Daily Devotions
Ezekiel
"Seventy men of the elders"
Text: Ezekiel 8:11
THE ELDERS OF ISRAEL
Ezekiel had a group of elders who were visiting with him. The LORD helped Ezekiel to be careful about relating to people who were called “elders”. Ezekiel was given a revelation of the elders in Jerusalem and what they were doing secretly.
“And there stood before them seventy men of the elders of the house of Israel,
and in their midst stood Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan.
Each man had a censer in his hand, and a thick cloud of incense went up.
Then He said to me,
‘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, the LORD has forsaken the land.””
Ezekiel 8:11-12
1. Seventy elders of Israel.
a) These elders may be thought of as “lay leaders”.
b) They were not priests.
2. Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan.
a) Shaphan served king Josiah faithfully as his scribe.
b) Ahikam was named as “the son of Shaphan”.
c) He stood with Jeremiah and helped him from being killed by king Jehoiakim (Jeremiah 26:24).
d) Unfortunately, Jaazaniah was one of the elders who had become idolatrous.
e) This was a sad reality that God revealed to Ezekiel.
3. Each of these elders.
a) They held censers in their hands.
b) This was reminiscent of the sons of Korah who wanted to offer incense in the days of Moses.
c) They were slain by the LORD (Numbers 16).
d) The offering of incense was the privilege of the priests.
e) This was to be performed in the Tabernacle or Temple.
4. Every man in the room of his idols.
a) This was done as a hidden activity.
b) In the room of his idols.
i) This was not a Temple event.
ii) This was a glimpse of the heart of the elders.
iii) There were idols in their hearts.
iv) They were offering incense to these idols.
c) The reasoning of the elders.
i) They felt that they were well-hidden.
ii) Nobody suspected them of idolatrous worship.
iii) They concluded that God did not see them either.
iv) They already felt that the LORD had already forsaken the land.
v) Thus, they pinned their hopes on these idols they worshipped in their hearts.