Friday, November 14, 2025
Scripture Readings
- Primary Reading: Lamentations 2-5, Ezekiel 1-5
Devotional Thought
Jeremiah sits among the ruins and weeps. In Lamentations 2–5, Jerusalem has fallen to Babylon, and the prophet gives voice to a grief almost too heavy to bear: the temple defiled, children fainting in the streets, mothers eating what no mother should, the crown fallen from Israel’s head. Yet even in the wreckage he dares to say, “It is of the LORD’s mercies that we are not consumed” (3:22). Then the book closes with an aching plea — “Turn thou us unto thee, O LORD, and we shall be turned; renew our days as of old” (5:21). Grief and hope share the same breath.
Ezekiel opens on a different shore. Among the captives by the river Chebar, the heavens split open. A whirlwind, four living creatures, wheels within wheels, a firmament like crystal, and a throne — and upon it “the likeness as the appearance of a man” (1:26). God has not abandoned His people to Babylon; He has followed them into exile. Then comes Ezekiel’s commission: eat the scroll, watchman for Israel, and strange sign-acts — a siege drawn on a brick, bread baked over dung, hair divided by sword and fire — all declaring that judgment is certain and repentance urgent.
We read these chapters in mid-November, when the trees stand bare and the year itself seems to be dying. It is a fitting season to remember that God’s people have walked through ruin before. Perhaps your own life has a fallen-city chapter — a marriage, a job, a health report, a season of church life that ended in rubble. Lamentations teaches us not to rush past the grief with cheap optimism. The tears are real. The judgment was real. But so is the mercy that rises new every morning.
And if Lamentations shows us the ruin, Ezekiel shows us the throne. The same God who allowed the sword to come also rode that chariot into Babylon. He is not confined to a temple, a building, a better year. Wherever His people are carried, He is there — holy, mobile, sovereign, and still speaking. This Friday, whether your week has felt like Jerusalem burning or Chebar by the river, the call is the same: lament honestly, repent quickly, and lift your eyes to the throne that never fell.
Reflection
- Lamentations 3:40 says, “Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the LORD.” Is there a ruin in your life right now that God is using to call you back to Himself — and have you been willing to search your ways honestly, or only to grieve the circumstances?
- Ezekiel saw the glory of God by the river Chebar, in exile, far from the temple. Where have you assumed God could not meet you — a place, a season, a failure — that He may be waiting to fill with His presence?
Prayer
O Lord, we come to You out of the bare branches of November, some of us standing in ruins we did not choose and some in ruins we did. Teach us to lament without despair and to repent without delay. Thank You that Your compassions fail not and that Your mercies are new every morning — even here, even now. Ride into our exile, we pray, as You rode to Chebar; open our eyes to see Your glory where we least expected it. Turn us unto Thee, O LORD, and we shall be turned; renew our days as of old. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.