July 12, 2011
GOD FIRST--ANYTHING ELSE SHOULD BE A FAR SECOND.
Ezekiel 14
Johnny Hawkins
Central Truth
Anything apart from God that we feel gives us security, comfort, control, or an identity is likely the very thing that stands between us and God.
Key Verse | Ezekiel 14:3
"Son of man, these men have set up their idols in their hearts and have put right before their faces the stumbling block of their iniquity. Should I be consulted by them at all?" (Ezekiel 14:3)
Ezekiel 14
Idolatrous Elders Condemned
1 Then certain of the elders of Israel came to me and sat before me. 2 And the word of the LORD came to me: 3 “Son of man, these men have taken their idols into their hearts, and set the stumbling block of their iniquity before their faces. Should I indeed let myself be consulted by them? 4 Therefore speak to them and say to them, Thus says the Lord God: Any one of the house of Israel who takes his idols into his heart and sets the stumbling block of his iniquity before his face, and yet comes to the prophet, I the LORD will answer him as he comes with the multitude of his idols, 5 that I may lay hold of the hearts of the house of Israel, who are all estranged from me through their idols.
6 Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord God: Repent and turn away from your idols, and turn away your faces from all your abominations. 7 For any one of the house of Israel, or of the strangers who sojourn in Israel, who separates himself from me, taking his idols into his heart and putting the stumbling block of his iniquity before his face, and yet comes to a prophet to consult me through him, I the LORD will answer him myself. 8 And I will set my face against that man; I will make him a sign and a byword and cut him off from the midst of my people, and you shall know that I am the LORD. 9 And if the prophet is deceived and speaks a word, I, the LORD, have deceived that prophet, and I will stretch out my hand against him and will destroy him from the midst of my people Israel. 10 And they shall bear their punishment 1 14:10 Or iniquity; three times in this verse —the punishment of the prophet and the punishment of the inquirer shall be alike— 11 that the house of Israel may no more go astray from me, nor defile themselves anymore with all their transgressions, but that they may be my people and I may be their God, declares the Lord God.”
Jerusalem Will Not Be Spared
12 And the word of the LORD came to me: 13 “Son of man, when a land sins against me by acting faithlessly, and I stretch out my hand against it and break its supply 2 14:13 Hebrew staff of bread and send famine upon it, and cut off from it man and beast, 14 even if these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they would deliver but their own lives by their righteousness, declares the Lord God.
15 If I cause wild beasts to pass through the land, and they ravage it, and it be made desolate, so that no one may pass through because of the beasts, 16 even if these three men were in it, as I live, declares the Lord God, they would deliver neither sons nor daughters. They alone would be delivered, but the land would be desolate.
17 Or if I bring a sword upon that land and say, Let a sword pass through the land, and I cut off from it man and beast, 18 though these three men were in it, as I live, declares the Lord God, they would deliver neither sons nor daughters, but they alone would be delivered.
19 Or if I send a pestilence into that land and pour out my wrath upon it with blood, to cut off from it man and beast, 20 even if Noah, Daniel, and Job were in it, as I live, declares the Lord God, they would deliver neither son nor daughter. They would deliver but their own lives by their righteousness.
21 For thus says the Lord God: How much more when I send upon Jerusalem my four disastrous acts of judgment, sword, famine, wild beasts, and pestilence, to cut off from it man and beast! 22 But behold, some survivors will be left in it, sons and daughters who will be brought out; behold, when they come out to you, and you see their ways and their deeds, you will be consoled for the disaster that I have brought upon Jerusalem, for all that I have brought upon it. 23 They will console you, when you see their ways and their deeds, and you shall know that I have not done without cause all that I have done in it, declares the Lord God.”
Dive Deeper | Ezekiel 14
I really love that Ezekiel gets to the point of God's words very quickly in this chapter. Idols that we hold on to in our hearts become idols in front of our faces and keep us from seeing God.
I wanted to dig a bit and understand what Ezekiel was talking about when he was addressing the issues of idols in the lives of the Israelites, so I did a little research. In many ancient religions idolatry was the standard method of worship. The people believed that any depiction of the thing they worshiped somehow took on the essence of that thing, no matter how crude or artificial the depiction might be. A picture or statue of a tree, for example, contained part of the essence of the tree, and where the statue was, the god was at least partly present. People believed that anything offered to the god's statue was offered directly to the god.
Not much has changed, if we take a good look at our own lives. As I read through this chapter and continued to contemplate what to write about, a single, haunting question resonated in my soul: what are my idols before an all-knowing, loving, powerful God? The truth is that I want to put my flesh first when I am tired, when I worry, when I am fearful, or when I feel things are out of my control. My idols can take the form of lust, holding to my own game plan, wanting to control things, having high expectations for myself and others, idealism, and a score of other things.
And so the truth that Ezekiel hits on from ancient times is a truth that still resonates with me. When I hold on to something in my heart or put anything before God to give me comfort, that thing is an idol in front of my face that keeps me from seeing God.
Discussion Questions
1. Have you considered that you have "blind spots" and hold on to idols that you are not aware of?
2. If you are honest with yourself, what would you say are things that you find security in or that are idols in your life (job, title, money, control, family, stuff, etc.)?
3. If you have not allowed others to examine your life (see Proverbs 18:1), who can you find that will love you enough to tell you hard truths about idols you may be holding?
4. If you do have community around you, do you need to begin to share more deeply with them?
WEEKLY FAMILY ACTIVITY
EZEKIEL 13-17 (JULY 11-15)
Read Ezekiel 14:1-6.
What did the leaders set up in their hearts? What does it mean to "set up an idol in your heart"? What are idols that you have set up in your heart or are tempted to set up in your heart?
These idols had become stumbling blocks that led the Israelite leaders into sin. How could the idols you struggle with lead you into sin? (Remember, sin is disobedience to God and His ways.)
Read Exodus 20:3-6.
What is God's commandment to the Israelites? Do you believe this applies to us now?
What does Ezekiel 14:6 tell us to do if we have put something before God? Take time and ask God for His forgiveness if there are things you have set up as idols in your heart before Him.
ACTIVITY: Identify one thing in your life that you are tempted to put before God. It could be things like sports, grades, schedule, working out, control, or money. Once you have identified something, find an object that represents that struggle (e.g., a soccer ball for sports or a calendar for your schedule). Then write Matthew 22:37 across your object and put it somewhere that you will see it every day, reminding you to put God FIRST in your heart.