Ezekiel was taken on a shocking tour of the temple complex in Jerusalem. He was first told to, “lift up thine eyes now the way toward the north.” He did so “and behold northward at the gate of the altar this image of jealousy in the entry” (Ezk. 8:5-6). At the very gate of the temple area, so it was convenient and invited worshippers to give homage to it, was an image which provoked the jealousy of God.
There were greater abominations
This was not the worst of it, however: “Turn thee yet again, and thou shalt see greater abominations,” the prophet was told (v. 6). “Son of man, dig now in the wall” and when Ezekiel did so, he saw the elders of Israel secretly worshipping the abominations of Egypt in the outer ring of temple buildings (vs. 7-1 1). Included among the elders was Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan. This man was from one of the leading families which had supported Josiah’s reform and were confidants of Jeremiah, yet he had secretly gone apostate.
But even this was not all, “Turn thee yet again, and thou shalt see greater abominations that they do. Then he brought me to the door of the gate of the LORD’s house which was toward the north…” And there were worshippers of Tammuz, a Babylonian fertility cult notorious for its lewd practices — within the outer court (vs 13-14).
It got worse, for He brought Ezekiel “into the inner court of the LORD’s house, and, behold, at the door of the temple of the LORD, between the porch and the altar, were about five and twenty men, with their backs toward the temple of the LORD, and their faces toward the east, and they worshipped the sun toward the east” (v 16) — between the porch and the altar m front of the very entrance to the holy and most holy places Here, at the heart of the temple complex, sun worshippers were practicing their iniquity.
They thought they were OK
Incredibly these people still considered themselves God’s special nation They offered sacrifices to Yahweh (Jer 7 21-24) and were perfectly confident that since “Abraham was one, and he inherited the land” and because “we are many, the land is given us for inheritance” (Ezk 33 24) Their reasoning is clear If God so richly blessed one special person, just think how confident they could be as a whole nation of God’s special people.
When a good Bible talk was on, they would “speak one to his brother, saying Come, I pray you, and hear what is the word that cometh forth from the LORD” And they’d gather around Ezekiel to hear his admonition, delighting in it as they would “enjoy a very lovely song as one that hath a pleasant voice, and can play well on the instrument” They would praise the message, “for with their mouth they show much love, but their heart goeth after their covetousness they hear thy words, but they do them not” (Ezk 33 30-32) They would talk the talk, but would not walk the walk.
How could they be so blind?
Before he even began his work, Ezekiel was warned of the difficulty of his task “For they are impudent [mg “Heb hard of face] children and stiff hearted” (Ezk 2 4) To emphasize the point, the warning was immediately repeated “But the house of Israel will not hearken unto thee, for they will not hearken unto me for all the house of Israel are impudent and hardhearted [mg ‘Heb stiff of forehead and hard of hearer (Ezk 3 7) They were hard, remarkably hard – having been thoroughly “hardened through the deceitfulness of sin”
The last phrase is familiar as it comes from Hebrews 3 13 as part of an exhortation to the followers of Christ Hearts hardened by sin were not unique to the Jews of Ezekiel’s day, the condition has always been prevalent and even now is a serious danger for us.
A characteristic of human beings
We need to be fully aware that human beings can become hardened to the most shocking circumstances Soldiers m wartime experience the effect as they are sickened at the first battle casualty they witness but gradually become hardened to seeing death all around them Many medical professionals couldn’t do their jobs unless they became somewhat desensitized to the suffering they must deal with The characteristic is actually essential as we raise a family and clean up messes which used to nauseate us.
The problem is when we become hardened to sin Some have experienced the numbing effect of continued exposure to vulgarity m the work place At first we are appalled, then we get used to it and don’t react and finally we find the words slipping out of our own lips It is a known phenomenon that children become desensitized to violence by what the) see on TV Note the point they become hardened by Just watching violence That’s because they empathetically associate themselves with the characters being viewed, and to some extent live out what they are watching.
It’s not only children who have the quality of empathy (“capacity for participating in the feelings of another”), we all do To a greater or lesser extent, when the actors sin, the viewers do as well All of which means, the more we entertain ourselves with TV and the movies, the more we face the potential of hardening our hearts by the deceitfulness of sin.
This is spiritually dangerous, if not spiritual suicide.
In one of his talks, Bro John Carter made a compelling point “If anyone of us sins, it leaves its mark upon us A man may be guilty of a little sharp practice in his business and he experiences a sense of shame But the second time he does it, the shame is not so keen and after repeated acts, he comes at last to rationalize, as modern psychologists describe He rationalizes the process and justifies, what, at the beginning caused him a sense of shame Why is it? It is because sin has a peculiarly blinding effect upon us. Sin distorts the view of righteousness Sin deceives Here is one of the dire consequences that comes with sin, the more a man becomes familiar with it as performing and yielding himself to it, so he becomes less aware of the real character of sin. William James in one of his books, tells the story of a man who had repeatedly given way to drink, and he repeatedly said as he yields once more, ’twill not count this one’ And James comments ‘he may not and a merciful heaven may not, but the cells of his brain are recording every lapse and every lapse that comes makes the next one easier’ Which means that sin, in its out-working, becomes at last a part of the individual himself” (Unity in Australia, p 30)
A dangerous world
We live m an age where Bibles abound and freedom of religion is the law of the land Few if any of us are persecuted for believing the gospel, yet we live in an age of great spiritual danger The combination of free time and virtually universal access to TV, videos, movies, etc has a frightening potential for hardening our hearts The potential is magnified by low standards of censorship and all the electronic techniques which create fascinating special effects Now comes the Internet which makes all of this available for our private viewing any time day or night.
Thankfully, Christ is more powerful than any of it and can enable us to overcome all forms of wickedness But we have to avail ourselves of his strength putting the Word into our minds and lifting our hearts m prayer and praise Further, we must do our part by placing our feet m his way, turning our backs on filth and immorality and turning our faces toward the glory to come.
At the end of their age, the people of Israel had become spiritually hard of heart and stiff of face It can easily happen to any one of us unless we take full advantage of the help available to us, at the end of our age.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One