The Gospel According to Ezekiel, Chapters 7:10-8:16 (Part 1 of 2)

The Foundational Principle: The Glory of God

The glory of God is the most important foundation of our lives. We have been discussing God's prophecy to Ezekiel concerning the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple. Sin creates a specific emptiness within us. Sin cannot grant fulfillment or fullness in life. It renders us dissatisfied. The ultimate satisfying reality is the glory of God, which will be removed under His judgment.

The presence and reality of sin's emptiness is pitted against the fullness and satisfaction found in God and His glory. God will judge Israel according to their abominations and satisfy His judgment according to their sins. Everything they pursued in vain through sin will be completely taken away. God's wrath will be satisfied in a judgment He has not done before and will never do again—not that judgment could never come, but that it will be finalized according to their deeds. After 430 years of patience alongside their sins, He will now deal with them permanently, blotting out these sins.

Idolatry and the Remnant

Idolatry is not just making graven images—though that remains a problem in many religions today. Idolatry is finding things pleasing to our senses and minds, devoting our lives to them, and valuing them more than God. The litmus test: Are there things in your life that would crush you beyond belief if removed? If you would rather die than live without them—material, relational, or ministerial—that is idolatry.

The abominations will not remain because of God's judgment, but the remnant will remain. The sins of the people are non-remaining, yet God's chosen people are the remnant when judgment comes.

Matthew 16:26: What will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?

If you gain sin and lose your life, you are non-remnant in God's judgment—you have not profited or been satisfied. Ask yourself: What is most important and profitable to pursue? Anger? Lying? Deceit? Fornication? Altered states of mind? These are temporary, non-profitable, and holding them leads to losing your life.

God's Judgment: The End Has Come

Ezekiel 7:1-3: Moreover, the word of the Lord came to me saying, “And you, son of man, thus says the Lord God to the land of Israel, ‘An end! The end is coming on the four corners of the land. Now the end is upon you, and I will send My anger against you; I will judge you according to your ways and bring all your abominations upon you. For My eye will have no pity on you, nor will I spare you, but I will bring your ways upon you, and your abominations will be in your midst; then you will know that I am the Lord!’”

This closes the first stanza of the poem in chapter 7, emphasizing knowing that God is the Lord.

Ezekiel 7:5-7: Thus says the Lord God, “A disaster, a unique disaster, behold it is coming! An end is coming; the end has come! It has awakened against you; behold, it has come! Your doom has come to you, O inhabitant of the land. The time has come, the day is near—tumult rather than joyful shouting on the mountains.”

Judgment brings removal of joy, exchanging it for tumult. Judgment is an issue of satisfaction, joy, and happiness. A pursuit of happiness separate from holiness is vain. The doom upon the land exchanges joy, peace, and stability for chaos and instability. Sin creates chaos that rages against you.

James 1:6-8: The one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind... for he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

Double-mindedness—a life for God and a life for the world—means receiving nothing good from God. Joy produces happiness, and God purposes His people to find it in Him alone, free from distractions.

Ezekiel 7:8-9: “Now I will shortly pour out My wrath on you and spend My anger against you, judge you according to your ways and bring on you all your abominations. My eye will show no pity nor will I spare. I will repay you according to your ways, while your abominations are in your midst; then you will know that I, the Lord, do it.”

This is not mere circumstance or Babylonian conquest—it is God's judgment.

Violence, Lawlessness, and the Failure of Iniquity

Ezekiel 7:10-12: “Behold, the day! Behold, it is coming! Your doom has gone forth; the rod has budded, arrogance has blossomed. Violence has grown into a rod of wickedness... The time has come, the day has arrived. Let not the buyer rejoice nor the seller mourn, for wrath is against all their multitude.”

Israel's violence is lawlessness toward God—a violent concept.

Ezekiel 7:13: Indeed, the seller will not regain what he has sold as long as they both live; for the vision regarding all their multitude will not be averted, nor will any of them maintain his life by his iniquity.

You cannot maintain life by iniquity. Every problem—marriages, church, ministry, workplace—stems from sin. Even divine discipline is because of sin. Release idols and sins so God is for you, not against you. This is a God who wins—join Him in victory.

Ezekiel 7:14-18: They have blown the trumpet and made everything ready, but no one is going to the battle, for My wrath is against all their multitude... All hands will hang limp and all knees will become like water.

Ezekiel 7:19: They will fling their silver into the streets and their gold will become an abomination; their silver and their gold will not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the Lord. They cannot satisfy their appetite nor can they fill their stomachs, for their iniquity has become an occasion of stumbling.

The most discouraging truth for those in sin: Iniquity cannot satisfy your appetite or fill your stomach. The need for satisfaction is always there—no neutral ground. Only two kinds of people: those seeking satisfaction in sin (and failing) and those finding permanent satisfaction in the Lord's glory.

Pursuing sin is pointless—like Ecclesiastes' vanity. Fearing the Lord—living in awe, reverence, submission, and worship—is the only non-vain pursuit.

John 7:37-39: If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.’ ... This He spoke of the Spirit.

The Greek word for "innermost being" matches Ezekiel 7:19's "stomachs." From within flows living water—the Holy Spirit—satisfying forever.

Pride and the Transformation of God's Gifts

Ezekiel 7:20-21: They transformed the beauty of His ornaments into pride, and they made the images of their abominations and their detestable things with it; therefore I will make it an abomination... I will give it into the hands of the foreigners as plunder.

They took God's beautiful creation—the things of the world—and turned it into pride, making idols from pride itself. All sin is idolatry; all sin comes from pride. They made themselves more important than God, their pleasure more important than Him—rude, disrespectful, neglectful of others.

Ezekiel 7:22-27: I will also turn My face from them, and they will profane My secret place... Disaster will come upon disaster... They will know that I am the Lord.

Knowing the Lord means recognizing Him as sovereign, Master, to whom you owe allegiance, life, breath—that devotion once given to self belongs to Him.

Visions of Abomination in the Temple

Ezekiel 8:1-5: In the sixth year... the hand of the Lord fell on me... [The Spirit] brought me... to Jerusalem, to the entrance of the north gate of the inner court, where the seat of the idol of jealousy... was located. And behold, the glory of the God of Israel was there... “Son of Man, raise your eyes now toward the north.” ... To the north of the altar gate was this idol of jealousy.

Ezekiel 8:6-10: “Do you see what they are doing, the great abominations which the house of Israel are committing here... You will see still greater abominations.” ... He said to me, “Son of Man, now dig through the wall” ... Behold, every form of creeping things and beasts and detestable things, with all the idols of the house of Israel, were carved on the wall all around.

Ezekiel 8:11: Standing in front of them were seventy elders of the house of Israel, with Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan standing among them, each man with his censer in his hand.

These elders include Jaazaniah, son of Shaphan—likely the royal secretary under Josiah who read the law sparking reform. One generation later: total rebellion. They build idols not just with materials, but with heart-idolatry.

Ezekiel 8:12: “Son of Man, do you see what the elders of the house of Israel are committing in the dark, each man in the room of his carved images? For they say, ‘The Lord does not see us; the Lord has forsaken the land.’”

"Room" means "imagination." They commit abominations in the dark recesses of their thoughts, constantly valuing idols. No sin is private or unknown to God—not even mental conspiracy. Examine public and private lives alike. Take every thought captive to obey Christ.

Guarding the Mind Against Sinful Thoughts

Every thought that enters our minds should be met as nations with secure borders respond to intruders. Test these thoughts against what is pure, holy, and good. Those that fail this test, treat with utter contempt and hostility—they are foreign enemies creeping into your mind.

Is it not frightening that every sin that moved God to judgment here is entirely commitable by any of us today? When you feel the weight of the God who sees and knows, consider how soul-satisfying it is that Christ died to forgive us of these very sins, so we could escape. One beauty of Ezekiel is recognizing that when God reveals the intensity of His wrath, we supplement it with the reality of Christ and the Holy Spirit in our lives. Jesus stood before the Father, staying the wrath we deserve by taking it upon Himself. He stands in God's presence with our names on His lips. The God who would judge us slams His gavel down, declaring us acquitted—not guilty, undeserving of this judgment.

Is it not motivating to abandon the recesses of our minds that fabricate idols? Stop thinking about your idols—in other words, repent. The Greek word metanoia means to change your mind, causing a change in direction in your life. Stop thinking positively about sin, as the elders of Israel did, valuing and entertaining sinful thoughts with hospitality rather than hostility.

This explains why Josiah's reform did not endure. He was faithful, cleansing the outer courts of worship, but he could do nothing about the inner rooms of people's minds. That takes a cross. That takes Christ. That takes Jesus.

Greater Abominations: Weeping for Tammuz

Verse 13: And he said to me, you will see still greater abominations which they are committing. Then he brought me to the entrance of the gate of the Lord's house which was toward the north and behold women were sitting there weeping for Tammuz.

Tammuz was a Babylonian and Sumerian god. These women wept for him because he had died—why pledge allegiance to a god who dies permanently? Jesus died in His humanity, but His divinity did not die. Tammuz was in love with the goddess Inanna or Ishtar, whom Israelites worshipped as the Queen of Heaven. Tammuz went to the underworld to rescue her, exchanging himself for her freedom. He was an object of female worship, beloved by women.

God responds in verse 15:

He said to me, do you see, son of man? Yet you will see still greater abominations than these.

Sun Worship in the Temple

Verse 16: Then he brought me into the inner court of the Lord's house and behold at the entrance of the temple of the Lord between the porch and the altar were about 25 men with their backs to the temple of the Lord and their faces toward the east and they were prostrating themselves eastward toward the sun.

Solomon contracted Phoenician architects for the temple, possibly structuring it to allow planetary worship.

Verse 17: He said to me, do you see, son of man? Is it too light a thing for the house of Judah to commit the abominations which they have committed here, that they have filled the land with lawlessness and provoked me repeatedly? For behold, they are putting the branch to their nose. Therefore I will act in wrath. My eye will not spare, nor will I have pity. And though they cry in my ears with a loud voice, yet I will not listen to them.

Making It Difficult to Sin

Take the inverse of Judah's sins for application. Judah sinned too easily, filling the land with lawlessness, provoking God repeatedly in high-handed rebellion, thumbing their noses at Him. Ezekiel sees these in a spiritual context—the mind as a place of worship where sin is too easy. They heaped up a lifestyle making sin effortless.

Do the opposite:

1. Worship God in private life. Make God Lord not just publicly, but in the privacy of your home. The litmus test of true Christianity: When doors close, eyes shut, ears stop, and mind quiets—is God still on the throne?

2. Fill your life with restraint. One fruit of the Spirit is self-control. The third use of the law guides believers in duty and righteous living, especially its moral aspects echoed in the New Testament. The saved life hates sin and practices self-restraint and denial. As Albert Martin said, if a man is determined to damn himself, he will weave a rope from Scripture—but we won't withhold divine truth because some misuse it. You are permanently saved in Christ, but the saved live differently, with remarkable restraint.

3. Treat God with hospitality, not hostility. Don't thumb your nose at God with sinful thoughts. Think of sin with hostility, not hospitality. Sabotage your future self regarding sin.

Matthew 5:27-29: You have heard that it was said, 'You shall not commit adultery.' But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell.

Pinpoint stumbling blocks and cut them off—lose that relationship, computer, smartphone, whatever. It is better to enter heaven without an iPad than hell playing Angry Birds. Ensure consistency between private and public you. Make it difficult to sin.