Ezekiel 8-10 gives us one of the more shocking pictures of God’s activity with his people. We are going to see the Lord leave his temple and leave his people. Such a picture immediately causes us to ask, “What would make God leave his people?” God said to David and Solomon that he would put his name at this temple and in Jerusalem forever (2 Kings 21:7). So what could possibly make God leave his temple, the place where he said his name would dwell forever? If we can see the reasons why God leaves his people, we can then know when God is with us and what finally causes God to have to leave.
Provoking God To Jealousy (Ezekiel 8)
In the first four verses of Ezekiel 8, Ezekiel sees another vision of God. He sees the glory of God like he did in chapter 1 (8:4). Ezekiel sees a figure with the appearance of fire and the appearance of bright, gleaming metal. In this vision Ezekiel is lifted up and brought to Jerusalem. He is placed at the entrance of the temple in Jerusalem where is able to see an image that provokes God’s jealousy. The very first thing that Ezekiel sees is that there is an image provoking God to jealousy that is in the temple courtyard. We are told in 2 Kings 21 that King Manasseh had set up altars and an Asherah idol in the temple courtyard. This might be the image that Ezekiel is looking at in the temple complex. Please imagine this: the place that was where God’s name was and where God was to be worshiped was an idol and altar to a false god. The Lord calls this an image of jealousy. This confirms God’s heart for a relationship with us. We saw in the last lesson that God is broken when our hearts and eyes stray from him (6:8-10). The idols provoke God to jealousy because God wants our desires to be for him.
But there is much more to see. The Lord tells Ezekiel to see what else the people are doing to drive God far away from his sanctuary (8:6). Ezekiel is in a vision digging through the temple wall so that he can see what is happening inside the courtyard. Inside the temple courtyard Ezekiel sees detestable images of animals engraved on the walls. Not only this, there are idols of Israel inside the temple complex (8:9-10). If this were not enough, elders of Israel are inside worshiping these idols and making offerings to them (8:11-12). How unbelievable is it to see that the sinning has moved into the place of God’s worship and God’s presence! The place where God was to be worshiped and honored as be turned into the place where the people worship their idols and follow their hearts and desires.
But the Lord says in verse 13 that there is even more the people are doing. Ezekiel is brought to another part of the temple courtyard where there is another idol, the god Tammuz. The women is courtyard of the women are weeping for the god, Tammuz. They are not weeping for the Lord. They are weeping over their gods. But there is even more, according to verse 15. The Lord brings Ezekiel to the inner court so that Ezekiel stands at the temple entrance. Ezekiel sees about 25 men with their backs to God’s temple, facing east, worshiping the sun (8:16). They are worshiping the sun right in front of God’s face. They have literally turned their backs on God.
In verse 17 God says that there is even more. Not only are they worshiping idols in front of God’s face, but the land is filled with violence so that they provoke the Lord to anger even further. God cares about violence. God cares if we are hurting others. God’s law is to love others as we love ourselves, to do good by them. But their actions are a thumbing of their noses toward God (8:17).
Believing God Does Not See (Ezekiel 9)
In chapter 9 Ezekiel hears a loud voice calling for the executioners to approach the city with a destroying weapon in their hands. But I want you to see an important picture in Ezekiel 9:3. The glory of the Lord moves from residing over the ark of the covenant to the threshold of the temple. This is dramatic and stunning because God’s presence is what made his people distinct (cf. Exodus 33:12-16). But before the destroyers come against the city, God wants to mark his people for protection (9:6). Notice how God’s people are defined in verse 4. They are the people who grieve and lament over all the abominations committed in the city. This is an important fruit of God’s people. God’s people do not applaud the sins of society. God’s people do not excuse the sins of the city. God’s people mourn over the sins of the culture.
The problem is that we have a society of people who are not mourning over sins but are participating in sins. Please think about the shock of sinning happening at the place of God’s glory and worship. It is so terrible to God that you see in verse 7 that God calls for his house to be defiled so that the sins will stop. God is not going to stay where the worship is false. God is not going to stay with a people who pretend to love God but worship their idols. Sometimes people ask if it really matters what church you go to or if it really matters how we worship. I hope we would think about the answer in light of what we are reading. We want to worship where God is. God is not with a people whose worship is false. God is not with a people whose worship is defiled. God is not with a people who are following their desires and not giving the glory to God as God asks. False worship is not acceptable to God. God is going to shut down his temple by destroying it.
Why are the people doing this? Why are they doing this in the temple complex? Notice what the people are thinking because it is stated again to us. “The Lord has forsaken the land, and the Lord does not see” (9:9). This is the second time that the Lord has noted the problem. Go back to chapter 8 and you will see that it was expressed there in verse 12. The elders are worshiping their idols in the temple. But notice what they think. “The Lord does not see us. The Lord has forsaken the land.” Verse 12 says that they do this in the dark, thinking that God does not see and does not care. They act in defiance toward God because they do not think God will bring any consequences to their actions.
This is the lie of sin. Sin says that you will not be caught. You can get away with what you are doing. No one will know. Your actions are in the dark. God will not do anything about what you are doing. But God sees what we do in the dark. God sees what we do in the privacy of our homes. God will act against our sins. Notice in Ezekiel 9:9 that the Lord says that the land is full of bloodshed and the city is full of perversity because they say that the Lord does not see. Time is a great enemy of our holiness. We can think that God is not going to do anything because he does not seem to see. The apostle Peter gave the same warning that the Lord gave here.
Knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. They will say, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.” (2 Peter 3:3–4 ESV)
Notice the two things that work together. They are following their own sinful desires and they are saying that God is not going to do anything. The Lord does not see. The Lord does not care. The Lord is not going to do anything. Things just keep going on as they always have been. Do not believe the lie of sin. Sin is always pursuing us until it finally catches up to us. Moses needed to give this warning to the two tribes of Israel who decided to take possession of the land on the east side of the Jordan River. The two tribes needed to come with the rest of the tribes and conquer the promised land and the people agree to do so. But Moses warned them in Numbers 32:23. “But if you will not do so, behold, you have sinned against the Lord, and be sure your sin will find you out.” God will make sure that sin will catch up to you. You cannot outrun your wickedness, as much as we try. Do not believe the lie of sin.
God Leaves (Ezekiel 10)
The first three verses of Ezekiel 10 show pictures of the coming judgment. The terms used in these verses are also used of a priest dressed in linen on the day of atonement. But rather than atonement being made for the people in Ezekiel 10, burning coals are sprinkled on the city, signifying its judgment. With this act, the glory of the Lord leaves the temple and moves to the temple gates (10:4, 18-19). The Lord has abandoned his people to the empty hope of their idols that they treasure.
I want us to think about this key truth that is being visualized in these chapters. God leaves when we express that we do not want him. God leaves when we show that we would rather have something else than him. God leaves when we show that we treasure other things but him. This is when God leaves. The people think they are getting away with their sins. They think that God does not see. But notice what is revealed as we witness the glory of the Lord leaving the temple. The entire bodies of the cherubim were completely full of eyes just as the wheels were full of eyes (10:12). Did God see? He did and God left because of what he saw.
Application
So what is God’s big message to his people? When sin stays, God leaves. Listen to Isaiah proclaimed God’s words.
“I am the LORD! That is my name! I will not share my glory with anyone else, or the praise due me with idols.” (Isaiah 42:8 NET)
God does not share glory because all glory is due to him. God does not share praise because all praise is due to him. God cannot live where sin lives. We see this picture in the scriptures as the temple needed to be holy and nothing defiled or unclean could come near it. Purity was crucial for God to live with his people. To say this another way, God is light and there is not darkness in him nor can there be darkness near him. But please think about what John proclaims.
This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. (1 John 1:5–6 ESV)
It is not possible to walk in darkness and be in fellowship with God because God is light. We are lying to ourselves and lying to others if we think we can maintain our sinful ways and God remain in relationship with us. God is not with us when sin stays. Listen to how serious Paul proclaimed that warning.
What do I imply then? That food offered to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything? No, I imply that what pagans sacrifice they offer to demons and not to God. I do not want you to be participants with demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons. Shall we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he? (1 Corinthians 10:19–22 ESV)
Here the apostle Paul warned of that same division, trying to worship God and still worship their idols. Notice the question that Paul asks. Are we trying to provoke the Lord to jealousy? This is exactly what Israel did. God does not share his glory. God does not share his worship. James makes the point clearly as well.
You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever desires to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you imagine that scripture has no meaning when it says, “God yearns jealously over the spirit that he has placed in us”? (James 4:4-5 ESV/NRSV)
God is jealous for us and does not share us. He leaves when we make our friendship to be with the world, rather than with him. Are we doing things to provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we believing the lie of sin that whispers to us that God does not see what we are doing and that our sins will not catch up to us? We are called to be the dwelling place of God as a church (1 Corinthians 3:16-17) and as individual disciples (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). Can God do that with you or is there an object of jealousy in our hearts that keeps him from dwelling with us? May we be a church where God dwells and may each one of us be a person where God clearly lives in us.