BOOK BY BOOK
BIBLE STUDY
larrydalexanderbiblestudies.blogspot.com
BIBLE STUDY
LESSON
For the week beginning Sunday October 12, 2014
____________________________________________________________
IDOLATRY
IN THE TEMPLE
(The
slaughter of idolatry)
Ezekiel
8-9
During the sixth year of King
Jehoiachin’s captivity in Babylon, while the leaders of Judah were meeting with
Ezekiel in his home, the LORD took a hold of Ezekiel and began to show him a
vision. It is no accident that this visionary experience occurs while the
church leaders of Israel are present, as it is fully intended to explain to
them, just why there is no hope for their homeland.
Ezekiel chapter 8
serves as the background for the phenomenal events of chapters 9-11, which
depicts the withdrawal of GOD’s presence from the temple at Jerusalem. The
first thing the LORD shows Ezekiel is a vision that appeared in the shape of a
man, who, from the waist down, looked like a burning flame, and, from the waist
up, looked like a gleaming amber (Vs.1-2). This man-like figure extended his
hand and took Ezekiel by the hair, and the HOLY SPIRIT lifted him up into the
sky, and transported him, in his vision, all the way back to Jerusalem.
Upon his arrival at
Jerusalem Ezekiel was taken to the north gate of the inner courtyard of the temple,
where a large idol had been placed there, that made the LORD very angry.
Suddenly the glory of the GOD of Israel appeared to Ezekiel, as HE had appeared
to him before, in the valley, down at the Kebar River a year earlier.
Ezekiel had been
practically raised in the temple, but he had never before noticed the large
idol that stood at the door of the church house. When we think about it, we
should not be surprised, because many professed Christian Churches today, that
have been defiled and profaned by our presence, and our unholy activities,
actually does have “invisible demonic forces and idol gods”, that we’ve invited
in, working and standing inside and outside on its grounds. However, we can’t
see them unless we have “spiritual discernment from GOD”, which HE only provides
to those who have a personal, experiential relationship with HIM. This vision,
and all visions that GOD shares with the faithful, represent nothing more than
GOD bestowing upon them, a “spiritual discernment” from on high, that allows us
to clearly see those spiritually demonic forces that are at work all around us.
In verse 6, the LORD
asks Ezekiel if he could now see what was going on outside, on the church house
grounds, meaning HE had yet to show him what was going on inside the church. Here
HE asks Ezekiel, “Do you see the great sins the people of Israel are doing
(around the temple) to drive ME away? But come (follow ME), and you will see
greater sins than these”. The closer we follow GOD, the more our sinful
behavior is brought to our attention.
GOD then takes Ezekiel
to the door of the Church courtyard where he could see an opening in the wall
(v.7). HE instructed Ezekiel to dig into the wall where he uncovered a door to
a hidden room. “Go in”, the LORD said, and see the unspeakable things going on
in the church involving the leadership. Ezekiel went in and saw the walls
engraved with symbols of all kinds of snakes, lizards, and hideous creatures
(voodoo and witchcraft), and he also saw the various idols that were worshipped
by the Church leaders and most of the people of Israel.
Instead of seeing walls
that were engraved with images of cherubim and palm trees, which represented
GOD’s guardians, and GOD’s fruitfulness and blessings, as GOD had instructed
them to do in the plans for the temple (Ezekiel 41:25), Ezekiel saw that the
walls were engraved with Idols and
symbols from Egypt (represented today most prominently in freemasonry and
fraternities), idols and symbols from Canaan (represented today in
Ishtar, avatar, and the cartoon figure “shaman King), and idols and symbols from
Babylon (still represented in Tammuz, astrology, Ishtar). All these
detestable idols were, and still are being worshiped in the temple of GOD.
All seventy elders were standing
inside the secret room holding incense burners, with Jaazaniah, son of Shaphan,
their leader, standing in the middle. Every man was burning incense to these
hidden idols when Ezekiel entered. This incense was also used by the elders in
a misguided, twisted, and obviously useless attempt to shield their worship of
these idols from the presence of GOD. In other words, using GOD’s idea of
incense burning in worship (Leviticus 16:12-13), to try to conceal from HIM,
the things they were doing against HIM (LOL).
GOD, WHO knew the hearts of these
wicked men (and indeed all men), explains to Ezekiel that the elders actually
believed that HE could not see them, and that HE had already abandoned Judah
and left them at the mercy of the Babylonians (v.12). And so, under duress from
their enemies, they had chosen to do the wrong thing, which was to take up
further worshipping of other gods for their protection, secretly, because they
did not trust the GOD of their forefathers. While facing the brunt of GOD’s
anger for their open idol worship, this wayward group of churchmen simply moved
their idol worship underground, forming a “secret fraternity”, if you will,
against an all-seeing, all-knowing GOD. And sadly, this too, was not the full extent
of Israel’s wickedness (v.13).
Ezekiel is then taken to the north
gate of the temple by GOD (v.14), where he sees some Israelite women there
sitting on the ground, and weeping (a form of worship) for the idol god,
Tammuz. “Tammuz” is the Hebrew name for the Sumerian god, Dumuzi, who is the
“god of spring vegetation”, and is also a pagan fertility god. They were
praying and weeping to this idol god, in the LORD’s temple, in hopes that she
would help end the drought in Judah that had been brought upon them by GOD, the
CREATOR.
The LORD then takes Ezekiel into the
inner courtyard of the temple, where at the entrance, between the foyer and the
bronze altar, about 25 men were standing with their backs to the LORD’s temple,
facing eastward, worshipping the sun (Osiris, or Ra, the sun god of Egypt).
The people of Judah had become so
accustomed to mixing the profaneness of idol god worship with the purity of
GOD’s Temple, that, it was now like second nature to them (v.17). The idol
worship that had started with the church leadership in secret, had now spread,
throughout the whole land of Judah, and had in fact, become commonplace, even
in the church house! That is why GOD was so angry at HIS people in Judah, then,
and that is why GOD is also angry with HIS professed Christian Church in this
day and age.
Today’s Christian Churches still
engage in such witchcraft practices as “miming”, mixing of gospel and secular
music in worship services, self-promoting, using and wearing demonic symbols on
our clothing in church, such as the so-called “peace sign” (Nero’s cross -
which symbolizes “the destruction of Christianity”) and other anti-CHRIST
symbols through fraternities and freemasonry. We continue to insult GOD on a
regular basis by entertaining ourselves in worship services, literally “playing
church” and fooling ourselves, really believing that what we are doing is “true
worship”, because our spirituality is so “out-of-calibration”.
In Ezekiel chapter 9, in the second
part of Ezekiel’s vision, the stage is now set for GOD’s judgment upon Judah.
Here, with a thundering voice, GOD calls on HIS appointed slaughterers to rid
the nation of its idolaters. Six men appeared, each armed with a battle club in
his hand. One, however, who was dressed in linen, also carried a “writer’s
case”, that was strapped to his side. They all went into the temple courtyard
and stood beside the bronze altar, awaiting further instructions from the LORD
(Vs.1-2).
At that time, the glory of the LORD
arose from between the cherubim, and moved to the entrance of the temple. The
LORD called the man dressed in linen and carrying the writer’s case, and
instructed him to go throughout Jerusalem and mark the foreheads of all those
whose heart were broken by the sin that flourished around them. This lets us
know that, even though “true believers” will always be outnumbered in this
life, the true believer is indeed, never alone. These marked individuals would
become “the remnant” who would be saved from the destruction that was about to
unfold in Jerusalem (Vs.3-4).
Then GOD instructed all the other
men to follow the man in linen, and kill everyone whom he did not mark on the
forehead, men, women, and children, and they were to start by killing the
seventy elders that were there in the temple. The courtyard was littered with
the bodies of the idolaters, and Ezekiel stood all alone and witnessed the
carnage. He fell face down in the dust and cried out to the LORD for mercy, but
no pity was shown upon the unfaithful (Vs.5-8).
The LORD told Ezekiel that the sins
of Israel were too great, and they were not willing to repent. The entire land
of Judah had been ravished by sin, and the people no longer believed that the
LORD had a presence in the land (v.9). They viewed their nation-wide troubles
as a sign that GOD had forsaken them. However, their troubles were, in reality,
a product of their own ungodly behavior. We have to come to realize that we are
not supposed to see GOD in our sins, but rather, in our obedience to HIM.
And so, it must not go unnoticed
that the man dressed in linen apparently finished his task a lot sooner than
the executioners did, as there were obviously many more idolaters than there
were people who were faithful to the LORD, a condition that has held true in
each generation since then, and still holds true in this day and age. Idolatry,
witchcraft, and all sorts of profaneness are still just as prevalent in the
Christian Church today as it has ever been, and perhaps, dare I say, even more
so.
A Sunday school lesson by,
Larry D. Alexander
LARRY D. ALEXANDER-
Official Website
No comments:
Post a Comment