Judgment Against Idolatry

 

Ezekiel 6:1-14

 

November 4, 2023

 

Judgment Against Idolatry

The word of the Lord came to me: “Son of man, set your face toward the mountains of Israel, and prophesy against them, and say, You, mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord God! Thus says the Lord God to the mountains and the hills, to the ravines and the valleys: Behold, I, even I, will bring a sword upon you, and I will destroy your high places.  Your altars shall become desolate, and your incense altars shall be broken, and I will cast down your slain before your idols.  And I will lay the dead bodies of the people of Israel before their idols, and I will scatter your bones around your altars.  Wherever you dwell, the cities shall be waste and the high places ruined, so that your altars will be waste and ruined, your idols broken and destroyed, your incense altars cut down, and your works wiped out.  And the slain shall fall in your midst, and you shall know that I am the Lord.

Do you wonder what that would look like in the United States of America if God tore down our altars and cast down the people before the altars they worship?  Where would the bodies be cast, what are some of the altars where we worship?  How about one of the biggest the altar of self, it has many altars, money, wealth, homes, and stuff.  What about the altar power, your status in the community, or your job.  What about sports, you know where you spend your time, golf, fishing, hunting.  What about the altar of pride?  And Sex, yes it has many worshipers.  Yes, we have many idols we worship, and yes God your Creator is not pleased when you put them before Him.

“Yet I will leave some of you alive. When you have among the nations some who escape the sword, and when you are scattered through the countries, then those of you who escape will remember me among the nations where they are carried captive, how I have been broken over their whoring heart that has departed from me and over their eyes that go whoring after their idols. And they will be loathsome in their own sight for the evils that they have committed, for all their abominations.  And they shall know that I am the Lord. I have not said in vain that I would do this evil to them.”

Thus says the Lord God: “Clap your hands and stamp your foot and say, Alas, because of all the evil abominations of the house of Israel, for they shall fall by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence.  He who is far off shall die of pestilence, and he who is near shall fall by the sword, and he who is left and is preserved shall die of famine. Thus, I will spend my fury upon them.  And you shall know that I am the Lord, when their slain lie among their idols around their altars, on every high hill, on all the mountaintops, under every green tree, and under every leafy oak, wherever they offered pleasing aroma to all their idols.  And I will stretch out my hand against them and make the land desolate and waste, in all their dwelling places, from the wilderness to Riblah. Then they will know that I am the Lord.”

I like you have worship at these altars of these little gods, and I have found they cannot give peace, hope, and joy, they cannot give life, but they demand much.  And this I have experienced, that in Christ Jesus I’ve found the peace, joy, and hope, I found the love and fulfillment I search for in the little gods of this world.

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice