CHAPTER 8

(594 B.C.)

A VISION OF THE ABOMINATIONS IN JERUSALEM

¹And it came to pass in the sixth year, in the sixth month, in the fifth day of the month, as I sat in my house, and the elders of Judah sat before me, that the Hand of the Lord GOD fell there upon me. (This is Ezekiels second vision, or rather series of visions, and would take place in the sixth year, referring to his sixth year of captivity, which was approximately five years before the destruction of Judah and Jerusalem. This Prophecy closes at Chapter 11.)

²Then I beheld, and lo a likeness as the appearance of fire: from the appearance of His loins even downward, fire; and from His loins even upward, as the appearance of brightness, as the colour of amber. (The fiery appearance that Ezekiel saw had the likeness of a man. He was the God of Israel and was accompanied by the Glory. And He it was Who spoke in vision to the Prophet.)

³And He put forth the form of an hand, and took me by a lock of my 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 looks toward the north; where was the seat of the image of jealousy, which provokes to jealousy. (All of this was in a vision. The image of jealousy, was probably the Asherah, which was set up close to the Brazen Altar. This idol was upon a pedestal, wounding with jealousy the Love that shone forth in the Glory of God.

The phrase, Provokes to jealousy, pertains to Ex. 34:12-14.)

⁴And, behold, the Glory of the God of Israel was there, according to the vision that I saw in the plain. (The Holy Spirit is careful to emphasize that it is the Glory of the God of Israel which they had forsaken for this stone idol!)

THE WORSHIP OF IDOLS AND IMAGES

⁵Then said He unto me, Son of man, lift up your eyes now the way toward the north. So I lifted up my eyes the way toward the north, and behold northward at the gate of the Altar this image of jealousy in the entry. (Some of the religious leaders of Judah had placed this idol at the gate of the Altar. This was the Brazen Altar, where the Temple Sacrifices were supposed to be offered for the sins of the people, typifying Calvary. How many idols presently have we added to the Cross? Humanistic psychology is definitely one. And any way other than Jesus Christ and Him Crucified must also be construed as an idol.)

⁶He said furthermore unto me, Son of man, do you see what they do? even the great abominations that the House of Israel commits here, that I should go far off from My Sanctuary? but you turn yet again, and you shall see greater abominations. (That I should go far off from My Sanctuary, refers to the Lord leaving the Temple as Ezekiel will shortly outline. This was now a God-deserted place. His visitation now would be one of Judgment, and as a Destroyer.)

⁷And He brought me to the door of the court; and when I looked, behold a hole in the wall. (The door, in whatever capacity in the Temple, spoke of Christ. This door, it seems, was boarded up with a wall.)

⁸Then said He unto me, Son of man, dig now in the wall: and when I had digged in the wall, behold a door. (The Prophet was demanded to dig now in the wall, i.e., break down the wall, so that the door will be made plainly visible.)

⁹And He said unto me, Go in, and behold the wicked abominations that they do here. (These wicked abominations were being conducted and carried out in the very Temple of God, which was His residing Place [I Cor. 3:16].)

¹⁰So I went in and saw; and behold every form of creeping things, and abominable beasts, and all the idols of the House of Israel, pourtrayed upon the wall round about. (This was during the time of the reign of Zedekiah, when he was endeavoring to bring about an alliance between himself and Pharaoh. To impress the Egyptians, he had allowed their worship to be brought into the Temple, which is described by the Holy Spirit as creeping things and abominable beasts.)

¹¹And there stood before them seventy men of the ancients of the House of Israel, and in the midst of them stood Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan, with every man his censer in his hand; and a thick cloud of incense went up. (In this chamber of Egyptian idolatry, in the very Temple itself, stood all the seventy members of the Hebrew Synod worshipping the loathsome reptiles portrayed on the walls. The deep pain of this scene is sharpened by the presence of Jaazaniah. His father, Shaphan, had taken part in the Godly reformation of Josiah [II Ki., Chpt. 22], and two of his brothers were friendly to Jeremiah [Jer. 26:24; 36:10, 25].)

¹²Then said He unto me, Son of man, have you seen what the ancients of the House of Israel do in the dark, every man in the chambers of his imagery? for they say, the LORD sees us not; the LORD has forsaken the Earth. (Men deny a future Judgment, and claim that God, if He exists at all, takes no active part in the affairs of man. They are terribly wrong on both counts, as was Judah of old!)

¹³He said also unto me, Turn you yet again and you shall see greater abominations that they do. (The degree of evil will now increase, as all evil must increase unless rooted out by Christ.)

WOMEN WEEPING FOR THEIR GOD, TAMMUZ

¹⁴Then He brought me to the door of the gate of the LORDs House which was toward the north; and, behold, there sat women weeping for Tammuz. (Tammuz was a Phoenician deity. It was in July when the ceremonies concerning this supposed deity were to be conducted. The women were to pour themselves out in lamentations over the waxen image of a beautiful dead young man who had perished in his prime. As well, they were to engage in orgiastic joy over his return to life, which brought on the rainy season and the consequent revival of nature.)

¹⁵Then said He unto me, Have you seen this, O son of man? turn you yet again, and you shall see greater abominations than these. (The only power in Heaven or Earth that can break the deadly cycle of sin is Faith in Christ and what He did for us at Calvary. That Alone sets the captive free!

The Catholic worship of the Virgin Mary, although with a change of names, is derived from the worship of Tammuz, which the Lord portrayed to Ezekiel as an abomination!)

THE WORSHIP OF THE SUN

¹⁶And He brought me into the inner court of the LORDs 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 worshipped the sun toward the east. (The final and most appalling form of idolatrous abomination was that of the High Priest and the Chiefs of the twenty-four courses of Aaron standing in the Holy Place in the Temple, with their backs to the Most Holy Place, worshipping the sun!

The sun-worship here is to have had a Persian character, as being offered to the sun itself as a solar god. Of such worship, traces are found in Deut. 4:19 and 17:3, Job 31:26, and II Ki. 23:5, 11; it was expressly forbidden.)

JUDGMENT FOR THESE SINS

¹⁷Then He said unto me, Have you seen this, O son of man? Is it a light thing to the House of Judah that they commit the abominations which they commit here? for they have filled the land with violence, and have returned to provoke Me to anger: and, lo, they put the branch to their nose. (Four times in the Hebrew Scriptures, the Holy Spirit addresses the Messiah as the Branch, that is, as the Author of Life. Satans parody of this was the Asherah the Greek Phallus [a mans reproductive organ]. The ancients, in their efforts to reach back to the origin of life and worship it as a god, arrived at the lowest depth of moral and intellectual degradation by the institution of Phallic worship.

That this was the deepest depth of abomination is affirmed by the words of burning indignation: Lo, they put the branch to My nose! Or freely translated: Look at them; they are thrusting the branch into My face!)

¹⁸Therefore will I also deal in fury: My eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity: and though they cry in My ears with a loud voice, yet will I not hear them. (Idolatry blinds! The God of Glory was actually present in His Temple [Vs. 4], but the Priests and Elders declared He was not there. This blindness is affirmed again in the following Chapter [Vss. 3, 9].

Such blindness exists today. The heart that is governed by any form of idolatry, whether material, scientific, or philosophic, is insensible to fellowship with God, and cannot see His Glory as revealed in the Face of Jesus Christ [II Cor. 4:6].)