1 Questions about judgment. Ezekiel chapters 8-11 Talk of judgment raises questions Ezk. 5:8-13 Talk of judgment raises questions Ezekiel saying of Jerusalem and its inhabitants : Behold, I, even I, am against you. And I will execute judgments in your midst in the sight of the nations …. I will execute judgments on you, and any of you who survive I will scatter to all the winds. 11 Therefore, as I live, declares the Lord GOD, surely, because you have defiled my sanctuary with all your detestable things and with all your abominations, therefore I will withdraw. My eye will not spare, and I will have no pity. Would have raised questions for the exiles sitting listening to Ezekiel beside the Chebar canal in Mesopotamia. Why? How have they defiled the sanctuary, and could it be that bad? How could God act against His own city, the city He is meant to protect? The idea is unthinkable. And talk of judgment raises questions for us. Where our society does not even take the life of mass murderers, how could anything be serious enough to deserve destruction? And when God speaks of judging the whole city, the whole population, does that mean that good and bad will be swept away indiscriminately? How can we know judgment is not just talk, will really happen? And if it is certain, is there any hope for anyone? In Ezekiel 8-11 the LORD will answer the questions of the first hearers and our questions, not to satisfy our curiosity but so we will find hope in the face of certain judgment. One vision 8:1-3, 11:24-25 2 We will look at chapters 8-11 together for they are the record of the one vision given to Ezekiel about 14 months after his first vision, and just a few weeks after the prophecy of Ezekiel 5. It starts 8:1-3 with Ezekiel, while sitting amongst the elders of Judah in his house, being transported by the Spirit in a vision to Jerusalem, v3 Ezekiel 8: In the sixth year, in the sixth month, on the fifth day of the month, as I sat in my house, with the elders of Judah sitting before me, the hand of the 2 Lord GOD fell upon me there. Then I looked, and behold, a form that had the appearance of a man. Below what appeared to be his waist was fire, and above his waist was something like the appearance of brightness, like gleaming metal. 3 He put out the form of a hand and took me by a lock of my head, and the Spirit lifted me up between earth and heaven and brought me in visions of God to Jerusalem, to the entrance of the gateway of the inner court that faces north, where was the seat of the image of jealousy, which provokes to jealousy. 4 And behold, the glory of the God of Israel was there, like the vision that I saw in the valley. and it ends with Ezekiel being returned by the Spirit to those same exiles in Babylonia. Ezekiel 11: 24 And the Spirit lifted me up and brought me in the vision by the Spirit of God into Chaldea, to the exiles. Then the vision that I had seen went up from me. It’s a big vision and we will be taking the panoramic view, the big picture so there will be a lot of details not gone into – so feel free to ask questions afterwards Are things that bad that they deserve this judgment? Ezekiel 8 But let’s start where Ezekiel starts his tour of Jerusalem, in the temple 8:3, the entrance of the north gate of the inner court of the temple. Let’s remind ourselves what the temple was. It had been built by Solomon in conformity with the plan of the tabernacle given to God by Moses. It had a central building, the sanctuary, that was aligned West to East, with the entrance on the East, and surrounded by an inner and outer courtyard, which were entered through gates on the North, East and South sides 3 The sanctuary contained an inner room, the holy of holies where the ark of the covenant was placed and over which Solomon had place two large carved cherubim. The temple was where the LORD was symbolically present amongst His people, the heart of their worship of Him as Israel’s God It was called the house of the LORD, His palace, with the holy of holies in the temple His throne room, It was uniquely his, uniquely identified with Him The LORD is very insistent that Ezekiel sees what is going on there vv. 6 Son of man do you see what they are doing 9 Go in and see , 12 – Son of man, have you seen, 15, 17 Have you seen this And the LORD presents this evidence supporting His judgment to Ezekiel in an increasing scale of offence. v. 6 But you will see still greater abominations, v. 13, 15 Things get worse and worse as the temple tour goes on, as Ezekiel moves closer and closer to the sanctuary, and as we see what Ezekiel sees we realise, and Ezekiel’s first hearers realise, things are that bad – the LORD is not exaggerating Jerusalem’s sin. So what did Ezekiel see – four kinds of idolatry – and some more As Ezekiel enters the temple from the North vv. 5-6 he sees the image or idol of jealousy. We are not told exactly what the idol is but most think it is a statue of Asherah, the mother of Baal, thought of as the queen of heaven. Then v. 8-9 he is shown a room with many images and idols whom the lay leaders, the elders of the house of Israel are worshipping. The description of them as creeping things and loathsome beasts v. 10 means these men were probably worshipping the gods of Egypt who more than all the surrounding nations portrayed gods as animals, and with whom some of the people of Jerusalem were seeking to make an alliance against the Babylonians 4 And we hear their reasoning - For they say, ‘The LORD does not see us, the LORD has forsaken the land.’” This saying both justifies worshipping idols in the LORD’s temple and explains why they feel safe. They claim they have to get the help of other gods because the LORD has left, he is unavailable to help. They are comparing the LORD to their own idols, and say he is in a kind of impotent retirement. For them, like the nations around them, god and land were tied together. A god was a god of a certain territory. But in recent history the gods of the Babylonians, especially Marduk, have been more powerful, and so the LORD has left, given up his land, retired somewhere to lick his wounds. And being absent, he is also indifferent and uninvolved – he does not see, so they have to seek aid, help against the Babylonians elsewhere – from the gods of Egypt. But there is more vv. 14-15 Ezekiel 8: 14 Then he brought me to the entrance of the north gate of the house 15 of the LORD, and behold, there sat women weeping for Tammuz. Then he said to me, “Have you seen this, O son of man? You will see still greater abominations than these.” There are women weeping for Tammuz. In the temple of the living god, in whose law death makes unclean, we have a cult of the dead, the cult of Tammuz. The women are taking up a Babylonian ritual that remembered a long dead and since deified king. 16 Ezekiel 8: And he brought me into the inner court of the house of the LORD. And behold, at the entrance of the temple of the LORD, between the porch and the altar, were about twenty-five men, with their backs to the temple of the LORD, and their faces toward the east, worshiping the sun toward the east. And then v. 16, right outside the entrance to the sanctuary we have people worshipping the sun. Think of the picture – when they bow down to the sun, what are they showing to the LORD who is resident in the temple. Their backsides. What do these visionary pictures say of the people’s attitude and relationship to the LORD their God? 5 Remember, these are all happening in the LORD’s temple, the house of the LORD. They express contempt. They are thinking of Him like one of the gods of the surrounding nations, projecting on to him human needs and wants. He is incomplete in Himself, His rule needs supplementing, needing a consort - Asherah Thinking of Him as powerless, unseeing, a little territorial deity displaced by more powerful gods A god to whom it is useless to turn Saying there is more power in the underworld, and he can be openly defied even in His own house. The god you can turn your back on The God whose word can be despised and openly rejected The LORD had said before the people entered the land Deuteronomy 4: 15 “Therefore watch yourselves very carefully. Since you saw no form on the day that the LORD spoke to you at Horeb out of the midst of the fire, 16 beware lest you act corruptly by making a carved image for yourselves, in the form of any figure, the likeness of male or female, 17 the likeness of any animal that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged bird that flies in the air, 18 the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the water under the earth.