Ezekiel 8:14-18

content/bible_journal/ezekiel_8:14-18.md

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+title = "Ezekiel 8:14–18"
+date = "2023-03-20"
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+
+### [Read the passage.](https://biblia.com/bible/esv/Ezekiel8.14-18)
+
+The Lord shows Ezekiel two more abominations that are occuring in His temple.
+The first is a group of women weeping for Tammuz at the north gate of the
+temple court. This one needs a bit more context than we are given. Tammuz was a
+pagan deity associated with the fields and the underworld. His myths are
+similar to the story of Persephone and Hades, except he plays both roles:
+Tammuz makes the vegetation grow until he dies in the summer heat and goes to
+the land of the dead. His adherents ritually mourn his passing until he returns
+to the land of the living to bring the greenery back with the wet season. Time
+and again the Lord has shown He brings the rain and makes it stop, and He has
+the power over life and death as well. How quickly the people forget the truth.
+
+The final abomination was surely the worst for Ezekiel, because it involved not
+the laity, but priests consecrated to the Lord like himself. At least, that's
+what they should be, in the inner court of the temple. Instead of offering
+sacrifices to the Lord, or facing the temple in prayer, they have turned their
+backs upon the Holy Place and are bowing down to worship the rising sun. Think
+of it! It'd be like finding out the pastor of your church was actually a
+Buddhist.
+
+With all this happening in and around His own house, the very place He makes
+His dwelling on earth, is it any wonder that God is angry with His people? But
+it wasn't only this, but also that the land was filled with violence and
+bloodshed. Injustice abounded, as the Lord had prohibited, and so He will
+punish the wicked and He will not spare them.
+
+* * *
+
+Grant us a righteous indignation against our sin, that we may repent of it.