Hearing His Voice #234

Tell [the leaders of Israel], “This is what the Sovereign LORD says: The people of Israel have set up idols in their hearts and fallen into sin, and then they go to a prophet asking for a message. So I, the LORD, will give them the kind of answer their great idolatry deserves. . . . And if a prophet is deceived into giving a message, it is because I, the LORD, have deceived that prophet.”

Ezekiel 14:4, 9

It’s a frightening prospect. The God of truth, the God who cannot lie, the God who has promised to guide His people—this is the God who tells idolaters that He will deceive prophets to set them up for failure. If they have craved false direction in order to satisfy their misplaced desires, they will receive it. He will lead them in a way that fits their wandering hearts.

As people who know the fickleness of our own hearts—we each have some inclinations toward idols at times—we tremble that God might mislead us. What if we are those people Jesus talked about, the ones who will be deceived by false prophets (Matthew 24:11, 24)? What if all those people who say we’re wrong for claiming to hear God’s voice are right? What if we are the faithless generation that is always looking for signs and hearing only what we want to hear?

It’s good to check ourselves with these kinds of questions, but not to obsess over them. Jesus spoke of false prophets who would claim to be the Messiah or who would offer alternate ways of salvation, not simply people who sought to hear God’s voice. Ezekiel writes of an extremely rebellious generation that stubbornly set up altars to false gods, not of sincere lovers of God who struggle with typical idolatrous tendencies, as all human beings do. Yes, we aren’t perfect; but if we aren’t in outright rebellion, we can hear God. He promises. He will never mislead those who sincerely seek Him with submissive hearts.

Lord, I fear getting it wrong. I know my own heart. But I’m not listening selectively or to feed my idols. Guide me into truth—whatever Your truth entails for my life.