LIVING WATERS
For the proclamation of the Gospel and the edification of the Body of Christ
The Abominations of Israel
Immediately before the glory of God left the temple in Jerusalem, and before the executioners began to destroy the guilty, God took the prophet Ezekiel, in vision, to witness the abominations that were committed in that holy place (Ezekiel chapters 8 and 9). It was necessary for someone to see this and give testimony as to why God would proceed in such a drastic manner with his people.
The prophet is taken to the temple itself, where he sees an image -probably of some Canaanite deity- placed by the door of the altar. Then, he sees three successive groups of people, each one committing deeds more reprehensible than the previous one. We should note that the temple was the holy place of the holy city, in the holy nation. It was like the Holy of Holies of all Israel.
The first group consisted of seventy elders worshiping abominable figures painted on the walls. The second was made up of women weeping for Tammuz, a Babylonian idol. The third were twenty-five men (probably priests) worshiping the sun, with their backs to the temple, prostrate to the east. They had said: "The LORD sees us not; the LORD has forsaken the land".
Once Ezekiel has taken cognizance of these things, God withdraws his glory from the Most Holy Place. A man clothed in linen marks the innocent to spare them from death, and then gives the order to the executioners to do their work. God's wrath is unleashed from the sanctuary itself, which is the place where Israel's wickedness has reached its height.
Now, what does this have to do with us? The true Israel -the church- is living through very similar days. The glory of God is leaving His House. Those who have the most intimate service in her midst are the first to be guilty. Few are those who groan at the abominations that are committed - and apart from groaning, there is not much they can do. Judgment must begin at the house of God.
What are the modern images painted on the wall which Christians worship today? Who is Tammuz, that abominable idol, to whom Christian women weep? What is the eastern sun before which God's ministers prostrate themselves today?
God grant us, in his grace, to have anointed eyes to see the abominations that are committed, and to escape them and the judgments to come. May we not be numbered among the guilty who fall under the wrath of the executioners, but among the innocent marked by the ink of the man clothed in linen.