Ezekiel's encounter with God

It is most interesting to me that in the 8th chapter of Ezekiel, we find what it is that God TRULY hates.

At the beginning of the chapter, the Lord takes Ezekiel to the north gate of the inner courtyard and shows him the large idol that “made the Lord very jealous.” The Lord proclaims His dismay that His people worship this idol.

The Lord, then, takes Ezekiel to a spot where there is a small hole in the wall. This was preceded by the Lord saying, “...you will see even more detestable (sins) than these.” This statement has a rather ominous tone to it and I expect to encounter the more culturally unacceptable sins in this next setting. And when the Lord tells Ezekiel to dig into the hole and he finds a doorway, I’m thinking some kind of base, sexual deviancy will be the focus of the next sinful actions of the people.

However, Ezekiel finds the spiritual leaders of Israel worshipping idols of various kinds. The Lord asks Ezekiel, “...have you seen what the leaders of Israel are doing with their idols in dark rooms?” and then proceeds to declare, “Come, and I will show you even more detestable sins than these!”

The Lord then takes Ezekiel to the north gate of the Temple and shows him women weeping for the (false) god Tammuz.

And, finally, the Lord takes Ezekiel to the entrance of the inner courtyard of the Temple and there shows him 25 men with their backs to the sanctuary worshipping the sun!

The Lord then asks, “Is it nothing to the people of Judah that they commit these detestable sins...?”

I am rebuked as I realize that the greatest of sins is idolatry - and that idolatry is virtually the only sin we commit. We replace God with habits, desires, activities, actions, thoughts and philosophies every day of our lives.

Idolatry is prevalent and rampant today in our culture. We worship the beauty of the creation (otherwise, why such emphasis on “washboard abs“, wrinkle-free faces, heads full of thick, gray-free hair and more)? We worship the systems that were set up to support life on this little blue ball (the weather, governments, philosophies of life & thinking, etc.) and we worship whatever gives us a sense of value, purpose & meaning in life (causes like ”going green“, self-flagellation, self-sacrifice and more).

These things are not necessarily bad, but any time they take any precedence over the priorities of the Kingdom of God, they become idolatry and, therefore, sin.

Ouch!