Ezekiel 14
 1 Some of the elders of Israel came to me and sat down in front of me. 2 Then the word of the LORD came to me: 3 “Son of man, these men have set up idols in their hearts and put wicked stumbling blocks before their faces. Should I let them inquire of me at all? 4 Therefore speak to them and tell them, ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: When any Israelite sets up idols in his heart and puts a wicked stumbling block before his face and then goes to a prophet, I the LORD will answer him myself in keeping with his great idolatry. 5 I will do this to recapture the hearts of the people of Israel, who have all deserted me for their idols.’
It is passages such as this that atheists often use against belief in God. They don’t want to believe in someone so mean, vindictive, and insecure, as they would put it. The common Christian response is to quote Jesus and share the gospel. While valid, it merely dismisses the problem that many atheists have with God as He really is… a righteous God of justice, whose understanding of the universe and human nature often transcends our sensitivities, to the point where He may appear to have discarded them.
God is a jealous god, and this is a clear example of what that really means. By human standards, it seems harsh and unreasonable. However, in reality, it is generous and compassionate. The scripture goes on…
 6 “Therefore say to the house of Israel, ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Repent! Turn from your idols and renounce all your detestable practices!
 7 ” ‘When any Israelite or any alien living in Israel separates himself from me and sets up idols in his heart and puts a wicked stumbling block before his face and then goes to a prophet to inquire of me, I the LORD will answer him myself. 8 I will set my face against that man and make him an example and a byword. I will cut him off from my people. Then you will know that I am the LORD.
 9 ” ‘And if the prophet is enticed to utter a prophecy, I the LORD have enticed that prophet, and I will stretch out my hand against him and destroy him from among my people Israel. 10 They will bear their guilt—the prophet will be as guilty as the one who consults him. 11 Then the people of Israel will no longer stray from me, nor will they defile themselves anymore with all their sins. They will be my people, and I will be their God, declares the Sovereign LORD.’ “
So, how does this actually work? Let’s start at the beginning…
“Â 7‘When any Israelite or any alien living in Israel separates himself from me and sets up idols in his heart and puts a wicked stumbling block before his face and then goes to a prophet to inquire of me, I the LORD will answer him myself.”
Well first of all, we’re talking about someone living in Israel. Based on some scriptural interpretations that include modern day America, I would say this would be any God-fearing land, either before or after the advent of Israel.
Next, notice that this warning applies to more than simply Israelites (i.e., Jews), but to aliens of Israel as well… in this case, gentiles. This is therefore a warning top any person seeking answers who has replaced God with something else to worship in their heart. And such answers will not be what these idolaters expect.
8 I will set my face against that man and make him an example and a byword. I will cut him off from my people. Then you will know that I am the LORD.
What kind of answer would God provide? Well, first of all, it would be the truth because God would not lie. He might mislead when the truth itself is incomprehensible to the answer’s recipient, but within what that person can grasp, the answer would be true. And in this case, the answer will cut that person off from God… though practically speaking, God is only confirming what this person has done in their heart already. From the perspective of His real followers, watching another cut off in this manner protects them, isolates them, enables them to worship without this false witness to distract them. But it’s more than that. There’s the prophet himself who becomes culpable, and he will be cut off, too…
 9 ” ‘And if the prophet is enticed to utter a prophecy, I the LORD have enticed that prophet, and I will stretch out my hand against him and destroy him from among my people Israel. 10 They will bear their guilt—the prophet will be as guilty as the one who consults him.
Now this would be easy to misunderstand. For example, if an idolator comes to church and goes to a pastor with the gift of prophecy, should that pastor not pray? Well, I do not think this refers to someone who is simply moved to pray for someone’s deliverance or salvation. But if that is not what this verse refers to, then what then might it be?
One possibility is illustrated in Genesis 3, when Eve talks to Satan in the garden. She really wanted to eat that apple. Perhaps it had already replaced God in her heart. And when she talked to Satan, is it possible that God was enticing Satan to answer her as he did?
 1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”
 2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’ ”
 4 “You will not surely die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
This has always been a peculiar passage to me, because Satan spoke the truth to Eve, and yet as she heard it, it was a lie… and she ate, and not only was Eve cut off and punished, but so was Satan, even more so than he already was. We can see how this works more directly in the book of Job where God enticed Satan to test Job. More to the point, notice who starts the dialog in Job 1. It isn’t Satan…
 6 One day the angels came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came with them. 7 The LORD said to Satan, “Where have you come from?”
      Satan answered the LORD, “From roaming through the earth and going back and forth in it.” 8 Then the LORD said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil.”
And then Satan goes on to challenge God, that Job only obeys God because he’s healthy and wealthy. He then asks God for permission to take it all away and God gives it to him. Now consider such dialogs between God and Satan occur all the time, but through people, where Satan is behind the idol-worshipper and God behind the prophet… with the idol-worshipper and prophet becoming the guilty bystanders. How might this work?
Consider the same dialog, but through people:
One day the Israelites came to present their sacrifices before the priest, and a worshipper of Baal also came with them. The priest said to idolator, “Where have you come from?”
      The idolator answered the priest, “From roaming through the earth, watching its peoples, and going back and forth in it.”Then the priest said to the idolator, “Have you considered that man over there? The one offering up the best of his flock? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil.”
And so the dialog goes on, the idolator pointing out that this man only worships God because he has health and wealth, that if the idolator could take those away, that faithful man would curse God. And so the priest grants hims permission to do as he says.
Seems pretty outrageous, huh? An idolator who clearly knows there is a God, and a priest giving him permission to harm a righteous man? Yikes… that idolator and that priest would surely be guilty of sin! And yet, we know it is exactly the kind of situation that God would entice, because it is the very situation that occurred when God discussed Job with Satan, without the human go-betweens. So why is it that God was not in sin in Job 1, but our hypothetical priest would have been, simply channeling those same words?  But even that aside, why would God entice someone to sin?Â
The key is that context determines sin. God enticing Satan is not a sin for God; but a priest channeling that enticement is a sin for that priest. The difference is context, and it cuts to the chase regarding issues like sin, free will, fatalism, and determinism.  And if we cannot understand why God is not a sinner when enticing Satan, that is, if we would accuse God of sin when enticing a priest to say words that aren’t a sin for God, then we are missing the context. We are not understanding God’s perspective on us, on righteousness, and on justice.
To understand the context, let us go back to the scripture above…
“Â 7‘When any Israelite or any alien living in Israel separates himself from me and sets up idols in his heart and puts a wicked stumbling block before his face and then goes to a prophet to inquire of me, I the LORD will answer him myself.”
Now, we already reviewed some of this above, but notice something we left out. The person approaching the prophet has put a wicked stumbling block before his face. What might this be? Well, in our hypothetical situation above, our idolator is challenging the righteousness of someone, asserting that such a man is only righteous because he is wealthy and healthy. Well, a man who is truly righteous receives his righteousness from God, on account of his belief, obedience, and zealousness for God. In other words, a righteous man’s righteousness is from God, and so to challenge a truly righteous man’s righteousness is to challenge God. If a stumbling block is something is something you cannot see that brings you down, then our idolator apparently cannot see this man’s righteousness for what it really is. His blindness is his stumbling block, and a wicked stumbling block it is.
So, in his blindness, our idolator goes to the prophet, his skeptic heart on display. Now, what would a Godly priest actually do in a situation like this? To make this a bit more real, what would a Catholic priest say if our idolator went up to him? Well, I went to a Catholic baptism once and went up to him during communion. I am not a Catholic, and went up there out of respect, but ignorance. He immediately knew I wasn’t a Catholic, and politely told me that this part was only for members of the Catholic church and sent me back to my seat. And that is what our hypothetical priest above should do with our idolator. No matter what else comes to mind, he should send the idolator away. But suppose he doesn’t.
According to Jesus, we are not simply guilty of our actions, but of our lusts. Therefore, if God were to entice our priest to something, it would only something consistent with that priest’s hidden heart, something that priest is already guilty of inside. Now, I realize there are no exceptions in verse 7, and so I believe that sewn in between the free will of our idolator and priest is God’s hand making sure the idolator goes only to the priest with secret sin, for a godly man would only turn the idolator away. So God will entice our priest to say some truth, a truth he shouldn’t say, a truth he already wants to say, to a man who shouldn’t listen. In this context, is God the author of any sin? No. Because the priest is free to choose his words, or even say nothing at all. However, being true to his heart, he will not exercise the free will that he has, he will say the words, and he will be guilty for them, because he meant them before they were even uttered. His heart is what commits the sin, not his mouth, but his mouth will get him punished, because now his heart can be seen.
God is not the author of sin, but the revealer of it, and God will do surprising things to reveal a person’s sin, and will often not punish a man until his sin can be seen. And so we have to men in sin: an idolator a priest. And now their sin can be seen, and God will punish them for it.
8 I will set my face against that man and make him an example and a byword. I will cut him off from my people. Then you will know that I am the LORD.
And why? Is it because God enjoys punishing? No. It is for the benefit of those men who will see the display, understand it, and choose righteousness in their hearts.
11 Then the people of Israel will no longer stray from me, nor will they defile themselves anymore with all their sins. They will be my people, and I will be their God, declares the Sovereign LORD.’ “
In other words, having seen the fruits of evil desire, they will choose the fruits of righteousness. They will choose to believe God when He says things; they will obey Him; they will be zealous for the purity of His name.
Now getting back to Job, why wasn’t God in sin? Context. God is not a servant priest, tasked with the job of leading the righteous in God’s ways. No, He is the very God who tasked the priest, and that priest had a disobedient heart. God is not limited to talking only to the righteous; He may talk to whomever He pleases. And finally, giving someone permission to sin is not a sin. We already have permission frankly; it is up to us to choose it or not, and it is up to Satan as well, and he has.
The final charge I will address is that God does not stop sin that He can stop, and hence He Himself must be evil. Philosophers have written volumes, and I will not pretend to do them justice here. But I will say this… I can stop my son from sinning in action, but I cannot stop his heart. And it is only by letting him sin in action that his heart can be molded into one doesn’t want to. And so it is with us. Am I evil for letting my son make his own mistakes, sometimes protecting him and sometimes not? Of course not, and neither is God.
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