Commentary - Ezekiel 8:7-13

Bird's-eye view

In this portion of Ezekiel's vision, the prophet is given a tour of the profound spiritual rot that has taken root in Jerusalem, and specifically among its leaders. This is not an exposé of the sins of the rabble, but rather a divine revelation of the high-handed rebellion festering in the very heart of Israel's covenant life, the temple precincts. God is prosecuting His covenant lawsuit, and Ezekiel is His appointed court reporter. The passage reveals a key principle: public apostasy is always preceded by private idolatry. The leaders of Israel had constructed a plausible public facade, all while engaging in the most grotesque forms of pagan worship in secret. This vision peels back the drywall to show the termite infestation. The progression is from a hint of something wrong (a hole in the wall) to a full-blown revelation of systemic, leadership-driven idolatry. It is a stark reminder that what is done in the dark will be brought into the light by a God who is not mocked.

The scene is a spiritual spelunking expedition, with God as the guide. He leads Ezekiel deeper and deeper into the abominations, showing him not just outward acts but the theological rationalizations that fuel them. The elders believe they are hidden, that God is either blind or absent. This is the foundational lie of all sin. They have exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and the result is a worship that is both pathetic and profoundly wicked. This passage is a divine indictment of all attempts to compartmentalize our lives, to maintain a form of godliness while denying its power, and to believe that our secret sins are secret from the One to whom all hearts are open.

Outline

Context In Ezekiel

Ezekiel chapter 8 is a pivotal moment in the book. The prophet, having been commissioned in the opening chapters, is now transported by the Spirit from his exile in Babylon to Jerusalem itself. This is not a physical journey, but a spiritual one, "in the visions of God." The purpose is to show Ezekiel, and through him the exiles, precisely why the impending judgment on Jerusalem is so thoroughly just. The glory of God is preparing to depart from the Temple (which it does in chapter 10), and this chapter provides the grounds for that departure. God is abandoning His house because His people have already abandoned Him, turning His house into a den of idols.

This section (chapters 8-11) forms a cohesive unit detailing the corruption in the Temple and the subsequent departure of the divine glory. The vision in chapter 8 unfolds in four stages, each revealing a "greater abomination" than the last. Our passage constitutes the second of these visions. It follows the "image of jealousy" at the outer gate and precedes the vision of women weeping for Tammuz and men worshipping the sun. The placement is significant; it shows that the rot is not just at the fringes, but has penetrated the inner sanctum and involves the nation's appointed leadership.

Verse by Verse Commentary

v. 7 Then He brought me to the entrance of the court, and when I looked, behold, a hole in the wall.

God is leading the prophet. Ezekiel is not on some freelance investigation; he is being guided by the Lord Himself. This is a divine disclosure. He is brought to the entrance of the court, a place that should be dedicated to the holy worship of Yahweh. And what does he see? Not grandeur, not holiness, but a structural flaw, a breach. A hole in the wall. Sin is always a breach. It is a breaking of the boundaries God has established for our good. It is a violation of the integrity of a structure. Here, it is literal. The holiness of God's house has been compromised, and the evidence begins with this small, seemingly insignificant hole. But holes are invitations. They suggest that what you see on the surface is not the whole story. There is something behind the wall, something hidden that has created this opening.

v. 8 He said to me, “Son of man, now dig through the wall.” So I dug through the wall, and behold, an entrance.

God does not just show Ezekiel the problem; He commands him to participate in the uncovering. "Dig through the wall." This is the prophetic task. It is not enough to note the surface-level cracks in a culture or a church. The prophet must dig. He must expose what lies behind the facade. This is hard, dirty work. It is deconstruction, but not in the postmodern sense. This is a holy deconstruction, a tearing down of plaster and pretense to get at the truth. Ezekiel's obedience is immediate. "So I dug through the wall." And his labor is rewarded, not with a treasure, but with a terrible revelation: "an entrance." The small hole was just the beginning. Behind the wall, there is a hidden way, a secret passage into the real spiritual life of Israel's leaders.

v. 9 And He said to me, “Go in and see the evil abominations that they are doing here.”

The command to dig is followed by the command to enter. God wants Ezekiel to be an eyewitness. He is to go right into the heart of their secret sin. Notice the Lord's description: "evil abominations." This is not a simple misstep or a minor theological error. The word abomination (toebah in Hebrew) is one of the strongest biblical terms for idolatry. It denotes something that is utterly repugnant and detestable to God. And where are they doing this? "Here." In the precincts of His own temple. This is high-handed, defiant sin. It is like a man bringing his mistress into his marital bed. The location makes the sin infinitely more heinous.

v. 10 So I entered and looked, and behold, every form of creeping things and beasts and detestable things, with all the idols of the house of Israel, were carved on the wall all around.

Ezekiel obeys, and what he sees is a gallery of grotesqueries. The walls of this secret chamber are not bare. They are a perverse art exhibit, a systematic rejection of the Second Commandment. "Every form of creeping things and beasts and detestable things." This has the distinct flavor of Egyptian idolatry, with its animal-headed deities. Israel had been delivered from Egypt, but they had carried Egypt in their hearts. They had turned the holy place into a zoo of pagan gods. These are not just any idols, but "all the idols of the house of Israel." This is comprehensive apostasy. The leadership has embraced the whole pantheon. They have wallpapered their secret room with every god but the true God. This is what you get when you reject the Creator; you do not get nothing, you get everything. You get a cluttered, chaotic, and debased menagerie of creeping things.

v. 11 Standing in front of them were seventy elders of the house of Israel, with Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan standing among them, each man with his censer in his hand and the fragrance of the cloud of incense rising.

And who is participating in this sordid worship? Not some fringe cult, but the establishment. Seventy elders. This number is significant; it recalls the seventy elders appointed to assist Moses (Numbers 11). They were meant to be the spiritual backbone of the nation. Instead, they are the ringleaders of its apostasy. The inclusion of Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan is particularly shocking. Shaphan was the scribe who had helped King Josiah in his great reforms (2 Kings 22). A man from a godly heritage is now a leader in this occult worship. This shows how quickly apostasy can set in, even in the best of families. And they are actively worshipping. Each has a censer, and the cloud of incense is rising. Incense in Scripture represents prayer and worship. Here, their prayers are rising, but not to Yahweh. They are offering up sweet-smelling adoration to carved reptiles. This is the essence of idolatry: giving the glory due to God to something He created, and in this case, to the lower forms of creation.

v. 12 Then He said to me, “Son of man, do you see what the elders of the house of Israel are doing in the dark, each man in the room of his carved images? For they say, ‘Yahweh does not see us; Yahweh has forsaken the land.’ ”

God now provides the theological commentary. He asks a rhetorical question: "do you see...?" Of course Ezekiel sees, but God wants to make sure he understands the full import. This is what the elders are doing "in the dark." Sin loves the darkness because it is a work of darkness. But God brings His own light. Then we get to the heart of the matter, the idolater's creed. They have a two-part justification for their sin. First, practical atheism: "Yahweh does not see us." They have reduced the omniscient God of the universe to a blind tribal deity who cannot see through drywall. This is the fool's hope, as the psalmist says, "He will not call to account" (Psalm 10:13). Second, they engage in victim-blaming theology: "Yahweh has forsaken the land." They project their own covenant unfaithfulness onto God. They forsook Him, but they twist the narrative to say He forsook them. This provides the justification they need. If God is gone, then all bets are off. We can do as we please. This is the lie that fuels all rebellion.

v. 13 And He said to me, “Yet you will see still greater abominations which they are doing.”

Just when you think it cannot get any worse, God tells Ezekiel that this is not the bottom. "You will see still greater abominations." Sin is a spiral, and it always leads downward. One compromise leads to another, and one abomination is always surpassed by the next. The secret idolatry of the elders, as foul as it is, is just one layer of the onion. God is going to peel back more layers to show the full extent of the rot. This is a terrifying principle, but also a merciful one. God is showing the prophet the full measure of the sin so that the full necessity of the judgment will be understood. God's judgments are never arbitrary; they are the righteous response to the settled rebellion of men's hearts.

Application

The human heart is a factory of idols, as Calvin said, and this passage is a divine tour of one of the factory floors. The first and most obvious application is that secret sin is a myth. The elders thought they were safe in their hidden chamber, but God saw everything. He sees through our walls, our passwords, and our carefully constructed rationalizations. The idea that we can have a public, respectable Christian life while nursing a secret life of sin in the dark is a damnable lie. God is not interested in our external conformity; He demands truth in the inward parts (Psalm 51:6).

Second, notice the complicity of the leadership. It was the elders, the seventy of them, who were leading this charge into darkness. When the leaders of God's people go astray, the flock is in mortal danger. This is why the standards for elders in the New Testament are so high. We must pray for our leaders, and we must hold them accountable, because their secret sins do not remain secret for long. They eventually leak out and poison the entire community.

Finally, we must confront the idolater's creed in our own hearts. How often do we act as though God does not see? How often do we, in times of trial, accuse God of having forsaken us, and use that as an excuse to seek comfort in our own carved idols, be they money, sex, power, or approval? The gospel is the answer to this. God has not forsaken us. In fact, He has done the opposite. He sent His own Son, Jesus Christ, "in the likeness of sinful flesh" (Rom 8:3) to deal with our idolatry once and for all. He did not stay distant; He came near. He saw our sin, not from afar, but up close, and He bore it on the cross. Through Christ, we are not only forgiven for our idolatry, but we are given a new heart and the Holy Spirit, that we might tear down the idols on the walls of our hearts and worship the true and living God in spirit and in truth.