Ezekiel 8

Our Father is jealous for HIS creation. He wants us to choose His love for us and to love Him in return. 

Have we allowed the things of this world to become our idol?

BUT…

We have no other Father. 

We are created in His image. 

He offers us an eternity with Him. 

He will not share His glory with false idols.

We must choose to accept His gift of salvation or reject it. The choice is ours to make!

jealous | ˈjeləs |

adjective

• feeling or showing suspicion of someone's unfaithfulness in a relationship
• (of God) demanding faithfulness and exclusive worship.

This is the essence of Ezekiel’s vision: The idolatry in the temple has driven Yahweh away. Faithlife Bible.

The people thought that just because the temple stood among them, whatever wrong they might do could not bring ultimate disaster. They thought the temple guaranteed their security. They did not realize that their evil had actually caused God to leave His temple, which would then no longer be their protection. NKJ Bible.

The statue which provokes the Lord’s outrage against the insults of his own people; perhaps the statue of the goddess Asherah set up by Manasseh, king of Judah (cf. 2 Kgs 21:7; 2 Chr 33:7, 15). Although his successor, Josiah, had removed it (2 Kgs 23:6), the statue may have been set up again after his death. Catholic Bible.

Ezekiel 8:5–6 (NKJV)

⁵ Then He said to me, “Son of man, lift your eyes now toward the north.” So I lifted my eyes toward the north, and there, north of the altar gate, was this image of jealousy in the entrance.

⁶ Furthermore He said to me, “Son of man, do you see what they are doing, the great abominations that the house of Israel commits here, to make Me go far away from My sanctuary? Now turn again, you will see greater abominations.”

Ezekiel 8:17–18 (NKJV)

¹⁷ And He said to me, “Have you seen this, O son of man? Is it a trivial thing to the house of Judah to commit the abominations which they commit here? For they have filled the land with violence; then they have returned to provoke Me to anger. Indeed they put the branch to their nose. ¹⁸ Therefore I also will act in fury. My eye will not spare nor will I have pity; and though they cry in My ears with a loud voice, I will not hear them.”

Deuteronomy 32:21 (NKJV)

²¹ They have provoked Me to jealousy by what is not God;

They have moved Me to anger by their foolish idols.

But I will provoke them to jealousy by those who are not a nation;

I will move them to anger by a foolish nation.