Backs Toward the Temple

Ezekiel 8 is dated to the sixth year of the exile. As the elders of Judah sat before Ezekiel, Yahweh's hand fell on him. Ezekiel says a figure of fire and brightness took him by a lock of his head, and the Spirit brought him in the visions of God to Jerusalem. The glory of the God of Israel was there, just as Ezekiel had seen it in the plain. The same holy God was about to show him what was happening in his own house.

The tour moves deeper into the temple, and each scene is called a greater abomination. At the north gate stood the image of jealousy, an idol that provoked God's jealousy for his people's love. Through a hole in the wall Ezekiel found seventy elders, led by Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan, offering incense to creeping things and idols drawn on the walls. Their excuse revealed their hearts, for they said that Yahweh did not see them and had forsaken the land.

Next came women weeping for Tammuz, a god of the nations. Finally, in the inner court between the porch and the altar, about twenty-five men turned their backs toward Yahweh's temple and worshiped the sun. The leaders who should have guided the people were leading them away from God. God asked, Is it a light thing to the house of Judah? Their idolatry was pushing him far from his sanctuary, which prepares for the next chapters, where Ezekiel sees the glory depart. In the New Testament, Hebrews 4:13 says: There is no creature that is hidden from his sight.