Ezekiel

I am preaching through the book of Ezekiel. This week we covered Ezekiel 8 to 11.
What an amazing section of this fabulous book. But it is very damaging to a Sunday school type of simplistic, popular Christianity. Here God is not a lamb hugging lover of all of the people all of the time.

One of the blessings of expository preaching is that you get the whole counsel of the word of God. You study through all of the word, not just the popular and pleasing passages. This passage in Ezekiel is especially troubling for those who have any understanding of New Testament theology. Especially if you understand that now that the temple in Jerusalem is destroyed (70 A.D.) we are the temple of God.

This passage shows us a jealous God who has had it with the people's idolatry and so He rises up and leaves the house man built for Him and surrenders the temple to destruction by Nebuchadnezzar and his armies. Let's look at this briefly. God formed a people and made a covenant with them. He was their God and they were His people. So they built Him a house and He moved in. But they would not listen to Him and ignored what He said so He went silent on them and only spoke to them through the prophets. The result was that instead of the people getting more desperate for God, they simply set up other idols to serve them. And they set them up in His house.

God was driven out of His own Holy House by the idols. He rose up and left. The bible says that "the Spirit He caused to live in us envies intensely" (James 4:5) " Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?" (1 Cor. 3:16) " Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body" (1 Cor. 6:19 - 20)

Of course I know that God has also said that "(He) will never leave us or forsake us" (Heb. 13:5) But who of us will He never leave or forsake ? The ones who in a weak moment lift up their hands at the altar call in a high pressure meeting while "every eye is closed and every head is bowed?" Is every one of them saved ? Or will some of them erect idols in the temple and drive God away? After a short time of "being unable to hear God's voice" will they forsake Him and erect new gods? Will they provoke Him to jealousy ?

It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. (Heb. 10:31) God will not be mocked. (Gal. 6:7) If we are His people and He is our God then we should stay far away from anything that takes glory from God. Anything that demands our devotion other than Jesus.