- Another time, while sitting in front of Jerusalem's elders, the hand of God falls on Ezekiel. He sees the same God-like figure, with fiery loins and legs and an amber torso.
- Its hand reaches out and grabs Ezekiel by a lock of his hair, and the spirit of God brings him to Jerusalem in a vision.
- It sits him down in front of the "image of jealousy" in the Temple. The glory of God looks the same way he saw it in Chapter 1, loins and all.
Evil Animal Pictures
- God shows Ezekiel this idolatrous "image of jealousy" but says, just wait, there's worse.
- He tells Ezekiel to dig through the Temple's wall. Ezekiel digs through and sees a room with all kinds of animals and creeping things on the walls.
- The elders of Israel are in the room, swinging incense and worshipping the evil images. Sounds like a scene from Rosemary's Baby.
- But God says there's still worse to come. The suspense is killing us.
- Next, he shows Ezekiel women weeping for the god Tammuz, and finally, twenty-five people all bowing down to the sun.
- The sun. Don't they realize who created the sun?
- God says that the people won't stop with these abominations. They're also filling the land with violence and "putting the branch to their noses" (kind of like thumbing their noses at God, apparently).
- God will bring wrath on them; groveling won't help one bit.