Idols in the heart
14
📚Then some of the elders of Israel came to me, and sat in front of me. 14:1 These elders recognized Ezekiel as a prophet and came to enquire what God had to say through him.⚜
2 📚And the word of the LORD came to me, saying, 3 📚“Son of man, these men have set up their idols in their heart, and put the stumbling block of their wickedness before their face. Should I be consulted by them at all?
14:3 They did not receive the kind of message they expected. They were not fit to enquire of God and were plainly told so. They were breaking God’s first commandment and were worthy of death (Ex 20:3-5; Deut 13:6-18). Did they vainly imagine that God would give them His blessing? Two sins are mentioned here. Idols in the heart are mentioned three times (vs 3,4,7). Idolatry in the heart is the source of all kinds of idolatry and is just as sinful and dangerous as the worship of outward idols. Many a person who is religious and seemingly pious may have something in his heart which replaces the true God and to which he gives his affections and service. Compare Col 3:5. So we are told in God’s Word to guard our hearts above all things (Prov 4:23).⚜
4 📚Therefore speak to them, and tell them, Thus says the Lord God: When anyone of the house of Israel sets up his idols in his heart, and puts the stumbling block of his iniquity before his face, and comes to the prophet, I, the LORD, will answer the one who comes, in accordance with his many idols,
14:4 God will give such people what they deserve – v 8.⚜
5 📚so that I may take hold of the house of Israel in their own heart, because they are all estranged from me through their idols.
14:5 Even in severe judgments God has good purposes.⚜
6 📚“Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord God: Repent, and turn away from your idols, and turn away your faces from all your abominations.
7 📚“When anyone of the house of Israel, or of the foreigners who have settled in Israel, separates himself from me, and sets up his idols in his heart, and puts the stumbling block of his iniquity before his face, and comes to a prophet to consult him concerning me, I, the LORD, will answer him by myself, 8 📚and I will set my face against that man, and will make him a sign and a proverb, and I will cut him off from among my people; and you will know that I am the LORD.
9 📚“And if a prophet is induced to speak a thing, I, the LORD have induced that prophet, and I will stretch out my hand against him and destroy him from among my people Israel.
14:9 Here is a truth (punishment, judgment from God) that should make us tremble. If people insist on hearing lies and false doctrine, in judgment God will see to it that they get them. Then He will punish both the prophet who spoke them and the people who loved to hear them (Deut 13:1-5; 1 Kings 22:1-28; 2 Thess 2:9-12).⚜
10 📚And they will bear the punishment for their wickedness. The punishment of the prophet will be the same as the punishment of the one who seeks him out,
14:10 They who refuse God’s truth and love to hear lies (Jer 5:30-31) and prophets who tell them what they want to hear are all following their fallen sinful natures.⚜
11 📚so that the house of Israel may no longer go astray from me, or be polluted any more with all their transgressions, but that they may be my people, and I may be their God, says the Lord God”.
14:11 Verse 5.⚜
No way of escape
12 The word of the LORD came again to me, saying, 13 📚“Son of man, when the land sins against me by unfaithfulness, then I will stretch out my hand on it, and will break the staff of its bread and send famine on it, and cut off man and beast from it. 14 📚Even if these three men, Noah, Daniel 📖, and Job, were in it, they would rescue only their own souls by their righteousness, says the Lord God.
14:13-14 God here means Jerusalem and Judah in particular. It seems some of the exiles thought that as long as there were righteous men such as Jeremiah and Ezekiel to pray for the people God would not destroy Jerusalem. The three mentioned in v 14 were the most righteous people in their generations – Noah (Gen 6:9; 7:1); Job (Job 1:8); Daniel (his righteousness and purity appear throughout the book of Daniel). But even if they were in Jerusalem to intercede for it they would not be able to preserve anyone but themselves by their righteousness. God reveals more about this truth in chapter 18. In all history there is only one person able to save others by His righteousness – the Lord Jesus (Rom 5:18-19).⚜
15 📚“If I cause wild beasts to pass through the land, and they depopulate it, so that it becomes desolate, no man passing through it because of the beasts, 16 📚even if these three men were in it, as I live, says the Lord God, they would rescue neither sons nor daughters; only they would be rescued, and the land would become desolate.
17 📚“Or if I bring a sword on that land, and say, ‘Sword, go through the land’, so that I cut off man and beast from it, 18 even if these three men were in it, as I live, says the Lord God, they would rescue neither sons nor daughters, but only they themselves would be rescued.
19 📚“Or if I send a plague into that land, and pour out my fury on it through bloodshed, to cut off from it man and beast, 20 📚even if Noah, Daniel, and Job were in it, as I live, says the Lord God, they would rescue neither son nor daughter; they would rescue only their own souls by their righteousness.
21 📚“For thus says the Lord God: How much more when I send my four severe judgments 📖 on Jerusalem, the sword, and the famine, and the wild beast, and the plague, to cut off from it man and beast? 22 📚Yet there will be left in it a remnant who will be brought out, both sons and daughters. See, they will come out to you, and you will see their way and their deeds, and you will be comforted concerning the disaster that I have brought on Jerusalem, concerning all that I have brought on it.
14:22 Ezek 12:16. They will be preserved from destruction, not because of the righteousness of others, but because of their own righteous conduct – Ezek 9:4-6. Seeing this the exiles in Babylon would have some comfort.⚜
23 📚And they will comfort you, when you see their ways and their deeds; and you will know that I have not done all that I have done in it without reason, says the Lord God”.
14:23 Did they doubt that God always has a good reason for what He does?⚜