Terror In The Temple Ezekiel 8-11 | Pastor Bob Erbig

I will begin today by just saying that nobody enjoys waking up from a nightmare.

Right?

Worse than a nightmare is something called sleep terrors.

And the Mayo Clinic describes a sleep terror this way: it's a person partially and abruptly waking up in an intense state of fear or panic.

So a person, in this case, may sit up, they may scream, they may sweat, they may breathe rapidly or appear awake while actually confused and difficult to comfort.

Sleep terrors are a genuinely frightening event.

There was one published sleep study case where researchers documented a woman awakening from REM sleep, crying out in terror.

For over a minute, she was inconsolable and disoriented.

Now, to the average observer, this may look like a scene from a movie, but in this case she was not acting.

She was crossing from a terrifying dream state to a waking reality, and her mind had just not caught up.

Has anybody experienced this phenomenon?

It is a scary moment.

They don't call it a sleep terror haphazardly.

Now, fear can wake you before you're fully awake.

Your eyes are open, but your heart is still in the nightmare.

The sleep terror is what invades your soul.

And that's the scene we experience in Ezekiel chapter 8, all the way to chapter 11.

Ezekiel 8 · chapter mention

That's where we'll be this morning.

Find your way to Ezekiel chapter 8, verse 1.

Ezekiel 8:1

Now to the prophet, this section feels like a nightmare, but it's actually an immersive vision from God Himself.

Ezekiel's eyes are opened, not to an imaginary threat, but to real activities that are happening inside the temple of God.

And this scene is frightening precisely because God's people are doing the unthinkable.

They have turned their backs on God.

The loyalty of their hearts is divided between Yahweh and idols.

And for Ezekiel, this is the nightmare.

So here's my question for you, church.

What is your nightmare?

What is your nightmare?

Now, throughout these chapters, it is clear God's people are engaged in idol worship.

And let me just give you a definition from Tim Keller in his book Counterfeit Gods.

He gives an off a helpful definition of modern idols.

He says this an idol is whatever you look at and say, in your heart of hearts, if I have that, then I'll have my life will have meaning.

Then I'll know I have value.

Then I'll feel significant and secure.

In other words, an idol is something so important in your life that if you lose it, you won't want to live.

In fact, losing that idol would be your worst nightmare.

So what is your nightmare?

Now, as we begin, I just want to acknowledge that we're jumping from Ezekiel chapter 2 last week all the way over to Ezekiel chapter 8 this morning.

Ezekiel 2 · chapter mention Ezekiel 8 · chapter mention

The book of Ezekiel, if you missed it, is broken into three large literary chunks.

You can see them on the screen behind me.

In chapter 1 in the first week, we saw the glory of God.

Today, we're gonna see God's glory depart the temple in chapter 11 at the end of that first block.

Next week, we're actually gonna jump all the way back to Ezekiel 3 and 4 for some prophetic street theaters, so stay tuned for that.

But before we examine Ezekiel chapter 8, let's remember the importance of the temple, which is central to our scripture today.

Ezekiel 8 · chapter mention

Last week, Pastor Dave showed an impressive timeline.

Let me put that back on the screen for you.

If you go all the way back to the time of King David, King David, uh you may remember that in 2 Samuel chapter 7, God asked David to build a permanent house where his presence can dwell.

2 Samuel 7 · chapter mention

And for a number of reasons, you know, David does not build the temple.

That falls to his son, King Solomon.

He's not on the timeline, but he comes right after David.

And we read this in the book of 1 Kings, chapter 8, verse 10.

1 Kings 8:10

And when the priests came out of the most holy place, this was the temple, a cloud filled the house of the Lord, so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord filled the house of the Lord.

Now, right here, this is a civilizational moment for Israel.

The nation is united under one king.

This long-awaited temple has been completed.

The glory of the Lord is with them.

But then at the end of 1 Kings chapter 8, after Solomon has dedicated the temple, he prays for the people, he sends them home, and we read this in verse 66.

1 Kings 8 · chapter mention

It says, They blessed the king and went to their homes, joyful and glad of heart, for all the goodness that the Lord had shown to David, his servant, and to Israel, his people.

Now, did you catch that?

The people of Israel were joyful and glad of heart.

Why?

For the goodness of God.

For the goodness of God.

Now you might be asking yourself, what does this have to do with Ezekiel chapter 8 through 11?

Ezekiel 8 · chapter mention

Well, we read something rather terrifying in Ezekiel chapter 10, verse 18.

Ezekiel 10:18

This is what we see.

Then the glory of the Lord went out from the threshold of the house, that temple, and stood over the cherubim.

So what we see here is that same glory of the Lord which filled the temple in Ezekiel chapter, and sorry, in 1 Kings 8, 10, it departs now the temple in Ezekiel 10, 18.

The glory of God just gets up and leaves the temple.

And for Ezekiel and his people, this was the sleep terror.

This was the nightmare.

Just imagine being in the presence of God in Ezekiel chapter 1, where we felt the weight of his glory, but in chapter 10, it's gone.

Ezekiel 1 · chapter mention

It gets up, it leaves.

What is that like?

How did we get from Solomon to Ezekiel?

Now, if you look back at that timeline, remember that Solomon ruled over a united kingdom just after his father David.

God gave Solomon supernatural wisdom to rule, but by 1 Kings chapter 11, his heart began to wander, we're told, after foreign wives who worship foreign gods.

1 Kings 11 · chapter mention

And once they were in the door, once they were in the land, they infected the heart of the nation.

And so the northern kingdom turned away from Yahweh, they were conquered by Assyria, and they never came back.

But the southern kingdom of Judah oscillated between obedience and disobedience, good kings and bad kings.

And they were eventually conquered by and exiled to Babylon.

And so this is why Ezekiel is sitting at the Kibar Canal in Ezekiel 1, far from home, when he receives another vision from God, a vision of idolatry in the temple of God.

The allegiance that the people had to Yahweh is broken.

And so as we examine this passage, I just want to challenge you this morning to allow it to be a mirror to our own hearts.

And so my question for you is what competes for your deepest heart loyalty?

What competes for your deepest heart loyalty?

Because when loyalty is betrayed, allegiance is lost, and consequences then ensue.

Let's just think about a few examples here today.

Just imagine that you have a friendship that is broken by betrayal.

So perhaps you were close with somebody for many, many years, but now you don't talk because for some reason the trust is eroded.

Or imagine a marriage that ends in divorce.

And that never happens overnight.

That is a long series of decisions and attitudes and actions, and the result is a fracture, a devastated family.

Or imagine a church whose hearts have turned toward selfish interests over the glory of God.

When that happens, always posturing follows.

People then whisper, gossip in secret, and everyone claims that God is on their side.

And the result too often is a broken body and the stark reality that we are drawn to our own glory over God's.

Let's not be that church.

Because the most important pursuit of our lives must be the glory of God.

If it is not, we are one moment from waking up in a sleep terror.

And so we have to ask, how will God get glory for my actions?

Our allegiance to Him must be more important than our allegiance to ourselves and the world.

And so, if nothing, if you get nothing else out of this message today, I would just ask you to remember this.

Divided allegiance leads to God's departing presence.

That's the topic of Ezekiel 8 through 11.

So we'll focus first and mostly on chapter 8, but the four chapters need to be read as a unit, and they unfold in three scenes.

First, in chapter 8, we get a tour of the temple.

Second, God then makes a deliberate departure in chapter 10 and 11.

And then at the end of chapter 11, finally, we see mercy on the mountain.

So let's pray and we will examine each of those scenes in turn.

Heavenly Father, I thank you so much for today.

I thank you for your people who are gathered here this morning.

And Lord, I pray that you would allow your word to be a mirror to our hearts today.

Show us the elements of our lives that we need to repent of.

Show us where to turn, how to turn from our selfish ways and turn towards you, so that your glory may be paramount both in our world and in our hearts and in our church, Lord God.

Thank you for this morning.

Would you speak to all of us, including the preacher today?

We ask that in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.

So before we get the tour of the temple, let's read the setup in verses one to four of chapter eight.

It begins this way.

Then I looked, and behold, a form that had the appearance of a man.

Below what appeared to be his waist was what?

Fire, and above his waist was something like the appearance of brightness, like gleaming metal.

He put out, now it gets now it gets weird and wild, he put out the form of a hand, and took me by the lock of my head, and the spirit lifted me up between earth and heaven, and brought me in visions of God to Jerusalem at the entrance of the gateway of the inner court that faces north.

This is at the temple.

Where was the seat of the image of jealousy which provokes to jealousy?

And behold, the glory of the God of Israel was there, like the vision that I saw in the valley back in back in chapter one.

So notice here in verse 4, the glory of God is there, but he's calling back to this vision in chapter one.

Now again, this is just this is just it Ezekiel is full of weird and wild scenes.

And I would just ask you, what would you do if this happened to you?

Right?

Just imagine right now that you've invited some of our church elders over for dinner, okay?

Uh and we're sitting, we're having a nice chat, and then all of a sudden, fire! Like invades your house.

A man appears with blinding lights.

He's it looks like he's on fire, and then he reaches out this hand and he he grabs you by the hair on your head.

Now, the word for a lock of hair there literally can mean something like a man bun that you can kind of grab it and you lift him up and he he whisks you through what seems like a portal to the temple in Jerusalem.

Now, this feels like, here's a picture of the temple if you've forgotten what the complex looks like.

This feels like something out of a Doctor Strange movie or like a Harry Potter port key that you go through.

And before you can even think, you're it this this Jerusalem tour begins.

Now, why has God taken Ezekiel here in this vision?

He is going to be his tour guide to the key places of the people of God in the underworld of Jerusalem temple life.

So for illustration's sake, let's just imagine that each stop on this tour, there is a door, and the tour has four doors that we're gonna open and find out what's behind each.

So we open the first door in verse five of chapter eight.

We read this.

Then he said to me, Son of man, lift up your eyes now toward the north.

So I lifted up my eyes toward the north, and behold, north of the altar gate, in the entrance, was what?

Was the image of jealousy.

So behind door number one, on this Torah, we see this image of jealousy.

Now, now you're asking yourself, what is this?

What is this image of jealousy?

Um, it most likely referred to a physical idol, probably something like an Asherah pol, which was a Canaanite deity.

And the wicked king Manasseh was very famous for erecting uh these Asherah poles inside the temple of God.

Now, Asherah was the fertility god representing degrading sexuality, which had been condemned for centuries since the prophet Hosea.

And this idol right here is in the same place where Manasseh was putting them.

And that provoked God's anger because it violates his exclusive claim to Israel's worship.

Actions like this were the reason for God's jealousy in places like the Second Commandment.

Now, the Hebrew word for jealousy is really poignant, it communicates the image of marital betrayal.

So, Ezekiel often uses, and he'll use more of this in the book, language like this, this intimate language, to illustrate Israel's betrayal.

And to drive the point home, just imagine right now that you are walking into your house, into your home, and you're and you're making your way up the stairs to your bedroom.

And if you're married, you know that it's only you and your spouse that have exclusive access to your bedroom.

And then imagine you enter your bedroom and you find your spouse in your marriage bed, your marriage bed, making love to another man or woman.

That is the image that Ezekiel is getting at here.

How would you respond?

Oh, I imagine you'd have a rather visceral reaction of jealousy and rage.

And so the point is this God responds in a similar way when we give idols control of our hearts.

Whether that's looking to success or security or approval or comfort or money or whatever else that only he can give.

Now, now he doesn't stop there.

God offers now a teaser trailer of what is to come.

Look at verse 6.

And he said to me, Son of man, do you see what they're doing?

Do you see this this this do you see is repeated over and over again in chapter 8.

Do you see what they're doing?

The great abominations that the house of Israel are committing here to drive me from my sanctuary.

I don't want to go, but they're driving me out.

And you're gonna see still greater abominations.

Wow.

God says to Israel again, do you see, do you see what they're doing in my house?

Now this is only one stop, but he's drawing the attention here to the seriousness of sin, and he's saying, There will be greater, greater abominations.

You say it gets worse?

Yes, it's gonna get worse.

Indeed, it's hard to imagine a scene more devastating than an unfaithful spouse, but God here is about to take Israel now, or Ezekiel, to the dark places of the temple underworld.

Just picture this, verse 7.

It reads this way And he brought me to the entrance of the court.

So he's going further in towards the central place of the temple.

And when I looked, behold, there was a hole in the wall.

And then he said to me, Son of man, dig in the wall.

So I dug in the wall, and behold, there was an entrance.

So he's digging in, and then he sees this uh a door, right?

Now he and he said to me, Go in, open that door, and see the vile abominations that are committing here.

All right, so now stop number two, which requires some extra effort on Ezekiel's part.

He's gotta he's gotta dig.

He comes to that inner court, but the violations that are there can't be seen with the naked eye.

Instead, he's gotta go further in.

He's gotta dig through this wall, he's gotta open up this door to see the truth.

The scene kind of reminds me of that movie Inception, right?

If you remember that plot, the main characters had to go further and further into the dream world.

They had to go into dreams within dreams, and Ezekiel's going behind walls, a vision in a vision.

What does Ezekiel find in the inner room of these temple precincts?

Verse 10.

So I went in and I saw.

And there, engraved on the wall, all around, was every form of creeping thing and loathsome beasts, and all the idols of the house of Israel.

These creeping things.

Kind of recalls Paul's indictment in Romans 1.

He went in and he saw.

What did he see?

He saw these animal images on the wall, these creatures that are likely associated with Egyptian and Mesopotamian pagan worship of the time, the surrounding nations.

These animals probably had religious significance in these fertility cults, like Asherah, the pole that we talked about.

And the phrases are not meant to be comprehensive to what he saw, but they do represent here that there are spiritual forces opposed to Yahweh's worship in his temple.

That's what's happening here.

So verse 10 now concludes with some prophetic trash talk, because when he says, all the idols of the house of Israel, the Hebrew word, the Hebrew phrase can literally be translated as dung balls.

Yes, the animals portrayed, he's saying here, are disgusting.

They are revolting, and the idols are literally, literally droppings of excrement.

Now, next week we're gonna we're gonna jump back, as I said, earlier in Ezekiel, where there's a similar image is used in that prophetic street theater in chapters 3, 4, and 5.

But this scene right here is an abomination to God.

And now we find out who is present in this room.

Verse 11.

And before them stood 70 men of the elders of the house of Israel.

Each had a censer in his hand, and the smoke of the cloud of incense went up.

This was a worshipful act right here.

These 70 elders, the leaders of the house of Israel, are in this room spreading incense in worship.

Don't miss the rhetorical force here.

These elders are spreading a revolting stench of worship to these false gods.

It's rising up to God Himself.

And they're doing it in secret.

No one on the outside knows, but God sees through the walls of their heart, and he is revolted by their actions.

Now, why are they doing this?

Verse 12.

Then he said to me, Son of man, have you seen?

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, what do they say?

They say, The Lord does not see us.

The Lord has what?

Has forsaken the land.

And he also said to me, You will see still greater abominations that they commit.

It gets worse.

It gets worse.

So again, he says, Do you see what they're doing, Ezekiel, right?

Do you see what they're doing in the dark when they think nobody's looking?

Friends, God knows what we do in secret.

And then we are told that the reason for this treasonous action is what?

It's it's at the end of the day, they no longer trust God.

They don't trust God.

Now, this is not the commentary that Ezekiel wants to hear on this temple tour, but I think for us, this is a convicting stop.

I find it convicting because often uh when God doesn't act as quickly as I think he should in my life, that's that's when my trust might waver, right?

Maybe you too.

Right?

I take matters into my own hands, I attempt to solve my own problems.

Why?

Because I think that God has at some level forgotten me.

That God has forsaken me, perhaps.

Have you ever thought that?

And when that happens, what do we do?

We run to these false gods of the world.

We run to things like politics and power and money and education, accomplishments.

We sell out our souls to careers and pursuits that take the place of God in our hearts.

And so what God is saying very clearly to us is this I am not pleased when you don't trust me.

But now the Torah doesn't stop there.

Greater abominations are to come in verse 14.

We read this.

Then he brought me to the entrance of the north gate of the house of Israel, and behold, there sat women weeping for Tammuz.

Okay, who's that?

Then he said to me, Have you seen this, O son of man?

Have you seen this?

You will see still greater abominations than these.

Man, it's not done.

The nightmare continues.

Now, this stop is brief, but it is deeply revealing.

Behind door number three, we see the north gate of God's temple.

We made our way there, and Ezekiel sees women, so it's not just the 70 elders, these men, it's women weeping for Tammuz.

Now, who's Tammuz?

Tammuz is a Mesopotamian god associated with fertility, seasonal death, and the hope of renewed life.

But again, another idol in God's temple.

The women are specifically named because women were the ones that commonly led laments for Tammuz, identifying with the goddess who mourned his death, and participating in rites that sought fertility and renewed life.

Yet this is the tragedy that it's in the very same place where they should have sought the living God.

They're looking to this false God to give what only God can give.

That's the point here.

But now we have one more stop on the Torah, and this is the final nail in the coffin.

We read this now in verse 16.

And he brought me to the inner court.

So he's going closer to where the presence of God is.

The inner court of the house of the Lord, and behold, behold, at the entrance of the temple of the Lord, between the porch and the altar, were about twenty-five men with their backs to the temple of the Lord and their faces toward the east, worshiping the sun toward the east.

So now the inner court is the transition point between the outer common areas of the temple complex and the holiest of holy sections that were meant only for priestly activities.

In other words, we're getting very close to the ark, to God's presence in the temple, and it's here, between this porch and the altar, that we see this gravest of offenses.

These 25 men, whom we can assume are priests, have turned their backs on the temple, on God Himself.

And they're facing east to worship the sun.

Now, this verse right here is filled with some rich symbolic imagery.

Because east, of course, is the direction that Adam and Eve departed when they left the Garden Temple of Eden.

They were moving what?

They were moving away from the presence of God.

And these people right here in this scene are priests.

Now, secondly, sun worship is associated with Egyptian cultic practices.

Again, these surrounding nations.

The sun god Rey dominated Egyptian worship and was worshipped as a creator or the king of all gods.

So I think this stop is last because the image is so clear.

The people of Yahweh God have supplanted him with another false God who claims to be what?

The God of gods.

This is spiritual warfare right here.

On this tour of the temple, Yahweh is exposing the depraved hypocrisy of the religious leaders of Israel and warning Ezekiel that judgment is coming.

Now, verse 17.

Then he said to me, Have you seen this, O son of man?

It is 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.

Behold, they put the branch to their nose.

Again, there's that repetition.

Have you seen?

Have you seen?

So I picture God as this tour guide, incredulous and filled with rage each time he's describing another scene.

They've committed abominations that are equivalent to committing violence in the land.

Now, don't miss the Hebrew word for violence here.

It's the Hebrew word Hamas.

And that should strike a chord in your mind, right?

But here in Ezekiel, it's describing the very actions of the house of Judah.

They put a branch to their nose, is an indictment.

It refers to actions taken in worship of these foreign gods.

This right here is the terror in the temple.

The nightmare tour now has concluded, but God has to take action.

Verse 18.

Therefore, I will act in wrath.

My eye will not spare, nor will I have pity.

And though they cry in my ears with a loud voice, I will not hear them.

I want you to sit with verse 18 for just a moment.

Because that right there is very heavy.

The result of this tour is God's wrath.

And we're going to see more of this through the middle section of the book of Ezekiel, but it's not a popular concept today.

But God's wrath is not God flying off the handle or losing control.

As theologian J.I.

Packer puts it, it is a right and necessary reaction to objective moral evil.

I'll say that again.

It is a right and necessary reaction to objective moral evil.

In other words, God's wrath is his holy and settled opposition to sin, to everything that dishonors him and destroys the people he loves.

That is why God says, I will not have pity.

They will cry to me, I'm not going to hear them.

Now, friends, this is the nightmare.

Can you imagine crying out to God in a perceived moment of need and he ignores you?

That is how far Israel has fallen.

That is why David prays in Psalm 27, Do not hide your face from me.

Do not turn your servant away in anger.

You have been my helper.

Oh God, do not reject me or forsake me, God, my Savior.

See, we don't have time to go through Ezekiel 9 today, but that chapter pictures God acting in just judgment of Israel's sin.

Now I said at the beginning of the message that Ezekiel 8 should function as a mirror to our souls.

And so I'll ask you now if God were to take a tour of your heart, what would he find?

This week in Gwinnick County, Georgia, there was a fire that happened at a house, and neighbors saw this house on fire, and they began pounding on the door to wake people up inside.

Three people got out, one person was trapped in the basement and had to be rescued by firefighters.

And officials reported that the smoke alarms in the house were not active.

So that's something like Ezekiel 8.

God takes Ezekiel on a tour of his own house, he exposes what's hidden inside, and at every step the idolatry grows worse.

But the danger is not outside the temple, it's inside.

The house is on fire.

The people have allowed rival gods to occupy the place that bel that belongs to God alone.

It's a 9-1-1 call of the heart.

Because sin is never as contained as we think it is.

It spreads, it hardens us, it damages the people around us.

So what's behind the closed doors of your heart?

Don't silence the alarm.

Don't minimize what God is exposing even today.

Bring it into the light, confess it to the Lord and turn from it.

Because Christ bore the wrath our sin deserves.

So those who come to him in repentance and faith will find mercy and not rejection.

So that's the terror in the temple, chapter 8.

That's point number one.

Now, point number two, and the next two will be shorter, shows God's deliberate departure in response to what he sees in chapter 8.

God's deliberate departure.

Now, chapter 9, as I mentioned, we're going to see the judgment of God because Israel has canonized themselves, that they're acting like all these surrounding pagan nations, and now they're answerable for their actions.

But God is now responding in wrath to the events of chapter 8, and he's departing the temple.

So when you read chapter 10, I want you to see that it's a slow, deliberate departure.

First, what you see is that the cherubim begin to move, all those images that Pastor Dave put up last week.

Second, God's glory chariot takes off, so to speak, moves away from the temple.

He leaves the house, the wheels, the throne, they're all in motion.

And then we read this in chapter 10, verse 18.

Then the glory of the Lord went out from the threshold of the house.

So he's leaving the temple here, and stood over the cherubim, who moved first.

And the cherubim lifted up their wings and mounted up from the earth before my eyes as they went out, with the wheels beside them.

So there's motion here, they're moving.

And they stood at the entrance of the east gate of the house of the Lord, and the glory of the God of Israel was over them.

So just wow, okay?

This right here is a scene simultaneously majestic and heartbreaking.

To watch the very presence of God move must have been breathtaking.

Now, as a reminder, that word glory is the Hebrew word kabbod.

We talked about that last week, and it literally means a weight or a heaviness.

It calls back to 1 Kings chapter 8.

1 Kings 8 · chapter mention

There, as we noted, the glory of the Lord filled the temple, but here it departs.

It's getting up and going.

Just imagine this presence leaving and sucking all of the glory out of the temple.

Again, majestic and heartbreaking all at once.

So sit with it for just a moment.

Because this is, for us, I think as the church, this is a hard concept for us to get.

As New Testament believers, we're told that if you're a Christian, the Holy Spirit lives inside you.

Right?

He has washed you, he has sealed you with his presence for the day of redemption.

And so I don't believe that God leaves us, but I think there also can be a tendency among Christians to minimize sin.

Because we can easily think, well, listen, that's not a big deal.

God will forgive me, and that's true.

But he calls us to repentance, and then he forgives us.

But he also wants us to know that he's not going to just bless sinful actions.

Sin is a big deal, and there are consequences.

In fact, the Apostle Paul writes this to the Ephesian church in chapter four of that letter.

He says, Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.

What should you do?

Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be what?

Be put away from you along with all malice.

Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another as God in Christ forgave you.

So notice that our actions can grieve God's spirit.

Scripture tells us in other places, don't quench the spirit.

Right?

People can blaspheme the spirit if they refuse to believe in Jesus after they've clearly heard the gospel.

Sin is serious.

But I also want you to notice that there's a deliberate nature to God's departure in Ezekiel 10.

God's presence doesn't vanish, it moves rather slowly and then pauses.

Right?

It's almost as if God is leaving the house.

He's heartbroken by the betrayal of his people, but as he's leaving, he pauses and he looks back over his shoulder, hoping, hoping that they'll change.

Even though he knows they won't.

In verse 18, it says the cherubim in God's presence stood at that east gate.

He's pausing, he's waiting.

And that action is consistent with his character.

What do we read in Psalm 103?

It says, the Lord is what?

Is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love.

That's our God.

And he doesn't want to bring judgment, he's not indifferent when he leaves.

His glory is offended at these actions because his sovereignty has been directly challenged by these idle statues.

And so it provokes his jealousy, and his jealousy then provokes judgment.

So don't miss the fact that God slow walks out the door, and as we'll see in the future, he'll be back.

So I would ask you, church, have you ever meditated on how patient God is with us?

See, when it came to Israel, this departure here, maybe it feels abrupt as you read it, but if you look at the history, this departure was hundreds and hundreds of years in the making.

Where God had patiently waited until he finally had enough.

And even now he's leaving really, really slowly.

And I know in my life, God is patient with me.

I am a sinner in desperate need of a savior, so are you.

And God has taught me so many things that maybe I forgot or I ignored, and he's worked in my life and my heart, he still is.

So if chapter eight is a mirror, what are those competing idols that expose, it exposes in our hearts?

I'll mention three.

Number one, hidden worship.

So the second stop on that temple tour takes us again into that temple underworld.

And there we saw 70 elders who had forsaken God turn to pagan idols.

They were doing it in secret.

And the question for us is this how do I live?

How do you live?

What do we worship in secret?

What am I doing in the dark, convinced that God doesn't know or care about me?

See, the most obvious place to look is maybe your browsing history.

What do you search for when nobody's looking?

What do you keep running to for comfort or escape or control or approval?

What are we willing to click on or watch or linger over in private that we would never want, projected on the screen right here?

That's the question that Ezekiel forces us to ask.

What's behind my door?

Second, promiscuous passions.

Now, the women, on the third step, the women weeping for tammuz remind us how easy it is to look to created things in life or intimacy or identity or fulfillment.

See, our culture promises us that romance or sexual expression or being desired will finally make us whole.

But none of those things will bear the weight of our identity.

Right?

For some, the idol appears in something like pornography.

For others, it's an emotional attachment that dishonors a marriage.

And for others, it's the belief that life cannot be meaningful without a romantic relationship.

The question is not simply what do I desire, it is what am I asking this desire to give me that only God can give me?

Third, created powers.

Now, finally, that sun worship on the last stop shows us that we have a propensity to serve the creature rather than the creator.

We have a tendency to trust what we can see and what we can touch, and we easily turn our backs on God.

When things go bad, where do you run?

Now, I meditated on this point during the week when there was some doomsday predictions about uh from AI labs like Dario Amade's Anthropic that AI may end civilization very soon.

And I'm not an engineer, and putting aside the speculation about the future, I found the story applicable on this point because it seems to me that we can easily, and many people can easily place trust in machines over the spirit.

And if you don't have a worldview that sees God as the creator, but rather the algorithm as a pseudo-deity, I can see where it would terrify you.

But we have to be very careful that created powers do not take the place of a creator God in our heart and our lives.

Because we can easily fall into false worship.

Because our sin is great, but God's mercy is greater.

And that's where we end in chapter 11.

Despite this deliberate departure in chapter 10, God gives us a glimpse of his mercy on the mountain.

That's the last point.

Mercy on the mountain.

Now Ezekiel 11 points us toward God's action in the future.

See, the narrative section of chapters 8 to 11 concludes in chapter 11, verses 22 to 25.

In chapter 10, God's glory chariot paused at the east gate, but then it continues further eastward and then pauses again on the mountain.

Look at verse 22.

Then the cherubim lifted up their wings with the wheels beside them, and the glory of the God of Israel was over them.

And the glory of the Lord went up from the midst of the city and stood on the mountain, that is on the east side of the city.

So, right here, this is more of God's deliberate departure.

But the mountain is significant.

Again, that eastward movement mirrors Adam and Eve's direction in Genesis 3.

But this place right here, this mountain, would later be called the Mount of Olives.

And if you remember, that's the very mountain where Jesus offered the Olivet discourse in Matthew 25, telling his disciples what is to come.

This is the mountain where Jesus looked at the Temple Mount and wept over Jerusalem and his people.

Luke 19 records it this way.

And when he, that's Jesus, drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace, but now they are hidden from your eyes.

So in Luke 19, he weeps for Jerusalem and he warns them of what is to come.

But the Mount of Olives is the place where Jesus is said to, first of all, he ascended into heaven, but he's also said to return at his second coming, where he will judge the earth and make all things right.

It is this mountain that the glory of the Lord stops as it departs the temple in Ezekiel 11 on its way, on his way to exile in Babylon with his people.

That is the glimpse of mercy.

That on the mountain there's a pause where God shows his love for his people and also his trajectory to go into exile with them.

And so he makes his way to the Kibar Canal to Ezekiel.

He is present with his people in their pain.

And in the future, we know that God himself comes to earth, he incarnates himself as a human being, and he walks among his people.

God himself will go to a cross to bear his own wrath for the sin of the world.

And God himself would open a way for his people to know him and to dwell not in a building, but in the in the hearts of his followers.

See, on the mountain, God's mercy is palpable.

That even on this nightmare tour, the mercy is woven in.

It's in this moment, in this moment that Ezekiel wakes up.

And we read this in verse 24.

And the Spirit lifted me up, brought me in the vision by the Spirit of God back to Chaldea, to Babylon, to the exiles.

Then the vision that I had seen went up from me, and I told the exiles all the things that the Lord had shown me.

So Ezekiel comes back to Babylon, to the exiles.

He wakes up from the nightmare.

I imagine he's breathing rapidly, he's sweating as he tells the people what the Lord showed him.

And that's where the narrative section ends.

So, what are we supposed to do with Ezekiel 8 to 11?

Is there anything we can take from this terror in the temple?

And I would argue yes.

But I would also caution us that we all want to rush to the mercy at the end.

But we cannot really receive and appreciate God's mercy if we refuse to confront the idolatry exposed in chapter 8.

See, that nightmare vision shows us that the temple is not a place just simply out there in ancient Jerusalem.

It presses us to look into the hidden rooms of our hearts.

And we have to ask, what has taken a controlling position in my heart?

Where am I right now looking for security and comfort and meaning and control, things that only God can give?

We must name those heart idols, turn from them, and turn our worship again to the one who alone is worthy of worship.

Remember the key question?

What competes for our deepest heart loyalty?

Right?

And the big idea of Ezekiel 8 through 11 is this divided allegiance leads to God's departing presence.

And so before we close, I just want us to respond by not by pointing at Israel, but by honestly coming before God ourselves to ask the Holy Spirit.

Search our hearts and reveal where we have divided allegiance.

What idol have I allowed, have you allowed into the place that God belongs alone?

Where do we need to repent?

So let's just take a moment, a quiet moment now, to confess our sin before the Lord.

I am a sinner.

You are a sinner.

We are idolaters who turn from God often.

Confession is good, but what do we do about it?

Well, Ezekiel chapter 11, verses 18 to 20 offers a glimpse of what God has done.

Ezekiel 11:18–20

What God offers us.

He will eventually gather Israel back to the land, and what will he do?

Ezekiel 11, 18 says, and when they come there, they will remove from it all its detestable things and all its abominations.

And I will do what?

I will give them one heart, and a new spirit I will put in them.

I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them what?

A heart of flesh.

Why?

That they may walk in my statutes and keep my rules and obey them, and they shall be my people, and I will be their God.

Do you hear that?

Now we have seen this terror in the temple.

We've seen this divided allegiance, this hidden worship, this false trust, God's holy presence departing, but Ezekiel does not leave us with condemnation alone.

He says, I will give them one heart, a new spirit.

I'm going to put it inside them.

And notice that's the hope.

That God does not merely tell idolaters, try harder.

He promises to do what they cannot do for themselves.

That he's going to remove that heart of stone.

He's going to give us a heart of flesh.

He's going to make his divided people whole.

And that promise points right to Jesus.

That at the cross, Jesus Christ bore the judgment our idolatry deserves.

That by his spirit, he gives us a new heart.

He makes his people his dwelling place.

So confession is not the end of the story.

Confession is the doorway to worship.

And so as the worship team comes back for one last song, I would just remind you how this carries into the New Testament.

That Jesus Christ comes to earth as God in the flesh.

He lives a sinless life.

He breaks the barrier between God and humans.

That the very presence of God is no longer confined to the temple.

Instead, where does God dwell?

Paul tells us in Corinthians, do you not know that you are God's temple?

And that God's Spirit dwells in you.

Do you know that, church?

That if you're a Christian, God has regenerated your dead heart.

And now he lives in you by the power of the Spirit.

He's building his kingdom.

He's spreading his glory through his followers.

And one day he's going to return and remake the world.

And if you're not a Christian here today, I would just offer you the opportunity to become one.

Stop fighting God.

Stop hiding.

Stop resisting his glory.

Receive Jesus Christ into your heart today.

I'd love to talk with you about that.

Ask him to take up residence inside you and enthrone your heart.

And as more people come to faith, God's glory expands.

The prophet Habakkuk gives us a vision of what that looks like.

He says this in Habakkuk 2, 14 for the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.

Amen.

That's a vision of what is to come.

Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for your goodness and your grace and your mercy.

Lord, I thank you for your people here today.

Lord, I pray that you would help us to recognize what is in our own hearts and turn to you, Lord God.

For the first time, we'll come back to you in repentance, Lord.

Would you do your work today, Holy Spirit?

And may you get the glory for it all because you're worthy of it.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.