8 It came about in the sixth year, on the fifth day of the sixth month, as I was sitting in my house with the elders of Judah sitting before me, that the hand of the Lord [a]God fell on me there. 2 Then I looked, and behold, a likeness as the appearance of [b]a man; from His loins and downward there was the appearance of fire, and from His loins and upward the appearance of brightness, like the appearance of [c]glowing metal. 3 He stretched out the form of a hand and caught me by a lock of my head; and the Spirit lifted me up between earth and heaven and brought me in the visions of God to Jerusalem, to the entrance of the [d]north gate of the inner court, where the seat of the idol of jealousy, which provokes to jealousy, was located. 4 And behold, the glory of the God of Israel was there, like the appearance which I saw in the plain.
5 Then He said to me, “Son of man, raise your eyes now toward the north.” So I raised my eyes toward the north, and behold, to the north of the altar gate was this idol of jealousy at the entrance. 6 And He said to me, “Son of man, do you see what they are doing, the great abominations which the house of Israel are committing here, so that I would be far from My sanctuary? But yet you will see still greater abominations.”
Are you seeing a theme here? The people were provoking God to jealousy with their idols. To be clear, they were coming to worship at the temple. Yet instead of coming to worship God, they had polluted the courts of God’s temple with their fake idols. The contrast is pretty stark as Ezekiel beholds God’s messenger and then sees God’s glory as well.
The idol couldn’t compete in reality, but the people had become distracted by their shiny things and now worshipped the works of their hands instead. It’s not hard to revel in the things we accomplish, especially when we get a shot of adrenaline from completing a difficult task. Yet work, and everything else, needs to be kept to it’s proper time and place.
Imagine getting married and then working all day long, coming home only for dinner (if that). Your wife wouldn’t be too happy, and yet we often do the same to God. Some of the things we spend our time on are good and honorable, but as Solomon said, “There is an appointed time for everything.” And he didn’t leave much out in his list (Ecclesiastes 3).
We need to guard our hearts and minds so that we are not also provoking God to jealousy with the use of our time. We need also to guard our time (and heart and mind) so that we don’t provoke our family to jealousy either. There is enough to go around, God will see to that, devote your attention to Him first and foremost. As one of our former pastors used to say, “Love God and love people.” Do it in that order, and do it well, no jealousy needed (or wanted).