Today, I am reading and commenting on  Ezekiel 17-19.

I have rarely given much thought to the message of chapter seventeen.  However, today I realized it gives us an important lesson for understanding the implications of how a country implements its foreign policy (and from that, some lessons on our own actions).  When King Josiah ruled, Judah was an ally of Babylon against Assyria, while Egypt was an ally of Assyria.  Josiah was killed in battle trying to prevent Egypt from marching to Assyria’s aid.  Egypt deposed Josiah’s eldest son and put his second son (Jehoiakim) on the throne as a puppet.  A little over a decade later, Babylon deposed Jehoiakim’s son and put Zedekiah on the throne.  As part of that process, Zedekiah swore oaths of loyalty to Babylon.  However, he was soon convinced to renounce those oaths and rely on Egypt for support against Babylon.  In this passage Ezekiel condemns Zedekiah for breaking his oath to Babylon, pointing out that Babylon had provided Judah with the means to thrive during a tumultuous time.  Zedekiah thought that by throwing his support to Egypt he could capitalize on being in between these two powers.  The end result was that instead of thriving as a client state of Babylon Judah became a mere province of Babylon, and later of Persia.

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Ezekiel 13-15.

Today’s passage begins with a prophecy against false prophets, against those who prophecy out of their own imagination.  He compares them to masons who whitewash a wall to hide where it is starting to fall apart rather than repair it.  I really love this metaphor, and the way Ezekiel keeps coming back to it throughout his prophecies.  Prophets are called to speak a message which addresses the places where people are falling short of God’s will, a message which addresses the ways in which people are behaving unjustly.  Ezekiel is condemning those who prophesy things which cover up the ways in which people behave unjustly, which cover up the ways in which people anger God.  God sends prophets to tell people about the things they need to change, those who tell people they can keep on doing whatever they want are false prophets.

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Ezekiel 9-12.

In chapter eight, which I read yesterday, Ezekiel was given a vision of various ways in which the people of Jerusalem, in particular the leadership, committed detestable idolatrous practices while claiming to worship God.  In chapter nine, which begins today’s passage, that vision continues with Ezekiel seeing God send a “man” to mark those who were grieved by those detestable practices and who lamented that people did them.  God then sent six “men” to follow that man to kill those whom the man did not so mark.  After the man was finished marking people he returned to God’s presence and Ezekiel saw the glory of God depart from Jerusalem’s temple and from Jerusalem.  So, the question we need to ask ourselves: are we grieved by the detestable acts the people around us perform?  Do we lament the failure of those who claim to serve the Lord to remain faithful to Him?

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Ezekiel 5-8.

God gave Ezekiel a prophecy about the destruction of Jerusalem and the disaster He was bringing upon the people of Israel for the sins they had committed, and were continuing to commit.  As part of this prophecy, God told Ezekiel that the result of all of these terrible things would be that then they would know that He was the Lord.  God was bringing this judgement upon the people of Israel because they had not listened to the prophets and nothing He had done had brought them to Him.  So, He was going to do this terrible thing, and then His people would turn to Him.  Only when everything else has failed to turn us to Him does God bring His terrible judgement upon us, and even then He only does so in order to get us to turn to Him.

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Ezekiel 1-4.

I always love Ezekiel’s description of his vision, although it makes me wish I had the artistic talent to draw or otherwise create a visual representation of it.  That being said I like the way God gave Ezekiel his mission.  God begins by telling Ezekiel that He was sending him to a stubborn and obstinate people, but that he must not fear to speak God’s message to them.  Ezekiel was only required to speak God’s message, whether or not the people to whom he was sent listened was not his responsibility.  The same is true for us.  God sends us to speak His message to those around us.  If we speak God’s message we are not responsible if those to whom He sent us fail to listen.  I also like the metaphor of scroll which God gave Ezekiel to eat, containing the words he was to speak.  Before Ezekiel spoke God’s word to the people to whom he was sent he needed to internalize God’s words and learn to live according to them.  The same is true for us.  When God gives us words to speak to people we must live according His words before we begin to speak.

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Ezekiel 46-48.

Ezekiel continues describing his vision of the new temple that he foresaw being built when God restored the Israelites to the land which He promised to Abraham’s descendants.  As he finishes that description, he describes a stream of living water which will flow out of the new temple down to the east to the Dead Sea.  It starts out as a trickle which becomes deeper and wider as it flows away from the temple until it is a mighty river when it reaches the Dead Sea.  This river will bring life to everything along its path, even converting the Dead Sea into a fresh water lake.  I believe that this stream of living water represents Jesus and the Church.  When Jesus founded the Church it was a small organization which did not even represent a significant portion of the people living in Jerusalem.  But as time has passed the Church has become a mighty force which changes the world.  As those who make up the Church allow the Holy Spirit to transform them into the likeness of Christ, they become vessels of the Living Water which is Christ.  As we allow the Spirit to work in us, we become, all combined, a life giving river.  I pray that the Spirit transforms me so that others may gain life from being exposed to God’s Spirit in me.

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on Ezekiel 44-45.

As part of his prophecy about the new temple in his vision, Ezekiel condemns the Israelites for putting foreigners who did not worship God in charge of the sanctuary of God.  He refers to those who had been put in charge as uncircumcised in flesh and in heart.  Then Ezekiel goes on to talk about those who will be priests in this new temple he sees and what they are to do.  They are to teach God’s people the difference between the holy and the common, and show them how to distinguish between the clean and the unclean.  Other translations say sacred and profane instead of holy and common.  I think that the other translations give us a clearer understanding of the job of our religious leaders, and a better idea of the importance of learning this distinction.  The NIV leaves us with the impression that there is the ordinary and the holy, and, while that difference is important, that it is OK to be ordinary.  When, in fact, everything we do is either sacred or profane, clean or unclean.  So, that makes it very important that we learn to distinguish between the sacred and the profane, between the clean and the unclean.  Here Ezekiel condemns the Israelites for, in the past, bringing the profane, the unclean, into the sacred spaces of God’s temple and warns them against doing so in the future.  In Acts 10 Peter was told not to call unclean that which God had made clean.  These two commands tell us the importance of having leaders who can teach us to distinguish between the sacred and the profane.  We must not bring into God’s presence that which is profane, but we also must not exclude those whom God has declared clean.

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Ezekiel 39-40.

Many people have spent a lot of time identifying who Gog was, is, or will be, as well as trying to determine what nations the prophecy concerning Meshek and Tubal reference.  While I do not think there is much value in that, I do think Christians today need to spend more time thinking about the end times.  We should look at the world around us and see that the Day of God’s judgement is near.  We need to remember that for each and every one of us, the Day of God’s judgement is indeed near and we need to teach those around us that it is near for them as well.  Or, perhaps a better way to put it is that we need to have a sense of urgency for those around us to come to know the Lord.   We need to reach out to them now before their, or our, time runs out.

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