...Is it nothing to the people of Judah that they commit these terrible sins, leading the whole nation into violence, thumbing their noses at me, and rousing my fury against them?  Ezekiel 8:17 (New Living Translation)

Have you ever heard the saying, “Little pitchers have big ears!” For some reason, I always have a vision of a small water pitcher with two big handles on each side of the pour spout. There is a lot of truth to that though – and it’s not only about little kids. Somehow, our hearing becomes much more acute when we pass by people speaking in a lower voice and standing closer to each other. If we hear our name mentioned, we become even more interested in their conversation. I think that we are a naturally curious species. We see people talking with each other and we wonder what they’re saying.  

It never fails, when we try to do something in secret, someone will find out that there’s a secret and become obsessed about discovering what that secret is – even to the point of pasting together bits and pieces of information into a proverbial quilt to toss over the whole thing. The quilt may or may not be truth, but it will cover the behaviors adequately and we can stop wondering about them.

The religious leaders of Ezekiel’s day had lots of secrets and some of those secrets involved activities in the Temple built to worship the God of the Jews. This chapter of Ezekiel talks about a tour that God provided the prophet of some of the things taking place in the Temple that were irritating to God. Someone had raised a statue – that was not of God. There was a hidden room where people were worshipping snakes and lizards with incense. Women were weeping for a Babylonian god, and at the end of the tour, Ezekiel was shown men standing in the inner courtyard of the Temple, worshipping the sun.  

God was highly insulted to think that these people didn’t realize that he knew exactly what was going on and he didn’t approve of their activities. It was as if someone had taken Great-Grandma’s good china, which had come across the country in a covered wagon, and used it for a water bowl for the pets.

Sometimes it’s hard to think that God would pay that much attention to us – especially when no one else is watching. But we are beloved of God. We frequently don’t know what he’s up to, but he definitely knows what we’re up to. The thing is that he can hear the thoughts in our minds before they even reach our lips. It might be a good idea to start paying attention, not only what we’re doing and why we’re doing it, but also to what we’re thinking about and why we’re thinking about it! We are, after all, the living Temple of God. Just a thought!

Becky Gillette is a former teacher, newspaper reporter, and preacher who seeks to take an original approach to life’s lessons. She is the author of “Jessie’s Corner: Something to Think About,” a collection of articles which she wrote for a weekly newspaper.