Archive | August 2024

2024GOAL – Reading Through The Bible Chronologically, day 244

Aug31

Day 244—We are in the eighth month (AND 2/3 THE WAY THROUGH) of our Bible reading, with more of Israel’s history and prophecy from Ezekiel.

    Day 244 – Ezekiel 18 – 20 (sin=death, lament of 3 kings, survey of Israel’s sin)

Ezekiel 18, This chapter is about the stated truth: “The soul who sins, it shall die.”  verses 4, 20

A proverb was repeated in Israel that children will pay for their father’s sins. “If the fathers have eaten sour grapes, the children’s teeth are set on edge.”

God says that is not true.  The one who sins is the one who will pay for his sin with death.  (Romans 6:23a) 

Example 1. If a person is righteous and does what is just and proper, walks in God’s statutes, and keeps His rules faithfully….he is righteous and shall live.

Example 2. If a son of a righteous man is violent, oppresses the poor, robs, worships idols, commits adultery….he will surely die, and his blood is on HIMSELF.

Example 3. If a sinful man fathers a son who is righteous and walks in God’s ways….he shall not die for his father’s iniquity. He shall surely live.

Example 4. If a wicked person turns away (repents) from all his sins and keeps God’s statutes and what is just and right, he shall live and not die. None of his transgressions will be remembered against him.

Example 5. If a righteous person turns away from his righteousness and does injustice and does abominations that the wicked person does, he shall die.  None of the righteous deeds that he has done shall be remembered for the treachery of which he is guilty and the sin he’s committed.

God’s final call through Ezekiel on this matter is, “Repent and turn from all your transgressions, lest iniquity be your ruin. Cast away from you all the transgressions you have committed, and make yourselves a new heart and a new spirit!**  Why will you die, O house of Israel?  For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Lord GOD; so TURN and LIVE.”

** See Psalm 51:10

Ezekiel 19  is a poetic lament for the last three kings of Judah – Jehoahaz, Jehoiachin, and Zedekiah.  

Judah is the lioness (vs. 2) with her cubs (kings), as well as the vine (vs. 10) with its fruit (kings).

Verses 3-4 talk about Jehoahaz, who ruled and was then taken to Egypt.

Verse 9 speaks of Jehoiachin, who was carried to Babylon, kept in prison for 37 years, then released at age 55 to sit at the king’s table. 

The fate of the “vine” in 10-14 tells of the strength of Judah’s ruling scepters, but then their being plucked up as a vine, cast down, withering, and consumed by fire, so there is no scepter ruling left.

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Ezekiel 20 tells about the elders of Israel coming to Ezekiel and asking him to “inquire of the LORD” for them. The LORD basically says, “no” because when they inquired of Me in the past, and I told them truth, they did not listen to me and turned away.  So I will not answer them now.

Then God gives a historical survey of Israel’s past, about their sin, His mercy, their further sin, His grace, their greater and abominable sins, and the end of His patience.  “O house of Israel, as I live, declares the Lord God, I will not be inquired by you.”

Then God reveals to Ezekiel further judgments on the rebellious Israel because “they determine to keep on in their wicked ways.”

2024GOAL – Reading Through The Bible Chronologically, day 243

Aug30

Day 243—We are in the eighth month of Bible reading, with more of Israel’s history and prophecy from Ezekiel.

    Day 243 – Ezekiel 16 – 17 (Metaphors/parables about God and Israel)

Ezekiel 16. The longest chapter in Ezekiel is a sad metaphor for God’s love for Israel, her horrible abuse of that love, the consequences of her sin, and God’s eventual restoration… “that you shall know that I am the LORD.”

Again, Ezekiel is to speak to the inhabitants of Jerusalem (Judah) about her “abominations.”  She is seen as an abandoned child God finds, rescues, loves, and showers with good things. In the metaphor of a loved child and woman, the chapter covers the history of Israel from her conception, the time of the Exodus, to David’s time and the glories of Solomon’s reign. (through verse 14)

The following section pictures Israel in spiritual harlotry, copying increasingly the pagan religious practices of the Canaanites.  All God gives her, she uses to worship idols, even to sacrifice the children God gives her. The pagan countries around Israel influence her to more and more sin.  Unlike the regular payments prostitutes were paid, Israel solicits and pays for her idol “lovers.” (through verse 34)

Then comes the public shame of God’s beloved…at His own hands. Their defeat by Assyria earlier and now the coming of the Babylonian destruction reveals God’s wrath. God compares Judah to the wicked cities of Samaria and Sodom, whose judgment was great.  Judah, He says, is more corrupt than they! Now Judah and Jerusalem will “bear the penalty of her lewdness and abominations.” (through verse 59)

Verse 60 begins the glorious hope of God’s restoration, His remembering the oath/covenant he made with them. (How gracious is our God!)  He will restore Israel, not because of the good things they do, but because of His grace alone. The New Covenant is unconditional, saving, and everlasting. When He establishes this covenant with them, they will “know that I am the LORD.”  And the fact that God will “atone for you for all that you have done” speaks of the coming Messiah, and His work on the cross, by which God’s wrath on sin is satisfied.  

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Ezekiel 17. This chapter speaks about the time two years before the destruction of Jerusalem.  We’ve studied it more in detail in 2 Kings 24, 2 Chronicles 36, and Jeremiah 36, 37, and 52.  It’s a parable about the final kings who rule in Jerusalem.

The “great eagle with great wings and long pinions, rich in plumage of many colors” in verse 3 is Babylon, who will take royal captives and others, “the topmost of the cedar’s young twigs,” and carry them to a land of trade and a city of merchants.”  Some “the seed of the land” (Zedekiah etc.) he left there to be a tributary (pay tribute to Babylon).

Egypt is the other “great eagle with great wings and much plumage” who flew by.  Zedekiah turned to Egypt to help him revolt against Babylon. But it didn’t work, and the king of Babylon came and took him away. (and defeated Egypt too)

Then, the LORD Himself promises to “take a spring from the lofty top of the cedar and plant it on a high and lofty mountain of Israel.”  It will bear branches, produce fruit, and become a noble cedar.  “Under it will dwell every kind of bird. In the shade of its branches, birds of every sort will nest.” 

Here, God is speaking of the Messiah and His eventual Messianic Kingdom, where even Gentiles will live.

 

2024GOAL – Reading Through The Bible Chronologically, day 242

Aug29

Day 242—We are in the eighth month of Bible reading, with more of Israel’s history and prophecy from Ezekiel.

    Day 242 – Ezekiel 13 – 15 (false prophets, evil elders, divining women, a doomed Jerusalem)

Ezekiel 13.  The LORD tells Ezekiel to prophesy against the false prophets, who SAY “Thus declares the LORD” when He has not sent or spoken to them.  They are seeing FALSE visions and LYING divinations.

They prophesy “Peace!” when there is no peace, deceiving the people that God’s wrath is not coming on Jerusalem.  “They shall not be in the council of my people, nor be enrolled in the register of the house of Israel, nor shall they enter the land of Israel. And you shall know that I am the Lord GOD.

Ezekiel is also to “set his face against” the women who prophesy ‘out of their own thoughts.”  Woe to the women who sew magic bands upon all wrists (as talismans)… in the hunt for souls.”     “I am against your magic bands with which you hunt souls like birds, and I will tear them from your arms…”     “And you will know that I am the LORD.”

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Ezekiel 14. God instructs Ezekiel on how to deal with the elders of Israel, “who take idols into their hearts and set out stumbling blocks.”  He is to say that God tells them to “Repent and turn away from your idols and turn away your faces from all your abominations…. or I will set my face against him… and cut him off from the midst of my people.”

Then God tells Ezekiel that the judgment and destruction of Jerusalem is sure. “EVEN if these three men,  Noah, Daniel, and Job were in it, they would deliver ONLY THEIR OWN LIVES by their righteousness.  Even if these three men were in the city, they could “neither deliver son or daughter, but their OWN LIVES ONLY.”

And yet, God encourages Ezekiel by telling him that amidst “the four disastrous acts of judgment (sword, famine, wild beasts, pestilence) He will leave some survivors…a remnant, brought as captives to join him in Babylon.”

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Ezekiel 15. Jerusalem is compared to the wood of a vine.  Is a branch from it useful?  Can you make anything from it? Can people make a “peg” from it to hang a vessel on? The vine is useful only as fuel in a fire.  So, the inhabitants of Jerusalem. The fire of judgment will consume them.

2024GOAL – Reading Through The Bible Chronologically, day 241

Aug28

Day 241—We are in the eighth month of Bible reading, with more of Israel’s history and prophecy from Ezekiel.

    Day 241 – Ezekiel 9 – 12 (Ezekiel’s visions and harsh prophecies continue)

Ezekiel 9.  In this chapter, we see (with Ezekiel) God calling the “executioners” to Jerusalem for the inhabitants’ “exceedingly great guilt.” Six “killers” arrive with their weapons, along with a single man clothed in linen with writing instruments. God gives him instructions.

“Pass through the city, through Jerusalem, and put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and groan over all the abominations that are committed in it.”

To the executioners, God says to follow the man in linen and strike without pity. 

“Kill old men outright, young men and maidens, little children and women… BUT touch NO ONE on whom is the mark.  BEGIN AT MY SANCTUARY.”

Ezekiel is shocked and falls to the ground. “Ah, Lord God!  Will you destroy ALL the remnant in Israel in your wrath?”   The LORD reminds him of Israel & Judah’s “exceeding great guilt.” Then, as a reminder of God’s mercy, the man in linen reports that he is finished marking the just ones.

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Ezekiel 10. In this chapter, we see the “Glory of the LORD” on His cherubim-powered, wheeled throne leaving the temple. (It’s described in more detail than in chapter one.)  As it lifts, the man in linen is told to reach underneath it, between the four cherubim, and fill his hands with burning coals that he finds there. He is then to scatter the coals over the city. 

From the inner court to the threshold, a cloud of brightness and smoke engulfed the moving Glory of God.  Then the wings of the cherubim lifted, and the glorious throne rose up from the earth.  It moved to the east gate of the temple and lingered briefly.

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Ezekiel 11.  The Spirit also lifted Ezekiel to the east gate and showed him a view of 25 men giving wicked counsel in the city. The LORD then tells His prophet to prophesy against them, the city, and the people in it.  “The city is a cauldron, and the ones slain are the meat, but these shall be brought out to be judged.”

And again. Ezekiel falls face to the ground, mourning the end of Israel.

Then, God reveals a glorious promise to him.

“I will gather you from the peoples and assemble you out of the countries where you have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel.  And when they come there, they will remove from it all its detestable things and all its abominations.  And I will give them one heart, and a new spirit I will put within them. I will remove the heart of stone… and give them a heart of flesh that they may walk in my statutes and keep my rules and obey them. And they shall be my people, and I will be their God.” 

Then the cherubim lifted the Glory of the God of Israel over the city. Then it moved eastward to the mountain. And the Spirit lifted Ezekiel, along with the vision of the Glory of God, and brought him again to the exiles in Chaldea/Babylon.

Ezekiel 12. The next illustration Ezekiel was to give to the Jews in Chaldea was the picture of an exiled Jew leaving his house with only a back pack. Every day, he was to pack his bag (in their sight) and every evening, he was to dig through a wall with his pack, put it on his shoulder and carry it until dusk.

When they asked him what he was doing, he was to say, “I am a sign for you; as I have done, so shall it be done to them.” God even tells of the “prince” (King Zedekiah) who shall go out through a hole in the wall but will be captured and taken and also brought to Babylon, although he would not “see” it, and would die there. (Zedekiah escaped Jerusalem but was captured. His eyes were put out before being brought to Babylon in chains.)

God then tells him to remind the Jews that the time is NEAR, not far away, as the false prophets say and as they believe. Near and now.

2024GOAL – Reading Through The Bible Chronologically, day 240

Aug27

Day 240—We are in the eighth month of Bible reading, with more of Israel’s history and prophecy from Ezekiel.

    Day 240 – Ezekiel 5 – 8 (More symbolic acts by Ezekiel, God’s severe judgments, the temple desecrated)

(Remember, this part of Ezekiel is BEFORE the final siege and conquest of Jerusalem by Babylon that we read about in Jeremiah.)

Ezekiel 5. God tells Ezekiel to take a sword and cut off all his hair and beard. Then, divide the hair into three piles. One pile was to be thrown into the fire, symbolizing Jerusalem to be burned after the siege was done.

Another pile of hair was to be taken around and cut in pieces with the sword, symbolizing the people killed by invaders. The last pile was to be scattered to the wind showing how God would scatter the people among the nations, chasing them with His sword. 

Ezekiel was to save a small bit of hair and put it in his pocket, symbolizing the remnant God would save.

You can feel God’s heart breaking as he tells how He set Jerusalem in the center of the nations and how she rebelled, disobeyed, and rejected Him.  Now He tells her, “Behold, I, even I, am against you.”  “And because of all your abominations, I will do to you what I have never yet done, and the like of which I will never do again.”  And you will KNOW that I am the LORD.

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Ezekiel 6. Next, God tells Ezekiel to prophesy against the mountains of Israel because it was on these “high places” where the people set up alters and idols and worshiped false gods.  God promises to destroy these high places and the people who worshiped there, spreading their dead bodies before the idols and their bones on the altars….so that they “will KNOW that I am the LORD.”

And yet, God will leave some of them alive to be scattered through the countries, and those who escape will “remember me among the nations where they are carried captive.” They will remember how His heart was broken over their idolatry. And they will see themselves as “loathsome” for all the evil they committed. And they will “know that I am the LORD.”

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Ezekiel 7. God then puts these terrible words in Ezekiel’s mouth that he is to say to Israel, “An end! The end has come upon the four corners of the land. Now the end is upon you, and I will send my anger upon you: I will judge you according to your ways, and I will punish you for all your abominations.” “An end has come; the end has come; it has awakened against you. Behold, it comes. Your doom has come to you, O inhabitant of the land. The time has come; the day is near, a day of tumult and not of joyful shouting on the mountains. Now I will soon pour out my wrath upon you, and spend my anger against you, and judge you according to your ways, and I will punish you for all your abominations. ” “Then you will KNOW that I am the LORD, who strikes.”

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Ezekiel 8. Six months later, while Ezekiel sat among the elders in his house in Babylon, the “hand of the LORD GOD fell upon me.” He saw again that blazing, shining figure who appeared “like a man.” This appearance of a man took Ezekiel by the hair (some must have grown out by now!) and lifted him up. The Spirit lifted him between heaven and earth and brought him “in visions of God” to Jerusalem to the inner court gate of the Temple.

There, Ezekiel “saw” with his own eyes all the vile abominations that Israel was committing in God’s sanctuary: carved images of every form of creeping things and loathsome beasts; idols in the sanctuary with 70 “priests” burning incense to them; other elders doing evil in the dark, each in his room of pictures; women in the court worshiping a fertility god; men in the outer court worshiping the sun. (No wonder God’s glorious, flaming Presence left the Temple and went to Babylon!!)

2024GOAL – Reading Through The Bible Chronologically, days 238 and 239

Aug26

    Day 238 & 239—We are in the eighth month of Bible reading, with more of Lamentations about the destruction of their land.  And the beginning of the book of Ezekiel.

NOTE: Sundays and Mondays are posted together.

    Day 238 – Lamentations 3 – 5 (more acrostics in chapters 3 & 4 of sorrow and hope, a prayer)

Lamentations 3 is also an acrostic of the 22-character Hebrew alphabet but with 3 verses per letter. In the middle of his wailing about affliction and horror (of himself and Judah)…Jeremiah turns to God’s faithfulness.

“I am the man who has seen affliction under the rod of his wrath.”  “He has broken my bones.”   He has made me dwell in darkness like the dead;”  “He has made my chains heavy;”   “He has made me desolate;”   ” Though I call and cry for help, He shuts out my prayer;”   ” He has made my paths crooked.”   He has filled me with bitterness;”   “my soul is bereft of peace;”   “I have forgotten what happiness us;”  

3:21-24
"But this I call to mind,
and therefore I have hope;
The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases,
His mercies never come to an end;
they are new every morning;
great is Your faithfulness.
The LORD is my portion, says my soul,
therefore I will hope in him.
The LORD is good to those who wait for Him,
to the soul who seeks Him.

3:31-33
For the Lord will not
cast off forever,
but though He causes grief, He will
have compassion
according to the abundance of His 
steadfast love;
for He does not willingly afflict
or grieve the children of men.

“Let us test and examine our ways and return to the LORD!  Let us lift up our hearts and hands to God in heaven; We have transgressed and rebelled….”

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Lamentations 4.  (another acrostic) Again, the lamentation turns to the destruction of Jerusalem and her People.

“The holy stones lie scattered at the head of every street. The precious sons of Zion, worth their weight in fine gold, how they are regarded as earthen pots…”     “Those who once feasted on delicacies perish in the streets; those brought up in purple embrace ash heaps.”    “Happier were the victims of the sword than the victims of hunger…”

“The LORD gave full vent to His wrath; he poured out His hot anger, and He kindled a fire in Zion that consumed its foundations.”

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Lamentations 5 is a (non-acrostic) prayer to God for restoration.

“Remember, O LORD, what has befallen us…”   “Our fathers sinned and are no more, and we bear their iniquities.”     “The joy of our hearts has ceased; our dancing has been turned to mourning. The crown has fallen from our head; woe to us, for we have sinned!”

“But you, O LORD, reign forever….. restore us to yourself, O LORD, that we may be restored! Renew our days as of old…unless…You have utterly rejected us, and you remain exceedingly angry with us. 

(The godly sorrow over sin was the beginning of that restoration.)

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     Ezekiel 1 – 4 (The call & first visions of Ezekiel)

The book of Ezekiel backtracks some from where we finished in Jeremiah. Ezekiel was taken captive in the second siege of Jerusalem when Nebuchadnezzar took 10K Jews captive along with the surrendered King Jehoiachin. (Daniel was taken in the first invasion 7 years earlier).  Ezekiel was 25 when taken, and God called him at 30 to serve as a prophet. (He would have assumed duties as a priest at that age, before captivity.)  It would be about six more years before Nebuchadnezzar’s final siege and Jerusalem fell and was destroyed.

Ezekiel 1. While Ezekiel sat by a canal in Babylon, God showed him the first of his extraordinary visions. It’s a picture of the Glory of the LORD, and while many have tried to illustrate the vision, it stands as something unseeable and unknowable.  A stormy wind out of the north, a great, bright cloud, and fire flashing continuously with what seemed like gleaming metal in the middle of the fire. (Got that picture?)

Then, the “likeness” (he can’t actually describe it) of four living creatures…human in form, but not really. They had 4 faces and 4 wings. Their legs were straight, with hard callouses on the bottom of their feet. And they sparkled. 

Each had four wings; two went down, covering their hands and bodies. The other two wings were outstretched, tips touching the other creatures’ wings facing out at the four corners. The heads of these creatures each had four faces facing in four directions, human, lion, ox, and eagle.  They could travel straight forward in any direction.  They glowed like burning torches, and lightning shot from them. 

And beside each creature, but not touching it, was a gleaming wheel. They actually looked like a wheel within a wheel. The rims were tall and awesome and had eyes all around them.  (like a giant war machine)

Over the heads of the living creatures was a shining, awe-inspiring crystal platform. When it moved, the wings that covered the creatures’ bodies went into action with the sound of rushing water or the tumult of war.  On that shining, crystal platform was a throne, like a sapphire. Seated on the throne was “a likeness with a human appearance.”  And upward and downward from this being the appearance of gleaming, bright metal on fire. And a bright rainbow all around. 

And Ezekiel concluded this was “the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD.”  And when he saw it, he fell flat on his face.

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Ezekiel 2 & 3.  God speaks to Ezekiel and commissions him as a prophet.  As God spoke to Ezekiel, the Spirit entered him and stood him on his feet.   “Son of man, I send you to the people of Israel, to the nations of rebels, who have rebelled against me. Whether they hear or refuse to hear, they will know that a prophet has been among them.”

“Be not afraid of them nor of their words, nor be dismayed at their looks, for they are a rebellious house. You shall speak my words to them whether they hear or refuse to hear.”

Then the LORD gives Ezekiel a scroll with the words of lamentation, mourning, and woe written on both sides. Ezekiel is to eat it.  He does, and it tastes like honey.  Then God tells him to speak to the exiles of Israel (not Babylon), but they won’t listen to him.  “Fear them not, nor be dismayed at their looks.”

Then a voice like an earthquake boomed, “BLESSED BE THE GLORY OF THE LORD FROM ITS PLACE.”  Then the roaring of the angel wings and the wheels and the earthquake. And the Spirit lifted up Ezekiel and took him away to the exiles at the Chebar canal and sat him there – silent for seven days.

Then God told Ezekiel how he would be a WATCHMAN FOR ISRAEL.  He was to warn them. If he doesn’t, THEIR blood will be on HIS hands. 

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Ezekiel 4. In this chapter, Ezekiel is to perform a series of “object lessons.”  He first builds a miniature replica of Jerusalem and places siegeworks around it, pressing in. 

Next, he was to assume the role of a scapegoat, be bound with ropes, and lie on his left side facing North 390 days, symbolizing judgment for the number of years of Israel’s sin. Then he was to do the same on his right side for 40 days, symbolizing Judah’s years of sin. 

(Whew, the life of a prophet was very hard!)

















			


	



			
				


	

		
2024GOAL – Reading Through The Bible Chronologically, day 237


					
Aug24
			


	

		
    Day 237—We are in the eighth month of Bible reading: Israel’s history and Jeremiah’s prophecy/Lamentations.


    Day 237 – Lamentations 1 – 2 (loud cries, mourning the destruction of Jerusalem for unrepentant sins, probably written by Jeremiah. Lamentations 1 & 2 are acrostic poems; each verse begins with a letter of the 22-character Hebrew alphabet)


Lamentations 1. Speaking of the now destroyed and deserted Jerusalem, the City of God. 


“How lonely sits the city that was full of people! How like a widow has she become, she, who was great among the nations! She, who was a princess among the provinces, has become a slave.”     “….because the LORD has afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions…”


The vanquished people remember their beloved city for “all the precious things that were hers from days of old.”


The author confesses, “Jerusalem sinned grievously; therefore, she became filthy…”     “Her uncleanness was in her skirts; she took no thought of her future.”


“…the LORD has trodden as in a winepress the virgin daughter of Judah.”


“The LORD is in the right, for I have rebelled against His word;”


“…I have been very rebellious.”




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Lamentations 2.  More of the LORD’s judgments on Judah.





“He has cast down from heaven to earth the splendor of Israel (the temple). He has not remembered His footstool (Ark of the Covenant) in the day of his anger.”





“In His wrath, he has broken down the strongholds (walls) of the daughter of Judah; He has brought down to the ground in dishonor the kingdom and its rulers (kings and princes).  He has cut down in fierce anger all the might (armies) of Israel; He has withdrawn from them His right hand in the face of the enemy.”





“All who pass along the way clap their hands at you; they hiss and wag their heads at the daughter of Jerusalem; ‘Is this the city that was called the perfection of beauty, the joy of all the earth?”





And did not the people remember the years that God called to them and warned them by His prophets? Did they not see the early and later warnings? Did they not remember his calling them away from idolatry and filthiness to worship Him, the one true and living God?  Did they not remember even Jeremiah’s warnings about death, famine, and destruction?





“The LORD has done what he purposed; He has carried out His word, which He commanded long ago; He has thrown down without pity; He has made the enemy rejoice over you and exalted the might of your foes.”





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(And may this be a warning to us today as well.)






			


	



			
				


	

		
2024GOAL – Reading Through The Bible Chronologically, day 236


					
Aug23
			


	

		
    Day 236—We are in the eighth month of Bible reading: Israel’s history and Jeremiah’s prophecy.


    Day 236 – Jeremiah 51 – 52 (Judgment on Babylon, Recap of Jerusalem’s fall)


Jeremiah 51. The judgment and destruction of Babylon is continued in this lengthy chapter.


Jeremiah predicts Babylon’s coming destruction even as it still takes captives of the lands around it. THEN, come those encouraging words….“For Israel and Judah have not been forsaken by their God, the LORD of hosts…”  (Remember that all this was to happen WHILE the exiles of Judah were still in captivity in Babylon. It would have been terrifying to experience except for the words of prophets like Jeremiah, who told them it would happen and that they would not be forsaken by God and would be returned to their land.)


And here’s how it will end for Babylon: “The LORD has stirred up the spirit of the kings of the Medes, because His purpose concerning Babylon is to destroy it, for that is the vengeance of the LORD, the vengeance for His Temple.”


Verses 20-23 show how God uses Cyrus of Persia (& Medes) as His war club. “You are my hammer and weapon of war: 1) with you I break nations in pieces; 


2) with you, I destroy kingdoms; 


3) with you, I break in pieces the horse and his rider; 


4) with you, I break in pieces the chariot and the charioteer; 


5) with you, I break in pieces man and woman; 


6) with you, I break in pieces the old man and the youth; 


7) with you, I break in pieces the young man and the young woman; 


8) with you, I break in pieces the shepherd and his flock, 


9) with you, I break in pieces the farmer and his team; 


10) with you, I break in pieces governors and commanders.   


I will repay Babylon and all the inhabitants of Chaldea before your very eyes for all the evil that they have done in Zion, declares the LORD.”




“Then the heavens and the earth and all that is in them shall sing for joy over Babylon, for the destroyers shall come against them from the north, declares the LORD. Babylon must fall for the slain of Israel, just as for Babylon have fallen the slain of all the earth.”





AT THE END OF THE CHAPTER IS A NOTE FROM JEREMIAH.  He wrote in a book all the disasters that would come upon Babylon, and he gave the book to Seraiah when he went with Zedekiah, king of Judah to Babylon.  Jeremiah’s instructions to Seraiah were to read all the words of the book about the disasters that would come to Babylon and how the LORD would eventually–surely–cut them off.   





And when Seraiah finished reading Jeremiah’s book to all the people, he was to tie a stone to it, throw it into the Euphrates River, and say,  “Thus shall Babylon sink, to rise no more, because of the disaster that I am bringing upon her.”





(What encouragement to the wounded, bedraggled captives! Although they must wait 70 years.)





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Jeremiah 52. NOTE THE FINAL ENDS TO THE LAST TWO KINGS IN JUDAH. THEY ARE QUITE DIFFERENT!





This closing chapter recounts the fall of Jerusalem under Zedekiah, the final king of Judah. When Jerusalem’s walls are breached, and the Chaldeans pour into the city, Zedekiah, his family, and his officials escape and make a run to cross the Jordan River.  They are captured in the plains of Jericho, sentenced by Nebuchadnezzar, and all are slaughtered in Zedekiah’s sight. His eyes are then put out, and he is taken to Babylon blind and in chains to rot in prison until he dies.





All in Jerusalem is broken and burned. It’s treasures are carried away, and a few of the very poorest are left to tend the fields. 





Then comes Jeremiah’s paragraph of hope.  It’s about king Jehoiachin, the next-to-the-last king of Judah.  After three months of reign, he listened to Jeremiah’s word from the LORD and SURRENDERED to the Chaldeans.  He was taken captive to Babylon. 





After Nebuchadnezzar died, the next king of Babylon…..





“GRACIOUSLY FREED Jehoiachin and brought him out of prison. He spoke kindly to him and gave him a seat above the seats of the kings who were with him in Babylon. So Jehoiachin put off his prison garments. And every day of his life he dined regularly at the king’s table, and for his allowance, a regular allowance was given him by the king according to his daily need, until the day of his death, as long as he lived.”





What a difference in the “ends” of the two last “evil” kings of Judah!  And why?  Because ONE of them–just as evil as the other–obeyed the LORD.

			


	



			
				


	

		
2024GOAL – Reading Through The Bible Chronologically, day 235


					
Aug22
			


	

		
    Day 235—We are in the eighth month of Bible reading: Israel’s history and Jeremiah’s prophecy.


    Day 235 – Jeremiah 49 – 50 (Judgments on Ammon, Edom, various cities and Babylon)


Jeremiah 49. Like the Moabites, the Ammonites were descended from Abraham’s nephew, Lot. When Assyria took the northern kingdom captive, the Ammonites moved right into the territories of Reuben, Gad, and half of Manasseh. 


“Has Israel no sons? Has he no heir? Why then has Milcon (god, Molech) settled in his cities?”  “I will cause  the battle cry to be heard against Rabbah of the Ammonites; it shall become a desolate mound.”    “Cry out….put on sackcloth, lament, and run to and fro among the hedges? For Milcom (Molech) shall go into exile with his priests and officials “But, afterward, I will restore the fortunes of the Ammonites, declares the LORD.


The Edomites were descendants of Esau, Jacob/Israel’s twin brother. They lived in the high country east and south of the Dead Sea.  “Edom shall become a horror. Everyone who passes by it will be horrified and will hiss because of all its disasters.  As when Sodom and Gomorrah and their neighboring cities were overthrown, says the LORD, no man shall dwell there.”     


Damascus in Syria also comes under the LORD’s judgment. “Damascus has become feeble. She turned to flee, and panic seized her; anguish and sorrows have taken hold of her as of a woman in labor.”     “I will kindle a fire in the wall of Damascus and it shall devour the strongholds of Ben-hadad.”       


Kedar and Hazor in Arabia, were descendants of Ishmael, and were struck down by Nebuchadnezzar as he headed for Jerusalem…“for the king has made a plan against you and formed a purpose against you.”    


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Jeremiah 50.  And at last, God’s judgment will come upon Babylon.  


“Declare among the nations and proclaim….Babylon is taken, Bel is put to shame, Merodach is dismayed.”  


” For out of the north, a nation has come up against her which shall make her land a desolation, and none shall dwell in it; both man and beast shall flee away. “


Then, the captivity of Israel will be ended.


“In those days and in that time, declares the LORD, the people of Israel and the people of Judah shall come together, weeping as they come, and they shall seek the LORD their God.  They shall ask the way to Zion, with faces turned toward it, saying, “Come, let us join ourselves to the LORD in an everlasting covenant that will never be forgotten.”     


And more, much more, against Babylon.


“Though you rejoice, though you exult O plunderers of my heritage… Because of the wrath of the LORD, she shall not be inhabited but shall be an utter desolation; everyone who passes by Babylon shall be appalled.”  “Raise a shout against her all around; she has surrendered; her bulwarks have fallen; her walls are thrown down.”   


“How the hammer of the whole earth is cut down and broken! How Babylon has become a horror among the nations.  I set a snare for you, and you were taken, O Babylon, and you did not know it; you were found and caught because you opposed the LORD.”


“The LORD has opened his armory and brought out the weapons of His wrath, for the Lord GOD of hosts has a work to do in the land of the Chaldeans.”


“A sword against the Chaldeans declares the LORD, and against the inhabitants of Babylon, and against her officials and her wise men!


A sword against the diviners, that they may become fools!


A sword against her warriors that they may be destroyed!


A sword against her horses and her chariots, and against all the foreign troops in her midst that they may become women!


A sword against all her treasures that they may be plundered!


A drought against her waters that they may be dried up!


For it is a land of images, and they are mad over idols. Therefore, wild beasts shall dwell with hyenas in Babylon, and ostriches shall dwell in her. She shall never again have people nor be inhabited for all her generations.”


“Behold, a people comes from the north, a mighty nation……..the sound of them is like a roaring of the sea; they ride on horses, arrayed as a man for battle against YOU, O daughter of Babylon.”


“At the sound of the capture of Babylon, the earth shall tremble, and her cry shall be heard among the nations.”


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(More horribleness against Babylon for Israel’s sake tomorrow.”)


                                                                                                                                                                         





			


	



			
				


	

		
2024GOAL – Reading Through The Bible Chronologically, day 234


					
Aug21
			


	

		
    Day 234—We are in the eighth month of Bible reading: Israel’s history and Jeremiah’s prophecy.


    Day 234 – Jeremiah 46 – 48 (non-chronological judgments on Egypt, Philistia, and Moab)


Jeremiah 46. God tells about Egypt‘s overthrow by Babylon. Here is a decisive call to get ready for defeat.  “That day is the day of the LORD GOD of hosts, a day of vengeance, to avenge himself on his foes. The sword shall devour, and be sated and drink its fill of their blood.” (referring to Egyptian defeat)


God tells of punishment but later relief.  “Behold, I am bringing punishment upon Amon of Thebes, and Pharaoh and Egypt and her gods and her kings, upon Pharaoh and those who trust in him. I will deliver them into the hand of those who seek their life, into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and his officers.  Afterward, Egypt shall be inhabited as in the days of old.”


But the Jews who fled to Egypt and then went to Babylon were to “Fear not.” “I am with you. I will make a full end of all the nations to which I have driven you, but of you, I will not make a full end.”


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Jeremiah 47. God tells of judgment on the Philistines by the Babylonians at the same time as they conquered Judah.  Later, it seems that Pharoah struck down Gaza before the Egyptians themselves were defeated by Babylon. 


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Jeremiah 48.  The Lord (through Jeremiah) calls down WOE on Moab (east across the Dead Sea from Israel). God’s judgment on Moab was intense. “The destroyer shall come upon every city, and no city shall escape; the valley shall perish, and the plain shall be destroyed, as the LORD has spoken.”   All the cities of Moab are to be destroyed “because he magnified himself against the LORD.“


Judgment and hope, even to Moab.  “Woe to you, O Moab! The people of Chemosh are undone, for your sons have been taken captive and your daughters into captivity.  Yet I will restore the fortunes of Moab in the latter days, declares the LORD.”