Therefore I will deal with them in anger; I will not look on them with pity or spare them

Ezekiel 8:1-18

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.

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. And there before me was the glory of the God of Israel, as in the vision I had seen in the plain.

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.

And he said to me, “Go in and see the wicked and detestable things they are doing here.” 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. 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. 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.’” Again, he said, “You will see them doing things that are even more detestable.”

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.

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.”

Why?
The Lord took Ezekiel to Jerusalem in Spirit to see what Judah did in the Inner court of the Lord.

Those elders and people did many detestable things in the Temple of the Lord, so the wrath of the Lord on Judah is not pity or spare on them.

The Lord shows this vision to Ezekiel to show the evidence that Judah did, so the judgment came upon them for they forsake their God.

They say, 'The Lord does not see us; the Lord has forsaken the land'. Actually, is they forsaken the Lord, the Lord has seen what they have done.

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第七章提到聖殿中有偶像。猶大的眾長老因為祭司已經沒有了，或是留在耶路撒冷，眾長老來到以西結前來聽到更多他們想聽的話，知道他是神的先知，知道之外，是否願意聽從是另外一件事。

神的榮耀在門口：代表神的榮耀準備離開，神無法與罪惡同在，神的離開是慢慢的，是不捨的。朝北的內院有偶像。沙番是約書亞的書記官，沙番的兒子雅撒尼亞及70個長老在其中，以為自己是祭司，拿香拜偶像。

耶路撒冷的屬靈狀況非常糟糕，猶大家在此行這可憎的事還算為小嗎？這個惡實在太大，以致神都不容忍，「誰知」出現多次。以西結看到都不致相信，無法接受居然有這種事，人不自己人有多壞，多麼墜落！

你看見了嗎？出現多次！讓以西結看到神的愛和憐憫已經夠大夠包容了！

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How?

The Lord knows everything, my God is full of love and righteousness. God's way and mind is higher than all of us.