Bible Commentaries

Ezekiel 13:17-23

I. The sewing of the pillows under the arms or elbows of those who came to consult the prophetesses was a symbolical act, intended to convey an answer by way of parable. The prophetesses wished to assure the people who came to them, of peace and ease and emancipation from slavery; what more likely than that they should not only give promises of these good things to come by word of mouth, but cause the people, who applied to them, to sit at ease, to be propped up with pillows as a sign and token of the condition of peace and rest and ease, which they promised in their prophecies. In like manner I think it probable that the handkerchiefs which the prophetesses put on the heads of their votaries, "on the heads of persons of all ages," were probably an emblem of liberty. And when the prophetesses placed these handkerchiefs on the heads of those who came to them, it was probably intended to declare by a parable, that the people would soon be free, and not subject to the king of Babylon any more.

II. The dealing of the prophetesses is particularly blamed because it was the same to all; there was only one message, and that one of peace for Jerusalem, one of joy in the future. There was no examination of the spiritual condition of those who came, and adapting of the message accordingly. The penitent and the impenitent had the same pillow to rest upon, and the same cap of liberty put upon the head. When we consider the utter confusion that would be produced, and the fearful manner in which the lessons of Ezekiel and his messages of lamentation and mourning and woe would be neutralised and made of none effect, we shall not be surprised that God pronounced a very grievous woe against these prophetesses, and promised as a special boon to His people that they should be delivered out of their hands.

III. We all have our Ezekiels to tell us the truth, and we all have our false prophets and prophetesses ready to contradict the truth, and to substitute lies in place of it. Ezekiel tells us that we must repent; he assures us that God does not wish the death of a sinner, that God has, in fact, sent His Son into the world that we might live and not die. But still he tells us that we must repent; that we must correct what is amiss; that we must examine what our sins are, and forsake them. The ministers of Christ's Gospel make a fearful and dangerous mistake, if they ever cry, "Peace, peace," and nothing else.

Bishop Harvey Goodwin, Parish Sermons, 5th series, p. 154.

Ezekiel 13:22

I. Where the way of life was broad the false prophets strove to make it narrow, and where it was narrow they strove to make it broad; by their solemn and superstitious lies they frightened and perplexed the good, while by their lives of ungodliness they emboldened and encouraged the wicked. The tendency of either evil to produce the other is sure and universal. We cannot exist without some influences of fear and restraint on the one hand, and without some indulgence of freedom on the other. God has provided for both these wants, so to speak, of our nature; He has told us whom we should fear, and where we should be restrained, and where, also, we may safely be in freedom; there is the fruit forbidden, and the fruit which we may eat freely. But if the restraint and the liberty be either of them put in the wrong place the double evil is sure to follow. Superstition is the rest of wickedness, and wickedness is the breaking loose of superstition.

II. Nothing is more common than to see great narrowness of mind, great prejudices, and great disorderliness of conduct, united in the same person. Nothing is more common than to see the same mind utterly prostrated before some idol of its own, and supporting that idol with the most furious zeal, and at the same time utterly rebellious to Christ, and rejecting with scorn the enlightening, the purifying, the loving influences of Christ's spirit. Every one of us has a tendency to some idol or other, if not to many; and our business is especially each to watch ourselves, lest we be ensnared to our particular idol.

III. Things good, things noble, things sacred, may all become idols. To some minds truth is an idol, to others justice, to others charity or benevolence; and others are beguiled by objects of a different sort of sacredness; some have made Christ's mother their idol; some Christ's servants; some, again, Christ's sacraments, and Christ's own body, the Church. If these may all be idols, where can we find a name so holy as that we may surrender up our whole souls to it; before which obedience, reverence without measure, intense humility, most unreserved adoration, may be duly tendered? One name there is, and one only; one alone in heaven and in earth; not truth, not justice, not benevolence, not Christ's mother, not His holiest servants, not His blessed sacraments, not His very mystical body, but Himself only, who died for us, and rose again, Jesus Christ, both God and man. As no idol can stand in Christ's place, or in any way save us, so whoever worships Christ truly is preserved from all idols and has life eternal.

T. Arnold, Sermons, vol. iv.

Reference: Ezekiel 14:1-3.—Bishop How, Plain Words, 2nd series, p. 252.