30 “Son of man, your people talk about you in their houses and whisper about you at the doors. They say to each other, ‘Come on, let’s go hear the prophet tell us what the Lord is saying!’ 31 So my people come pretending to be sincere and sit before you. They listen to your words, but they have no intention of doing what you say. Their mouths are full of lustful words, and their hearts seek only after money. 32 You are very entertaining to them, like someone who sings love songs with a beautiful voice or plays fine music on an instrument. They hear what you say, but they don’t act on it! 33 But when all these terrible things happen to them—as they certainly will—then they will know a prophet has been among them.”
When you are caught red-handed stealing from the cookie jar, it is hard to look innocent. In fact, it is impossible to look innocent. Nothing you do or say can take away from the fact that your hand is in the cookie jar, knowing you were not supposed to be in there.
What about the time you received that model airplane as a kid? It came in a box full of parts. The picture on the outside looks really cool, but all you see are a bunch of plastic pieces in a box that vaguely look like parts of the airplane in the picture. You decide to just start putting pieces together, only to realize things are missing and out of place. Reading the instructions beforehand would have been a great idea.
Israel was like a box full of parts. The Lord brought them out of Egypt with a mighty hand and miracles. The Lord was sending His people to the Promised Land. One thing was missing, though, the Lord had to put them together. He had to undo what 400 years of slavery had done to His people. At the base of Mount Sinai, He gave the people the Law of Moses, the list of instructions to follow while putting this ragtag bunch of slaves back together again. Along the way, the Lord would raise up prophets to be the voice of God to the people, men like Jeremiah, Isaiah, Elisha, and many more. While these ex-slaves were being fashioned into the people of God, many rabbit trails and do-overs came along the way.
The Lord finally had to raise up His cleaning crew, the Babylonians. The Lord gave them nearly every piece of land from present-day Iraq to Egypt. They brought the Israelites into captivity in Babylon, and it is here that Ezekiel is the Lord’s voice. He was a popular man, known throughout Babylon by the Israelites. He would go on about the coming destruction of kingdoms and of kings like he was reading a storybook. Most of the prophecies were not favorable to the Israelites, and for this, even though he was popular, his word fell on deaf ears.
Our verses come from a series of prophecies from Ezekiel to the Israelites directly. They would all gather to hear him, but no one was paying attention or heeding the warnings. When life gets hard, we often choose to turn to God or curse Him. Verse ten lets us know at least some of the Israelites were listening. It reads, “Our sins are heavy upon us, we are wasting away! How can we survive?” For these, a changed heart is a good thing. For the rest, well, verse 32 tells us what the other half is thinking. It reads, “You are very entertaining to them, like someone who sings love songs with a beautiful voice…They hear what you say, but they don’t act on it!”
Which group of people do you belong to? Are you one of the group acting remorseful for sinning, or are you part of the crowd just attending church because you think the preacher is fun to listen to? It is a heart question for sure. On one hand, you have the group that feels the Holy Spirit convicting them of their sin, and their heart is ready to turn and follow the Lord. The other group looks good in church, says all the right things, has all the right friends, but after church they act like they didn’t even hear any word from the pastor. It was entertaining at best. My friend, if you are at an entertaining church, you need to leave. The most chilling aspect of not turning to follow the Lord is found in verse 33, “But when all these terrible things happen to them, as they certainly will, then they will know a prophet has been among them.”
You have a choice today, a choice to follow the Lord with all of your heart and see the Lord work in your life and do miracle after miracle, or you can choose the entertainment route. It is an event for you at best. The pastor sounds good, but you have no intention of turning from your sin. The second route only finds the Lord after the disaster, and when you are at the bottom, you will say that the prophet told me about all this and I did not listen. You will know that the Lord is God then. If I were you, I know which route I would pick.
Prayer: Father, way too often we turn from You in most of our ways. I pray that we never turn from You. I pray that we would acknowledge You in all of our ways and never lean on our own understanding. Mold our hearts to go after You in everything we do. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Let It Go 
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