Ezekiel 14:9

The prophet. The reference here is to the false prophets whose practices are reproved in Ezekiel 13.

I the Lord. That is, the Lord permits the evil prophet to be deceived in the same sense in which He hardened Pharaoh’s heart, by permitting the seed of obstinacy to spring up and bear fruit (see on Exodus 4:21; 1 Kings 22:22).

Will destroy him. The sinner brings destruction upon himself by his own impenitence (see 5T 120). When a person once neglects to heed the invitations, reproofs, and warnings of the Spirit of God, his conscience becomes partly seared, and the next time he is admonished, it is more difficult to yield obedience than before. He is like a man who is sinking under disease, yet refuses medicine. However, in the Scriptures, God, the physician, is often represented, in figure, as sending also the results of the disease upon those who refuse His remedy. For example, He is represented as sending a lying spirit into the mouth of the prophets that they might counsel a king to undertake the wrong course he was already determined to pursue (1 Kings 22:19-23). Thus also when Saul’s heart became alienated from God and the “Spirit of the Lord departed from” him, the evil spirit, which came instead, is said to have come “from the Lord” (1 Samuel 16:14).

However, this must not be taken to mean that God can ever be the author of sin and deceit. But in His plan He simply does not work the miracle that would be required to prevent the results of sin. From the heart that rejects Him, He withdraws His Spirit, gives up that soul to its own delusions, and permits sin to bring forth its inevitable fruitage, death. “O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself; but in me is thine help” (Hosea 13:9; GC 36, 37; see on 2 Chronicles 22:8).