And he said unto me, Hast thou seen, son of man, what the elders of the house of Israel do in the dark, every one in his chambers of imagery? for they say, Jehovah seeth us not; Jehovah hath forsaken the land.
In a vision God carried Ezekiel to Jerusalem. There He showed him what the nation's leaders were doing where no one could watch, and the excuse they gave themselves for it.
This was not some fringe group. Notice the rank of the men bowing there, and the family name of one who stood among them.
It is a scene of even more intimate and debasing idolatry, a copy of the degradations of Egypt. And the ones bowing down to these were not the dregs of the people but their rulers! God had long ago appointed seventy judges, and one of their most important duties was to deal with idol-worship. Shaphan was the scribe who read the book of the law to the tender-hearted Josiah. What an ominous change in Judah, that now Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan stood in the middle of the seventy idolatrous elders!
These same men kept up the nation's public religion. The vision exposes the gap between what they showed and what they did.
These chapters judge the state of things at Jerusalem... The glory of the Lord appeared to the prophet. In the visions of God He took him to Jerusalem. There, in the courts, the chambers and the gates, He showed him every form of hateful and defiling idolatry practised in the Lord's own house by the elders and others of Israel. Compare the history of Jeremiah with the outward profession they kept up — the claim that the law would not perish from the priest. Then we understand the excessive iniquity of the Jews and their hypocrisy.
The secrecy itself is evidence. Men do in the dark what they already know will not bear light.
The secrecy and darkness surrounding this worship betray their awareness of the moral deformity attached to it.
The words at the end of the verse are not a slip of the tongue. They deny two things about God at once: that He watches, and that He is still here. These writers quote an older translation. It says "forsaken the earth" where the ESV says "the land," and "chambers of imagery" where the ESV says "room of pictures."
They had stopped even holding the truth in unrighteousness, bad as that is. They had sunk to the lower depth of denying the necessary attributes of God. They had sunk into Jewish apostasy, saying, "The Lord does not see us, the Lord has forsaken the earth."
The order matters. The sentence men say in their hearts is what drives them into the chamber, not the other way round.
The cause of moral darkness is unbelief. Men first say in their hearts, "The Lord does not see us: the Lord has forsaken the earth." Then they retire to the chambers of their imagery (Ezek. 8:12).
One writer turns the scene on the reader. He treats it as a picture of what every heart does with God, and warns where it ends.
Gaze with the prophet through the hole in the wall, into chambers of imagery in the idol's temple. See the almost unthinkable horrors pictured there; human corruption in its lowest forms. You say, how could a people think that was worship? Dear friends, it is just what all men do. They turn away from God as He is revealed to us in Christ. They make a god of their own imagination. They give free rein to the lusts of their own hearts... it should make us tremble. If you or I turn away from obeying God, and begin to serve a god of our own imagining, God will give us up to the desires of our own corrupt hearts.
Nothing stopped the ceremony while the incense went up. So what did that silence mean?
The Lord did not interfere with these celebrations. The clouds of incense rose in beautiful wreaths. He sent no rain on them, as if He who lived in the temple accepted them. No hand traced out a warning message on the wall! Still, the Word of the Lord described these fascinations as abominations. The prophet's safety, and ours at the present moment, lay in the love of the truth.
God's answer came in the next chapter.
In Ezekiel 9 we read the words, "Begin at My sanctuary. So they began with the elders who were in front of the house." Began what? Began to execute judgment!
- Seen — the whole vision exists because God was watching the exact room where men assumed He was not.
- Said — "The Lord does not see us" denies that He looks and that He is here. Commentators call it a denial of God's necessary attributes.
- Sequence — unbelief causes the darkness. Men say it in the heart first, then go into the room of pictures.
- Self-made — the idol is a god of our own imagination. Leave obedience, and God may give us up to our own desires.
- Settled — God's silence over the incense was not approval. Judgment began at the sanctuary, with the elders in front of the house.
And he said unto me, Yet again thou shalt see great abominations which they do.
In a vision, God takes Ezekiel from exile in Babylon to the temple in Jerusalem. There He shows him what is going on inside, one scene at a time. Each scene is worse than the last. The words of verse 13 are the hinge: God tells the prophet to look again, because what he has already seen is not the bottom.
God is laying out, piece by piece, the case behind the judgment He is about to bring.
These chapters judge the state of things at Jerusalem. The elders of Judah came before the prophet. The Lord used this moment to show him every outrage that would bring judgment down on the people... Here the Lord shows in detail the cause of this judgment... The Lord showed him every form of hateful and defiling idolatry that the elders and others of Israel practised in His own house.
What Ezekiel had already seen was bad enough. Notice who was bowing down in it.
This is a scene of idolatry even more secret and degrading. It copies the shameful practices of Egypt. And bowing down to these images were not the lowest of the people but their rulers! God long ago appointed seventy judges, and one of their most important duties was to deal with idol-worship. Here that same number are caught, you might say, in the very act of priest-like devotion to images of serpents, unclean beasts and worthless idols. Shaphan was the scribe who read the book of the law to the tender-hearted Josiah. What a dark change in Judah! Now Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan stood in the middle of those seventy idolatrous elders.
There is a last step down, and the priests are the ones who take it.
The last picture here is that of priestly apostasy; in this way it is the natural conclusion of the whole. Approach to God is what His house speaks of. The apostasy of the priesthood leaves this approach no longer possible.
Right after this verse, Ezekiel sees women weeping for Tammuz.
Tammuz is a name of uncertain origin, but his story is fairly clear. He is surely the figure better known to us and to history as Adonis, who in the legend was loved by Venus for his beauty. A boar killed him while he was hunting, says the legend, and at her request he was allowed to return from the underworld for six months of each year to be with her... It truly represents the short and lawless joys of earth, under a heaven pictured as no less lawless. Those joys soon end in mourning. With them goes a longing to have them back. In one way or another men predict that return for themselves, but they find little comfort even in what they predict. And no wonder, since there is no knowledge of sin in it, and no repentance.
If God already knew all of this, why did He wait?
God does not judge until the corruption is fully out in the open. He lets evil come to its full head before He strikes it, for He will be shown right in judging it, and clear when He Himself is judged.
This chapter is not only a record of one nation's past.
Gaze with the prophet through the hole in the wall, into chambers of imagery in the idol's temple. See the almost unimaginable horrors portrayed there — human corruption in its lowest forms. You say, how could a people think that was religious worship? Dear friends, it is just what all men do. They turn away from God as He is revealed to us in Christ. They make a god of their own imagination. They give free rein to the lusts of their own hearts.
So where does God start when He judges?
God always takes light and privilege into account when He judges. The elders who have privilege also carry the deepest responsibility. Their years do not exempt them; rather their stain is of a deeper shade... The evil had spread from the top downwards, so the judgment would follow the same course. God deals with the matter near to Him first: "Begin at my sanctuary."
- Deeper. Every "look again" takes the prophet one level deeper. God is not sampling the evil. He is showing in detail the whole cause of the judgment.
- Darker. The idolatry sank lower at every step. It ended with the priests. Their apostasy closed off the approach to God that His house was meant to give.
- Higher up. The guilty were the rulers and elders, even the son of the scribe who had read the law to a godly king.
- Emptier. The worship behind the next door longed for lost joys to return. It had no knowledge of sin in it, and no repentance.
- Nearer. God waits until the evil is fully out in the open. Then He begins judging at His own sanctuary, where the light and the responsibility were greatest.
And he brought me to the entry of the gate of Jehovah's house that was toward the north; and behold, there sat women weeping for Tammuz.
In a vision, God carries Ezekiel from Babylon to the temple in Jerusalem and shows him one hidden evil after another. At the north gate of His own house sit women in tears over a foreign god — and the question is what He will do about it.
Tammuz was a foreign god. Women mourned him each year, weeping over a death that comes from legend, not from Scripture.
A Phoenician idol, thought by some to be the same as the Greek Adonis, as in the Vulgate. The prophet saw women weeping for "the Tammuz," who according to tradition had been killed.
The worship was worse than a mistake. One writer describes what went on alongside the mourning, and where the whole path led.
The women wept for Tammuz, the Babylonian "Dumuzi," the god of spring, who dies and revives each year. It was a vile, obscene cult, because immoral, indecent ceremonies went with the worship of Tammuz. Sun-worship was the crown of all these abominations.
The vision moves from bad to worse. Here the source of the corruption shifts.
Here the idolatry is not Syrian or Egyptian, but Phoenician, and of the most deeply corrupting kind. It seems to be what the Greeks took up in the legend of Adonis and Aphrodite.
The earlier scene exposed the leaders. This one reaches further.
This next scene brings in a different group from the elders, and shows that every part of the nation was now infected.
One writer tells the legend behind these tears, then weighs what it leaves a person holding.
This is the god better known to history as Adonis. According to the legend, which is told in different ways, Venus loved him for his beauty. A boar killed him while he was hunting, and at her request he was allowed to return from the underworld for six months of the year… It is a nature picture in some way, no doubt. It truly represents the brief and lawless joys of earth, under a heaven pictured as just as lawless — joys which soon end in mourning. With them goes the longing to get those joys back, which in one way or another makes men predict this for themselves. But there is little comfort even in what they predict. And no wonder, since there is no knowledge of sin in it, and no repentance.
Grief is no proof of true worship. These women wept, and God called it an abomination.
One writer sets this scene beside a street in his own day.
In principle we see the deceitful character of religious activity in Ezekiel's day… Then on the other side of the House women were weeping for Tammuz (a heathen deity). The same thing showed itself some time ago in the South of England. During a huge ritualistic procession, bathers overcome with emotion knelt along the roadside as the "host" passed by… The Lord did not interfere with these celebrations. He did not pour rain on the clouds of incense that rose in beautiful wreaths as if He who dwelt in the temple accepted them. No hand traced out a warning message on the wall! Still, the Word of the Lord described these fascinations as abominations. The prophet's safety — and ours at this moment — lay in the love of the truth.
God's silence proved nothing about His approval.
Ezekiel's tour does not stop at the north gate. What he sees next is worse, and it ends with God's own answer.
We see how the prophet Ezekiel saw them weeping for Tammuz. Then, worse still, he saw them worshipping the sun. Through the hole dug in the wall he saw the images portrayed, and he found things getting only worse and worse. Could God spare such a nation? So He goes up with the cherubim and leaves the nation altogether.
- Tammuz. A Phoenician idol, mourned each year as a god who dies and comes back. Writers link him with the Greek Adonis and call the worship corrupting.
- Deeper. The vision moves from bad to worse. This scene reaches past the elders and shows that the rot had spread through the whole nation.
- Emptier. The myth is a picture drawn from nature: brief joys that end in mourning. There is no knowledge of sin in it, and no repentance.
- Louder. Real tears at the gate of God's house still counted as an abomination. Strong feeling does not prove that worship is real.
- Later. God did not interrupt the ritual, and His silence looked like approval. But the vision ends with His glory rising up and leaving the nation.
And he said unto me, Seest thou, son of man? Thou shalt yet again see greater abominations than these.
In this vision God leads the prophet through His own temple and shows him one hidden sin after another, each time saying that worse is still to come. Here He points ahead to the last and worst scene of all: priests worshipping the sun with their backs to His house.
The vision is not random. It is evidence for a judgment God had already announced:
Judah still existed at Jerusalem, although many of them had already gone into captivity with Jehoiakim. The temple would not fall for another five years. These chapters judge the state of things at Jerusalem... A year earlier, God had spoken through the prophet and warned Israel that He would give up His sanctuary to unholy hands. Here the Lord shows in detail the cause of this judgment.
God does not call Ezekiel by name here. He uses the title that runs through the whole book, and it shapes how the judgment is delivered:
All through the book Ezekiel is the "son of man." Only one other prophet — Daniel — is ever called this, and only once... The Lord Himself tells us that the Father "has given Him authority to execute judgment, because He is the Son of Man" (John 5:27). It is by a Man that man is to be judged... Yet God Himself gives him this title. It is the assurance of a Heart that appeals to man's heart all the way through the long record of what has provoked this judgment. And God brings that judgment only when even divine patience has reached its limit, and further delay could only be dishonour.
Each stage is worse than the last. What makes it worse is the place and the people:
But worse still remains, because of both the place and the people who worship the sun, the great object of Sabian and later Persian idolatry. ... The prophet notes that the number of these men matches the courses of the priesthood and the high priest, with their backs toward the Lord's temple, and their faces toward the east.
The order of these scenes has a point. The worst comes last:
The last picture here is that of the priests themselves falling away; in this way it is the natural end of the whole. Approach to God is what His house speaks of. When the priesthood falls away, that approach is no longer possible; and this is complete in what is before us.
Their bodies showed what their hearts had done:
Twenty-five men with their backs to the temple and their faces toward the east, worshipping the sun. In their evil course they had reversed God's order. How often we find that man's thought is the very opposite of God's — the sad result of turning away from Him and becoming estranged through sin. It is also clear that Satan's constant aim is to get the creature to turn its back on God and have an idol of his own.
One writer walks back through what Ezekiel had already seen, and then points out what God did not do:
There were excellent paintings of the abominations on the temple walls. The old men of religion were raising clouds of incense in the dark, saying in their vain imaginations, "the Lord sees us not." Then on the other side of the house women were weeping for Tammuz, a heathen god... The Lord did not interfere with these celebrations. He did not pour rain on the clouds of incense. They rose in beautiful wreaths, as if He who lived in the temple accepted them. No hand traced out a warning message on the wall! Still, the Word of the Lord called these fascinations abominations. The prophet's safety — and ours right now — lay in loving the truth.
Seeing the evil is not the prophet's task alone. God marks out those who feel about it what He feels:
So the terrible defilement of the people stands right next to His glory — the jealous glory of the Holy God. What can be done?... "Go through the city, through Jerusalem, and put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and groan over all the abominations that are committed in it."
- Seen. God makes His servant look at the evil in detail. Judgment on Jerusalem was already announced; this chapter shows the cause.
- Son of man. The title marks judgment by a man on men — a Heart that appeals to man's heart before the sentence falls.
- Greater. Each new scene is worse not by shock value but by place and person: closer to the sanctuary, higher in office.
- Backwards. It ends with priests facing east, their backs to the temple — God's order reversed, which is what Satan wants from every idol.
- Sighing. Nothing stopped the incense. Safety lay in loving the truth, and God marked the ones who grieved over what grieved Him.
And he brought me into the inner court of Jehovah's house, and behold, at the entry of the temple of Jehovah, between the porch and the altar, were about five and twenty men, with their backs toward the temple of Jehovah and their faces toward the east; and they worshipped the sun toward the east.
In this vision the prophet is shown one hidden idolatry after another inside the temple, each worse than the last. The worst comes last: men stand in the priests' court of God's house with their backs to it, facing the rising sun.
The number is not random. Writers tie it to the make-up of Israel's priesthood. They also tie it to the one part of the temple where only priests could stand.
These twenty-five men must be a priestly company. They stand for the twenty-four courses into which we know the priesthood was divided, with the high priest at their head. The passage does not call them priests, and that is no surprise, for the plain reason that they have fallen away from God. But their place is between the porch and the altar, so inside the priests' court, where no one else was allowed... So the very men chosen out of the chosen nation to draw near to God stand with their backs turned on His house, worshipping the sun.
These men were in charge of the nation's worship. Their failure dragged the people with them.
They were the ones pushing the idolatry and wickedness carried out in the temple of Jehovah. They stood there not as men whose clothing spoke of the blood that cleanses. They were the corrupters of God's holy standard and the defilers of Israel, leading them away from God. So if God brings judgment, it must begin with the house of God.
The order of the visions is deliberate. This scene closes the series because of what a temple is for.
The last picture here is the priests falling away from God, and in this way it is the natural end of the whole series. God's house speaks of drawing near to Him. When the priests fall away, that approach is no longer possible.
The sun was no small local god. Whole nations around Israel built their religion on it.
But worse is still to come, because of both the place and the people taking part in the worship of the sun. The sun was the great object of Sabian idolatry, and later of Persian idolatry.
Look at what the sun is, and the folly shows. It keeps its seasons because Someone set them.
The sun, with all its brightness and blessing for us, is clearly only the servant of a power beyond its own. Indeed, as Moses says in his appeal against this very worship, it is a servant to the peoples to whom God has assigned the ordinance of heaven (Deut. 4:19). So the steady way it keeps its appointed seasons shows what it is: it stays under physical law, simply a servant... But law is the rule of the governed, and not of the Governor. We must reach the Heart beyond all this, to One who is not limited by the laws He has appointed.
Later in the book the prophet sees worship offered facing the other way. The contrast shows what these men had done.
We see too that all the worship there would be offered with faces westward. That is a telling contrast to what the prophet had seen at the entry of the temple in chapter 8 — twenty-five men with their backs to the temple and their faces toward the east, worshipping the sun. In their evil course they had reversed God's order... Satan always aims to get the creature to turn its back on God and take an idol of his own. That idol is always another creature, for fallen man will have his god be like himself.
Sun worship was the oldest and widest idolatry, and Israel paid for joining it.
The earliest idolatry on earth grew out of praising the glory and movement of the heavenly bodies. To this day most of mankind honours these bodies, or worships them outright. Israel in its day fell into the sin of turning to the east, and so lost the glory-cloud of Jehovah's presence.
- Place. The sin happened in the inner court, between porch and altar. Only those who drew near to God for the nation could stand there.
- People. The twenty-five match the twenty-four priestly courses plus the high priest. The leaders of worship had become its corrupters.
- Posture. Backs to the house, faces to the east: they reversed God's order. Later temple worship faces the other way.
- Object. They bowed to a servant. The sun runs under appointed law, and law is the rule of the governed, not the Governor.
- Price. God's house exists for drawing near to Him. When the priests fell away, Israel lost the glory-cloud, and judgment began at the house of God.
And he said unto me, Seest thou, son of man? Is it a light thing to the house of Judah to commit the abominations which they commit here, that they yet fill the land with violence, and keep provoking me afresh to anger? And behold, they put the branch to their nose.
God carries Ezekiel in vision to Jerusalem and shows him, room by room, what goes on inside His own house. This verse is His verdict on the scene, and it ends with one strange gesture: the branch put to the nose.
This is not a catalogue of horrors for its own sake. God is laying out the cause of the judgment about to fall on Jerusalem.
Judah was still in Jerusalem, though many of the people had already gone into captivity with Jehoiakim. The temple was not destroyed until five years later... Here Jehovah shows in detail the cause of this judgment... God showed him every form of hateful and defiling idolatry that the elders and others of Israel practised in Jehovah's own house.
The men described just before this verse stood where only priests could stand. That detail shows whom God means when He asks whether this is a light thing for the house of Judah.
These twenty-five men must be a priestly company. They stand for the twenty-four groups into which we know the priesthood was divided, with the high priest at the head of them. They are not called priests, and that is no surprise, for the plain reason that they have turned away from God. But their place is between the porch and the altar, and so in the priestly court, where no others were allowed... So we see the very ones chosen out of the chosen nation itself to draw near to God with their backs turned on His house, worshipping the sun.
Translators have tried to change or soften this phrase. One commentator weighs the options and keeps the plain reading.
In my opinion there is no good reason to leave the ordinary rendering of verse 17 and change "branch" into song. Nor need we take seriously the idea that the original reading was "to My nose" instead of "their nose." The Greek translators seem to have read it that way; at least they render it "they are as scorners." But the Hebrew manuscripts support the common text, which makes excellent and consistent sense.
One writer reads the gesture as a picture of worship that never gets past what creation offers.
The sun, with all his brilliance and blessing for us, is plainly only the servant of a power beyond his own... Those who worship the law of nature, as sadly many seem inclined to do now, are not worshipping at all; they are merely putting the vine-branch to their nose. There is a sweetness in nature, apart from what sin has brought into it, which we cannot and need not deny... But if we rise no higher, this sweetness of nature only hinders the sweet savour of sacrifice — of that which is true worship.
The verse ties the abominations in the temple to a land full of violence. One writer traces how the first leads to the second.
Gaze with the prophet through the hole in the wall, into the chambers of imagery in the idol's temple. See the almost unimaginable horrors pictured there; human corruption in its lowest forms. You say, how could a people think that was worship? Dear friends, it is just what all people do. They turn away from God as He is revealed to us in Christ. They make a god of their own imagination, and they give free rein to the desires of their own hearts. That is why there is so much corruption in the name of religion. And it should make us tremble to think that if you or I turn away from obeying God, and begin to serve a god of our own imagining, God will give us up to the desires of our own corrupt hearts.
Nearness to God did not shelter them. It was the reason the blow fell there first.
Judgment must begin at the house of God. It always begins there. The greater the privilege, the greater the responsibility. Outward nearness to God, with the heart away, only invites judgment all the more.
- Privilege. The sun-worshippers stood between the porch and the altar, where only priests could go. The ones chosen to draw near were the ones who turned their backs.
- Substitution. The sun is only a servant. Worship that stops there never reaches the Master, and that is what putting the branch to the nose amounts to.
- Overflow. A god of your own imagination gives your heart free rein. That is why the land filled with violence while the ceremonies went on.
- Reckoning. Judgment always begins at the house of God. Responsibility matches privilege, and outward nearness with a distant heart only draws judgment faster.
- Warning. If we stop obeying God and serve a god of our own imagining, He gives us up to the desires of our own hearts.
And I also will deal in fury mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity; and though they cry in mine ears with a loud voice, I will not hear them.
In a vision, God brings Ezekiel from exile in Babylon into the temple at Jerusalem and shows him one hidden idolatry after another, each worse than the last. Verse 18 is His verdict on all of it — and the most chilling part is not the wrath, but the closed ear.
Verse 18 opens with "Therefore." What comes before it is the reason. When the elders came and sat before the prophet, God used the visit to show him the whole case against Jerusalem.
The elders of Judah came and stood before the prophet, and Jehovah used the moment to show him all the terrible things that would bring judgment down on the people... Here Jehovah sets out in detail the cause of this judgment... He showed him every form of hateful and defiling idolatry practised in Jehovah's own house by the elders and others of Israel.
The people God refuses to hear are not outsiders. They stand at the very centre of Israel's worship:
These twenty-five men must be a company of priests. They represent the twenty-four groups the priesthood was divided into, with the high priest at their head. Scripture does not actually call them priests, and that is no surprise, for the plain reason that they have turned away from God. But they stand between the porch and the altar — inside the priests' court, where no one else was allowed... So the very men, chosen out of the chosen nation itself to draw near to God, stand with their backs turned on His house, worshipping the sun.
The phrase in verse 17 is strange, and some have tried to reword it. One commentator defends the plain reading:
There is no good reason, in my opinion, to depart from the usual rendering of verse 17 and to change "branch" into "song"... The Hebrew manuscripts support the common text, which makes an excellent and consistent sense.
One writer sees the same gesture in people who stop at nature:
But those who worship the laws of nature, as sadly so many do now, are not worshipping at all; they are only putting the vine-branch to their nose. There is a sweetness in nature, apart from what sin has brought into it, and we cannot and need not deny it... But if we rise no higher, this sweetness of nature only blocks the sweet fragrance of sacrifice — which is true worship.
Nearness to God is no shelter. It raises the stakes:
Judgment must begin at the house of God. It always begins there. The greater the privilege, the greater the responsibility. Outward nearness to God, with the heart far away, only invites judgment all the more.
God rules out mercy here, and the verse names who will carry the sentence out:
Punishment to the fullest must fall on the Jews without mercy: Jehovah Himself would see to it.
The last clause is the hardest. They will cry out, and God will not listen. One writer warns that the same danger hangs over anyone who keeps putting God off:
True, the grace of God is without limit, but the day of grace wears to its end... Let triflers beware, lest when God says "How long?" they hesitate too long. They may hear at last those terrible words: "Because I have called and you refused to listen... Then they will call upon me, but I will not answer; they will seek me diligently but will not find me" (Prov. 1:24-28).
God's glory does leave the defiled house. Even the leaving carries a promise:
The glory was leaving, not coming to live there. Jehovah is leaving the place He was pleased to choose — not leaving it for ever, for He has chosen it for ever. But meanwhile the sins and apostasy of His own people have morally driven Him away. Ezekiel's prophecy says plainly that He will return and live there, never again leaving His home as long as the earth lasts.
- Provocation. God walked Ezekiel through the temple first. The sentence in verse 18 answers, charge by charge, what He showed him there.
- Priesthood. The worst offenders stood where only priests could stand, with their backs to the house they were meant to serve.
- Perfume. The branch at the nose pictures a religion that stops at the sweetness of nature. It never rises to real worship.
- Priority. Judgment begins at the sanctuary. Nearness to God with a far-away heart adds responsibility; it gives no shelter.
- Prayer refused. A loud cry can come too late. Yet the glory that leaves a defiled house will come back and stay.