Lessons From Ezekiel – Lesson 6
After visions and sitting astonished for a week and then two object lessons and two hard messages of assurance that Jerusalem will fall, all in less than a year and a half, Ezekiel has the attention of the leaders in the camp.
Eze 8:1 And it came to pass in the sixth year, in the sixth month, in the fifth day of the month, as I sat in mine house, and the elders of Judah sat before me, that the hand of the Lord GOD fell there upon me.
The leaders come to Ezekiel’s house and sat before Ezekiel. They are being civil and showing at least on some level a little respect. But what they are there for we don’t know.
Obviously they went to talk to Ezekiel, but what were they going to say. Were they there to ask questions? Were they there to learn? Or were they there to express concerns. You have to admit that Ezekiel was causing quite a stir.
And his message would not have been popular. They pushed God and lived in sin for 430 years as a people group. They have altars and groves to idols on almost every mountain and in almost every valley.
The message that God gave Ezekiel was that God had enough and was going to destroy all the idols and altars and Jerusalem is going to be destroyed.
We do not know what these Elders were going to say. They might have been there to respectfully ask Ezekiel to tone it all down a bit. You know Ezekiel this kind disruption that you are causing is not good for the people. It is better Ezekiel for the people if they have hope that Jerusalem will be ok.
Maybe they were there for something like that, maybe not. The reason that we don’t know what they were going to say is that God interrupts this meeting.
The conversation that the Elders were there to have, never happened because God shows up and does a type of miracle.
Ezekiel is sitting there with the Elders before him, and with no notice. Just out of the blue, verse 1 says the hand of the Lord GOD fell there upon me. In verse 3 we get the detail that God took Ezekiel away in a vision. Not his body. Ezekiel will still be sitting there, but his mind will not be there.
Eze 8:2 Then I beheld, and lo a likeness as the appearance of fire: from the appearance of his loins even downward, fire; and from his loins even upward, as the appearance of brightness, as the colour of amber.
Ezekiel sees the Lord again. If you are counting this is the 3rd time. Once by the river when God called Ezekiel, the second time was when Ezekiel was told to go to the plain and God would talk with him there and this is the 3rd time.
Eze 8:3 And he put forth the form of an hand, and took me by a lock of mine head; and the spirit lifted me up between the earth and the heaven, and brought me in the visions of God to Jerusalem, to the door of the inner gate that looketh toward the north; where was the seat of the image of jealousy, which provoketh to jealousy.
Ezekiel is taken in the visions of God. This is a vision. God is making all of this happen in Ezekiel’s mind and spirit. His body is still there. Ezekiel’s body does not go. This is a vision. This is something that only God can do.
And when Almighty God did this I have no doubt that to Ezekiel it was like he was actually there. God has all power. Nothing is too hard for the Lord. It would have felt like it was real. Ezekiel says and took me by a lock of mine head and lifted me.
I believe Ezekiel felt that, just like if someone pulled your hair. And when Ezekiel says and brought me in the visions of God to Jerusalem, to the door of the inner gate.
To Ezekiel at that moment he is actually experiencing being there, but his body is still sitting in his house.
Now before we get into what God shows Ezekiel, let’s stop and think about those Elders sitting before Ezekiel. The Elders and Ezekiel are talking and all the sudden Ezekiel is mentally gone, I mean gone.
They could have went up to Ezekiel and waved their hands in front of his eyes and Ezekiel does not see it. Why? Ezekiel is seeing, literally seeing Jerusalem. The Elders could yell and scream at Ezekiel, and he is not hearing any of it. Because he is hearing God.
They knew that Ezekiel had said he had visions from God before. They may have believed it or they may have thought Ezekiel was making it up, but now they are present and get to see it happen to Ezekiel.
And this lasts a while. We are only going to see the first part of it today. I think the Elders stayed long enough to see that Ezekiel is not faking this. Ezekiel cannot see anything going on in his house and he can’t hear anything they say.
They could have went up that slapped Ezekiel in the face as hard as they can and Ezekiel would not even flinch. Ezekiel is not there.
We don’t know how long they stayed or when they left, but they are not there when Ezekiel returns from the vision. Whatever conversation they were going to have with Ezekiel never happened.
God stopped it. God picked this exact moment to take Ezekiel away in a vision. God could have chosen anytime He wanted. He could have waited until after the meeting. God moving at this moment was not convenient for the Elders. But God’s timing is always the right timing. Even though at that moment those Elders would not have thought so. What they had to say to Ezekiel, they could not say. The purpose they had could not be fulfilled.
God’s plans and His purpose and His timing is always correct and should always be trusted. We cannot always see or understand His purposes or His perfect timing. When Johnathan got way off, I could not understand what God was doing.
There was no way at that moment for me to foresee the good things that God had instore for us and the many people we would help and the number of people that would be given a chance with the gospel being delivered to where they live. I have seen it up close and this is true, we are helping more poor people and getting the gospel to more people than churches with a 300,000 thousand dollar a year budget.
God’s timing and His purposes are always best.
Those Elders did not know when they walked into that house that God was going to move in front of them. God was going to let them see something.
He was letting them see God communicate to Ezekiel thru a vision. They don’t see any of the vision, they only see the evidence that it is going on.
And I think this is yet another thing that God does to work with these leaders and get them prepared to listen. No one was ready to listen when Ezekiel showed up. God worked and the leaders show up to talk. And then we will see in about chapter 11 that people will finally be ready to listen.
At some point the Elders leave, Ezekiel does not have any idea that they left. God completely has Ezekiel’s attention in this vision.
Eze 8:4 And, behold, the glory of the God of Israel was there, according to the vision that I saw in the plain.
Eze 8:5 Then said he unto me, Son of man, lift up thine eyes now the way toward the north. So I lifted up mine eyes the way toward the north, and behold northward at the gate of the altar this image of jealousy in the entry.
Eze 8:6 He said furthermore unto me, Son of man, seest thou what they do? even the great abominations that the house of Israel committeth here, that I should go far off from my sanctuary? but turn thee yet again, and thou shalt see greater abominations.
Eze 8:7 And he brought me to the door of the court; and when I looked, behold a hole in the wall.
Eze 8:8 Then said he unto me, Son of man, dig now in the wall: and when I had digged in the wall, behold a door.
I said earlier when God did a vision like this it is a type of miracle. God is using His almighty power to do something that is not humanly possible. It is a vision but it is real in so many ways. Ezekiel is moved to Jerusalem, he sees and hears, and here he interacts physically with his surroundings.
God brought Ezekiel to the temple. A place where what is done is supposed to be according to God’s will and done in holiness in worship to God. But that is not what is going on there and God is going to expose that to Ezekiel.
The evil going on there is hidden from man’s sight. So God has Ezekiel dig in the wall. And as he digs he finds a buried door in the wall. God tells Ezekiel to open the door and go in and see the wickedness that is done in secret.
Eze 8:9 And he said unto me, Go in, and behold the wicked abominations that they do here.
Eze 8:10 So I went in and saw; and behold every form of creeping things, and abominable beasts, and all the idols of the house of Israel, pourtrayed upon the wall round about.
And remember where they are at. The place where God choose to put His name. In His house of worship. They are doing idol worship even there.
Eze 8:11 And there stood before them seventy men of the ancients of the house of Israel, and in the midst of them stood Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan, with every man his censer in his hand; and a thick cloud of incense went up.
The censer was what was used to burn incense to God. If you remember Aaron and Moses used censers to burn incense and stop the advance of a plague. The censer was a device that was to be used in service to God. So what we see here is these men are going thru the motions. They are actively burning incense and playing out the part, but it does not count.
They might say with their lips that they are burning this incense to God but they are actually in their hearts burning it to idols.
Eze 8:12 Then said he unto me, Son of man, hast thou seen what the ancients of the house of Israel do in the dark, every man in the chambers of his imagery? for they say, The LORD seeth us not; the LORD hath forsaken the earth.
Catch this. For they say, The LORD seeth us not.
This is the point of this whole section. The buried door that hid from the sight of Ezekiel what evil was going on. And how the truth had to be dug out and exposed so Ezekiel could see it.
Well God did not have to dig it out. God did not have to open the door for it to be exposed. God sees it all. God already saw it all before he told Ezekiel to dig.
Mankind has the ability to deceive himself. Man can fool himself into believing that either God does not see this sin that I like or that God does not care about it. These religious lost men believe both.
for they say, The LORD seeth us not; the LORD hath forsaken the earth. The LORD hath forsaken the earth is a way of saying God is not going to do anything about it. If God was actively involved in the earth, then He would act. But God has forsaken the earth so He eyes are not here and He will not act.
Do people do this same kind of thing today? In the name of Jesus and the Bible many will teach what they want instead of what the Bible teaches. They will do and advocate many evil things that are unbiblical and do it with a straight face in the name of God.
Others will try to put a clean face forward. Act out things like they are expected, like these men who were burning incense in their censors. But inwardly are all rotten inside. And somehow because things are going ok or even good they think they are getting away with it, that either God does not see it or that God does not care enough to act, that He has forsaken and turned His back on the earth.
But that is not true. God is teaching thru Ezekiel here that God does see it all and that God does in fact care. He is keeping track of it all. His lack of action so far in no way means that God does not care about it.
Eze 8:13 He said also unto me, Turn thee yet again, and thou shalt see greater abominations that they do.
Eze 8:14 Then he brought me to the door of the gate of the LORD’S house which was toward the north; and, behold, there sat women weeping for Tammuz.
Tammuz, in Mesopotamian religion, was god of fertility embodying the powers for new life in nature in the spring. At the gate to the Lord’s house they are crying for a false god of fertility.
Eze 8:15 Then said he unto me, Hast thou seen this, O son of man? turn thee yet again, and thou shalt see greater abominations than these.
Eze 8:16 And he brought me into the inner court of the LORD’S house, and, behold, at the door of the temple of the LORD, between the porch and the altar, were about five and twenty men, with their backs toward the temple of the LORD, and their faces toward the east; and they worshipped the sun toward the east.
They have openly now turned their backs to God and His house and openly worship the sun. And they are standing in the inner court of God’s house doing this.
I have seen this also first hand in my life. I have seen many people go to church who are not there to worship the Lord. I have seen some come to get leads to sell things. I have seen this many times. From selling cars to real estate to avon.
I have seen people come just for social reasons, for gossip and the like. Some men come just to talk sports. Some come just for a sense of community or belonging to something.
They might not be standing in the court of God’s house and worshiping the sun, but like the men in this vision they are not in church to worship the Lord.
It is plain to me that God does see all and hears all and He does care about what is going on and it does break His heart.
And He does want His people to love Him and care about what He thinks and He wants His children to take their relationship with Him seriously.
But the house of Judah was committing all of these horrible things and in and around God’s house and they were counting it all a light thing.
Eze 8:17 Then he said unto me, Hast thou seen this, O son of man? Is it a light thing to the house of Judah that they commit the abominations which they commit here? for they have filled the land with violence, and have returned to provoke me to anger: and, lo, they put the branch to their nose.
Eze 8:18 Therefore will I also deal in fury: mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity: and though they cry in mine ears with a loud voice, yet will I not hear them.
God took all that disrespect and all that sin in His house and He took all the hypocrisy of them saying His name with their lips while their hearts were far from Him. And He took it and took it and took it.
And worked and worked and worked to get thru to them and sent prophets and circumstances to get their attention. And He did it for centuries.
Never think that God does not see, and never think that because God is not acting in obvious justice today that He does not care about what is going on.
In his time justice will be done. Sometimes it comes years later, sometimes it don’t come till near the end of life even. And sometimes justice on things is reserved for eternity in hell.
God sees it all and God works all of that out in the end.
And even while God is showing this to Ezekiel and revealing to Ezekiel the justice that is about to happen, even while doing that God is still reaching out to individuals, He is still offering His mercy and grace to anyone who will choose to listen.
I have seen many people misunderstand what God is doing here and they make all kinds of mistakes. From ignoring the fact that at the same time God is doing this judgment He is still offering mercy. To taking the judgment here out of context of the entire Bible and saying that God in the Old Testament is a different God. Hard, uncaring and judgmental.
Some people will look at what God did by destroying Jerusalem and say I don’t like that God of the Old Testament.
I have also seen men form their attitude about God from the kind of hard judgment that happens when the Israelites are taken away in judgment and then try to apply that to how God will deal with you if you mess up.
That is a grave error. So how do we properly understand this? The science object lesson that we watched on answers.tv I think helps.
The process of the hydrogen peroxide losing oxygen was always happening in all the test tubes. Some of the tubes where no agent was added you could not see the reaction happening but it was.
God seeing everything and judging everything is a reaction that is also always happening. Even when we cannot see anything happening.
When the man added a catalyst to the reaction the reaction heated up. It increased. We could see a whole lot more happening. And a different catalyst’s caused a different reaction. The more powerful the catalyst the more dramatic and even explosive was the reaction.
There is a similarity to the way God works in judgment. Instead of the catalyst being chemicals the catalyst is sin. The worse and more evil the sin the stronger the reaction. The catalyst in Ezekiel’s day was 430 years worth of iniquity.
And yes none of those people lived that long, but individually they are doing the same things and even worse that had been going on for 430 years. Their sins were really bad. In one place God says that they had filled the land with blood.
There were many ways they did that, but one way was causing their children to pass thru the fire in sacrifice to the horrible idols of the land.
Their sins were like the final part of that object lesson when he took the beaker outside and the reaction was huge.
You cannot take the reaction that God had to their catalyst of sin and apply that to yourself when you mess up. Why? Because the lie you told or the bad thought you had or when you got snippy with someone instead of loving your neighbor as yourself.
That sin is not the same, it does not equate to 430 years of iniquity and of throwing your sin in the face of God. We are God’s children, our sins have been forgiven. We will never experience the reaction to sin of eternity in hell.
However, if we add the catalyst of sin in this life and refuse to confess it to God and repent of it, we will get a reaction. It is called chastisement. But it is the loving chastisement of a heavenly father.
When people make the mistake of thinking the God of the Old Testament is a different God, their primary mistake is that they are only looking at the reaction and they are not looking at the catalyst of sin that brought about the reaction. And they are not looking at the offer of mercy that is given at the same time.