Does God ever say, “Enough!” Well, he does, and when he does, it is never pretty. Yet, let’s face it. His patience is far greater and more longsuffering than ours. Think about it. You love your kids, right? But still, there is that breaking point when the word “Enough” seems to rise from your toes from total frustration. It doesn’t change your love for your child, but it does change how you relate to them in that moment, right?

God helped Ezekiel see his breaking point. Jerusalem was where he had stated his Name would dwell (2Sa 7:13). Now, due to Judah’s disobedience and spiritual rebellion, God was going to remove his presence from their temple. I’m sure this upset Ezekiel greatly, so God showed him why he was doing this. God took him on a spiritual vision quest.

Someone in likeness to whom he had seen earlier when God revealed himself to Ezekiel the first time (Ek 1) took Ezekiel to the temple in Jerusalem. God showed him the “idol that provokes to jealousy” which stood at the North Gate of the Inner Court of the temple. This is likely the image that Manasseh had erected here (2Ki 21:7). This is somewhat of a play on words, as God stated one of his names was Jealousy (Ex 34:14): “Do not worship any other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.” Yet, this is not the type of jealousy we think of or exhibit. This is the type where God was protective of his people and only wanted the best for them. This idol was certainly not the best for them. Yet, don’t we as well have idols in our lives which takes us away from our devotion to God?

God then led Ezekiel through a hole in wall of the inner court where Ezekiel saw priests worshipping all sorts of idols, paying homage to them with censers filled with burning incense. These priests believed God could not see them where they were. Isn’t this ironic. They are in his house and feel he can’t see what they’re doing. Yet, doesn’t our actions sometimes reveal we feel the same way?

Next, he took Ezekiel to the North Gate of the Outer Courtyard. Here, women were mourning for the god Tammuz. This was a Babylonian god who supposedly dies every winter and then comes back to life each Spring. Doesn’t this strike you as odd? They are worshipping the God of the people who are trying to conquer them. Did they think they would save themselves by pacifying the god of their conquerors?

The worship of Tammuz appears to date back to the time of Nimrod and the tower of Babel (Gn 10-11). This act of worship became so prominent that Tammuz became the name of the fourth month of the Jewish calendar (June/July of our calendar).

God then took Ezekiel to the entrance of the temple where twenty-five men stood with their backs to the temple as they stood facing east. They bowed to the sun rising in the east. This also seems to be part of the Tammuz worship as Tammuz was considered a sun god. Each of these acts, God considered more corrupt than the previous and stated he would not look on these people any more with pity (Ek 8:18).

Ezekiel then saw God’s glory move from above the cherubim, where his vision had seen God, to the threshold of the temple (Ek 9:3). God was in the process of showing Ezekiel he would remove his glory and presence from the temple where his Name was to dwell. The temple would then be ripe for conquest by the Babylonians. Six angelic beings came forward with weapons in their hands and appeared on the north side of the temple. This is interesting because this is now where the bronze altar, the altar of judgment, now resided since Ahaz had it moved here and placed a bronze altar of his own design at its original position in front of the temple entrance facing east (2Ki 16:10-14).

With these six angelic beings was one dressed in white who had a writing implement in his hand. This one went throughout Jerusalem placing a mark on the foreheads of those who grieved and lamented on what they saw being done at the temple. The six angelic beings then went throughout the city killing those without the mark. Ezekiel wept for them, but God again stated his pity had passed (Ek 9:10). While this was not real at this time as it was a vision given to Ezekiel, the armies of Nebuchadnezzar literally slew thousands of Jews in 586 BC when he took the city, which became a literal fulfillment of this vision.

The one on the sapphire throne above the cherubim spoke to the one dressed in white to take coals and scatter them through the city (Ek 10:1-2). The coals on the altar of incense were for incense to burn, representing the prayers of the people. God is saying he will hear their prayers no longer. God’s Shekinah glory then filled the inner court. It rose and moved to the threshold of the temple and then returned back to his place above the cherubim. This entire chariot of God’s glory next moved to the entrance of the eastern gate (Ek 10:18-19). It then traveled to the Mount of Olives and ascended back into heaven (Ek 11:23). This represented God’s presence had left the present temple and would not return until the Millennial Temple would be built (Ek 43:4-6; Zc 14:4). Ezekiel was then taken back to Babylon where he shared what God had shown him (Ek 11:25).

Is there a lesson for us here? I think so. While we expect God to be forgiving and longsuffering, which he is, he will not be that way forever. Just as Ezekiel and other prophets had prophesied coming destruction and captivity to give the people time to repent and turn back to God to avoid the prophecy, God’s word prophesies another coming time of destruction and catastrophe. Are we heeding his words? It’s time to turn our hearts back to him. That is our only hope. Will you take the journey back to him, or wait until the catastrophe hits?

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Visit Books & Words to Inspire by Randy C. Dockens

God tells Ezekiel to prophesy against the mountains of Israel (Ek 6:1). That seems like a strange thing to do, but God had a purpose. The mountains were where all the high places, i.e., the altars to other gods, were placed and worshiped. This practice went all the way back to King Solomon. Despite what the good king Solomon had done and the magnificent temple he had built for the worship of God, he also built these altars to other gods. Why would he do such a thing? Scripture tells us he had 700 wives and 300 concubines (1Ki 11:3). It was the custom in that day for another kingdom to give the daughter of their ruler as a bride to the ruler of another kingdom to seal the bond between their two peoples. Solomon built a huge empire, and he obviously used this custom to his advantage—and did it quite often. Yet, his wives began to complain because they were now in a place with different customs, and they missed their own rituals and customs. Rather than teaching them his ways and customs, and about his God, he let them have their way and he made for them altars to their various gods (1Ki 11:4-9). As you can imagine, the people’s attitude became, “if the king thinks such practices are allowable, then we can do the same.” At first, it was a mixture of worshipping God and these other idols. Yet, over time, the worship of God waned, and the worship of these idols increased. Why? Well, worshipping God had rules about refraining from certain practices. Yet, worshipping these false gods appeased their base instincts. They could let themselves go, have sex with women who were not their wives, have sex with other men, get intoxicated with wine and lust, and let go of all inhibitions. Of course, this led to all sorts of other problems, but the people did not see, or refused to see, the connection of their issues with their rejection of God. By the time of Ezekiel, some 300 years later, the temple was in much disrepair while the high places were still in full swing.

We can see in scripture the slow demise of the temple. Under king Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, Shishak, king of Egypt, attacked Jerusalem and took treasures from the temple back to Egypt (1Ki .14:25). Later, king Asa of Judah took all the remaining silver and gold from the temple’s treasury to Ben-Hadad, king of Aram in Damascus, to bribe him to go to war against Israel (1Ki 15:18). Later, king Ahaz also took silver and gold from the temple’s treasury, and may have taken gold off the temple itself, to bribe the king of Assyria to attack Damascus (2Ki 16:8). He also had a duplicate altar like he saw in Damascus put in place of the bronze altar in Jerusalem and put the bronze altar, originally in front of the temple’s entrance facing east, on the north side of the temple (2Ki 16:10-14). It seems he took the bronze from the lavers Solomon had made and the twelve-oxen base of the giant laver to make this altar (2Ki 16:17). Ahaz even dismantled some of the structures attached to the temple so as not to offend the king of Assyria (2Ki 16:18). He also took the furnishings of the temple and cut them in pieces, shut the temple doors, and set up altars at every street corner in Jerusalem (2Ch 28:24). King Hezekiah took the silver in the temple treasury and stripped gold off the temple doors and doorposts and gave it to the king of Assyria trying to bribe him to withdraw from Jerusalem (2Ki 18:16). As you can see, all the gold was already depleted from the temple’s treasury and so he resorted to more drastic measures to obtain the gold the king of Assyria demanded. Hezekiah’s son, Manasseh, built altars to other gods within the temple courtyard, put Asherah poles (i.e., phallic symbols) within the temple, had an image placed within the temple, and had living quarters constructed within the temple courtyard for the male shrine prostitutes which were now part of their worship rituals (2Ki 21:4-7, 23:7; 2Ch 33:7). So, you can see the temple lost its significance to the people and in the end was used for something totally against God, whereas it was originally built as something beautiful in which the people could worship God.

God stated he was going to put an end to these practices in a severe way. God would have king Nebuchadnezzar destroy all these high places, but it would not end there. Many would die by the sword. Those who did not die by the sword, would die by plague. When there are so many deaths at once, the other people cannot attend to bodies properly, so they breed plagues. Many will flee seeking to save their lives, but God states the plague would follow them. After all, animals and rodents are the ones who carry the plagues, and they are wherever the people are. Many would flee to Jerusalem, as cities had walls for protection, but God states this will not be a protection for them, but a death trap. Those inside Jerusalem would die from starvation because Nebuchadnezzar would surround the city and not let anyone in or out. Food supplies would dwindle, Jerusalem’s economy would collapse (Ek 7:12-13). Even the gold of the wealthy would become useless (Ek 7:19).

While we may chide them for their actions, can we really do that considering our own actions? They neglected their temple and worship of God. Are we not guilty of the same? Today, his temple is our bodies, as that is where the Holy Spirit dwells (1Co 3:16). Are we making it a pure place for him or are we crowding him out with other things. Yes, I think we have a lot to learn from Ezekiel and his message to his people. Let’s heed the message for ourselves as well. We can accomplish so much more with a guilt-free conscience.

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Visit Books & Words to Inspire by Randy C. Dockens