Ezekiel - Lesson 9

Lesson nine, what's wrong with this picture? Ezekiel's first temple tour in Jerusalem. Ezekiel eight, one to 18. Chapter seven had prepared us for what follows in eight to 11. In seven, 20 to 21, Yahweh had declared, they have made his ornamental beauty, that is the temple, into a source of pride. With it, they created their abominable and disgusting images. Therefore, I will turn it into rubbish for them. I will hand it over as booty to foreigners and as plunder to the most wicked people on earth, and they will desecrate it. Well, the prophecy we are considering in this session is part of a long vision, the report of which extends from chapter eight, verse one, all the way through to 11, 25. So eight, nine, 10, 11, four chapters. Eight, one to four represents the introduction to this section. On the fifth day of the sixth month of the sixth year, as I was sitting in my house with the elders of Judah sitting in front of me, there suddenly the hand of the Lord, Adonai Yahweh, fell upon me. I noticed a figure resembling a man. From his waist down, he seemed to be on fire, and from his waist up, he glistened like sparkling amber. He stretched out what seemed to be the form of a hand and grabbed me by a lock of hair on my head. Then the spirit lifted me up into the air and wafted me away in divine visions to Jerusalem, to the entrance of the gate of the inner court, the one that faces north where the outrageous statue of jealousy was seated. I looked, and there was the glory of the God of Israel, just like the apparition that I had seen on the plane. This text is answered in 11, 22 to 25 with a conclusion. That was the introduction. Here is the conclusion. Then, with the wheels beside them and the glory of the God of Israel hovering over them, the cherubs raised their wings. The glory of Yahweh ascended from the midst of the city and stopped on the mountains east of the city. At that time, in a vision inspired by the spirit of God, the spirit picked me up and wafted me back to Chaldea, to the exiles. After the vision that I had been observing had left me, I reported to the exiles everything that Yahweh had revealed to me. That's the framework of this large, visionary episode, chapters eight to 10. It is actually organized as a legal judgment oracle against the people living in Jerusalem, which divides into three parts. First, you have the evidence that is about to be presented, the evidence and the indictment of Israel in chapter eight. Second, you have the announcement of the sentence in chapter nine. And third, you have the outcome of the sentence in chapter 10. Two disputation speeches are inserted in chapter 11. These add further information on the state of the population of Jerusalem, illustrating the violence, hamas, that Ezekiel will speak of in 8.17, and the bloody crimes, damim, and injustice that was running rampant in the city, 9.9, and thereby adding moral crimes to the religious offenses described in chapter eight. Accounts of visions, and this is one long vision, accounts of visions as extensive and complex as this one are unique to Ezekiel. He'll have an even longer one in chapters 40 to 48 right at the end. But as we noted with reference to the complex sign acts in chapter four, on the basis of content and style, here we can identify three distinct visionary events that are blurred or merged into a single account. First, there is the vision of the departure of the glory of Yahweh, 8.8, 9.3, 10.1 to 22, and 11.22 to 23. So that's one element. Second, there is the vision of the abominations being perpetrated in the temple. That's chapter eight, verses five to 18. And third, there is the judgment that Yahweh will inflict upon Jerusalem, nine, one to two, and four to 11. And as I said, there are two speeches, disputation speeches in 11.1 to 13, and 11.14 to 21 that are inserted here and interrupt this vision. We will deal with them when we have finished talking about the amazing vision itself, the visionary journey that Ezekiel took. This vision introduces us to one of the most important themes in the book, Yahweh's abandonment of his people. That's an overarching theme, especially of the first 24 chapters. We may give this title to the first 24 chapters, in fact, when God abandons his people. And then when we get to chapter 25 to 48, we can talk about when God returns to his people. That's the message of hope. But here, Ezekiel was not the first prophet to speak of a deity abandoning his subjects or his cult city. In a satirical attack on the impotence of Babylon's gods, Isaiah declared in 46, one to two, Baal bows down, that's Marduk. Nabal stoops, their idols are on beasts and cattle. These things you carry are loaded as burdens on weary beasts. They stoop, they bow down together. They cannot save the burden, but themselves, that is the idols, will go into captivity. In Jeremiah 48, seven, Ezekiel's contemporary offered a similar description of the patron deity of the Moabites. Chemosh will go into exile with his priests and his attendants. And he said the same thing of Milcom, the patron deity of the Ammonites in 49.3. While references to Yahweh abandoning his people appear frequently in the First Testament, only rarely do biblical writers speak of Yahweh abandoning the land of Israel. He abandons the people, but here, it's about abandoning the land. And when this happens, it's always precipitated by the people's iniquities, as in Jeremiah 4.8. Even so, there, the next verse reflects the more common Hebrew emphasis. Yet you, O Yahweh, are in the midst of us, and we are called by your name. Do not abandon us. So to have God near, in Deuteronomy 4.5-8, Moses talks about what nation is there that has a God so near to it as Yahweh our God is to us whenever we call upon him. Perhaps because Ezekiel ministered in Babylon, where the motif of divine abandonment was well known and had a 2,000-year history by his time. Ezekiel developed this theme of Yahweh's abandonment of his temple more fully than any other prophet. Underlying the notion was the ancient Near Eastern political-military policy of the spoliation of divine images. What do we mean by that? Well, when a foreign army invaded the capital of another city, their primary target would be the image of the God of this place inside the temple. They would seize the image of the God and drag it outside the city, often to their own capital. With this action, they declared to the conquered nation and the gods of the nations all around that their God was superior to the God represented by the image. This notion underlay the boast of Sennacherib, the Assyrian emperor, through his agent Rav Shaki in 2 Kings 18, 29 to 35. That was more than a century earlier, where Rav Shaki says to the people of Jerusalem, Don't let Hezekiah deceive you, for he will not be able to deliver you out of my hand. He's speaking for the emperor Sennacherib. Do not let Hezekiah make you trust in Yahweh by saying, Yahweh will surely deliver us, and this city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria. Don't listen to Hezekiah, for thus says the king of Assyria, Make your peace with me and come out to me, then each one of you will eat of his own vine, and each one of his own fig tree, and each one of you will drink the water of his own cistern, until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of grain and wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of olive trees and honey, that you may live and not die. Notice what he's doing here. Don't trust in your God, come with us, join us, we'll give you Eden, that you may live and not die. Do not listen to Hezekiah when he misleads you by saying, Yahweh will deliver us. Has any of the gods of the nations ever delivered his land out of the hand of the king of Assyria? Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sefer Vayim, of Hena and Eva? These are all place names. Have they delivered Samaria out of my hand? Who among all the gods of the lands have delivered the lands out of my hand that Yahweh should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand? In other words, the gods have no power over me either. For Ezekiel's audience in exile, the exposure of the sin of the people, the expression of divine anger, and finally Yahweh's abandonment of his residence and his city will all have had a familiar if academic ring. No doubt the people found Ezekiel's adaptation of the popular Babylonian account of such things, they found it entertaining. Again, go to chapter 33. But now we must get back to our text and have a look at Ezekiel chapter eight. We begin with a closer look of verses one to four, which represents the preamble to Ezekiel's first great temple vision. On the fifth day of the sixth month of the sixth year, as I was sitting in my house with the elders of Judah, sitting in front of me, suddenly the hand of the Lord fell upon me. I noticed a figure resembling a man. From his waist down, he seemed to be on fire. And from his waist up, he glistened like sparkling amber. He stretched out what seems to be the form of a hand and grabbed me by a lock of hair on my head. Then the spirit lifted me up into the air, wafted me away in divine visions to Jerusalem, to the entrance of the gate of the inner court, the one that faces north, where the outrageous statue of passion, jealousy, was seated. I looked and there was the glory of the God of Israel, just like the apparition I'd seen on the plane. The account of Ezekiel's first temple vision opens formally with a preamble that serves four functions. First, as we saw in 1.1, the opening date notice establishes the historical context of the present visionary experience. The fifth day of the sixth month, Elul, in the sixth year of Jehoiakim's exile computes to September 18, 592 BC in our calendar. If Ezekiel's first vision occurred on July 31, 593, this one transpired 13 and a half months later, long enough for the prophet to be recognized as a source of revelation by the community for they're sitting in front of him, which is our second point. It identified the occasion of this vision. Verse one, while the prophet was sitting in his house with the elders of Judah before him, compare this with 14.1 and 21, where the same scene appears, the reference to the elders reinforces the impression that the exiles lived in a community and that their pre-exilic social structures were maintained. We don't know why they were in Ezekiel's house sitting in front of their resident priest. The opening notes in 14.1 to 3 and 20 verse one suggest that once Ezekiel got going with his antics, they would often appear before him for a word from Yahweh. Undoubtedly, they hoped for a positive word concerning their status in exile, perhaps confirming the predictions of Hananiah in Jerusalem who was announcing that the exile would soon be over. Don't even bother unpacking your suitcases. You're soon coming back. The plane's returning. Where the reports of these prophecies, of these false prophets and Jeremiah's responses, how they reached Babylon, the exiles will, if and when they reach Babylon, the exiles will have wanted to know on which side of that debate between true prophets and the false prophets, on which side was Ezekiel. Compare this with Jeremiah 28 to 29. In any case, one year, just a little more than a year, after his call, the people seemed to be taking Ezekiel seriously. Through this, though this situation would change before long. There's a third function of the preamble. It identifies the nature of his prophetic experience. It's described first in terms of a divine seizure. And the hand of the Lord fell upon me. This is a strong form of a formula that appears elsewhere as the hand of the Lord came upon me or here. It fell on me. It highlights the sudden and overwhelming intervention of God in the prophet's consciousness. But this experience also is depicted as a visionary event. It's not just that he was seized by the spirit of God. He saw something. I looked and behold, that's the traditional translation. See, check it out. Simultaneous with the descent of the divine hand, a luminous humanoid figure appeared. The description of this person recalled the last phase of the inaugural vision, 126 to 28. Whether or not the prophet immediately linked the two visions, when he saw the glory, he declared, there was the glory of the God of Israel, just like the apparition I had seen on the plane. And finally, this experience is portrayed as a form of, shall we say, soul travel. This expression denotes the sensation of the conscious self leaving the body behind and being transported to another place. In this case, hundreds of miles from Babylon to Jerusalem. The nearest analogs to Ezekiel's experience are provided by Elijah, who was carried about by the spirit. 1 Kings 18, 12, 2 Kings 2, 1 to 12, and 16 to 18. And then Elisha, who also possessed remarkable extrasensory powers. However, neither the physical transportation of Elijah nor the psychic activity of Elisha matched Ezekiel's experience. In contrast to the inaugural vision, chapter one, where the prophet had remained a passive spectator until the end, here he becomes an active participant. He sees himself in the vision. He's an active participant whose involvement he then describes from three angles. First, whereas in verse one, the hand of the Lord was merely a figure of speech, in verses two and three, it becomes concrete. The form of a hand emerged from the fiery figure, reached out and grabbed the prophet by a tuft of hair. Second, a ruach picked him up. Now the term ruach here is ambiguous. If the word refers to the agent that transports Ezekiel, then we could translate it as wind. A wind, a tornado picked me up, as in 3.14. However, since this ruach is an agent of levitation between heaven and earth, the word should probably be interpreted as the divine spirit, capital S, Holy Spirit. Whether or not the prophet's visitors actually witnessed that levitation, we don't know. And third, by means of supernatural visions, maroth elohim, an expression we saw in chapter one, verses one and two, Ezekiel was transported across the Arabian desert to Jerusalem, where he touched down within the temple compound. This observation leads to a fourth function of the preamble. It provides a backdrop against which to interpret everything that follows up until chapter 11. Specifically, Ezekiel found himself at the north gate of the inner court of the temple in Jerusalem. Like the temple the prophet would envision in chapters 40 to 48, the Davidic temple, we usually call it Solomon's, but it was David's idea. It was the Lord's revelation to David. David gathered all the materials. Solomon was to the temple what the tabernacle builder was to the tabernacle, whereas David is the Moses in this image. But like the temple the prophet would envision in chapters 40 to 48, the Davidic temple that Solomon built had two courts, inside the inner and outer walls, respectively. 2 Kings 21, 5, and 23, 12. Here the gate of the inner court denotes the gateway through the inner wall by which access was gained to the courtyard surrounding the temple building itself. This court will figure again in verse 16 and 10, 3 to 5. In verse 5, the gate in question is identified as the altar gate, presumably because through this gate one could gaze at the great altar from the outer court. However, as we will see in a moment, the spirits dropping Ezekiel at this location also represented the beginning of a tour of the temple, a tour through which Ezekiel would learn of all sorts of cultic abominations co-evolved being perpetrated in that building. Indeed, the word abominations, abhorrent actions, appears six times in chapter 8. 6A, 6B, 9, 13, 15, 17. In this chapter here, it functions as the theme word for the entire tour. Ezekiel 8, 5 to 18, forms one of the most tightly knit literary units in the entire book of Ezekiel. It's very carefully crafted. In this account, Yahweh posed as a tour guide who led Ezekiel around the temple complex. As the tour proceeded, he pointed out the most significant sites, encouraging the prophet to observe carefully and to interpret what he saw. He maintained Ezekiel's curiosity by announcing in advance that even worse abominations were still to come, which reached a climax in the fourth scene. Through this tour, Yahweh developed his case against Israel. It's important to recognize the function of this tour. It's a prosecutor's plan to present a case against Israel as the accused in this instance. Through this tour, Yahweh developed his case. The four scenes provide four visual recitations of evidence justifying the extreme response to Israel's infidelity that's about to happen. In the end, at least Ezekiel would know that if Yahweh abandoned his people, it would not be without cause. In betraying him, the people in Jerusalem had inflamed his passion. They had violated the fundamental principle of covenant relationship and its corollary. You shall have no other gods before or besides or in addition to me. And you shall not make any idolatrous images for yourselves to worship and serve. You see references to this in the Decalogue in Exodus 23 to 6 and Deuteronomy 4, 1 to 21, 1 to 20. The people in Jerusalem were not only guilty of perpetrating both crimes, that is having other gods and then making images, but they had also blatantly perpetrated them right under Yahweh's nose. Does God have a nose? Inside the temple compound. From a literary perspective, the description kept hearers engaged by a creative combination of dialogue and movement. Like the prophet himself, our divine guide has us wondering what we will find in the next room and how the outrages currently observed can possibly be surpassed. The text breaks into four clearly delimited frames, each representing one element of the case against Israel. Scene one, the outrageous statue at the north gate, verses five and six. Scene two, the images and the censors, eight, seven to 13. Scene three, weeping the Tammuz, eight, 14 to 15. And scene four, the solar cult worshiping the sun, eight, 16 to 17a. The prophet cast his report of these scenes with a stereotypical pattern. Each paragraph includes the following seven elements. One, there's a notice of the divine transportation of the prophet. Then he took me and put me in a new place. Then he brought me to. You have this in verse five, seven, 14, 16. Two, there is a notice of a new venue. Scene one, at the northern gate to the inner court, that's the altar gate. Scene two, at the entrance of the court, verse seven. Scene three, the northern entryway to the house of Yahweh, verse 14. And scene four, the inner court of the house of Yahweh, verse 16. A third element, the announcement of the prophet's perception with hinei, archaically translated behold. Or scene one, look there. Scene two, look. Scene three, look. Scene four, look. A fourth element, a description of the sight observed. Scene one, the provocative statue. Scene two, the elders and the cult images in the dark room. Scene three, the women weeping the tammuz. And scene four, gestures of homage to the son. Five, there's Yahweh's question introduced with, and he said to me. Scene one, son of man, do you see what they are doing? Verse six. Scene two, have you seen, son of man, what the elders of the house of Israel are doing? That's verse 12. Scene three, have you seen, son of man? Verse 15, scene four, have you seen, son of man? Verse 17, the question is quasi-legal, calling on the prophet to take careful note of the evidence God is revealing to him. The sixth element, a statement of the provocative significance of the actions. Scene one, to drive me away from my sanctuary. Verse six. Scene two, for they say Yahweh doesn't see us. Yahweh has abandoned the land. Verse 12. Scene three, it's missing, and then in scene four, they are provoking me all the more, putting the branch to my nose, whatever that means. Verse 17. And then a seventh element, a transitional comment at the end of each, that greater abominations are still to come. Scene one at the end, but you shall see even greater abominations. Scene two, you will see even greater abominations. Scene three, you will see even greater abominations than these, and scene four, since the last, it's the last, we don't have that statement anymore. Fascinating structure, very carefully designed, like a prosecuting attorney would do before a trial case. The tour guide, though, is a mysterious figure. Ezekiel never identified him by name. But several features suggest he is Yahweh himself. First, the use of the first person, particularly in verse six, where the sanctuary is identified as my holy place, Mikdashi. And verse 17, where the provocation is against me. Second, the nearest antecedent to he said to me in 8.5 is the God of Israel, whose glory the prophet had just noticed. I saw him and he said to me. Third, the conclusion, verse 18, which contains a formula heard before from the mouth of Yahweh. I will not show any pity, my eye will not pity, I will not spare.Whoever the guide was in this sequence of scenes, he presented Yahweh's own perspective on the abominations being perpetrated in Jerusalem. The written account intentionally highlights the location of the abominations by specifying the vantage from which the prophet observed each scene. By noting the exact spot where the outrageous acts were being committed. By the repetition of locative adverbs, there and here. And finally, by repeated references to the temple itself. This is my sanctuary, this is the house of Yahweh, verse 14, this is the palace of Yahweh, verse 16. The order of these three expressions reflects the increasing degrees of sanctity as one moves from the perimeter to the heart of the sacred precinct. The temple abominations will be presented in remarkable detail to create a backdrop for the greater theme, God's leaving. His withdrawal from the temple is about to happen. The chapter will conclude with a reformulation of the divine resolve to pour out his fury on Judah. This is why. So let's look at these four scenes. Scene one, the abomination at the north entrance, the outrageous statue, five to six. Then he said to me, human, look up toward the north. So I looked up toward the north and there, to the north of the altar gate was this provocative statue at the entryway. He asked me, human, you are staring at what they are doing, the great abominations that the house of Israel is committing here, driving me away from my sanctuary, but you shall see even greater abominations. Regarding the guide's command to look toward the north, the prophet's gaze was responding to the guide's command to look toward the north. The prophet's gaze was fixed on an image at the entryway. The statue of passion, Semel HaKinah. Although this phrase is usually translated as image of jealousy, we should interpret this as the image that ignites Yahweh's passion. As we saw on 5.13, this word speaks of the emotion that burns in Yahweh's heart because some outside party is claiming the devotion of his bride. What remains of the Israelites in Jerusalem, they are his bride. As we hear repeatedly, Yahweh was indeed an impassioned husband who loved his people deeply, but when other lovers entered the picture, he gets fired up. Significantly, the epithet, impassioned God, always occurs in the context of idolatry. However, this image at the northern entrance to the temple was only the beginning of abominations on the steward. The effect was disastrous. When all the other gods are introduced to the temple, Yahweh leaves. That becomes the point. This image is the first stage in a series that portrays Yahweh's progressive alienation from his people that is reflected in his gradual leaving of the temple. So much for security based on his eternal commitment to this place. We recognize now which pillar of Israel's source of pride and security is being addressed here. It is clearly the temple pillar. The image presents a direct challenge to Yahweh's presence. Either Yahweh alone is Israel's God or he is not their God at all. That's scene one. Scene two, the abominations in the dark room. The images and the censors. Verses seven to 13. Then he brought me to the entrance of the court. I looked and there in the wall was a hole. He said to me, human, dig through the wall. So I dug through the wall. There was an entryway. He said to me, go in and observe the evil abominations they are committing here. So I went inside and I look and there was every kind of disgusting crawling creature and beast and all the idols of the house of Israel engraved on the wall all around. 70 men representing the elders of the house of Israel were stationed in front of them with Jeazaniah, the son of Shaphan, standing in their center. He's the president of this outfit. But each of them had a censor in his hand and the scent of the incense cloud was rising. He said to me, you are staring, human, at what the elders of the house of Israel are doing in the dark, each in his own carol in his image. For they rationalize, Yahweh doesn't see us. Yahweh has abandoned the land. And then he said to me, you'll see even greater abominations than these. Well, this second scene is obviously much more complex. Having been ushered into the gateway, Ezekiel noticed a hole in the wall of the gateway. Responding to the guide's command, the prophetic priest enlarged the hole and crawled into a completely dark room where 70 elders were waving the incense before the nostrils of 70 images carved in the form of every conceivable creature and erected in niches in the walls. Well, what have we got here? Let's notice, first of all, the criminals in these cultic religious crimes. Notice the participants here. There were 70 elders of the house of Israel. Oh, really? We've heard that before. These were the counterparts back in Jerusalem to the elders sitting in front of Ezekiel. Verse one, outside the temple, they were indeed the leaders of the community, but they had no business in here. Only qualified priests may enter these increasingly sacred quarters, which is why Ezekiel had to be ordained in the first vision so he could get into the temple in the second vision. But these Judeans had obviously devised a religion after their own whims and their presence there alone desecrated the temple compound. The number 70 immediately recalls the group that assisted Moses in governing the nation during the wilderness wandering, Exodus 24, 1 and 9 and elsewhere. However, here, their number 70 seems to be determined by the number of images rather than vice versa. Given Ezekiel's background, he must have been horrified by the sight of this large group of civic officials usurping priestly prerogatives, encroaching on sacred space and taking charge of cultic rituals. His characterization of this site with expressions like those disgusting things fits with his identification of the objects of worship as smelly pellets of excrement, dung, feces. These leaders of the community, presumably sophisticated leaders, were each standing in front of his pile of manure, to use Ezekiel's words. Their posture expressed their submission before their supposed superiors.Perhaps most shocking of all, Ezekiel recognized the man at the center. Hey, that's Jeazaniah ben Shaffan. I know that guy. The name Jeazaniah means Yahweh listens, or more precisely, Yahweh hears, using the noun as a verb. Yahweh gives ear. It appears here for the first time in the First Testament at the end of the seventh century. But it's interesting that thereafter, it becomes increasingly common as attested both in the scriptures after this and in extra biblical texts. It's as if the closer we get to the disaster of 586, the more people want God to hear Jeazaniah. That's why you give your child that name. Yahweh hears. During the reign of Josiah, Shaffan, son of Azaliah, was the state secretary Hassefer, the scribe. This noble man apparently was the father of at least three men, all of whom the scriptures identify as ben Shaffan, son of Shaffan. There's Achikam, an assistant to Jeremiah, Jeremiah 26, 24, and the father of Gedaliah, in whose house that prophet stayed, Jeremiah 40. There's Elassah, by whose hand Jeremiah's letter was sent to the exiles in Babylon, and then Gemariah, who tried to prevent Jehoiakim from burning Jeremiah's prophetic scroll, and whose seal actually archeologists have discovered in Jerusalem, Gemariah, seal of Gemariah. We will meet another Jeazaniah, Ben Azur, in 11.1, but this is the son of Shaffan. Ezekiel recognized this guy as one of Jerusalem's, as from one of Jerusalem's leading families, who for some reason had been left behind in the deportation in 597 BC. His involvement in these abominable cultic activities suggests he was the bad apple in this family. His brothers were all sympathetic toward Jeremiah. They were his friends. Jeremiah, friends of the recognized prophet of Jeremiah, but this guy is a bad apple in that box. The elders' criminal cultic crimes. Now that we know who the guys were doing this, what were they doing? What were these men doing there in the dark room? Well, it seems that in desperation, they were trying to smooth the faces of every conceivable god, 70. Obviously, Yahweh was not listening to them anymore. In fact, Ezekiel heard them justify their actions verbally with the Lord does not see, Yahweh has abandoned the land. Well, if he had left the land, why should they work in the darkness of this room? But in any case, they are doing this ostensibly because they have lost all confidence in Yahweh. Presumably, this was a statement of purpose. Not only, so they were in this dark room, so God would not see, but of course we know that God sees everything, even what people do in the dark. But did they fear that he could come back any minute? He had abandoned the land, but he could come back. We cannot be sure. If they were attempting to get away with activities known to be offensive to God, their comment about Yahweh not seeing is either superfluous, unnecessary, or ironical. In their confession, they say he doesn't see, but I tell you, he not only sees, he smells. Did you notice the irony? The elders were standing before their idols that he labeled again, gilulim, pellets of dung, holding their censers before the image so the vapor of that incense would waft up toward the face of the image and be inhaled by the God and enjoyed like marijuana or some other hallucinatory drug and he would smile on the worshiper, smoothing the face, taking away the frown, keeping the gods happy. With narcotics here, Ezekiel did not explain why these men were burning incense to these images. To the prophet, it might hide the smell of the scheisse, that is the German word for dung. But the practice was based on the conviction that like humans, a deity takes pleasure in the aroma. It moves the deity to be favorably disposed toward the worshiper. We have this authentically and legitimately in Genesis 8, 21. These elders of the city seem to have had a premonition of imminent disaster and they were not taking any chances, trying to mollify and offer every conceivable demon, God to them, give them a high and maybe the gods will treat us well, 70 of them. For criminal, what about the criminal's rationalization for these crimes? For they say, Yahweh doesn't see, Yahweh has abandoned the land. Well, the elders' rationalization of their actions was also patently ironical on two counts. First, what the men in this dark room were saying about God was in fact false about him. He was still there, but it was very true of the images before which they stood. They had eyes, but they couldn't see a thing. What distinguished Yahweh from all of the gods was his ability to see despite not having any eyes. However, this vision affirms that Yahweh's sight penetrated the innermost recesses of the temple and the darkest corners of human hearts. God saw what was happening inside the walls of rooms that had no doors or windows. Second, the statement that Yahweh had abandoned his land was equally false. He hadn't left yet. Though the rest of the vision demonstrates that it would become a self-fulfilling prophecy. He had not yet abdicated his throne in the holy of holies, but the die had been cast. Before this vision was over, the prophet will have witnessed his departure. With their rationalization, these paganized elders have both justified their own comments, their own behavior, and they have become spokesmen for the principal theme of this whole vision, God is leaving. And it's these paganized people who announce the theme ironically. Scene three, the abominations at the north entrance to the inner court, the Tammuz lament, verses 14 to 15. The prophet's description of the next scene is short. Then he brought me to the entrance of the north gate at the house of Yahweh, and there were the women sitting and weeping the Tammuz. He said to me, look human, you will see even greater abominations than these. Now to understand this abominable, abhorrent scene, I must first clarify who Tammuz was. This is the only explicit by name reference to Tammuz in the first Testament. In Babylonian legend and myth, Tammuz called Dumuzi was a shepherd king who ruled Bad Tiberia for 36,000 years before the great flood. After he died, he was elevated to the status of a God. In fact, he became the male God of fertility. Mesopotamian myths about this God were preoccupied with the death of Tammuz and his departure to the netherworld every fall, which meant the loss of his virility and the onset of the dry season when all vegetation died. The rituals commemorating this event were dominated by women who lamented his passing and who awaited his resurrection every spring. Canaanite counterparts to this ritual had the storm God Baal, Hadad, playing this role. Now since this scene followed immediately after the elder's assertion that Yahweh had abandoned the land, it appears that these women either equated Yahweh with Tammuz or they were expressing their grief at their own deity's departure by adapting a Tammuz ritual. Notice, contrary to all our translations, they were not weeping for Tammuz, the pagan God. According to the Hebrew grammar, they were weeping the Tammuz. It is clearly the object of the verb to weep. I think what this means is they had applied to Yahweh's departure the name of the ritual that in Babylon commemorated the death of Tammuz. This was a funeral dirge for Yahweh. He had disappeared. He had died. But notice again how utterly abhorrent this was. What were these women doing in the temple? They didn't belong there, no more than the elders in the previous vision. They certainly should not have been performing pagan rituals in Yahweh's temple. In this scene, the prophet observed the people in Jerusalem replacing the vital worship of the living God with lamentations for the dead, scene three. Scene four, the abominations at the entrance to the temple, the solar cult, worshiping the sun, verses 16 to 17a. Then he brought me to the inner court of the house of Yahweh and there at the entrance of Yahweh's palace between the porch and the altar were about 25 men, each with his back to Yahweh's palace, facing toward the east. They were prostrating themselves eastward toward the sun. He said to me, look, human. Well, as we had in the second scene, here we need to notice the key elements in these final abominations. First, mark the location of the activities. Now the divine guide has ushered Ezekiel into the inner court of the temple, the house of Yahweh, from where he observes another ritual drama being performed between the porch and the altar. We're very close to the entrance to the temple itself. Second, notice the participants. Ezekiel estimated that about 25 men were involved here. Neither names nor status are given. We might associate these men with 25 who appeared in 11.1, a group that included another Jeazaniah and Pelletiah Benaiah but Ezekiel characterized them as leading officials of the people. We don't know who they were. Third, notice what they are doing, the nature of their abominations. Verses 16 to 17 describe more provocative actions. The first involves physical prostration before the sun. The posture of these men sends a double signal. By turning their backs toward the temple, which is back there, and bowing to the sun in the east, they're actually, we have the expression, mooning Yahweh. And by facing the sun, they declared their submission and homage to Shamash, the sun god. But this time, rather than preparing the prophet for even greater abominations, Yahweh changed the subject completely. He's had enough. He suggests these cultic horrors were minor in comparison with social evils. They had provoked Yahweh even more by filling the land with violence. This expression, again, echoes Genesis 6.11, just before the flood, the whole earth was filled with violence, Hamas. The order of the offenses and explicit notices that they get progressively worse set the stage for the most reprehensible sin of all. Crimes against humanity are even more villainous than those committed to Yahweh's face. Well, what's Yahweh to do with all of this? We have his response in 17b to 18. Look at them, sticking the branch up my nose. Therefore, I will respond with fury. My eye will not pity, nor will I spare. Even though they scream in my ears with a loud voice, I will not listen to them. This tour of the temple concludes with an announcement of Yahweh's response to the evils Ezekiel had witnessed. First, he declared how this felt to him. It's as if the people had stuck a twig up his nose. Now, this is a graphic figure of speech. Being without physical form, Yahweh obviously doesn't have a nose. While most modern commentators view this as another cultic gesture, it's actually hard to figure out what that might be, sticking the branch to the nose. It describes something that is both painful and extremely insulting. Here, the expression is employed, in my mind, euphemistically, vividly expressing how Yahweh feels about the way his subjects have treated him. Perhaps the twig represented fuel for the fire that was burning in his nose. The Hebrew expression for to be angry means to burn at the nose. Well, this is an enigma. What's the twig up Yahweh's nose doing? I think it's a way of expressing, Yahweh expressing in human terms how frustrated and painful all of this is to him. And how irritating he is. The prophet's tour of the halls of iniquity leaves us wondering what has happened to the reforms of Josiah? Remember Josiah, the good king, who cleaned the temple of all the evils that his grandfather Manasseh had perpetrated there? The entire nation now had been lost, had succumbed to the spiritual rot from the house of Shaphan and the elders to the mothers in Israel, the women. Judah's biggest threats to faith came not from foreigners who were imposing their religious ideologies on the Israelites. The spiritual disintegration grew from within, promoted by syncretists who sought the worship of new gods and who promoted new cults when they perceived their own God and their native forms of religious expression had failed. God isn't listening. But this time there would be no second chance, no renaissance of relationship with Yahweh. The chapter concludes with an adamant, threefold declaration of Yahweh's resolve to pour out his fury on the nation. Therefore, I shall respond with fury. My eye will not pity, nor will I spare. The first two statements are familiar from 511 and 714. And the third is new. Though they scream in my ears with a loud voice, I won't listen. Yahweh hereby affirmed that from now on his ears were closed to all pleas for mercy. The hope expressed in the name Jehazaniah, may Yahweh hear, was in vain. He would not allow his heart to overrule his head, nor sentimentality to cancel out the deserved judgment. The verdict, guilty on all counts. And the sentence were in, as we will see in the next session. What about the theological and practical implications of what we've just witnessed here? Ezekiel 8 illustrates the failure of misdirected worship. True religion is demonstrated not only in ethical conduct, but also in worship acceptable to God. Authentic formal worship lets God be God on his own terms and submits to that divine self-definition. Anything else not only places the worshiper above the deity, which is the essence of idolatry, and it's a smelly delusion. The elders in the dark room and the women weeping the Tammuz appear to have been sincere, very sincere in their rituals. However, they were sincerely misguided. Instead of gaining a hearing with God, their actions added fuel to the fire of his wrath. It ignited his nose and closed his ears. True worship is driven by God's spirit and focuses on the reality of his person. This worship was abominable, repugnant, smelly, abhorrent. There's a lesson here for the way we worship in the Western church. In Deuteronomy 12, Moses had offered two helpful bits of advice for his people that are permanently valid. On the one hand, he said, you shall not do according to all that we are doing here, everyone doing what's right in his own eyes. That's Deuteronomy 12, five. It's not up to human beings to determine the forms of worship that are acceptable to God. As Jesus told the Samaritan woman at the well of Jacob, worship of God, the father and God, the son must be in spirit and in truth.That is driven by the Holy Spirit and according to his definition of what is true. The people in Jerusalem had cast their worship in all sorts of forms in direct violation of Yahweh's graciously revealed will. And this applies to us. In our quest to worship God acceptably, we may not rely on our own cleverly devised models. We must consult with him what pleases you. As I have tried to demonstrate in the book for the glory of God, recovering a biblical theology of worship. The scriptures offer all the guidance we need for our worship to be accepted to God. But on the other hand, Deuteronomy 12, 30 to 31, there Moses declared, guard yourself lest you be ensnared to follow their ways, that is the pagan's ways after they've been destroyed ahead of you unless you inquire about their gods by asking, how did these nations serve their gods? That I, yes, I'd like to do the same. You must not treat Yahweh your God that way because every act that is abhorrent to Yahweh and that he hates they have performed for their gods. They even burn their sons and daughters in the fire as offerings to their gods. When we enter the house of God to worship, we enter his house. He is the divine master of whatever transpires here. The world does not determine the cultic and liturgical language inside this counter-cultural environment. It's a different universe. What they do is abominable to him. We must do what is right with him. Second, false worship leads to false morality. Where people presume to define the character of God, they also tend to redefine their own ethical standards. The interrelationship between worship and ethics is expressed in 817. Abominations in the temple were accompanied by social crimes of violence. It's what happens. Worship not only offers an opportunity to express one's fundamental relationship with God, it also shapes one's character. Jesus did not say, if you love me, sing nice songs about me. Or if you love me, tell me. No, if you love me, keep my commands. God is not impressed with enthusiastic expressions of worship on Sunday, if we in our lives are not characterized by joyful, ethical obedience to him the other six days of the week. Furthermore, if we lose sight of God as he has revealed himself in scripture and as he has acted in history, we will quickly make ourselves the measure of all things and become our own adjudicators of right and wrong. Of course, the world doesn't understand this. The abortion industry is the modern equivalent of ancient pagan child sacrifices. It's my right, it's my body. Represent parade examples of narcissistic self-absorption and self-service in defiance of God who treats every conception as the first step in the creation of a new image of himself. But so is the trivialization of violence and evil in the literary and artistic industries. What has happened to us that we can be entertained by all this evil without blushing or protesting. Third, rather than gaining the right to God's favor, whether of our own design or in imitation of the world, false worship alienates us from God. We call this the house of God, but does he really live here? And can we count on his continued presence and favor if we persist in false worship? True worship involves reverential acts of homage before the divine sovereign Yahweh, the living God incarnate in Jesus Christ in response to his gracious revelation of himself and in accord with his will. And what a gracious God we serve. He has actually revealed himself to us, including the nature and forms of acceptable worship, the worship of any other God, the worship of the one true God using forms that displease him. That's all false worship. Yahweh's final assessment at the end of Ezekiel's tour of the temple summarized his assessment of all false worship. In response to this sort of business, I will act in fury. I will neither pity, I will not spare. And though they scream in my ears for mercy, I will not listen. God is not obligated to listen to the prayers of the wicked. The only acceptable worship in the face of divine fury is God have mercy on me, a sinner, Luke 18, 13.