Beginnings
GenesisExodusLeviticusNumbersDeuteronomy
Judges
JoshuaJudgesRuth
Kingdoms
1 Samuel2 Samuel1 Kings2 Kings
Chronicles
1 Chronicles2 ChroniclesEzraNehemiahEsther
Poetry
JobPsalmsProverbsEcclesiastesSong of Solomon
Prophets
IsaiahJeremiahLamentationsEzekielDaniel
Minor Prophets
HoseaJoelAmosObadiahJonahMicah
NahumHabakkukZephaniahHaggaiZechariahMalachi
Messiah
MatthewMarkLukeJohnActs
Paul's Letters
Romans1 Corinthians2 CorinthiansGalatiansEphesiansPhilippiansColossians
1 Thessalonians2 Thessalonians1 Timothy2 TimothyTitusPhilemonHebrews
General Letters
James1 Peter2 Peter1 John
2 John3 JohnJude
Revelation
Revelation
Kept for this visit
Notes, starred verses and bookmarks kept while signed out last until this visit ends. Create a free account and everything you keep here moves into it, saved for good.
Create an account Sign in

Morning and Evening

April 28, Evening

C. H. Spurgeon · Modern retelling

"All the house of Israel are impudent and hardhearted." — Ezekiel 3:7 · KJV

Are there no exceptions? No, not one. Even the favored nation is described this way. If the best are that bad, what must the worst be? Come, my heart, consider how far you share in this sweeping accusation, and as you consider, be ready to take the shame on yourself where you have been guilty. The first charge is a brazen face: a lack of holy shame, an unhallowed boldness in doing wrong. Before my conversion I could sin and feel no pang, hear of my guilt and stay unhumbled, even admit my wrongdoing and show no inward sorrow over it. For a sinner to walk into God's house and pretend to pray and praise there shows a shamelessness of the worst kind. And since the day of my new birth I have doubted my Lord to His face, complained in His presence without blushing, worshiped before Him carelessly, and sinned without ever grieving over it. If my forehead were not harder than flint, I would have far more holy fear and a far deeper sorrow of spirit. How sad for me; I belong to that same shameless house of Israel. The second charge is hardness of heart, and I dare not plead innocent here either. Once I had nothing but a heart of stone, and though by grace I now have a new and living heart, much of the old stubbornness remains. I am not moved by the death of Jesus as I ought to be, nor stirred as I should be by the ruin of my fellow men, the wickedness of the times, my heavenly Father's discipline, or my own failures. Oh, that my heart would melt at the story of my Savior's suffering. I wish I were rid of this millstone inside me, this hateful weight of death. But blessed be the name of the Lord, the disease is not beyond cure. What the Savior gave for us dissolves every hardness, and it will soften even me, until my heart melts like wax before the fire.