Exodus 20:5-7
5 you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me,
6 but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.
7 “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.
The captivity in Babylon was a dark 70 years for the covenant people. They had disobeyed their great God, time and again. Though He had revealed His complete (Echad) personality to them – even prior to the Sinai revelation (above), they had taken Him lightly. The result was predictable:
2 Chronicles 36:15-16
15 And the Lord God of their fathers sent warnings to them by His messengers, rising up early and sending them, because He had compassion on His people and on His dwelling place.
16 But they mocked the messengers of God, despised His words, and scoffed at His prophets, until the wrath of the Lord arose against His people, till there was no remedy.
Fast Forward to Ezekiel: While a vast number of Jews were already in captivity, Ezekiel the prophet was supernaturally transported back from Babylon to Jerusalem, so that he might see what God already saw.
Ezekiel 8:1-6
1 And it came to pass in the sixth year, in the sixth month, on the fifth day of the month, as I sat in my house with the elders of Judah sitting before me, that the hand of the Lord God fell upon me there.
2 Then I looked, and there was a likeness, like the appearance of fire—from the appearance of His waist and downward, fire; and from His waist and upward, like the appearance of brightness, like the color of amber.
3 He stretched out the form of a hand, and took me by a lock of my hair; and the Spirit lifted me up between earth and heaven, and brought me in visions of God to Jerusalem, to the door of the north gate of the inner court, where the seat of the image of jealousy was, which provokes to jealousy.
(“provoking to jealousy” means just that: something was being done by the people of God that was so abominable to their God, it was provoking Him to jealousy. An “image of jealousy” was/is any image set up by the people that was preferred, revered, or prioritized over God, or His ordinances)
4 And behold, the glory of the God of Israel was there, like the vision that I saw in the plain.
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.”
We looked at this verse earlier – and this word had been given to the people, earlier. It is eternal:
Exodus 20:5
5 you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me,
And later (than Ex 20, but earlier than the Ezekiel account) He had told them and acted upon His Exodus 20 word of warning.
Deuteronomy 32:20-21
20 And He said: “I will hide My face from them,
I will see what their end will be,
For they are a perverse generation,
Children in whom is no faith.
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.
All this to say – we, New Testament saints, are fully under the blood of Calvary and yet remain accountable to God, to the fullness of His word. 1 Cor 10 tells us the OT was written for our admonition, upon whom the end of the ages has come.
We can write and teach and preach and philosophize about how much He loves us unconditionally, and make believe that His holiness bows to His kindness, but that has been proven inaccurate throughout both testaments. Ask Hananiah.
Isaiah (chapter 28) tells us line must be upon line, precept upon precept. The unchanging word of God will remain radioactively active – alive and well and eternal and non-negotiable. Every jot and tittle, says/promises/decress/warns our Lord.
God, particularly in these days of escalating intensity and shaking, is calling His people to holiness, as always. And to consecration, as always. And to death to self, as always. And to pressing in to His discovering His perfect will and then walking in it, as always. Everything else is useless and will in fact prove to be useless.
“Teach us how we ought to pray” was answered by New Testament, we’re-all-under-grace Jesus, with “When you pray say…’Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven’ ”.
His will is His word.
We’re invited to consider: The order in the family. The order between husband and wife. The order in raising and instructing kids, functioning in ministry, conducting business, living life, identifying and casting down our own idols. You name it. We’re invited, in fact, into proactivity for the purposes of our success, and even more importantly Him being glorified.
Like the matter of “images of jealousy” and man’s part in their construction, this assists us in even understanding a little more clearly the concept of “abomination of desolation”. It is more than a title of something dark and ominous looming ahead in the last days, in the temple, prior to the Lord’s return to house clean His house, and His earth. It’s about false gods and even false godliness that is viewed and considered by holy-God as being so despicably abominable as to drive God away. He, being jealous, will not have that. Particularly, and now, the great Groom is revealing His jealously for His bride.
Revelation 21:24-27
24 And the nations of those who are saved shall walk in its light, and the kings of the earth bring their glory and honor into it.
25 Its gates shall not be shut at all by day (there shall be no night there).
26 And they shall bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it.
27 But there shall by no means enter it anything that defiles, or causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.
We are invited, by example, by the prophetic word yet to be fulfilled (Isa 30, below), and by our understanding of who God is, in His fullness, to consider our lives, daily, and to houseclean, daily.
Isaiah 30:20-23
20 And though the Lord gives you
The bread of adversity and the water of affliction,
Yet your teachers will not be moved into a corner anymore,
But your eyes shall see your teachers.
21 Your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying,
“This is the way, walk in it,”
Whenever you turn to the right hand
Or whenever you turn to the left.
22 You will also defile the covering of your images of silver,
And the ornament of your molded images of gold.
You will throw them away as an unclean thing;
You will say to them, “Get away!”
23 Then He will give the rain for your seed
With which you sow the ground,
And bread of the increase of the earth;
Scripture NKJV
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