Original Entry Date 10/12/2020: *** This entry relates to my own personal experience so I have removed specific names as to respect privacy. In exchange I will refer to them as “the specific persons.”
In Ezekiel 8, Ezekiel describes the hand of God falling upon him and taking him into a vision.
Ezekiel 8:2-4 NKJV
2 Then I looked, and there was a likeness, like the appearance of fire—from the appearance of His waist and downward, fire; and from His waist and upward, like the appearance of brightness, like the color of amber. 3 He stretched out the form of a hand, and took me by a lock of my hair; and the Spirit lifted me up between earth and heaven, and brought me in visions of God to Jerusalem, to the door of the north gate of the inner court, where the seat of the image of jealousy was, which provokes to jealousy. 4 And behold, the glory of the God of Israel was there, like the vision that I saw in the plain.
The Spirit lifts Ezekiel up, taking him to Jerusalem, to the Temple of God setting him at the North Gate that leads into the Inner Court. The Temple is where God and God alone is to reside and to be worshipped. The Temple of God is now our very own bodies and the Inner Court is a representation of our inner being, the soul. Here Ezekiel sees that the image of jealousy was set up WITHIN God’s inner court.
The image of jealousy is literally an idol of some sort. Now you may think, “What does this have to do with me? I don’t worship statues or wooden idols.”
An idol can be anything that takes on the place of God in a persons heart, soul and life. Money can be an idol, a person can become an idol, fame and success can be an idol. God is jealous over us. It is pretty ridiculous when you think of how we so easily allow things of the world, that are of no power in comparison, to take God’s place within the Inner Court.
As I read this God is telling me that this is why specific persons have been removed, because they have become an image of jealousy.
Ezekiel 8:5 NKJV:
5 Then He said to me, “Son of man, lift your eyes now toward the north.” So I lifted my eyes toward the north, and there, north of the altar gate, was this image of jealousy in the entrance.
Now we read how the image of jealousy is literally set between the north entrance (the altar gate) and the Altar itself. The Alter Gate was a means of entering the Inner Court bringing animals to sacrifice on the altar to God.
Sacrifice means giving to the Lord whatever He requires of our time, our earthly possessions, and our energies to further His work. … Our willingness to sacrifice is an indication of our devotion to God. And here, instead of the Altar, we see the image of jealousy. Instead of sacrificing our lives to God we are instead offering it up to the image of jealousy.
***NOTE: Before reading this that same eve, I was talking to my mom about my hurt over the loss of the specific persons and she had said she believed God removed them because He was jealous.
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