Day 229: Ezekiel 8–11 | Read The Bible In A Year | Bible Study with Commentary by Dr. Manny Arango

Hey, Bible nerds, this is Dr. Manny Arango. Welcome to the Bible Department podcast powered by Arma. We are walking through the entire Bible in a year. You can go to the description or thebibledepartment.com to download a reading plan and join the journey. Family, welcome to day 229. We're in Ezekiel chapters eight through 11. It's gonna be a good one. Gonna try to give you as many nerdy nuggets as possible, but really we're gonna focus on chapters eight and chapters 10, all right? So we're not gonna give nerdy nuggets for all of the chapters, but I'm gonna give you a lot of nerdy nuggets for the two chapters that we are gonna go in depth on. Like always, I'm gonna start out with some context clues, then I'll give you as many nerdy nuggets as I can. And we're always gonna leave off with a timeless truth because we're not just here studying history. We're studying the character and the nature of God and God doesn't change. The way that he deals with his people here in the Old Testament is actually a clue into how he deals with you and I. And guess what else doesn't change? Humanity doesn't change, okay? So the Bible also helps us to understand our own nature, human nature. So if you have done the reading today, everything I'm gonna say is gonna make total sense.

If you haven't done the reading today, then you may be a little lost, a little confused. So you may wanna stop the video, pause the audio and get the reading done. We're in Ezekiel chapters eight, nine, 10 and 11 today. So let's dive in. Context is actually really, really, really simple today. We're just a year later than we were in Ezekiel chapters one through seven, okay? So just a year. So you look at Ezekiel chapter eight, it says this, in the sixth year, in the sixth month, on the fifth day, while I was sitting in my house and the elders of Judah were sitting before me, the hand of the sovereign Lord came on me there. I looked and I saw a figure like that of a man. Anyway, so he gets a vision and we got a precise date. And if we translate that date into our current calendars, that is September 17th, 591 BC. So Ezekiel's ministry starts five years after the deportation that happened in 597, which puts us at 592. And this Ezekiel chapter eight is one year later after the start of his ministry. So we are in 591 BC. And that's all the context that we need for today's reading. Let's dive into some nerdy nuggets. Now, the vision that Ezekiel is gonna get, and we're gonna focus heavily on chapters eight and 10, are highly connected to the original vision

that he got in Ezekiel chapter one. Remember, Ezekiel sees the glory of the Lord and it's like, this is dope, this is cool. But what is the glory of the Lord doing here? The glory of God belongs in the temple in Jerusalem. Okay, so Ezekiel chapter eight, this entire section really, but Ezekiel chapter eight and Ezekiel chapter 10 are really gonna answer that question. So I also say this, these chapters feel like a prequel, right, so although the context of this vision is a year in the future, right, a year later than Ezekiel chapter one through seven, what Ezekiel's gonna see is actually something from the past, okay? So we're moving forward in time, but what Ezekiel's gonna see is actually a prequel. It's the thing that happened that led up to him seeing the glory of the Lord appearing to him in Babylon, okay? So we're gonna fill in some gaps. I like to say, we're gonna get the backstory, we're gonna get the origin story, okay? I love a movie that has a good origin story, okay, that got a good backstory, okay? You've been, you've fallen in love with a character, you love their character, and then they get a flashback and you get to fill in the blanks on how this character got to be who they are. And so if we're wondering, okay, this is dope that Ezekiel got this vision

on his 30th birthday, he gets commissioned to being a prophet, he gets called into ministry, there's this, we got whirling wheels and living creatures and a throne, and the likeness of the appearance of the glory of Yahweh, this is cool, but why is God's glory here when God's glory belongs in the Holy of Holies above the mercy seat, like above the Ark of the Covenant? Okay, that's where God's glory belongs. What's God's glory doing here? This is the backstory. Okay, Ezekiel chapter eight, Ezekiel's gonna get a vision of the temple in Jerusalem and he's going to... see that there is idolatry happening, not just on the mountains, on the high places that surround Israel, but no, there's also idolatry happening in the temple, in Yahweh's temple, right in Yahweh's house, okay? So the first is going to be the image of jealousy. There's actually going to be four, okay? That four, what I would say, temple abominations are going to be seen by Ezekiel and Ezekiel chapter 8. The first is the image of jealousy. This is most likely a pillar image of the goddess Asherah or Estarte, sometimes referred to as an Asherah tree in the Old Testament. A similar pillar had been erected by Manasseh. This is an evil king who's the son of Hezekiah. This image is described as one of jealousy, that it is probably because it is being treated as a wife of Yahweh. So Asherah is being treated as Yahweh's wife, and so people are worshiping this Asherah pole or this Asherah image as if it's Yahweh's wife. And why does that spark jealousy within Yahweh? Well, simple. Israel and Judah had been influenced so much by pagan religious ideas that forms of religious syncretism developed, such as Yahweh having a wife, like the pagan gods did. This is why this is ridiculous. We've got elders offering incense. Ezekiel next sees elders of Jerusalem worshiping in the temple, but not to Yahweh. So they're in Yahweh's temple, but not worshiping Yahweh. But instead, they're offering incense before Baal reliefs on the walls of human-animal hybrids. This is a similar idea to the living creatures, the cherubim that

Ezekiel saw in chapter 1. However, they're totally pagan. They are not described, but were common throughout the temples and palaces of the ancient Near East. So this is another example of foreign pagan worship entering the temple and distorting Judah's worship. Number three. This one's really, really sad. And without this nerdy nugget, you may not understand what you're reading, but we're going to have women worshiping for Tammuz. T-A-M-M-U-Z. Tammuz. Next, Ezekiel is going to see women, not worshiping this time, but weeping. They are weeping for Tammuz, who was the Sumerian version of Baal. Baal, in turn, is similar to Osiris in Egypt. And what these gods have in common is that every single year, annually, they die in the wintertime. So they experience a death and then a resurrection. They die in the wintertime, but then they come to life again in the spring. So the seasons, according to this ancient pagan worldview, the seasons are actually reflecting the life of the gods. So remember, spring is the time of rain. Baal is the rain god or the storm god. So they believe that during winter, he's dead. Okay. In a lot of pagan mythology, Baal is killed by death and chaos called Mot, M-O-T. Anyway, I don't want to get too nerdy on us, but Baal dies. But then every single spring, Baal is resurrected. Baal comes back to life in the spring. This weeping then would be part of that death ritual of Tammuz as the year comes to an end. So what the women are doing is they're weeping because Tammuz is dead. Okay. And they're hoping that Tammuz is going to return again or resurrect. This would be the same as the women weeping at the tomb of Jesus. Okay. This god that I love is dead. All right. So the weeping is actually worship. Okay. They're weeping as a form of worship. And so Ezekiel sees an image of jealousy. He sees elders offering incense. He sees women weeping for a false idol named Tammuz. And then last, men are worshiping a god by the name of Shamash. The last group he sees are men facing the east. They're actually worshiping the god Shamash, who is the sun god. All right. So four abominations that are all happening where? In the temple. Okay. Not just out on the high places, but this is actually happening in the very place where God's presence, God's glory, is supposed to dwell. And so this gets us to Ezekiel chapter 10. And Ezekiel chapter 10 says this. We're actually going to start reading in verse 18, Ezekiel chapter 10, verse 18. It says, then the glory of the Lord departed from over the threshold of the temple and stopped above the cherubim.

Verse 19, while I walked, the cherubim spread their wings and rose from the ground. And as they went, the wheels went with them. They stopped at the entrance of the east gate of the Lord's house and the glory of the God of Israel was above them. What is Ezekiel seeing? He's seeing the backstory of the vision he got in Ezekiel chapter one. What does he see in Ezekiel chapter one? He sees the whirling wheels. He sees the cherubim. He sees the living creatures and he sees throne of Yahweh. He sees what is supposed to happen, what's supposed to be seen in the Holy of Holies, but he sees it in Babylon. Now in Ezekiel chapter 10, he gets the backstory that because of the idolatry happening in the very temple that Yahweh was dwelling in, Yahweh essentially went, yeah, I'm out. If you wanna worship Asherah and Astarte and Tammuz and Baal in my temple, I'm not staying in this temple anymore. I'm out of here. And so what do we see in Ezekiel chapter 10? We see the glory of the Lord departing from his own temple. This is helping us to create the worldview of the people who are reading or listening to Ezekiel. Because remember, they're thinking to themselves,

we have the glory of God living in our temple. No way Nebuchadnezzar could defeat us. No way Nebuchadnezzar could siege Jerusalem and break down these walls. God's gonna protect us. Even though you're worshiping Asherah and Baal and Tammuz in the same temple that God is in. Okay, cool. They're playing the God card. No, God's got us, God's got us. And what Ezekiel is now gonna be able to say is, hey, guess what? The glory of God doesn't even live in that temple anymore. The glory of God left because God doesn't deal with any competition. The moment you place a competitor in God's arena, God doesn't sit there and try to compete with all of these other influences and voices. God leaves. But does God leave his people? No, God leaves his temple and God goes out into exile with the people who have been deported, who are in the worst possible scenario. God doesn't just leave all of his people. This is where you start to pick up on this remnant, on this idea of a remnant, that God will stay with the righteous remnant. And at this point, that righteous remnant is actually off in exile. And Ezekiel is the person

who is not the priest that he wanted to be, but in a lot of ways, he's actually performing a priestly function in the fact that he's pastoring and leading a people and helping them to understand that Jerusalem will indeed fall because the glory of Yahweh is no longer there. Family, the wait is over. My brand new book, Crushing Chaos is out now and available everywhere books are sold. Literally today, I walked into a Barnes & Noble and I signed a bunch of copies at a physical location. So you can grab this book at a physical Barnes & Noble, or you can go to a Books A Million or Amazon or anywhere. Books are sold in grab a copy. If you enjoy reading the Bible from an ancient perspective, if you understand that the beauty of scripture is actually knowing it in context, then you'll love this book. And if there's any chaos in your personal life, I think that reading the Bible from an ancient perspective can actually help to crush the chaos in your life. I think this book is gonna be a New York Times bestseller. I really do. I think we wrote a good one. I think you should get a copy today. All right, back to the episode. Our Tom's truth for the day is really trying to get into the nuance

of what is idolatry. Because idolatry is not just relegated to the pages of scripture. We struggle with idolatry as well. And a lot of times we assume that idolatry is just worshiping a false God. But that's not what idolatry is. Idolatry can be worshiping the right God the wrong way. For our purposes today, idolatry is also syncretism. So it's believing that God is not enough. So now I need to add other things to my relationship with God. God's not enough. The thought behind this is I need to hedge my bets. I need to cover my bases. To the people of Israel, the reason that they're adding. All these other gods into the temple is because what they're saying is, you know, what God may come through sometimes But when he does it Bale will come through and sometimes Bale don't be working and if Bale don't work You know what a start a will work and man sometimes Ashera doesn't work. But when Ashera didn't work ishtar works and man sometimes ishtar doesn't work But whenever ishtar don't work, guess what does work man tab moves tab moves be working and this is a way in the ancient world for people to hedge their bets by worshiping all the gods by Appeasing all the gods. They don't know which God they may need So they want to stay on the good side with all the gods What they do not realize is that the God of the Bible Doesn't do I'll be one of the gods in your cocktail of gods. He doesn't do salad bar gods he does Passivity you don't get to cover your bases and worship God. You don't get to hedge your bets and worship God

You don't get to burn sage and worship God You don't get to get your palms read and worship God You don't get to use chakra stones and worship God. God says I am enough I am more than enough and if I am gonna be God in your life, then there can be no competitors no idols Cleanse your life of all Idolatry, I don't want you hedging your bets. I don't want you covering your bases I want to be the only God who you trust and I want you to trust me beyond Your own understanding it is a very natural human condition to try to hedge our bets It's funny because my dad struggled with a drug addiction for most of my life and I remember there was a season We're like my dad would go to the mosque on Saturdays my dad would go to the church on Sundays My dad would try seventh-day Adventist. He would try a little Catholicism He would go to the Pentecostal Church, and I remember think I remember asking my dad as a teenager So what do you actually believe in and my dad looked at me and he was like man I believe in whatever helps me not take crack man. I believe in whatever's gonna make me sober I believe in whatever works and it's like yeah, that's idolatry See we don't worship God cuz it works we don't worship God cuz this just works No, I worship God because I pledged my allegiance to him whether or not he heals me of cancer He's worthy of my praise. I don't just worship him because of what I get out of it I worship him because he deserves all glory all honor all praise and he deserves it Exclusively I'm not doing a little of this doing a little of that doing a little of this Do that cuz I don't really know what works. So let's do all of it No, God says I only work when I'm the only thing you do That's the only time this works and I don't do spiritual gold diggers. I do Disciples and if you're gonna lay down your life and pledge your allegiance to me Then I will actually give you the thing that matters more than anything I'll give you my presence not just stuff not as material blessings Not just deliverance and freedom and all that stuff I'll give you me that I am the goal that I am the prize and you'll only really worship me Exclusively when my presence isn't just enough for you

But it's more than enough for you and that's not just true for the people of Ezekiel's day That's not just true for Ezekiel chapter 8 9 10 and 11. That's true for us as well It's time to take away all the things that you have faith in all the things that you've placed trust in all the things that You've added in with Christianity and decide that I'm gonna worship God exclusively with no additions accessories Additives or anything else? I got to get back to pure worship Exclusive worship man the song that I think about when I think about that is you have no rivals you have no equals Sometimes what I really sing to God when I sing that song is this I'm sorry for placing rivals in your I'm sorry For presenting you with rivals, but the reality is when I sing you have no rivals That's actually a call to me to begin to tear down all the idols in my life that have become Rivals to the true and living God and that is true Timelessly, that's true yesterday today and forever. All right tomorrow. We got day 230 we're gonna be looking at Ezekiel chapters 12 through 16. It's gonna be awesome I obviously already know what I'm gonna talk about and I'm looking forward to it. I'll see you right here Tomorrow as we continue our trek the book of Ezekiel. Love you So proud of you, especially if you're on a streak. See you tomorrow. Peace. Thanks so much for joining us on the Bible Department podcast. If this episode was helpful, how about you leave a comment, share with a friend, and subscribe so that you never miss an episode. To learn more about the show, head to thebibledepartment.com. We'll see you right back here tomorrow.