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Dave Burnette's Commentary

Ezekiel Chapter 8

Written By: God through Inspiration
Penned By: Ezekiel
Date Penned: (571 BC)
Overview: To Announce God's Judgement and Salvation (c 1-5)
Theme: Messages of Doom (c 1-24)
Message: The Sins of the People (v 1-18)


Ezekiel 8 Commentary

(8:1) Corruption - This prophecy's date corresponds to 592 BC. The message of Ezekiel 8-11 is directed specifically toward Jerusalem and the leaders still living there. Ezekiel 8 records Ezekiel being taken in a vision from Babylon to the temple in Jerusalem to see the great wickedness being practiced there. The people and their religious leaders were thoroughly corrupt. While Ezekiel's first vision (Ezekiel 1-3) showed that judgment was from God, this vision showed that the people's sin was the reason for judgment. 

(8:2) A Figure in the Vision - This figure who looked like a man could have been an angel or a manifestation of God himself. In Ezekiel's previous vision, a man with a similar appearance was pictured as God on his throne (1:26-28). 

(8:3-5) Four Practices - The man showed Ezekiel four specific idolatrous practices. The first was the "image... which provoketh to jealousy." This could have been an image of Asherah, the Canaanite goddess of fertility, whose character encouraged sexual immorality and self-gratification. King Manasseh had placed an image of Asherah in the temple (2 Kings 21:7). King Josiah had burned the Asherah pole (2 Kings 23:6), but there were certainly many other idols around. In essence, the people had made the temple a house of prostitution. 

(8:6-12) Idolatry - In this part of the vision, God revealed to Ezekiel the second detestable practice. Previously, people had worshiped Asherah in the open. Now, her idolatrous images were • hidden and being worshiped in secret. God's Spirit works within us in a similar way to the way God worked here, revealing sin that lurks where we hope no one else can see it. How comfortable would you feel if God held an open house in your life today? 

(8:14) The Third Practice - The third detestable practice was worshiping Tammuz, the Babylonian god of spring. He was said to be the husband or lover of the goddess Ishtar. The followers of the cult of Tammuz believed that green vegetation shriveled and died in the hot summer because Tammuz had died and descended into the underworld; thus, the worshipers wept and mourned his death. In the springtime, when the new vegetation appeared, they rejoiced, believing that Tammuz had come back to life. God was showing Ezekiel that many people were no longer worshiping the true God of life and vegetation. When people refer to "Mother Nature" or "Mother Earth," they have replaced God the Creator with an idol that is both ancient and modern. When enjoying the benefits of creation, remember who created it. 

(8:16-18) The Fourth Practice - The fourth idolatrous practice was worshiping the sun, as the nation's Canaanite neighbors did. In the very courtyard of the temple, with their backs turned toward the temple, the people were defying the one true God who gives light and life to all people while bowing low before a light that God had created for their benefit. Don't follow a counterfeit light. All light and life comes from God.

 


David Burnette's Life Application


Getting Your Prayers Through

 

Each day we walk through the Bible chapter by chapter making an application of our text to help us grow in the Lord. Many applications can be made from each day's text. Today we continue the Book of Ezekiel with Chapter 8. In our text today we see the sins of the people as they continued in idolatry. What catches my eye is verse 18 that states how the Lord will not hear their cries or prayers. In making application we see how our sin keeps the Lord from hearing and answering our prayers. Today many of us wonder "why are my prayers going unanswered" when the truth is that our sin is keeping our prayers from being heard in the throne of our Lord. How about you? Are you harboring your own sin that is hindering your prayers? Let us learn from our text today to remember that our personal sin can keep our prayers from getting heard by a Holy God so we must humble ourselves and examine our selves to repent of our own sin as we approach the throneroom of our Lord.

 

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Ezekiel 8

Ezekiel 8

 1And it came to pass in the sixth year, in the sixth month, in the fifth day of the month, as I sat in mine house, and the elders of Judah sat before me, that the hand of the Lord GOD fell there upon me.

 2Then I beheld, and lo a likeness as the appearance of fire: from the appearance of his loins even downward, fire; and from his loins even upward, as the appearance of brightness, as the colour of amber.

 3And he put forth the form of an hand, and took me by a lock of mine head; and the spirit lifted me up between the earth and the heaven, and brought me in the visions of God to Jerusalem, to the door of the inner gate that looketh toward the north; where was the seat of the image of jealousy, which provoketh to jealousy.

 4And, behold, the glory of the God of Israel was there, according to the vision that I saw in the plain.

 5Then said he unto me, Son of man, lift up thine eyes now the way toward the north. So I lifted up mine eyes the way toward the north, and behold northward at the gate of the altar this image of jealousy in the entry.

 6He said furthermore unto me, Son of man, seest thou what they do? even the great abominations that the house of Israel committeth here, that I should go far off from my sanctuary? but turn thee yet again, and thou shalt see greater abominations.

 7And he brought me to the door of the court; and when I looked, behold a hole in the wall.

 8Then said he unto me, Son of man, dig now in the wall: and when I had digged in the wall, behold a door.

 9And he said unto me, Go in, and behold the wicked abominations that they do here.

 10So I went in and saw; and behold every form of creeping things, and abominable beasts, and all the idols of the house of Israel, pourtrayed upon the wall round about.

 11And there stood before them seventy men of the ancients of the house of Israel, and in the midst of them stood Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan, with every man his censer in his hand; and a thick cloud of incense went up.

 12Then said he unto me, Son of man, hast thou seen what the ancients of the house of Israel do in the dark, every man in the chambers of his imagery? for they say, the LORD seeth us not; the LORD hath forsaken the earth.

 13He said also unto me, Turn thee yet again, and thou shalt see greater abominations that they do.

 14Then he brought me to the door of the gate of the LORD's house which was toward the north; and, behold, there sat women weeping for Tammuz.

 15Then said he unto me, Hast thou seen this, O son of man? turn thee yet again, and thou shalt see greater abominations than these.

 16And he brought me into the inner court of the LORD's house, and, behold, at the door of the temple of the LORD, between the porch and the altar, were about five and twenty men, with their backs toward the temple of the LORD, and their faces toward the east; and they worshipped the sun toward the east.

 17Then he said unto me, Hast thou seen this, O son of man? Is it a light thing to the house of Judah that they commit the abominations which they commit here? for they have filled the land with violence, and have returned to provoke me to anger: and, lo, they put the branch to their nose.

 18Therefore will I also deal in fury: mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity: and though they cry in mine ears with a loud voice, yet will I not hear them.