https://literalword.com/esv?q=Ezekiel+13
Observations from today’s readings and today’s S-WOD, Wednesday, 16 September 2026:
Ezekiel 13:3, 6, 10 — Thus says the Lord God, Woe to the foolish prophets who follow their own spirit, and have seen nothing! …They say, ‘Declares the Lord,’ when the Lord has not sent them, and yet they expect him to fulfill their word…. Precisely because they have misled my people, saying, ‘Peace,’ when there is no peace….
The false prophets claimed to speak for God while actually “following their own spirit.” They had not heard from God; they were giving divine authority to their own thoughts, desires, and imaginations. That is why God calls them foolish. Their problem was not merely that some of their predictions were inaccurate. They were putting words in God’s mouth. They said, “Declares the Lord,” when the Lord had not sent them, and then expected God to validate what they had decided He should say.
We can do the same thing whenever we begin with what we want to believe and then look for ways to make God agree with us. Our desires, experiences, emotions, political convictions, cultural assumptions, and even deeply held religious traditions can feel completely right while still being wrong. Scripture repeatedly warns that the human heart is not a reliable source of truth apart from God (Jeremiah 17:9; Proverbs 14:12). The question is not simply whether something feels right to me, but whether it agrees with what God has actually said. Jesus draws the same distinction between the person who “speaks on his own authority” and the One who seeks the glory of the Father who sent Him (John 7:18).
Peter gives us a sobering example. He had left everything to follow Jesus and had just confessed Him as “the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Yet when Jesus explained that He must go to Jerusalem, suffer, be killed, and be raised, Peter “took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, ‘Far be it from you, Lord! This shall never happen to you’” (Matthew 16:16, 21-22). Peter loved Jesus, but in that moment he trusted his own understanding of what God ought to do more than what Jesus had plainly said God would do. Jesus answered with one of His sharpest rebukes: “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man” (Matthew 16:23). Peter’s intentions did not make his conclusion true. In fact, without realizing it, he was opposing the very cross through which God intended to save him.
That makes Ezekiel’s warning deeply personal even for Christians fully committed to following Jesus. We can sincerely love Christ and still confuse our desires with His will. We can read Scripture through what we want God to say rather than allowing God to correct what we think. Following Jesus therefore requires more than sincerity or strong conviction; it requires a mind continually brought under His authority. We must seek His will and trust His Word over our own interpretation of what His Word ought to say. That is why Jesus immediately moves from correcting Peter’s thinking to defining discipleship: “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me” (Matthew 16:24). Self-denial includes surrendering not only what we want to do, but what we want to be true. The disciple does not ask Jesus to follow his understanding of God’s will; he follows Jesus.
This should also make us careful with statements such as “God told me” or “God showed me.” The Spirit truly leads His people (Romans 8:14), but our impressions are not Scripture and should never be given the same authority as God’s revealed Word. The Spirit who inspired Scripture does not contradict the Scripture He inspired. We should therefore test what we believe, what we hear, and what we teach against the Word of God (Acts 17:11; 1 John 4:1). Humility is willing to say, “I believe God may be leading me this way,” while remaining open to correction. Presumption turns our own thoughts into God’s commands.
The false prophets’ message was especially dangerous because it was exactly what people wanted to hear: “Peace,” when there was no peace. God was calling Israel to repentance, but these prophets assured them that everything would be fine. They made people comfortable in the very rebellion from which God was calling them to turn. False teaching is therefore not always easy to recognize because it often sounds encouraging. It may speak constantly about love, blessing, acceptance, peace, freedom, and hope while removing sin, repentance, holiness, judgment, obedience, and the lordship of Christ. But a message that makes people comfortable apart from reconciliation with God is not loving. It is deadly.
The Gospel certainly announces peace, but never by pretending sin does not matter. Jesus “made peace by the blood of his cross” (Colossians 1:20). Our peace with God required the Son of God to bear the judgment our sin deserved (Romans 5:1, 8-9). The cross therefore destroys both despair and false assurance. It tells us that our sin is far more serious than we want to admit and that God’s grace is far greater than we could ever deserve. True Gospel preaching does not tell rebellious people they are already fine. It calls us to repent and come to Christ, where forgiveness, reconciliation, and genuine peace are freely given.
Ezekiel 13:5 — You have not gone up into the breaches, or built up a wall for the house of Israel, that it might stand in battle in the day of the LORD.
God’s true messengers should have been standing in the breaches. Israel’s spiritual walls were collapsing through idolatry, injustice, violence, and rebellion, and the prophets were supposed to call the people back to God. Instead, they protected themselves and told the people what they wanted to hear. They wanted the position of prophet without accepting the responsibility that came with it.
Faithful love sometimes requires us to stand where it would be easier to remain silent. That does not mean becoming angry, argumentative, or eager to condemn people. Jesus was “full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). He showed extraordinary compassion toward sinners while never redefining sin to make people comfortable. He could protect the woman caught in adultery from self-righteous accusers and still tell her, “go, and from now on sin no more” (John 8:11). Grace and truth were never enemies in Jesus because both flowed from perfect love.
The same must increasingly be true of those united with Him. Christians are not called to win arguments against the world but to represent Christ within it. Paul calls us “ambassadors for Christ,” entrusted with the message of reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5:18-20). An ambassador does not invent his own message; he faithfully represents the one who sent him. That means we cannot alter God’s truth to gain acceptance, but neither can we proclaim truth with contempt for the people Christ came to save. If our desire to be accepted causes us to hide what God says, we are unfaithful. If our desire to be right causes us to stop loving the people to whom we speak, we are also failing to represent Jesus.
Jesus warned that faithfulness would sometimes bring rejection because the world does not naturally welcome a message that exposes its rebellion. He said, “The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify about it that its works are evil” (John 7:7). Yet Jesus continued speaking because His purpose was not condemnation for condemnation’s sake, but salvation. He came “to seek and to save the lost” (Luke 19:10). Following Him means loving people enough to tell them the truth and loving them enough to remain near them when that truth is rejected.
Ezekiel 13:10-12 — Precisely because they have misled my people, saying, ‘Peace,’ when there is no peace, and because, when the people build a wall, these prophets smear it with whitewash, say to those who smear it with whitewash that it shall fall! … And when the wall falls, will it not be said to you, ‘Where is the coating with which you smeared it?’
God gives Ezekiel a vivid picture of what false teaching does. Israel has built a wall that cannot stand, and instead of exposing its weakness, the prophets cover it with whitewash. The wall looks stronger without actually becoming stronger. The prophets have improved its appearance while leaving its foundation unchanged.
That is what religion does whenever it treats symptoms without dealing with the heart. We can whitewash our lives with church attendance, Christian vocabulary, Bible knowledge, ministry, morality, political causes, charitable work, or public reputation while leaving the deeper foundation untouched. Jesus confronted the same problem among the religious leaders of His day, comparing them to whitewashed tombs that appeared beautiful outwardly while corruption remained within (Matthew 23:27-28). God is not interested in making rebellion look respectable. He intends to make us new.
The difference is something like remodeling a damaged house versus restoring it from the foundation up. Quick remodeling can cover cracked walls with new paneling, patch failing plumbing or wiring, apply fresh paint, and make the house look presentable again. But underneath, the structure may still be failing. Restoration is much more invasive. The restorer removes what has been covering the damage, exposes what is rotten or unstable, and repairs the problem at its source. If necessary, he may even jack up the house, remove the failing foundation beneath it, and pour a new one. For a time the house may look worse rather than better because the hidden damage has finally been exposed. But the goal is not merely to make the house look livable. It is to make it sound.
God’s transforming grace works much more like restoration than remodeling. He does not merely patch our most visible sins so that we become more respectable versions of ourselves. He exposes what lies beneath them — our pride, unbelief, misplaced loves, fear, self-reliance, and desire to rule our own lives — and goes after the heart from which our behavior flows. David’s prayer was not simply that God would improve his conduct but, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me” (Psalm 51:10). Ezekiel will later describe God’s work even more radically: He removes the heart of stone, gives His people a new heart and a new spirit, and puts His Spirit within them so that they increasingly walk in His ways (Ezekiel 36:26-27). In Christ, God is not simply repairing the old life. “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation” (2 Corinthians 5:17).
That restoration can be uncomfortable because God loves us too much to leave structural damage hidden behind fresh paint. He may expose sins we have excused, strip away things in which we have trusted, confront patterns we thought were harmless, or use trials to reveal weaknesses we did not know were there. Yet the Builder does not abandon the house halfway through the project. The God who began His work in us remains at work within us and will bring it to completion (Philippians 1:6). Our prayer can therefore echo the repeated cry of Psalm 80: “Restore us, O God; let your face shine, that we may be saved!” (Psalm 80:3). Restoration is not God standing outside demanding that we repair ourselves. Through His Spirit, Christ lives in us while He transforms us, restoring what sin has corrupted and increasingly conforming us to the image of the Son for whom we were created (Romans 8:29).
Ezekiel 13:11-12 – “Say to those who smear it with whitewash that it shall fall! There will be a deluge of rain, and you, O great hailstones, will fall, and a stormy wind break out. And when the wall falls, will it not be said to you, ‘Where is the coating with which you smeared it?’”
The storm then reveals the difference between whitewashing and restoration. Jesus uses nearly the same picture at the end of the Sermon on the Mount. Two houses may look similar until rain falls, floods rise, and winds beat against them. One stands because it is founded upon the rock; the other collapses because it is built on sand. Jesus says the difference is not simply hearing His words but hearing them and doing them (Matthew 7:24-27). Trials often expose what appearances can conceal. The question is not whether my Christian life looks sound from the outside, but what is underneath it. Am I allowing Christ to expose and rebuild what is broken, or am I repeatedly covering the cracks?
Christ Himself is the only foundation that will finally stand (1 Corinthians 3:11). The Gospel does not offer another layer of religious whitewash. Through faith we are united with Christ, forgiven, given His Spirit, and made new from within (2 Corinthians 5:17). The Spirit then continues exposing weak places in us, not to destroy us, but to conform us to the image of Christ (Romans 8:29). When God exposes pride, lust, bitterness, greed, fear, dishonesty, or self-reliance, our instinct may be to cover the crack. Grace invites us to bring it into the light and let Christ rebuild what we have been trying to hide.
Ezekiel 13:18-19 — Thus says the Lord GOD: Woe to the women who sew magic bands upon all wrists, and make veils for the heads of persons of every stature, in the hunt for souls! Will you hunt down souls belonging to my people and keep your own souls alive? You have profaned me among my people for handfuls of barley and for pieces of bread….
The chapter now turns from the male prophets to women who were also claiming spiritual power while practicing deception. The precise nature of the bands and veils is difficult to determine, but the larger point is unmistakable: they were using spiritual practices to manipulate people for their own benefit. God describes them as hunting souls.
That language should sober anyone entrusted with spiritual influence. People are never ours to possess, control, exploit, or use. Jesus does not build His church by manipulating fear, manufacturing spiritual experiences, demanding personal loyalty to leaders, or promising people what they want in exchange for money, influence, or devotion. He is the Good Shepherd who “lays down his life for the sheep” (John 10:11). False shepherds use sheep to benefit themselves; Jesus gives Himself to save His sheep.
The contrast exposes an important question about every form of Christian leadership. Am I using people to build something for myself, or am I giving myself so that people know and follow Christ? John the Baptist understood the difference: “He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30). Paul likewise refused to proclaim himself: “For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord” (2 Corinthians 4:5). Whether we are pastors, parents, teachers, Life Group leaders, friends, or simply believers influencing those around us, faithfulness means helping people become more dependent upon Jesus, not more dependent upon us.
Ezekiel 13:22-23 — Because you have disheartened the righteous falsely, although I have not grieved him, and you have encouraged the wicked, that he should not turn from his evil way to save his life, therefore you shall no more see false visions nor practice divination. I will deliver my people out of your hand. And you shall know that I am the LORD.”
God identifies two devastating effects of false teaching: it discourages people who are trying to follow Him and strengthens people who refuse to repent. It reverses God’s message. Those who should be encouraged are burdened, while those who should be warned are reassured.
This gives us an important test for spiritual teaching. Does it lead people toward repentance, faith, obedience, and deeper dependence upon Christ, or does it make them comfortable continuing in sin? Does it strengthen believers to follow Jesus, or load them with human rules, fear, shame, and dependence upon religious personalities? Truth does not always make us comfortable, but it always moves us toward the God who gives life.
Jesus confronts both errors. He speaks some of His strongest words against religious leaders who “tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people’s shoulders” (Matthew 23:4), while He welcomes weary sinners: “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). Yet His grace never encourages continued rebellion. He forgives, restores, and then calls us to follow Him. Grace does not strengthen the hands of the wicked to remain wicked; grace teaches us “to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions” and to live godly lives in the present age (Titus 2:11-12).
- John 8:11 — “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.”
That balance is only possible when Christ remains at the center. Without truth, love becomes sentimentality that leaves people trapped in sin. Without love, truth becomes a weapon used to condemn rather than restore. In Jesus we see both perfectly united. At the cross He refuses to pretend our sin is harmless, yet He willingly bears its judgment Himself. He does not save us by declaring evil good; He saves us from evil and begins making us like Himself.
Ezekiel 13 therefore asks us more than whom we are listening to or what kind of message we want to hear. It asks who we are becoming as we listen. Messages do not simply give us information; over time they shape what we believe, what we love, what we fear, what we call good and evil, and ultimately how we live. Paul describes this process positively when he tells believers to “be transformed by the renewal of your mind” (Romans 12:2). But the opposite is also true. Minds can be conformed to the world, hearts can become hardened by sin, and repeated lies can eventually sound like truth. This is why discerning the voices shaping us is not a secondary part of discipleship. Every day the world, the flesh, and the devil compete with the Word of God for our trust, affections, and obedience. The question is not whether we are being formed, but by whom and into what.
And the stakes in Ezekiel 13 are far greater than the fall of a city. God condemns these false teachers because their lies are affecting souls. They “have encouraged the wicked, that he should not turn from his evil way to save his life.” False teaching is deadly because it can make someone feel safe while leading him farther from God. Jesus asks the question that puts every earthly loss in perspective: “For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul?” (Matthew 16:26). Jerusalem could be rebuilt. Houses, possessions, governments, and even nations come and go. But a soul separated from God is an eternal loss. Telling someone “Peace” while that person remains unreconciled to God is therefore not compassion. The most loving message is the truth that leads us away from sin and into life with Christ.
That makes learning to recognize and follow God’s voice essential to Christian life. Jesus does not leave us wandering among competing voices without a Shepherd. He says, “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep” (John 10:11), and of His sheep, “they know his voice…. the sheep follow him, for they know his voice” (John 10:4). The Shepherd who speaks truth to us is also the Savior who gave His life for us. We learn His voice by knowing Him and allowing His Word to shape our minds and hearts. Jesus is not merely one trustworthy voice among many. He says, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life” (John 14:6). His Word must therefore judge every competing message, including the ones coming from within ourselves.
Ezekiel 13 finally turns the question back on us. Whose voice am I allowing to shape my understanding of reality? What messages do I repeatedly consume because they tell me what I want to hear? Who am I becoming as those messages shape my mind and heart? When the world, my flesh, or the devil contradicts what Christ has said, which voice do I trust? When Scripture challenges my desires, assumptions, politics, habits, relationships, or priorities, which one gets corrected, my life or my interpretation of Scripture? And when faithfulness costs me acceptance, am I willing to follow the voice of the Good Shepherd wherever He leads? The goal is not merely to become better at identifying false teaching. It is to know Christ so deeply, trust His Word so completely, and walk with Him so closely that His voice increasingly governs what we believe, whom we love, how we live, and who we are becoming.
“Cross” Fit S-WOD (Spiritual Workout of the Day) – 16 September 2026: Identify one message from the world, your own desires, or another voice that is shaping what you believe or how you live. Find the clearest Scripture that speaks to it, write down what God actually says, and take one concrete step today to follow the voice of Christ rather than the competing message.
Pray: “Father, Your Word is truth, yet my heart is easily drawn toward voices that tell me what I want to hear. Forgive me for listening selectively, hiding what You expose, or trusting my own desires over what You have said. Thank You for Jesus, my Good Shepherd, who speaks truth, laid down His life to save me, and leads me in the way of life. By Your Spirit, renew my mind, shape my heart, and teach me to recognize and follow His voice above every other voice. Give me courage to obey Your Word, speak truth with love, and become increasingly like Christ. Amen.”
Defenders Bible Reading Plan 