READING: Ezekiel 5-8, Hebrews 12:14-29
Many of us live for “stuff.” We earn, buy, perhaps save a bit, and then earn and buy some more. We too often determine our value on the dollars in our bank accounts, the style of our cars, and the size of our homes. Seldom do we think about how little those things will matter when we stand before God.
Ezekiel made this point clear to the Israelites as he announced coming judgment on Jerusalem. The people may have had “silver and gold,” but their wealth would mean nothing in the day of judgment: “They will throw their silver into the streets, and their gold will seem like something filthy. Their silver and gold will be unable to save them in the day of the Lord’s wrath” (Ezek 7:19). They had lived materialistically, but their money could not buy them a release from judgment. Temporal stuff doesn’t help us much when we’re dealing with eternal matters.
This warning remains relevant today. When we take God’s blessings of provision and turn them into idols, we’re asking for trouble. We will eventually learn that our idols are “something filthy,” but we sometimes learn that truth only when judgment comes. May God help us in our materialistic, self-centered world to live differently.
PRAYER: “Father, I get too focused on wealth at times. Forgive me, and remind me of eternity.”
TOMORROW’S READING: Ezekiel 9-12, Hebrews 13
