The Feast of Astarte began by welcoming and celebrating the sunrise on the Vernal Equinox. This sunrise worship of the sun god is condemned by Yahweh in Ezekiel. The "Sunrise Service" is still an intragal part of Easter today.

Ezekiel 8:15-18:

15Then said he unto me, Hast thou seen this, O son of man? turn thee yet again, and thou shalt see greater abominations than these. 16And he brought me into the inner court of the LORD’S house, and, behold, at the door of the temple of the LORD, between the porch and the altar, were about five and twenty men, with their backs toward the temple of the LORD, and their faces toward the east; and they worshipped the sun toward the east. 17Then he said unto me, Hast thou seen this, O son of man? Is it a light thing to the house of Judah that they commit the abominations which they commit here? for they have filled the land with violence, and have returned to provoke me to anger: and, lo, they put the branch to their nose. 18Therefore will I also deal in fury: mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity: and though they cry in mine ears with a loud voice, yet will I not hear them.

From Bro. J. Allfree's book Ezekiel we learn:

"Certainly, as we appear to have represented in the vision, the priests were at the very centre of the apostasy of Israel - "all the chief of the priests, and the people, transgressed very much after the abomination of the heathen" (2 Chron. 36:14). It is interesting to note that these twenty-five stood in the place where the priests made prayer to Yahweh, as we see by comparing this with Joel 2:17, but here, instead of facing the sanctuary and addressing the God of Israel, Who inhabited the cherubim, they had turned their backs on Yahweh and were worshipping the rising sun (cf. 2 Chron. 29:6; Jer. 2:27; 32:33)."

From Bro. H. Sulley's book, Temple of Ezekiel’s Prophecy, we read of a reprobate priest who was the son of "Shaphan" (rabbit):

"The Men of Sign.
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. (Verses 10, 11.)

Just as Ezekiel is a man of sign representing others, so “Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan” with “seventy men, every man having his censer in his hand,” are also men of sign representing reprobate Israel. For this Jaazaniah who ought according to his name to have been one “who hears the Lord,” and one “who is attentive to the Lord,” is said to be “the son of Shaphan.” Now the name Shaphan signifies rabbit, or wild rat, unclean animals: thus the name fully represents the breaking away from the right way and the uncleanness of Israel.

Moreover, the seventy elders of Israel who saw the God of Israel in the mount (Exod. 24:1–10) did not act according to their privilege, but joined with Aaron in idolatry. These also figuratively represented the evil elements in the constituents of the wall. Their thick cloud of incense, conceit and self-praise, obscuring the light of heaven from entering their benighted intellects.

This wall contained “women weeping for Tamuz,” the Adonis of the Greeks, who was slain for his iniquity, and whose worship was obscene and accompanied by licentious practices."

 

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