Does your life need a U-turn? – Ezekiel 14, Part 5

Is there any way you might be heading in the wrong direction? Maybe it is obvious and you know it, but you are plowing ahead anyway. Maybe it is not so obvious, and you suspect it, and in your moments of quietness you long for something different, but you don’t really believe it is possible to make a change. We can feel trapped. Is it possible to make a change?

What we have been learning in our five-part series on Ezekiel 14 is God’s message to the people of Israel, that they needed a U-turn, in their hearts’ desires and in their actions. They were headed for deep trouble, and he calls them to repent, which is a theological way of saying, “Turn around! There’s disaster ahead.” Read Ezekiel 14, verses 12-23, and you’ll hear him talk about the disaster ahead.

Did you hear the names of three men: Noah, Daniel and Job.  It seems like God is referring to the famous Noah, who built the ark, and the famous Job, whose story is in a book of the Bible.  The Daniel, though…we’re not sure.  The famous Daniel from the book of Daniel, was likely alive at the same time as Ezekiel and starting his famous career in Babylon.  The point of this section is not so much the identity of these three guys, but how they would react to the situation God describes.  You heard how the pattern is repeated four times over in verses 13-20.  God says if he sends disastrous judgment to a nation because they have been sinful and unfaithful, even if those three men were alive, they could only save themselves.  The rest of the nation would face judgement. 

So God says, this will happen to Jerusalem.  Four dreadful judgements, and it will be awful.  With that in mind, notice verse 22. There will be a remnant that will come to Babylon where Ezekiel and the 10,000 exiles now live.  Here’s where it gets interesting.  Ezekiel and the 10,000 exiles will observe the newbies when they arrive, and they will see how wicked their conduct will be.  What they see will tell Ezekiel and the exiles that God was justified in allowing Jerusalem to be destroyed.  God’s judgment isn’t random, and it isn’t unjust.  It is instead a response to the fact that the people had set up idols in their hearts and committed wickedness.

The focus of the chapter, however, is not God’s judgment, but his invitation to repentance!  God is separated from his people, and he is not at all happy about that.  They chose to leave him, and now he invites them to return to him. 

God is passionate about being in relationship with his people.  So have you allowed anything to capture the desire of your heart?  Ezekiel chapter 14 is a clarion call for us to examine our hearts.  What do you desire? Is God your desire? 

Or better yet, how does your desire for a vibrant relationship with God stack up to your other desires?  For example, I can eagerly desire to be done with my dissertation, to have my dissertation published as a book, for it to make the New York Times best-seller list, etc.  But do I desire God like that? 

Is the God the ruler and focus of your desires? 

This is why we so often talk about inner transformation, so that our desires, which we all have, are being transformed by God, to be in line with his heart.  Do your desires match up with God’s desires?  This is what Paul describes in Galatians 5 as walking in step with the Spirit. 

So often our desires are different from God’s desires.  Maybe a little, maybe a lot.  We live in a world that feeds our desires, and often not because it truly cares about us.  Think about how businesses tap into our desires, making us desire their products.  While they say that their products will change our lives and give us the good life, the reality is that they want our money.  They want our money more than they have our best interest in mind. 

God, however, has our best interest in mind.  When he told the Jews in Ezekiel’s day that they should repent and return to him, it was because that was the best possible situation for them.  They would be far better off if they were in a vibrant relationship with God, then if they continued down the pathway of setting up idols in their hearts and performing wicked deeds.  God is trying to give them a vision for a better reality, for a world where the true good life is reality. 

So I ask, what idols have you set up in your hearts?  More than likely those idols have promised the good life.  But those idols make promises they cannot keep. They are not telling the truth about the good life. Where then is the truth to be found? God’s message to the elders in Ezekiel 14 is the truth.

In Ezekiel 14, God gives us an important reminder to examine our hearts, our desires, and to evaluate if they are aligned with God’s heart and desires.  This can require vulnerable work on our part.  Sometimes hard work.  Sometimes uncomfortable work.  This can require that we include people in our lives who speak honestly to us, asking us the tough questions about our heart’s desires.  Perhaps the best thing for us is to have our lives placed under that kind of examination, to see if we do in fact have godly desire or not.  If we do, then we should do what God asks of the people in Ezekiel 14, repent!  Turn back to him.  Make a U-turn. Restore your relationship with him. Repentance brings renewal.

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A curious case of God making a prophet sin? – Ezekiel 14, Part 4

Long ago I attended a church’s Sunday School class in which the teacher claimed that God is in control of everything, which includes creating and causing human sin, and then punishing humans for the sin. I found that very strange and wrong. I questioned the teacher, but he explained that God is holy and perfect, even in something that doesn’t make sense to us. That didn’t sit well with me. As we continue reading Ezekiel 14, we come to a section that seems to prove that Sunday School teacher correct. So maybe I am wrong. Or is there another way of looking at the passage?

In the previous post we heard God say emphatically in Ezekiel 14, verse 6 to his rebellious people, “Repent!  Turn away from the false gods.  Come back to me!  Let me be your desire.”  God doesn’t want to be separated from his people, and he doesn’t want divorce.  He wants to be in close relationship with his people. So will they return?  He doesn’t tell us yet. Instead he addresses a situation where one of the prophets also needs to hear the message of repentance and return.

In verses 9-10 God sends a clear warning to false prophets. When you read verse 9, it might sound like God is saying, “I will cause the prophet to prophesy, and then I will punish him to the point of death.”  Wait…that doesn’t sound right, does it?  I want to ask God, “Are you saying you’re taking away his free will, and then punishing him for something you made him do?”  If so, that’s not fair, right? That’s actually evil.  Whenever you read Scripture and it doesn’t make sense or it makes God out to be evil, something is amiss.  Could be a cultural difference, a mistranslation, or a misinterpretation.  We know God’s heart is a heart of love.  He is not a God who plays manipulative unfair games. 

So what is going on here?  I think there is an explanation.  Go back to verse 7, which is where God first mentions the prophet.  There we see God describe a situation where people in rebellion go to a prophet.  God says he will intervene and speak straight to the people himself.  He will not use the normal method where the prophet is the intermediary.  Now in verse 9, God continues describing that situation.  What if, God says, the prophet speaks anyway?  It seems that God is describing a prophet who is arrogant or power hungry, to the point where God has already spoken, God has already dealt with the situation, and yet this prophet still speaks.  How bold, right?  It reminds me of seminary classes where students would disagree with the professor and almost start teaching the class.  I would be thinking in my head, “Shut up…these classes are super expensive, and we are not paying all this money to hear you talk.  We want to hear from the expert, the professor.”  In like manner, this arrogant prophet speaks up, after God already spoke!  What more could the prophet add?  Nothing!  God handled the situation quite well.  The prophet should be quiet.  But nope, they can’t keep their mouth shut, and they speak. 

But what about the part in verse 9 where it says God enticed them?  I do not believe that means God has overridden their free will and made them speak.  Instead, it seems best to understand it as the prophet, though they heard God talk and deal with the situation, they are still very eager to add their two cents to the discussion.  You know how you get in a discussion and people are sharing their stories and you think you have the ultimate story to share? You are chomping at the bit to tell your story, because then you are sure you will be the star of the conversation!  Everyone will think you are hilarious or knowledgeable or wise.  I think something like that is going on here in Ezekiel 14, verse 9.  The prophet should have kept his mouth shut.  God handled the situation.  Of course God handled it.  It is God we are talking about here.  Why in the world would the prophet think he has anything at all to add after God has spoken?  Well, some people are know-it-alls.  They can’t shut up.  The temptation to get their voice heard in the discussion is so enticing, they gave in and let it fly.  Rather than becoming the star of the discussion, God says to the prophet, “You’re done.” 

But notice the drastic shift that happens in verse 11.  After God places the guilt on the prophet, the people no longer stray from God, no longer commit sin, and they have returned to God.  They will be his people, and he will be their God. This is a picture of repentance that has led to renewal! 

Hold that thought: Repentance leads to renewal. In the next and final post, we’ll work through the rest of Ezekiel chapter 14, and then we will talk more about what it means: repentance leads to renewal.

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When you might not want God to talk to you – Ezekiel 14, Part 3

How would you describe your relationship with God? Close? Distant?

In Ezekiel 14, verse 7, God describes the status of his relationship with his people.  He says that they separated themselves from him.  They chose to separate themselves from God, and they showed this choice by setting up idols in their hearts and putting the wicked stumbling blocks in front of them. 

God’s indictment is strong.  He says that they are no longer in relationship with him, because they have willfully chosen to be separate from him.  When we talk about separation in marriage relationships, it is serious.  Divorce is often not far away.  That’s why we only rarely advise separation. 

In this case, though, it is not God who has agreed to the separation.  It is the people who have chosen it.  They did it, not God.  They walked away from him. 

Now when these elders show up at Ezekiel’s house asking Ezekiel to give them a message from God, they still have idolatry in their hearts, and they are still doing wicked sinful actions. They have not repented.  They are still in a separated state, still in rebellion, and yet they have the audacity to show up and ask God for help.  They don’t really want to be in relationship with God.  They just want him to do their bidding.  It is very selfish on their part.  Imagine being God in this situation.  In verse 5 he uses a vivid word to describe how he feels.  He says, “You deserted me.” 

So in verse 7 God says, “So now you’ve come to my prophet to inquire of me?  Guess what?  I’m going to answer you myself.”  Woah.  That’s new.  This is direct communication from God.  God talking straight to you sounds intimate and personal, but there is a big problem.  Because the people have not repented, because they are still in rebellion, God’s direct communication to the elders might not be what they are hoping to hear. 

Look at verse 8.  God says “I will set my face against them.”  Yikes.  Remember the Prophetic Stare from chapters 6 and 13?  That’s when God told Ezekiel to set his face against the mountains of Israel, and then against the false prophets.  Now God says, “I will be the one to stare at you.”  The Prophetic Stare was like a judgement, shining the light of God’s truth on a situation.  You do not want God to unleash the Prophetic Stare on you. If Ezekiel stared at you, Ezekiel was just a person.  People might say, “Stop staring at me.  Weirdo.”  But when God stares at you, I think we are safe in believing it would be very different.  Look at how he describes it in verse 8.  God will stare at them and make them an example and a byword.  That’s a way of saying that they will become a proverb, and it is not going to be a proverb about what to do.  It will be a proverb of what not to do.  A cautionary tale.  “Don’t be like those guys who set up idols in their hearts and committed wicked sinful acts.”  Worse, in verse 8 God says, “I will cut you off.” 

It’s almost as if God has said, “So you separated yourself from me?  OK, I divorce you.”  You don’t want God to say, “I divorce you.”  Divorce is always painful and awful.  But when God divorces you, you will experience an aloneness and bleakness and a despair that you cannot imagine.  But you will know one thing, God says.  You will know that he is the Lord.  You will know that the idols you set up in your hearts were false, empty promises.  And you will know that God is the one true God.

This is why God says emphatically in verse 6, “Repent!  Turn away from the false gods.  Come back to me!  Let me be your desire.”  God doesn’t want this separation, and he doesn’t want divorce.  He wants to be in close relationship with his people. 

But will they return? Check back to the next post to learn what happens next.

For now, though, ask yourself: do I need to return to God?

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God’s surprising response to idolatry in the heart – Ezekiel 14, Part 2

Have you had a person in your life who screws you over, hurts you, chooses to barely ever talk to you, and yet when they need money, they are so bold to come ask for your help?  They haven’t had anything like a good relationship with you for a long time, and suddenly they appear out of the blue asking for help.  How does that make you feel?  Used.  In Ezekiel 14, it seems like God is feeling something like that. 

In the previous post, we learned the elders of Ezekiel’s town came to visit him, seeking a prophetic word from God. God, however, says that the elders have set up idols in their hearts and they are committed sinful acts. God calls those sinful acts a stumbling block. This is literally the idea of tripping on something that makes you fall. 

Whereas the first concern God has was for their inner being (idolatry in the heart), now he draws attention to what is outside them.  It could be committing sin with a prostitute.  It could be cheating on someone.  It could be stealing from a store.

If the first problem is their corrupted desire, the second problem is the acting out of that desire.  Both lead to sin.  Both lead to brokenness between God and humanity.

At the end of Ezekiel 14, verse 3 God asks Ezekiel, “Should I let them inquire of me at all?”  It’s as if God is saying, “These guys are so far gone.  They have chosen to set up idols in their hearts, and they are acting in sin! Yet they come to inquire of me?” 

The question is not “How will God respond?”, but “Will he respond at all?”  These elders have come to inquire of the Lord, and yet God has revealed that they have set up idols in their hearts and put wicked stumbling blocks before their faces.  God has every right to say, “No way.  I’m not talking with you.” 

How will God respond? Look at verse 4, and prepare to be surprised.  God says, “When you act like that, and then come to me looking for answers, I’ll answer you in keeping with how you’ve acted.”  What will that look like?  Punishment?  Judgment?  Silent treatment? 

No.  Read verse 5.  Amazingly, God wants to recapture their hearts!  They have all deserted him, and yet there he is still longing for relationship with them, still inviting them.  That’s how he answers them.  That’s what it means to respond to them in keeping with their idolatry.  He says, “Before we can talk, we need to deal with your idolatry and sin!”  God will not interact with them until he has their hearts.  He is saying that there is a serious issue that needs to be dealt with first.  He is not going to say, “Oh hey, guys, thanks for stopping by, how can I help you?” ignoring the fact that they have ventured so far from him in their hearts and in their behavior.  God is saying to them, “Full stop.  Before we can even talk, we need to deal with the idolatry in your heart and your sinful ways.”  This shows how he is merciful, gracious and loving, but also that he is concerned with truth and justice.

But how?  Look at verse 6.  Here’s what they have to do.  One word.  Repent.

Repent is a powerful word.  It’s actually used twice in a row here in verse 6.  Repent and Return.  They are the same word in the original.  The first is an emphatic command.  Repent!  It means to turn around.  It gives the image a person who is going one direction, the wrong direction, and turns around to go back in the right direction. That is the very literal sense.  God is using the word in a theological or spiritual sense, saying to the people, “Come back to me! Return to me!  Restore relationship with me!” 

The second use of the word includes specific details as to what God expects.  Those idols they have set up in their hearts?  They are to turn away from them.  The wicked stumbling block activities?  Turn away from them too!  When we repent, we turn away from anything that keeps us from God, and we restore our relationship with him.

How is your relationship with God? Do you need to repent?

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Do you have idolatry in your heart and not know it? – Ezekiel 14, Part 1

What do you long for?  What do you desire?  A relationship?  Debts paid off?  A big enough savings account so you’re not living paycheck to paycheck?  A new car?  New house?  A different personality?  Different looks?  Good health?  Healing?  Success?  Athletic ability?  Artistic ability?  A raise?  What do you long for? 

We all have desire.  We all have longings.  God created us to be people with desires.  That means that desire is not wrong.  Desire, all by itself, is neutral. Desire and longing is a normal part of what it means to be a human.

Desire can be good.  It can drive us to achieve, to right what is wrong, to discover, to lead, to grow.  But desire can also be bad.  In fact nearly every bad thing that people do is rooted in evil desire, whether the tiniest white lie or the most awful crime. 

This week we continue our study through Ezekiel with a five-part series on Ezekiel chapter 14.  There we will meet people who have some longings, some desires. 

In verse 1 we read that the elders visit Ezekiel.  This is the second time the elders have had an audience with Ezekiel.  The first was in chapter 8, when Ezekiel had a grand vision in which God transported him to Jerusalem.  Now they’re back.  It seems the elders identified Ezekiel as a prophet, and they would visit him likely to hear a word from the Lord.  So even though Ezekiel was a prophet with a unique method of prophesying, using street skits, and he likely wasn’t taken seriously by many people, there must have been at least some understanding or agreement among the elders that Ezekiel was a true prophet of God.  They show up at Ezekiel’s house to ask the prophet to inquire of God. What will God say to the elders?

We read in verses 2-3 that God says these men have two major problems.  First, they have set up idols in their hearts, and second, they have put wicked stumbling blocks before their faces.  What does God mean?

We’re going to spend most of our time talking about that first one: they set up idols in their hearts.  We’ve heard a lot about idolatry so far in the book of Ezekiel.  There were idols in the high places, up in the mountains, of Israel.  There were idols in the temple in Jerusalem.  Idols were figurines made of stone, wood or metal.  What, then, is an idol in the heart?  We’re not talking about putting a little idol figurine inside a person’s blood pumper.  No heart surgery going on here.  The word “heart” used here refers to a person’s inner being.  This is source of our emotion and feeling.  It is similar to how we use the concept of mind or will. 

God is saying that idolatry has taken root in their inner being. They are longing after something, and that something is not God.  It is an idol, a false god, an idea.  In the ancient world, the gods were conceived to be the source of protection, healing, fertility, wealth, and blessing.  You would pay tribute to the gods, make sacrifices to gods, giving them money and animals and grain, all to earn their favor, believing that doing so would result in blessing.  Do your crops need rain? Make a sacrifice to the gods.  Are you childless?  Make a sacrifice.  Is your enemy attacking you? Make a sacrifice.  Pagan gods were seen as having power, and people would grow within their hearts a desire to acquire that power. 

In this sense, idolatry of the heart was very much like what we think of as lust.  When we lust, we desire that which is not ours.  That thing, whether it is another person, a possession, a version of ourselves, or a new job, if we let it, can become like an idol, a god we worship.  Have you had that happen to you?  If it’s a person, maybe you daydream about what it would be like to be with them.  If it’s a house or car or vacation, you find yourself scrolling at pictures online thinking about how it will make your life so much better. 

It is also very much like greed. It’s the belief that money is what will take care of us.  The right training or education will lead to the right job which will lead to the right insurance and salary which will lead to the right possessions and home and investments and retirement and travel, and put it all together and we call it the good life. 

At the center is desire.  It is a craving for the new thing, the next thing, a better thing.  So many things in our world promise us this good life.  It could be a politician, it could be a preacher.  If we believe them, we can grow idolatry in our hearts.  It is a seeking for answers amidst the uncertainty of life, and believing those answers are found in nearly anywhere else but God.  That is idolatry in the heart.

Idolatry in the heart is so dangerous because of where it is located, the center of our being, the foundation of our inner life. 

I had poison ivy twice this summer.  I get it so easy, and it seems to spread all over me.  Both times I had to get prednisone to heal from the poison, otherwise it takes forever for it to clear up, and it is so itchy.  But if prednisone wasn’t available, and I had to just deal with it, letting it run its course, I would be okay.  Why?  It’s on the outside.  My vital organs are fine.  But if I got heart disease, or if I had blockages in my blood vessels, or cancer, it would be a different story. Those things don’t just run their course.  You have to take drastic action, or they will kill you because those diseases attack the organs that preserve your life. The principle is the same for our spiritual heart.  When we have set up idols in our hearts, it is a critical condition, because it is affecting the deepest part our lives.  We cannot set up idols in our hearts and be okay, with God, with others or with our world.  Our relationship with everything around us will be impacted negatively.  If we do not take drastic action to deal with the idolatry in our hearts, we will die spiritually. 

Check back to the next post, and see what action takes place next and the surprising source of that action.

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Should we eliminate desire in our lives? – Ezekiel 14, Preview

Years ago, I remember listening to a new song thinking, “I don’t think I should be listening to this.  It doesn’t seem appropriate…but I’m not sure.”  Why was I concerned?  Because the song touched on themes that seemed to be getting really close to a line I knew I shouldn’t cross. I felt uncomfortable.  At the time I was in middle school, and in the mind of a middle schooler, I wondered if I should turn the song off, but I was intrigued.

The song, by my favorite band, Irish rockers, U2, is called “Desire.”  Desire is a subject that we evangelicals are very cautious about.  And rightly so!  Evil desire, James writes, can lead to sin.  U2’s song is not shy in talking about many kinds of desire.  Now years later, I understand that the song is not trying to entice a person’s desire to become sin.  Instead, the song is a social commentary on how easily we succumb to evil desire.  In that sense, it is a courageous song, a truthful song, and I respect U2 for bringing up a topic we need to talk about. 

I encourage you to listen to the song.  You can watch the music video here.  Even if rock music isn’t your style, you’re probably very familiar with the themes the song covers. Here’s a sampling of the lyrics that ooze with desire: “Bright lights and the big city.”  “Needle and spoon.”  “Shotgun.”  “Everybody’s got one.”  “The dollars…my protection.”  “Promise in the year of election.”  And my favorite, “a preacher stealin’ hearts at a traveling show for love or money, money, money.”

Do you see how lines from the song describe desire?  “Bright lights and the big city” point to a longing for fame and opportunity.  “Needle and spoon” is a drug reference, evoking the image of a person eager to ease the pain of life under the influence of mind-bending chemicals.  “Shotgun” speaks to our national obsession with guns and military power.  “Everybody’s got one” is about peer pressure, the temptation to be like others and to be liked by others.  “The dollars” is perhaps the most obvious, as we crave money to be our protection.  “Promise in the year of election” should be no surprise, as we can place our hopes in a particular politician who guarantees they will right the perceived wrongs of the previous politician.  Finally, the “preacher stealing hearts” speaks to the sway a pastor or compelling preacher can have, but deep down they are motivated by a desire for financial gain.

Do any of those descriptions of desire speak to you?  Are you familiar with any them in your life?  Maybe you’ve had those desires from time to time, and maybe you’ve even fallen prey to them.  So what do we do with desire?  Is Buddhism right when it teaches that we should eliminate all desire from our lives? 

As we continue to study Ezekiel, in chapter 14 we’ll discover that God has something important to say about desire.  Read it ahead of time and see what you think, then next week we’ll discuss it.

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Examples of folk theology and how to avoid it – Ezekiel 13, Part 5

The snow was falling heavy, covering the road. A young man in my church was driving in the middle of the storm, lost control of his car, and it spun into a snowbank along the roadside. The car stopped with a thud. Breathing heavy, heart pounding, his hands tightly gripped the steering wheel. He looked around the interior of his car, and nothing seemed wrong…yet.  No air bags deployed. He opened the door, and walked into the blinding storm. Walking around the sides of the car that were not up against snow, it seemed like the car was fine. No damage. He got back inside, and found to his surprise that by turning the wheel, driving slowly back and forth, he was able to extract his vehicle and continue on his way.  Would you be surprised to read that he was very happy? Know what he credited his safety to?  An angel figurine he placed on his dashboard.  A piece of plastic.  

This week in our study of Ezekiel 13, we’ve been learning how false prophets were deceived themselves, and then deceived others, by practicing folk theology. What is folk theology?

The young man whose car drifted off the road and attributed his safety to an angel figurine was practicing folk theology.  The Bible says nothing about creating angel figurines that we should display in various places for protection.  What do you think about that? Is it just silly, maybe an over-reaction on my part, as if angel figurines are no big deal?  Perhaps.  But I don’t think so.  It seems to me we would do well to remove those kinds of charms or talismans from our lives, whether physical or ideas, so that we can focus on trust in God. Remember how God removed the charms from the false prophets in Ezekiel 13? Read about it in the previous post here.

There are plenty of other examples of folk theology I’ve encountered over the years. Another person once told me that they place an open Bible in their home because they heard it would ward off evil spirits.  Is it wrong to display an open Bible in your house?  No.  I sure hope not, because we have one in the church sanctuary!  But does the Bible say anything about placing open Bibles out for protection?  No.  Not a word.  Then why do we have an open Bible in our sanctuary? We place it on our platform as a symbol, declaring that we hold in high regard the word of God.

Then there was the time my Amish neighbors hired a “water guy.” This man held a wrench, walked around their property, and when the wrench shook, he said that’s where they should dig for a new well.  That’s called divination.  A few days later, I was over at their house buying eggs, and they asked me what I thought. I said I believed it was divination, and God forbids us to participate in that practice.

Finally, I was once asked about mediums who claim to be able to contact the deceased.  A person in our church family had a relative that paid a medium who, in a seance, had allegedly helped them contact a dead family. The person from my church family very much missed a relative of their own who had passed away, and felt a desire to consult a medium as well. I urged them to have nothing to do with a medium. At best a medium is simply lying, and at worst, they could be connecting a person to the demonic realm. It is quite painful and difficult to mourn the loss of a loved one, but we are to trust in God as our sustenance and avoid any occult practices.

All of these are examples of folk theology, sometimes blended with the occult.  There appears to be truth in them, but it is a biblically unexamined truth, and turns out to be no truth at all.  The net result of these kinds of beliefs is that they end up deceiving us and turning us away from the truth.  These false beliefs don’t help us to get to know God; they turn us away from God.

What we should do is submit our ideas and beliefs to the truth of the word of God.  Often, though, people hold tightly to folk theology: “Don’t try to tell me that the angel figurine on my car dashboard didn’t protect me!” 

What is going on there?  What is this hardness of heart?

There can be within us a pride that equates “My mind is made up,” with faith in God.  As if we are only faithful to God if hold so tightly to something that we refuse to allow any examination of it.  That is perhaps the root sin of folk theology. Pride. That is precisely why people can think they certainly know God but end up not knowing him at all. 

The people in Ezekiel’s day, the false prophets, were Jews, children of God, and yet look at them making up false prophecies and practicing the dark arts.  They couldn’t have been further from God! 

So I encourage you to do the tough work of paying attention to your heart and mind.  Do not assume that you know God and his ways and that you are believing and living like he wants you to.  Our starting place should one of humility and teachability, with an eagerness to place our beliefs under examination.  Has folk theology crept into your heart and mind? 

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Can Christians have false beliefs about God? – Ezekiel 13, Part 4

Is it possible in some way you might have a false belief about God? Maybe even in a very small way? I would like to suggest that not only is it possible for anyone, but that we would be wise to consider how it might be possible for us. As we saw in the previous post, God asks Ezekiel to set his face against, or to unleash the Prophetic Stare against, some women who were false prophets.

Almost as if to answer the question those women might ask, “What are you doing?  Why are you staring at me?”, in Ezekiel chapter 13 verse 17, God tells Ezekiel not only to stare, but to prophesy, to tell the truth. In verses 17b-23, through the words of the prophecy, God explains why Ezekiel is staring at those women.  Pause reading this post and study Ezekiel 12, verses 17b-23.

How about that?  The women are practicing witchcraft, the dark arts.  God describes two specific examples: they sew magic charms which they wear on their wrists, and they make veils of various lengths for their heads.  We don’t know precisely what these talismans were for or how they worked.  Clearly they go against God’s desires, and they deceived the people.  God says they ensnared the people, meaning that the black magic purposefully turned the people away from God and toward what is false.

Interestingly, as we read in verse 19 when God mentions the barley and bread, it seems the false prophets, these women, were profiting a bit off their magic.  But what they gained was so little.  Just a few handfuls of barley, just scraps of bread. What was the human cost of that meager financial gain?  Not only the deception of God’s people, but also the death of people who should have lived and the preservation of people who should have died!  God is astounded and angry by the callousness of the false prophets when he points out the serious consequences of their lies. 

God says that just as Ezekiel is to set his face against them, which is a sign that God is against them, God himself will tear off the charms and the veils.  He will set his people free, he will save them!  God is profoundly upset at the prophets would who deceive his people, and thus God will take drastic action to save his people.  Why?  First, because the people are enslaved by the false prophets and their folk theology.  Second, as we read in verse 21, that God will do this because then they will know that he is the Lord! 

God goes on to put the false prophets in their place, saying that he is shutting them down.  In verse 23 he repeats himself: he will save his people, and they will know that he is the Lord.  God doesn’t want his people to be deceived.  There are many things that can lead his people astray.  There are other attractive options out there.  God knows that there are forces and people who want to deceive us and lead us astray.  So God shines the light of truth on them, revealing them to be what they truly are: false deceivers who do not care about people.  They are only in it for their own gain.  So they try to turn people’s hearts and minds away from the one true God. 

God strongly reacts against that, saying “No, I will save my people, so that they will know that I am God.”  I love that once again we see God’s heart to be known. 

So we would do well to ask if there are any ways that we are being drawn away from God, any ways that we might not know God as he truly is. Let’s try to identify false beliefs so that we can know God for real.  Are there false beliefs in our Christian subculture?

Folk theology can include ideas that are commonly held as Christian, but they are not in line with biblical teaching.  The net result is that, like the witchcraft of Ezekiel’s day, while seemingly spiritual and enticing, folk theology actually keeps us from knowing God.  Folk theology results in us believing false things about God, and that means we are in relationship with a version of God that is not actually true.  We, then, need to follow God’s example in Ezekiel’s day, when he removed the charms and veils, and we rid ourselves of any false beliefs and practices. 

In the next post, I’ll give some examples of folk theology that I’ve encountered over the years.

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Do you say, “Things are fine,” when they are not fine? – Ezekiel 13, Part 3

My wife and I have a running joke in our marriage.  When it comes to a concern about our kids, I will often say, “Don’t worry, they’ll be fine.”  When it comes to a concern about money, though, I can feel like things are never fine.  Michelle will worry about the kids, however, and when it comes to money she’ll say, “Don’t worry, it will be fine.” Does that resonate with you? How do you resolve the difference of opinion?

As we continue reading Ezekiel 13, God has a difference of opinion with so-called prophets. He is viewing a situation very differently from them, and he is deeply concerned.

In the previous post, we read how God expressed his concerned, calling out the prophets. Now as we read in verses 10-16, God is still not done describing the false prophets, and this time he likens them to a flimsy wall.  God says that those people are like a wall that looks nice and shiny and strong on the outside, but behind all that luster is a flimsy foundation.  It is a weak wall, and when a storm comes, the rain, hail, and wind will knock down the wall, taking the false prophets with it.  What will the result be?  Then the people will see that the so-called prophets were false.  In verse 14, we read that then the people will know that God is God. 

Notice the content of false message of the false prophets.  It’s there in verses 10 and 16.  The prophets declared that there would be peace, but God says, “There is no peace.”  In other words, the prophets created a false sense of security.  The wall looked good on the outside, but it did not have strength, a strong foundation, or fortifications.  What the prophets needed was to see the truth, that things were in bad shape, that the people were sinning, in rebellion, allowing themselves to lust after pagan idols, live greedy lives and engage in injustice, rather than pursue the ways of God.  A false prophet, instead, said, “Things are fine. There will be peace.”

What is so hard to see is the truth about a situation. If something is not fine, we need to be able to identify it and say, “That’s not good.”  Often, we can identify it, but we might not have the courage to call it out.  We might think, “That’s not fine,” but the words out of our mouths are, “It’s fine,” because we don’t want to offend someone or we don’t want to be a burden. 

God is saying that the false prophets, because they were not in relationship with him, either did not speak the truth, or they actively sought to avoid the truth, or to deceive the people with lies.  This was a grave wickedness on their part.  Those false prophets should not have been prophesying peace, they should have been prophesying repentance. 

So God tells Ezekiel to do something that we haven’t seen Ezekiel do since chapter 6, the Prophetic Stare.  Read the first part of verse 17.

Remember the Prophetic Stare?  In verse 17, we read about the Prophetic Stare when God says Ezekiel is to set his face against the daughters who prophesy out of their own imagination.  The Prophetic Stare is not a superpower.  In fact, nothing physical occurs when Ezekiel stares.  Instead, the stare is like the blazing light of God’s truth, shining in the darkness, showing what is actually happening. 

Previously he used the Prophetic Stare on the mountains of Israel, because the people were committing idolatry and pagan ritual worship at religious sites up in the mountains.  Now God wants Ezekiel to use the Stare against women who were false prophets, which he has been describing all along in this chapter.  We read in chapter 13, verse 17 that these women prophesy out of their own imagination, they are making up prophecies. 

I love to imagine what Ezekiel’s various prophetic skits looked like. When he used the Stare, it seems he would literally just stare, setting his face against whatever God asked him to stare at.  Staring contests can get intense, right?  Have you ever tried to see who can look at another person’s eyes the longest without looking away?  It can get emotional. 

Imagine if the women that Ezekiel is to set his face against are right there in Babylon with him?  He walks up to them, and just stares at them, locking eyes, and if they don’t like it, and they turn away, he still stares at them.  Maybe they try to walk away, and he follows them closely, saying nothing, just staring.  How long would you allow a person to come up to you and just stare at you?  It wouldn’t take long until you would say, “Uh…Can I help you?”  Or maybe your personality would be a bit more like, “What are you doing??? Why are you staring at me?  Go away!!! Creep!”  In our culture, you might call 911!

Almost as if to answer the question, “What are you doing?  Why are you staring at me?”, God tells Ezekiel not only to stare, but to explain, to prophesy, to tell the truth. What truth? Check back to the next post to find out.

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Who is the authority in a world where we don’t know who to trust? – Ezekiel 13, Part 2

Do you watch the news or read articles online and wonder, “Who is right? Who can I trust?” If you’re like me, you’ve probably had conversations about Covid and treatment options, and your conversation partners were adamant about their views. But as you listened to them promoting one view or the other, you thought to yourself, “How can they be so sure?” The same goes for the recent US military withdrawal from Afghanistan. Good decision or bad decision? It depends who you talk to. It seems to me that what we might call a basic common trust has been eroded to the point of near extinction in our society. Who is our authority, when we feel like we can’t trust anyone? Keep reading, as I will try to make the case that there is an answer in the ancient prophetic book of Ezekie.

In this five-part blog series on Ezekiel 13, which started here, we are learning about prophets who promoted ideas they made up. Normally a prophet hears from God, and then conveys that message from God to other people. These other prophets in Ezekiel 13 were apparently not concerned about God’s word. Instead they said whatever they wanted to say.  How do you think God feels about that?

In verse 3, God says, “Woe to them.”  A woe is a powerful word that means, “May destructive judgment come upon you!”  Imagine God saying that to you.  It is game over when you hear that.  You don’t ever want to hear God say, “Woe to you.” 

Why does he declare this woe oracle against these false prophets?  Notice how he describes them in verse 3 and following. First, he says they are foolish, and the specific word here is for a wicked kind of foolishness.  Next, he says they follow their own spirit and have seen nothing.  That means that even though they self-identify as prophets, they are not hearing from God.  They are not following God’s Spirit.  They are following their own spirit.  Their authority rests in themselves.  That is very dangerous. 

Have you ever been in a conversation in which you ask a person, “Why do you believe _________?” They respond, “Because it seems right to me.”  When they answer like that, they reveal that they have become their own authority.  Do we get to be our own authority?  Do we get to declare what is right and wrong?  Not Christians.  As Christians we follow not our own spirit; we follow the Spirit of God. The false prophets in Ezekiel’s day were acting authoritative, but their authority was only in their minds.  

Next in verse 4, God likens the false to jackals among ruins, animals which would have been scavenging for the dead.  Basically God is saying the false prophets are roadkill eaters, which is disgusting in and of itself, but doubly so for Jews, as dead flesh was considered ritually unclean.  

These so-called prophets are foolish, wicked, not following the Spirit, and they are unclean.  But God isn’t done describing them.

In verse 5 God evokes the image of the wall around the city of Jerusalem, and it needs repair.  God isn’t saying that these prophets are supposed to be stone masons.  God is speaking symbolically.  A prophet is one who repairs what is broken spiritually.  Just as a wall was designed to stand firm in the day of a military battle, God wanted his prophets to help his people to be spiritually strong.  How would they do this?  Just like a stone mason says, “There is a break in the wall, and it needs to be fixed,” the prophet says, “There is sin in your life, and you need to repent.” 

But in verse 6, instead of preparing the people spiritually, instead of pointing out their sin, God says that the false prophets have visions that are false and divinations that are lies.  What is so evil about the prophets and their false visions and divinations is that the prophets claim they are from God.  We’re talking about a situation that is more than error or mistake. The prophets meant to deceive, to mislead God’s people.

God says in verses 6-7, “Don’t believe them when they say, ‘The Lord declares’.  I have no part of their visions.  I have not spoken to them.”  In response to the false prophets and their folk theology, God says he is going to take action.  We read about his response in verses 8-16.

God bluntly says in verses 8-9, “I am against you.  You’re not on the list.  You’re out.  You’re done.”  And at the end of verse 9, God says what has become one of the most important phrases we have seen repeated over and over in the book: “Then you will know that I am the Lord.”  That’s his heart.  God wants to be known.  The false prophets, though they claimed to know him and speak for him, did not know him, and did not hear from him. 

That is a quandary.  It’s nearly identical to Matthew 7:21-23 when people say to Jesus, “Lord, Lord” as if they knew him, but he says that only those who do the will of his father will enter the Kingdom.  As if to assure Jesus that they have done the will of his father, the people respond, “We drove out demons in your name, we performed miracles.  We prophesied!”  His response?  “Depart from me, I never knew you.”  It is a harsh reality to assume that you are in relationship with God, only to be shocked when he says to you, “Relationship?  What relationship?”  Could that be said of us?  It could be said of these false prophets. 

Is there hope? Check back to the next post!

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