Today, I am reading and commenting on Ezekiel 20-21.

In today’s passage some of the elders of Israel came to Ezekiel to inquire of God.  Ezekiel tells them that God will not allow them to inquire of Him and then gives them a history lesson.  He describes the way that God had done good things for their ancestors and how their ancestors had rebelled against God.  As I read that I was struck by how God repeatedly listed desecrating His Sabbaths among the ways in which the people rebelled against God.  As I reread the passage to formulate what I would write, I noticed that early on God told them that He had given them (and us) His Sabbaths as a sign that He had made them (and us) holy.  In addition, I saw that God repeatedly said “my Sabbaths”, not “the Sabbath”.  So, where does all of this lead me?  We should dedicate one day each week to worship God.  That day belongs to God and its purpose is to remind us that God made us in His image, made all of us in His image.  Further, it reminds us that we have chosen to make ourselves vile and repugnant by doing evil.  Yet, God has chosen to make us holy.  We have no goodness of our own that we might make ourselves holy.  Let us not desecrate the day which belongs to God.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.