And he said unto me, Go in, and behold the wicked abominations that they do here.
God told Ezekiel to enter in and look closely at the wicked abominations being committed in Judah and Jerusalem, laying open their idolatry including weeping for Tammuz, portrayals of creeping things and beasts on the walls, and men with their backs to the temple worshiping the sun toward the east. The hidden chambers of imagery show that idolatry is not only a carved image worshiped openly, but the pantheon cherished in the mind and heart, where evil motives, impure thoughts, and love for farms, houses, possessions, and one's own handiwork become false gods in breach of the second commandment. Sun and nature worship deified the created means of light instead of God as Creator and Sustainer, turning away from His worship and His law, an apostasy to Baal that set the sun's first day against the Sabbath memorial of His creative power. This uncovering of abominations among God's professed people belongs to the same sealing work of Revelation 7 and Ezekiel 9:4, where those who sigh and cry over the wrongs have the seal of God's law set in the forehead, the mind.
Vision's Setting and Detail
The command bids Ezekiel to go in and inspect the wicked abominations being done there in Judah and Jerusalem. What is exposed is the people's idolatry, including sun worship, set forth as a graphic portrayal of their wrongdoing. That idolatry is a departure from true worship, from which God seeks to call the people back, and Judah had already witnessed its harmful results in false worship.
The abominations brought to light include images of creeping things and beasts and other idols portrayed upon the walls. They include prominent men of Israel engaged in pagan worship, worshiping Tammuz and turning their backs upon the temple to worship the sun toward the east. They include women weeping for Tammuz with other heathen rites, and sun worship toward the east by those who have turned their backs on God and His worship.
The images are portrayed upon interior walls in the Babylonian manner, with vermilion and brilliant coloring. This means painted plaster and enameled brick decoration confined to the interior, rather than sculpture upon the exterior as in Egypt and Assyria and Persia and Greece, because Babylon lacked stone and used the brick-clay at hand. The detail belongs exactly to the captivity in Babylon in B.C. 604-561, when Nebuchadnezzar reigned and exerted himself in building and decorating his capital with blended brilliant colors upon palace walls, when Babylon sat as mistress of the world in pride and grandeur. At no later time could this be said, for shortly afterward the kingdom was overthrown by the Medes and Persians and these peculiarities were lost, proving the book true to its time and correctly dated.
Ezekiel saw these visions while on the banks of the river Chebar, the Nar Kabari, the Euphrates of Nippur, the great canal running through Nippur and central Babylonia where a colony of Jewish exiles lived. The abominations he was told to behold were those done in Jerusalem, rites he knew from Nippur because Nippur was the center of Babylonian worship. The verse belongs to the vision in Ezekiel chapters 1-10, which is a visible representation of the heavenly sanctuary and true tabernacle.
Idolatry Against God and Law
The command to go in and behold lays open wicked abominations done in secret, in the dark, in the chambers of imagery. Idolatry does not require a carved or molded or cast graven image bowed down to in the open, because the image concept exists in the mind before it is made in concrete form and a man may hold a pantheon of gods in the temple of his mind. God sees the cherished imaginings of sins and lusts in the soul.
That same abomination includes worshiping farms, houses, automobiles, art, books, and a man's own handiwork. To whatever object a man daily bows rendering homage, that he worships even without making a caricature of a man or an ox or a goat, and he worships a false god and transgresses the second commandment of the decalogue. Yet the grace of Christ can save men from every species of false worship, open or in secret.
The setting presents sun and nature worship as a grave perversion of true worship. People deified the sun, a created means by which God gives light, instead of honoring God as Creator, Sustainer, and giver of light and life. In turning their backs on God and His worship toward the east they supplanted worship of God, rivaled worship of God, and stood in sharp contrast to the worship required by God's law. This sun worship is apostasy to Baal, the Phoenician god Baal. It was accompanied by violation and transgression of God's law and Sabbath, with the sun's special day, the first day of the week, set against the Sabbath which memorialized Jehovah's creative power.
The idolatrous worship involved feasts and revels, including practices forbidden by God's law. Because the people did not love God's righteousness they used worship of the sun and nature to serve sexual lust, consecrating and glorifying licentiousness as religion. The Judean youths understood that the Babylonian feasting and drinking were connected with this idolatrous religion and refused to take part.
Sealing Work and Heart Search
The uncovering of sins commanded here is typical of and part of the same great sealing work described in Revelation 7 and Revelation 7:2-3. It is joined to the command in Ezekiel 9:4 to place the mark upon God's servants, who are marked in their foreheads. What is laid bare is wicked abominations done among God's professed people, for which the faithful sigh and cry, and the seal or mark is then set in the forehead, the seat of the mind with which the law of God is served. The sealing message therefore goes not to a people that know not God, but to a people serving God whose practice on some point of faith or life is not right, to set them right on God's law and especially on that part of it which is the seal of His authority.
The vision in chapters 8-10 presents striking prophecies of the future and uses Israel as a symbol of the last days. The abominations seen in the chambers of imagery are a picture of what is exposed within the heart when God searches it. There are laid open evil motives and self-interest, idolatrous affections and impure thoughts, and envy.
The command pictures men cutting through wall after wall and going from one cavern to another into secret places where loathsome things are worshiped in darkness where the sun is not allowed to shine. It means corrupt schemers hide wicked abominations while plotting the downfall of the nation and the deceit of the people. Having forgotten the image of God, they try to frame men according to the image of the evil one until men forget God. Those hidden works must be laid open by the onward movement of reform rooted in the Bible and its charter of liberty.
God told Ezekiel to enter in and look closely at the wicked abominations being committed in Judah and Jerusalem, laying open their idolatry including weeping for Tammuz, portrayals of creeping things and beasts on the walls, and men with their backs to the temple worshiping the sun toward the east. The hidden chambers of imagery show that idolatry is not only a carved image worshiped openly, but the pantheon cherished in the mind and heart, where evil motives, impure thoughts, and love for farms, houses, possessions, and one's own handiwork become false gods in breach of the second commandment. Sun and nature worship deified the created means of light instead of God as Creator and Sustainer, turning away from His worship and His law, an apostasy to Baal that set the sun's first day against the Sabbath memorial of His creative power. This uncovering of abominations among God's professed people belongs to the same sealing work of Revelation 7 and Ezekiel 9:4, where those who sigh and cry over the wrongs have the seal of God's law set in the forehead, the mind.
Vision's Setting and Detail
The command bids Ezekiel to go in and inspect the wicked abominations being done there in Judah and Jerusalem. What is exposed is the people's idolatry, including sun worship, set forth as a graphic portrayal of their wrongdoing. That idolatry is a departure from true worship, from which God seeks to call the people back, and Judah had already witnessed its harmful results in false worship.
The abominations brought to light include images of creeping things and beasts and other idols portrayed upon the walls. They include prominent men of Israel engaged in pagan worship, worshiping Tammuz and turning their backs upon the temple to worship the sun toward the east. They include women weeping for Tammuz with other heathen rites, and sun worship toward the east by those who have turned their backs on God and His worship.
The images are portrayed upon interior walls in the Babylonian manner, with vermilion and brilliant coloring. This means painted plaster and enameled brick decoration confined to the interior, rather than sculpture upon the exterior as in Egypt and Assyria and Persia and Greece, because Babylon lacked stone and used the brick-clay at hand. The detail belongs exactly to the captivity in Babylon in B.C. 604-561, when Nebuchadnezzar reigned and exerted himself in building and decorating his capital with blended brilliant colors upon palace walls, when Babylon sat as mistress of the world in pride and grandeur. At no later time could this be said, for shortly afterward the kingdom was overthrown by the Medes and Persians and these peculiarities were lost, proving the book true to its time and correctly dated.
Ezekiel saw these visions while on the banks of the river Chebar, the Nar Kabari, the Euphrates of Nippur, the great canal running through Nippur and central Babylonia where a colony of Jewish exiles lived. The abominations he was told to behold were those done in Jerusalem, rites he knew from Nippur because Nippur was the center of Babylonian worship. The verse belongs to the vision in Ezekiel chapters 1-10, which is a visible representation of the heavenly sanctuary and true tabernacle.
Idolatry Against God and Law
The command to go in and behold lays open wicked abominations done in secret, in the dark, in the chambers of imagery. Idolatry does not require a carved or molded or cast graven image bowed down to in the open, because the image concept exists in the mind before it is made in concrete form and a man may hold a pantheon of gods in the temple of his mind. God sees the cherished imaginings of sins and lusts in the soul.
That same abomination includes worshiping farms, houses, automobiles, art, books, and a man's own handiwork. To whatever object a man daily bows rendering homage, that he worships even without making a caricature of a man or an ox or a goat, and he worships a false god and transgresses the second commandment of the decalogue. Yet the grace of Christ can save men from every species of false worship, open or in secret.
The setting presents sun and nature worship as a grave perversion of true worship. People deified the sun, a created means by which God gives light, instead of honoring God as Creator, Sustainer, and giver of light and life. In turning their backs on God and His worship toward the east they supplanted worship of God, rivaled worship of God, and stood in sharp contrast to the worship required by God's law. This sun worship is apostasy to Baal, the Phoenician god Baal. It was accompanied by violation and transgression of God's law and Sabbath, with the sun's special day, the first day of the week, set against the Sabbath which memorialized Jehovah's creative power.
The idolatrous worship involved feasts and revels, including practices forbidden by God's law. Because the people did not love God's righteousness they used worship of the sun and nature to serve sexual lust, consecrating and glorifying licentiousness as religion. The Judean youths understood that the Babylonian feasting and drinking were connected with this idolatrous religion and refused to take part.
Sealing Work and Heart Search
The uncovering of sins commanded here is typical of and part of the same great sealing work described in Revelation 7 and Revelation 7:2-3. It is joined to the command in Ezekiel 9:4 to place the mark upon God's servants, who are marked in their foreheads. What is laid bare is wicked abominations done among God's professed people, for which the faithful sigh and cry, and the seal or mark is then set in the forehead, the seat of the mind with which the law of God is served. The sealing message therefore goes not to a people that know not God, but to a people serving God whose practice on some point of faith or life is not right, to set them right on God's law and especially on that part of it which is the seal of His authority.
The vision in chapters 8-10 presents striking prophecies of the future and uses Israel as a symbol of the last days. The abominations seen in the chambers of imagery are a picture of what is exposed within the heart when God searches it. There are laid open evil motives and self-interest, idolatrous affections and impure thoughts, and envy.
The command pictures men cutting through wall after wall and going from one cavern to another into secret places where loathsome things are worshiped in darkness where the sun is not allowed to shine. It means corrupt schemers hide wicked abominations while plotting the downfall of the nation and the deceit of the people. Having forgotten the image of God, they try to frame men according to the image of the evil one until men forget God. Those hidden works must be laid open by the onward movement of reform rooted in the Bible and its charter of liberty.