Good day People of God in Christ Jesus. You are all welcome to another new day. Glory to God for the gift of life. Happy Sunday to you all.
In our today’s episode 548 of studying and understanding the Bible, we shall be looking into the book of Ezekiel Chapter 8, 9, 10 & 11 titled:
Look At The Disgusting And Weird Things The People Were Doing In Secret
In this post, I will be combining four chapters and the reason is simple – it contains the same vision that Prophet Ezekiel saw about the disgusting things happening in Jerusalem.
With this act, the people of Jerusalem kept on creating more barriers to hamper the smooth fellowship they should have been enjoying between them and God.
God gave Ezekiel the capacity to fly in the air in a vision to see everything happening in the city of Jerusalem. In our modern-day application, it’s like the police carrying out aerial surveillance with a helicopter in order to detect crimes in a particular location.
I have experienced this too severally. There was a time I was praying with someone and the Spirit of God lifted me up in a vision and I was taken to the hometown of this person. I was shown a lot of things happening in their house and many of the challenges their family have been through. When I explained what I saw to her, she nodded in affirmative.
So, I completely understood what Ezekiel saw and up till now, God is still speaking through his servants all over the world, revealing the works of darkness, bringing people to experience the Salvation of God, in order to establish the kingdom of God in the hearts of the people.
Without much ado, let’s have a sneak peek at some of the things Ezekiel saw during his spiritual aerial surveillance and the measure of recompense those people received.
From Chapter 8 verse 7, he was taken to see the courtyard in Jerusalem and he effortlessly penetrated the walls of the building and what he saw was shocking. Remember, when you are navigating a place in the spiritual realm, walls or structures cannot hinder your movement. That’s why Jesus Christ, in Luke 24 (after his resurrection), was able to enter into the Apostles’ meeting room without opening the door.
So, Ezekiel penetrated the walls effortlessly and saw a lot of drawings of snakes and other wild animals on the walls of the building he entered and how people were worshipping these images as their gods.
As if that was not shocking enough, Ezekiel also saw in that vision 70 elders of Israel, he was able to recognize one of them called Jaazaniah son of Shaphan. Probably, he was their leader. All these 70 elders of Israel that were supposed to lead the people to worship the only true God were seen holding incense burners each and smokes were rising from the incense.
They even claimed God did not see them. What an ignorant mindset.
As if that was not shocking enough, in verse 13, Ezekiel was also taken in the spirit realm and travelled to the north gate of the temple and he saw their women weeping over the death of the god of Tammuz.
Tammuz was one of the gods in the Mesopotamian religion and was regarded as the god of fertility. In mythology, it was believed to have died during the dry season when the vegetation withered and only to come back to life during the rainy season, when vegetations started to grow again. So, when he died, the women in Jerusalem were weeping and mourning his death, which was disgusting to God.
Still in chapter 8, let’s look at more disgusting things they were doing according to verse 16, right there between the altar and the passage leading to the altar, about 25 men were seen turned their back on the altar and they were facing the east bowing for the rising sun. They were worshipping the sun!
Note that all these disgusting things were happening right there in the temple (they are church buildings in modern-day description). As a result, the glory of the Lord could not dwell anymore in their temple and in their lives. Remember, God cannot be found in wickedness. Wickedness thrives outside of God.
The last straw that broke their camel’s back was the fact that these people did not only worship images as gods but were also engaging in killing of their fellow human beings. They filled Jerusalem with too much blood.
This is why in Chapter 10, the Prophet narrated how he saw the glory of God leaving the temple and Jerusalem as a whole.
And in Chapter 11, the Prophet emphasizes how these people were killing their fellow human beings to the point that the streets were filled with corpses.
Towards the end of chapter 11, Prophet Ezekiel gave some prophecies to those already in exile (remember, Jerusalem was attacked twice), that they should not be mindful of what their fellow countrymen were doing back home. God assured them He would be with them right in exile and they would safely return home in due time. Read more in verses 16 and 17 of chapter 11.
Before rounding it off, something remarkable was revealed in Chapter 9 concerning those in Jerusalem. Some people were marked for judgement, while some were marked for protection or preservation.
Despite all these atrocities, there were a few of them, who refused to practice these disgraceful acts and they were distressed and troubled seeing their fellow countrymen, including the priests disobeying God in this manner – worshipping idols and killing people (most likely ritual killings). So, these few people set themselves apart from wickedness.
God made Ezekiel to understand that He knew these people and as a reward for their hatred for sins. He therefore instructed the angels of judgement and reward as mentioned in verses 4-5, to move round the city and put a mark on the forehead of those people who did not participate in the sins of the land.
Others who refused to repent and kept on indulging in those terrible acts were destroyed.
Again, this is a picture of what would happen on the judgement day, where those who have been redeemed by God through Christ would be with God in His eternal Kingdom and those who rejected the gift of Salvation, those who claimed God does not exist, and those engaging in all forms of wickedness will end their lives in eternal damnation, unless they repent now that the clock of grace is still ticking. When it stops ticking, no more grace for Salvation, but judgement.
To be continued…stay tuned and stay blessed.
Let us pray:
- I declare that environment you are living in, that country you reside in, receive the grace to be set apart for favour, protection, and preservation, in Jesus name.
- Joseph refused to be influenced negatively in Potiphar’s house, Lot refused to be negatively influenced in Sodom and Gomorrah, Daniel refused to defile himself with the delicacies of the king of Babylon, I declare even if you live in a place where sins and wickedness abound, receive the grace not be negatively influenced. Your mind will not be corrupted, in Jesus name.
- I declare, no one on this platform will be a victim of armed robbers, kidnappers, or assassins. You are heavily protected by God everywhere you go, in Jesus name.
Note: sometimes, it’s more honourable to bow out than to compromise. Hope you understand?
Bible Readings For Today: Jeremiah Chapters 7, 8 & 9 with Isaiah Chapter 13
I call you blessed now and always.
Sunday September 27, 2020 (DDMI)
