Ezekiel 8:12: “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.”‘”

December 3rd, 2024 by Pastor Ed in devotional

God showed Ezekiel a vision of what was really going on in the minds of the so-called spiritual leaders of Israel. Their thought-lives revealed that they were secretly worshiping idols, even back before their captivity, when they were still in the temple. These Jewish leaders had fallen into the same inaccurate assumptions that many still do to this day, wrongly thinking: “the LORD does not see us” and “the LORD has forsaken the land.” They thought God was so far removed from earth and humanity that it didn’t really matter to Him how they lived or what they thought.

However, Scripture affirms over and over that God is vitally concerned with every part of His creation. As David said, “O LORD, You have searched me and known me. / You know my sitting down and my rising up; / You understand my thought afar off” (Psa. 139:1–2). Many have noted that what people do when they think no one else can see them, reveals their true character. Even the unbelieving world understands this danger, as Marcus Aurelius said, “The soul is dyed the color of its thought.” How careful we all need to be with what we allow into the room of our minds.

There is an ancient Italian story about a scholar who spent endless hours alone reading from his vast collection of books. His friends were bewildered when they found him dead one day. They could find no indication of what had killed him, until they saw a small mark on his wrist, a snake bite. An asp that had been living among his books, had bitten him while he read. What happened to the scholar literally, often happens figuratively to those who defile their own imagination with immoral books, magazines, or movies.

“LORD, please forgive us our sins and help us to walk clean before You this day.”