20221011

inside his house

Ezekiel 23:36-42 (JDV)

Ezekiel 23:36 Then Yahveh said to me: “Son of Adam, will you pass judgment against Oholah and Oholibah? Then declare their repulsive practices to them.
Ezekiel 23:37 For they have committed adultery, and blood is on their hands; they have committed adultery with their idols. And the children they bore to me they have sacrificed in the fire as food for the idols.
Ezekiel 23:38 They also did this to me: they defiled my sanctuary on that same day and polluted my Sabbaths.
Ezekiel 23:39 On the same day they slaughtered their children for their idols, they entered my sanctuary to profane it. Notice, that is what they did inside my house.
Ezekiel 23:40 “In addition, they sent for men who came from far away when a messenger was dispatched to them. And notice how they came! You bathed, painted your eyes, and adorned yourself with jewelry for them.
Ezekiel 23:41 You sat on a luxurious couch with a table spread before it, on which you had set my incense and oil.
Ezekiel 23:42 The sound of a carefree crowd was there. Hard drinkers from the desert were brought in, along with numerous men. They put bracelets on the women’s hands and beautiful tiaras on their heads.

inside his house

I am haunted by those words “what they did inside my house” in verse 39. The Lord knew how sinful Samaria and Jerusalem had been, both in courting the favor of foreign lands and their idols and in defiling the temple by trying to conduct business as usual in it.

Our generation needs to hear the hurt in the Lord’s words here. We are just as guilty in both places. We have sought after foreign gods, and tried to hide it by keeping up with traditions that we don’t understand in the church.

LORD, turn us away from the gods of this age, and back to you in truth.