Last week in our study of the book of Ezekiel, we listened as God rebuked the false prophets and prophetesses of Israel. Now, as we move into chapter 14, we see God's attention turn to the leaders of Israel.
The elders of Israel were the leaders of the Jews, the older guys, heads of families, the ones with the power or the notoriety. Why had they come to Ezekiel? They had come to the prophet because they wanted to consult with God (Eze. 14:3), to inquire of Him (Eze. 14:7).
God had promised the Jews that they would find God when they sought Him. But there was a stipulation:
Deut. 4:29 "...you will seek the LORD your God, and you will find Him if you search for Him with all your heart and all your soul."
The big "IF" was if they sought Him with all their heart and soul. And we're about to discover that this was exactly what was going to hinder these elders from finding what they were seeking...
The elders were not seeking God with all their hearts. God saw right into them and let Ezekiel know: "They've got idols in their hearts."
We know that in the Bible, idols are generally carved images of wood, stone, or molded metal. But these guys had idols in their hearts. They were not outwardly bowing down to physical objects, but inwardly, they were doing the same thing. Their iniquity was no less than if they had been worshiping physical idols.
A lot of people's lives demonstrate that they don't believe that sin in the heart is as bad as sin that's acted out. But remember, Jesus said,
Matt. 5:28 ...everyone who looks at a woman with lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
And the apostle John wrote,
1John 3:15 Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer...
And so idolatry in the heart is no less evil than idolatry acted upon.
These elders were people who wanted to hear from God, but didn't want to hear about their sin.
As a pastor, I encounter many such people. They schedule appointments so that I will give them the perfect advice to save their marriage, but they have no desire to do what the Bible says. They are like addicts and alcoholics who want their lives to stop being so messed up, but won't quit their drinking or drugs. They are like people who want to lose weight and be healthy, but instead of eating right and exercising, they sit around and wait for science to invent a pill that will do it for them.
This attitude is so Pharisaical. It is like what Jesus said of the Pharisees:
Matt. 23:4 “They tie up heavy burdens and lay them on men’s shoulders, but they themselves are unwilling to move them with so much as a finger."
Don't expect to find God unless you're willing to search with all your heart. Don't expect things to change unless you're willing to put in your share of the requirements.
God said of these elders, "Should I be consulted by them at all?" In other words, "Why are they bothering to come to Me, if they have no intention of doing things My way?"
Just as idols in the heart are more insidious than outward idolatry (in that they aren't perceived as sin), it is almost always harder to combat sins in the heart and mind than it is to deny the flesh of physical sins.
A young man can commit to not crossing physical boundaries with a woman, but what about the thoughts of his mind? A person can stop using profanity, but how does he get it out of his head? People can destroy their idols in the fire, but how do they rid their hearts of them?
The answer lies in this passage. You see, the stumbling block of their iniquity had been put before their faces. What needs to happen is replacement of what's before your face. David had written generations earlier,
Psa. 18:21-23 For I have kept the ways of the LORD, and have not wickedly departed from my God. For all His ordinances were before me, and I did not put away His statutes from me. I was also blameless with Him, and I kept myself from my iniquity.
It is the Word that must be kept in front of our face, not the stumbling blocks. That is how we will be able to be...
2Cor. 10:5 ...taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ
We must put the Word in our face, and place it at the forefront of our minds, otherwise our minds will wander, and our hearts will begin erecting idols.
They had come to inquire of the Word of the Lord. Their answer is poignant: "Okay, so you guys want the Word of the Lord? Here it is in one word: 'Repent.'" In Hebrew, "Repent and turn away" is just one word: "shoob." It means, "To turn back and return." God tells them "shoob" twice: "Shoob your idols, shoob your abominations."
The message that the Lord had Ezekiel tell the elders was this: "If you don't repent, you don't get to inquire of the Lord. If you try to inquire without repenting, then you will die. It's as simple as that."
This is God's desire for all people. He is...
2Pet. 3:9 ...not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.
What is going to happen if these elders - or anyone else for that matter - manage to get a prophet to speak a word without them having first repented of their iniquity? God says that the prophet's sin will be the same as the other person's sin. The prophet will be guilty, and will be destroyed.
Bringing forth the Word of God carries with it some really heavy responsibility. James said,
James 3:1 Let not many of you become teachers, my brethren, knowing that as such we will incur a stricter judgment.
There is the constant pressure of making sure that you're representing God's heart, not your own. Bringing forth God's Word, in its context, with the appropriate application. That means knowing not to tell the unbeliever, "All things work together for good." Remember,
Rom. 8:28 ...we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.
There is a right and a wrong person to whom we are to speak this. I don't want to stand before the throne of judgment and have to explain why I was prevailed upon to speak a word when I wasn't supposed to!
When the elders of Israel heard about the upcoming judgment of Jerusalem, I wonder if they began to think about the account in Genesis 18.
God was about to destroy Sodom for their exceedingly grave sin (Gen. 18:20). But Abraham asked the Lord if He would sweep away the righteous with the wicked. He said, "suppose there are fifty righteous people in Sodom. Would you still destroy it?"
Gen. 18:26 So the LORD said, “If I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, then I will spare the whole place on their account.”
Abraham kept pressing. Forty-five. Forty. Thirty. Ten. Even then, God said, "I will not destroy it on account of the ten (Ge. 18:32).
If the elders of Judah were thinking that this line of reasoning would work for Jerusalem, they were mistaken. God said that even if Noah, Daniel, and Job were all living in Jersualem, it wouldn't work. Noah, Daniel, and Job are all referred to as righteous men who would be delivered if they were in Jerusalem then. But their presence would not protect Jerusalem itself. The city was too far gone to avoid judgment.
The simple fact is that once a nation is ripe for judgment, God will remove the last few righteous, rather than refuse to render punishment to the nation. Remember, Noah's righteousness didn't prevent the flood on a God-rejecting world. Job's righteousness didn't prevent the destruction of his adult children, who were drinking wine and partying. Daniel's righteousness didn't prevent the invasion of Israel by the Babylonians.
God reassures Ezekiel that He has a plan in all this judgment. Just as he did with Noah, Daniel, and Job, He is going to spare the righteous, those few who "groan over all the abominations which are being committed" in Jerusalem (Ezek. 9:4). And some of the unrighteous will survive as well (Ezek. 12:16) and be scattered throughout the nations. Those of the survivors who will come to Babylon will, by their conduct and actions, show that God's judgment on Jerusalem was completely justified. When Ezekiel sees this, it will comfort him that God's actions were right.