Ezekiel 8:13 - Meaning and Application

Here we see more and greater sins shown to the prophet. He may have thought what he had already seen was bad enough, yet the Lord says, “Turn again, and you will see even greater abominations” (Ezekiel 8:13). People who live quietly and apart often do not realize how much evil fills the world. The more we look at sin, the more corruption we discover.

The same is true when we examine our own hearts. There is a whole world of sin inside us, with great variety and plenty of it. When we have found much that is wrong, we still find more. The heart is deeply wicked, and no one can fully know it.

One of the sins shown here was women weeping for Tammuz, an idol (Ezekiel 8:14). It is a disgrace that anyone would rather serve an idol with tears than serve the true God with joy and gladness of heart. Yet this is what happens when people follow lies and turn away from the mercies that are already theirs. Some think Tammuz was the same as Adonis, a Greek idol, while others connect him with Osiris, an Egyptian idol. People said the image itself was made to weep, and then the worshipers wept with it. They mourned his death and then rejoiced when he was said to live again.

These women sat at the door of the gate of the Lord's house and poured out their idolatrous tears there, almost in open defiance of God and his worship. Some also think this idolatry was joined with sexual sin, since the two often went together. Those who dishonored God in one way were often handed over to shameful passions and twisted thinking, and so they dishonored human nature too.

Another abomination was men worshiping the sun (Ezekiel 8:16). This was even worse because it happened in the inner court of the Lord's house, at the door of the temple, between the porch and the altar. The most sacred place in their worship became the place of this wickedness. God could justly take offense at those who insulted him at his own door, like a king insulted by a man trying to force himself into the queen's presence.

There were about twenty-five men there, giving to the sun the honor that belongs to God alone. Some think these were the king and his princes, but it seems more likely they were priests, because this was the priests' court and the proper place to find them. The very men trusted with true religion, and charged with guarding it, were the ones who betrayed it.

They turned their backs on the temple of the Lord. That showed a settled choice to forget it, slight it, and show contempt for it. When people turn their backs on God's appointed worship and despise it, it is no surprise if they then run after their own inventions. Ungodliness is the beginning of idolatry and every other sin.

They also turned their faces toward the east and worshiped the rising sun. This was an old form of idolatry, already mentioned in Job's day (Job 31:26), and it had long been common among the nations. These priests thought it had old age and wide support on its side, the same kind of appeal people use to defend man-made religion. So they brought it into the temple court, as if God had left something out of his worship. See how foolish idolaters are, worshiping the sun as a god and calling it Baal, that is, “lord,” when God made the sun to serve the world (Deuteronomy 4:19). They adored borrowed light and ignored the Father of lights.

Then comes the lesson drawn from these sights. The Lord says, “Have you seen this, son of man?” and asks whether anyone could have imagined such things in the temple of the Lord (Ezekiel 8:17). He first presses the prophet to see how serious the crime is. Could it be a small matter for the house of Judah, who knew better and had greater privileges than other nations, to commit such abominations? Can people who have God’s word and worship excuse themselves when they do these things? Surely such sins deserve punishment. Such abominations ought to leave the land desolate (Daniel 9:27).

The Lord also makes the sin worse by pointing to the fraud and violence spread through the land. They have filled the land with violence. It is no wonder that people who wrong God so openly also stop caring about wronging one another. When they trample what is holy, they also trample what is just. Their wicked lives made even the worship they offered to their own God hateful to him (Isaiah 1:11, etc.). They fill the land with violence, and then they come back to the temple to provoke him again. Their sacrifices do not make atonement, they add to their guilt.

Then comes the strange phrase, “they put the branch to their nose.” This may have been a mocking gesture, showing contempt for God, as if they snuffed at his service. It may also have been some idol practice, perhaps using branches or garlands in worship (Acts 14:13). Another explanation is that they were adding fuel to God’s wrath, like dry vine branches thrown onto a fire already burning. In either case, the meaning is clear. They gave a deep insult and repeated offense, whether to God or to man.

Because they were so fiercely bent on sin, God says he will deal with them in fury (Ezekiel 8:18). They filled the land with violence, and he will fill it with the violence of their enemies. He will not be moved by pity, and he will not listen to their cries. If they cry out loudly, he will still not hear them, because their sins cry louder for judgment than their prayers cry for mercy.

God will now be as deaf to their prayers as their idols were. They cried out to those idols, but the idols gave no answer (1 Kings 18:26). There was a time when God was ready to hear even before they called, and to answer while they were still speaking. But now they will seek him early and not find him (Proverbs 1:28). It is not a loud voice that God pays attention to, but an honest and upright heart.