Please take 4 minutes to listen to Timothy Keller’s message: “Your Idols Will Always Break Your Heart.”
The third vision Ezekiel had of the temple’s abominations involved women weeping.
Then he brought me to the entrance of the north gate of the house of the Lord; women were sitting there weeping for Tammuz.
Then he said to me, “Have you seen this, O mortal? You will see still greater abominations than these” (Ezekiel 8.14-15).
In Keller’s illustration, one of the women made an idol out of her son, placing her ultimate hope and meaning in him. The women weeping in Ezekiel’s day were engaged in idolatry, mourning for the Canaanite deity, Tammuz.
In the Canaanite religion, there are various figures that may resemble Tammuz. They abandoned a vital relationship with Yahweh to pursue a substitute for the One True God.
One way to evaluate our relationship with idols is by asking ourselves what we weep for. What brings you tears of joy? Is it winning another Super Bowl championship?
What brings you to tears of sadness? The loss of a political figure you’re invested in? The loss of a relationship? The things that move us to tears often reveal where our focus truly lies.
Turning On God
The final image shows 25 men with their backs turned toward God, and facing the sun in submission and worship.
And he brought me into the inner court of the house of the Lord; there, 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, prostrating themselves to the sun toward the east (Ezekiel 8.16).
From the idol supposedly guarding the entrance to God’s altar, to the 70 elders each pledging allegiance to different idols, to the women weeping for Tammuz, and finally to the 25 individuals bowing before the sun—one thing is clear: they have all turned their backs on Yahweh, the One True God.
The nations surrounding Israel believed the sun god was a god of justice. It seems these 25 men no longer believed that Yahweh would grant them justice against their Babylonian oppressors.
As a result, they turned to an idol for justice instead of seeking it from God.
As we examine the role of idolatry in our lives, we can ask ourselves where we are seeking justice. Is it in a particular political party? In the pursuit of power? Or is it found in a relationship with God—listening to Him with reverence and following His guidance?
Like the Gods You Serve
The prophets repeatedly reveal this truth: we become like the gods we serve. The idolatrous worship of the people in Jerusalem was not only an offense to God, but it also paved the way for social injustices against the less fortunate.
Then he said to me, “Have you seen this, O mortal? Is it not bad enough that the house of Judah commits the abominations done here, but they fill the land with violence and provoke my anger still further? See, they are putting the branch to their nose!
Therefore I will act in wrath; my eye will not spare, nor will I have pity; and though they cry in my hearing with a loud voice, I will not listen to them” (Ezekiel 8.17-18).
According to Daniel Bloch, the violence in the land was judicial in nature. It was sanctioned by those in power and directed against those with less power.
“Putting the branch to the nose” could be the ancient equivalent of raising the middle finger as a gesture of disrespect. In this case, through all the behaviors described in this chapter, the people were showing great offense to God.
I don’t believe any of my blog readers would consciously show such disrespect to God. However, we need to examine our behavior and consider how we might be giving our allegiance to substitutes for God.
If our actions resemble anything we’ve read in Chapter Eight, we need to ask God, “How can I change so that I give you the full reverence you deserve?”
YouTube Discussion
Rudy Ross, Bruce Kirby, and I discussed this passage on YouTube today. It is on the Bob Spradling channel.
Real Voices 