Making and Maturing

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Ryan serves as the Lead Pastor of Green Pond Bible Chapel in Rockaway, New Jersey. He is married with four children.
  • Spiritual Heart Surgery- Ezekiel 11:1-25

    Spiritual Heart Surgery- Ezekiel 11:1-25

    Take a moment to pray. Ask God to speak to you through his word—for his Spirit to convict you of sin, teach you the truth, and lead you in walking by faith.

    Setting the Scene

    Hearts can be tricky. I don’t mean our literal hearts beating in our chests, but our capacity for responding to God’s Word. When we hear a message from the Bible confronting sin we can either reject that message or agree with it. When we reject it, the Bible says we have a “hard heart.” But when we embrace God’s Word, we have a “soft heart.”

    In the midst of Ezekiel’s second vision, he has witnessed Israel’s flagrant idolatry and hypocrisy in Jerusalem. As a direct consequence of that sin, he has also witnessed the glory of God departing from the Temple. This dramatic vision confronts spiritual complacency in all its forms. The Jews in exile with Ezekiel needed this warning: the end result of sin is judgment. We do too.

    Have you noticed times when your heart was particularly hard? What was going in on your life? Perhaps the best examples would be before you became a Christian. God calls us to live one way, but why would we? We want what we want. Others around us worship other gods, why can’t we? So we stiff-arm the Lord.

    In the conclusion to Ezekiel’s second vision, God underlines the seriousness of sin and its consequences. He also gives us a taste of his grace, even in light of such hypocrisy. In short, he describes what, or who, makes hard hearts soft.

    Ezekiel 11:1-25

    Ezek. 11:1 The Spirit then lifted me up and brought me to the eastern gate of the LORD’s house, which faces east, and at the gate’s entrance were twenty-five men. Among them I saw Jaazaniah son of Azzur, and Pelatiah son of Benaiah, leaders of the people. 2 The LORD said to me, “Son of man, these are the men who plot evil and give wicked advice in this city. 3 They are saying, ‘Isn’t the time near to build houses? The city is the pot, and we are the meat.’ 4 Therefore, prophesy against them. Prophesy, son of man!”

    Ezekiel sees Israel’s elders advising the people with wicked counsel. They were suggesting that everything was great—people should build houses because there was no threat. Scholars aren’t totally sure what the saying, “The city is the pot, and we are the meat” means, but it seems to be another statement affirming that they were safe and even prosperous. The reality, however, was the opposite. Due to their sin, judgment was coming their way. In this moment, Ezekiel is called to participate in the vision and prophesy against these leaders, confronting them on their sin.

    Ezek. 11:5 Then the Spirit of the LORD came on me, and he told me, “You are to say, ‘This is what the LORD says: That is what you are thinking, house of Israel; and I know the thoughts that arise in your mind. 6 You have multiplied your slain in this city, filling its streets with them.

    God commands Ezekiel to confront the reality of their sinful intentions and behavior. These “holy leaders” had facilitated murder for gain in Jerusalem.

    Ezek. 11:7 “‘Therefore, this is what the Lord GOD says: The slain you have put within it are the meat, and the city is the pot, but I will take you out of it. 8 You fear the sword, so I will bring the sword against you. This is the declaration of the Lord GOD. 9 I will take you out of the city and hand you over to foreigners; I will execute judgments against you. 10 You will fall by the sword, and I will judge you at the border of Israel. Then you will know that I am the LORD. 11 The city will not be a pot for you, and you will not be the meat within it. I will judge you at the border of Israel, 12 so you will know that I am the LORD, whose statutes you have not followed and whose ordinances you have not practiced. Instead, you have acted according to the ordinances of the nations around you.’”

    These hypocritical rulers thought they were safe in the city, but God affirms that they will be defeated and taken into exile. Many will be killed. God intends this judgment to teach Israel that he is the Lord, and his Law is the standard. Rather than act in faith-driven obedience, they lived just like the nations around them.

    It’s so easy to go with the flow, to be influenced by culture rather than by God and his word. One of Satan’s ploys is to convince us that sin isn’t sin. This is why we must heed and cherish the word of God, even when it means going against the norms of our culture.

    Ezek. 11:13 Now while I was prophesying, Pelatiah son of Benaiah died. Then I fell facedown and cried out loudly, “Oh, Lord GOD! You are bringing the remnant of Israel to an end!”

    While Ezekiel is giving this prophetic message within the vision, one of the leaders fell down dead. Ezekiel realizes the severity of the situation and cries out for God’s mercy. If he continues, no one will be left!

    In judgment, God shows himself to be glorious. By maintaining his righteous standard, God demonstrates that he will not tolerate evil. His character is at stake. But God hasn’t forgotten his promises, and he will preserve a remnant. God’s grace abounds.

    Eek. 11:14 The word of the LORD came to me again: 15 “Son of man, your own relatives, those who have the right to redeem your property, along with the entire house of Israel—all of them—are those to whom the residents of Jerusalem have said, ‘You are far from the LORD; this land has been given to us as a possession.’

    The Lord speaks to Ezekiel and recognizes the attitude of those who weren’t in exile (yet). They assumed that those taken in exile five years before were in sin, while those still in Jerusalem had been spared. That’s why the land was their “possession.” They were wrong.

    Ezek. 11:16 “Therefore say, ‘This is what the Lord GOD says: Though I sent them far away among the nations and scattered them among the countries, yet for a little while I have been a sanctuary for them in the countries where they have gone.’

    Exile was not the end of God’s protection. The Lord was still a sanctuary for his people even in Assyria or Babylon. The judgment of Israel due to the people’s sin didn’t negate God’s grace. The exiles needed to hear this. Perhaps they had fallen into the trap, believing what the people in Jerusalem were saying. Their hope wasn’t in insisting they were innocent; their hope was in God’s gracious commitment to fulfill his promises despite their sin.

    Ezek. 11:17 “Therefore say, ‘This is what the Lord GOD says: I will gather you from the peoples and assemble you from the countries where you have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel.’

    Exile was not the end of God’s promises. Here God affirms that he would gather Israel again from the nations—Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, or anywhere else. He would once again give them the land promised to their forefather Abraham. Yes, those in exile would possess the inheritance once again.

    Ezek. 11:18 “When they arrive there, they will remove all its abhorrent acts and detestable practices from it. 19 I will give them integrity of heart and put a new spirit within them; I will remove their heart of stone from their bodies and give them a heart of flesh, 20 so that they will follow my statutes, keep my ordinances, and practice them. They will be my people, and I will be their God. 21 But as for those whose hearts pursue their desire for abhorrent acts and detestable practices, I will bring their conduct down on their own heads.” This is the declaration of the Lord GOD.

    The return to land would also be a spiritual revival. The people would tear down the idols. Why? Not because they figured it out, but because God would change their hearts. He would remove their stubborn, obstinate hearts of stone and give them beating hearts that would respond to his word. They will finally be his people. He will be their God.

    But those who love idols, who refuse to repent, they would face God’s judgment. The Lord is gracious, but his grace cannot ignore sin. He makes a way for forgiveness, but only for those who humble themselves and put their faith in him. Ezekiel’s readers needed to consider the state of their hearts, as do we.

    Ezek. 11:22 Then the cherubim, with the wheels beside them, lifted their wings, and the glory of the God of Israel was above them. 23 The glory of the LORD rose up from within the city and stopped on the mountain east of the city. 24 The Spirit lifted me up and brought me to Chaldea and to the exiles in a vision from the Spirit of God. After the vision I had seen left me, 25 I spoke to the exiles about all the things the LORD had shown me.

    Ezekiel’s second vision concludes with a dramatic vista: he sees the glory of God depart from Jerusalem. God’s exodus from the Temple, described in chapter 10, was now complete. After the vision, Ezekiel immediately shared it with the people in exile in Babylon. There should be no question as to why they were in exile and why Jerusalem would fall not long after: unrepentant sin.

    The Big Picture

    We must confront idolatry and hypocrisy in our hearts. We must refuse to be just like the world, just like our culture. The sad truth is that idolatry is deeply entrenched in our hearts. We often live like we have hearts of stone, impervious to God’s word.

    What will take for us to get the message? We need a heart transplant. This vivid metaphor describes the stubborn idolatry of Israel. It applies just as well to us. In order for us to confess our sin, to admit our idolatry and hypocrisy, God must work a miracle and change our hearts.

    The Apostle Paul uses similar language in Ephesians 2:1-5 where he describes people pre-conversion as “dead in our trespasses and sins.” So what changes? God “made us alive” together with Christ. God did something to us.

    In one sense, Jesus’ ministry is performing heart surgery on sinners. People preach the good news that Jesus died for our sins and rose from the dead, and God by his power changes our hearts and we respond by faith. That change in heart is permanent, but many days we still resist. So we must constantly seek to walk by faith, to follow the Holy Spirit. We must reject a stubborn heart of unbelief as long as today is called today.

    Taking It Home

    The Spirit of God changes the hearts of people. He softens our hearts, bringing us to a place of repentance and faith. Israel’s hope in exile was that God was still their sanctuary, that he would bring them back to the land, and that he would change their hearts. This is our hope.

    We see our need for God to change our hearts in two ways. First, this applies to our conversion. Recall the circumstances when you first responded to the gospel with repentance and faith. What happened? Who shared the gospel with you? How did you finally come to the place where you were ready to confess your sin? Now consider how God was active in changing your heart. How did you feel? How did you respond?

    Second, this applies to our ongoing walk as Christians. In what ways does your heart show its old pattern of stubborn unbelief and idolatry? Be specific. We need to honestly appraise the way we think, speak, and act. We know our weak spots, and often we know exactly what God wants from us in those areas. So what will you do about it?

    As we consider the totality of Ezekiel’s second vision, we must also read it as a warning. Those whose hearts are set after idols will reap what they have sown. Perhaps some in exile had thrown up their hands in frustration. Perhaps they fell prey to Babylon’s gods. Ezekiel’s vision was a warning to never be complacent, and to be on guard for hypocrisy. God had called Israel to vigilant faith in him. What about you? Are you on guard against hypocrisy? How?

    Thankfully, confrontation isn’t the end of the prophet’s work. Ezekiel’s third vision focuses on the miraculous nature of spiritual life. He has confronted sin, now God grants him a glorious view into his saving work.

    Pray

    • Ask God to help you confess your sin and repent. Ask the Holy Spirit to help you identify pockets of resistance to his leadership.
    • Ask God to keep your heart soft, responsive to his Spirit using his word. Ask him to send you a faithful brother or sister to walk with you, helping you love him more. Thank him for the church, and the ways that the church helps us see our sin.
    • Praise God for his grace, evident in his mercy even to stubborn sinners like us. Praise Jesus for dying for our heard hearts, and for his work of making us alive in him! Praise God that we have hope every day because of his grace.
  • The Lost Goal of Christian Maturity

    The Lost Goal of Christian Maturity

    And he himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, equipping the saints for the work of ministry, to build up the body of Christ, until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of God’s Son, growing into maturity with a stature measured by Christ’s fullness. Then we will no longer be little children, tossed by the waves and blown around by every wind of teaching, by human cunning with cleverness in the techniques of deceit.
    -Ephesians 4:11-14, CSB

    Maturity isn’t always desirable. Exhibit A: the recently coined verb, “to adult,” which is defined by Oxford Dictionaries as, “The practice of behaving in a way characteristic of a responsible adult, especially the accomplishment of mundane but necessary tasks.” So we find sentences like this on social media, “Doing laundry today, ugh. #adulting” This is where we are as a culture.

    This allergy to responsibility has tempered our expectations of spiritual growth as Christians. We’ve lost the goal of Christian maturity, and have replaced it with the goal of the bare minimum. It’s not new to want the benefits of faith in Jesus without being willing to count the cost (check out Luke 14:28); what’s new is the cultural default of embracing immaturity as acceptable. Brothers and sisters, Jesus calls us to so much more than just barely making it.

    In Ephesians 4:11-14 (a gloriously long sentence in the original), the Apostle Paul teaches us that God gifted leaders to the church to equip the saints for the work of the ministry (note: the work of the ministry is the work of all Christians, not just leaders). What is the point of the work of the ministry, of these leaders and non-leaders working in the church? Maturity.

    Paul says this work is meant “to build up the body of Christ.” Here the idea of building up is a powerful visual. We lived in Florida during the Great Recession and saw countless half-built homes abandoned by bankrupt builders. They were uninhabitable. A spiritually immature church is a church at risk. This is why the church must be built up. What does a built up church look like? It is unified in faith and possesses mature knowledge of Jesus.

    Paul then shifts the metaphor to physical maturity: our maturity is measured in comparison with Christ’s fullness. He is both the means of our growth and the end goal. Just like we watch children grow up resembling their parents, so Christians must grow in maturity, each day resembling Jesus more and more.

    What are the benefits of this spiritual growth? A stability anchored by strong faith in Jesus. Paul says as we mature, we won’t be kids anymore, subject to the fads of new teachings. We won’t be tossed around like a ship on the ocean, or blown around by the wind. In short, we will stand firm in the faith.

    So how can we reclaim the goal of spiritual maturity?

    Make Spiritual Maturity a Stated Goal

    We need to explicitly say, “I want to grow as a Christian, and I will make it a daily priority.” I often think that books like Oswald Chambers’ classic “My Utmost for His Highest” would never have taken off if published in the last decade. Maybe something like “My Reasonable Effort for His Highest” would be more realistic. If we don’t plan to pursue Christian maturity, we shouldn’t expect to grow. The Spirit is at work in us, but we can quench him, resist him, and ignore him.

    Measure Your Maturity by Jesus

    Jesus must be our standard. We grow in our knowledge of him. We grow our capacity to live according to his word. We grow in our awareness of false expressions of Christianity. This means we must resist the temptation to measure our spiritual growth by comparing ourselves to others around us.

    Prioritize the Church

    If we want to pursue spiritual maturity, we can’t do it outside of the church. That’s Paul’s whole argument. The church matures together. In a day when everything seems more important than relationships within the church, we have to constantly remind ourselves that God says otherwise. He says it’s worth it to sacrifice the time, energy, and money needed to be an integral part of the local body of believers.

    Resist Christian Fads

    The winds of “new teaching” are always blowing. Here’s a tip when it comes to Christian teaching: if it’s not old, be suspicious. Antiquity doesn’t automatically mean a teaching is right, but the foundations of Christian teaching are encapsulated in God’s Word, and have been passed down from generation to generation. Yes, we advance in clarity in our understanding of God’s Word, but if that clarity results in changing the clear teaching of the Bible, we have a problem.

    Enjoy the Benefits of Maturity

    Mature Christians, living in active relationships with one another in the church, enjoy stability. Spiritual stability—we avoid false teaching. Emotional stability—we rest on Jesus and our brothers and sisters in times of trial. Cultural stability—we endure the ups and downs of our society and culture without panic. In all of this, Jesus is the center.

    Brothers and sisters, let’s reclaim the goal of Christian maturity. We will all benefit from the results.

  • The Day God Left- Ezekiel 10:1-22

    The Day God Left- Ezekiel 10:1-22

    Take a moment to pray. Ask God to speak to you through his word—for his Spirit to convict you of sin, teach you the truth, and lead you in walking by faith.

    Setting the Scene

    …it is the duty of every man, that wishes to escape the plague and punishment of God, to declare himself an enemy to idolatry, not only in heart, hating the same, but also in external gesture…

    -John Knox on Ezekiel 10:1-22

    God is never soft on idolatry and hypocrisy. Our problem isn’t worshipping God, it’s only worshipping God. The lie we often believe in practice is we can worship both God and our idols. Israel believed that lie, and it resulted in one of the most shocking events in the Bible: the destruction of the first temple in 586 BC. Ezekiel’s second vision reveals not only why that happened, but also the greater spiritual loss behind it: God left the temple.

    In this vision Ezekiel has exposed the reality of Israel’s love of false gods, and the audacious act of worshipping false gods in the Lord’s temple in Jerusalem. As a result, God will not only bring Babylon to destroy that very temple. He will leave it.

    The day God left the temple in Jerusalem was truly a day of mourning. As we read this vision, it’s important to realize just how traumatic this would have been to those Jewish exiles in Babylon. It’s akin to September 11 in our culture, only more explicitly theological.

    When God departed from the temple, he was doing so in response to Israel’s continued idolatry and hypocrisy. God’s attitude towards idolatry and hypocrisy hasn’t changed. Even in this momentous judgment, God reveals his glory and invites us to soberly assess our spiritual state.

    Ezekiel 10:1-22

    Ezek. 10:1  Then I looked, and there above the expanse over the heads of the cherubim was something like a throne with the appearance of lapis lazuli. 2 The LORD spoke to the man clothed in linen and said, “Go inside the wheelwork beneath the cherubim. Fill your hands with blazing coals from among the cherubim and scatter them over the city.” So he went in as I watched.

    Recall that “lapis lazuli” is a deep blue or purple stone indicating God’s status as king. God is acting with his universal authority. He sends an angel to take burning coals from his altar and scatter them over the city. These burning coals taken from below the throne/altar represent God’s holy judgment of Jerusalem. His judgment is pure.

    Ezek. 10:3  Now the cherubim were standing to the south of the temple when the man went in, and the cloud filled the inner court. 4 Then the glory of the LORD rose from above the cherub to the threshold of the temple. The temple was filled with the cloud, and the court was filled with the brightness of the LORD’s glory. 5 The sound of the cherubim’s wings could be heard as far as the outer court; it was like the voice of God Almighty when he speaks.

    As Jerusalem is judged, God’s glory rose and went to the entrance to the temple. God is on his way out.

    Ezek. 10:6  After the LORD commanded the man clothed in linen, saying, “Take fire from inside the wheelwork, from among the cherubim,” the man went in and stood beside a wheel. 7 Then the cherub reached out his hand to the fire that was among them. He took some and put it into the hands of the man clothed in linen, who took it and went out. 8 The cherubim appeared to have the form of human hands under their wings.

    Here the angel does what he has been commanded to do.

    Ezek. 10:9  I looked, and there were four wheels beside the cherubim, one wheel beside each cherub. The luster of the wheels was like the gleam of beryl. 10 In appearance, all four looked alike, like a wheel within a wheel. 11 When they moved, they would go in any of the four directions, without pivoting as they moved. But wherever the head faced, they would go in that direction, without pivoting as they went. 12 Their entire bodies, including their backs, hands, wings, and the wheels that the four of them had, were full of eyes all around. 13 As I listened the wheels were called “the wheelwork.” 14 Each one had four faces: one was the face of a cherub, the second the face of a man, the third the face of a lion, and the fourth the face of an eagle.

    This description matches the one from Ezekiel’s first vision. The emphasis here is the mobility of God’s throne.

    Ezek. 10:15 The cherubim ascended; these were the living creatures I had seen by the Chebar Canal. 16 When the cherubim moved, the wheels moved beside them, and when they lifted their wings to rise from the earth, even then the wheels did not veer away from them. 17 When the cherubim stopped, the wheels stood still, and when they ascended, the wheels ascended with them, for the spirit of the living creatures was in them.

    Ezek. 10:18 Then the glory of the LORD moved away from the threshold of the temple and stopped above the cherubim. 19 The cherubim lifted their wings and ascended from the earth right before my eyes; the wheels were beside them as they went. The glory of the God of Israel was above them, and it stopped at the entrance to the eastern gate of the LORD’s house.

    God’s glory has departed the temple proper, and now is at the eastern entrance to the temple complex. Ezekiel describes the movement in detail because it is so shocking. It’s like a slow motion effect in motion pictures.

    Ezek. 10:20 These were the living creatures I had seen beneath the God of Israel by the Chebar Canal, and I recognized that they were cherubim. 21 Each had four faces and each had four wings, with what looked something like human hands under their wings. 22 Their faces looked like the same faces I had seen by the Chebar Canal. Each creature went straight ahead.

     The Big Picture

    Idolatry is incompatible with God’s presence. Israel refused to repent. They refused to tear down their idols. They refused to dedicate the temple to the worship of God alone. So God left. We must learn this simple truth: God refuses to coexist with idols.

    Satan’s selling point for sin is often, “a little of this, a little of that,” but God calls us to absolute and exclusive allegiance to him. If we insist on worshipping other gods, we have to know that we’re choosing them over him. Here God’s glory departs from the temple because Israel will not say no to idolatry. The idea of “everything in moderation” won’t do with worship of God.

    As shocking as God leaving the Temple was and is, that’s not the end of the story. When we continue in the story of the Bible we realize not only did God not abandon Israel, but he literally came to them. In the incarnation, Jesus came to save his people from their sins. As we observed reflecting on the beginning of this vision back in Ezekiel 8:1-18, Jesus replaces the Temple. He is God dwelling with his people.

    How is this possible? Jesus offered himself as the sacrifice for our idolatry. He removed the barrier between God and us. Furthermore, by his Spirit he actively leads us in saying no to idols. He will not quit until his work in us is complete. For this reason, we need never fear Jesus leaving us.

    But that’s not all. The Bible also teaches us that because of Jesus, we have been made into a walking temple. In a context dealing with sexual immorality, the Apostle Paul asks, “Don’t you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought at a price. So glorify God with your body” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). We are God’s temple, the place where he is to be cherished above all else, and that priority must influence the decisions we make every day.

    Taking It Home

    Ezekiel’s second vision explains why we feel far from God when we chase idols. Have you ever felt like God is distant, only to discover areas in your life where you are making sinful choices? It’s not a coincidence. What was it like? How did you respond? When feed idolatry, we will feel distant from God because we are.

    This also explains why sin compounds. Many times when we feel far from God we respond by making more sinful choices. Often this is because we refuse to repent, and it’s exactly what happened with Israel in the 6th century. Why not repent and minimize the damage? That’s Ezekiel’s point to the exiles, and to us.

    Repentance means acknowledging our sin before God and turning away from it in both attitude and action.  It’s a commitment to walk by faith and actively fight against a temptation to worship an idol.  At it’s heart, repentance is more than a feeling.  It’s living in a new direction.

    Finally, this explains why we must fight idolatry so hard. It turns out God did not abandon Israel, but he had to drive them to their knees. When will we learn to think of idols as God does? What will it take to convince us that loving money or drugs or sex or family or career or anything more than God simply won’t work?

    Pray

    • Take a few minutes and confess any sin in your life to God. Repent, and ask for God’s forgiveness based on Jesus’ death and resurrection.
    • Praise God for his grace to us. Thank Jesus for becoming flesh and dwelling among us so that we can dwell with him.
    • Ask God to lead you by his Holy Spirit to walk by faith and to truly be his temple.
  • Feeling the Weight of Sin- Ezekiel 9:1-11

    Feeling the Weight of Sin- Ezekiel 9:1-11

    There are two great lessons which every man must learn, and learn by experience, before he can be a Christian. First, he must learn that sin is an exceeding great and evil thing; and he must learn also that the blood of Christ is an exceedingly precious thing, and is able to save unto the uttermost them that come unto it.

    -Charles Spurgeon

    Setting the Scene

    Take a moment to pray. Ask God to speak to you through his word—for his Spirit to convict you of sin, teach you the truth, and lead you in walking by faith.

    We rarely feel the true weight of our sin. I think one of the main reasons among many is that we have so many distractions. We rarely take time to focus on who we are in the sight of God. We often fail to appreciate the depth of our sin because we have a faulty view of God; we mistakenly believe his grace means he’s soft.

    We need God’s help to see the depth of our sin. In his second vision, God is showing Ezekiel the persistent idolatry of Israelites left behind in Jerusalem. Part of his purpose is to help Ezekiel and those in exile understand just how wicked idolatry was and is.

    There’s no easy way around it: we don’t like talking about God’s judgment. That’s a symptom of cultural influence on our thinking. In the next part of this vision God commands our attention by sentencing Jerusalem for her sin. He even calls angelic executioners to do their job.

    Paradoxically, a greater understanding of the sinfulness of sin enables us to have a greater understand of God’s grace. Some of us we tend only to talk about grace without ever acknowledging our guilt before God and our deserved judgment for sin. On the other hand, some of us tend only to talk of sin and condemnation without ever applying the healing touch of the grace of God. In God’s Word, we find both topics clearly addressed.

    As we will see, God’s judgment is never devoid of his grace. But before we get to his grace, we must first feel the weight of sin. When was the last time you soberly assessed your guilt before God? When was the last time you realized how much you desperately need God’s grace? Let’s walk this hard road with Ezekiel, knowing that it ultimately leads to forgiveness and restoration.

    Ezekiel 9:1-11

    Ezek. 9:1 Then he called loudly in my hearing, “Come near, executioners of the city, each of you with a destructive weapon in his hand.” 2 And I saw six men coming from the direction of the Upper Gate, which faces north, each with a war club in his hand. There was another man among them, clothed in linen, carrying writing equipment. They came and stood beside the bronze altar.

    In the vision, six angels are tasked with executing judgment. A seventh was assigned the job of marking believers, sparing them from the judgment of God. This judgment would come to pass in the form of the Babylonians returning to Jerusalem six years after this vision. The Babylonian army would besiege the city again and destroy it, burning the temple to the ground. Needless to say, many lost their lives in the destruction.

    Ezek. 9:3 Then the glory of the God of Israel rose from above the cherub where it had been, to the threshold of the temple. He called to the man clothed in linen and carrying writing equipment. 4 “Pass throughout the city of Jerusalem,” the LORD said to him, “and put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and groan over all the detestable practices committed in it.”

    At this point in the vision God’s glory is visible above the golden cherubim on the ark in the holiest place. As we know from Ezekiel’s first vision, God’s throne is mobile. His glory moves out of the holiest place to the entrance to the temple. Don’t miss it: God’s glory is departing the temple. God is leaving his dwelling with his people!

    As this happens, the Lord assigns the seventh angel to mark the foreheads of people who mourn the sinfulness of Jerusalem. Here we see the hint of God’s grace. Not all will be judged. Jerusalem was not entirely corrupt.

    God’s people mourn sin, no matter where they see it, or how prevalent it is. This is particularly difficult when believers are a minority in a culture because of the temptation to adopt the culture’s morality. The faithful, however, remain sensitive to sin.

    How would you know if you were growing desensitized to sin? What are influences in our lives that water down our understanding of God’s holiness and man’s sinfulness? When we see ourselves thinking too much like the culture, we need to return to God’s Word and let him transform our minds.

    Ezek. 9:5 He spoke to the others in my hearing: “Pass through the city after him and start killing; do not show pity or spare them! 6 Slaughter the old men, the young men and women, as well as the children and older women, but do not come near anyone who has the mark. Begin at my sanctuary.” So they began with the elders who were in front of the temple. 7 Then he said to them, “Defile the temple and fill the courts with the slain. Go!” So they went out killing people in the city.

    God’s judgment started in the temple—with those who were most flagrant in their rejection of God for false gods. Being religious and knowing Christian terminology is the not the same as having repented of our sins and put our faith in Jesus. Hypocrites were the first to be judged.

    We see that the purpose of the mark was to spare the faithful from judgment. God would preserve his remnant, and he would restore Israel. In the vision, however, Ezekiel needed to see just how few those marked out ones were left.

    As Ezekiel witnessed the judgment of Jerusalem in the vision, he cried out to God for grace.

    Ezek. 9:8 While they were killing, I was left alone. And I fell facedown and cried out, “Oh, Lord GOD! Are you going to destroy the entire remnant of Israel when you pour out your wrath on Jerusalem?”

    Ezekiel senses the danger that all Israel will be destroyed. So many cherished their idols! So many loved their prosperity! So many cheated and stole! So many murdered and defrauded! Would anyone remain?

    I wonder if God gave us this same vision today, how our communities would fare. I fear that due to the prevalence of ungodly thinking and the lack of biblically informed faith, we would find ourselves in the same spot as Ezekiel, begging God to save some.

    Ezek. 9:9 He answered me, “The iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah is extremely great; the land is full of bloodshed, and the city full of perversity. For they say, ‘The LORD has abandoned the land; he does not see.’ 10 But as for me, I will not show pity or spare them. I will bring their conduct down on their own heads.”  

    Ezek. 9:11 Then the man clothed in linen and carrying writing equipment reported back, “I have done all that you commanded me.”

    God clearly answered Ezekiel’s cry for mercy: their sin was too great. They killed each other, they perverted God’s justice. They manipulated and took advantage of each other. They believed the lie that God was no longer reigning, that he was off the clock.

    God explains to Ezekiel that his judgment was just. He said, “I will bring their conduct down on their own heads.” In other words, they earned it. So often Satan whispers through our culture, “No one deserves judgment. Everyone deserves grace.” The Lord says otherwise.

    Can you recall times when you thought God had abandoned you? Times when you believed God doesn’t care about your sin? Maybe you said to yourself, “What’s the big deal? Everyone else is doing worse.” We need to feel the weight of this part of the vision: sin matters to God, and he will judge it.

    As we have noted, six years later the exiles in Babylon would get word that Jerusalem and the temple had been destroyed. They would be stunned, but they shouldn’t have been. The Lord graciously sent prophet after prophet to confront their sin. They simply did not listen.

    The Big Picture

    We need to feel the weight of this passage. Yes, it is shocking. Yes, it is uncomfortable. Yes, it is tragic. Charles Spurgeon, the famous 19th century preacher in London, made the point well preaching on this very passage, “There are two great lessons which every man must learn, and learn by experience, before he can be a Christian. First, he must learn that sin is an exceeding great and evil thing…

    When Jesus died for our sin, he died to satisfy the wrath of God that is illustrated in this vision. God cannot sweep sin under the rug. He cannot just look the other way. What kind of God would he be? To tolerate rape and murder and theft and pride?

    This vision dramatically displays God’s righteous judgment, which helps us understand the need for the cross. The Apostle Paul teaches us that Jesus died to absorb God’s wrath for our sin. He says in Romans 3:25, “God presented him [Jesus] as an atoning sacrifice in his blood…” The phrase “atoning sacrifice” is Old Testament language that refers to God showing grace to his people due to a sacrifice satisfying his wrath.

    To be sure, this is a weighty matter. But we must not stop here, we must continue on to see the power of God’s grace. Spurgeon went on, “…and he must learn also that the blood of Christ is an exceedingly precious thing, and is able to save unto the uttermost them that come unto it.”

    His point takes into account the rest of the story of the Bible. In Jesus, God provides the costly purchase price for our salvation. Many have rightly said that grace is free to us but it isn’t cheap. Jesus paid it all.

    Taking It Home

    As we apply this sober passage, we need to candidly assess our attitude towards sin. In what areas are we soft? In what areas have we allowed our conscience to mimic our culture rather than be informed by God?

    When it comes to sin we must insist on leaving no room for compromise. Remember that the Lord sees it all. God is intimately acquainted with all of our ways. We can’t delete our web browsing history from his watchful care. We can’t sneak off to a hotel on a Friday night outside of his jurisdiction. We can’t hide our bitter and angry hearts from his penetrating gaze.

    Here’s the remarkable truth of the gospel: he doesn’t want us to. God wants us to confess our sin—all of it—and to receive forgiveness in Jesus. What was Ezekiel supposed to do? What were the exiles supposed to do when he shared this vision? God wanted them to repent of their idolatry! He graciously showed them his judgment so they would throw themselves on his mercy. Our greatest hope is not to hide who we really are. Our greatest hope is in confessing our sin and seeking forgiveness in Jesus.

    We also need to stay sensitive to sin around us. God’s people mourn sin, even the sin of others. Sometimes the bad news can be so constant in our world it becomes white noise. When murder rates rise, or criminals get away with their crime, or we see our neighbors worship their idols, let us mourn. We should pray for our neighbors. We should beg God to be merciful. We should share the good news of the gospel with those around us destined for God’s judgment.

    Pray

    • If you know you are tolerating sin, confess that now to the Lord. Be specific, and repent before the Lord.
    • Ask God to cultivate a sensitivity to sin in your heart. Ask the Spirit to sharpen your conscience, and to help you say no to the temptations you will face today.
    • Praise God that Jesus died so that you could be marked for grace. Praise him for paying that costly price. Praise him for the depth of his mercy.
  • The Many Faces of Idolatry- Ezekiel 8:1-18

    The Many Faces of Idolatry- Ezekiel 8:1-18

    Take a moment to pray. Ask God to speak to you through his word—for his Spirit to convict you of sin, teach you the truth, and lead you in walking by faith.

    Setting the Scene

    The human mind is, so to speak, a perpetual forge of idols.

    -John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion

    Technically, an idol is a physical thing that is designated a god. Practically, an idol is anything that we love and value more than true God. Idolatry in general—the worship of anything other than God—is complex because every culture values different non-gods.

    In the 6th century BC, idolatry was an issue in the hearts of the Israelites in exile.  In Ezekiel’s first vision, God reminded his people that he was still reigning over the universe.  But they still had a lingering problem: their idolatry.  So one year after the first vision, God gave Ezekiel a second vision (roughly 592 BC).  Idolatry had always been the problem, but in the case of those in exile with the prophet Ezekiel it was particularly persistent.

    This second vision confronted Israel with the depth and breadth of their idolatry problem. In the vision God transported Ezekiel’s spirit to a virtual Jerusalem. God showed Ezekiel the spiritual sickness still present in Jerusalem at that time, even after six years of exile. This vision is a tour of idolatry, and shockingly, it focuses on the Temple.

    In theory, the Temple was the one place where you would think you wouldn’t find idols. Yet as God reveals the truth of present day circumstances to Ezekiel, he shows him that whether they had literal idols or not, Israel’s heart was far from him… even in worship.

    This is a longer chunk of text, but we will see it all focuses on one major idea.  What God makes clear by the end of the vision is that Israel must choose between God and their idols. They cannot have it both ways; they cannot play both sides of the fence. As we get into this vision, we will learn that idolatry has many variations, and that none are acceptable.

    Ezekiel 8:1-6

    Ezek. 8:1 In the sixth year, in the sixth month, on the fifth day of the month, I was sitting in my house and the elders of Judah were sitting in front of me, and there the hand of the Lord GOD came down on me. 2 I looked, and there was someone who looked like a man. From what seemed to be his waist down was fire, and from his waist up was something that looked bright, like the gleam of amber. 3 He stretched out what appeared to be a hand and took me by the hair of my head. Then the Spirit lifted me up between earth and heaven and carried me in visions of God to Jerusalem, to the entrance of the inner gate that faces north, where the offensive statue that provokes jealousy was located. 4 I saw the glory of the God of Israel there, like the vision I had seen in the plain.

    When Ezekiel has this second vision (592 BC), he was sitting at home with the elders of Judah. These were the leaders of the people in exile at that time. In a best case scenario, they would have been leading God’s people to repent of their sin and trust God in faith. As we will see, it was a worst case scenario.

    In Ezekiel’s second vision a man—ish character physically took him and transported him via the Spirit to Jerusalem. This vision host was shining with the same amber light that he saw emanating from the throne of God in his first vision. For this reason we know that God himself is Ezekiel’s guide.

    At the northern gate, Ezekiel describes “the offensive statute that provokes jealousy.” This means that an idol was setup, probably as a divine guardian of the city, and that it provoked the Lord to jealousy. Older English translations use the word “abomination” to describe this idol. The idea is God hates them because they compete with him for the love, faith, and worship of his people.

    This vision of Jerusalem begins with a tour of four specific abominations, of which this is the first. Each abomination is a representation of a different kind of idolatry. The sum total of the tour leads to one conclusion: no idolatry is innocent or harmless.

    Why did this particular statue provoke God to jealousy? Because God is jealous for his people to worship him. We see the same principle at work in Deuteronomy 32:16, “They provoked his jealousy with different gods; they enraged him with detestable practices.”

    This works on two levels: God wants us to worship him alone because he alone is worthy of worship, but also because we benefit from worshipping him and we suffer when we worship false gods.

    Take a moment to consider your own heart. What do you love more than God? What do you chase harder than him? What do you find pleasure in more than him?

    Ezekiel says he also saw the glory of God like in his first vision. The contrast is clear: the idol is a lifeless statue, in theory representing a real god or goddess. God’s glory, however, is living and shining brightly. Let there be no confusion, God’s glory is incomparable. His is the ultimate and eternal beauty.

    If only we could see our idols side by side with the visible glory of God! They would pale in comparison. We would see how they offer no eternal satisfaction, how they deceive with their promises of fulfillment, and how God is superior to them in every way.

    Ezek. 8:5 The LORD said to me, “Son of man, look toward the north.” I looked to the north, and there was this offensive statue north of the Altar Gate, at the entrance. 6 He said to me, “Son of man, do you see what they are doing here—more detestable acts that the house of Israel is committing so that I must depart from my sanctuary? You will see even more detestable acts.”

    God addresses Ezekiel directly, giving him an explanation of Israel’s idolatry. He calls his attention directly to the idol. “Do you see what they are doing here—more detestable acts that the house of Israel is committing so that I must depart from my sanctuary?” Six years into exile, and those left behind are still pursuing false gods. There is a consequence to this idolatry: God will leave the Temple.

    Don’t forget that the Temple was considered God’s dwelling with his people. They understood him to be enthroned above the cherubim in the holiest place. In one sense, God leaving the Temple meant God was leaving his people. What choice did he have?

    God furthermore tells Ezekiel this idol isn’t even the worst of it. He said, “You will see even more detestable acts.” As sad and tragic as this idol was, Israel’s idolatry had more manifestations. The point is clear: idolatry does serious spiritual damage. People who chase false gods cannot expect God to go along with it.

    The Lord then continues to the second stop on Ezekiel’s idolatry tour.

    Ezekiel 8:7-13

    Ezek. 8:7 Then he brought me to the entrance of the court, and when I looked there was a hole in the wall. 8 He said to me, “Son of man, dig through the wall.” So I dug through the wall and discovered a doorway. 9 He said to me, “Go in and see the detestable, wicked acts they are committing here.”

    “The court” here means the court of the Temple. Ezekiel digs through the wall and finds a door. Rather than leading to devoted worshippers of God, it leads to more sin.

    Ezek. 8:10 I went in and looked, and there engraved all around the wall was every kind of abhorrent thing—crawling creatures and beasts—as well as all the idols of the house of Israel. 11 Seventy elders from the house of Israel were standing before them, with Jaazaniah son of Shaphan standing among them. Each had a firepan in his hand, and a fragrant cloud of incense was rising up. 12 He said to me, “Son of man, do you see what the elders of the house of Israel are doing in the darkness, each at the shrine of his idol? For they are saying, ‘The LORD does not see us. The LORD has abandoned the land.’” 13 Again he said to me, “You will see even more detestable acts that they are committing.”

    This sight shocks Ezekiel for two reasons. First, Israel is worshipping created things. This violates the second commandment in Exodus 20:4, “Do not make an idol for yourself, whether in the shape of anything in the heavens above or on the earth below or in the waters under the earth.” Second, the seventy elders of Israel were worshipping before these carved images and other statues of false gods. The idols were probably some of the Canaanite gods Israel had adopted as their own. Ezekiel describes the leaders offering an incense sacrifice to these false gods.

    God speaks again, here revealing to Ezekiel what they were thinking. They thought God didn’t see them. He did. They thought God had abandoned them and the land. He hadn’t. Here are two common justifications for sin we all struggle with. First, we tell ourselves no one sees us. We pretend that God doesn’t see us. Second, we let despair drive our decision making. We tell ourselves, “God doesn’t care about me,” but he does more than we know.

    The tour isn’t done yet. God took Ezekiel further into the Temple and showed him yet more idolatry.

    Ezekiel 8:14-15

    Ezek. 8:14 Then he brought me to the entrance of the north gate of the LORD’s house, and I saw women sitting there weeping for Tammuz. 15 And he said to me, “Do you see this, son of man? You will see even more detestable acts than these.”

    Taking Ezekiel into the court of the women (which was accessible to men and women), God shows him Israelite women worshipping the Babylonian goddess Tammuz. In Babylonian theology, Tammuz died and rose in cycles connected with the agricultural calendar. Women wept for her death, in hopes that their mourning would motivate her to come back to life and cause crops to grow. They weren’t desperate for food at that moment, they were chasing prosperity. For the average Israelite family, their wealth would have been expressed in agricultural terms. A large crop meant more profit.

    Did you catch it? They wanted to have a large crop so that they would be rich. In many ways, idolatry boils down to chasing wealth. The principle at work is we believe we have to be rich to be happy. We think we have to provide for ourselves. But God had always provided for Israel, and he promised to always provide for them. He makes the same promises to us, but just like Israel we often worship the latest idol that we think will give us wealth.

    At last God brings Ezekiel to the last stop on his tour of idolatry in Jerusalem. This is most shocking to Ezekiel and the most offensive to God.

    Ezekiel 8:16-18

    Ezek. 8:16 So he brought me to the inner court of the LORD’s house, and there were about twenty-five men at the entrance of the LORD’s temple, between the portico and the altar, with their backs to the LORD’s temple and their faces turned to the east. They were bowing to the east in worship of the sun.

    In the Temple proper Ezekiel saw twenty-five men worshipping the sun instead of God. The blasphemy could not be more clear. They were worshipping the creation rather than the Creator. They had rejected God for the sun he created.

    Ezek. 8:17 And he said to me, “Do you see this, son of man? Is it not enough for the house of Judah to commit the detestable acts they are doing here, that they must also fill the land with violence and repeatedly anger me, even putting the branch to their nose? 18 Therefore I will respond with wrath. I will not show pity or spare them. Though they call loudly in my hearing, I will not listen to them.”

    God points out here not only the idolatry, but the resulting sinful actions. Worshipping a false god was bad enough, but it led to violence in the form of rape and murder. The statement “putting the branch to their nose” is probably some kind of pagan ritual, but we don’t know exactly what it means. Whatever they were doing, it wasn’t worshipping God and living for him. They were worshipping other gods and living for themselves.

    The net result of this sin was nothing less than the judgment by God. Israel had earned his wrath. This generation had refused to repent, and they had crossed the point of no return. In this vision, God offers those in exile a theological explanation for why they were there. He also sets the stage for an event that will happen about six years after this vision was given: the destruction of the Temple.

    When those Israelites in exile got the word about the destruction of Temple, God wanted them to know exactly why he let it happen. They had underestimated God’s hatred for idolatry, and here he corrected their wrong thinking. We need to hear this warning: Because God loves us, he wants us to know he hates idolatry.

    The Big Picture

    As we zoom out and consider Ezekiel 8:1-18 in light of the whole Bible, we see that God confronting idolatry at the Temple is not a one time occurrence. We read in John 2:13-22 about Jesus confronting sin at the Temple during his ministry. The main idol in that exchange was the god of profit. The money-changers and salesmen had turned a space that was supposed to be dedicated to worship into a space dedicated to profit.

    But Jesus didn’t stop there. He declared that if they destroyed the temple he would rebuild it in three days. John clarifies, “But he was speaking about the temple of his body” (John 2:21). Jesus was, in essence, declaring himself to be a better temple. Beyond that, he also was foretelling his death and resurrection which would make it possible for people everywhere to worship God.

    So rather than travel to Jerusalem and offer sacrifices for our sins, we are able to worship by faith in Jesus’ death and resurrection. He is both God and the sacrifice that enables us to be in relationship to him. Yet we still struggle with worshipping other gods.

    Taking It Home

    What if God gave you a tour of your idols? Where would he take you? What would he show you? Think of it this way: what is your most important pursuit? What do you believe will bring you the greatest happiness or joy? When you are frustrated or discouraged, where do you go for comfort? Answering these questions will help to clarify where we struggle with the false gods of our culture.

    We’ve seen four faces of idolatry at the start of Ezekiel’s second vision: actual false gods, creation, wealth/prosperity, and a twisted definition of God. Some of these categories overlap, but we can use them to help us identify some of the main forms of idolatry in our culture.

    First, we might think that our culture doesn’t struggle with literal idols. After all, we don’t find stores filled with little statues of Marduk or Baal or Asherah. Even so, the literal worship of false gods persists in our culture. American worship some of these gods in false religions: Allah, the innumerable Hindu gods, saints in Roman Catholicism or Christian Orthodoxy. We also worship false gods in non-religious contexts. Think about the monetary value of the superhero world. We love a good superhero story, and we do find stores filled with little statues of these gods and goddesses. We must ask ourselves, “Do I love this hero more than Jesus?” “Do I long to be like this hero more than I long to be like Christ?”

    Second, the worship of creation is not just the quaint practice of an unreached people group. God’s creation is a blessing, and it is wise for us to steward it well. That being said, our culture has turned the earth itself into a goddess. Our culture uses the phrase “mother earth” with far more ease than “Jesus.” They celebrate earth day, using religious language. They spend massive amounts of money on environmentalism, often to the detriment of humanity, the pinnacle of God’s creation. The worship of creation is alive and well in our world.

    Third, the worship of wealth/prosperity is a constant temptation. We can think of many expressions of this sin: love of money, love of the status that comes from wealth, love of material possessions, love of the latest fashions, and more.

    Even more dangerous than these temptations is the false teaching of the “prosperity gospel.” In short, this gospel says if you really have faith in God you will be healthy and wealthy. In this thinking, poverty and sickness are signs of unbelief. This teaching distorts passages from the Bible that describe God’s blessing on believers and ignores the scores of passages where God teaches us to expect trials and to trust him through them.

    Finally, redefining God is a virtual past-time in our culture. Don’t like what Jesus says? No problem, just ignore it or claim he never said it. Don’t like a Biblical teaching on an issue? Find someone in a church who will offer a clever twist that changes the meaning. When people do this, they steal the name of God and the label Christian, but they are worshipping a false god. They are standing in the temple with their backs to God.

    No matter which kinds of idolatry we struggle with, the point of the first part of this vision is clear: because God loves us, he wants us to know he hates idolatry. Idolatry is incompatible with his presence.

    Pray

    • Ask God to give you wisdom as you seek to root out idolatry in your heart. Confess your false gods, and think about ways you can so no to the temptation of worshipping a false god.
    • Pray for discernment to see where you are weak. Ask God to help you say no to temptation. Ask him to help you see through the lies of whatever idol is tempting you.
    • Praise God that forgiveness and redemption is available for idolators. Praise Jesus for dying for our false worship, and praise him for rising from the dead. Ask him to help you follow his Spirit today.