An Eminent Place

Ezekiel 16:24 KJV

That thou hast also built unto thee an eminent place, and hast made thee an high place in every street.

The Hebrew word means an arched building of the sort that was used as a brothel. It is likely they had literal brothels in Jerusalem but the figure is of places of idolatry on every street.

That these places would be ornate and that they would be called eminent and high places reminded me of the tower of Babel. It is the nature of men to make buildings become the focal point of worship and not the Lord. And it is appropriate from the Scriptural sense to view these buildings of worship not only as places of idolatry but as places of prostitution. God often likens idolatry to adultery, fornication and whoredom. It is meant to give us the picture of how vile and wrong false worship is to the Lord.

I fear some have turned the church houses on every American corner into eminent places. God is often not the focus of the assembly but some other form of idolatry. It might be the care of the flock, it might be the maintenance of the building itself, but the point is, they no longer assemble to meet with the Lord.

Would to God we would view our churches as congregations of the redeemed and gather for His sake.