Ezekiel Chapter 8 – Hypocrisy and Idolatory
Here, Ezekiel has a shocking temple vision where God reveals Israel’s true spiritual state: though many gathered in the Jerusalem temple, their hearts were far from God. The temple was full of idols and spiritual uncleanness.
Before Ezekiel was called to serve, in the temple, King Manasseh had built altars for all the host of heaven (2 Kings 21:4). When Manasseh’s grandson, King Josiah, cleansed the temple, he had to remove idolatrous chariots and images, and even prostitution booths (2 Kings 23:6-7; 11-12). How shameful!
As the vision shows, despite King Josiah’s efforts, not only had the people likely returned to desecrating God’s house again, but also their hearts had completely gone away from God.
Jeremiah, who was Ezekiel’s contemporary, had stood at the gate of the temple and proclaimed:
“Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, burn incense to Baal, and walk after other gods whom you do not know, and then come and stand before Me in this house which is called by My name, and say, ‘We are delivered to do all these abominations’?” (Jeremiah 7:9-10)
This is a warning to us: God sees and knows all that we do.
The elders of the house of Israel may have been in the house of Israel and may have committed these sins “in the dark” (Ezekiel 8:12), but they could not hide these from God.
Today, we may be able to keep up all the appearances of being Christians. We may come to church, speak words from the Bible, or even sprinkle platitudes like “thank God” in our speech.
But what is our heart?
In the vision, twenty-five men stood in the inner court of the temple. Yet they had their backs towards God’s temple as they worshipped the sun (Ezekiel 8:16).
Some of us may appear to be near God, yet in some aspects of our lives, we may have turned our back towards Him.
Hypocrisy is a weakness humans succumb to. Centuries later, Jesus too warned that the Pharisees and scribes would “draw near to Me with their mouth and honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me” (Matthew 15:8).
It is natural for us to be concerned with our appearances, especially in a society where we are taught to do things for the resume, reputation, or pay bump, rather than because we truly care.
Is there dissonance between our church selves and public selves, and has this become hypocritical?
More importantly, what idols do we need to cleanse from our lives?