Daily Devotional For Thursday, September 17, 2026

Good morning Southside! I am following the One Year Chronological Bible reading suggestion and any Bible verses you see highlighted in bold (ex. John 3:16), means it is a link to that verse. All you have to do is click on the reference and it will take you to the verse online. Our daily devotional reading for today comes from Ezekiel 8. Since this is the whole chapter, click the link to read this passage. Now, that you have read it, you might be wondering, “What does this passage have to do with me?” That is a great question. This passage speaks to all Christians today. This text has to with several things:

God is not leaving His people. They have left Him and want nothing to do with the Lord. They keep the appearance of being God’s people but their hearts were far from God. After the introduction to the visions (8:1–4) are scenes of idolatry: 

1. 1. The image of jealousy (8:5–6). 
   2. Cultic worship of animals (8:7–13), 
   3. Weeping for Tammuz (8:14–15), and 
   4. The worship of the sun (8:16–18) – (Source: A. B. Davidson, The Book of the Prophet of Ezekiel, p. 52). 

These four pagan cults bear testimony to the pervasiveness of syncretistic worship in Israel in the time of Ezekiel, Syncretistic worship refers to the blending and mixing of multiple religions or gods from different religions in an act of worship. This was a common practice in Old Testament times so as to not displease any god. In the years prior to the fall of Jerusalem in 587/586 B.C., there was a rise in syncretistic worship that abounded in the pagan practices of Judah’s neighbors. This increased the external pressure to be like the nations (1 Sam. 8:5).

This sin of God’s people using the Temple to worship pagan gods started with King Solomon some 400 years earlier (1 Kgs. 11:1-8). This eventually led to the worship of Baal (1 Kings 16:31-34; 1 Kgs. 17:1-17). This eventually led to the split of the nation of Israel into 2 separate nations after the death of Solomon (1 Kgs. 11:31-12:33). This made both nations vulnerable to attack. This made it possible for Babylon under King Nebuchadnezzar to conquer Judah around 607 BC and take back to Babylon the first group of Jewish exiles. He would return in 598 BC to take more and then in 587 to destroy Jerusalem completely – its wall and Temple. 

God causes Ezekiel to have a vision in which he is transported back to Jerusalem and is in the Temple. There he sees the idolatry and atrocities of the Jews left there. These Jews were all apostates worshipping idols, hoping they would save them from Babylon. The Hebrew text suggests that Ezekiel saw the Asherah in the Temple. This was a female fertility goddess worshipped with all kinds of sexual perversions in worship. She was common in the worship of the Philistines, Syrians, Phoenicians and Canaanites.

Everything Ezekiel saw was detestable to God. The 70 group of men worshipping in secret seems to imply these were worshipping Egyptian gods and thus their worship had to be done in secret so as not to offend the Babylonians. Babylon would have killed them all for not worshipping Babylonian gods. What the text seems to imply here is they were worshipping and praying to the gods to Egypt in hopes Egypt’s gods would free them from Babylon. 

The spiritual leaders of Judah believed that since Babylon had conquered Judah, God had abandoned Judah and thus other gods were needed to help them. For centuries, God’s prophets had called the Jews in Judah to repent and return to the Lord, but they refused. God had warned them for years what would happen to them if they did not repent. This chapter calls us, calls the church, to question our own worship and vulnerability to turn to other gods in our own American culture. Money is our god. We use the words “luck” and “fate” to express good and bad that happens to us. These are idols. These are false gods. 

In this chapter, God is reminding us in the church that He will not be mocked by our fake worship and tolerance of sin and idols in our lives (Gal. 6:7; Pr. 14:12). We come to worship every week and mock God with our pathetic attitudes. We give more praise to our sports teams on TV. We come with unconfessed hidden sin and think that hiddenness is hidden from God. We walk out of worship services the same way we walked into them – unrepentant and unchanged. We throw in our tithe thinking we can bribe God with it. We pat ourselves on the back for being good people, being good church people, while mocking God with our arrogance (Rom. 3:10-12; Ps. 14:3; Ps. 53:1-3). Listen to me: God will not be mocked, especially by “good church people.” 

Reflection Assignment: Why do you attend a church worship service? If Jesus Christ suddenly appeared next to you, would your attitude and actions be different in that worship service? Why or why not? When you hear the word of God in worship, do you let it pierce you to change and convict you so you repent and change? Or, does your mind wander, judging others present who need to repent? Or do you have the attitude, “It’s all good.” What would the Lord say are you idols and why?

Scripture To Meditate On: Galatians 6:3, “For if anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself” (NASB).

Prayer To Pray: “Lord, please reveal to me the idols in my life. I only want to worship You and be under Your Lordship rather than some sinful idol in my life. When I come to worship, I want You to reveal to me where I need to repent and then help me to be transferred by Your word so that I change for Your glory. In Jesus’ name, Amen!”

I love you Southside! – Pastor Kelly