Weak walls

Ezekiel 13:14

So I will break down the wall you have plastered with untempered mortar, and bring it down to the ground, so that its foundation will be uncovered; it will fall, and you shall be consumed in the midst of it. Then you shall know that I am the Lord.

 

Thought for the day – Weak walls

There’s a thought-provoking image in this prophecy from Ezekiel. God is challenging the false prophets that said that Ezekiel’s prophecy of the destruction of Jerusalem was a lie.  He's presenting those lies as weak walls. The idea here is that they may look solid, but actual fact, there is nothing to them.

And as I was thinking about this verse this morning, it really hit home to me because It got me thinking about what we present to people to stop people thinking we might be weak. And maybe God is challenging that in us today. God is saying to us, you cannot have any pretense. You cannot put up any walls that might hide the fact that you are struggling, That you might be deceiving yourself or others, and that this will have an impact on your witness and your life as the people of God.

It's hard for us as the people of God to acknowledge that there might be deceit or any kind of maliciousness. But as Paul says in Romans, we battle against our sin. We do the things that we do not want to do and we don't do the things that we want to do. And to paraphrase Paul, ‘oh what a wretched man I am. Who would save me from this life?’ The answer to that question is obviously Jesus and what Jesus does for us.

Jesus tears down the walls. Jesus breaks open the parts of our lives that need his light, his love, his grace and his mercy. In the same way that Jesus kicked down the gates of hell and tore down the barriers between life and death so that death could be overcome. So, Jesus tears down the weak walls in our lives. Walls made of untempered plaster. Walls that look strong, but in reality aren't.