Ezekiel 8
Abominations in the Temple
8 In the sixth year, in the sixth month, on the fifth day of the month, as I sat in my house, with the elders of Judah sitting before me, the hand of the Lord God fell upon me there. 2 Then I looked, and behold, a form that had the appearance of a man. Below what appeared to be his waist was fire, and above his waist was something like the appearance of brightness, like gleaming metal. 3 He put out the form of a hand and took me by a lock of my head, and the Spirit lifted me up between earth and heaven and brought me in visions of God to Jerusalem, to the entrance of the gateway of the inner court that faces north, where was the seat of the image of jealousy, which provokes to jealousy. 4 And behold, the glory of the God of Israel was there, like the vision that I saw in the valley.
5 Then he said to me, “Son of man, lift up your eyes now toward the north.” So I lifted up my eyes toward the north, and behold, north of the altar gate, in the entrance, was this image of jealousy. 6 And he said to me, “Son of man, do you see what they are doing, the great abominations that the house of Israel are committing here, to drive me far from my sanctuary? But you will see still greater abominations.”
7 And he brought me to the entrance of the court, and when I looked, behold, there was a hole in the wall. 8 Then he said to me, “Son of man, dig in the wall.” So I dug in the wall, and behold, there was an entrance. 9 And he said to me, “Go in, and see the vile abominations that they are committing here.” 10 So I went in and saw. And there, engraved on the wall all around, was every form of creeping things and loathsome beasts, and all the idols of the house of Israel. 11 And before them stood seventy men of the elders of the house of Israel, with Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan standing among them. Each had his censer in his hand, and the smoke of the cloud of incense went up. 12 Then he said to me, “Son of man, have you seen what the elders of the house of Israel are doing in the dark, each in his room of pictures? For they say, ‘The Lord does not see us, the Lord has forsaken the land.’ ” 13 He said also to me, “You will see still greater abominations that they commit.”
14 Then he brought me to the entrance of the north gate of the house of the Lord, and behold, there sat women weeping for Tammuz. 15 Then he said to me, “Have you seen this, O son of man? You will see still greater abominations than these.”
16 And he brought me into the inner court of the house of the Lord. And behold, at the entrance of the temple of the Lord, between the porch and the altar, were about twenty-five men, with their backs to the temple of the Lord, and their faces toward the east, worshiping the sun toward the east. 17 Then he said to me, “Have you seen this, O son of man? Is it too light a thing for the house of Judah to commit the abominations that they commit here, that they should fill the land with violence and provoke me still further to anger? Behold, they put the branch to their nose. 18 Therefore I will act in wrath. My eye will not spare, nor will I have pity. And though they cry in my ears with a loud voice, I will not hear them.”
Chapter 8 begins Ezekiel’s vision, which stretches into chapter 11.
In the vision, Ezekiel is transported hundreds of miles from Babylon back to Jerusalem and the Temple, the House of the Lord. In chapter 8, Ezekiel is exposed to four scenes of increasing atrocity concerning the covenant relationship between the Lord and His people:
It begins at the north gate of the city where Ezekiel saw an idol of jealousy, a human form of a goddess, and its placement suggests that she is there to guard the city.
Then Ezekiel is at the Temple entrance to the courtyard where seventy elders of Israel are worshipping idols in a secret chamber.
Next, at the gate of the Temple itself, there is a woman weeping for the god Tammuz, a Babylonian god who watched over the dead as they traveled to the underworld. Literally, the people are worshipping the dead rather than the living Lord Almighty.
Finally, and worst of all, in the Temple’s inner court there are 25 men bowing to the east and worshipping the sun! They are literally turning their backs to the Lord as they worship creation rather than the Creator.
Wow! Can you imagine the impact of what Ezekiel saw? One vision after another of the people of God, his people, utterly, completely, absolutely, without question, entirely fallen and worshipping dead, lifeless, powerless things rather than the living Lord God.
In the story of the people of God, this is an amazing new low. In the previous devotional, we saw how even the nations around Judah, who didn’t worship the Lord, thought that the people of God were doing things that were completely wrong. God’s people were setting a new standard and definition for what was bad.
How did the people of God get to this point? It's beyond amazing to me that they could have fallen so far.
God has shown Ezekiel again and again how totally lost the leaders and the people were; how they had completely rejected Him and followed after other things. They worshipped idols, fertility gods, and even the sun. How in the world did they get to this point?
Have you ever been driving and, only for a second, started to mess around with the radio or phone, only to look up and realize that you'd driven a long way without really paying attention to what was happening around you? You wonder how much you missed, or how you managed to drive without swerving off course or hitting someone or something. Or worse, maybe you did hit someone or got pulled over and got a ticket because you were distracted while driving. That's what happens with sin. It doesn't seem like a big deal at first, but when you fail to deal with it, you wind up being wrecked.
That's what happened to the people of God. Little by little, bit by bit, they slowly took one step away from God (which is always the hardest) and then another and another, until they suddenly found themselves far from the relationship that they once had with the Lord. The sad thing is that we're not very different from them. We can just as easily get there. It’s just a bad word between friends, just a brief scene on the computer or television, just a whisper to a friend. But unchecked and unconfessed, it leads to much more: foul language, sexual immorality, gossip, slander, an addiction to pornography, judging others, and many other things. Then we may play the justification game, comparing ourselves to others, “I’m not that bad, look at what so and so does.” We easily fool ourselves into thinking that we’re not that far off the path when the fact of the matter is we’re lost in a dark wood, and there is no path in sight.
The good news is we don't have to go down that road. It can be avoided if we come before God daily and pursue Him in all that we do. If we work at building our relationship with Jesus and strengthen that relationship every day, we get the course corrections that we need to continue to walk with and be with Him.
So seek Jesus and know Him. He was born, lived, suffered, died, and rose again so that you could be free. You can have a living and active relationship with Jesus as His missional disciple, and through Him you can have a right relationship with God the Father.
God bless you and know that you are constantly in my prayers.
Scott