The end of delusions.
The Jews had beer deluding themselves with a false proverb—or at all events, with a proverb falsely applied (see Ezekiel 12:22). Ezekiel tells them that such errors and those of flattering divination will both cease. There is to be an end to error.
I. DELUSIONS WIN A TEMPORARY TRIUMPH. The false prophet has his day of success. Flattering errors easily win their way into popularity. The history of thought is largely made up of the story of errors—their genesis, growth, prevalence, triumph, and decay. This fact should guard us against accepting any motive just because it happens to be triumphant. There are fashions in philosophy and theology. But truth is eternal and abiding, and it is therefore simply foolish to accept the ideas which chance to be in vogue at our own time without further inquiry.
II. THE TRIUMPH OF DELUSIONS IS FRUITLESS. Error is always barren of any solid results. It is darkness, death, negation. Even when at the acme of prosperity it is but as a bubble; it has no substance in it. There came a time when the vain vision and the flattering divination of the Jews were to be put to the test in the siege of Jerusalem. At this moment of trial they were found to be utterly useless. This is the fatal defect of a false idea. We may cherish it for long until we need to use it. But directly we put it into practice it crumbles away.
III. TROUBLE EXPOSES DELUSIONS. So long as Jerusalem prospered the vain visions continued, and the flattering divination was practised without intermission. It was the touch of real trouble that broke the bubble. Many a comfortable soul is living in a fool's paradise or direful error without fear or pain until some real adversity comes. Then the utter delusiveness of the admired notions is suddenly revealed with appalling amazement. If we are able to hold to fatal notions till the end of life, we shall find at last that they are but rotten planks, which will break up when we try to float on them eve, the chill waters of death.
IV. THE EXPOSURE OF DELUSIONS IS A BLESSING. Naturally enough, it first strikes the helpless dupes with dismay as a pure calamity. Why should they not be permitted to dream their lives away on a bed of roses although the volcano should be slumbering beneath? Because even apart from consequences truth is supremely desirable, and error is an evil thing. We ought to be thankful for a painful process which leads us out of darkness into light. But it is not necessary for us to wait for the alarming awakening. The revelation of God in Christ and the truths of inspiration are with us to spare us the terrible method of deliverance from error, and to lead us out of darkness into the light of Christ.
HOMILIES BY J.R. THOMSON