And he brought me to the door of the court; and when I looked,
behold, a hole in the wall. Then said he unto me, Son of man, dig
now in the wall: and when I had digged in the wall, behold, a door.
And he said unto me, Go in, and behold the wicked abominations that
they do here. So I went in and saw; and, behold, every form of
creeping things, and abominable beasts, and all the idols of the
house of Israel, portrayed upon the wall round about. And there
stood before them seventy men of the ancients of the house of
Israel, and in the midst of them stood Jaazaniah the son of
Shaphan, with every man his censer in his hand; and a thick cloud of
incense went up. Then said he unto me, 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 Lord hath forsaken the earth" (verses 7-12).
The prophet saw next a hole in the wall, and being commanded to dig into
it he found a secret door through which he entered. In the chamber, upon
the wall round about, were pictured creeping things and abominable
things. A worship of these creeping things and beasts was in progress,
for the seventy ancients of Israel were swinging censers full of
incense, so that a thick cloud went up. They were practising idolatry
after the order of Egypt and of the most degrading kind. The people of
God had sunk as deep, yea deeper, than the heathen round about them
(Romans i:23). And the leaders of the nation, the seventy elders, were
there leading in this worship of abominations. Jaazaniah, the son of
Shaphan, is especially mentioned. Shaphan was the scribe, who received
from the high-priest, Hilkiah, the book of the law, and who read it
before King Josiah (2 Kings xxii:8-11; Jere. xxxix:14). The son of this
illustrious and God-fearing scribe was the leader among the
animal-worshippers. It was an evidence of the great apostasy which had
engulfed the nation. And these idol-worshippers, each in his chamber of
imagery (probably individual cells) said: "The Lord seeth us not; the
Lord hath forsaken the earth." They denied His omniscience and
omnipresence. The apostasy in Christendom is going the same road.