Scripture Daily

Context No. 1840 of 4322 · Ezekiel

Context · Reflection

Ezekiel 13:8-12: in context

8“‘Therefore the Lord GOD says: “Because you have spoken falsehood and seen lies, therefore, behold, I am against you,” says the Lord GOD. 9“My hand will be against the prophets who see false visions and who utter lying divinations. They will not be in the council of my people, neither will they be written in the writing of the house of Israel, neither will they enter into the land of Israel. Then you will know that I am the Lord GOD.” 10“‘Because, even because they have seduced my people, saying, “Peace;” and there is no peace. When one builds up a wall, behold, they plaster it with whitewash. 11Tell those who plaster it with whitewash that it will fall. There will be an overflowing shower; and you, great hailstones, will fall. A stormy wind will tear it. 12Behold, when the wall has fallen, won’t it be said to you, “Where is the plaster with which you have plastered it?”

God pronounces judgment on the false prophets who spoke lies in his name. They have led the people astray, he says, crying peace when there is no peace. It is as if, when the people build a flimsy wall, these prophets come and cover it with whitewash, making it look sound. But God will send a storm, driving rain and hail and wind, and the wall will fall. And when it collapses, he says, will it not be asked, where is the whitewash you covered it with?

The image God gives is sharp and useful: a flimsy wall covered with whitewash. The false prophets did not build anything sound; they took a weak, crumbling wall and coated it with whitewash, making it look solid and reassuring, crying peace, peace, when in truth there was no peace and the wall was about to fall. Their comfort was cosmetic, a coat of paint over a real and unaddressed problem. And when the storm came, the whitewash could not hold the wall together; it fell, and the pretty coating was exposed as worthless. There is a warning here against a very human temptation: to whitewash our problems rather than deal with them. We are often drawn to the cosmetic fix, the reassuring word, the coat of paint over a crumbling wall, rather than the hard work of addressing what is actually wrong. We tell ourselves, and others, that all is well when it is not; we cover real problems, in ourselves, our relationships, our communities, with a superficial reassurance that leaves the underlying weakness untouched. It looks better; it feels better; peace, peace, we say. But whitewash does not strengthen a failing wall, and comfortable lies do not fix real problems. And when the storm comes, when the pressure hits, the whitewashed wall falls, and the superficial reassurance is exposed as worthless. The passage calls us to the harder honesty of dealing with what is actually wrong, rather than papering over it. False comfort that ignores the real problem is not kindness but a setup for collapse. Better the honest word that names the crumbling wall and does the hard work of repair than the whitewash that hides the danger until the storm brings it down. Where is the whitewash you covered it with? is the question the storm will ask; and the wise deal with the wall, not the paint.

Am I tempted to whitewash real problems, in myself, my relationships, my life, with a superficial reassurance that leaves the underlying weakness untouched, crying peace when there is no peace, or can I do the harder, honest work of dealing with what is actually wrong, rather than painting over a wall that the storm will bring down?

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