Chapter 14 begins with a familiar scene that characterized both Old Testament and New Testament times.  People would gather in front of a person of knowledge and would sit and listen to him speak relative to his expertise.  In verse 1 we learn that “certain of the elders of Israel” have come to Ezekiel to inquire of the Lord.  They know that Ezekiel is God’s man, that he heard God’s Words and would give them sure counsel.  That Ezekiel truly heard from God is made evident by what he wrote.  Note that chapters 14-18 begin with, “THE WORD OF THE LORD CAME TO ME, SAYING ….”  These Words are significant for they characterize the relationship God had with His true prophets.  The people knew that God’s prophets had a direct, two-way connection with Him through His Holy Spirit.  During Old Testament times very few people were guided by His Spirit.  This truth carried over into the New Testament and remained true until the promised Holy Spirit (Acts 1:8) was “poured out” on the 120 disciples on the Day of Pentecost 31 A.D. with the establishment of the New Testament Church (Acts 2).

Anciently, people knew that God’s prophets communicated with Him and could be relied upon to know His will.  Recall that the rich man of Luke 18 had sought out Jesus, knowing that only the Prophet from Nazareth could tell him how to inherit eternal life.  Having located Jesus, he ran to Him, fell to his knees, called Him “master” and asked Him a question that only a true prophet could answer.  The “certain” (important) elders had come to Ezekiel to inquire of the Lord.  We are not told what information they were seeking.  But before they could ask, the Lord in effect told them that they would be wasting their time.

Before they could speak Ezekiel hears the voice of God telling him that they had “SET UP IDOLS IN THEIR HEARTS (minds) and had PUT THE STUMBLING BLOCK OF INIQUITY (LAWLESSNESS) BEFORE THEIR FACES.”  To place something “before one’s face” meant that other things were more important to them than the One Who created them.  Verse 3, when studied as God’s “fine print,” proves to be highly significant.  The elders had “set up” idols “before their “faces,” meaning “in their “hearts/minds.”  These leaders had the same problem as their modern day counterparts–their minds were continually on worldly pursuits and not on God and His Law.  God called this deadly sin the “stumblingblock of iniquity.”  “Iniquity” is translated “Lawlessness”–they did not obey His Law.

Seeing that this would be a problem in the future, God warned Israel through His Prophet Moses.   In Deuteronomy 6:1-7; 11:18,19,26-28 Moses is telling the Israelites how they must exalt God’s Words/Law in their “heart.”  They were to “lay up God’s WORDS in their heart.”  They were commanded to “speak about the LAW when they rose up and when they lay down, when they came in and when they went out.”   The Lord’s use of the Word INIQUITY (Lawlessness) when speaking to Ezekiel meant that the elders had broken God’s Law by creating idols, which God views as gods, and keeping them always on their minds instead of His Words/Law.  Recall that His first and foremost commandment was that: “You shall have NO OTHER GODS BEFORE ME” (Exo. 20:3).  In the eyes of the Lord an idol is a god that man values more that he values God Himself.  God will not share a heart/mind with another god.  In Ezekiel 14:4,5 make this clear.  One cannot serve two gods–it is all or nothing.  The elders had set up idols in their minds, meaning that they had REMOVED THE TRUE GOD FROM THEIR MINDS.  Again, THEY had placed THEIR false gods where the true God commands to be, and to be there ALONE.  God sees their problem as IDOLATRY, WHICH HE EQUATES TO INIQUITY–DISOBEDIENCE TO HIS LAW.  In the final part of Ezekiel 14:3 God answers the question that has been asked by so many for so long: Why does God not answer prayers?  The fact is that less than 1% of Christian prayers are answered.  The question is why?  The answer is found in His statement to Ezekiel: “Why are they (the elders) asking anything of Me?”  God was asking why these workers of iniquity (Law-breakers) were inquiring anything of Him in that they had replaced Him with gods of their own making?  They should know that He is not obligated to grant the requests of sinners (Law-breakers–1 Jn. 3:4).  The God Who was speaking to Ezekiel, Who would later come to earth as Jesus of Nazareth, would declare that HE DID NOT (SPIRITUALLY) KNOW THOSE WHO PRACTICED INIQUITY (Mat. 7:21-23).  They heard His Words spoken by Ezekiel but refused to obey them.  They would acknowledge God as their Master and go through the motions of worship.  That same God would later proclaim that the people who would stand before Him on Judgment Day would call Him “Lord, Lord” and remind Him of all the WONDERFUL WORKS they had done IN HIS NAME.  Note that He would declare that HE HAD NEVER KNOWN THEM.  Why does He not “know” (have a close relationship with) those who claim Him as their “Lord” but continue to sin?  He tells us Luke 10:16 where He warns that those who do not listen to and obey His Words spoken through His ministers DESPISE BOTH HIM AND HIS FATHER.  They hear their words but refuse to obey them.  The Old Testament prophets faced the same problem, as God tells us in Ezekiel 33:30-32.  Let us go there.

Here the Lord is speaking to His prophet about those who come to him to hear His (God’s) Truth.  This was the customary way to hear the Words of God during Old Testament times.  However, there was a problem. The Lord told Ezekiel that the people talked among themselves about what a wonderful teacher he (Ezekiel) was, and how he spoke God’s Words.  They would sit before him “AS (if they were) My people” and hear his (Ezekiel’s) words, “but they will not do them.  With their mouths they express great love, but in their hearts they worship their idols ….  They hear your words but refuse to obey them.”  Nothing has changed.

I find that when all is going well the minds of the parishioners are not on the Lord, but rather on their idols–television, sports, possessions, friends, family, recreation, entertainment, making money, etc.  Most of their free time is spent in pursuit of those idols.  They attend church on Satan’s sabbath “as God’s people” in order to hear their hirelings preach ear-scratching sermon from out of their own hearts.  But when problems arise they do not go to their pastors for spiritual help, but rather to someone they know has God’s Truth.  The irony is that they know who has the Truth and who doesn’t.  They go to God’s messenger and inquire about spiritual issues because they know he hears from God.  Then, upon receiving God’s sure Word, they immediately return to church to have their itching ears scratched.  As King Solomon said, there is nothing new under the sun.  The men sitting before Ezekiel would return to their synagogues where they would hear sin-ladened priests speak from their own hearts (Eze. 3:17).  Idolatrous, iniquitous people who present themselves “as My (God’s) people” have not changed, but neither has God’s attitude toward their idolatry and iniquity.  God does not “know” those who hear His Words but refuse to do them.  As the Apostle Paul said, “It is not the hearers of the Law who are justified before God, but the doers of the Law shall (continue to) be justified” (Rom. 2:13).  Obedience to His Word/Law/Gospel/Light/Truth is the only proof of one’s love for God that He will accept (Jn. 8:31; 14:15,23; 15:10/ Mat. 19:17).  L.J.