Day 240 – Ezekiel 5-8

Talking Points

• God desires our worship and complete trust. Both are shown in our faithful obedience.
• By God’s own words, our sin — our distrust and disobedience — hurt Him (Ezekiel 6:9). If we truly understand that, our response is to loathe sin.
• God’s wrath is greatly stirred as, once again, His own people have acted more wickedly than their pagan neighbors.
• God’s judgment includes a removal of His grace and protection. Often times, He turns sinners over to their own ways to face the consequences of their own making: “but I will bring your ways upon you” (7:4). Where the people had run to bloody crimes and violence, now they would suffer the same.
• Chapter 8 speaks of “abominations” carried out by the people. It is a word we find describing certain sins in the Old Testament. So, what is an abomination? The Hebrew word means “morally disgusting, detested, abhorred.” It indicates a heavy hatred by God. He loathes, hates these sins.

Thoughts

Once, as I lay in the living room reading a book, my little 2-year-old, who was supposed to be napping, climbed out of her crib. When I looked up, I saw her toddling very slowly right past me — with her hands over her own eyes. She honestly believed that if she couldn’t see me, I must not be able to see her.

Do we ever have this same ridiculous notion of God?

In Ezekiel 8, God gives His prophet a vision, so that he would understand why God would judge Jerusalem so severely. One of the abominations He shows Ezekiel is found in verse 12: “Then He said to me, ‘Son of man, do you see what the elders of the house of Israel are committing in the dark, each man in the room of his carved images? For they say, “The LORD does not see us; the LORD has forsaken the land.”‘”

When I read this verse, I can’t help but think of toddlers — so immature, so naive, and so self-focused. These elders were actually convincing themselves that what was done in the dark couldn’t be seen by God. That God did not see them. They thought they could hide their sin from the omniscient One. It’s the same as walking past with their hands over their eyes. Denying God’s omniscience and His faithfulness, these men chose to worship false gods in their secret rooms. They even tried to justify their sinful idolatry by slandering God.

Today, as we choose whether or not to worship God and obey Him, let’s remember that He is El Roi — the God who sees. He knows our hearts. He knows our thoughts before they are even formed. And, He is completely faithful. That God, alone, is worthy of our worship.