Sanctuary Defiled - Ezekiel 8

Ezekiel 8:6 "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."

I believe I have it right that Ezekiel is at the river Chebar but is carried in the spirit to see the things he saw at this time. And so Scofield agrees that these were visions of Ezekiel looking back to what 'had' happened so that Israel would know why they were in captivity.

v3 "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."

I picked up on three verses which tell of particular sins:

v9 "And he said unto me Go in, and behold the wicked abominations that they do here. v10 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, portrayed upon the wall round about."

That reminds me of the tombs of Egypt which have been opened where drawings were found on the walls and images were set up. Israel was suppose to be worshipping the one true God but at least Egypt did not pretend.

v5 "...and behold northward at the gate of the altar this image of jealousy in the entry." I should have listed that first but I do not know what the image of jealousy was.

v14 "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."

This shows us that it was not just some few sneaking off to do a bad thing, it was all of them. Tammuz was a Syrian idol.

v16 "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 worshiped the sun toward the east."

Ezekiel is sitting with the elders of Israel. No doubt, these images will be told them and therefore spread throughout Israel in captivity, so that they (the new generation) will know why they are in captivity.

v18 "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."

That's the end of this chapter. I was thinking that when Israel does come back to God and leaves captivity to rebuild Jerusalem, they should have a hate for idol worship in their hearts. If they can see that it was because of idol worship or rather turning from God that caused them to loose their great nation and become subjects, THEN it should keep them from turning to idols ever again.