309. A Room for Idols in the Heart

“Son of man, have you seen what the elders of the house of Israel do in the dark, every man in the room of his idols? For they say, ‘The Lord does not see us . . . .’” Ezek. 8:12.

People can appear pious outwardly. But how is it on the inside? He who is able to cleanse the outside, is He not able to cleanse the inside also?

“So I went in and saw, and there; images of every sort of creeping thing, abominable beasts, and all the idols of the house of Israel, portrayed [engraved—Norw.] all around on the walls.” Ezek. 8:10.

If we apply this to all the various types of Christians today, we will find the same things. Abominable things are engraved on the walls—on the walls of the heart. But first the prophet had to see the image that provoked God’s jealousy. He could not have broken through the wall (verse 8) without first seeing that. Fire from the Lord must cleanse us thoroughly for a long period of time before we are free from these images engraved in the rooms of our heart. For all flesh has corrupted its way.

“Between the porch and the altar, were about twenty-five men with their backs toward the temple of the Lord and their faces toward the east, and they were worshipping the sun toward the east.” Ezek. 8:16.

Who loves God’s way so much that he always faces the temple of the Lord, so he is looking into the face of the Lord and is being transformed into the image of His Son from glory to glory? I think people often turn their backs on the temple of the Lord and bow down to the sun in the east (natural advantages) for the sake of “a lucrative vocation.” They have images deeply engraved into the walls of the flesh of their hearts which constantly remind them of human advantages and stir up covetousness, which is idolatry. These abominable images inflame sinful lusts and sinful zeal, which leads to fornication, honor-seeking, jealousy, envy, and pride. But the zeal of God stirs a person to drive out all these images, which can also be called: images of sin in the flesh.

That is why we must crucify the old man with all its lusts and desires. Only then can the body of sin with its gallery of images be destroyed, so that we are no longer slaves of sin. The apostle Paul brought every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. When his thoughts tried to revolve around the images of idols on the walls, he immediately, by the power of faith, brought them before the face of Jesus and His image. We must do the same; this is the way of sanctification. A sinful action begins in the heart before it is carried out. But we are to take up the battle against a sinful thought life, before the sin becomes manifest. This is what it means to condemn sin in the flesh. Rom. 8:3. This is what Jesus Christ did when He suffered being tempted and offered Himself in the power of the eternal Spirit. This is the new and living way, by the blood of Jesus, through the veil—that is, His flesh. This is the way into the sanctuary—away from the gallery of images in the heart. This is the way to life and peace, the way of the Spirit.