Ezekiel 8 Commentary
Chapters 8 to 10 record for us Ezekiel’s second vision. Then we have the same physical manifestation of the presence of the LORD – similar to the impossible image of Chapter 1.
Back in the Book of Exodus, the LORD instructed Moses to build the LORD the Sanctuary – a place where the LORD would dwell among His people. It had to be of a certain quality otherwise the LORD would not move in to occupy it.
Fast forward to Ezekiel’s time, the Sanctuary was no longer of the required standard and the LORD was no longer in it. This chapter describes the elements that made this very important House unsuitable for the LORD.
There was an idol in the temple of the LORD – sex goddess, Asherah.
But there was more. Ezekiel needed to look deep and investigate more. “Dig into the wall.” There are overt obscenities like Asherah while there are also hidden obscenities that require searching out. Could this be equivalent to today’s occult societies doing stuff against the LORD in secrete?
Probably yes; probably no. These are elders of Israel who know the Law of the LORD. Could this be sounding out an alarm for the church? Are there things we are doing that aren’t meant for the LORD? Yes, doing them in the place of worship but meant for the gods and goddesses of Egypt.
Ezekiel was going to see more: women weeping for Tammuz; men, twenty-five men, worshipping the sun god. It was pagan worship at full throttle!
Was the LORD going to keep quiet?
The formula is simple: God out, in hell; and Israel experienced it in high definition. The absence of God means death. When the Babylonians moved in and destroyed the temple at Jerusalem, they flattened an empty structure. The LORD had relocated! Wickedness pushes the LORD out of a man’s life. You remain a shell, an empty and lifeless form – a good-for-nothing hell-bound being. The importance of salvation becomes even more critical!
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