Ezekiel 23 Devotional: Learning from Judah’s Failure and Choosing Faithfulness Today

 Lessons Learned from Israel’s Downfall 📜

7-Step QT

1. 🙏 Quiet Time

2. 📅 August 27, 2025

3. ✝️ Ezekiel 23:1-21

4. 📖 Her sister Oholibah saw this, and she became more corrupt than her sister in her lust and in her whoring, which was worse than that of her sister (v. 11).

5. 📝 We often judge others’ sins yet fall into the same temptations, even justifying our actions. Judah repeated Samaria’s mistakes, ignoring God’s warnings and going further into sin. This passage calls us to examine our hearts, turn from compromise, and choose obedience and trust in God before it’s too late.

6. 💬 What does this passage speak to you today?

7. 🙏 Share below, and let’s encourage one another in prayer!

7-Step QT Notes

1. 🙏 Quiet Time

Pause.
Take a deep breath.
Ask God to help you see the danger of compromise and the beauty of faithfulness.

2. 📅 August 27, 2025

Today’s passage reminds us:
Seeing someone else fall doesn’t guarantee we’ll stand.

Without God’s strength, we’re just as vulnerable.

3. ✝️ Ezekiel 23:1–21

God uses a shocking story of two sisters—Oholah (Samaria) and Oholibah (Jerusalem).
Samaria turned from God and chased after idols.
Jerusalem saw this but didn’t learn.
Instead, she went even further into sin.
The result? Both faced judgment.

4. 📖 Key Verse

“Her sister Oholibah saw this, and she became more corrupt than her sister in her lust and in her whoring, which was worse than that of her sister.” (v.11)

5. 📝 Reflection

We often think, “I’d never do that.”
But when temptation comes, our resolve melts.
Sometimes we even justify sin: “Is this really wrong?”
Judah saw Samaria fall but didn’t repent—she doubled down.
We do the same when we ignore warning signs and keep flirting with sin.

God calls us to turn back now.
Not tomorrow. Not when it’s convenient.
Because compromise always leads to destruction.
Faithfulness isn’t about perfection—it’s about daily surrender.

6. 💬 What does this passage speak to you today?

• Where am I ignoring God’s warnings in my life?
• What’s one area I need to stop justifying and start surrendering?
• How can I build habits that keep me close to God this week?

7. 🙏 Prayer

God, keep me from pride that says, “I’d never fall.”
Show me where I’m drifting and give me courage to turn back.
Help me choose faithfulness over compromise every day.
Amen.

Scriptures

📖 1 The word of the LORD came to me: 2 “Son of man, there were two women, the daughters of one mother. 3 They played the whore in Egypt; they played the whore in their youth; there their breasts were pressed and their virgin bosoms handled. 4 Oholah was the name of the elder and Oholibah the name of her sister. They became mine, and they bore sons and daughters. As for their names, Oholah is Samaria, and Oholibah is Jerusalem.

5 “Oholah played the whore while she was mine, and she lusted after her lovers the Assyrians, warriors 6 clothed in purple, governors and commanders, all of them desirable young men, horsemen riding on horses. 7 She bestowed her whoring upon them, the choicest men of Assyria all of them, and she defiled herself with all the idols of everyone after whom she lusted. 8 She did not give up her whoring that she had begun in Egypt; for in her youth men had lain with her and handled her virgin bosom and poured out their whoring lust upon her. 9 Therefore I delivered her into the hands of her lovers, into the hands of the Assyrians, after whom she lusted. 10 These uncovered her nakedness; they seized her sons and her daughters; and as for her, they killed her with the sword; and she became a byword among women, when judgment had been executed on her.

11 “Her sister Oholibah saw this, and she became more corrupt than her sister in her lust and in her whoring, which was worse than that of her sister. 12 She lusted after the Assyrians, governors and commanders, warriors clothed in full armor, horsemen riding on horses, all of them desirable young men. 13 And I saw that she was defiled; they both took the same way. 14 But she carried her whoring further. She saw men portrayed on the wall, the images of the Chaldeans portrayed in vermilion, 15 wearing belts on their waists, with flowing turbans on their heads, all of them having the appearance of officers, a likeness of Babylonians whose native land was Chaldea. 16 When she saw them, she lusted after them and sent messengers to them in Chaldea. 17 And the Babylonians came to her into the bed of love, and they defiled her with their whoring lust. And after she was defiled by them, she turned from them in disgust. 18 When she carried on her whoring so openly and flaunted her nakedness, I turned in disgust from her, as I had turned in disgust from her sister. 19 Yet she increased her whoring, remembering the days of her youth, when she played the whore in the land of Egypt 20 and lusted after her lovers there, whose members were like those of donkeys, and whose issue was like that of horses. 21 Thus you longed for the lewdness of your youth, when the Egyptians handled your bosom and pressed your young breasts.” (Ezek 23:1-21, ESV).

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