by Pastor Don Elmore
January 23, 2011
Ezekiel was the prophet who was with the captives in Babylon. Both kingdoms, had at different times, been attacked and taken captive. The large captivities were by:
- The Syrians: Captured Israelites who lived to the East of the Jordan River.
- The Assyrians: Who captured both kingdoms—on the West of the Jordan River; 22 fortified cities of Judah was captured, but Jerusalem was saved by divine intervention and the Assyrian army destroyed.
- The Babylonians: Finished the job that was spared from the Assyrians; Jerusalem was destroyed and its people taken.
Ezekiel was in the Babylonian captivity. He did most of his prophesying while he was with the captives. The book begins with an exact date; and throughout the book exact dates are given.
Thus, chapter 8 begins with an exact date:
- And it came to pass in the sixth year, in the sixth month, in the fifth day of the month, as I sat in mine house, and the elders of Judah sat before me, that the hand of the Lord GOD fell there upon me.
- Then I beheld, and lo a likeness as the appearance of fire: from the appearance of his loins even downward, fire; and from his loins even upward, as the appearance of brightness, as the amber
- And he put forth the form of an hand, and took me by a lock of mine head; and the spirit lifted me up between the earth and the heaven, and brought me in the visions of God to Jerusalem, to the door of the inner gate that looketh toward the north; where was the seat of the image of jealousy, which provoketh to jealousy.
This chapter starts out with the elders of Judah sitting before him in his house. While they were there, the form of an hand took Ezekiel by a lock of his hair and lifted him up to Jerusalem, in particular to the House of God; i.e. the Temple. We notice that as he is taken to the north that there is an image of jealousy—possibly a statue of Baal. But whatever, it was, it provoked GOD to jealousy.
- And, behold, the glory of the God of Israel was there, according to the vision that I saw in the plain.
- Then said he unto me, Son of man, lift up thine eyes now the way toward the north. So I lifted up mine eyes the way toward the north, and behold northward at the gate of the altar this image of jealousy in the entry.
- He said furthermore unto me, Son of man, seest thou what they do? even the great abominations that the house of Israel committeth here, that I should go far off from my sanctuary? but turn thee yet again, and thou shalt see greater abominations.
While he was in Babylon, Ezekiel is taken back to Jerusalem into the Temple. It was a vision—but notice that he is told to look at the GREAT abominations that he sees there. It wasn’t just the abominations but the GREAT abominations that he sees. It is like the answer to their captivity is given—just like our GOD told Israel that they would be scattered if they disobeyed His laws that He gave to them.
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And he brought me to the door of the court; and when I looked, behold a hole in the wall.
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Then said he unto me, Son of man, dig now in the wall: and when I had digged in the wall, behold a door.
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And he said unto me, Go in, and behold the wicked abominations that they do here.
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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, pourtrayed upon the wall round about.
For beginners, I think a lot of Americans would be surprised to learn of what happened in the White House during the reign of President Reagan. Do you know that if you dug in the wall of the White House you would see the President, and especially his wife, Nancy, constantly call Joan Quigley and asked her to “look in the stars” and tell them when would be the appropriate date as to when they would do what. It was so bad, that Joan wrote a book that was titled, "What Does Joan Say?"-- My Seven Years As White House Astologer To Nancy And Ronald Reagan. Horrors of King Saul!
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And there stood before them seventy men of the ancients of the house of Israel, and in the midst of them stood Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan, with every man his censer in his hand; and a thick cloud of incense went up.
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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.
The seventy men of the ancients were, no doubt, referring to the Sanhedrin. But notice that one of them is named: “Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan.” Who was Jaazaniah? Who was Shaphan? If you look in your Bible in 2 Chronicles, chapter 34 you will read of the history of Judah a couple of generations earlier. What a mess!
The Queen of Judah murdered all of the possible sons of the kingship of Judah. Or I should say, that she thought she had murdered all the sons—there was an infant who was rescued who she did not know about. When he was eight years old, he was revealed to the public and anointed as King. The Queen was murdered and Judah started one of its greatest times of revival.
This was the reign of King Josiah. What a great king. It says in this chapter that he chose some leaders of Judah to repair the House of the LORD. One of these persons was SHAPAN. When the priest, Hilkiah, found the book of the law in the House of GOD—can you image that—the book of the law that Moses had given Israel had been lost; who do you think that he gave it to? He gave it to SHAPAN, who is referred to a scribe in verse 15. Shapan took it to the king and was told to read it to him. Shapan was given the previously lost book of the law that Moses had given to Israel and read it to the King of Judah? What a great man of God!
And did you read what the king did in response to Shapan’s reading the Law of God? The King RENT HIS CLOTHES. Shapan was probably reading Deuteronomy 28 which told of what would happen to Israel if they disobeyed his laws, statutes and judgments—one of the things would be that they would be scattered in captivity. The others were curses that would come upon Israel’s disobedience. So bad were these curses, that they young king could just "rent his clothes", verse 19.
It should be pointed out that one of the sons of Shapan turned out to be a leader in the Sanhedrin of Israel--but he was a very bad leader. Do you find this to be a truth in Israel? That many of the children of excellent parents turn out to be lovers of evil!
King Josiah began the revival by destroying all of the idols, groves and other abominable things that our GOD forbids Israel from having in their hands. Later, after he died, all of this evil practices were reestablished once again. This explains why there was the image of jealously in the Temple of GOD that Ezekiel saw in the beginning of his vision.
King Josiah’s reign was the last good reign in Judah. The infant son grew up and became the one who strove to follow our GOD’s laws. He destroyed all of the evil things that were in the kingdom.
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He said also unto me, Turn thee yet again, and thou shalt see greater abominations that they do.
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Then he brought me to the door of the gate of the LORD's house which was toward the north; and, behold, there sat women weeping for Tammuz.
Ezekiel saw women weeping for Tammuz. Who was Tammuz? It goes back to the days of Nimrod. After Nimrod was killed, his wife, Semiramis, said that he had gone to the sun--i.e. that he was the sun god. She would go, after her death, to the moon--she was the moon goddess. Then she said, that shortly after Nimrod’s death, he impregnated her. She gave birth to this son on DECEMBER 25TH. His name was Tammuz.
The sun god is reborn every December 25th. His death is on December 21st. He is dead for three days and three nights. This correspnds with the amount of light that is produced from the sun in that area--December 21st is the smallest amount of light for the year--and it remains that way for three days. On the 25th of December, the amount of daylight begins to increase; thus, the sun is reborn. Does this strike a familiar ring to it? It is a fact that our Savior was NOT born on this day. Then who is mainstream Christianity worshipping?
Tammuz grew and became noted as a great hunter. While he was on a hunting trip, Tammuz was killed by a wild boar. This was the beginning of the women who were weeping for Tammuz. It was part of the pagan story. Is that why mainstream Christians eat ham, an abominable food, on the end of their weeping?
But the Catholics joined the forty days of fasting that Jesus did in the wilderness with the weeping for Tammuz. It doesn’t seem to matter to Catholics that the days of fasting in the wilderness preceded the earthly ministry of Jesus, which lasted some three and a half years, and was not connected in any way to His crucifixion and the Passover.
Now Lent is a moveable observance, connected to and preceding the festival of EASTER. Easter is another holiday that is not in the Bible, except in one misquoted passage. It is not a biblical holiday. Easter is a Roman Catholic day, that is based on the sun and the Spring or Vernal equinox. The biblical day is Passover.
If we would dig in the walls, would we find that most of America is weeping for Tammuz and worshipping the wrong gods? Would we find that America is committing greater abominations than ancient Israel?
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Then said he unto me, Hast thou seen this, O son of man? turn thee yet again, and thou shalt see greater abominations than these.
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And he brought me into the inner court of the LORD's house, and, behold, at the door of the temple of the LORD, between the porch and the altar, were about five and twenty men, with their backs toward the temple of the LORD, and their faces toward the east; and they worshipped the sun toward the east.
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Then he said unto me, Hast thou seen this, O son of man? Is it a light thing to the house of Judah that they commit the abominations which they commit here? for they have filled the land with violence, and have returned to provoke me to anger: and, lo, they put the branch to their nose.
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Therefore will I also deal in fury: mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity: and though they cry in mine ears with a loud voice, yet will I not hear them.
Ezekiel’s last trip was to see 25 priests in the House of GOD worshipping the sun! No wonder our GOD was provoked to anger; no wonder that He dealt in fury; no wonder that He would not hear them when they cried in His ears with a loud voice!
If we dig in America, would we find priests who worship the sun? I can show you a picture of a Roman Catholic priest with the “sign of the all-seeing eye” on the window of his church. In fact, you can see it on the back of our nation’s one dollar bill—Federal Reserve Note. The “all-seeing eye” is everyplace in America. Many churches, many television stations, and all kinds of logos have this symbol present.
All kinds of foreign gods are present in America today. There was an article in the Cincinnati paper that said that there is a man whose desire is to go throughout the land of America showing all the gargoyles. In this region, he found many of the grotesque’s creatures on the building in City Hall, Spring Grove Cemetery, Hughes High School, St. Francis Xavier Cathedral, St. Mary’s Cathedral Basilica and more. Why would you put such creatures on a church building or City Hall? On Churches? In Cemetaries?
All throughout America, we seen foreign gods…In New York’s Grand Terminal, built by America’s premier railroad baron, Vanderbilt, we find the god, Mercury, holding in one hand a caduceus—two serpents interwoven around a staff—isn’t that what the Medical Staff has as their insignia?
All over the country, there is Poseidon, the fish god, with gargoyles, goddesses on top of capitol buildings, gods on the top of the ceilings, many obelisks, some marking the graves of Ellen White, founder of the Seventh Day Adventists to David Rockefeller, some marking the importance to the Masonic Lodge—Washington’s obelisk; with the alternating squares of black and white tiles (Masonic floor), to the laying of the cornerstone of the United States Capitol with President George Washington in his Masonic outfit in 1793; with the re-enactment of the same ritual conducted by the Masonic Lodge in 1993; the goddess on the Statue of Liberty; statues and paintings of all-seeing eyes, Baal, Venus, Tammuz, Poseidon, Mercury, double interwoven triangles, and on and on it goes. Can we learn that our GOD is once again full of fury and anger—what is going to happen; will happen soon. We need to repent and tear our clothes!