Ezekiel 8:4-6 - Do you see what they are doing?

8:4-6

Then Ezekiel sees the glory of God. Later the glory will depart from the temple. So Ezekiel is seeing things as they are meant to be. I.e. the temple filled with the glory of God, and the people worshipping God. Instead the people have rejected God and are worshipping idols. This was bad enough, but God tells Ezekiel that he will see even worse things. We do not often talk about the jealousy of God, but it is an important part of His character. In the ten commandments, God tells us that we must not make any images and bow down to them. Why? “For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God” (Ex 20:4-6). This is the second commandment, the first is “You shall have no other gods before me” (Ex 20:3). The temple was the place where the first two commandments were being explicitly broken. God declares that this is an utterly detestable thing, an abomination. So why the jealousy? God is the only One we should worship, He is the only One worthy of worship. Idols were wood, stone and metal, incapable of doing anything. It is utter foolishness to worship them and to put our trust in them.