Today's Reading:

Ezekiel 5
Ezekiel 6
Ezekiel 7
Ezekiel 8

​In the vision God gave from Ezekiel 8, He walked Ezekiel step by step deeper into the Temple. The farther west he goes, the closer he comes to the Most Holy Place. The very heart of God’s presence. East is the direction of the rising sun and of the pagan nations. West is the direction of increasing holiness to God. More West, More Holy.

When standing on the Mount of Olives and looking west, you see the Kidron Valley, then Mount Moriah, then the Temple courts, then the Holy Place, and finally the Most Holy Place where the glory of God once stood. Every step to the west was a step closer to the presence of God. More West, More Holy.

Yet in Ezekiel that holy movement was being reversed. Men stood between the porch and the altar with their backs to the Temple and their faces toward the east, bowing to the sun. They had turned their backs on the Most Holy Place and were looking in the wrong way.

Fast forward, and just outside the city walls, near the western approaches to the Temple Mount, was when everything changed. On a hill called Golgotha, the Son of God was lifted up on a cross. The ultimate sacrifice was offered not in the Most Holy Place, but to the west outside the camp, so that the way into God’s presence could be opened forever. The veil was torn from top to bottom. The holiness that once stayed hidden behind the westernmost curtain was now made available to all. And from that western hill the message began to move even farther west (and north, south, and east) into the rest of the world. The same God who once confined His glory to the Ark and the Holy of Holies at the far west end of the Temple now sent His glory westward to the ends of the earth. More West, More Holy.

The sadness in Ezekiel 8 was that the people turned their backs on the Holy and faced the wrong direction. The grace of the gospel is that God Himself faced the world, went outside the camp, and opened the way so that anyone, from any direction, could now come all the way in. More West, More Holy.

Why does the Holy One, blessed be He, allow the prophet to walk step by step westward into ever-greater holiness, only to reveal men standing between the porch and the altar with their backs turned eastward toward the sun? How does the cross outside the camp, further west still, both answer and reverse that fatal orientation?

 

​Ezekiel continued with acting out God’s “parables” of judgment for the exiled Israelites who had been taken to Babylon. God told him to shave his hair and beard. This would have been done to portray severe humiliation about what the enemies would do to them. There were three ways God would respond to the rebellion of the Israelites:

Then Ezekiel was then told to tuck away a few hairs and those would represent the remnant of the people. But some of those hairs tucked away would be later thrown into the fire because further disasters would come. Only a tiny bit of the entire remnant in Babylon would survive.

At this time, there had been only one round of deportation, and Jerusalem had not yet been destroyed. Cannibalism would come, as parents and kids would eat each other. Israel had become worse than the idolatrous nations around them. The famine would be so severe that it fulfilled the curse from Leviticus 26:29 and Deuteronomy 28:53-57. After the famine judgment, God would then scatter the people. God swore by His own life, “As surely as I live.” He would withdraw His favor and show the people no pity. The defilement of His holy place was because of their own guilt; now they had no place to offer sacrifices. The judgments of plague, famine, falling by the sword, and scattering matched the symbolism of the hair that Ezekiel had cut.

Everything comes from God and shoots to destroy them. He piled up judgment in layers of famine, wild beasts, diseases, plagues, and sword (war, military invasion). He Himself would bring the disasters on them. Judgment was on the entire land because of the idolatry at the “high places.” The destruction of idols and death of people was meant to show the false gods were powerless. The slain would fall before their idols with their bones scattered. God is the absolute authority. Even though they had broken His heart, He would still save a tiny remnant (like the few hairs). They would have genuine repentance and remember the Lord and then hate themselves for their spiritual adultery. Those saved as a remnant were also sinners. They would not just understand their wrongs and loathe themselves for their sin; they would have a true heart change and repentance.

In chapter 7, God’s patience was over; the time had come for the people to know the Lord as the One who would show no pity. “The Day of the Lord” had come. This is what Zephaniah had also prophesied. Violence had grown into a full rod of wickedness. Life and business deals would no longer matter. The people would sound the alarm to prepare for war, but this was now a fight they could not win. There would be no safe place to go. Some would escape the city only to grieve over their sin. This would be such an emotional toll on people that they would physically go limp and not even be able to control their bladder! The rich who used money to make the detestable idols would now not be able to buy their way out. Their money was unclean and useless.  A ruthless nation would come (Babylon), and the Temple would be ruined. It was too late to seek peace. Each king, leader, and person would be judged by how they had lived their lives.

Ezekiel was in his own home, and God gave him a vision of what was happening inside the Temple behind closed doors. This was why judgment must come. Ezekiel saw that an idol had been set up right at the entrance to the Temple area, which provoked God’s jealousy. He will not share His glory with idols. Even more detestable, God moved the vision farther into the Temple for Ezekiel to see that the leaders were practicing idol worship (Egyptian animal worship) inside the hidden rooms of the Temple complex. The leaders believed that God did not see them, and this was deliberate rebellion. Inside further, Ezekiel saw a woman weeping for Tammuz (a Babylonian fertility god). This showed that both men and women were taking part in the idolatry rituals. Continuing, there were men with their backs to the Temple, facing east, “putting a branch to their nose” (pagan ritual to their sun god). That direction is opposite of true worship. More West, More Holy.

 

Today's Discussion question:

Why does the Holy One, blessed be He, allow the prophet to walk step by step westward into ever-greater holiness, only to reveal men standing between the porch and the altar with their backs turned eastward toward the sun? How does the cross outside the camp, further west still, both answer and reverse that fatal orientation?

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