YEAR 3, WEEK 38, Day 1, Monday, 14 September 2026

DBRP – YEAR 3, WEEK 38, Day 1, Monday, 14 September 2026

https://literalword.com/esv?q=Ezekiel+11

Observations from today’s readings and today’s S-WOD, Monday, 14 September 2026:

Ezekiel 11:1-4 — The Spirit lifted me up and brought me to the east gate of the house of the LORD, which faces east. And behold, at the entrance of the gateway there were twenty-five men…. And he said to me, “Son of man, these are the men who devise iniquity and who give wicked counsel in this city; who say, ‘The time is not near to build houses. This city is the cauldron, and we are the meat.’ Therefore prophesy against them; prophesy, O son of man.”

Ezekiel’s vision moves from the idolatry inside the temple to the leaders shaping the life of the city. These men “devise iniquity” and “give wicked counsel.” Their sin is not merely personal. They are using their influence to convince others that Jerusalem is secure despite everything God has said through His prophets. They picture the city as a protective cauldron with themselves safely inside. God had warned them of judgment; they had developed a way of thinking that allowed them to dismiss the warning.

That remains one of the most dangerous uses of human intelligence. We can use our minds to seek truth, or we can use them to construct reasons why what we already want to believe must be true. Sin rarely announces itself by saying, “I know God is right, but I choose evil.” More often we rationalize, reinterpret, minimize, compare ourselves with others, or surround ourselves with voices that make disobedience sound reasonable. Paul warns that a time comes when people gather teachers who tell them what their “itching ears” want to hear (2 Timothy 4:3-4). The problem is not simply that false teachers exist; it is that fallen hearts want messages that allow us to keep what God is telling us to surrender.

This makes spiritual discernment especially important in a generation flooded with voices competing to tell us what is true, good, normal, and worth pursuing. Popularity does not make counsel wise, cultural acceptance does not make something righteous, and even religious language does not make a message faithful to God. Jesus is the truth (John 14:6), and His Word must remain the standard by which every other voice is judged. The question is not whether the message around us feels reassuring, but whether it agrees with the One we have chosen to follow.

Ezekiel 11:5-6 — And the Spirit of the LORD fell upon me, and he said to me, “Say, Thus says the LORD: So you think, O house of Israel. For I know the things that come into your mind. You have multiplied your slain in this city and have filled its streets with the slain.”

“For I know the things that come into your mind.” The leaders could hide their motives from the people, perhaps even from themselves, but not from God. Throughout Scripture, God searches the heart and mind (Jeremiah 20:12; Revelation 2:23). Nothing inside us is hidden from Him. Hebrews says that everything is “naked and exposed” before the One to whom we must give account (Hebrews 4:13).

That should cause us to think seriously about our thinking. Jesus said the greatest commandment includes loving God “with all your mind” (Matthew 22:37). Paul tells us to “take every thought captive to obey Christ” and to be transformed through the renewal of our minds (2 Corinthians 10:5; Romans 12:2). Christian maturity therefore cannot be limited to controlling visible behavior while allowing our minds to wander wherever they please. What we repeatedly watch, read, imagine, rehearse, desire, resent, fear, and dwell upon is shaping us.

But the Gospel gives us far more than the command to think better. God gives us His Spirit and His Word and begins renewing us from within. We learn to “set” our minds on things above because our life is now “hidden with Christ in God” (Colossians 3:2-3). We feed our minds differently because we belong to Someone different. Paul therefore tells us to dwell on what is true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, commendable, excellent, and worthy of praise (Philippians 4:8). We cannot prevent every sinful thought from entering our minds, but we do not have to welcome it, feed it, entertain it, or obey it. In Christ, even our thought life increasingly comes under His loving rule.

Ezekiel 11:7-12 — “You have feared the sword; and I will bring a sword upon you,” says the Lord GOD…. “And you shall know that I am the LORD; for you have not walked in my statutes nor executed my judgments, but have done according to the customs of the Gentiles which are all around you.”

The leaders had built their policies around what they feared rather than around what God had said. Ironically, the very sword they feared would come upon them. Their attempts to secure themselves apart from God brought about the insecurity they were trying to avoid.

Fear still has tremendous power to drive disobedience. Fear of losing money can make us dishonest. Fear of rejection can make us compromise. Fear of conflict can keep us silent. Fear of failure can make us controlling. Fear of what others think can make us conform. We may tell ourselves that circumstances leave us no choice, but underneath many compromises is the belief that obedience to God will cost us something we cannot afford to lose.

Jesus repeatedly tells His disciples not to live that way. “Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul” (Matthew 10:28). The safest place is not wherever circumstances appear most secure but wherever obedience keeps us close to Christ. That does not mean obedience protects us from suffering. Jesus obeyed the Father perfectly and went to the cross. It means that nothing we surrender in obedience can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus, and nothing we preserve through disobedience can give us the security that only He provides (Romans 8:35-39).

God then identifies Israel’s deeper problem: they had begun living “according to the rules of the nations that are around you.” The people God called to be distinct had gradually allowed the surrounding culture to disciple them. The same pressure confronts Christians in every generation. We constantly receive messages about what to desire, how to define ourselves, what relationships should look like, what success means, what sexuality means, what money is for, where security comes from, and even what is good and evil. Some of those messages may agree with Scripture; many will not. Paul’s command remains urgent: “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind” (Romans 12:2).

Yet our first response should not be outrage over how secular society lives. We should expect people who do not follow Christ to think differently from those who do. Ezekiel’s indictment is directed at God’s people because God’s people had begun thinking and living like everyone around them. The more searching question for us is where the world has discipled us more effectively than Jesus has. Where have I accepted something as normal simply because nearly everyone around me accepts it? Where am I more concerned about being accepted by the culture than being faithful to Christ?

Ezekiel 11:13-16 — And it came to pass, while I was prophesying, that Pelatiah the son of Benaiah died. Then I fell down on my face and cried out with a loud voice and said, “Ah, Lord GOD! Will you make a full end of the remnant of Israel?” And the word of the LORD came to me: “Son of man, your brothers, even your brothers, your kinsmen, the whole house of Israel, all of them, are those of whom the inhabitants of Jerusalem have said, ‘Go far from the LORD; to us this land is given for a possession.’ Therefore say, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD: Though I removed them far off among the nations, and though I scattered them among the countries, yet I have been a sanctuary to them for a while in the countries where they have gone.’”

Pelatiah’s death shocks Ezekiel. His response is important. He does not celebrate the death of a wicked leader or congratulate himself for being on the right side of God’s judgment. He falls on his face and pleads for the people. Ezekiel understands the seriousness of their rebellion without losing compassion for the rebels.

That balance should increasingly characterize people who know Christ. We can speak clearly about sin without enjoying another person’s downfall. Jesus looked over rebellious Jerusalem and wept (Luke 19:41-44). Paul spoke hard truths about Israel’s unbelief while carrying “great sorrow and unceasing anguish” for his people (Romans 9:2). If seeing another person’s sin mainly produces anger, superiority, or satisfaction when consequences come, we may understand something about holiness but have not yet fully reflected the heart of Christ.

God’s answer to Ezekiel is also surprising. The people remaining in Jerusalem believed the exiles had been driven far from the LORD and that they themselves were secure because they still possessed the land and temple. God says almost the opposite. The people who appeared farthest from His sanctuary were the ones to whom He promised, “I have been a sanctuary to them.”

That is one of the most beautiful truths in this chapter. God’s people had lost their homes, their land, their temple, and nearly everything that had represented security and identity, but they had not lost God. The temple was never ultimately what made them safe; God’s presence did. Even His discipline was not abandonment. He went with His people into exile.

The Gospel brings that truth to its fullness in Jesus. God does not merely invite us to come to a place where He dwells; He comes to us. “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14). Jesus identifies His own body as the true temple (John 2:19-21), and through union with Him we become the dwelling place of God by the Spirit (Ephesians 2:21-22). Wherever Christ is, we have our sanctuary. Circumstances can change, nations can shake, possessions can disappear, institutions can fail, and familiar places can be taken from us, but nothing can separate us from Him. Our security is ultimately not national security, financial security, physical security, or even the security of circumstances we can control. Our security is a Person.

Ezekiel 11:17-21 — Therefore say, ‘Thus says the Lord God: I will gather you from the peoples and assemble you out of the countries where you have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel.’ And when they come there, they will remove from it all its detestable things and all its abominations. And I will give them one heart, and a new spirit I will put within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in my statutes and keep my rules and obey them. And they shall be my people, and I will be their God. But as for those whose heart goes after their detestable things and their abominations, I will bring their deeds upon their own heads, declares the Lord God.”

God does not merely promise to return His people to the land. If He returned the same people with the same hearts to the same land, they would eventually repeat the same rebellion. Their greatest problem was never Babylon. It was the heart that had wandered from God long before Babylon arrived.

So God promises something much greater than changed circumstances: “I will give them one heart, and a new spirit I will put within them.” Later Ezekiel will expand the promise: God will give His people a new heart, put His Spirit within them, and cause them to walk in His ways (Ezekiel 36:26-27). Jeremiah describes the new covenant in similar terms, with God’s law written upon the heart (Jeremiah 31:31-34). What Israel desperately needed could not be produced by better circumstances, stronger willpower, stricter rules, political reform, or more religious activity. They needed God to change them from within.

That promise finds its fulfillment in Christ and the gift of the Holy Spirit. Jesus tells Nicodemus that we must be born of the Spirit (John 3:5-8). Through the Gospel, God does not merely forgive our old life; He gives us new life. “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation” (2 Corinthians 5:17). The Spirit joins us to Christ, gives us new desires, renews our minds, and increasingly produces in us the character of Jesus (Galatians 5:22-23; Romans 8:29).

Notice also the purpose of the new heart: “that they may walk in my statutes and keep my rules and obey them.” Grace does not make obedience unnecessary; grace makes genuine obedience possible. We are not saved because we obey, but the Christ who saves us does not leave us unchanged. Jesus said, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments” (John 14:15). The new heart increasingly wants what God wants because it is being shaped by the Spirit of Christ.

God also promises “one heart.” Sin fragments. Pride divides. Idolatry makes each person serve competing desires and loyalties. The Spirit brings God’s people together because He brings them together around Christ. Jesus prayed that His people would become one as He and the Father are one, and that our unity would reveal Him to the world (John 17:20-23).

But unity itself cannot be the ultimate goal. People can unite around a political party, ideology, organization, cause, leader, denomination, grievance, or even a distorted form of Christianity and simply become wrong together. Christian unity comes from sharing one Lord, one faith, one Spirit, and one life in Christ (Ephesians 4:3-6). We should never weaken truth to preserve unity, nor use truth without love in ways that destroy it. Jesus Himself is both the truth around which we unite and the One whose love teaches us how to live together. The closer each of us draws to Christ, the closer we should be drawn to one another.

Verse 21 leaves us with a revealing contrast: God gives His people a new heart, but some hearts continue to “go after” their detestable things. What the heart goes after eventually shapes the life. That brings us back to where the chapter began. God knows “the things that come into your mind,” because thoughts, desires, loves, and actions are connected. We become increasingly like what we repeatedly pursue. The Christian life is therefore not merely trying harder to behave differently. It is living in fellowship with Christ so that our hearts increasingly treasure Him above the idols competing for our affection.

Ezekiel 11:22-25 — Then the cherubim lifted up their wings, with the wheels beside them, and the glory of the God of Israel was over them. And the glory of the Lord went up from the midst of the city and stood on the mountain that is on the east side of the city. And the Spirit lifted me up and brought me in the vision by the Spirit of God into Chaldea, to the exiles. Then the vision that I had seen went up from me. And I told the exiles all the things that the Lord had shown me.

The vision that began in Ezekiel 8 now reaches its devastating conclusion. God’s glory has moved from the inner sanctuary to the threshold, from the threshold to the eastern gate, and now out of Jerusalem itself. The people still have the temple building, but the glory has departed. They had valued God’s gifts while rejecting God Himself until the visible symbol of His presence finally left them.

There is a warning here for every generation of God’s people. Religious buildings, traditions, ministries, denominations, programs, doctrinal statements, worship services, and Christian language can continue long after people have stopped truly walking with God. We can preserve the outward structure while our hearts slowly move elsewhere. The great tragedy is not losing the things associated with God. It is becoming satisfied with those things while losing fellowship with God Himself.

Yet even this terrible scene contains a remarkable glimpse of hope. The glory stops on “the mountain that is on the east side of the city,” the Mount of Olives. Centuries later Jesus would stand on that mountain, enter Jerusalem as its promised King, weep over the city that rejected Him, and after His resurrection ascend from that same area into heaven (Luke 19:28-44; Acts 1:9-12). Ezekiel watches the glory of God leave Jerusalem; the New Testament reveals the glory of God returning in the person of Jesus Christ. John says, “we have seen his glory” (John 1:14), and Paul says that the light of the knowledge of God’s glory is seen “in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:6).

And the story still is not finished. The disciples who watched Jesus ascend from the Mount of Olives were told, “This Jesus… will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven” (Acts 1:11). The glory that departed will not remain absent. Christ will return, sin will finally be removed, and God’s dwelling will be with His people forever (Revelation 21:3).

Until then, Ezekiel 11 calls us to live differently now. God knows what occupies our minds. He knows what we fear, what we trust, what voices shape us, what the surrounding culture has taught us to accept, and what our hearts secretly pursue. But the Gospel does not leave us trying to repair ourselves. In Christ, God has become our sanctuary, forgiven our sin, given us His Spirit, begun renewing our minds and hearts, united us to His Son and to one another, and promised that Christ will return to finish what He has begun.

What thoughts am I repeatedly allowing to shape my heart? Where has fear influenced my decisions more than trust in God? Where have I accepted the values of the culture around me without seriously comparing them with God’s Word? Am I trusting the things associated with Christianity, or am I actually walking closely with Christ? What does my heart presently “go after,” and what does that reveal about what I really love? Is the Spirit making me more obedient, more loving, more united with other believers, and more like Jesus? If God Himself is my sanctuary, what am I afraid of losing that I have begun treating as though I cannot live without it?

“Cross” Fit S-WOD (Spiritual Workout of the Day) – 14 September 2026: Identify one recurring thought, fear, desire, or cultural message that has been shaping you in a way that does not agree with God’s Word. Write it down, identify one specific Scripture that speaks truth against it, and intentionally return to that truth at least three times today whenever the old thought returns.

Pray: “Father, You know everything that comes into my mind and everything my heart pursues. Show me where fear, the world, or my own desires have shaped me more than Your Word. Thank You that in Christ You are my sanctuary and that You have given me Your Spirit and a new life. Renew my mind, soften my heart, deepen my union with Jesus, and teach me to love what You love and obey what You command. Make us one in Christ and increasingly like Him as we faithfully await His return. Amen.”