Sins are Like Cockroaches; Ezekiel 8

May the mumbling commence!

Sins are like cockroaches.  If you see one out in the open, there are at least a thousand that are hidden away.  In Ezekiel 5-7, the Lord had been promising the people of Judah a time of unparallel wrath and anger.  Ezekiel must have been trembling in his sandals.  God even asked him to use a sword to shave off all his hair to use as a sign – a third of his hair he burned, a third of his hair he took outside his model of Jerusalem and struck with the sword, and a third he scattered to the wind.  Ezekiel only tucked a few strands into his garment for safe keeping.  Talk about the sacrifice of the faithful prophet!  It would have been deflating to do this and have the people not listen and ask for a repeat performance!

Then God lifted up Ezekiel (by his newly growing hair no less!) so that he might see the evil that Judah was doing – her sins.  First God took him to the north gate of the Temple and had Ezekiel look north.  There stood the idol that was provoking the Lord’s jealousy.  Tsk, Tsk!  Right out in the open!  But remember what I said earlier about sins being like cockroaches?  The Lord told Ezekiel that there were more detestable things than this (8:1-6).

The Lord also took Ezekiel into the inner court, where men had put the sanctuary to their backs and were worshiping the rising sun.  Later the Lord returned Ezekiel to the north gate of the Temple, where he saw women mourning the god Tammuz (8:14-16).  All of these things were being done brazenly, out in the open.  What detestable sins lie hidden?  Read the heart of Ezekiel chapter eight:

Then he brought me to the entrance to the court. I looked, and I saw a hole in the wall.  He said to me, "Son of man, now dig into the wall." So I dug into the wall and saw a doorway there.” 

And he said to me, "Go in and see the wicked and detestable things they are doing here."  So I went in and looked, and I saw portrayed all over the walls all kinds of crawling things and detestable animals and all the idols of the house of Israel.  In front of them stood seventy elders of the house of Israel, and Jaazaniah son of Shaphan was standing among them. Each had a censer in his hand, and a fragrant cloud of incense was rising. 

He said to me, "Son of man, have you seen what the elders of the house of Israel are doing in the darkness, each at the shrine of his own idol? They say, 'The Lord does not see us; the Lord has forsaken the land.'"  Again, he said, "You will see them doing things that are even more detestable." (Verses 7-13)

And Ezekiel dug into the wall.  Where else would he find the sins that are hidden?  Sins are just like cockroaches.  Even those elders who wished to keep a facade of faithfulness were secretly worshiping all the idols that were out in the public eye.  They thought that the Lord had abandoned them and that the Lord did not see their sin.  How foolish they were!  How foolish we are sometimes when we think that are sins are hidden if no other person knows about them!

And wait!  There’s more!  There are things even more detestable than these.  Read from the end of Ezekiel chapter eight:

He said to me, "Have you seen this, son of man? Is it a trivial matter for the house of Judah to do the detestable things they are doing here? Must they also fill the land with violence and continually provoke me to anger? Look at them putting the branch to their nose!  Therefore I will deal with them in anger; I will not look on them with pity or spare them. Although they shout in my ears, I will not listen to them." (Verses 17-18)

Ezekiel had seen the things – both the public and the hidden sins – that were being committed in the Temple.  And God asks Ezekiel, “Are these things trivial to do in this place of the Name of the Lord?”  Of course not!  But there’s more.  They fill the land with violence.  Then Ezekiel had seen the fuel for the fire of God’s wrath.  God was finally going to allow Judah to reap what they had sown.

Yes, sins are like cockroaches.  Give them a foothold in your secret life and eventually they will invade your entire household.  They will become evident to others.  May we learn from this lesson from our spiritual ancestors.

Enough mumbling for now… 

Peace Out