We all hear voices.  And no, they don’t need to be audible to be heard.  I’m speaking of the various voices that cloud our senses each and every day.  Just stop and consider how many things you read just on your morning commute: road signs, billboards, bumper stickers—some of these things serve to guide us, others to entice us, and others simply to entertain us.  Other voices screech at us from the covers of magazines, from television commercials, from books, from our peers—all of which promises us “the good life,” of luxury, health, and hassle-free weight loss.

I’ve come to expect promises like these coming from the world of advertising.  But as a pastor, nothing is more infuriating than hearing this message come from the world of Christianity.  To be a “pastor” is to be a shepherd—to guard and guide a flock in such a way that places Jesus as the greatest of life’s treasures.  Yet you needn’t look far to find “shepherds” who shamelessly hammer God’s word into a message of happiness and wealth—and that’s assuming they open the Bible at all.  We’ve turned leaders into celebrities, anointed figures in whom we place our trust—often to be later disappointed.

In Ezekiel 34, God turns His attention to the shepherds of Israel.  Previously, God had made clear that Israel’s failure to possess the Promised Land was their failure to maintain the relationship He’d established with them through Moses.  Now, God places the blame on the shoulders of Israelite leadership.

WOLVES IN SHEPHERD’S CLOTHING

The word of the LORD came to me:  ² “Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel; prophesy, and say to them, even to the shepherds, Thus says the Lord GOD: Ah, shepherds of Israel who have been feeding yourselves! Should not shepherds feed the sheep?  ³ You eat the fat, you clothe yourselves with the wool, you slaughter the fat ones, but you do not feed the sheep.  ⁴ The weak you have not strengthened, the sick you have not healed, the injured you have not bound up, the strayed you have not brought back, the lost you have not sought, and with force and harshness you have ruled them.  ⁵ So they were scattered, because there was no shepherd, and they became food for all the wild beasts.  ⁶ My sheep were scattered; they wandered over all the mountains and on every high hill. My sheep were scattered over all the face of the earth, with none to search or seek for them.  (Ezekiel 34:1-6)

God indicts these false shepherds for allowing God’s people to be scattered rather than unified.  They have taken care of themselves, and neglected the people they were charged to lead.

Surely we can name some extreme cases of “false shepherds,” men who abuse their power behind closed doors and forced silences.  But what about men and women who openly promote a message of prosperity and happiness?  Surely there are worse sins for a leader to commit than to be guilty of a little positive thinking.

But this is not the gospel.  You see, if our deepest problem was an inability to attain our dreams, than a message of wealth and prosperity would be exactly what we need.  If our problem was a loss of happiness, then a message of self-esteem would be exactly what we need.  But our problem is not found in our dreams or our emotions.  Our problem runs much deeper.  Our problem is a heart that is bent only toward self-interest—it’s what the Bible calls “sin.”  Earthly solutions of wealth and happiness only drag us further toward self.  What we need is forgiveness.  What we need is the cross.  Any pastor whose message stops short of the cross is to be ignored, abandoned, and dismissed.

God has some very specific things to say about this type of leader:

⁷ “Therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the LORD:  ⁸ As I live, declares the Lord GOD, surely because my sheep have become a prey, and my sheep have become food for all the wild beasts, since there was no shepherd, and because my shepherds have not searched for my sheep, but the shepherds have fed themselves, and have not fed my sheep,  ⁹ therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the LORD:  ¹⁰ Thus says the Lord GOD, Behold, I am against the shepherds, and I will require my sheep at their hand and put a stop to their feeding the sheep. No longer shall the shepherds feed themselves. I will rescue my sheep from their mouths, that they may not be food for them.  (Ezekiel 34:7-10)

THE TRUE SHEPHERD

This has been the “bad news.”  God is violently angry at even the spiritual leaders of Israel.  The situation seems utterly hopeless.  God offers a profound solution.

¹¹ “For thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I, I myself will search for my sheep and will seek them out.  ¹² As a shepherd seeks out his flock when he is among his sheep that have been scattered, so will I seek out my sheep, and I will rescue them from all places where they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness.  ¹³ And I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries, and will bring them into their own land. And I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the ravines, and in all the inhabited places of the country.  ¹⁴ I will feed them with good pasture, and on the mountain heights of Israel shall be their grazing land. There they shall lie down in good grazing land, and on rich pasture they shall feed on the mountains of Israel.  ¹⁵ I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I myself will make them lie down, declares the Lord GOD.  ¹⁶ I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, and the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them in justice.

¹⁷ “As for you, my flock, thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I judge between sheep and sheep, between rams and male goats.  ¹⁸ Is it not enough for you to feed on the good pasture, that you must tread down with your feet the rest of your pasture; and to drink of clear water, that you must muddy the rest of the water with your feet?  ¹⁹ And must my sheep eat what you have trodden with your feet, and drink what you have muddied with your feet?

²⁰ “Therefore, thus says the Lord GOD to them: Behold, I, I myself will judge between the fat sheep and the lean sheep.  ²¹ Because you push with side and shoulder, and thrust at all the weak with your horns, till you have scattered them abroad,  ²² I will rescue my flock; they shall no longer be a prey. And I will judge between sheep and sheep.  ²³ And I will set up over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he shall feed them: he shall feed them and be their shepherd.  ²⁴ And I, the LORD, will be their God, and my servant David shall be prince among them. I am the LORD; I have spoken.

Don’t miss how radical this is.  Every other major religion establishes leaders to help people reach their fingers toward God.  Christianity is the only religion that says, “No; that’ll never work.  God has to come down to you.”

And that’s what God did.  You might already be connecting some of the imagery here to John 10—where Jesus describes Himself as “the good Shepherd” (John 10:11).  The false shepherds seek to sap life from their people.  Jesus seeks to offer life from His own veins.

THE TRUE PASTURE

The passage finishes out with a lasting promise of peace:

²⁵ “I will make with them a covenant of peace and banish wild beasts from the land, so that they may dwell securely in the wilderness and sleep in the woods.  ²⁶ And I will make them and the places all around my hill a blessing, and I will send down the showers in their season; they shall be showers of blessing.  ²⁷ And the trees of the field shall yield their fruit, and the earth shall yield its increase, and they shall be secure in their land. And they shall know that I am the LORD, when I break the bars of their yoke, and deliver them from the hand of those who enslaved them.  ²⁸ They shall no more be a prey to the nations, nor shall the beasts of the land devour them. They shall dwell securely, and none shall make them afraid.  ²⁹ And I will provide for them renowned plantations so that they shall no more be consumed with hunger in the land, and no longer suffer the reproach of the nations.  ³⁰ And they shall know that I am the LORD their God with them, and that they, the house of Israel, are my people, declares the Lord GOD.  ³¹ And you are my sheep, human sheep of my pasture, and I am your God, declares the Lord GOD.”

Despite God’s fierce anger, He promises to restore His people.

No pastor is worthy of your admiration.  There is only one “good shepherd.”  So how do you know whether a pastor is worthy of your time?  Your respect?  Your attention?  It’s simple: he constantly, joyfully points to Jesus.  As a pastor, I pray that this could be said of me.  And I pray that my people would experience a deeper love for Jesus than my words could ever evoke.

“All of life is repentance.”  These were the words of Martin Luther—the first of many that he nailed to the door of a church in Wittenburg, Germany.  Luther had shirked his father’s expectations of entering the legal profession in order to become a monk.  Though a deeply religious man, he spent countless nights in mortal terror.  What if he died without confessing all his sins?  Surely if he died with sin still staining his heart, he would stand before God an unjust man.

So what led this troubled young man to turn from his fears and become a catalyst for a movement of change?  It’s simple.  Fear can only motivate for so long.  What changed Luther’s life, was what one historian called the “glorious rediscovery of the gospel.”  Luther came to realize that he could stand blameless before God not because he had “repented” properly, but because of a grace that would cover even the sins he’d been too blind to see.

CALL TO REPENTANCE

In Ezekiel 33, we hear God change His voice from one of violent judgment, to a call to repentance.

¹⁰ “And you, son of man, say to the house of Israel, Thus have you said: ‘Surely our transgressions and our sins are upon us, and we rot away because of them. How then can we live?’  ¹¹ Say to them, As I live, declares the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways, for why will you die, O house of Israel?  ¹² “And you, son of man, say to your people, The righteousness of the righteous shall not deliver him when he transgresses, and as for the wickedness of the wicked, he shall not fall by it when he turns from his wickedness, and the righteous shall not be able to live by his righteousness when he sins.  ¹³ Though I say to the righteous that he shall surely live, yet if he trusts in his righteousness and does injustice, none of his righteous deeds shall be remembered, but in his injustice that he has done he shall die.  ¹⁴ Again, though I say to the wicked, ‘You shall surely die,’ yet if he turns from his sin and does what is just and right,  ¹⁵ if the wicked restores the pledge, gives back what he has taken by robbery, and walks in the statutes of life, not doing injustice, he shall surely live; he shall not die.  ¹⁶ None of the sins that he has committed shall be remembered against him. He has done what is just and right; he shall surely live.  (Ezekiel 33:10-33)

Are you as confused as I am?  The people have finally recognized their own failings.  But God says that righteousness is no help for the person who sins (v. 12).  Why not?  Because if God’s standard is total purity, then even a single sin can ruin a lifetime of spotlessness.  Who can possibly stand before God?

Have you ever felt this way?  There are times in my own life that I simply don’t “feel” forgiven.  And I know I’m not alone in this.  “I know God forgives me,” you might say.  “I just can’t forgive myself.”  Or perhaps you wonder if God will forgive you for a sin that you keep committing.   If I ask God to forgive the same sin over and over, will He really forgive me?

The answer is simple, though mysterious.  The gospel tells me that my forgiveness is not determined by the purity of my repentance, but on the purity of the Savior.  I am forgiven by grace, not works.  I may not “feel” forgiven, but why would I trust my own moral standards?  God declares me clean—whether it’s the first time I ask His forgiveness, or simply the latest in a string of clumsy prayers.

THE DAMAGE OF SELF-DETERMINATION

Still, this question raises still others. If I am consistently stumbling in a particular area, what is it that prevents me from approaching victory?  Granted, there are some sins—addictions in particular—that result in a lifetime of struggle.  But while the Christian life isn’t defined by perfection, it is nonetheless a quest for maturity.  And—as we have repeatedly emphasized—there is no greater barrier to spiritual growth than a focus on individual rights.  Here’s what God says through Ezekiel:

¹⁷ “Yet your people say, ‘The way of the Lord is not just,’ when it is their own way that is not just.  ¹⁸ When the righteous turns from his righteousness and does injustice, he shall die for it.  ¹⁹ And when the wicked turns from his wickedness and does what is just and right, he shall live by this.  ²⁰ Yet you say, ‘The way of the Lord is not just.’ O house of Israel, I will judge each of you according to his ways.”

²¹ In the twelfth year of our exile, in the tenth month, on the fifth day of the month, a fugitive from Jerusalem came to me and said, “The city has been struck down.”  ²² Now the hand of the LORD had been upon me the evening before the fugitive came; and he had opened my mouth by the time the man came to me in the morning, so my mouth was opened, and I was no longer mute.  (Ezekiel 33:17-22)

Sometimes we fail to repent simply because we don’t trust that God’s way is truly better.  A lifetime of obedience doesn’t offer the immediate thrill of pornography or the power of gossip.  No wonder Jesus would describe the Christian life as a “narrow road.”

CALL TO MINISTRY

The answer comes in the example of Ezekiel himself.

²³ The word of the LORD came to me:  ²⁴ “Son of man, the inhabitants of these waste places in the land of Israel keep saying, ‘Abraham was only one man, yet he got possession of the land; but we are many; the land is surely given us to possess.’  ²⁵ Therefore say to them, Thus says the Lord GOD: You eat flesh with the blood and lift up your eyes to your idols and shed blood; shall you then possess the land?  ²⁶ You rely on the sword, you commit abominations, and each of you defiles his neighbor’s wife; shall you then possess the land?  ²⁷ Say this to them, Thus says the Lord GOD: As I live, surely those who are in the waste places shall fall by the sword, and whoever is in the open field I will give to the beasts to be devoured, and those who are in strongholds and in caves shall die by pestilence.  ²⁸ And I will make the land a desolation and a waste, and her proud might shall come to an end, and the mountains of Israel shall be so desolate that none will pass through.  ²⁹ Then they will know that I am the LORD, when I have made the land a desolation and a waste because of all their abominations that they have committed.

³⁰ “As for you, son of man, your people who talk together about you by the walls and at the doors of the houses, say to one another, each to his brother, ‘Come, and hear what the word is that comes from the LORD.’  ³¹ And they come to you as people come, and they sit before you as my people, and they hear what you say but they will not do it; for with lustful talk in their mouths they act; their heart is set on their gain.  ³² And behold, you are to them like one who sings lustful songs with a beautiful voice and plays well on an instrument, for they hear what you say, but they will not do it.  ³³ When this comes–and come it will!–then they will know that a prophet has been among them.” (Ezekiel 33:23-33)

In today’s world, we assume that spirituality is on something of a spectrum.  We can look to “religion” as a source of values and general principles—but let’s not be a “fanatic” about it.  And yet, as Ezekiel’s life demonstrates, maturity comes when we begin to see God as the greatest treasure of our lives.   And yet, as Ezekiel’s life also demonstrates, there will always be those whose treasure lies elsewhere.  We cannot measure our lives through small-minded notions of “success.”  Instead we devote ourselves in faithfulness, and in quiet confidence, every step of the way.

According to a nineteenth-century novelist, “the most precious possession that ever comes to a man in this world is a woman’s heart.”  Humans are fragile creatures, and yet our loves are a force of nature.  And by design.  Man was created for romance.  In the Bible, the first words of recorded human speech are a love song from man to woman: “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh.  She shall be called ‘woman’ because she was taken out of man” (Genesis 2:23).

In a very real sense, the entire Bible is a love story.  God cares for His people in the same way that a loving husband cares for his bride.  In Ezekiel 16, God describes the unique love He has expressed for Jerusalem:

Ezekiel 16:1-14  Again the word of the LORD came to me:  ² “Son of man, make known to Jerusalem her abominations,  ³ and say, Thus says the Lord GOD to Jerusalem: Your origin and your birth are of the land of the Canaanites; your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite.  ⁴ And as for your birth, on the day you were born your cord was not cut, nor were you washed with water to cleanse you, nor rubbed with salt, nor wrapped in swaddling cloths.  ⁵ No eye pitied you, to do any of these things to you out of compassion for you, but you were cast out on the open field, for you were abhorred, on the day that you were born.

⁶ “And when I passed by you and saw you wallowing in your blood, I said to you in your blood, ‘Live!’ I said to you in your blood, ‘Live!’  ⁷ I made you flourish like a plant of the field. And you grew up and became tall and arrived at full adornment. Your breasts were formed, and your hair had grown; yet you were naked and bare.

⁸ “When I passed by you again and saw you, behold, you were at the age for love, and I spread the corner of my garment over you and covered your nakedness; I made my vow to you and entered into a covenant with you, declares the Lord GOD, and you became mine.  ⁹ Then I bathed you with water and washed off your blood from you and anointed you with oil.  ¹⁰ I clothed you also with embroidered cloth and shod you with fine leather. I wrapped you in fine linen and covered you with silk.  ¹¹ And I adorned you with ornaments and put bracelets on your wrists and a chain on your neck.  ¹² And I put a ring on your nose and earrings in your ears and a beautiful crown on your head.  ¹³ Thus you were adorned with gold and silver, and your clothing was of fine linen and silk and embroidered cloth. You ate fine flour and honey and oil. You grew exceedingly beautiful and advanced to royalty.  ¹⁴ And your renown went forth among the nations because of your beauty, for it was perfect through the splendor that I had bestowed on you, declares the Lord GOD.

God’s people were not known for their own beauty—it was “through the splendor” given to them from God alone.  God stretched out His hand, and had gained the heart of His bride, His people.  But if our earlier author is correct—if a woman’s heart is man’s most precious possession, how painful must it be to lose that heart?  Few images evoke more raw emotion than the image of God pursuing an unfaithful bride.  Indeed, if you and I possess a “relationship” with God, then disobedience goes far deeper than a lapse in our religious devotion.  It’s a profound betrayal of the deep love of God.  Over and over again, God uses the image of adultery to drive home the deep wounds that idolatry creates.  Even the following excerpt is only an abbreviated selection of God’s words.

Ezekiel 16:15-43  “But you trusted in your beauty and played the whore because of your renown and lavished your whorings on any passerby; your beauty became his.  ¹⁶ You took some of your garments and made for yourself colorful shrines, and on them played the whore. The like has never been, nor ever shall be.  ¹⁷ You also took your beautiful jewels of my gold and of my silver, which I had given you, and made for yourself images of men, and with them played the whore.  ¹⁸ And you took your embroidered garments to cover them, and set my oil and my incense before them.  […]

³⁰ “How sick is your heart, declares the Lord GOD, because you did all these things, the deeds of a brazen prostitute,  ³¹ building your vaulted chamber at the head of every street, and making your lofty place in every square. Yet you were not like a prostitute, because you scorned payment.  ³² Adulterous wife, who receives strangers instead of her husband!  ³³ Men give gifts to all prostitutes, but you gave your gifts to all your lovers, bribing them to come to you from every side with your whorings.  ³⁴ So you were different from other women in your whorings. No one solicited you to play the whore, and you gave payment, while no payment was given to you; therefore you were different.

³⁵ “Therefore, O prostitute, hear the word of the LORD:  ³⁶ Thus says the Lord GOD, Because your lust was poured out and your nakedness uncovered in your whorings with your lovers, and with all your abominable idols, and because of the blood of your children that you gave to them,  ³⁷ therefore, behold, I will gather all your lovers with whom you took pleasure, all those you loved and all those you hated. I will gather them against you from every side and will uncover your nakedness to them, that they may see all your nakedness.  ³⁸ And I will judge you as women who commit adultery and shed blood are judged, and bring upon you the blood of wrath and jealousy.  ³⁹ And I will give you into their hands, and they shall throw down your vaulted chamber and break down your lofty places. They shall strip you of your clothes and take your beautiful jewels and leave you naked and bare.  ⁴⁰ They shall bring up a crowd against you, and they shall stone you and cut you to pieces with their swords.  ⁴¹ And they shall burn your houses and execute judgments upon you in the sight of many women. I will make you stop playing the whore, and you shall also give payment no more.  ⁴² So will I satisfy my wrath on you, and my jealousy shall depart from you. I will be calm and will no more be angry.

As you read this passage, can you not hear the strain in God’s voice?  The desperation of a lover scorned?  Nothing cuts deeper than betrayal, especially when it comes from someone we care deeply about.  And yet we are no different than Israel.  Just as the nation looked for other means of protection and value, so too do we look to lesser things for our own sense of protection and worth.  We are betrayers.  We are whores.  And we are in need of grace.

The amazingly good news is that God has always had a plan to bring His wayward bride back to Himself.  Israel would endure hardship during her years in exile, but hope lay at her journey’s end.  God would not forget about Israel, but years later His Son Jesus would inaugurate a new era through the church.  And what image does God’s word use to describe Christ’s relationship with the church?

Ephesians 5:25-27  ²⁵ Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her,  ²⁶ that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word,  ²⁷ so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.

In our sin, we are adulterers and whores.  But in grace we are a bride, washed clean and presented before God in blameless splendor.  As whores we’re clothed in our own rags.  In Christ we’re clothed in righteousness.  One of my favorite worship songs is called “Wedding Dress” by Derek Webb, so I close with the chorus:

“‘Cause I am a whore I do confess
But I put you on just like a wedding dress
And I run down the aisle, I run down the aisle
I’m a prodigal with no way home
But I put you on just like a ring of gold
And I run down the aisle
I run down the aisle to you.”

Thank you, Jesus, for loving the unlovely and making Your bride whole.

Our world is one of profound moral confusion.  When social scientist Christian Smith interviewed young adults on their views on morality, most of them said that right and wrong are simple matters of “common sense.”  Yet when we look at the world, we find that morality isn’t very common at all.  In fact, if there’s any common thread, it’s the fierce commitment to the preservation of individual choice.  No one has the right to challenge the views of someone else.  To do so would be intolerant at best and bigoted at worst.

Because morality has become so deeply personal, one of the arguments I often hear is this: “I’m not hurting anyone.”  Do you see the argument?  As long as my behavior doesn’t damage anyone else, it must be morally acceptable—so lay off.

The problem is that if the gospel is true, then the God of the universe is deeply hurt by anything that violates His ferociously and eternally holy character.  And that’s what we see God reacting to in the book of Ezekiel—a book that calls Israel to repent of her sins in the face of a God who is in control of every circumstance.

In chapter 8, we see God offering Ezekiel yet another vision—not of Himself, but of the nation:

In the sixth year, in the sixth month, on the fifth day of the month, as I sat in my house, with the elders of Judah sitting before me, the hand of the Lord GOD fell upon me there.  ² Then I looked, and behold, a form that had the appearance of a man. Below what appeared to be his waist was fire, and above his waist was something like the appearance of brightness, like gleaming metal.  ³ He put out the form of a hand and took me by a lock of my head, and the Spirit lifted me up between earth and heaven and brought me in visions of God to Jerusalem, to the entrance of the gateway of the inner court that faces north, where was the seat of the image of jealousy, which provokes to jealousy.  ⁴ And behold, the glory of the God of Israel was there, like the vision that I saw in the valley.  (Ezekiel 8:1-4)

Ezekiel is being offered a panoramic view of Israel’s idols.  What is an idol?

“An idol is anything in our lives that occupies the place that should be occupied by God alone. Anything that… is central in my life, anything that seems to me…essential… An idol is anything by which I live and on which I depend, anything that… holds such a controlling position in my life that… it moves and rouses and attracts so much of my time and attention, my energy and money.” (Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones, “Idolatry” in Life in God: Studies in 1 John)

In Ezekiel 8, we see God addressing four specific idols.  And if we’re honest, these idols are no less powerful today.

IDOL 1: JEALOUSY

⁵ 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 this image of jealousy.  ⁶ And he said to me, “Son of man, do you see what they are doing, the great abominations that the house of Israel are committing here, to drive me far from my sanctuary? But you will see still greater abominations.”  (Ezekiel 8:5-6)

The first idol is jealousy.  Jealousy occurs when I do not find joy and satisfaction in what God has given me, and instead look for it in the life of my neighbor.  Have you ever experienced this?  You might say: “My life would be better if _______________.”  And you know you’re experiencing jealousy when you fill in that blank with something that belongs to another.  “If I only had a job like his.”  “I wish my spouse was more like that.”  And it’s an idol that never goes away—because there will always be someone that you perceive as being “better off.”  The end result is a continual game of one-upsmanship, a game we’re all destined to fail.

IDOL 2: SELF-INDULGENCE

⁷ And he brought me to the entrance of the court, and when I looked, behold, there was a hole in the wall.  ⁸ Then he said to me, “Son of man, dig in the wall.” So I dug in the wall, and behold, there was an entrance.  ⁹ And he said to me, “Go in, and see the vile abominations that they are committing here.”  ¹⁰ So I went in and saw. And there, engraved on the wall all around, was every form of creeping things and loathsome beasts, and all the idols of the house of Israel.  ¹¹ And before them stood seventy men of the elders of the house of Israel, with Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan standing among them. Each had his censer in his hand, and the smoke of the cloud of incense went up.  ¹² Then he said to me, “Son of man, 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, ‘The LORD does not see us, the LORD has forsaken the land.'”  ¹³ He said also to me, “You will see still greater abominations that they commit.”  (Ezekiel 8:7-13)

The people of Israel had taken to worship images of beasts and reptiles—finding satisfaction in things other than God.  Do we worship images like this?  Of course not; we’ve just grown much more sophisticated.   Left to our own devices, we fill our need for pleasure and power with sports, with pornography, with hobbies—with anything that allows us to experience joy and satisfaction.  And this also means that it’s not just “bad” things that can become idols—even “good” things become an idol when we give them too great a priority.

IDOL 3: SELF-SUFFICIENCY

¹⁴ Then he brought me to the entrance of the north gate of the house of the LORD, and behold, there sat women weeping for Tammuz.  ¹⁵ Then he said to me, “Have you seen this, O son of man? You will see still greater abominations than these.”  (Ezekiel 8:14-15)

Tammuz was the Babylonian god of fertility, who promised the people a life of blessings.  If you remember, the people of Israel were enduring hardships during their exile in Babylon, so it’s understandable that in their desperation they’d look elsewhere for a shred of hope.

While the surface problem was worshipping another god, the deeper issue was the idol of self-sufficiency.  They failed to trust God, and turned to other solutions.  Do you trust God to run your life?  Often it’s easier to find our own way.  We can trust our education, our training, our ability to find and raise a family.  God seems almost unnecessary—maybe even more like a hobby.

IDOL 4: SPIRITUALITY

¹⁶ And he brought me into the inner court of the house of the LORD. And 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.  (Ezekiel 8:16)

The final idol was one of spirituality—or perhaps better yet false spirituality.  Worship of the sun was common in many ancient eastern cultures.  We can only speculate why—perhaps it’s because unlike God, the sun can be visibly seen.   The same is true today: when we gather for worship, we can become more focused on the visible expressions of worship (music, preaching, etc.) then the object of our worship.  If I focus on God in my worship, I become a growing student of His Kingdom.  If I focus on the expressions of worship, I become a consumer of religious services.  I learn to critique the smallest details of a spiritual gathering based on whether I found the experience to be “engaging” or “relevant.”  When my spiritual life becomes reduced to these qualities, I have become addicted to a spiritual idol.

GOD’S RESPONSE TO IDOLATRY

What is God’s reaction to these idols?

¹⁷ Then he said to me, “Have you seen this, O son of man? Is it 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.  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.”   (Ezekiel 8:17-18)

If the gospel is true, then I can no longer base my morality on whether or not I’m “hurting anyone else.”  Instead, I base my morality on whether or not I’m offending God’s righteous standards.  And there’s more.  A life lived for self will only bring ruin. In an article in the New York Times, Erica Goode cites research that shows that high self-esteem can actually be linked to negative human behavior:

“High self-esteem…was positively correlated with racist attitudes, drunken driving and other risky behaviors…[in studies] carried out on aggression, they found that it was narcissism, self-love that includes a conviction of one’s superiority…that led people to retaliate aggressively when their self-esteem was threatened…[College students] who were invested in appearing attractive…reported more aggressiveness, anger and hostility than others, more alcohol and drug use and more symptoms of eating disorders like anorexia and bulimia…They also became more depressed as the year wore on.” (Erica Goode, “Deflating Self-Esteem’s Role in Society’s Ills,” New York Times, October 1, 2002)

Goode cites one of the researchers who concludes:

 “The pursuit of self-esteem has short-term benefits but long-term costs…ultimately diverting people from fulfilling their fundamental human needs for competence, relatedness and autonomy and leading to poor self-regulation and mental and physical health.”

We live in a world that insists that my life is moral so long as I’m not hurting anyone.  But nothing is more damaging than self-interest.  The good news of the gospel is that Jesus abandoned His own rights by coming to earth to seek and save the lost:

⁵ Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus,  ⁶ who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped,  ⁷ but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.  ⁸ And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. (Philippians 2:5-8)

If the gospel is true, then it means that in myself I am profoundly lost.  But it also means that in Christ, I find more joy and satisfaction than any idol could ever offer.  To surrender our idols can be a painful and difficult process.  But the rewards are beyond measure.  What are you going to serve today?

To be a prophet was no easy task.  A “prophet” was someone who spoke on God’s behalf.  And when your heart beats in time with God’s, it makes you especially sensitive to those whose hearts do not.  The prophets’ shared task was to deliver God’s message to a world that valued happiness more than holiness—in other words, a world not unlike our own.

Ezekiel was one of these prophets.  Ezekiel wrote during the actual period of the exile—placing his book between 593-565 B.C.  He delivered God’s message to a people who endured a sense of hopelessness and homesickness as strangers in a land far from their home.  What was his message?  God is bigger than the worst of our circumstances, but our circumstances often call us to radical repentance.  Only by turning away from self and toward God would Israel find herself restored through God’s redemptive power.

The book is loaded with God-sized visions that dazzle the mind and explode the senses.  When Ezekiel is first called by the Lord, it is in the midst of a fantastic vision:

Ezekiel 1:1-3, 26- In the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, on the fifth day of the month, as I was among the exiles by the Chebar canal, the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God.  ² On the fifth day of the month (it was the fifth year of the exile of King Jehoiachin),  ³ the word of the LORD came to Ezekiel the priest, the son of Buzi, in the land of the Chaldeans by the Chebar canal, and the hand of the LORD was upon him there.  […]

²⁶ And above the expanse over their heads there was the likeness of a throne, in appearance like sapphire; and seated above the likeness of a throne was a likeness with a human appearance.  ²⁷ And upward from what had the appearance of his waist I saw as it were gleaming metal, like the appearance of fire enclosed all around. And downward from what had the appearance of his waist I saw as it were the appearance of fire, and there was brightness around him.

²⁸ Like the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud on the day of rain, so was the appearance of the brightness all around. Such was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD. And when I saw it, I fell on my face, and I heard the voice of one speaking.

The vision was as spell-binding as it was terrifying.  In Israel’s religion (at least from Moses onwards), no one could see God and live.  Here, the vision of God is obscured only by a rainbow.  Why a rainbow?  The first time we see a rainbow (Genesis 9), it is to symbolize God’s promise to never again flood the earth.  A rainbow appears here to remind us that no matter how bad things may seem, God is a God who keeps His promises.

EZEKIEL’S VISION

Seeing this vision, Ezekiel’s only response is to fall to his face in shock and awe.  God bids him to rise:

Ezekiel 2:1 And he said to me, “Son of man, stand on your feet, and I will speak with you.”  ² And as he spoke to me, the Spirit entered into me and set me on my feet, and I heard him speaking to me.  ³ And he said to me, “Son of man, I send you to the people of Israel, to nations of rebels, who have rebelled against me. They and their fathers have transgressed against me to this very day.  ⁴ The descendants also are impudent and stubborn: I send you to them, and you shall say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD.’  ⁵ And whether they hear or refuse to hear (for they are a rebellious house) they will know that a prophet has been among them.  ⁶ And you, son of man, be not afraid of them, nor be afraid of their words, though briers and thorns are with you and you sit on scorpions. Be not afraid of their words, nor be dismayed at their looks, for they are a rebellious house.  ⁷ And you shall speak my words to them, whether they hear or refuse to hear, for they are a rebellious house.  (Ezekiel 2:1-7)

Like many of the prophets, Ezekiel faced the reality that not only would God’s message not be received, but it would be met with open hostility.  If you’re a person of faith, there’s a strong chance that you’ve found yourself in hostile territory.  Our world is perfectly comfortable with religion—just so long as it’s kept personal and private.  Under no circumstances can you “push your views” on others.  And in such a world it’s extremely tempting to settle back and say: “I’m not overly religious.  I really don’t want to push my faith down anyone’s throat.”  But if we’re honest, what is it we’re really saying?  We don’t want to rock the boat.  “I’m not comfortable making anyone uncomfortable.”  But to follow Jesus is to be counter-cultural.  To follow Jesus means saying the hard things.  To follow Jesus demands our very lives—can we really be surprised that we lose a few friends in the process?

This sounds hopeless.  What could possibly motivate me to remain faithful in a faithless world?  There’s a clue in this passage.  Though Ezekiel casts Himself at the Lord’s feet, God tells Him to rise.  God speaks to Him.  Ezekiel received the word of the Lord, but years later there would be a true and better Word (John 1:1) that would come to earth.  God would literally come near to each of us in the person of Jesus Christ.  And because of what Jesus accomplished through His death and resurrection, we can now draw near to God in the confidence of being adopted into the intimacy of God’s own sons (Galatians 4:5-6).

Do you hear how radical the gospel is?  Through no work of my own, God approves of me.  I have a relationship with the creator of the universe.  And if I have His approval, who else’s do I need?  I no longer need to fear the rejection of my coworkers.  I no longer need to worry that I might anger or offend someone.  In fact, if I find approval in God alone, then the gospel sets me free to offend people—so long as I offend them with the truth of the gospel.

CRAMMING RELIGION DOWN YOUR THROAT

The next scene is truly spectacular.  Ezekiel is consecrated—set apart for Godly service.

⁸ “But you, son of man, hear what I say to you. Be not rebellious like that rebellious house; open your mouth and eat what I give you.”  ⁹ And when I looked, behold, a hand was stretched out to me, and behold, a scroll of a book was in it.  ¹⁰ And he spread it before me. And it had writing on the front and on the back, and there were written on it words of lamentation and mourning and woe.

And he said to me, “Son of man, eat whatever you find here. Eat this scroll, and go, speak to the house of Israel.”  ² So I opened my mouth, and he gave me this scroll to eat.  ³ And he said to me, “Son of man, feed your belly with this scroll that I give you and fill your stomach with it.” Then I ate it, and it was in my mouth as sweet as honey. (Ezekiel 2:8-3:3)

In some strange vision, Ezekiel literally eats a book.  Ezekiel was called to speak to the people—to reveal the character of God.  Do you see the irony?  What some find bitter, Ezekiel finds to be sweet.  What some consider “religion crammed down your throat,” others consider a delightful feast.

What about us?  If I believe that God is harsh and cruel, then chances are I’ll lack the confidence to live out my faith.  I’ll “shield” others from ideas (such as “sin” and “judgment”) in an effort to make the gospel more “relevant.”  But the gospel doesn’t need to be made relevant—it already is relevant.  If instead I am confident in the gospel—that I am a sinner saved by grace—then I can live out my faith in confidence and humility.

The world is not getting any easier—nor did Jesus ever promise that it would.  If you are a person of faith, then you can be prepared to suffer the loss of both friends and reputation.  This loss seems unbearable, until we weigh it against what we gain in Jesus.  What have you really got to lose?