This is the situation: It is 592 B.C., and Ezekiel sits among fellow exiles in Babylon. In a vision, God transports him to witness the sins unfolding in and around the temple in Jerusalem.
This is the second of four visions that reveal the corruption inside the temple, leading to God’s departure from His dwelling place.
He brought me to the entrance of the court; I looked, and there was a hole in the wall.
Then he said to me, “Mortal, dig through the wall”; and when I dug through the wall, there was an entrance.
He said to me, “Go in, and see the vile abominations that they are committing here.”
So I went in and looked; there, portrayed on the wall all around, were all kinds of creeping things and loathsome animals, and all the idols of the house of Israel.
Before them stood seventy of the elders of the house of Israel, with Jaazaniah son of Shaphan standing among them. Each had a censer in his hand, and the odor of the cloud of incense was ascending (Ezekiel 8.7-11).
In 592 B.C., while seated among the exiles in Babylon, Ezekiel received a vision from God, transporting him to the temple in Jerusalem. In this second of four visions, Ezekiel witnessed the idolatry taking place inside the temple, contributing to God’s eventual departure from His dwelling place.
The 70 elders were likely filling a leadership void after the prominent leaders had been exiled.
It appears that each elder had a private cubicle where they were engaged in idol worship and attempting to manipulate the idol to give them the safety and security they believed Yahweh was withholding.
When we place ourselves at the center of our existence and expect God to guarantee our security, safety, and all the comforts of a good life, we risk falling into idolatry.
Instead of trusting in God’s benevolent leadership, when we try to secure these things on our own, we are prone to slipping into reaching for substitutes for God.
Our situation will probably not resemble the 70 elders manipulating a false god on the temple wall, but it is idolatry nonetheless.
A Self-fulfilling Prophecy
The elders turned away from God because they believed He didn’t see what was happening and had abandoned them. Since they felt God had forsaken them by not giving them what they wanted, they turned to idols in an attempt to fulfill their desires.
Then he said to me, “Mortal, have you seen what the elders of the house of Israel are doing in the dark, each in his room of images? For they say, ‘The Lord does not see us, the Lord has forsaken the land.’”
He said also to me, “You will see still greater abominations that they are committing” (Ezekiel 8.12-13).
It is a great insult to God to be in His house while seeking to connect with something other than Him.
At the heart of this behavior is self-interest. We desire what we want, when we want it, and if God doesn’t provide it on our timeline, we turn to other gods.
Application
Though names and methods of worship may change, the temptation toward idolatry within the church remains the same. In today’s context, political power, prestige, numbers, and money are just a few of the distractions that can lead us away from the one true God, and sadly, it is often church leaders who fall into these traps.
One thing we can do is pray for church leaders everywhere, asking that they align with God’s will and faithfully follow Him.
Only God has the power to rescue people at any point in human history.
YouTube Discussion
Rudy Ross, Bruce Kirby, and I discussed this passage on YouTube today. It is on the Bob Spradling channel.
Real Voices 