As a former teacher at a Christian school, I was always on the prowl for fun field trip opportunities for my students. Our school was small, so all age groups were generally included on our special outings. Finding something that both the oldest and the youngest would enjoy was difficult, but one of our favorite spots to frequent was a science center located on the banks of the Ohio River in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The children loved spending the day interacting with the many scientific experiments on display for them to enjoy, but none more than the Van de Graff generator. This electrostatic generator was designed to create static electricity and make it available for experimentation. Unseen by the human eye, electrons gather on the outside of a silver ball and easily transfer to anything in which it comes in contact. Place your hand on the ball and the electrons move through your body and onto your hair, causing a hair-raising experience, which your average student, regardless of age, finds hysterical.
I always find myself mired in deep, muddy waters when I attempt to muddle my way through the Book of Ezekiel, but an experience he had brought my mind back to that hair-raising science experiment that caught my student’s attention so many years ago. Ezekiel ministered in Babylon among the Jewish exiles during the last, dark days of Judah, proclaiming the heart-wrenching news that the city of Jerusalem and their blessed homeland would be destroyed. One ordinary day, as Ezekiel sat in his house, God REALLY got his attention. We are told that “the hand of the LORD” comes upon him, and this happens: “And he (God) put forth the form of an hand, and took me (Ezekiel) by a lock of mine head: and the spirit lifted me up between the earth and the heaven, and brought me…to Jerusalem.” God grabbed this prophet by the hair and transported him in a painful, yet effective, way of driving home an important message to Ezekiel and the children of God.
“Son of man, hast thou seen what the ancients of the house of Israel do in the dark, every man in the chambers of his imagery? for they say, The LORD seeth us not.” The Temple, God’s holy dwelling place, His abode among His people, had become a home to idolatry. God’s people had left the worship of the true God, for “…every form of creeping thing, and abominable beast, and all the idols of the house of Israel…” The “ancients,” those older, seasoned men who should have been leading the people, were instead hiding their sin and apostasy in the dark chambers, as though God could not see, but He did see, and His eye would “not spare,” judgment would fall. The nation of Judah would soon learn that “He that covereth his sins shall not prosper.”
What do I place before my God, what gods abide in the chambers of my imagery? My thought life, my imagination, the heart of my passion, my priorities, are not hidden from Him. He knows when He is not on the throne of my life, when He has been replaced by pride, career, money, self, entertainment, lust, inappropriate thoughts, or worldly pleasures. He loved me enough to send His Son to die for me, He certainly deserves my utmost devotion. May I always stay focused on Him, not allowing anything to steal from His glory and dwell in the dark chambers of my imagery.
Exodus 20:3 Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
Lord, help me keep the chambers of my imagery clean of idols. You deserve first place in my life, the throne, my upmost devotion and love. When the world distracts me, keep my focus stayed upon You.