“Chasing God Away!”

Scripture: Ezekiel 8:1-18

Ezekiel is captive in Babylon, and yet the Lord has been showing him visions of conditions back home in Jerusalem. And not only back home, but in various time frames as well. The Almighty has been explaining to Ezekiel what he will be expected to do as a prophet, why he is being called, and what he will be given to share with the nation.
A prophet’s job is, at the same time, both difficult and simple. It is difficult in that the message is generally not a pleasant one. It is intended to bring the people back to their senses, and to come to a new understanding of just what their relationship with Great Jehovah is all about. But it is simple, too, in that the prophet doesn’t have to select the parties that are to receive the message, he doesn’t have to determine what the message should be, and he doesn’t even have to choose just the right words to say. All that has to be done is to go where the Spirit leads, and then speak the words that the Spirit gives. The prophet just has to show up and surrender every decision to God – it’s probably the easiest job on all the earth, if we really think about it!
Today, we see what the Lord can do for the person who surrenders it all, and what comes to those who refuse to surrender anything.

Read Ezekiel 8:1-6

The prophet has been visited by the elders of Israel for some unknown reason, and while they are all there, the hand of God rests upon Ezekiel, who not only senses the presence of God, but sees the Divine Presence. And the vision of God contains a brilliance unlike anything ever seen on earth. The Lord wants his man to know, without question, that what he is about to experience isn’t just a dream created in his own mind, but that it is the will and necessity of Yahweh.
The Spirit carries him back to Jerusalem and into the temple, and the first thing that Ezekiel sees is not the grandeur of this holy place, but the evil that has been brought in. It is described as “the idol that provokes to jealousy”. Scripture doesn’t give us much to explain what this idol is, but the commentaries imply that it would probably have been an image of Baal or Asherah –pagan gods of fertility. Israel had picked up the worship of these false gods through their interaction with other peoples, and their God was not happy about it – he was “jealous”! He wanted them to come back to him! He wanted their worship and adoration of him to be restored! He wanted to be one with his people again.
And the Glory was there, too. Even though his temple was being desecrated with foreign images and foreign worship, he had not left this place – yet. He was still present, but for how long? How long would the Lord continue to put up with the shame of Israel?
And it will get worse.

Read Ezekiel 8:7-13

The prophet discovers a hole, or recess, in the wall of the temple, and God tells him to dig into it. And what does he uncover? A hidden door that leads him into a hidden place in the temple. And what does he discover beyond the door? All sorts of evil that are being perpetrated by the elders of Israel.
They were honoring the images of unclean, sinful beings, and had turned their backs on Yahweh. They were even using the temple fragrances and fixtures – the incense and other scents that are burned in the censers, or braziers, to worship the false gods. And they justify their actions by believing that God has turned his back on them, and no longer looks upon them in benevolence. The people have lost all confidence in Yahweh, and feel that their only choice is to turn to the deities of other nations. “He not only doesn’t care about us, he isn’t even keeping an eye on us! I guess we’ll have to find someone who will.”
And they hope that God can’t see them doing this! They hope that the darkness surrounding their lives is sufficient to keep God from seeing them. But they seem to forget that the darkness has come, not because of their Lord, but because of what they have been doing for so many years!
They should know full well that God has not left them and never would – their own scriptures tell them that! (Deuteronomy 31:8, Hebrews 13:5-6) “Never will I leave you, never will I forsake you!” So why would they try to justify their evil? The truth is that they can’t – they simply have chosen a different path from the one they knew that God wanted them on and they thought that this fact could be hidden from their All-Knowing God! Good luck with that! The Darkness has no authority over him, and he would never turn away from his chosen! Psalm 139:11-12 tells us “If I say ‘Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light around me become night,’ even the darkness is not dark to you.” God’s light reveals all – both good and bad, righteous and evil, faithful and faithless. Nothing escapes the Lord’s view of our lives. Nothing!
They knew full well, and they went ahead with their disgracing of God and their deception of themselves just the same.

And it will get worst yet.

Read Ezekiel 8:14-18

The people have turned their backs on the Lord, not the other way around! Ezekiel sees the women mourning for someone named Tammuz. Tammuz was a Sumerian deity who was associated with the seasons of the year, and specifically with fertility in the spring. It was believed that in the summer, when the extreme heat of the sun would wither vegetation, that Tammuz must have died and therefore so did the plants. His devotees, especially women, would mourn his passing, and only rejoice again when he came back to life in more temperate days.
The women of Israel had joined in honoring this unholy lie.

And the men were no less devoid of faith. The area that was described as being between “the portico and the altar” was a place that priests came to pray on holy days. But now, the priests had been replaced by ordinary men, and they had turned their backs on the Lord. No longer were prayers being offered to Yahweh – instead, they were offered to the gods of the east. No longer were they looking to heaven for joy - now they were concentrating their faith in the things of nature.

And the Lord gives his judgment on Judah – he will deal with them in anger, and will no longer look upon them with pity. Note that he doesn’t say that he will no longer look at his people – he simply will no longer show them pity and grace. Even if they cry out loudly in anguish, his ears will be deaf to their call.
The people have tried their God’s love for the last time. They have given him false allegiance for the last time. Their pleas for mercy have finally worn so thin that the fabric of their faith has fallen apart. They have, in essence, told their Lord to go away, that they will make their own way in this life. So now, Yahweh will only look for proof in their actions, the living evidence of faith.

And with this, the lesson for the Church of today is now before us.

1. When things begin to go badly, don’t blame the Lord. He only brings goodness into our lives – the rest comes from other sources. But regardless of the depth of the pit we find ourselves in, either by our own making or that of others, the Almighty is always with us, and is always concerned for our lives. But we have to let him do his work in us in his way, and not try to continue to work it out in our own way.

2. Ours is a jealous God. He wants his creation to honor him, and him alone. He resents our turning to gods who are dead, those who can do nothing for his people, those who care nothing for his created order. The Lord wants, and rightly so, to be honored for what he has done and what he is doing, and not to allow that honor to go to others who have done nothing.

3. The Lord will never turn his back on us, and we are expected to always keep God in our perspective. His promises are sure, his covenant will never be withdrawn, His love will never end, and his grace and mercy will always be before us. And if we should ever turn away from him, he will honor our choice, as ill-advised as it may be, until we choose to return to him.

4. There is nothing that God doesn’t know, nothing that he doesn’t see, and nothing that he cannot do. We can’t hide the things we do from him, and we can never expect him to overlook the things we do that deny him – he can forgive them, and will when we repent, but he will never ignore them.

5. Even though the Lord has eternity at his disposal, he will only wait so long. So answer him now.

Ezekiel was beginning to see just what was happening to the relationship that Israel and Judah once had with Yahweh, and how they were not only abusing it, but causing great damage to it. He would be called to bring this truth to the attention of the nation, and whether they liked it or not, he would be faithful to the call.

Do you feel as though Almighty God is calling you to share his love, his mercy, his desires, his disappointment with someone in your life? Ask him for understanding and vision, and then faithfully go where he leads you, say whatever he gives you, and love them as he loves you. Ezekiel would never regret answering Yahweh’s call to be his prophet, and God would celebrate in that, too.
Could your experience with the Lord be any different?