In My House
A few chapters ago we heard God tell Ezekiel to stay in His
house. Then, a few chapters later, we
see God give Ezekiel a vision instructing him to go out and perform a specific
task before returning back into his base ministry. Here, in Ezekiel 8, we have confirmation that
Ezekiel is indeed back in his base ministry.
He’s back in his house.
What is even more important is that the leaders of the Hebrew
people already in exile were gathered in his house with him. They had begun to understand the importance of
coming to God (or God’s emissaries on earth) wherever they can be found. The path back to humbleness before God has
begun – if ever so small. Now it was
important to teach those leaders why judgment had finally come upon them.
A Second Theophany
As the elders are gathered around Ezekiel, he sees a second
theophany. This theophany is identical
to the theophany in the first chapter.
The appearance was as a man, but of fire and glowing metal. The appearance stretched out something that
could have been a hand and grabbed Ezekiel’s hair.
It is important to maintain the metaphoric language. Ezekiel didn’t see a man. He didn’t see a glorified man. Ezekiel saw an image of God, a representation
of God. God is not a glorified human
being. God is something other. God comes to us and makes His presence known,
but we can neither see nor comprehend God’s true presence. It is important to understand this
difference. If we lose sight of this too
often, it becomes too easy to think of God as just a superhuman. Of course, that would be wrong.
Idolatry
As Ezekiel is transported in the vision to Jerusalem, he is able
to see an idol that had been erected in the court of the temple. Ezekiel calls it an idol of jealousy. This is an incredible description, because it
is a window into the mind of God. An
idol had been constructed in His temple, and it is God who is jealous. The idol was evoking jealousy from God, not
jealousy from people. God wanted to show
Ezekiel what exactly He was so upset about.
When it comes down to it, God is upset about idolatry more than
anything else. Yes, idolatry is
bad. But idolatry within the spaces that
we have dedicated to Him is unthinkable!
Of course God would be upset when people have utterly profaned His
worship space with idols to other gods!
But then I wonder about myself and the congregation I serve. I wonder about the churches in this country
in which I live. What idols have I
helped to create in our worship spaces?
What things have I been a part of that actually serves to take the focus
off of God and put it somewhere else?
Are there people, programs, or even ideals that take the focus off of
God when we come to gather in worship?
Hidden from God
Then Ezekiel is called to go deeper into the temple. Ezekiel is brought in the vision through the
walls and into the inner portions of the temple. He is brought into the quarters for the
priests. The spiritual leaders of the
Hebrew people are gathered in the quarters and they are worshipping other gods
in the privacy of their own rooms and office spaces.
They think that they are hidden from God. They think that they are doing things in
private where nobody can see them. They
think that their public persona will hide the private things going on in their
life.
From the perspective of the world, they may be right. They can hide things from the people. They can hide things from each other. But where they cannot hide is from God. God sees what they are doing and knows
it. God finds it deplorable and
reprehensible. No wonder God is bringing
judgment upon the people.
But as with the last section, I cannot help but ask myself a
question. What have I buried within my
heart? What practices do I do in secret
that I can hide from the world but cannot hide from God? What do I do in my life that ends up driving
God out of my life? What idolatry do I
do that pushes God to the side?
Tammuz
Tammuz is a Sumerian God.
The people of Babylon and that general area would mourn the “death” of
Tammuz every year when the crops would die and turn brown at the end of the
growing season. Tammuz was believed to
go into the underworld for a while and then be resurrected each year in
spring. Here Ezekiel finds a woman who
is mourning the death of Tammuz in God’s holy temple. Idolatry in practice. What’s horrible is that in this story of
Tammuz we can see an idolatrous replacement to the truth resurrection that God
will bring about in Jesus.
Worship in the Court
Then Ezekiel gets to see a vision of many of the leaders in the
court of the Lord who are worshipping the sun.
Here in the court of the Lord they are worshiping something other than
God. Idolatry proliferates.
I am saddened, because I see the same thing happening in our
culture. We worship all kinds of things
in our sanctuaries. We promote all kinds
of behavior that competes with the worship of God. We’re no different at heart.
I’ve even heard of churches now that open doors to people who want
to worship any god, just to do it in their space. There are churches that are worshiping Sophia
or even Wiccan goddesses of love and war among people who confess that they are
Christian. Reading this chapter today
has caused me to mourn.
I wonder how much the perspective of God differs between this
vision with Ezekiel and His perception of the direction of the western
Christian church. In a day and age that
seems to profess “many paths to the same god,” what would God really have to
say about it? I think His point is clear
with Ezekiel. Judgment comes to people
who allow His space to be profaned with the worship of other gods. Idolatry in His holy spaces will not be
tolerated
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