Ezekiel 8 - Idol worship is in many forms; even to this very day! Tammuz - Lent - Easter 2019

Ezek 8:12
Then He said to me, "Son of man, do you see what the elders of the house of Israel are committing in the dark, each man in the room of his carved images? For they say, 'The LORD does not see us; the LORD has forsaken the land.'"

They have this strange idea that Elohim does watch them. They think they are not responsible to Him and that He has forsaken them and the land. If you have ever been to a Catholic funeral, you also see similar rituals practiced with idols, censors, and incense.

Ezek 8:13
And He said to me, "Yet you will see still greater abominations which they are committing."

Ezek 8:14
Then He brought me to the entrance of the gate of the LORD'S house which was toward the north; and behold, women were sitting there weeping for Tammuz.

Tammuz was the Babylonian god of spring vegetation. He was the husband of Ishtar. The Babylonian myth represents Tammuz as a beautiful shepherd slain by a wild boar, the symbol of winter. Ishtar long mourned for him and descended into the underworld to deliver him from the embrace of death (Frazer, Adonis, Attis and Osiris). This mourning for Tammuz was celebrated in Babylonia by women on the 2nd day of the 4th month, which thus acquired the name of Tammuz. This worship was also practiced in Pheonica and Greece. In Greece this god was called Adonis. This worship consisted of committing women to some vile and immoral ceremonies.

Ezek 8:15
And He said to me, "Do you see this, son of man? Yet you will see still greater abominations than these."

Ezek 8:16
Then He brought me into the inner court of the LORD'S house. And behold, at the entrance to the temple of the LORD, between the porch and the altar, were about twenty-five men with their backs to the temple of the LORD and their faces toward the east; and they were prostrating themselves eastward toward the sun.

Worship of the sun and stars was highly developed in Babylon. It was probably the reason for building the Tower of Babel just a few hundred years after the flood. We see vestiges of all these practices in modern Christianity. There is idol worship in many forms. There is Tammuz worship that survives in the symbol of the cross and in the celebration we see the tradition of weeping for Tammuz at Lent. Lastly the sun worship is alive and well with worship on the day of the sun-god and sunrise services on Ishtar morning. These things are blatant violations of Torah.

Deut 4:19 “And beware, lest you lift up your eyes to heaven and see the sun and the moon and the stars, all the host of heaven, and be drawn away and worship them and serve them, those which the LORD your God has allotted to all the peoples under the whole heaven.

Deut 17:2-5 “If there is found in your midst, in any of your towns, which the LORD your God is giving you, a man or a woman who does what is evil in the sight of the LORD your God, by transgressing His covenant, 3and has gone and served other gods and worshiped them, or the sun or the moon or any of the heavenly host, which I have not commanded, 4and if it is told you and you have heard of it, then you shall inquire thoroughly. And behold, if it is true and the thing certain that this detestable thing has been done in Israel, 5then you shall bring out that man or that woman who has done this evil deed, to your gates, that is, the man or the woman, and you shall stone them to death.

Job says this is denying Elohim above.

Job 31:26-28 If I have looked at the sun when it shone, Or the moon going in splendor, 27And my heart became secretly enticed, And my hand threw a kiss from my mouth, 28That too would have been an iniquity calling for judgment, For I would have denied God above.
What were the atrocities of Judah? While Judah thought they were doing evil things in secret, they were an open book to Elohim. He sees it all. Elohim prohibits His people from any kind of worship of other gods. Elohim is a jealous Elohim. He does not share His people with other false gods.

In this chapter, Elohim delineates the atrocities of Judah. As He shows them individually to Ezekiel, Elohim says "look at even greater abominations..."