Saturday, November 15, 2025
Scripture Readings
- Primary Reading: Ezekiel 6-14
- Secondary Reading: Psalms 132
Key Verse
Ezekiel 11:4 — “Therefore prophesy against them, prophesy, O son of man.”
Devotional Thought
Ezekiel sits in his house in Babylon while the elders of Judah sit before him, and the hand of the Lord falls upon him. What follows is one of the most grievous visions in all of Scripture. The Spirit lifts the prophet by a lock of his hair and carries him to Jerusalem, where he sees the abominations committed in the temple itself. At the north gate stands the image of jealousy. Digging through a hole in the wall, he finds seventy elders of Israel burning incense in the dark to creeping things and detestable beasts, saying, “The LORD seeth us not.” Women weep for Tammuz. Twenty-five men turn their backs to the temple and worship the sun toward the east. The Lord’s glory rises from the cherubim to the threshold, and then the man clothed in linen is sent through the city to set a mark on the foreheads of those who sigh and cry over these abominations. Judgment begins at the sanctuary.
This is hard reading for a November morning. The days are short now, the light thin, and our own hearts are tempted to the same quiet compromise these elders practiced in their chambers of imagery. We do not carve beasts on our walls, but we keep our private idolatries behind doors we assume God cannot see through. We tell ourselves He has forsaken the earth, that His eye is elsewhere, that the dark covers what the daylight would condemn. Yet the whole burden of Ezekiel 6 through 10 is the relentless refrain, “Ye shall know that I am the LORD” — spoken not in comfort but in consequence. The idols will be broken, the high places laid waste, and silver and gold cast into the streets, unable to deliver in the day of wrath.
But notice the mercy threading through the severity. In chapter 6, God says, “Yet will I leave a remnant.” In chapter 9, before a single sword falls, the man with the inkhorn marks the foreheads of those who grieve over sin — their own and the city’s. And Psalm 132 answers the desolation with a promise: the LORD has chosen Zion, desired it for His habitation, and sworn to David that his crown shall flourish. David vowed he would not sleep until he found a place for the LORD; God vows He will not rest until His anointed reigns. The temple in Ezekiel’s vision is defiled and abandoned by glory, but the Psalmist sings of a rest that endures forever.
So this Saturday, as the year leans toward its end and the nights stretch long, we do well to ask where our own glory has departed. The mark on the forehead is not for the sinless; it is for those who sigh. Grief over sin is itself a gift of grace, the first evidence that God has not left us. He sees. He marks. He remembers David, and He remembers His covenant, and He will not turn away the face of His anointed.
Reflection
- The seventy elders burned incense in the dark, believing “the LORD seeth us not.” What private chamber of your life have you assumed is hidden from God’s sight, and what would it look like to open that door to His light today?
- Before any judgment fell on Jerusalem, God set a mark on those who sighed and cried over the abominations around them. Does your grief over sin — your own and your culture’s — drive you to repentance, or have you grown numb to it?
Prayer
O Lord God, who sees in secret and whose eye spares nothing, we confess that we have kept our own chambers of imagery, telling ourselves that You have forsaken the earth. Break our hidden idols, and give us hearts that sigh and cry over sin rather than excuse it. Set Your mark upon us, not because we are worthy, but because Your anointed One has borne our judgment. Remember Your covenant with David; let Your glory dwell among us still. Clothe Your priests with salvation, satisfy Your poor with bread, and let Your saints shout aloud for joy. We ask it in the name of Jesus, our only righteousness and rest. Amen.
Psalm Verse
Psalms 132:1 — “Lord, remember David, and all his afflictions:”