ESOCS Devotional 10 July 2025 – Introducing the Unseen God
MEMORY VERSE: “For as I was walking along I saw your many shrines. And one of your altars had this inscription on it: ‘To an unknown God’ This God, whom you worship without knowing, is the One I’m telling you about.” Acts 17:23 NLT
TEXT: ACTS 17:16-34
Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him when he saw that the city was given over to idols. 17 Therefore he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and with the Gentile worshipers, and in the marketplace daily with those who happened to be there. 18 Then certain Epicurean and Stoic philosophers encountered him. And some said, “What does this [c]babbler want to say?”
Others said, “He seems to be a proclaimer of foreign gods,” because he preached to them Jesus and the resurrection.
19 And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this new doctrine is of which you speak? 20 For you are bringing some strange things to our ears. Therefore we want to know what these things mean.” 21 For all the Athenians and the foreigners who were there spent their time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear some new thing.
22 Then Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, “Men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are very religious; 23 for as I was passing through and considering the objects of your worship, I even found an altar with this inscription:
Therefore, the One whom you worship without knowing, Him I proclaim to you: 24 God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands. 25 Nor is He worshiped with men’s hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things. 26 And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, 27 so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; 28 for in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also His offspring.’ 29 Therefore, since we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, something shaped by art and man’s devising. 30 Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, 31 because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead.”
32 And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked, while others said, “We will hear you again on this matter.” 33 So Paul departed from among them. 34 However, some men joined him and believed, among them Dionysius the Areopagite, a woman named Damaris, and others with them.
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The Babylonians worshipped images of gold. The Cannanites worshipped moulds of clay. The Chaldeans worshipped wood and stone images. Many Africans worshipped mighty trees, dead ancestors, or even living heroes. These practices are most disgusting to the Lord God Almighty.
When Paul visited Athens in Greece, he was deeply troubled by all the idols he saw everywhere in the city. As he reasoned with the great philosophers in the city, violent debate ensued. Paul pointed out the flaws in their religious philosophies, as well as the wave of idolatry in the land.
Funny enough, irrespective of the numerous shrines dedicated to some gods they had created after their own imagination, there was a particular altar with an inscription: “To The Unknown God.” Paul quickly perceived that, unknown to these highly educated and well-read men, they were referring to the Almighty God of heaven and of Earth (Genesis 14:22; 24:3).
Moreover, Paul had witnessed the objects that they had made to express their belief in gods they had created after their own image (Exodus 32:4). Thus, the people of Athens yearned after the Deity they could not physically identify, but reasoned must exist (Romans 1:20-22). Paul also perceived they were still not satisfied with any of the gods they had created by themselves, and for themselves. They had, though unconsciously, realized that there must be a God greater than the imaginations of mortal men. It was this UNKNOWN GOD that Paul came to introduce to them:
He is Alpha and Omega (Revelation 1:8); He is the Ancient of Days (Daniel 7:22).
He is I AM THAT I AM (Exodus 3:14; John 6:35); He is the Invisible God (Colossians 1:15).
He is the Almighty God (Isiah 9:6); He is the Everlasting Father (Isiah 9:6).
He is Lord Our God (Exodus 20:2).
The Almighty God is the Creator of the entire universe. There is none like Him. He has also warned against all forms of idolatry (Exodus 20:3-4). It is therefore important that believers should shun idolatry, as well as teach all who do not yet know, to desist from every manner of idol worship. JEHOVAH ALONE, HE IS ELOHIM, and JESUS IS LORD FOREVER.
CHALLENGES
- Idolatry goes beyond worship of man-made idols. Even the worship of material wealth or a human hero (living or dead) is an abomination before God. What do you think?
PRAYER POINT
- Lord our God, give me the grace to know you the more – the only true God.
FURTHER READING: Daniel 9:1-16; 9:17-27, Acts 18:1-10.
ESOCS Devotional 10 July 2025
