Daily Devotional

Here is the tragedy at the center of this passage. These were not people who had stopped going to the temple. They were there, weeping, groaning, bringing their offerings, and wondering why heaven felt silent. The commentator Adams observes that hypocrites rarely see the great gap between their religious practice and their rampant sin, and Benton asks how many of us carry a strong, often unnoticed attachment to the very sin we cover with a thin film of church attendance and participation.

This is not a new problem for God’s people. Psalm 66:18 says that if we cherish sin in our hearts, the Lord will not listen, and Isaiah 1:15 records God telling Israel that their many prayers go unheard because their hands are full of the very violence he is condemning. Religious activity was never meant to be a substitute for repentance. It was meant to flow out of it.

The pointed question for us is simple and uncomfortable. Is there an area of your life right now where you are showing up religiously (present at church, giving, serving) while quietly avoiding an honest reckoning with sin you know is there? Outward piety can disguise inward cruelty for a long time. It cannot do so forever.