ESOCS Devotional 15 June 2025 – Behold the Glory of God!
MEMORY VERSE: “And behold, the glory of the God of Israel was there…” Ezekiel 8:4
TEXT: EZEKIEL 8:1-18
And it came to pass in the sixth year, in the sixth month, on the fifth day of the month, as I sat in my house with the elders of Judah sitting before me, that the hand of the Lord God fell upon me there. 2 Then I looked, and there was a likeness, like the appearance of fire—from the appearance of His waist and downward, fire; and from His waist and upward, like the appearance of brightness, like the color of amber. 3 He stretched out the form of a hand, and took me by a lock of my hair; and the Spirit lifted me up between earth and heaven, and brought me in visions of God to Jerusalem, to the door of the north gate of the inner court, where the seat of the image of jealousy was, which provokes to jealousy. 4 And behold, the glory of the God of Israel was there, like the vision that I saw in the plain.
5 Then He said to me, “Son of man, lift your eyes now toward the north.” So I lifted my eyes toward the north, and there, north of the altar gate, was this image of jealousy in the entrance.
6 Furthermore He said to me, “Son of man, do you see what they are doing, the great abominations that the house of Israel commits here, to make Me go far away from My sanctuary? Now turn again, you will see greater abominations.” 7 So He brought me to the door of the court; and when I looked, there was a hole in the wall. 8 Then He said to me, “Son of man, dig into the wall”; and when I dug into the wall, there was a door.
9 And He said to me, “Go in, and see the wicked abominations which they are doing there.” 10 So I went in and saw, and there—every sort of creeping thing, abominable beasts, and all the idols of the house of Israel, portrayed all around on the walls. 11 And there stood before them seventy men of the elders of the house of Israel, and in their midst stood Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan. Each man had a censer in his hand, and a thick cloud of incense went up. 12 Then He said to me, “Son of man, have you seen what the elders of the house of Israel do in the dark, every man in the room of his idols? For they say, ‘The Lord does not see us, the Lord has forsaken the land.’ ”
13 And He said to me, “Turn again, and you will see greater abominations that they are doing.” 14 So He brought me to the door of the north gate of the Lord’s house; and to my dismay, women were sitting there weeping for [c]Tammuz.
15 Then He said to me, “Have you seen this, O son of man? Turn again, you will see greater abominations than these.” 16 So He brought me into the inner court of the Lord’s house; and there, at the door of the temple of the Lord, between the porch and the altar, were about twenty-five men with their backs toward the temple of the Lord and their faces toward the east, and they were worshiping the sun toward the east.
17 And He said to me, “Have you seen this, O son of man? Is it a trivial thing to the house of Judah to commit the abominations which they commit here? For they have filled the land with violence; then they have returned to provoke Me to anger. Indeed they put the branch to their nose. 18 Therefore I also will act in fury. My eye will not spare nor will I have pity; and though they cry in My ears with a loud voice, I will not hear them.”
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The prophet Ezekiel was prophesying in the darkest times of Judah’s history. God gave him visions through which God clearly conveyed the condition of His people and the Temple, as well as His plans for His people and the Temple! The people of Judah were plunged deep in idolatry and idols were even in the Temple! The leaders were secretly worshipping their idols and their lives were dedicated to the worship of the sun god. As God Almighty delivered them from Egypt, from the very hands of Pharaoh after 430 years of slavery, the first thing God did was to establish an identity for them. Their identity centred around their God! As He established a system for them to conduct their social, religious and civil life, the entire concept revolved around the God who delivered them (Exod. 33:15-16).
Centuries later, the same people have exchanged their God with idols, which God warned them not to get into (Exod. 20:3-5).. However, when God looked at the affairs of His people at Ezekiel’s time, His glorious eyes found them doing all sorts of detestable things in secret (Ezek. 8:2-3). God showed Ezekiel the many abominations they were doing in secret and He said the impact of those actions would be that He would leave the Temple (Ezek. 8:6). As we read through the Chapter, we can see the things they were doing in secret (vv. 7-11), in the dark (v.12) and in public (vv.14-17). And their vain understanding was: “For they say, ‘The Lord does not see us; the Lord has forsaken the land” (Ezek. 8:12). They never knew what they were doing in secret was not hidden from the God of creation, who searches the hearts of people and to who nothing is hidden.
This is also a picture of each of us who live now before this Almighty God. Many people think that what they do in secret and what they do in the dark will not be seen by God! The chamber described by Ezekiel is symbolic of our heart. What are those detestable images carved in our hearts that we secretly worship? He sees you, He knows your thoughts, He will judge all your works on that day! Will you come to His glorious light and confess those abominations to the God of Glory to whose eyes nothing is hidden? He is a God who will sanctify you!! Think About it: “For My eyes are on all their ways; they are not hidden from My face, nor is their iniquity concealed from My eyes” (Jeremiah 16:17)
CHALLENGES
- What have you stored up in your hearts? God sees all, remember!
PRAYER POINT
- Lord, help me to always be on track with thee. Amen.
FURTHER READING: Genesis 1:26-End; 1 John 5:1-15; John:39-50
ESOCS Devotional 15 June 2025
