THE CHAMBERS OF IMAGERY

 

"And He brought me to the door of the court; and when I looked, behold a hole in the wall.  Then said He unto me, Son of man, dig now in the wall: and when I had digged in the wall, behold a door.  And He said unto me, Go in, and behold the wicked abominations that they do here.  So I went in and saw; and behold every form of creeping things, and abominable beasts, and all the idols of the house of Israel, portrayed upon the wall round about.  And there stood before them seventy men of the ancients of the house of Israel…with every man his censer in his hand; and a thick cloud of incense went up.  Then said He unto me, Son of man, hast thou seen what the ancients of the house of Israel do in the dark, every man in the chambers of his imagery? for they say, The LORD seeth us not; the LORD hath forsaken the earth." (Ezekiel 8:7-12).

Ezekiel prophesied to the Jews during the time of their captivity in Babylon.  The Prophet Jeremiah was a contemporary of Ezekiel and prophesied chiefly to those Jews who remained in Judea and were not among those who were taken to Babylon.  Both of these men prophesied some very hard truths to their fellow Jews which were largely rejected in favor of the soothing things that the false prophets were saying at the time. 

In his vision, the Lord showed Ezekiel the temple in Jerusalem.  Here it was that the prophet was carried in spirit to the inner court and to the entrance near the altar of God.  It was there that Ezekiel was shown an “image of jealousy, which provoketh to jealousy.” (Ezekiel 8:3).  This image was undoubtedly some idol, perhaps Baal, which the Jews had set up in the very temple of God, and the presence of this idol in His House provoked God to great jealousy.  This was not the worst thing that Ezekiel saw, however.  The Lord showed him a hole in the wall of the temple where he was told to dig.  When he did so, he uncovered a secret door.  Ezekiel was then instructed to go inside the room that was on the other side of the door.  Inside, the prophet saw that the walls of the room were covered with pictures of all sorts of creeping things, unclean beasts, and all of the idols that were being worshipped by the house of Israel.  Worse yet, inside the room were seventy men who were considered the older, wiser, and most experienced among the Jews who were burning incense to all of these images and idols.  These were the men that the Jews looked up to for leadership in spiritual things!  The Lord called what they were doing wicked and abominable!  They thought that God did not see what they were doing because they believed that He had forsaken the earth altogether.  Ezekiel, as a spokesman for God, was there to tell them just how wrong they were! 

During Bible times, serving idols was one quick way to provoke God’s anger.  The Israelites had not traveled very far out of Egypt before they had turned from God and began to worship a golden calf.  It is hard to imagine how they could so quickly forget all of the signs and wonders that God performed before their eyes in Egypt.  Likewise, it’s hard to understand why they would ignore how God had delivered them so completely from the wrath of Pharaoh at the Red Sea and then turn around and say of their idols, “These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.” (Exodus 32:4).  No wonder God was angry!

Although modern man doesn’t normally bow down to idols of gold, silver, or wood today, they have many other sorts of idols that they do worship.  Possessions, pastimes, lusts, and addictions can all become idols to us today.  The things upon which we spend the most time and energy often reveal what we worship in our lives.  Anything can become an idol in our life when we elevate it to a position that usurps God’s place.  It doesn’t even have to be something big.  Often the seemingly insignificant things in our lives can command the most devotion.

On the Active Christianity website Frank Myrland wrote, “All too often, the biggest idol in our lives is the one that looks us right in the mirror each and every morning.  We are by nature egocentric, self-involved people.  Our thoughts naturally go in one pattern: me, me, me.  This spirit, which is promoted by every form of media available today, is the same spirit that filled the devil when he challenged God (Isaiah 14:12-15).  This spirit is horribly destructive and can only be countered by humility – by placing our lives in God’s hands and yielding completely to His will.

“Someone who tries to play the balancing act of serving both God and earthly idols is doomed to fail. We receive a very clear warning about this in Matthew 6:24: ‘No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.’”

The Apostle Paul brought modern day idolatry into sharper focus when he wrote the following two verses: “Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry.” (Colossians 3:5).  “For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.” (Ephesians 5:5).  Paul couldn’t have been clearer: one who is covetous is also an idolater! 

Most scholars associate covetousness with the love of money, and desiring to obtain things.  Scripture certainly supports this association as in Luke 12:15 which says, “And He [Jesus] said unto them, Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.”  Jesus warns us here not to ascribe life to the things that we own by placing too much importance on them and investing too much time in obtaining them.  I have known believers who have spent all their time working long hours and weekends just to have things and to feel more secure financially.  They say they don’t have time to read the Bible and pray because they are working such long hours.  They can’t go to church to find fellowship, either, because they are working Sundays.  It is easy to observe what their life consists of, and, sadly, it is not Christ!  Their job has become their god, and the money they are making has become the thing they worship!  Whatever we think about, and labor for, more than Christ, may just be the god that we have set up to worship!  Imagine fashioning an image out of wood, metal, or stone in your home workshop, and then setting it in your house and bowing before it and praying to it as if it were a living god!  It is no more than a thing that we own, but it is so easy to ascribe undue importance to certain things in our life and allow those things to own us.

If you take another look at the verses in Colossians and Ephesians quoted above, you will notice something else.  Paul groups covetousness right alongside many of the baser sorts of lusts and fleshly desires.  Sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desires – these are all mentioned along with covetousness.  This tells me that covetousness is more than just wanting money or desiring things: it is to want what we want more than what God wants for us.  It is worshipping our own will and forsaking the Father’s will.  The one most attractive thing about an idol is that it can never tell you what you don’t want to hear because there is no life in it!        

Some of man’s idols are open for all to see, but others are hidden away and are worshipped in secret.  The fact that the chamber of imagery was hidden within the walls of God’s temple indicates that there are many idolatrous practices that man has set up even within his religious traditions, and within the House of God.  They may be hidden from casual view, but they are there just the same, and are enmeshed in the hearts of some of the most “godly” men and women.

Paul’s solution to escaping modern day idolatry is twofold:  “If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.  Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.  For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.  When Christ, Who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory.  Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth;” (Colossians 3:1-5).   

First, we need to check just where our affections lie.  Is it on heavenly things, or is it on things on the earth?  If it’s the latter, we’re going to have a difficult time trying to live the Christian life.  Jesus said, “If a man love Me, he will keep My words: and My Father will love him, and We will come unto him, and make Our abode with him.  He that loveth Me not keepeth not My sayings: and the word which ye hear is not Mine, but the Father’s which sent Me.” (John 14:23, 24).  Love is a great motivator.  We love God because He first loved us, and even our faith is made effectual by the love that we have toward the Father.  “For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love.” (Galatians 5:6).  The old saying that “one can be so heavenly minded, that he is no earthly good” does not hold water in this case.  While one can certainly neglect ones family, friends, and job in order to devote himself to religious duties, I believe that if we truly learn to follow Christ, and love Him with all of our heart, soul, and might, we will be better spouses, parents, friends, and employees.  Christ will bring balance to all of our duties and relationships.  Rather than leading us to neglect our earthly obligations, the Lord will teach us to better honor them by ordering the right priorities in our lives.  We will become empowered to let go of the things that are carnal, and embrace the things that are important.  Instead of becoming “of no earthly good,” we will become trees of righteousness that will bear fruit in abundance for those around us.

The second thing that Paul directs us to do is to “mortify…your members which are upon the earth.”  The word “mortify” means simply “to slay, or to put to death.”  “Members” refers to the various parts of our body.  Our hands, for instance, want to reach for what is forbidden, our feet want to run to that which is not allowed, and our eyes want to look on what is prohibited.  We find that it is one thing to set our affections on things above, but another thing to make the right choices to actually support where our affections lie.  The flesh gives us a great deal of trouble with this.  We find that “…the motions of sins, which were by the law,…work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death.” (Romans 7:5).  Paul describes this constant battle with the flesh when he said, “For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out.  For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.” (Romans 7:18, 19 ESV).  In the light of this, it is easy to see the need to mortify our members that are on the earth.  We must learn to die to self if we are going to follow after - and please - the Lord.  The more our self-life decreases, the more our spiritual life will increase and vice versa. 

Just how do we accomplish this dying to self?  The answer is simple.  It has already been accomplished in Christ Jesus the Lord!  It isn’t an act of our will that accomplishes this, but an act of our faith.  We read in Romans 6:3 that “…so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into His death.”  When we were baptized in water, we were buried with Christ in death.  Paul goes on to say, “…our old man is crucified with Him [Jesus], that the body of sin [our earthly members] might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.  For he that is dead is freed from sin.” (Romans 6:6, 7).  Death is not the thing that we need to dwell on, however.  Instead, it is the other part of baptism that tells us, “…if we have been planted together in the likeness of His death, we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection.” (Romans 6:5).  There is resurrection power coursing through every born again believer who has been baptized into Christ!  The key that unlocks this power is faith in the completed work of our Lord.  He tasted of death for our offenses, and was raised from the dead for our justification.  The Bible tells us to now “reckon [to deem, calculate, or take into account]” ourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Do not let the devil tell you that you are powerless.  In Christ, you can do all things!

I believe (and I am hearing it from many leading evangelists, pastors, teachers, and prophets) that we are coming into a time of judgment.  As in Ezekiel’s and Jeremiah’s day, God is going to judge the world for her sins, but He is going to start with His own House (1 Peter 4:17).  Ultimately, it was of God’s mercy that He judged His people Israel in the days of the prophets, sending them into captivity.  Eventually, they saw the error of their ways and repented.  Then God was able to bring them back to their land and restore His temple in Jerusalem.  Every good father will chasten his sons and daughters when they need it, not because he delights in inflicting pain, but because he knows it will correct behavior and improve character in the long run.  The Church of God needs some correction today.  We cannot pray for and expect God to send revival to this nation until His Church learns to humble itself, pray, and seek His face.  Until there is deep, heart-wrenching repentance on the part of God’s people, how can we expect for there to be any real deliverance in the world?  Sin and idolatry will suck the spiritual life right out of God’s people.  We cannot serve two masters! 

Eventually, Ezekiel was shown a great vision.  “The hand of the LORD was upon me, and carried me out in the Spirit of the LORD, and set me down in the midst of the valley which was full of bones.” (Ezekiel 37:1).  The bones that the prophet saw had lain in that valley for a long time.  They were scattered along the valley floor, and they were very dried out.  As Ezekiel beheld this vision, the Lord asked him a question.  “And He [God] said unto me, Son of man, can these bones live?” (Ezekiel 37:3).  The prophet simply said, “O Lord GOD, thou knowest.” 

What God told Ezekiel next was very unusual: He said, “Prophesy upon these bones, and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of the LORD.” (verse 4).  The secret of any reawakening, and of any work that the Lord is willing to do among His people is when we HEAR the Word of the Lord.  It isn’t enough to just be exposed to the word through preaching or reading the Bible, we must truly hear what God is saying to us.  Once we hear what God is saying, then, and only then, can we apply our faith to what He has spoken to us and see Him work in our lives in miraculous ways.  “For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.” (Hebrews 4:2).  Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God!

The Lord also told His prophet to prophesy these words to the bones, “…I will lay sinews upon you, and will bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and ye shall live; and ye shall know that I am the LORD.” (Ezekiel 37:6).  The Body of Christ today needs meat on its bones!  It needs the various members of the body, the ministries and those bearing the gifts of the Spirit, to be healthy and whole.  One more thing is essential, however: the breath of God.  Without it, though the body may look whole, it is still dead.  The breath of God represents the Holy Spirit that God has breathed on us, His people.  “He [Jesus] breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost.” (John 20:22).  Ezekiel then spoke as he was commanded by God and something marvelous began to happen.  There was a noise and a shaking on the valley floor, and the bones began to come together as skeletons, and the skeletons were covered with sinews, flesh, and skin.  Then Ezekiel cried out, “Thus saith the Lord GOD; Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.” (verse 9).  Then the bodies came alive and stood up to form “an exceeding great army.” The army of the Lord!

It was then that the Lord made the vision plain to Ezekiel so that the prophet could convey to His people the great love that He had for them.  God told Ezekiel, “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel: behold, they say, Our bones are dried, and our hope is lost: we are cut off for our parts.  Therefore prophesy and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, O My people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel.  And ye shall know that I am the LORD, when I have opened your graves, O My people, and brought you up out of your graves, and shall put My Spirit in you, and ye shall live, and I shall place you in your own land: then shall ye know that I the LORD have spoken it, and performed it, saith the LORD.” (Ezekiel 37:11-14).  Israel was spiritually dead, but God was promising to breathe life into them once more!

It is time for us to abandon the chambers of Imagery that we have set up in our hearts and minds.  It is time for us to bring all of our idols, along with our hidden sins, into the light and confess them to our heavenly Father.  We can cast all of our cares on Him, knowing that He cares for us so, and is willing to revive us again.  This time of COVID-19 has been a captivity of sorts for many.  We have been isolated from much of our normal activities and interactions, and it has given us much more time for introspection.  This is the time when we should be examining ourselves and our walk with God to see if we are truly following Christ, or just expecting Him to follow us.  This is the time for us to pray along with the psalmist, “Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” (Ps 139:23, 24).  God will hear our prayer, forgive our sins, and heal us.