FALSE PROPHETS AND THEIR PROPHECIES-FOOLISH PROPHETS - All The LORD is near Daily Devotionals for 2024

The word of Jehovah came unto me, saying: Son of man, prophesy against the prophets of Israel that prophesy, and say unto them that prophesy out of their own heart, Hear ye the word of Jehovah. Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Woe unto the foolish prophets, that follow after their own spirit, and have seen nothing! O Israel, thy prophets have been like foxes in desert places.
(Ezekiel 13:1-4)

FALSE PROPHETS AND THEIR PROPHECIES-FOOLISH PROPHETS
Throughout this chapter, Jehovah speaks against false prophets, whether male or female, who prophesy out of their own heart. A true prophet is God’s messenger who brings God’s message to a people in need of it whom God is trying to reach.
Israel had many false prophets. They were popular but were of absolutely no help to God’s people. In fact, they were just the opposite. God charges them with seeing lying divination and vanity, seeing a vain vision, seducing His people, profaning Him among His people for handfuls of barley and morsels of bread, grieving the heart of the righteous and strengthening the hands of the wicked that he should not return from his wicked way and save his life. God promised to deliver His people out of the hands of such prophets, so that they would know that He is Jehovah-an often recurrent refrain in Ezekiel.
Do we not have similar problems today? There are many prophets (preachers) whom God has not sent! They graduate from institutes whose basic beliefs and principles differ widely from the clear teachings of God’s Word. They tickle the ears of their hearers, speak out of their own heart, and pattern their “services” after the performances of the world’s celebrities. How different they are from that Lowly One who ever did His Father’s will and whose life here on earth was fully consistent with the words He spoke!
E.P. Vedder, Jr.