IDOLS & INIQUITY

Lesson: Ezekiel 14:1-8     Other Readings: 1 Jn. 1:8-10; Prov. 1:23-33

The prophet Ezekiel lived and ministered about 2,600 years ago, in the days of the Jewish exile in Babylonia. Yet, the truth and relevance of his message are timeless, and therefore pertinent to us today. This lesson deals with things that separate us from God and his blessings. Oddly enough, the things that do this today are the same ones that did it back then: idols and iniquity.

Idols are things we worship or esteem in place of God. The word idolatry may conjure up thoughts of pagans bowed before carved images of wood or stone. Often though, the worship is less formal, the altar is man's heart, and the idol is "self." Whenever we put our desires ahead of God, we become worshippers of ourselves. In our lesson, certain elders of Israel had set up idols in their hearts. The Lord said they had become estranged from Him, meaning they had become alienated from His affections. Yet they came with the apparent intention of "inquiring" of God.

These same men are described by Ezekiel as having put "the stumbling block of iniquity" before their faces. Whereas once they had a clear and direct view of God, now their sin had come between them and obstructed their vision. Perhaps there is no more sad or lonely time than when a person's view of the Savior is obscured by his own sin. Indeed, Is. 59:2 says "But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear."

Attempting to ask God for anything (except forgiveness) while in such a state of idolatry and iniquity is pure folly. Verse 8 of the lesson tells us that God's reaction was to set His face against that man, to make him a sign and a proverb, and to cut him off from the midst of His people. These are terrible, disastrous consequences that should be avoided at all cost.

The remedy? Verse 6 contains the message God told Ezekiel to deliver to them: "Repent, and turn yourselves from your idols, and turn away your faces from all your abominations" (verse 11) ".. .that the house of Israel may go no more astray from me, neither be polluted any more with all their transgressions; but that they may be my people, and I may be their God, saith the Lord God."

Another often-quoted passage, II Chr. 7:14, puts it this way: "If my people who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and forgive their sin, and heal their land."

Questions for thought and discussion

1. What does the word "repent" mean, and what does it involve?

2.  Why should a saved person have to repent even after their conversion?

3.How is repentance for a saved person different than repentance for an unsaved person?

4.What happens if a saved person refuses to repent?