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.