Ezekiel 25 Devotional

No Joy in Another's Ruin

Jerusalem has fallen, and the neighbors are watching. Ammon cheers when God's sanctuary is profaned and the people are carried into exile (25:3), clapping and stamping with contempt in their hearts (25:6). Moab and Seir shrug that Judah is no different from any other nation (25:8). Edom and the Philistines go further and take revenge, the Philistines with malice and an old hostility (25:12, 15).

Judah's fall was God's own judgment, as the earlier chapters made plain. Yet God holds the onlookers to account for how they received it. Their delight in another people's ruin was its own sin, and he names each nation in turn. Notice too whose vengeance this is. God calls it his (25:14, 17), not theirs to take. Proverbs warns against celebrating an enemy's fall (Proverbs 24:17-18), and Paul tells believers not to take revenge but to leave judgment to God (Romans 12:19). Justice is safe in his hands. That frees you to grieve when others fall, even those who wronged you, instead of keeping score.

To think about: When someone who has wronged you stumbles, what is your first reaction, and what would it look like to leave justice with God?