⚰️ What Can Save You from God’s Judgment? | Ezekiel 32 Devotional (7-Step QT)
7-Step QT Notes
1. 🙏 Quiet Time
Pause.
Take a deep breath.
Ask God to show you where you have been trusting in your achievements, reputation, or strength rather than in Jesus Christ.
2. 📅 July 28, 2026
Today’s passage reminds us:
No worldly power or human achievement can save us from God’s judgment; our only hope is Jesus Christ.
3. ✝️ Ezekiel 32:17-32
The LORD tells Ezekiel to lament over Egypt and send its people to the pit. Assyria, Elam, Meshech-Tubal, Edom, the northern princes, and Sidon already lie there, slain by the sword and bearing shame after spreading terror among the living. Egypt is no better and will lie among the uncircumcised. Pharaoh may find comfort among the fallen nations, but he and his army cannot escape God's judgment.
4. 📖 Key Verse
“Whom do you surpass in beauty? Go down and be laid to rest with the uncircumcised” (v. 19).
5. 📝 Reflection
Perhaps the most widely known testimony of someone claiming to have visited hell is Bill Wiese’s 23 Minutes in Hell. According to his account, on the night of November 22, 1998, he was suddenly transported to hell and experienced it for twenty-three minutes. He described it as a prison-like place filled with extreme heat, thirst, deep darkness, and a terrible stench. He also claimed that terrifying evil beings were there and that he heard countless people screaming in agony. Above all, he testified that there was no hope there—only the despair of eternal separation from God.
However, I am by no means attempting to defend Bill Wiese’s testimony theologically. No matter how vivid and powerful his account may be, it cannot possess greater authority than the Bible, the Word of God. Moreover, his testimony contains many details that Scripture does not explicitly teach. Therefore, we must not place a personal experience on the same level as biblical revelation or make it the foundation of our faith.
Nevertheless, I mention his testimony because the expression “the uncircumcised” appears no fewer than ten times in today’s passage. Ezekiel describes them as being slain by the sword, descending to Sheol and the pit, and lying there in shame. We cannot directly identify this realm with the hell Bill Wiese claimed to have seen. Yet I have used his story as an illustration because it may help us consider the despair and shame experienced by those under God’s judgment.
In today’s passage, God declares through Ezekiel that Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and all his multitude will lie among “the uncircumcised.” Because Egypt and several other ancient Near Eastern peoples also practiced circumcision, this declaration does not merely concern whether they had received physical circumcision. It means that those who opposed God and spread terror throughout the world would suffer a shameful death under his judgment.
This declaration must have been shocking to the Egyptians. A nation that boasted of its greatness and beauty would, under God’s judgment, be forced to lie among those whom it had despised. Assyria, Elam, Meshech-Tubal, Edom, and Sidon had once terrified the world, but in the grave they were powerless. In the same way, worldly power and glory cannot save anyone from God’s judgment.
Beloved brothers and sisters, I am not trying to frighten you by describing the horrors of hell in detail. Rather, I want to proclaim that God’s judgment is truly serious and that no human power or pride can enable us to escape it. I write with a concerned heart because I do not want any of you to be eternally separated from God or to suffer everlasting shame.
Therefore, if you have not yet repented, repent today and believe in Jesus Christ. Do not trust in your deeds or accomplishments; trust in Jesus Christ, who died for us and rose again, and receive salvation. I earnestly pray that none of us will lie among those who perish under God’s judgment, but that we will receive eternal life in Jesus Christ and meet one another with joy in the kingdom of God.
6. 💬 What does this passage speak to you today?
- Where has pride caused me to feel secure, self-sufficient, or spiritually superior?
- Am I trusting in Jesus Christ alone for salvation, or am I relying on my good works and religious background?
- Is there a sin that God is calling me to confess and turn away from today?
- Who in my life needs to hear the hope of the gospel through my words and actions?
7. 🙏 Prayer
Our heavenly Father, thank You for warning me about the seriousness of sin and judgment.
Forgive me for trusting in my achievements, reputation, possessions, or strength.
Help me remember that nothing in this world can save me or reconcile me to You.
Thank You for giving me forgiveness and eternal life through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Amen.
Scriptures
📖 (Ezekiel 32:17-32, ESV).
17 In the twelfth year, in the twelfth month, on the fifteenth day of the month, the word of the LORD came to me: 18 “Son of man, wail over the multitude of Egypt, and send them down, her and the daughters of majestic nations, to the world below, to those who have gone down to the pit:
19 ‘Whom do you surpass in beauty?
Go down and be laid to rest with the uncircumcised.’
20 They shall fall amid those who are slain by the sword. Egypt is delivered to the sword; drag her away, and all her multitudes. 21 The mighty chiefs shall speak of them, with their helpers, out of the midst of Sheol: ‘They have come down, they lie still, the uncircumcised, slain by the sword.’
22 “Assyria is there, and all her company, its graves all around it, all of them slain, fallen by the sword, 23 whose graves are set in the uttermost parts of the pit; and her company is all around her grave, all of them slain, fallen by the sword, who spread terror in the land of the living.
24 “Elam is there, and all her multitude around her grave; all of them slain, fallen by the sword, who went down uncircumcised into the world below, who spread their terror in the land of the living; and they bear their shame with those who go down to the pit. 25 They have made her a bed among the slain with all her multitude, her graves all around it, all of them uncircumcised, slain by the sword; for terror of them was spread in the land of the living, and they bear their shame with those who go down to the pit; they are placed among the slain.
26 “Meshech-Tubal is there, and all her multitude, her graves all around it, all of them uncircumcised, slain by the sword; for they spread their terror in the land of the living. 27 And they do not lie with the mighty, the fallen from among the uncircumcised, who went down to Sheol with their weapons of war, whose swords were laid under their heads, and whose iniquities are upon their bones; for the terror of the mighty men was in the land of the living. 28 But as for you, you shall be broken and lie among the uncircumcised, with those who are slain by the sword.
29 “Edom is there, her kings and all her princes, who for all their might are laid with those who are killed by the sword; they lie with the uncircumcised, with those who go down to the pit.
30 “The princes of the north are there, all of them, and all the Sidonians, who have gone down in shame with the slain, for all the terror that they caused by their might; they lie uncircumcised with those who are slain by the sword, and bear their shame with those who go down to the pit.
31 “When Pharaoh sees them, he will be comforted for all his multitude, Pharaoh and all his army, slain by the sword, declares the Lord GOD. 32 For I spread terror in the land of the living; and he shall be laid to rest among the uncircumcised, with those who are slain by the sword, Pharaoh and all his multitude, declares the Lord GOD.”
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