Part 4 – The Candle for the Dead and the Lament for Tammuz The Flame of   Mourning

When Ezekiel was carried in vision to the Temple, he saw women “weeping for Tammuz.” (Ezekiel 8:14 MKJV). The prophet stood aghast. This was no private superstition; it had invaded the very courts of Yehovah. The people had brought their torches and their tears to mourn the dying sun-god—a story repeated from Babylon to Greece and Rome.

Each year, they kindled fires to remember the “lost light” and prayed that it would return. They thought they honoured life; in truth, they honoured death. They poured oil into lamps, believing the flame would guide the spirits of the departed. They sang hymns for the dead instead of songs of obedience.

“Hast thou seen this, O son of man? Turn thee yet again, and thou shalt see greater abominations than these.” — Ezekiel 8:15 (MKJV). Yehovah called it an abomination because He had never commanded it. The light of that candle was not the light of His Torah but of human sentiment.

The Candle for the Dead

Over the centuries, the custom of lighting for the dead spread throughout the world. Egypt placed lamps in tombs, Greece burned tapers at graves, Rome carried candles in processions for ancestors. Later ages adopted the same flame to “honour” saints or souls. But whether for Osiris, Tammuz, or a loved one, the gesture whispered the same thought: light can cross the veil; man cannot keep the fire of life alive without Yehovah.

Scripture teaches otherwise:

“The dead know not anything… neither have they any more a portion for ever in any thing that is done under the sun.” — Ecclesiastes 9:5–6 (MKJV)

Lighting a candle for the dead cannot change their state; it only exposes the heart of the living. It is another test—will we trust the resurrection that Yehovah has promised, or will we build our own ritual bridge to the dead?

The False Hope of the Flame

The prophet Jeremiah confronted this same spirit when the people baked cakes for the Queen of Heaven and poured out drink offerings: “Do they provoke Me to anger? saith Yehovah: do they not provoke themselves to the confusion of their own faces?” — Jeremiah 7:19 (MKJV)

Those cakes and fires symbolized the same false hope. The nations believed that if they honoured the dying god and his mother, the sun would rise again, the crops would return, and the dead might join the gods in glory. But Yehovah declared that such rites only lead to confusion.

The Light of Obedience

Yehovah does command a light—but His light burns in obedience, not in memorial. The menorah in the Tabernacle was never for the dead; it illuminated the Holy Place where His word was read and His presence dwelt. The priests trimmed it daily according to His instruction (Exodus 27:20–21). That light pointed to the living Torah, not to departed souls.

David wrote,

“The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?” — Psalm 27:1 (MKJV)

If Yehovah Himself is our light, we have no need of borrowed flames.

The Test Continues

Just as the manna tested Israel and the tree tested Adam, so the world’s candlelight tests this generation. It seems gentle, compassionate, even holy. But the question is not how it feels—the question is who commanded it.

Yehovah warns:

“What thing soever I command you, observe to do it: thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it.” — Deuteronomy 12:32 (MKJV)

To add even a single rite to His worship is to repeat the sin of those who kindled strange fire before Him (Leviticus 10). It is to believe that our own emotion can improve upon His instruction.

The Fire That Proves

Fire always tests. The false light consumes; the true light refines. The prophet Malachi said, “He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver.” — Malachi 3:3 (MKJV)

The difference between Tammuz’s fire and Yehovah’s fire is purpose. One pretends to preserve life; the other purifies it. One honours the dead; the other sanctifies the living. When we choose which light to follow, we declare whose kingdom we serve.

The Lesson for the Last Days

Revelation shows a woman clothed with the sun and another drunk with the blood of the saints (Revelation 12 and 17). Both claim light; one reflects it by obedience, the other steals it by idolatry. The world will again choose between Yehovah’s commandments and man’s ceremonies. The same candles will burn, the same songs will rise, and the same test will unfold.

Brethren, we are not called to extinguish compassion but to direct it rightly. The way to honour the dead is to live faithfully. The way to comfort the living is to proclaim the resurrection. Let our light be the keeping of Torah, not the flicker of strange fire.

Footnotes – Part 4

1. Ezekiel 8:14–15 (MKJV) – The vision of the women weeping for Tammuz.
2. Ecclesiastes 9:5–6 (MKJV) – The state of the dead.
3. Jeremiah 7:19 (MKJV) – The Queen of Heaven rebuked.
4. Deuteronomy 12:32 (MKJV) – Command not to add to Torah.
5. Malachi 3:3 (MKJV) – Yehovah’s refining fire.