FBC Morning Light – September 7, 2022

Well, a good Wednesday morning to you, middle of the week time, and I hope your week's going well. Shorter week for you this week, isn't it? You had the Monday off work, and so today's just your second day back to the grind.

The Idolatry of a God Who Does Not See

Well, today we're in Ezekiel chapter eight. Let me ask you this. What is the underlying assumption behind so much of the sin and abominable worship that is going on in our world today, in our country?

Now, even in our community, what's the underlying assumption behind it all? Well, I think we see it in Ezekiel chapter eight, and the way it's presented and the way the underlying assumption is revealed is through this vision that Ezekiel has.

He's taken up by the hair, he says in verse three, says this angel of the Lord who came to him and stretched forth the form of a hand and took him up by the lock of his hair, and the Spirit lifted him and took him between the earth and heaven, took him to the city of Jerusalem.

Now, he's not literally there. This is a vision. Okay? So he has this vision of being taken to the city of Jerusalem, and it says that the Spirit brought me in visions of God to Jerusalem to the door of the north gate of the inner court, where sat, where the seat of the image of jealousy was, which provoked to jealousy.

Now, what he's seeing is this idolatry that's going on in Jerusalem, north of the altar gate, and this image has been set up. And he says in verse five, son of man, the Spirit says to him, lift your eyes now toward the north.

So I lifted my eyes toward the north, and there, north of the altar gate, was this image of jealousy in the entrance. He says, you think that's something? The Spirit says to him, you think that's something?

I'm going to show you some more. So he carries him even further. He brought him to the door of the court, and when he got to the door of the court, he says there was a hole in the wall. And the Spirit says to him, dig into the wall.

He dug into the wall, and there was a door. He said, go in and see the wicked abominations which they are doing there. He says, so I went in, and I saw, and there, every sort of creeping thing, abominable beasts, and all the idols of the house of Israel portrayed all around the walls.

Well, you know, these are God's people. These are supposed to be people who do not have any idols, who don't worship any other gods. So what in the world are they doing? Why are they engaged in all of this abominable worship?

Why do they have these idols set up and bowing down to them? And in verse 11, it says that it's the elders, it's not just the common people that don't know the Lord, it's the elders of the land. It says, the elders of the house of Israel, in their midst stood Jeazaniah, the son of Shaphan.

Each man had a censer in his hand, and a thick cloud of incense went up. So they're offering incense in worship to these idols, these false gods. Why? What's at the root of this? He said in verse 12, the Spirit said to me, son of man, have you seen what the elders of the house of Israel do in the dark, every man in the room of his idols?

Yeah, I see that. For they say, here it is, here is the underlying assumption behind all of the abominable worship of Israel and the sin of God's people. It's also the underlying assumption behind so much of the abominable worship of so-called spiritual leaders in our day and age, in our country, even in our own community.

And what is it? They say, the Lord does not see us. The Lord has forsaken the land. Their underlying assumption is, God doesn't see this. He's not involved. He's not inclined to look at what's going on here.

He's indifferent, or he is perhaps non-existent, or he doesn't care. He doesn't know. Maybe he's on the other side of the world. There is a terribly faulty view of God that is lying beneath the surface of all of these abominable practices.

And their thinking is that the God of Israel is supposed to be the God who blesses us, and he's not blessing us, so he must not be around. And if he's not around, he doesn't see what we're doing anyway.

So we're going to worship these other gods. Maybe they'll bless us. That's their attitude. But I want you to notice in the next chapter, in chapter 9, verse 9, the Lord says to Ezekiel, his prophet, he says, "...the iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah is exceedingly great, and the land is full of bloodshed, and the city full of perversity.".

I was thinking he'd be talking about our land. Well, anyway, he says, "...for they say, the Lord has forsaken the land, and the Lord does not see. But, but, verse 10, and as for me, the Lord says, my eye will neither spare nor will I have pity, but I will recompense their deeds on their own head.".

In other words, the Lord says, I see it all. I see it all. I see every abominable act of worship. I see every perverse behavior. I see it all. So they are absolutely wrong, these people who are saying, the Lord doesn't see, he doesn't know, he doesn't care.

Indeed, he does see, he does know, and he does care. And that should motivate us. That should challenge us to live in the light of the Lord's presence. Reformers used to call it living quorum Deo, quorum Deo, living in the awareness of the presence of God, that he does see, he does know, he does care.

As we go through the course of the day, may our mind go back to this over and over again. The Lord is here. The Lord sees. The Lord knows. I think that will encourage us to live in a way that pleases him, at least desire to, and do our best to live according to his word, to live in a way that pleases him because he sees.

May God's spirit so work in our hearts and graciously enable us to live in exactly that way. So, our Father and our God, we thank you for this challenging passage in Ezekiel. May we live truly in the awareness of your presence, that you are here, you do know, you do care.

We pray this in Jesus' name and for his sake, amen. All right. Well, have a good rest of your Wednesday. I trust the Lord will bless you in it. Good day.