The Indictment
Ezekiel 8
Emmanuel Christian Church
2.4.24
INTRODUCTION: Last week in Ezekiel chapters 5-7 we saw the
foreshadow of God’s coming judgment upon His people. Seven times,
God said to His people, “This is what the LORD says.”- yet they would
not listen. As a result, God warned them about the soon and coming day
of “Doom”.
This coming day of “Doom” was not without purpose. Ultimately, it
was a painful tool in the hand of God to bring His people back from their
sinful rebellious state. Seven times He said; “Then they will know that I
am the LORD.”
PROPOSITION: God’s people were on trial. And as with any legal
proceeding, the first order of business is to read the charges against the
accused. This is the point of Ezekiel chapter 8.
TRANSITION: But before the charges are read, God calls the prophet
Ezekiel in a dramatic way 14 months after his first call from chapter 1.
Ezekiel 8:1 In the sixth year, in the sixth month on the fifth day, while I
was sitting in my house and the elders of Judah were sitting before me,
the hand of the Sovereign LORD came upon me there. 2 I looked, and I
saw a figure like that of a man. From what appeared to be his waist down
he was like fire, and from there up his appearance was as bright as
glowing metal. 3 He stretched out what looked like a hand and took me
by the hair of my head. The Spirit lifted me up between earth and heaven
and in visions of God he took me to Jerusalem, to the entrance to the
north gate of the inner court, where the idol that provokes to jealousy
stood. 4 And there before me was the glory of the God of Israel, as in the
vision I had seen in the plain.
THREE POINTS OF INTEREST:
- The elders of Judah visiting in Ezekiel’s house were likely those from
the first two deportations of 5 and 13 years previous. No doubt, they
were drawn there by his strange behaviors of the first vision 14 months
earlier.
- The “figure of a man” was identical to that of chapter one, and is
described as the “LORD” and the “Spirit”.
- From Babylon to Jerusalem, Ezekiel is transported in a vision to the
Temple in Jerusalem- and the first thing he sees is a great
contradicting irony- the glory of God’s presence facing down an evil
idol “that provokes to Jealousy”.
APPLICATION: So what are WE to take away from this vision? Simply
this- when God grabs you by the hair of your head, He has something He
wants you to hear- and it would be a GOOD IDEA to listen!
Let’s see what God has to say as He brings criminal charges against three
groups of people still living back in the land of Judah.
The first group under God’s indictment are…
THE PEOPLE (vs. 5-6)
Ezekiel 8:5 Then he said to me, “Son of man, look toward the north.” So I
looked, and in the entrance north of the gate of the altar I saw this idol of
jealousy.
Ezekiel 8:6 And he said to me, “Son of man, do you see what they are
doing — the utterly detestable things the house of Israel is doing here,
things that will drive me far from my sanctuary? But you will see things
that are even more detestable.”
- The location of this first scene is apparently the outer Temple courtyard
where the common Jewish people could gather.
- It’s in this place that Ezekiel sees “the idol of jealousy”. What might this
idol be that invoked the jealously of God? A good guess comes from the
reign of wicked king Manasseh who actually erected an Ashera pole in
the Temple! (2 Kings 21:7)
- Over 800 years earlier, Joshua had warned God’s people about
adopting the religions of the Canaanites- things exactly like Ashera
poles!
Joshua 24:15 But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then
choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods
your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in
whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve
the LORD.”
APPLICATION: The culture in which we live has the power to entice us
away from our undivided devotion to God. If you don’t actively push
back against it, you will find yourself absorbed by it- just like the
people of Judah.
If that wasn’t bad enough, it was about to get even worse! The next group
under God’s indictment, were…
THE POLITICIANS (7-15)
Ezekiel 8:7 Then he brought me to the entrance to the court. I looked,
and I saw a hole in the wall. 8 He said to me, “Son of man, now dig into
the wall.” So I dug into the wall and saw a doorway there.
Ezekiel 8:9 And he said to me, “Go in and see the wicked and detestable
things they are doing here.” 10 So I went in and looked, and I saw
portrayed all over the walls all kinds of crawling things and detestable
animals and all the idols of the house of Israel. 11 In front of them stood
seventy elders of the house of Israel, and Jaazaniah son of Shaphan was
standing among them. Each had a censer in his hand, and a fragrant cloud
of incense was rising.
Ezekiel 8:12 He said to me, “Son of man, have you seen what the elders
of the house of Israel are doing in the darkness, each at the shrine of his
own idol? They say, ‘The LORD does not see us; the LORD has forsaken
the land.’” 13 Again, he said, “You will see them doing things that are
even more detestable.”
Ezekiel 8:14 Then he brought me to the entrance to the north gate of the
house of the LORD, and I saw women sitting there, mourning for Tammuz.
15 He said to me, “Do you see this, son of man? You will see things that
are even more detestable than this.”
- I call this group “the politicians”, because these “seventy elders” were
the community leaders of the people.
- Even worse than the idolatry of the people in the outer court, these
“leaders of the people” were positioned even closer to God’s glory in
the inner court of the Temple!
- And what does Ezekiel find them doing? Worshipping not only the idols
of Israel, but animal images scrawled on the Temple walls!
- I can’t help but think that the Apostle Paul was thinking of this very
scene when he wrote these words to the Romans:
Romans 1:21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as
God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their
foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Although they claimed to be wise, they
became fools 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images
made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.
APPLICATION: The pattern is as clear as day, if you give up on the
knowledge and worship of the one true God, you will inevitably end up
doing something incredibly foolish like worshipping the Creation instead of
the Creator- can anyone say “EVOLUTION”?
- But what about those women worshipping the god Tammuz? Well, I
wonder if those women were the wives of the seventy elders! And as to the
god Tammuz, this was one of the pagan deities of Mesopotamia- home of
their tormentors, the Babylonians!
If that wasn’t bad enough, it was about to get even worse! The last group
to be indicted by God were,
THE PRIESTS (vs. 16)
Ezekiel 8:16 He then brought me into the inner court of the house of the
LORD, and there at the entrance to the temple, between the portico and
the altar, were about twenty-five men. With their backs toward the temple
of the LORD and their faces toward the east, they were bowing down to
the sun in the east.
- Who were these guys? Their number suggests that they were the two
courses of Temple priests (12x2) and the High Priest himself (for a total
of 25)!
- What are the priests of God’s Temple doing? Worshipping “Ra” the sun
god of the Egyptians!!
APPLICATION: So get the picture- God’s people were worshipping the
pagan gods of their neighbors to the east and west, along with the gods of
the native people of their land. The only God they were NOT worshipping
was the one TRUE God who had called them to be His very own!
His people having repeatedly broken the first of the Ten Commandments,
God pours out His heart to Ezekiel in the last two verses of chapter 8:
Ezekiel 8:17 He said to me, “Have you seen this, son of man? Is it a trivial
matter for the house of Judah to do the detestable things they are doing
here? Must they also fill the land with violence and continually provoke me
to anger? Look at them putting the branch to their nose! 18 Therefore I
will deal with them in anger; I will not look on them with pity or spare them.
Although they shout in my ears, I will not listen to them.”
CONCLUSION: What happens when a nation forsakes the proper worship
of the Almighty God of the universe? Humility gives way to arrogance,
peace is consumed by violence and God’s righteous judgment reigns
down!
Even a casual consideration of our own nation would lead us to conclude
that as it was then, so it is now.
The sin of idolatry is very simple: putting anyone or anything in the place of
our worship and devotion to God.
Let me challenge you this week to personally take inventory of your heart’s
priorities. If God is in any place other than first place- it’s time to clean
house!
