“He brought me to the entrance of the court, and… there was a hole in the wall. He said to me, ‘Son of man, dig in the wall.’ So I dug and there was an entrance. And he said, ‘Go in, and see the vile abominations that they are committing here.’ So I went in and saw. There, engraved on the wall all around, was every form of creeping things and loathsome beasts, and all the idols of the house of Israel. And before them stood seventy men of the elders of the house of Israel… Each had his censer in his hand, and the smoke of the cloud of incense went up. Then he said to me, ‘Have you seen what the elders of the house of Israel are doing in the dark, each in his room of pictures? For they say, “The Lord does not see us, the Lord has forsaken the land…” You will see still greater abominations that they commit…’
“At the entrance of the temple… were about twenty-five men, with their backs to the temple, and their faces toward the east, worshiping the sun… ‘Have you seen this? Is it too light a thing for the house of Judah to commit the abominations that they commit here, that they should fill the land with violence and provoke me still further to anger?’” Ezekiel 8:7-13,16-17
Ezekiel’s position as a prophet exposed him to the grit of reality present and future. As the Lord would give him strong messages for Israel, He first exposed him to the horrors and depravity of their practices. No secret was unseen before the omniscient Almighty, and His holiness required that He hold them to account. If it was difficult for Ezekiel to pronounce God’s wrathful judgment, he certainly knew it was justified. (Ezekiel 7:27; Galatians 6:7)
While we might cringe at the audacity of the Israelites in their vile abominations and blatant idolatry, our hearts and minds are not far unlike theirs. We, too, are prone to the prurient and salacious, drawn to titillating gossip and idols of notoriety and stuff and success. Creeping things and loathsome beasts can take their form in any earthly beauty, vacuous cultural addictions, or virtual temptations that capture our affection.
That they would carry these atrocities into the temple seems especially repulsive, yet we saunter into worship with pompous attitudes, infected grudges, and gross unconfessed sin we’ve justified, blamed, or tucked away as secret. The Lord sees, knows, and wants to undo and exchange and reform and redeem. His judgments are sure but redemptive, just as the cross was cruel and ugly yet made the way for us to be clean. Horrid sin requires horrid accounting, but our gracious Lord took that upon Himself so we could be set free. Alleluia! (Psalm 51:6; John 2:24; 2 Corinthians 5:21)
What ungodly thoughts meandering in our minds need God’s light? Have they made their way to callous language or unkindness? What sinful habits have so rotted our consciences that we accept them as the norm? Where do we compare our lax morality with the laxer of others, and foolishly deem ourselves superior and acceptable? Are we convicted by a Spirit-given gift of shame intended to lead us to repentance? What will we do about it? (Romans 2:1-11)
Lord, infuse my secret places with your light and bring me out to live fully in Your holy light, for Your honor and glory. (1 John 1:7-9)
As the rain and snow 