The
above statement was made by seventy men who were supposed to be spiritual
leaders in Israel. Ezekiel was a prophet
of God whose work was focused on those who had been brought to Babylon around
606 B.C. during the time of the exile.
Ezekiel was just a young man, twenty-five years old, when he was taken
to Babylon. At the age of thirty he was
commissioned by God to convey God’s message to those who were in
captivity. He had the privilege of being
a contemporary of Zephaniah, Jeremiah, and Daniel.
It wasn’t very long after Ezekiel began his ministry that
he had a very unusual experience. In a
vision, God allowed him to see the horrible spiritual conditions that prevailed
in his hometown of Jerusalem (Ezek. 8).
What he saw was that the leaders of Israel, in their private chambers,
were worshiping creeping things, abominable beasts, and other forms of idolatry
(Ezek. 8:9-10). They even had the images
of these gods portrayed on the walls of their chambers. Their leader was Jaazaniah, the son of the
scribe who earlier read the book of the Law to Josiah when he initiated needed
reforms in Israel (2 Kgs. 22). His name
means “Yahweh hears,” but he was offering worship to gods who could not hear.
These
seventy elders were not engaging in these practices publicly, but doing them in
the privacy of their chambers. Their
argument was that “The Lord does not see us” (Ezekiel 8:12). However, we learn that “…all things are naked
and laid open before the eyes of him with whom we have to do” (Heb. 4:13).
Some
engage in homosexuality, fornication, pornography, dishonesty, and a host of
other sins thinking that if done in private, or under the cover of darkness, or
at a place where one is unknown, that God does not see the sin. Like these Israelites, they are sadly
mistaken. There is a day coming when
“God shall judge the secrets of man by Jesus Christ” (Rom. 2:16). “Nothing is secret, that shall not be made
manifest” (Lk. 8:17).
