Ezekiel is given another very significant vision.  This time he is allowed to see the idolatry in the temple.  He was truly incensed. There were many disgraceful and detestable things being done there. Notice God says it gets more and more detestable to Him the closer it gets to the Holy of Holies. The detestable practices were being done by the seventy elders - high ranking religious leaders of the temple. The son of Shaphan was there among them.  Remember Shaphan?  He was the one who read the law to Josiah which started the great spiritual reforms in the nation.

The priests were worshiping the sun.  Tammuz was worshiped as a mythical Phoenician sun god, the "husband" of Ishtar (from which the name Easter originated)– one of the goddess of fertility and sex. The weeping for Tammuz was for an annual lamentation over his death and later a celebration of his “resurrection”. His death was to typify the long dry summer and his return to life is symbolized in the new life of spring.

“They put the branch to their nose” is supposed to mean some branch or branches, which they carried in succession in honor of the idol, and with which they covered their faces, or from which they inhaled a pleasant smell, the branches having a strong odor.  This pagan practice came from ancient Babylon, and was devoted to worshiping Baal. To honor Nimrod, a great-grandson of Noah "reborn" as the infant Tammuz, Semiramis (Nimrod’s widow) claimed that a beautiful evergreen tree sprang overnight from a dead tree stump! The ancient Babylonians then began to utilize the evergreen tree during the winter-solstice to celebrate Nimrod reborn as the sun-god! This tradition lived through the centuries, manifesting in ancient Egyptian winter solstice festivals. That the heathens carried branches of trees in their sacred ceremonies is well known  and it is probable that the heathen borrowed those from the use of such branches in the Jewish Feast of Tabernacles. (The time of the year when Jesus was actually born!) One commentator said concerning putting "the branch to their nose" that he was reluctant to even soil the paper with writing about the detestable things the people were doing behind the branches.   There are many connections we can make to today from Ezekiel chapters 8-11.

It was because of all of the detestable practices being done in the temple in Jerusalem that the glory of the Lord left the temple.  The people including the priests had the mistaken notion that they were somehow hiding from God by covering themselves with the branches and hiding in closed rooms. They thought that God, who lived on the other side of the curtain, could not see what they were doing. 

When judgment came upon those who were participating in the pagan practices, some people were spared.  God told the "man clothed in linen" to put a mark "on the foreheads of those who grieve and lament over all the detestable things..."  These people were not touched by God's wrath.  How can we apply that to today?  Are there people now who are grieved about all the detestable practices going on in supposedly Christian circles?  

Again God reminds them about conforming to the standards of the nations around them.

Ezekiel 11:12
And you will know that I am the LORD, for you have not followed my decrees or kept my laws but have conformed to the standards of the nations around you."

The people were building on pagan foundations.  In Ezekiel 11 God promises that He "will give the people an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them".  This promise of blessings from God transcends time and is just as applicable to today if we would destroy the pagan infiltrations, high places and idols, even in our Christian organizations.

God calls us as Believers to be different from the standards of the world. He calls us to be transformed.

Romans 12:2
Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is-- his good, pleasing and perfect will.

Ezekiel 10:7-8
And a cherub stretched out his hand from between the cherubs to the fire between the cherubs, and he lifted it and put it into the hands of the one clothed with linen. And he took it and went out. And the form of a man's hand was seen under the wings of the cherubs. 

Revelation 11:19  And the temple of God was opened in Heaven, and there was seen in His temple the ark of His covenant, and there occurred lightnings and voices, and thunders and an earthquake, and a great hail. 

Ezekiel 11:23
The glory of the LORD went up from within the city and stopped above the mountain east of it.

Did the Lord take the Ark of the Covenant with Him when His glory left the temple?  It seems likely that He did since it isn't mentioned again in Scripture as being in the temple, until John writes about it in Revelation as being in the heavenly temple.

The mountain east of Jerusalem is the Mount of Olives. It is here that the glory of the Lord departed and it is at this same place that Jesus will return.

AMEN!  Come Lord Jesus! (Revelation 22:20)