What are your idols? A Personal Reflection on Ezekiel 8

Today’s reflection comes from Ezekiel 8. Please pray, as you begin, and ask the Lord to show you what you need to see, what He wants to say specifically to you.

Read  Ezekiel 8: 1 – 6

Here Ezekiel, who is in exile, is sitting in his house in Babylon with the elders of Judah and he is transported in a vision to Jerusalem to the temple. When he arrives there the glory of God is before him.   At the entrance to the gate of the altar is the ‘idol of jealousy’. Blocking the entrance to the altar is an idol – something that his people are worshiping instead of worshiping Him. This idol worship (v6) ‘will drive me from my sanctuary’.

We know our bodies are the temple of the Lord, what idols are there at the ‘gate’ of your life that are keeping God out? God does not tolerate the transfer of the honour and worship that is due Him to any other being or object.  Is there an idol displacing God in your life?

Take a moment now to search your hearts before the Lord, and then we’ll continue.

Read Ezekiel 8: 7 – 13

Ezekiel is taken to the entrance to the court, and shown a hole in the wall. He is told to dig and sees a doorway. Inside he sees all the images of various idols portrayed there, etched on the walls of the inner court of the temple. The Hebrew term for idols in this verse literally means ‘round things’ and is an allusion to dung. The elders are there, each worshiping at the shrine of his own idol, thinking the Lord doesn’t see.

Is there a hidden door into your heart? Something no one else sees, and maybe you don’t even see? Is there a hole, a place Satan has a foothold that you assume the Lord doesn’t notice or care? Do you have the courage to ask Him to show you what is in the inner core of your life, the idol of your heart?

An idol is anything you love more than God.  There’s an old story about a businessman that starts to buy up the houses and properties in a village. He approaches the man who owns the house in the very centre of the village, but that man refuses to sell.  The businessman continues to buy buildings, houses, properties, businesses, until he finally owns the whole rest of the village, but still the man refuses to sell.  Soon, the businessman begins to bring his business associates and visitors to see his village.  As he proudly shows off his holdings, the other man sneaks up behind the guests and whispers, “He’s telling you he owns the whole village but it’s not true.  See that house right in the centre? That belongs to me!”  That’s how Satan whispers to God about the idols that still exist in your heart.  He says “You say that person is yours, but ‘this’ still belongs to me”.

Are there things God wants to show you at the inner core of your life hidden behind a door, kept under lock and key?

Do you have the courage to ask Him?

Read Ezekiel 8: 14 & 15

This idol is a fertility idol of Babylon which they felt caused the wilting of vegetation and that’s why they are mourning. I’m still not sure why God told Ezekiel it was more detestable but I do think we can draw an application from this. Are there things in your life you are longing for that God has taken or you have given up? Do you harbor rebellion or anger in your heart towards God and you are mourning the loss of something, an idol, you resent God for taking?

Take a moment to ask God to show you if there is a place this is going on in your life.

 Read Ezekiel 8: 14 – 18

The final idolatry God shows Ezekiel are these men at the altar who have turned their backs on God and are worshipping nature. The act of lifting the branch to their noses was an act in nature worship but NLT says they ‘thumbed their noses at God’. Is it possible that we, the holy priesthood, stand at the very altar but turn our back on God, thumb our noses at Him and bow down to our own will, our own plans, making a god in our own image?

As a result God stopped listening to them. Chapters 9 and 10 tell us that God left them to the consequences of their own sin. Slowly the glory began to leave until it was gone altogether.

We are redeemed; more than that the chosen of God to serve Him. We are under the blood, forgiven, set free. But God has a right to expect His children to come to the table with clean hands. I encourage you to take the time now to be alone with God and let him search your heart.

As you confess the idols that are driving Him from His temple, ask Christ to come in and replace your sin with Himself.

Ask Him to be ruthless and relentless in ridding your life of every sin that has entangled you.