Outline:
1-2 Holy Fire
3-6 Wicked Image
7-12 Wicked walls
13-14 Wicked weeping
15-16 Wicked worship
17-18 Righteous
Resolution
1-2 Holy Fire
And it came to pass in the
sixth year, in the sixth month, on the fifth day of the
month, (September 17, 592 BC) as I (Ezekiel) sat in my house with the elders of Judah sitting
before me, that the hand of the Lord God fell upon me there.
2 Then I looked, and there was a likeness,
like the appearance of fire—from the appearance of His waist and downward,
fire; and from His waist and upward, like the appearance of
brightness, like the color of amber.
2,617 years ago.
13 years after Daniel was taken captive to Babylon.
4 years after Ezekiel was taken.
About 13 months after Ezekiel’s first vision.
Ezekiel had his own house.
He had the respect, or at least the attention, of the
elders.
Elders weren’t just old
folks, they were leaders.
It appears they gathered on a regular basis at Zeke’s
place to see and hear what the Lord had to say through the prophet. (Ez. 14:1,
20:1, 33:30-31).
On this day without warning, like with Moses at the
burning bush (Exodus 3:2), like tongues of fire (Acts 2:3), the Lord appeared
to Zeke in a blaze of glory.
For our God is a consuming fire (Heb. 12:29).
The others probably saw and heard nothing, other than
perhaps, a gasp from Zeke’s lips and the look of awe and wonder and even a
glow, radiating from his face.
The others were yacking about the weather while Zeke
was seeing and hearing Him who created the weather.
Dear friend, I pray you don’t simply read these words,
but see and hear, The Word.
Deuteronomy 4:24. For the LORD your God is
a consuming fire, a jealous God.
3-6 Wicked Image
3 He stretched out the form of a hand, and took me by a lock of my hair; and the Spirit lifted me up between earth and heaven, and brought me in visions of God to Jerusalem, to the door of the north gate of the inner court, where the seat of the image of jealousy was, which provokes to jealousy. 4 And behold, the glory of the God of Israel was there, like the vision that I saw in the plain. (Ez. 3:22-23).
5 Then He
said to me, “Son of man, lift your eyes now toward the north.” So I lifted my
eyes toward the north, and there, north of the altar gate, was this image
of jealousy in the entrance.
6 Furthermore
He said to me, “Son of man, do you see what they are doing, the
great abominations that the house of Israel commits here, to make
Me go far away from My sanctuary? Now turn again, you will see greater
abominations.”
Not literally lifted by the hair of his head but
brought by God in vision to Jerusalem.
And what does God show him?
Imagine your friend stops by. You can see he’s sad.
He says, “let’s go for a ride.” He takes you to his
house. The house he built for his wife. He stops just shy of the driveway and
tells you he’s going to leave her.
You can’t believe it. He loves his wife beyond measure.
He’s the best husband ever. “Why?” You ask.
He points.
There in the driveway sits a nice, shiny, brand new,
fancy, automobile.
“You bought your wife a new car?”
“It’s not hers. It’s his.”
About then out walks Mr. Fancy Car with your friend’s
wife on his arm.
“Maybe it’s just an old friend? Relative? Brother?”
They pause and hug and kiss, a long, this ain’t your brother
kiss.
You can see he’s hurt and sad, and mad, but mostly,
jealous.
He simply says, “Do you see what they are doing to
make me go far away from my sanctuary?”
Israel setting up idols not only broke the first 2 of
the 10 commandments, but broke God’s heart. (No gods. No idols. Ex. 20:1-17 and
Dt. 5:6-21).
You see, God takes His relationship with us personal. Idolatry hurts like adultery.
Before we ask, “How could Israel be so dumb as to
worship some stupid statue made of wood or stone?”
We must ask if we’re so dumb.
Do we love Him first above all else?
Do we put anything before God? (Family? Health? Reputation?
Pleasure? Money? Job? Mr. Fancy Car?)
Do we have idols?
Do we put feet to our faith? (Faith without works is
dead. James 2:17, 20, 24, 26).
Does our commitment to God show by our lifestyle
regarding three simple foundational principles of a Christian?
ü Prayer
ü Bible Reading
ü Church
Are they non-negotiable?
Even when the schedule gets busy?
Or does the doctor’s appointment, a call from a
friend, a late night movie or sleeping in, steal the time intended for Him?
Yeah, but Doug, you’re being too legalistic. I don’t have
to do all that stuff. I’m saved by grace not by works.
Exactly the point. You don’t have to.
IF you love Him, if
you know Him, if you have no other gods or idols before
Him...
YOU WILL.
You don’t have to, you get
to, you want to, it’s a joy to.
“Seek
first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these
other things will be added unto you.” Matthew 6:33.
“Love the Lord your God with all your
heart, soul, mind, strength...” Deuteronomy 6:4-7, Matthew 22:37-40, Mark
12:30-31, Luke 10:27
When the Lord looks at the gate of your heart, what
does He see? An idol that drives Him to jealousy?
Or, does He see, His reflection?
2 Corinthians 3:18.
But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of
the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to
glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.
7-12 Wicked walls
7 So He
brought me to the door of the court; and when I looked, there was a hole in the
wall. 8 Then He said to me, “Son of man, dig into the
wall”; and when I dug into the wall, there was a door.
9 And He said
to me, “Go in, and see the wicked abominations which they are doing
there.” 10 So I went in and saw, and there—every sort
of creeping thing, abominable beasts, and all the idols of the house of
Israel, portrayed all around on the walls. 11 And
there stood before them seventy men of the elders of the house of Israel,
and in their midst stood Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan.
Each man had a censer in his hand, and a thick 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 do in the dark, every man in the room of his idols? For they
say, ‘The Lord does not see us, the Lord has forsaken
the land.’ ”
Like the wall, their hearts were holey, not holy.
Like the Lion, the witch and the wardrobe, Ezekiel
stepped through a hidden door in the wall.
Of course he’s seeing a vision, but it’s a realistic
picture of the spirit realm.
To the natural eye they may have appeared righteous, in
the temple, going through religious rituals.
Burning incense was meant by God to represent the
prayers of the saints, a sweet aroma to the Lord.
But their perverted hearts made their religious rituals
a vile stench to the Lord.
The temple was supposed to be filled with the light
and glory of the Lord and the walls adorned with heavenly cherubim.
Instead, the walls crawled with every unclean creeping
thing, exposing how the elders had gone from worshiping their Creator in the
light to worshiping demonic abominations in the dark.
Ask the Lord: “What wickedness is hiding between
the walls of my heart?”
Do we hide sins like idols because we like them, enjoy
them, want to keep worshiping them? Even though we know they’re wrong we want them,
so we hide them.
Repent. The idol is coming between you and God.
However, on the other hand, do we hide them because we
despise them? Are we ashamed of them, are we battling to defeat them? Are we appalled
at the addicted weakness of our flesh?
That’s conviction, not condemnation. Keep fighting. God
understands and stands beside you in the battle. If you don’t quit, He will
make sure you win, even if it’s not until you hear Him say, “Well done.”
The mention of Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan, is
a warning.
Just a generation earlier, Shaphan helped king Josiah (2
Kings 22), turn the nation of Israel back to the Lord. Yet now his son leads
the hideous slide to idolatry, inside the very Temple his father helped
cleanse.
Heritage cannot guarantee holiness, or wickedness.
One generation can turn the tide of a nation for good
or evil.
Israel’s prior revival with Josiah was squandered in a
generation when the leaders abandoned the Word of God.
As for US, we are in a hard and bloody battle, but by
the grace of God, we’re still standing.
We’re at a Turning Point.
We have opportunity to see a measure of justice, an increase
in righteousness.
IF we stay in the fight. IF we stop worrying
about, thinking about, talking about, the dark. And be busy about, thinking
about, talking about, walking about, in the Light.
Matthew 5:16. Let your light so shine
before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in
heaven.
13-14 Wicked weeping
13 And He said
to me, “Turn again, and you will see greater abominations that they
are doing.” 14 So He brought me to the door of the north
gate of the Lord’s house; and to my dismay, women were sitting there
weeping for Tammuz.
Weeping for Tammuz was a demonic pagan ritual.
The mythological stories vary but go something like
this:
Tammuz was a handsome god, married to goddess Ishtar.
In the fall of the year, Tammuz died (some say at the
hand of Ishtar). Then, the tears from her weeping brought him to life in the spring.
So, each fall the women cried for Tammuz. In the
spring they celebrated with a marriage ceremony, which likely included immoral
lascivious rituals in hopes of birthing an abundance of crops and offspring.
The weeping women may represent temple prostitutes.
Our generation has developed a mourning, victim
mentality. An ever weeping, woe is me, it’s not my fault, ever needing, never
winning, always losing, help me, help me, mentality.
That is far, far, far, from Godly.
You are called to be a victor not a victim, the head
and not the tail, above and not beneath, more than a conqueror, a soul winner
and disciple maker, walking in the strength, and joy, and light and love of the
Lord.
God calls all that wicked weeping, wailing, mourning: greater
abominations.
But, it gets even worse.
15-16 Wicked worship
15 Then He
said to me, “Have you seen this, O son of man? Turn again, you will
see greater abominations than these.” 16 So He brought me
into the inner court of the Lord’s house; and there, at the door of the
temple of the Lord, between the porch and the
altar, were about twenty-five men with their backs toward the
temple of the Lord and their faces toward the east, and they were
worshiping the sun toward the east.
This is the worst of the four abominations.
Twenty-five men (perhaps twenty-four priests and one
high priest) on sacred ground with a sacred duty to lead people to the Lord.
Instead, they openly, arrogantly, rejected the Lord,
turned their backs to Him and led the people into all kinds of wickedness.
This was the last straw.
17-18 Righteous Resolution
17 And He said
to me, “Have you seen this, O son of man? Is it a trivial thing to
the house of Judah to commit the abominations which they commit here? For they
have filled the land with violence; then they have returned to provoke Me
to anger. Indeed they put the branch to their nose.
18 Therefore I
also will act in fury. 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.”
It started with just a little compromise, an image
outside the gate.
You know, to show tolerance, to coexist, to show,
inclusion, equity, diversity... insanity.
Then, it went straight to the temple, to the Church,
filling the walls with every perverted, dark, demonic, unclean thing.
Then, heaviness, mourning, weeping, replaced the joy of
the Lord.
Finally, the conscience was seared, hearts hardened, minds
corrupt.
There was nothing left but for God to make the Righteous
Resolution:
To remove His Presence
For judgement to fall
For Tribulation to come
Yet, even then, even now, His goal is not destruction.
As a miraculous object lesson for US today, Israel
still stands. Small but mighty. For her size, the most powerful, prosperous,
nation on the planet. She’s still David standing against Goliath.
There are only two nations to whom God has made an
eternal promise.
Israel is one.
Are you the other?
1 Peter 2:9-10. But you are a
chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation,
His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him
who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.
(He calls you, doesn't drag you. It’s up
to you, to come out of the dark into His Light.)
2 Corinthians 6:16-18. And what agreement
has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living
God. As God has said:
“I will dwell in them
And walk among them.
I will be their God,
And they shall be My people.”
17 Therefore
“Come out from among them
and be separate, says the Lord.
Do not touch what is unclean,
And I will receive you.”
18 “I will be a Father to you,
And you shall be My sons and daughters,
Says the Lord Almighty.”
Let's pray:
Lord Jesus, will You please search our
hearts and show us if there be any idols, other gods, hidden sins, or ways we’ve
turned our back on You? Then, dear Lord, help us to abhor sin, run from it to
You. Teach us to be soul winners and disciple makers. So, of all those You’ve
given us, none are lost and we will all hear You say, “Well done.”
We love You, forever.
Amen.
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Ezekiel 8
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Ezekiel 8
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