Idols in the Temple Read Ezekiel 8

I had been feeling like I wasn’t really hearing from God lately, and I was getting desperate.  When I go on my annual 2 weeks of spiritual retreat, I do my very best to spend as much time as possible alone so I can seek God and hear from Him, especially so that I can reset my course and recharge for ministry in the coming year.  Because I am in full time ministry with a lot of responsibility, I find this time during the summer invaluable.

This year, however, it seemed like I was getting nowhere. God often speaks to me in nature, but all I seemed to be getting were confusing half-messages.  I knew God was telling me that what I would be moving into was a new path, and I had to walk with Him every step of the way.  It appeared that He was going to spend the rest of my time alone teaching me that I’m not very good at it.

Last summer I experienced Him saying, “this is the way, walk in it” and I discovered many new things about familiar trails that really gave me a profound revelation about how my ministry year would unfold.  I was excited to see what He would say this year!  Instead, I found that I kept thinking I was hearing to ‘go up here’ or ‘turn down there’, only to get to dead ends and have to turn around.  I was very discouraged.

After I was home for a few days, I was still mulling over what God was trying to teach me.  My regular Old Testament passage for the day was Ezekiel 8, and I was stunned as I read through it.  I realized right away that my life was the ‘temple’ and that God was showing me some of the things I was doing that were, in fact, very much like the detestable practices of the elders in Jerusalem.  I still tremble at the thought of how I could fall so quickly into idolatry as it was outlined here.

Here was Ezekiel, in his house, with the elders sitting before him.  He had a vision of the glory of God and he was transported to Jerusalem (how cool is that!) and he was shown the temple. At the north gate stood the Idol of Jealousy (v5).  I knew this was the idol that provoked God to jealousy (v4) but never recognized that Jealousy was the idol.  That caused me to pause:  have I made an idol of jealousy?  Take a moment and ask the Lord to show you if you have this idol in your own life.  Are you envious of what others have?  An idol is anything that becomes more important to us than God.

Next the Lord takes Ezekiel into the walls of the temple.  The inner hidden places; he had to dig into the wall to find the doorway.  Inside, the walls were covered in the portrayal of all the idols of the people of Israel. (v10).  The elders, in the darkness, each worship at the shrine of his own idol. (v12).  This is sobering.  What idols are etched on the walls of my heart, that I hide there in the darkness and assume the Lord doesn’t see?  Money, reputation, my love of self?  Take a few moments to ask the Lord to reveal this to you.  If you’re like me, you may need more than a few moments.

Back outside the temple, the women were mourning Tammuz, the fertility God of the Babylonians. (v14) Although I didn’t have a direct correlation in my life, I know that there are plenty of times I mourn the  absence of things I want but don’t get, and put far more importance on these than on the Lord.

The last idol shocked me the most, and this is when I realized how completely God meant this for me. In the inner court, with their backs to the temple, they were worshipping Nature.  I actually felt sick.  Lord, is this what I’ve been doing?  Have I defiled the sweetest, most precious way You meet with me by turning it into worship of the creation rather than the Creator?  The Lord graciously showed me how I had done just that.   Rather than waiting for Him to speak to me through nature, I had begun trying to ‘read’ nature like an astrologer reads the stars.  “Oh, look at that single leaf – what does that mean?  Oh, look, a sunbeam is on this hillside, I must have to go up there”.  I had taken pride in my ability to hear God in this way. Instead of waiting in silence for God to speak, I impatiently filled in the blank spaces with whatever my imagination invented.  No wonder I ended up in so many dead-end treks through swampy, bushy, buggy places.  Maybe you don’t have this same idol in your life, but is there another God wants you to see?

I am so thankful that we have a God who provided salvation for us.  Unlike the elders in Jerusalem of Ezekiel’s day, we don’t have to fear the wrath of God coming to wipe us out for our sins.  We can come to Him in repentance and ask for His cleansing because we know that Jesus paid the penalty for our sin, even this sin.  Even so, these idols must be removed from my life and yours if we want to restore fellowship with Him.   Psalm 130 leads us there.

“Out of the depths I cry to You O Lord; O Lord, hear my voice.  Let Your ears be attentive to my cry for mercy.  If You, O Lord, kept a record of sins, O Lord, who could stand?  But with You there is forgiveness, therefore You are feared.

I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in His Word I put my hope.  My soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning, more than watchmen wait for the morning.

Oh Israel (put your name in here) put your hope in the Lord, for with the Lord is unfailing love and with Him is full redemption.  He Himself will redeem Israel (your name) from all their sins.