Immerse: Prophets - Flipbook - Page 340
328
IMMERSE
•
PROPHETS
8:7–9:5
Temple? But come, and you will see even more detestable sins than these!”
Then he brought me to the door of the Temple courtyard, where I could
see a hole in the wall. He said to me, “Now, son of man, dig into the wall.”
So I dug into the wall and found a hidden doorway.
“Go in,” he said, “and see the wicked and detestable sins they are com
mitting in there!” So I went in and saw the walls covered with engravings
of all kinds of crawling animals and detestable creatures. I also saw the
various idols worshiped by the people of Israel. Seventy leaders of Israel
were standing there with Jaazaniah son of Shaphan in the center. Each of
them held an incense burner, from which a cloud of incense rose above
their heads.
Then the Lord said to me, “Son of man, have you seen what the leaders
of Israel are doing with their idols in dark rooms? They are saying, ‘The
Lord doesn’t see us; he has deserted our land!’” Then the Lord added,
“Come, and I will show you even more detestable sins than these!”
He brought me to the north gate of the Lord’s Temple, and some
women were sitting there, weeping for the god Tammuz. “Have you seen
this?” he asked. “But I will show you even more detestable sins than these!”
Then he brought me into the inner courtyard of the Lord’s Temple.
At the entrance to the sanctuary, between the entry room and the bronze
altar, there were about twenty-five men with their backs to the sanctuary
of the Lord. They were facing east, bowing low to the ground, worship
ing the sun!
“Have you seen this, son of man?” he asked. “Is it nothing to the people
of Judah that they commit these detestable sins, leading the whole na
tion into violence, thumbing their noses at me, and provoking my anger?
Therefore, I will respond in fury. I will neither pity nor spare them. And
though they cry for mercy, I will not listen.”
Then the Lord thundered, “Bring on the men appointed to punish the
city! Tell them to bring their weapons with them!” Six men soon appeared
from the upper gate that faces north, each carrying a deadly weapon in his
hand. With them was a man dressed in linen, who carried a writer’s case
at his side. They all went into the Temple courtyard and stood beside the
bronze altar.
Then the glory of the God of Israel rose up from between the cherubim,
where it had rested, and moved to the entrance of the Temple. And the
Lord called to the man dressed in linen who was carrying the writer’s
case. He said to him, “Walk through the streets of Jerusalem and put a
mark on the foreheads of all who weep and sigh because of the detestable
sins being committed in their city.”
Then I heard the Lord say to the other men, “Follow him through the
