(9) Elders: Blessing or Curse?

Church officers have the potential to be great blessings. They sacrifice their time, and sometimes enter into painful trials, to help the church stay true to the Lord.

But we would be naïve to assume that leadership is always friendly to God's cause. In Ezekiel 8 God takes his prophet on a virtual tour through the temple. The scene is sickening; the word "abominations" occurs more times in this chapter than in any other place in Scripture except Ezekiel 16, which describes the same idolatry. It is Scripture's strongest word for offensive worship. And leading the way in Israel's apostasy were her elders (Ezek. 8:9–11). It is no wonder that in the next chapter God commands his destroying angels to begin judgment "with the elders who were before the house" (9:6).

Elders, like deacons and ministers, can be a blessing or a curse. Elders can be hearty worshipers, or idolaters. They can set a tone of spiritual vigor, or religious indifference. They can pursue God's glory or their own. They can maintain wholesome discipline in the church or invite God's wrath. In three movements Ezekiel 8 reveals why God's people must follow good leaders in the right worship of a holy God.