“Then God said to me, “Mortal man, lift up your eyes now in the direction of the north.” So, I raised my eyes toward the north and at the entrance to the Alter Gate stood an Idol, and it enraged the Lord’s jealousy.” – Ezekiel 8:5

One day, while Ezekiel was meeting with the elders of Jerusalem, the spirit of the Lord came over him and swept him into a vision. In the vision, an angelic being, whose appearance was of pure blue flames from the waist down and gleaming amber from the waist up, grabbed Ezekiel by the hair on his head and lifted him into the air. Then the spirit transported him to the Lord’s temple in Jerusalem. There, in the temple courtyard, stood erect an idol in the image of a false god. God then said to him, “Mortal man, do you see what they are doing? Do you see the great abominations that the house of Israel is committing here? Do you see how they drive me far from my sanctuary? Yet you will see still greater abominations” (Ezekiel 8:6).

After He said this to Ezekiel, the Lord brought Ezekiel to the entrance of the court, where he saw a hole in the wall. Ezekiel was instructed to dig into the hole until it was big enough to reveal a doorway, and then to go in and observe what was taking place in the inner rooms of the temple. The inner room was filled with all kinds of idols that were carved in the image of animals. He saw seventy elders worshipping and praying to the idols. Then the Lord said to Ezekiel, “Mortal man, do you see now what the elders of the house of Israel are doing in the dark, hiding in their room of images? And they say, ‘The Lord does not see us…’ Come, I will show you even greater abominations that they are committing” (Ezekiel 8:12).

The Lord continued Ezekiel’s tour of His temple, revealing to him every evil thing God saw taking place. Next, he was taken to the entrance of the North Gate, where he witnessed women weeping and crying out to Tammuz, a false goddess of fertility. The next stop on the tour was to the inner court of the temple. There Ezekiel saw 25 men standing with their backs to the temple, worshiping the sun god. The Lord said to him, “Do you see, mortal man? Is it not bad enough that the house of Judah commits the abominations done here? Must they also fill the land with violence, and provoke my anger continuously? They go too far, for they are putting a twig to their nose! They force my wrath. My eye will not spare, nor will I have pity; and though they cry out in my hearing with a loud voice, I will not listen to them” (Ezekiel 8:17-18).

The Temple was God’s sacred house on earth. It was a place where all were welcomed and could worship the one true God – the God of Israel. One of the gravest sins we see throughout the Old Testament is the defilement of God’s temple. We see the offensive defilement of God’s temple being repeated with each generation. In 2 Chronicles 33, we read about King Manasseh, who, rather than worshipping the Lord, chose to erect Asherah poles throughout the temple and kingdom. The Asherah pole is most likely the idol we first encountered in Ezekiel’s vision when the angel brought him to the Alter Gate. King Manasseh also set up in God’s temple carved images he had made. His descent into pagan worship included consulting psychics, practicing witchcraft, and sacrificing his own sons to Baal. Throughout this encounter, we see God’s grace and His continual pleading with Israel to repent. Because King Manasseh refused to repent, God eventually gave Israel over to the Assyrian armies.

Let us juxtapose Manasseh with his father, Hezekiah. Hezekiah ordered the temple to be cleansed. “The appointed Levites gathered together and purified themselves. Then they began to purify the Temple of the Lord, just as the king had commanded. They were careful to follow all the Lord’s instructions in their work. The priests went into the sanctuary of the Temple to cleanse it, and they removed all the defiled things they found in temple and disposed of those defiled things in the Kidron Valley” (2 Chronicles 29:15-16). After the cleansing of the temple, Hezekiah rededicated it to the Lord, worshipped God, and prepared to celebrate Passover.

Scripture teaches us that our bodies are the temple of God, that the Spirit of God dwells in us. I wonder, if God took me on a tour of my own heart – what would I see? How closely would it represent the vision of idolatry that Ezekiel saw in the temple? Perhaps, the encounter would read something like this:

The Lord took me to the gate of my heart where I saw an idol; it was a tall statue, having a likeness of form similar to myself. “Do you see, my beloved, it is an idol raised from your pride. It stands at the entrance, because by it you have allowed many defiled things into your heart. Now come, there is more I must show you.” Then God led me into the temple and showed me several dark and hidden rooms.

The first hidden room was filled with pictures of people I idolized or relationships I prioritized over my relationship with God. He led me to the next room where I saw all my earthly and most prized possessions, extending from wall to wall. He beckoned me to the next room, but I did not want to go, because in that hidden room was a pedestal and on it was the lusts of my flesh. He pulled me onward into another room with a podium holding my educational degrees, my paychecks, and all my worldly successes. My heart fell, as I realized how often I desired all the things represented in these hidden rooms more than God. “Do you see, my beloved, all the things you try to hide in the dark? But they are not a secret to me. Come I have one more thing to show you.”

Then the Lord led me outside. There I saw what looked to be myself standing with my back towards God, bowing before an image of the world and worshipping the ways of the world. Politics, science, religion, fame, and reason. I suddenly became aware of how I was trusting in the ways of the world and my own strength, rather than placing my trust in God, alone. That is when the Lord said to me, “Do you see this, my beloved? I have chosen you. I have made a covenant with you through my beloved son, Jesus; but you keep turning away and worshipping idols. You are not putting me first. You are not living in surrender to my grace. Why do you drive me far away from my home? Why am I having to share my rightful place with these fake gods of yours? It is time to repent. It is time clean house.”

What a thing to behold, the jealous love of God, a love that is willing to go any distance to restore us to Himself. If God took you on a tour of your own heart, what would you find? Like King Hezekiah, perhaps it is time we purify our temples. Perhaps it is time we renounce all those little fake gods we have hiding in the dark rooms of our heart – those gods that bring us a false sense of comfort, security, identity, belonging, or fulfillment – and take them out to valley of Kidron, literally the valley of graves, where it can be put to death once and for all. Jesus is the only God we need. He is our comfort and security. In Jesus, we have our true identity, our belonging, and our purpose. Looks like we have some house cleaning to do!