(Through the Bible) Ezekiel 11-15 — Chuck Smith

Ezekiel in Babylon and the Conflicting Prophecies

Let's turn now in our Bibles to Ezekiel chapter 11. Now Ezekiel is in Babylon during the time of these prophecies. But the Spirit of God transports him back to Jerusalem. And there he sees things that are transpiring in Jerusalem.

Now, as a background, there are some Jewish zealots who are still in Jerusalem who have rebelled against Nebuchadnezzar and they are thinking that they are going to be successful in their rebellion. There are false prophets in Jerusalem that are encouraging the people in their rebellion, telling them that they are going to push Nebuchadnezzar right out of the picture.

Jeremiah is in Jerusalem saying to the people, don't listen to the false prophets they are prophesying to you, lies in the name of the Lord. You'd be much better off to surrender to the Babylonians, because if you try to resist, you will be slain by the sword and the pestilence and the famine.

So, surrender to Nebuchadnezzar. But Jeremiah is accused of treason and is imprisoned by Zedekiah the king. But they have sent messengers, the false prophets, to those in Babylon saying, hang loose. It won't be long, we'll defeat the Babylonians and you're going to be allowed to come back to Jerusalem.

You'll be allowed to dwell in Jerusalem, so don't build houses, just hang loose. Deliverance is coming soon. But Ezekiel is there in Babylon saying, settle down, build houses. It's going to be a long time before there is any return back to Jerusalem.

So, just realize that those that are in Jerusalem are going to be destroyed and the false prophets with them. So, you have a confusing situation in that you have false prophets that are encouraging a soon victory over the Babylonian army.

You have the true prophets of God, Ezekiel and Jeremiah, that are speaking God's truth and saying, no, we are not going to conquer over Babylon. That God is judging the nation Israel for their sins because they've turned against God.

And it's going to be a long period of judgment. You're going to be in Babylon, as Jeremiah said, for 70 years, so make the best of it. Settle down, make the best of it there because you're not coming back in a hurry.

Now, Ezekiel is in Babylon, but there in Babylon, occasionally he gets carried by the Spirit back to Jerusalem, where he beholds the things that are happening in Jerusalem and he relates them to the people there in Babylon.

Judgment on Jerusalem's Leaders

And so, in chapter 11, we have another one of these instances where the Spirit lifted me up and brought me unto the east gate of the Lord's house, which looks eastward. And behold, at the door of the gate there were 25 men, among whom I saw Jazaniah, the son of Ezra.

Now, this is not the Jazaniah among the 25 men that he had seen earlier in a vision. That was the son of Shalom, I think it was. But this is a different Jazaniah, probably a popular name, I don't know why.

And Pelitiah, the son of Benaiah, and they were the princes of the people. Then said he unto me, Son of man, these are the men that devise mischief and they are giving wicked counsel to the city. They are saying to them, look, it isn't near.

Let us build houses. This city is the cauldron and we be the flesh. The destruction isn't near. The city is like a cauldron in which we are protected from the fire. Babylon's fires may burn, but they won't burn us because the city is the cauldron and we are like the flesh.

It's going to be a long time before the heat will ever get to us. So just go ahead and build your houses and settle down because we are protected by this city from Babylon. Therefore, prophesy against them.

Prophesy, O son of man. And the Spirit of the Lord fell upon me and said unto me, Speak. Thus saith the Lord. Thus have ye said, O house of Israel, for I know the things that come into your mind, every one of them.

Notice that God says, I know the things that are coming into your mind, everything. That's sort of a heavy thought, isn't it? I, the Lord, he said, do search the hearts. God knows every thought that comes into your mind.

Nothing is hid from him with whom we have to deal. Actually, the Bible says all things are naked and open before him. I know everything that comes into your minds. You have multiplied your slain in the city.

And you have filled the streets thereof with slain. That is by their false counsel. They have encouraged the people to rebel. But all it's going to do is multiply the number of people that will be killed.

As Jeremiah was saying to them, surrender and you can save your lives. They will be merciful to you if you surrender. You know, they'll take you to Babylon, give you a nice place to live and all. But surrender to them.

Don't resist. But these men, by their false prophecies, encouraging them to resist, were only multiplying the number of people that were to be killed. Therefore, thus saith the Lord God, your slain, whom ye have laid in the midst of it, they are the flesh and this city is the cauldron, but I will bring you forth out of the midst of it.

So the people that have already died, they are the only ones that are going to be protected from the cauldron. I mean, from the fire of Babylon. They are the flesh. They are the ones that will be protected.

But you are going to be carried away captive. You're going to be led out of this city. You have feared the sword and I will bring a sword upon you, saith the Lord God. I will bring you out of the midst thereof and deliver you into the hands of strangers and will execute judgments among you.

Ye shall fall by the sword. I will judge you in the border of Israel and ye shall know that I am the Lord. Interesting prophecy. I shall judge you in the border of Israel. Now, when the Babylonian army came against Jerusalem and conquered it, the king Nebuchadnezzar remained in the city of Riblah, which is in the border of Israel and they brought them to Nebuchadnezzar in Riblah where he judged them.

Zedekiah, you remember, was captured and brought to Nebuchadnezzar at Riblah and there Nebuchadnezzar killed his sons right before his eyes and then put his eyes out and he took him captive onto Babylon.

And so a very fascinating prophecy of Ezekiel who is over in Babylon, really not knowing what's going on except by the Spirit of God, as he is taken back and sees these things and he predicts the fact that they will be judged in the borders of Israel, which indeed they were, and this city shall not be your cauldron.

It will not be a protection to you. It's not going to save you from the Babylonian fire. Neither shall ye be the flesh in the midst thereof, but I will judge you in the border of Israel. Again, repeated, and thus they were.

And ye shall know that I am the Lord, for ye have not walked in my statutes. God's indictment against them now, you've not walked in my statutes. Neither have you executed my judgments, but have done after the manners of the heathen round about you.

Forsaking God's Statutes for Society's Ways

So their failure was to not walk in the ways of the Lord, but to follow the patterns of the heathen society around them, or to succumb to the mores. Now there is strong pressure upon us as Christians to forsake the statutes of God and to walk according to the popular mores of our society.

There's tremendous pressure in our society today to accept things that God has condemned. And this pressure of the society is such that if you dare to condemn those things that God has condemned, then you're looked upon as some kind of a religious nut, a prude, a backwards individual.

Don't you realize that times have changed? We're not living back in the Victorian age any longer. This isn't a Puritan society. And this tremendous pressure to do what? Exactly what the children of Israel did that brought their destruction.

Forsake the commandments, the statutes, the judgments of God and start living like the people around you. But we dare not. For as sure as God did judge the nation Israel, so will he judge us if we do the same things.

God Preserves a Remnant

Now it came to pass when I was prophesying that this fellow Pelitia, the son of Benaiah, died. So while he was there prophesying to them, this guy fell over dead. That's powerful preaching. Then I fell on my face.

Now it wasn't something that Ezekiel was expecting because it shocked him. I fell on my face and I cried with a loud voice and said, Oh Lord God, wilt thou make a full end of the remnant of Israel? Are you going to wipe them all out, Lord?

And again the word of the Lord came unto me saying, Son of man, your brothers, even your brothers the men of your own family and all of the house of Israel wholly, are they unto whom the inhabitants of Jerusalem have said, Get you far from the Lord.

Unto us is this land given for a possession. They're saying that this land is ours. We're not going to be defeated. We're not going to fall. Therefore say thus, saith the Lord God, Although I have cast them far off among the heathen and although I have scattered them among the countries, yet will I be to them as a little sanctuary in the countries where they shall come.

God said, I will watch over them in the lands where they've been driven. I will be to them a little sanctuary there. God will preserve his people even though they've been driven throughout the world. Now that, of course, again is another amazing prophecy because though the Jews have been hated, scorned, discriminated against, perhaps more fiercely than any other nationality, yet in spite of 2 ,000 years without a homeland, they have continued to exist as a race of people.

Nothing short of a divine miracle. There has been no other national ethnic group in the history of man that has been able to remain as a national identity for more than five generations without a homeland.

If they don't have a nation that they can say, that's our homeland, they have lost their national ethnic identity in five generations. That is why you never meet an Ammonite, a Hittite, a Perizzite, or any of these other people that were once great and powerful nations because without a national homeland, they've lost their national ethnic identity and yet the Jew remained because God made them a little sanctuary.

God was watching over to preserve them and they remained an ethnic group, a national identity, for more than 2 ,000 years after having been driven from their homeland in the first captivity of Nebuchadnezzar.

Of course, they went back for a period of time, but then since 70 A .D. they've been driven out of the land and still to the present day, whether they be in China, whether they be in Germany, whether they be in Russia, whether they be in Yemen, or Africa, or the United States, the Jew has been able to maintain his national identity because God has made them a sanctuary and you can only explain it by that fact because no other nation, no other ethnic group has been able to maintain an identity.

So, the Lord promises to be a little sanctuary in all of the lands where they've been scattered. Therefore, say, Thus saith the Lord God, I will even gather you from the people and assemble you out of the countries where you have been scattered and I will give you the land of Israel.

Now, this is not referring to the regathering after the Babylonian captivity, but is more of a reference to the present regathering. And they shall come thither and they shall take away all the detestable things thereof and all of the abominations thereof from thence.

And I will give them one heart and I will put a new spirit within you. Now, that has not yet been fulfilled. God is gathering them back in the land, but this new spirit that God has promised has not yet been fulfilled.

It will take place when God defeats Russia's invasion of Israel. And we'll get to that as we move on in Ezekiel chapter 39. The last verse of 39, God declares that in the day in which He is sanctified before the nations of the earth, He will again put His spirit upon the nation of Israel.

So this prophecy is relating to chapter 39 and to a day that is yet future when God manifests Himself unto these people in such a dramatic way and He puts His spirit upon them again. I will give them one heart, I will put a new spirit within you, and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh and will give them a heart of flesh.

Now, Paul the Apostle tells us in the New Testament that blindness has happened to Israel in part until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in. God's Spirit in the present time is working primarily among the Gentile nations, among you who have been called of God, actually among all men, not that the Jews are excluded because the Gospel is open to all men, but there seems to be a national blindness on these people in regards to Jesus Christ.

And it is interesting, I have talked to some of them who are extremely knowledgeable of the Scriptures. And you wonder when they know the Scriptures so well, why is it that they do not see that Jesus was indeed the promised Messiah?

You wonder how they can just explain away those prophecies. Daniel chapter 9, Isaiah 53, Psalm 22, Zechariah chapters 11 through 12 and on. You wonder how can they not see the truth that Jesus is indeed the promised Messiah?

And there can only be one explanation, and that is what Paul gave us, that there is a blindness that has happened to these people. A couple of years ago when we were in Israel and I was speaking at a congress in which the Christians from all over the world were seeking to demonstrate to Israel our support of them as a people, I received a letter from one of the rabbis in Jerusalem.

And the letter was a rebuke for my being there at that congress showing support for the nation of Israel. He said, you have no right being here, for Israel has no right to be existing as a nation. This same rabbi had sent a letter to King Hussein in Jordan and asked the Jordanian king to annex Mea Shurim into Jordan because they wanted nothing to do with the modern state of Israel.

They said, Israel has no right being a state, and you as a minister have no right being here supporting the nation of Israel. Well, I had been witnessing to these guides for quite some time, and they do know the Scripture quite well, and I showed them the letter and I said, look what one of your rabbis sent me.

And they read the letter and they were horrified because they appreciate the fact that I love Israel and have been supporting Israel. And they said, ah, don't pay any attention to that, Chuck, they're a bunch of religious nuts.

They're radicals, you know. They don't know what they're talking about. They're just religious radicals. Don't pay any attention to that. I said, but they're rabbis. Ah, it doesn't make any difference.

They're nuts, you know. Just don't pay any attention to them. And I said, have you ever stopped to think that those rabbis that rejected Jesus from being the Messiah were perhaps just like them, some religious fanatics, and that Jesus was indeed the Messiah, but these religious fanatics rejected Him, and here you are 2 ,000 years later in spite of all of the evidence still following the religious nuts of those days.

They didn't have any answer. Surely, anyone looking at the evidence of prophecy and of the life of Jesus Christ must conclude that if Jesus wasn't the Messiah, there never will be a Messiah. It would be impossible for any man to come along today and prove that He was of the lineage of David.

No one has His genealogy and can trace it back to David any longer. God is going to change their hearts, though. This stony heart is going to be turned to a heart of flesh. You know, one thing about the Jewish people is that they are a very... they're dynamic people.

They're very alive. They love to sing. They love to show their feelings in dancing and in singing. And quite often, over there, the bus drivers and the guides, they'll get together and they'll sit at a table and they'll start singing their Jewish, typically Jewish songs, and they really get into it.

I mean, it's the, you know, and the whole thing, you know, and the dancing, and they get up and they start dancing around and singing. They really get into it, and it's a lot of fun because they are such a dynamic people.

They're exciting to be around. Oh, I can hardly wait till they get turned on to Jesus Christ. With all of that excitement and all of that expression that they have, when they really discover the true Messiah.

What a glorious day when the heart of stone is replaced. God does a heart transplant, and He puts in a heart of flesh. That they may walk in My statutes. You see, this is the thing they had failed to do, and that's why the judgment was coming.

That they will keep My ordinances and do them, that they shall be My people, and I will be their God. But as for them whose heart walks after the heart of their detestable things and their abominations, I will recompense their way upon their own heads, saith the Lord God.

The Glory of God Departs and the Messiah Returns

Now at this point, these cherubims, representing the glory of God and the presence of God that was once there in the temple, but was lifted from the temple, out to the porch, from the porch to the east gate, now He watches as the Spirit of God is removed even from the east gate of the temple to the Mount of Olives, east of Jerusalem.

Then did the cherubims lift up their wings and the wheels beside them, and the glory of the God of Israel was over them, above them. And the glory of the Lord went up from the midst of the city and stood upon the mountain which is on the east side of the city, the Mount of Olives.

And afterwards the Spirit took me up and brought me in a vision by the Spirit of God back into Chaldea, back to Babylon, to them of the captivity. So the vision that I had seen went up from me. Then I spake to them of the captivity, all of the things that the Lord had shown me.

So he was taken by the Spirit, went through these interesting experiences, and then brought back and shared with these people that were around him there the vision that God did give to him. Now, it is interesting, the glory of the Lord, the last place there on the Mount to the east of Jerusalem, it was on this same mountain that Jesus ascended into glory.

It was on this same mountain that Jesus came in His entry to Jerusalem as the King, as the Messiah, fulfilling the prophecy of Zachariah, Behold, rejoice greatly, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, thy King cometh unto thee, but He is lowly, sitting on the colt, the foal of an ass.

And it is upon this same mount that Jesus will return. As Zachariah said, And He shall set His foot in that day on the Mount of Olives, and it will split in the middle and all. And right there, where He saw the glory of the Lord departing from the mountain there on the east, there is where the glory of God in the person of Jesus Christ will come.

And again, as He comes into Jerusalem, the glory of God's presence once more returning to the land. And that beautiful restoration of God and the glorious Kingdom of God when it comes. Chapter 12,. The word of the Lord also came unto me, saying, Son of man, you dwell in the midst of a rebellious house, which have eyes to see, and they do not see.

They have ears to hear, and they do not hear, for they are a rebellious house. Now you remember Isaiah said the same thing. Having eyes to see, they see not. Ears to hear, they hear not. Lest at any time they see with their eyes and hear with their ears and be saved.

Jeremiah accused them of the same thing. You don't see, you don't hear. David said, They that are worshiping the idols have become likened to the idols, which cannot see, which cannot move, which cannot hear.

And so, Jesus said, Well, saith Isaiah the prophet concerning this generation, having eyes to see, they will not see. Ears to hear, they will not hear. Now, the Lord is saying, you're in a rebellious house.

Ezekiel's Dramatic Sign of Exile

The interesting thing is that as the Jews look back upon their fathers and upon their history, they always do it with extremely great pride. They really honor their fathers. They honor the dead. They honor their heritage.

And that's where Stephen got into trouble. For as Stephen was standing before the Sanhedrin, and he was rehearsing their history to them, telling them all that God had done, relating to them the illustrious history of their fathers, he finally said, Which of the prophets of God did not your fathers kill?

You know, you say, Oh, our fathers, our fathers, so and so. Hey, they killed every prophet God sent to them. And now you are even worse than they are because you've killed the one that they all prophesied concerning.

That was when they got so angry they began to gnash their teeth. They grabbed rocks and began to throw them at him and they stoned him to death. Paul the Apostle was right there holding their coats, encouraging them on.

Now, here is God saying to Ezekiel, Look, you're dwelling in the midst of rebellious people. They have eyes, but they will not see, ears, but they will not hear, for they're rebellious. Therefore, thou son of man, prepare these stuff for removing.

Prepare your stuff for moving and move by day in their sight. And thou shalt remove from thy place to another place in their sight that they will consider even though they are a rebellious house. Now, they're rebelling.

They're thinking that they're going to go back right away from this captivity. They've listened to the false prophets. But you just move your stuff from one place to another. Just pack up your duds, pack your suitcases and just move around with your suitcases because maybe they will hear even though they are rebellious.

Then you shall bring forth your stuff by day in their sight, the stuff as though you're moving, and you shall go forth even in their sight as they did go forth into captivity. Now, dig a hole through the wall in their sight and carry your stuff out by this hole in the wall that you dig.

And in their sight, bear your stuff on your shoulders and carry it forth in the twilight and cover your face so that you can't see the ground. For I have set you for a sign to the house of Israel. Now, this is going to be a little illustrated message, Ezekiel, that you're going to carry to the house of Israel.

Pack your suitcases, dig a hole in the wall and crawl out with your suitcase, carry them on your shoulder and just walk around from one place to another. Move out from your house. And so I did as I was commanded.

And I brought forth my stuff by day, the stuff for captivity. Even I dig through the wall with my hands and brought it forth in the twilight and I bear it on my shoulder in their sight. And in the morning, the word of the Lord came unto me saying, Son of man, has not the house of Israel, the rebellious house, said unto you, what are you doing?

And that was, of course, the purpose to create the question. Doing this, you know, he wasn't saying anything, covered his face and, you know, carrying his stuff around after having dug the hole through the wall.

He said, what on the world are you doing? So you go and say to them, Thus saith Jehovah God, or the Lord God, Adonai, this burden concerning the prince in Jerusalem and the house of Israel that are among them.

Say, I am your sign and like as I have done, so shall it be done unto them. They shall remove and go into captivity. Now, what you see me do is what's happening to the princes back in Jerusalem. They are going to dig a hole in the wall and they're going to try to escape with their stuff.

And the prince, that would be Zedekiah, that is among them, shall bear upon his shoulder in the twilight and shall go forth and they shall dig through the wall to carry out their stuff and he shall cover his face that he not see the ground with his eyes.

My net also will I spread upon him and he shall be taken in my snare and I will bring him to Babylon to the land of the Chaldeans, yet shall he not see it, though he shall die there. Now, an interesting prophecy concerning Zedekiah the king.

He is going to, in the evening twilight hours, dig a hole through the wall and try to escape. But he's going to get caught in the snare, in the net. And he is going to be brought to Babylon but he won't see it.

We have the record of the Scriptures that Zedekiah, one night, tried to escape from Jerusalem, from the siege of the Babylonian army and he got as far as the plains down near Jericho where the Chaldeans caught up with him and captured him and they took him to Nebuchadnezzar that was at Riblah and Nebuchadnezzar there took his sons who tried to escape with him and he killed them in the eyes as Zedekiah was watching and then he put out Zedekiah's eyes and he was taken to Babylon and so, as Ezekiel predicted, so it happened.

He came to Babylon but he never saw Babylon because his eyes were put out. But again, God's amazing prophetic word as God speaks of events and those servants of God speak of events which it would be impossible to do with such accuracy unless they spoke as they were inspired by the Holy Spirit.

Famine, Fulfilled Prophecy, and False Prophets

The Lord said, and I will scatter toward every wind. All of that are about Him to help Him and all of the bands, the armies, and I will draw out a sword after them and they shall know that I am the Lord when I shall scatter them among the nations and disperse them in the countries.

But I will leave a few men of them from the sword and from the famine and from the pestilence that they may declare all their abominations among the heathen whether they come and they shall know that I am the Lord.

God again promised to leave a few of them but they're going to be slain. Most of them. Moreover, the word of the Lord came unto me saying, Son of man, eat your bread with quaking and drink your water with trembling and with carefulness.

In other words, just drink a little, measure your swallows. Drink it with carefulness and shake as you eat your bread. And drink your water, you know, like you're frightened. And say unto the people of the land, you know, these prophets must have been extremely colorful people.

But God is seeking to get the attention of the people. Now, they won't listen to God anymore. So, God has these prophets do these colorful things to draw the attention of the people. Now, what's Ezekiel doing now?

Look at the way he's drinking his water and eating his bread, you know. What's he got up his sleeve this time? And they become curious as they see these bizarre kind of actions. But all planned of God in order to get the attention so He can still speak.

Now, that to me is amazing. God still desires to give the message though they're not listening anymore. But He still wants them to receive the message. Long after a person has closed his heart to God, closed his ear to God, God continues to speak in different ways.

If you won't listen directly, then God will speak to you subtly through the things around your life. Circumstances, events and all. But God will get His message across one way or the other. Now, say to the people as you're eating and drinking your water and eating your bread this way.

Say to the people of the land, Thus saith the Lord God of the inhabitants of Jerusalem and of the land of Israel, they shall eat their bread with carefulness. There's going to be a tremendous famine. They'll drink their water with astonishment that her land may be desolate from all that is therein because of the violence of all of them that dwell therein.

And the cities that are inhabited shall be laid waste and the land shall be desolate and ye shall know that I am the Lord. And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, what is that proverb that ye have in the land of Israel saying the days are prolonged and every vision faileth?

This is what they were going on saying. You know, not in our time. The days are prolonged. Every vision fails. You know, you've heard that for a long time. What do you mean, you know, the Lord is coming?

What do you mean we're getting close to the end? The days are prolonged. We're going to be here for another thousand years. Life is going to go on. Man is going to continue. What do you mean we're getting close to the end?

That's what they were saying in Jerusalem at this time. Destruction was right on them. It was days away and yet the proverb was, the days are prolonged. Every vision fails. It's not going to happen in our lifetime.

As Peter said in the last days, scoffers will come saying, where is the promise of his coming since our fathers have fallen asleep? Everything continues as they were from the beginning. But Peter said the day of the Lord will come and God is saying to Ezekiel, this proverb that they're using, tell them therefore thus saith the Lord God, I will make this proverb deceased.

They'll no more use it as a proverb in Israel, but say unto them, the days are at hand and the fulfillment of every vision. For there shall be no more any vain vision nor flattering divination within the house of Israel.

For I am the Lord and I will speak and the word that I shall speak shall come to pass and it shall be no more prolonged. For in your days, O rebellious house, not in the days of your grandchildren or great grandchildren or whatever, but in your days will I say the word and will perform it, saith the Lord God.

Again, the word of the Lord came unto me saying, Son of man, behold, they of the house of Israel say the vision that he sees is a long time off for many days to come. Not going to happen for a long time.

And he prophesies of the times that are way off. Therefore, say unto them, thus saith the Lord God, there shall none of my words be prolonged any more, but the word which I have spoken shall be done, saith the Lord God.

And within a year it was. The word of the Lord came unto me saying, Son of man, prophesy against the prophets of Israel that prophesy and say unto them that the prophecy is out of their own hearts. Hear ye the word of the Lord.

Thus saith the Lord God, woe unto the foolish prophets that follow their own spirit and have seen nothing. They're following their own imaginations. They have really seen nothing from God. They are proclaiming their own visions, their own ideas.

O Israel, your prophets are like foxes in the deserts. Ye have not gone up into the gaps. Neither have you made up the hedge for the house of Israel to stand in the battle in the day of the Lord. They have not helped Israel.

They have not stood in these gaps. They have seen vanity and lying divination saying the Lord saith and the Lord hath not sent them and they have made others to hope that they would confirm the word. So here were these false prophets going around.

They had not really heard from the Lord, but they were saying, well, the Lord says. Oh, the Holy Spirit told me, or the Holy Spirit showed me, or God has shown to me. And then they go around seeking for others to confirm their words.

Now, the tragedy of the church is that there are false teachers and false prophets in the church today doing the same thing. Speaking in the name of the Lord when God hasn't spoken. Saying, oh, the Lord says, or the Holy Spirit showed me.

When they are talking out of their own spirits in their own hearts. Jesus warns about these men. He said they are wolves in sheep's clothing. Beware of these false prophets. Paul warned over and over again against these false prophets that were going around deceiving the people speaking in the name of the Lord.

Peter warns against them in a very heavy indictment as does the little book of Jude. These men who speak in the name of the Lord have been the curse of the church from the beginning, but they've always existed clear back into this Old Testament period.

There were those false prophets and God spoke out against them in Jeremiah. God spoke out against them through Isaiah. And God is now speaking out against them here in Ezekiel. They've not really helped the people.

They've hurt the people. Have you not seen a vain vision? You've spoken a lying divination where as you say the Lord saith it, albeit God says I haven't spoken. Therefore, thus saith the Lord God, because you have spoken vanity and you've seen lies.

Therefore, behold, I am against you who saith the Lord God. That's heavy. God just doesn't like you speaking in His name your own ideas, your own thoughts. Well, the Lord showed me. I had a fellow one day that was one of those the Lord told me kind, you know.

And the Lord told him to go out, you know, into the desert and he went out there and the Lord told him this, the Lord told him that, the Lord told him this and, you know, he lost all his money and he lost all this and, you know, he got sunburned and dehydrated and everything else.

Why would God do that to me? Why would God, you know? And it's obvious that the guy was nuts, you know, that God didn't speak to him. If God had told him to do all these things then it wouldn't have, you know, messed up.

It wouldn't have ended in a calamity. And then he wants to blame God for all of the, you know, the misery that he went through. Well, the Lord told me this. I said, well, if the Lord told you to do all those things then why are you asking me why the Lord would do something?

Ask Him if He tells you all that stuff. The Lord didn't tell you to come to me because I don't have any sympathy for you. But I get tired of, you know, how can you argue when a person says, well, the Lord told me to do it.