This evening, if you have your Bibles, if you’ll turn with me to Ezekiel chapter 8. The event that we’re going to be looking at this evening is happening a period of time after Ezekiel’s last vision that he received from the Lord and his last sharing with the people where he was talking about the fact that God’s judgment was coming and it was going to be a severe judgment just as the Lord had said because of their unfaithfulness. One of the things that they looked at is well we have the temple and we have the temple worship. Well this evening we’re going to be taking a look at what the Lord’s going to reveal to Ezekiel because Ezekiel’s been out of Israel and away from the temple but God’s going to show him why one of the reasons the judgment is coming is because of how the people have shown such a horrible disdain for the Lord and they worship everything but God.
So let’s take a look at Ezekiel chapter 8.
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. 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. 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. 4 And, behold, the glory of the God of Israel was there, according to the vision that I saw in the plain.
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. 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.
7 And he brought me to the door of the court; and when I looked, behold a hole in the wall. 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. 9 And he said unto me, Go in, and behold the wicked abominations that they do here. 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. 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. 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.
13 He said also unto me, Turn thee yet again, and thou shalt see greater abominations that they do. 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.
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. 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.
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. 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.Let’s just bow and pray. Heavenly Father we come before you.
Lord I pray that you just speak to us through your word this evening. Lord it’s very sobering what the nation of Israel and those that claim to be the (6:28) spiritual leaders and the elders of the land and the priests were doing. They were walking in open abomination to you and thought they could hide it from you.
Lord help us to see how this is an abomination to you and what they were (6:47) doing was not only sacrilegious it was it was truly denying who you were and (6:58) worshipping the adversary and the enemy and all that he puts forth. Lord help us to understand the seriousness of what Ezekiel saw. This we ask in Jesus name.
As the scene opens Ezekiel’s with the elders of Judah that were in captivity with him. Oftentimes he would meet with them and he would be their priest. If you would even though he couldn’t carry out all the priestly duties because he couldn’t offer sacrifices. He couldn’t do many of the things that the priests would do if they were in the temple. But as he’s meeting with these men all of a sudden one appears to him. As you look at the description I truly believe it was probably the Lord himself that was appearing to Ezekiel.
He was appearing as he does when he’s coming in judgment. You see that he’s surrounded with fire in his loins and a brazen color and his upper body and he’s coming in anger to show Ezekiel. Why he is in so much anger at Judah?
What he does is he takes him not physically out of the presence of those people. He takes them and Ezekiel has a vision that the Lord takes him to the temple in Jerusalem which is hundreds of miles from where Ezekiel is in Babylon. And as he is ushered into the temple the Lord has him approach the temple. The first thing he says is look at what you see. The first thing that Ezekiel says or that the Lord tells Ezekiel is he says unto him son of man lift up thine eyes now in verse 5. 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. What is the image of jealousy? Well it was some type of an idol that had been placed there that the people would worship.
Manasseh had done things like this during his reign as king. Josiah had removed many of them but now the people were coming back to reinstall many of the things that Josiah had removed. One of the things that Manasseh did is he put into the entry of the temple a statue of Ashtoreth. Ashtoreth was a goddess of fertility not only of the Canaanites but also of many of the other people in the nation. If you look back at where Ashtoreth came from it was really Semiramis who was the wife of Nimrod at the time of the Tower of Babel. If you look at Ashtoreth what she did is she (10:28) became the mother of Tammuz who was to be the the equivalent of Jesus. This wickedness that Satan created for the people to worship and it’s an abomination to the Lord. If you look at even today within the Roman Catholic Church they have placed Mary in really the same position as Ashtoreth or Diana or any of the other goddesses that have been worshipped by people throughout history. You see that they make Mary into something that the Bible never says she is.
They make her to be worshipped. If you ask a Roman Catholic do you worship Mary they say oh no we don’t worship Mary. We just adore her but adoration and the way that adoration is they pray to Mary. For example, one of the things that they have is the rosary and if you look at the rosary. The rosary is found in pagan religions. A rosary, similar prayer beads, are found in Islam they’re not found in biblical Christianity. Nor are they found in Judaism biblical Judaism but they’re found in the Catholic Church and when you pray the prayer beads you pray our father which is where they pray the Lord’s Prayer is what they call it our father our father who art in heaven. But they also pray Hail Mary’s. Hail Mother Hail Mary full of grace and they go through a litany of prayers to her.
If you go through the rosary there’s more Hail Mary’s than there are our fathers. They exalt Mary above Christ. If you ever look at the Catholic Church what you’ll see is you’ll see Jesus oftentimes portrayed as an infant and Mary holding this infant. I remember a number of years ago I had to do some work up at the Catholic Diocese in Fargo. I went up there and they had some brochures laying out on the table. I looked at this brochures and on the cover it had a picture of a woman that was portrayed to be Mary. I picked up one of these brochures and it said that the Catholic Diocese of Fargo had been dedicated to our our mother the Virgin Mary.
That then it had a prayer from Pope John the second who was Pope at the time honoring Mary and uplifting the Fargo Diocese to her and her honor. Then if you read further it said that you were to pray to Mary to seek her to intercede on your behalf to her son. If you ask someone who is a Catholic oftentimes you say well why would you do that the scriptures that tell us to pray to no one but God. I had asked a Catholic one time and they told me well if you if you if your father’s mad at you you go to your mother because she will be able to quell the anger of your father. So that’s what we’re doing we’re going to the mother of mother of God. We’re going to the mother of God so that she will quell his anger on our behalf.
This was the abomination of jealousy that you saw when you walked into the temple. An idol or a statue made to Asherah that had been placed there not to honor God but to honor the false gods that were from Satan’s religious system that he had placed on earth that’s still here today. They only get worse the further you go into the temple the further the Lord takes Ezekiel into the temple the worse it gets. What happens next he said furthermore in verse 6.
Unto me son of man seest thou what they do even the great abominations at the house of Israel committed here that I should go far off from my sanctuary but turn thee yet again and thou shalt see a greater abomination.
In other words, they want God to leave so that they can worship they way they want to worship. That’s exactly what you have in Roman Catholicism it’s what you have in many other religious systems where they really take God and say God leave because we want to create our own religious system. We want to create our own means of worship and we’re going to do it. We don’t want you here. That’s exactly what they were doing in Israel in Judah at the time that the Babylonians have begun to take them into captivity verse 7.
And he brought me to the door of the court; and when I looked, behold a hole in the wall.
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