Phyllis Beveridge Nissila

“Ezekiel 8 Pattern”?

By an Ezekiel 8 Pattern, what I wonder is, are we in a time such as in the days of the Old Testament prophet Ezekiel when a certain pattern emerged that began with a revelation of the wickedness going on within the very Temple walls, though hidden to most people, followed by the prophet’s warning to God’s people that if they did not repent of the depravities revealed therein and return to Him, the consequences of their sin would commence–attacks by the Babylonians and the destruction of Jerusalem.

It seems we are in such a pattern now, in real time, because in any era, there comes a time even for God that enough is enough of killing, stealing, and destroying (not to mention worshipping all manner of idols, both figuratively and literally speaking).

In Part 2, tomorrow, I pay particular attention to one of those heretofore “hidden places,” the very blood keeping the highest of God’s creations, made “in His image“: you and me.

After all, “life is in the blood,” and if manipulated by our real enemy, Satan (and his cohorts in the flesh, for he can only steal, kill, and destroy by proxy, meaning through our cooperation), he did and will bring death there, but only for a time, another of God’s creations.

However, the better and more powerful revelation was, and is still, that for all those who did heed God then–and now–and accept the need for repentance and returning He provides redemption for ever (see more on this in several places, below).

In the prophet’s day, it was to be both temporal and eternal by an historic return from captivity in Babylon to Jerusalem, where both city and temple would be restored.

In our day, prophecy scholars suggest our redemption will take another form.

Some believe mankind with God’s help will restore our land to its former glory. Others believe we are in the time of an imminent supernatural event called the Rapture. See what you think.

However, one way or another, however, God has promised, in such a time as this, to “shorten the days for the sake of the elect”.

To Today

I often think that we are in the roil of this kind of pattern where every day, it seems, revelation upon revelation of what wickedness has been going on in all facets of human life (physical, spiritual, psychological, governmental, educational, and social), even non-believers are noting a certain “apocalyptic” tone, darkness, and danger to all of it as it converges, roaring, like the amassing of a super-cell tornado, or like Tennyson’s poem, “The Kraken,” discussed here in a timeless application.

In particular, however, and to the first point of this post: Here is what was taking place in Ezekiel’s day–inside the vast walls of the Temple itself (let alone in the secular world of that time) and what is arguably happening today in various way in both arenas.

But far, far worse, I believe a case can be made that the most hidden of all places is under seige, i.e., inside the very lifestream of our blood (don’t miss Part 2).

But to the original description:

Idolatry in the Temple

8 In the sixth year, in the sixth month on the fifth day, while I was sitting in my house and the elders of Judah were sitting before me, the hand of the Sovereign Lord came on me there. ² I looked, and I saw a figure like that of a man.^[a] From what appeared to be his waist down he was like fire, and from there up his appearance was as bright as glowing metal. ³ He stretched out what looked like a hand and took me by the hair of my head. The Spirit lifted me up between earth and heaven and in visions of God he took me to Jerusalem, to the entrance of the north gate of the inner court, where the idol that provokes to jealousy stood. ⁴ And there before me was the glory of the God of Israel, as in the vision I had seen in the plain.

⁵ Then he said to me, “Son of man, look toward the north.” So I looked, and in the entrance north of the gate of the altar I saw this idol of jealousy.

⁶ And he said to me, “Son of man, do you see what they are doing—the utterly detestable things the Israelites are doing here, things that will drive me far from my sanctuary? But you will see things that are even more detestable.” [In today’s language: “You ain’t seen nothin’ yet!”]

⁷ Then he brought me to the entrance to the court. I looked, and I saw a hole in the wall. ⁸ He said to me, “Son of man, now dig into the wall.” So I dug into the wall and saw a doorway there.

⁹ And he said to me, “Go in and see the wicked and detestable things they are doing here.” ¹⁰ So I went in and looked, and I saw portrayed all over the walls all kinds of crawling things and unclean animals and all the idols of Israel. ¹¹ In front of them stood seventy elders of Israel, and Jaazaniah son of Shaphan was standing among them. Each had a censer in his hand, and a fragrant cloud of incense was rising.

¹² He said to me, “Son of man, have you seen what the elders of Israel are doing in the darkness, each at the shrine of his own idol? They say, ‘The Lord does not see us; the Lord has forsaken the land.’” ¹³ Again, he said, “You will see them doing things that are even more detestable.”

¹⁴ Then he brought me to the entrance of the north gate of the house of the Lord, and I saw women sitting there, mourning the god Tammuz. ¹⁵ He said to me, “Do you see this, son of man? You will see things that are even more detestable than this.”

¹⁶ He then brought me into the inner court of the house of the Lord, and there at the entrance to the temple, between the portico and the altar, were about twenty-five men. With their backs toward the temple of the Lord and their faces toward the east, they were bowing down to the sun in the east.

¹⁷ He said to me, “Have you seen this, son of man? Is it a trivial matter for the people of Judah to do the detestable things they are doing here? Must they also fill the land with violence and continually arouse my anger? Look at them putting the branch to their nose! ¹⁸ Therefore I will deal with them in anger; I will not look on them with pity or spare them. Although they shout in my ears, I will not listen to them.” continue reading…