God had sent Ezekiel to prophesy to the people of Israel who did not follow God. They had rejected Him and refused to follow His commands. The nation, as a whole, had separated themselves from God. God called out Ezekiel and sent him to call them to repentance. This section of Scripture records a summary of several mes-sages that he gave to them as he described their sins and called them to turn from their wicked ways.
At the beginning of this message, the prophet talked about rain. God had promised King Solomon that He would not withhold rain as a blessing for their obedience, but He would withhold rain as a judgment against them for their disobedience. Ezekiel reminds them of the reason for the lack of rain: God's judgment upon them for their sin. Then, the prophet described the sins of the prophets, priests, princes, and the general people that prompted God's judgment upon them.

Since Israel provides a vivid picture of the Church, we can learn from the study of God's dealings with Israel. The present condition of the church mirrors the condition of Israel described in our study passage. Like Israel, we, too, experience a famine of spiritual rain. We have begun to experience God's judgment upon us for our sin-fulness. We have failed to follow God completely.

As Ezekiel explained their sinfulness to Israel, he specifically identified the presence of sinful leadership. As with Israel, the church suffers from the disastrous impact of false prophets and teachers that have led to the spiritual decline in the church. Since God has not changed, we can use Ezekiel's message as a warning and guide to us to help us identify false leadership in the church today. As he described the sins of the false proph-ets, he developed three main offenses, the conspiracy of the prophets, which contributed to Israel's deplorable condition.

First, these sinful spiritual leaders devoured souls. Ezekiel said in verse 25, "There is a conspiracy of the proph-ets in the midst thereof like a roaring lion ravening the prey." Many of us have observed videos of lions pursu-ing after their prey. Once the hunters capture their prey, the pride of lions ravages the victim. That picture de-scribes what the false prophets in Ezekiel's time did.

The history of Israel reveals several ways that the false prophets devoured souls. In the most obvious way, they destroyed true prophets. When a true prophet contradicted a false one, the false prophets often killed the true one. Hebrews 11 recounts some of the ways they destroyed them. They chopped off their heads, drove swords through their bodies, and sawed them in half. They did all kinds of cruel mutilations to them and thereby de-voured them.

In addition, false prophets defamed the true prophets. They denounced their messages, mocked them, banished them, and punished them for their pronouncements. In other instances, they brought the prophet of God into the public square and put them in stocks. Everyone would go by, laugh at them, and mock them because they had the audacity to try to proclaim the truth against the false prophets who had control of things. By their actions, these false leaders deprived the people of God's truth, which led to the devastation of the people and their lands at the hands of Israel's enemies who devoured them.

Furthermore, the false prophets devoured souls by declaring a false message of peace and prosperity in times of danger. They stood in the face of danger and in the midst of difficulty and hardship and said, "Peace, peace. Everything is good. There is not any trouble. There is not any problem. Everything is going wonderful. Peace, peace. Things are wonderful. They are going great." But, they proclaimed a false message. In fact, the people faced extreme hardship, difficulty, and danger. The false message of peace and prosperity ultimately led the people into destruction.

In particular, this happened in Jeremiah's day. He said,

"For from the least of them even unto the greatest of them every one is given to covetousness; and from the prophet even unto the priest every one dealeth falsely. They have healed also the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace."

Ezekiel proclaimed a similar message in chapter 13. He said,

"Because with lies ye have made the heart of the righteous sad, whom I have not made sad; and strengthened the hands of the wicked, that he should not return from his wicked way, by promising him life."

Therefore, the false prophet delivered a false message of peace and prosperity that led to their enemies devour-ing them.

Each of these examples describes events in our day. In many parts of the world, men and women lose their lives because they proclaim the truth of God to their peoples. More Godly men and women have lost their lives for Christ in our day than all previous eras combined.

Others suffer severe persecution. Even in our land, believers endure mockery and defamation because they stand for God. Some lose jobs and professional positions because of their love for God. Worse yet, some who stand for the truth in the professing church meet ostracism, condemnation, and exclusion from leadership.