Ezekiel 8:7 – And he brought me to the door of the court; and when I looked, behold a hole in the wall.

Ezekiel 8:8 – Then said he unto me, Son of man, dig now in the wall: and when I had digged in the wall, behold a door.

Ezekiel 8:9 – And he said unto me, Go in, and behold the wicked abominations that they do here.

Hello readers, do a little digging. Today I’m blogging from Ezekiel 8. Ezekiel’s sitting in his house and the elders of Judah come and sit before him to have a chat. Well that’s a nice scene. They want to hear from God, it’s like they’re truly interested in the word of God and obeying it and honoring and glorifying God. Have you ever wanted to see things for what they truly are? We need to see things for what they truly are, first and foremost in our own heart and in our own life. And that’s what God’s word is for. God’s word takes you there just as God took Ezekiel to a place where he could see everything that was going on in Jerusalem for what it really was. God’s word exposes, it digs, and when you dig, you see stuff, and Ezekiel saw stuff. We need to see some stuff in our lives, and get some sight for what’s going on in the world around us so we can walk circumspectly, as wise and not as fools as the Bible says.

It all seemed so good, the elders seemed so sincere, here we are to have a chat about God. I’ve gotten into some debates and dialogues recently, and I’m seeing how much a waste of time so many of them are. It just ends up in foolishness. I remember this verse, Paul speaking to Timothy, his son in the faith. 2 Timothy 2:14 – Of these things put them in remembrance, charging them before the Lord that they strive not about words to no profit, but to the subverting of the hearers. Often engaging in vain dialogue with people about God, about the Bible and so on, they’re not really interested in God’s word or honoring and glorifying him with their lives. It’s all just a mockery. It’s all well and good to see out the man of God, the word of God, but when he tells you what you don’t want to hear, are you going to heed it? They always did that with the prophets, that’s why they always killed the prophets of God, because they wouldn’t tell them what they wanted to hear but what God said… and because they were invariably in sin, it was always pretty negative stuff. And we know that people in the pews of chuches today also don’t like much negative stuff.

The thing is, just like with Ezekiel, we need God in order to see what’s really going on. God was going to show Ezekiel what was really going on back at Jerusalem. Let’s peel back the layers of religion a bit. Let’s do a little bit of digging. After all, Judah had come under God’s judgment through allowing Babylon to repeatedly conquer them. They’re in the place they’re in in life because of their sin. But they’re still playing religion. They were a religious people for sure, but they were a people who’s heart was often far from God.  As Jesus said in Matthew 15:8 – This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me. But before we condemn them, often we are in the same case.

It takes the Holy Spirit of God for us to get spiritual sight, for us to get understanding and wisdom and knowledge, to see things for what they are. So many people live without the illumination and enlightenment that God brings to our hearts and minds when we get saved, and when abide in God’s word. The Holy Spirit quickens us, that means to make alive, because without the Spirit of God, there is no quickening. Ezekiel experienced a quickening, he was in the presence of the elders, and then he’s at Jerusalem and about to do a little bit of digging, because God was going to show him who and what he was dealing with. On face value it all can look pretty ok, but inside there’s nothing to it.

Ezekiel was a man to whom God’s word had been revealed. For many people today, God’s word is not revealed to them. It’s because of where there heart is at, God knows your heart, his word discerns your heart, he reads you far more than you read him. He knows our wicked heart… and he can change that wicked heart if we manage to find a place in our lives of acknowledging some hard truths about ourselves… hard truths we need to see, and that’s the whole point of doing some digging. It’s not to deep in my life that you have to dig to start finding issues and sin, and I’m sure it’s not much digging required to find the holes in your life either.

There were a lot of Jews, but not many spiritual Jews… there weren’t many who actually sought to glorify and honour and obey God in their own lives. That’s the real problem. All the debates and dialogues would go away if we all just really wanted to obey God’s word in our lives. They sure did have outward religion though, they had their temple and their praise and worship services going but they were just as empty as the praise and worship going on today. Praise and worship without the Spirit of God reality. You can shake the ground as the Hebrews did in 1 Samuel… just before the Philistines conquered them and the ark was taken. Maybe your religion is all outward like theirs, and that’s why you and I need to do a little digging. Garbage needs to be dug out of our life. It needs to be found, exposed, the hole in our profession and our lives located, and we need to take it to Jesus, the healer of the breach.

The scary question is… what would we find if we did a little digging in each other’s lives? There’s lots of stuff there that people don’t know about each one of us, but God sees everything. Not many live a life “in the sight of God”. I was recently thinking about how people say God is imaginary, but his word is anything but imaginary, why do people hate and persecute God’s word and all those who abide in it… because it’s not as imaginary as they would like. God’s word isn’t imaginary when it’s biting into your conscience and digging at the hole in the wall of your life.

What don’t people know about you, that if they knew, would change everything? Everything changed when Ezekiel dug through the wall and got a look in at what was going on inside. God is more interested in inside than outside. Christianity is the religion of the heart. Nobody knows the heart or can change the heart like God can. There’s so much going on that is unseen to those around us, and truly only you may know, but God certainly knows. God’s word gave Ezekiel spiritual sight, he got a look in at what was really going on in the religious system, he saw that inside people’s hearts and worship was not a heart toward God, but a back toward God.

The problem with sin today is that it’s so much more accessible and easy to pursue. Where once upon a day sin required a trip to the local brothel, nowdays sin is at the end of your fingertips and the click of a button. Many take part in the abominations just like that were going on in Ezekiel’s day. God would send men through Jerusalem to mark those who weren’t part of all the abominations going on there, and if you weren’t marked, you were going to be killed. Abominations get into our lives, and they’re going to cost us. You know what people have a battle with today? Images. You read the Old Testament and you see images popping up time and time again. Images brought a lot of trouble, and in this story there was the seat of the image of jealously in the entry at Jerusalem. You see, in our entry place to our lives, there are images there. It’s amazing how sin can get in to our lives and there’s no way around it. It’s there and must be dealt with as it’s troubling our whole life. You can’t just sin in isolation and leave it and it’s consequences.

We all need to get rid of images just like the good kinds of Judah did, they threw and broke them down. It can be a false image of God, of Jesus Christ, of truth. It can be the imaginations of our heart, sinful thoughts and desires. Those images need to be gone, because they’re what’s bringing God’s wrath on our lives. Today’s images are things like pornography. Pornography is images, think of the graphy part of the word. Those kind of images trouble a born again child of God and an unbelieving world to say the least. Those images get into your imagery, and those images plunge many a man into a life of sin, giving way to a heart that desires upon those images… and your worship is always ruined because that image is always there right in the entry place. What should be a worship place to God, what should be a life of service to God… it’s a life serving those images in your head.

Here’s an amazing truth. There was a hole in the wall, and what a picture today for us to think on. Is there a hole in the wall of your life? Does your Christianity have holes? You see, you may have a wall up in your life, a wall of a profession of salvation, a wall of a profession of Christianity. But there’s a hole in it, something’s wrong, God’s put a hole in your wall. When there’s a hole in your wall, it’s not that much of a wall. And it’s a hole that’s growing wider every day. Maybe there’s a hole in your worship. A hole in your praise. A hole in your heart. Something’s wrong. It’s by God’s grace that there is that hole there. That hole is telling you something isn’t quite right. And that’s exactly where God got Ezekiel to do the digging. Most people don’t like that black hole in their heart to get scraped at and dug away at. Sinners don’t like getting rebuked or reproved for their sin. We find it uncomfortable when we get confronted with truth. That’s all of us, our nature is to avoid and to justify and to excuse.

Through that hole in the wall was all manner of abominations that was going in Jerusalem. It’s amazing how a tiny hole in your obedience and faith and dedication to God can result in such a massive lie of a life. That hole in your life may be because of compromising on truth, it may just be a little leaven of false doctrine… whatever it is, a small hole can lead to gigantic issues. Because there were a whole boatload of issues inside that house. Inside the house of God was all manner of abominations. God’s house! See, the problem in this world isn’t in that the world is wicked, for it always has been and always will be until Christ returns. The problem is the Christians! It’s God’s people that are the problem, just like the Jews were the problem back then! They were meant to be a light to the nations… and they were anything but. We are meant to shine as lights in this world, but we’ve been overcome by darkness. We’ve lost our salt and light, because the salt and light goes when you choose the path of rebellion. Jesus said if the salt lost its savor, it’d be good for nothing but to be cast out and trodden under foot of men. We’ve lost our salt and our light because God’s put a hole in the wall of our fake religion. God’s not going to bless disobedience, we want him to, but he won’t.

You know, as Ezekiel saw greater and greater abominations, he saw men with their backs toward God. People have turned their back on God… that’s going on right now. They turned their back on the Bible, on truth, on righteousness, on holiness, on the Lord Jesus Christ. Sure, there still is the facade and tradition and exercise of worship and praise and service, just as there was here, but really, it’s just empty and dead worship. And God’s not fooled by our fake lives.

When a little digging is done into our lives, then there is a seeing. After Ezekiel dug, he saw. If he hadn’t dug, he wouldn’t have seen anything. If he hadn’t obeyed God, he wouldn’t have seen anything. You’re only going to start seeing in life when you first of all obey God. Abraham didn’t see what God was going to do, but he trusted God and obeyed him… then he saw God’s provision of the lamb. People don’t like God’s word because it digs out the truth. Ezekiel was going to see the truth. Digging through the wall of lies to the truth can sometimes be hard work. We need God’s word to dig out all the rubbish and junk that’s going on in us. We think we are so good, but we’re no good. Maybe you’ve made the outward look pretty good, your wall says Christian, your wall says believer, your wall says good person… and maybe you’re putting on a pretty good show… but what really is going on is as ugly as all the abominations that Ezekiel ended up beholding.

After the digging, the seeing. There was an exposing of sin, there was a seeing the true state of things. That’s what we all need. Why do you think the Bible is so persecuted? People don’t want the digging and the seeing. They don’t want who and what they truly are brought to light, much less dealt with. Here are the elders of Jerusalem come to see Ezekiel and it really is all a joke. Did they really want to know the truth? So many people say they’re seeking truth and want to do right… but they aren’t. God’s showing Ezekiel, don’t be fooled, here, here is what’s really going on, I’m going to peel back the facade of religion and let you see what’s really going on Ezekiel.

Wouldn’t you love to see and know what’s really going on? We firstly need the truth about ourselves, and when that’s in place, God can use us to impact others for Christ and bring truth and light to other people’s lives. But we need to be in the truth first. Ezekiel needed the truth first, he needed God’s word, it was through the word of God and the Spirit of God that he saw things for what they truly were and set  his thinking straight.

How does our life stand up to the digging of God’s word? What gets dug up that’s really there that we’ve got hidden away, where we think we’ve fooled others, and even fooled ourselves? See, as much as they were deceiving, they were also deceived. The thing that made Ezekiel different from the others that were there was that he had God’s word, he heard his word, he listened, he believed and he obeyed it. The others had lip profession, but their heart was not even remotely after God’s heart.

God said… see what they’re doing in the dark? See, people are in the dark. Christians are in the dark. It’s possible to be religious, and in darkness. Inside there was spiritual darkness. In the chambers of his imagery… their imaginations were full of abominations. If we got honest about our thought life, it’s pretty damn ugly isn’t it. Imagine if your imaginations were portrayed on a wall for everyone else to read. God’s word reads you. Your life is reading like a book to others as well. What epistle are they reading? Are they reading the epistle of a fake Christian, a hypocrite?

You need God in that hole in your life. He can fix the hole in the wall and everything that’s gotten inside your heart and mind and desires and life. What can change our desire but God? The problem with getting into sin and feeding our sinful nature is that it’s appetite and desire to be gratified grows. The more you cater to your flesh, the more it demands. The religious system of Israel was a joke, it was empty, devoid of spiritual reality and life, it was devoid of God himself… all they had was a building and a mates club. And hint, just because heaps of people are doing the same as you doesn’t make it right. The majority were all part of this, it wasn’t just one person, it was the majority who were all complicit and accomplice to what was going on. They were all joined hand in hand in sin, and when others are doing wrong we get to thinking we’re not so bad. We have this safety in numbers and validity by consensus mentality. We’re like sheep. But God’s word  is the standard, and at the end of your life you’ll be judged against God’s word, not against how better or worse you think you were compared to your peers.

I noticed a key statement in here that they said in their hearts that the Lord seeth us not, the Lord hath forsaken the earth. Whenever we sin, it’s because this lie is in our hearts. Maybe it’s in you subconscious, but you really live like it’s not real even though you say it’s real. If you really believed God was real and true, you would be a little hesitant before pursuing those images, before pursuing the abominations in your life. We’re not the first generation to think God isn’t real, God doesn’t exist… these guys were thinking it back then. Religious people truly thought this in their heart despite the outward religious rigmarole and going through the motions and doing what we’re supposed to do type attitude.

It’s amazing how God’s word brings sight. Ezekiel was doing digging and seeing. He saw the truth. You get in God’s word and truth is going to come flooding into your life. Do you want it? It was just Ezekiel digging, not those elders that had come to see him. A lot of people don’t want to see the truth, that’s the fact. They rather lies and ignorance of truth. Only Ezekiel was digging, only Ezekiel was seeing. Who wants to do some digging with the word of God into their own lives, who wants to see the truth? Maybe you should do some digging in your own life in the light of God’s word. That’s where we should all start.

Judgment must first begin at the house of God the Bible says. If we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. Judgment was coming fast to this people, just a turn of the page away… God was real, God did very much exist, even if they had grown so apathetic and complacent and familiar and contemptuous of God in their life. And that’s what it ultimately was, they were showing contempt for the whole deal, they were doing all this abomination stuff in God’s house. If you want to find abominations, they’re going on in churches and church communities today… maybe you don’t see it from the outside, they’ve got their religious veneer wall up. But there’s a hole in it. Make sure there’s not a hole in the wall of your Christian or good person profession. Behind that profession and exterior and billboard and signage is often a very ugly truth. We all have an ugly truth, and Jesus came to save us from inside out from sin. It’s time to do a little digging, get in God’s word, and let him dig out and expose and cleanse and deal with and save you from what’s rotting your life from inside out.

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