When the wall collapses, will people not ask you, “Where is the whitewash you covered it with?” (Ezekiel 13:12 NIV).
In this passage, God is denouncing the false prophets of Israel. Instead of proclaiming God’s message, these false prophets were making the people of God believe in lies.
They caused the people of Israel to go astray by proclaiming peace to them when God had not commanded peace. In such manner these prophets deceived the people.
Now God compares these acts of the false prophets to whitewashing a flimsy wall when it is built. A flimsy wall doesn’t have any strength. It will fall when the smallest force is applied against it.
But the false prophets whitewash even the flimsy walls. This is done so that the wall will have a false appearance of beauty and strength. This is again done to deceive the people.
People may and can be deceived. But you cannot deceive God, however clever your deception may appear to be. There has always been false prophets coming to deceive God’s people.
They will come proclaiming peace and prosperity even to those who sin endlessly and have no thoughts of God. Such an act can be compared to whitewashing a flimsy wall.
We have to guard ourselves against such false prophets who do not rebuke us for our wrongs, but encourage us to deceive God.
Let us not allow anyone to whitewash our walls when it has no strength; for God will make it collapse in the day of His wrath. But let us make our walls strong in God’s truth. Let us refuse to be deceived.
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