Daily Devotional For Friday, August 20, 2026
Good morning Southside! Thank you for taking the time to let the Lord speak to you today. Our daily devotional for today comes from Ezekiel 21:1-5:
“Then this message came to me from the LORD: (2) “Son of man, turn and face Jerusalem and prophesy against Israel and her sanctuaries. (3) Tell her, ‘This is what the LORD says: I am your enemy, O Israel, and I am about to unsheath my sword to destroy your people—the righteous and the wicked alike. (4) Yes, I will cut off both the righteous and the wicked! I will draw My sword against everyone in the land from south to north. (5) Everyone in the world will know that I am the LORD. My sword is in My hand, and it will not return to its sheath until its work is finished” (NLT).
If you have been reading these daily devotionals, I am drawing them from the One Year Chronological Bible. I know it seems we have been in passages for a long time where God is fed up with His rebellious, idolatrous and immoral people. Through multiple prophets God has prophesied of Israel’s destruction by the hand of Babylon and King Nebuchadnezzar. There was so much death, destruction, devastation, famine, fear and faithlessness, that people were actually praying for a quick death.
When the Lord is your enemy, you are going down. You are not going to win that battle. Three times in the book of Jeremiah, God calls a pagan king, King Nebuchadnezzar His servant (Jer. 25:9; Jer. 27:6 and Jer. 43:10). A pagan, godless king was more willing to be God’s servant than God’s own people. The Book of Daniel records how this transformation took place:
- With Daniel in the lion’s den (Dan. 2:47).
- With Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego in the fiery furnace (Dan. 3:25; Dan. 3:29; Dan. 4:1-3).
- After God humbled him, causing him to go insane and eat grass like an ox (Dan. 4:34).
It makes you wonder how far God would go today with each one of us to get our attention. We want a God of love; not a God of wrath and punishment. The Bible tells us that God disciplines those that He loves (Heb. 12:5-11). No loving parent gets joy or satisfaction out of discipling their children. It really hurts them more than their child. This had to break the heart of God to totally destroy His Chosen People. Like an unbroken stallion, God had to break them.
And the amazing this is that through multiple conquerors who enslaved them and annihilated them such as Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome, a remnant was left all through those years from 722 BC all the way down to 5 BC so that God’s promise of a coming Messiah would be born and fulfilled. We have seen in Ezekiel 18 that God holds each person responsible for their own sin. In Ezekiel 20 and forward, God holds the whole nation responsible for their sin.
This is not only true of countries, it is true of churches as well that fail to take responsibility to share the Gospel and make disciples. Every redeemed person in the church is responsible to fulfill Matthew 28:19-20 and each church is responsible also. The refusal of either one, the individual person or the individual church, will cause the Lord to unsheath His sword and bring discipline. Israel was supposed to be God’s Chosen People, as the church is today, but it had failed to be God’s light, salt and witness in the world. Instead, Israel chose to rebel, turn to idolatry, be immoral and engage in infanticide. Today, we are seeing churches close their doors for the final time all over America. Why? The church is God’s, not ours. We did not die to create it. We were not resurrected from physical death for it. Jesus Christ was.
Therefore, any church or individual that refuses to obey God in making disciples, will reluctantly experience His sword against them. Currently, 4,000 Protestant churches are closing their doors every year in America. For our own denomination (SBC), we had 268 churches last year close their doors permanently. There have been a total of 46,608 SBC churches closed since the Pandemic. Many of these had lots of money in the bank, but not love of missions in their hearts.
Reflection Assignment: Look back over your life, when has the Lord had to discipline you to get your attention? What were you doing that caused the Lord to do this and what have you learned since? Did you thank the Lord for His intentionality to discipline you to bring you back to where you needed to be? Why or why not?
Scripture To Meditate On: Hebrews 12:6, “For the Lord disciplines those He loves, and He punishes each one He accepts as His child” (NLT).
Prayer To Pray: “Thank You Lord for your sword of discipline in my life. I thank You that You love me that much. Help me to always have a heart that is willing to receive Your discipline and a desire to repent when it comes. I love You Lord. In Jesus’ name, Amen!”
I love you Southside! – Pastor Kelly