no such declaration for the first day, while rejecting the seventh day that God blessed and hallowed and identifies as holy. Her prophets are to blame for trampling the sign and seal of God's law under foot. That warning applies to the triumph of sun worship and the trampling of the Sabbath, Jehovah's memorial of creation and sign of His authority, for pagan apostasy and sun-worship brought Sunday as its worship day in place of the Sabbath of Jehovah.

Other False Teachings Exposed

The verse condemns teachings about eternal misery that are presented as coming from Scripture when they are not supported by the Bible, exposing prophets who present deceptive visions and lies as divine messages while falsely claiming to speak for God. It applies to professed Christian ministers who defend transgression of God's law and teach that it may be changed or set aside, making it void through tradition while ignoring the basis of God's government, His holy law. These teachers call the law Jewish and treat it with contempt, abolishing in one breath what Christ lived and died to honor and magnify while in the next demanding that human governments enact their amended code into civil law. By making God like themselves they bring law and religion and civil government into contempt, sowing the wind from pulpit and lobby and platform and press to reap the whirlwind in oncoming wars of anarchy, yet in these evil times God calls all, especially the poor, to trust in Him for justice at the coming of the Lord. Their false teaching accompanied rejection of God's law and profaning of holy things, including hiding their eyes from the Sabbaths, and they offer worthless reassurance and speak lies as though the Lord had spoken when He had not.

It is fulfilled by first-day advocates who misapply plain texts of Scripture and twist Scripture to teach that the first day is the Christian Sabbath and that the old Sabbath was made for the Jews, with other Sunday doctrines, claiming divine authority for teachings God never gave as one of man's inventions. It depicts daubing disobedience with untempered mortar by religious teachers who hide their eyes from God's Sabbaths and put no difference between the holy and profane, excusing questioning of God's commands and Christ's example. Faith does not question God's commands but holds Has God said sufficient, while Eve with the forbidden fruit, Saul with disobedience to God's commands, Naaman with dipping in Jordan, and Nadab and Abihu with strange fire all acted on the same spirit of deciding that obedience made little difference.

It portrays ministers who join ungodly societies and assure people of safety despite their conduct as offering false peace and smoothing over sin while falsely claiming God's authority for reassuring messages God has not spoken. It pictures leaders covering corruption with a weak, misleading defense that cannot keep the wall from falling, applied to religious teachers who neglect their duty to warn people with visions and messages they claim come from God, so that the collapse of the wall they build will overtake them. It applies to religious leaders who support human institutions as though they were commanded by God, falsely claiming divine authority for their own messages and confusing the sacred with the profane.

Last-Days Fulfillment and Warning

Though spoken to the Jews, the warning reaches to the last days, when the professed people of God walk in violation of His precepts in outward act and in thought and motive. People may neglect duty while judgment is delayed, but punishment will surely come. In those days their prophets and ministers deal falsely and daub with untempered mortar by seeing vanity and divining lies, healing the breach slightly and lulling them into deeper slumber with the cry of peace, peace when there is no peace. They claim Thus saith the Lord when the Lord has not spoken, so that the people will not hearken to God's warning, word and law and do not know that sudden destruction will come upon them.

Her priests have violated God's law and profaned His holy things and have hid their eyes from His Sabbaths so that He is profaned among them, and God sought for a man to make up the hedge and stand in the gap for the land that He should not destroy it but found none. The gap is the breach torn in the heart of God's holy law by trampling upon His holy day, and they have not gone up into the gaps nor made up the hedge to stand in the battle in the day of the Lord. That battle is now on: thousands refuse to stand in the gap and trample God's holy day, while a few heed the call and turn their feet away from trampling the Sabbath. Brave men are called to stand in that gap like soldiers holding a broken fortification until the Master comes with reinforcements.

The wall is Sundaykeeping built over the breach made by disregarding the Sabbath commandment, and the mortar is false teaching that tries to make this error appear sound. Such prophets belong to the same class that hides its eyes from God's Sabbaths, proclaiming lies and claiming God has spoken when He has not. Their teaching will not protect in the day of God's wrath, for the prophecy applies to the generation living when the plagues are poured out, upon whom sudden destruction will come.

The prophecy foretells and is fulfilled in present efforts to evade the Sabbath's claims and avoid obeying God. People blinded by business interests or concern for standing in community, church, or state invent excuses to avoid obedience. It is fulfilled in religious teachers who declare a day holy by God's authority when Scripture gives no such declaration for it, while rejecting the seventh day that God identifies as holy. Their covering of falsehood with an unreliable disguise is the daubing with untempered mortar, presenting their own visions and lies as divine messages.

Babylon has only a slight wall plastered with untempered mortar with which to withstand the mighty shocks of God's truth. The wall is her perverted word and unholy tradition, the corrupted creeds of tradition opposed to the pure wine of Christ's gospel. It is used to uphold the Sunday sabbath as a counterfeit coin in the kingdom of grace against the Sabbath of the Lord. When the true basis of life through Christ is preached, that wall ever trembles before the mighty blows of the word and cannot stand. God condemns men who teach what is not true, who prophesy lies in His name, and who make the people trust in a lie. Such teachers may themselves be deceived, but the lies they tell still destroy the souls that believe them.