Archive | August 2025

Journaling through the Bible Chronologically in 2025, Day 242

Aug30

Day 242 – Reading Ezekiel 13 – 15

Read today’s Scriptures … ANYWHERE you find yourself this summer. Stay in the WORD!

Ezekiel 13.

 It seems that there are other prophets around besides Ezekiel.  Prophets of Israel. But false prophets who say, “Declares the LORD,” when the LORD has not sent them. These false prophets were saying “Peace,” when there was no peace.  They were “whitewashing” the dire predictions that Ezekiel spoke and denying the awful judgment to quickly come.

Ezekiel was to go and prophesy against them.

  • “Woe to the foolish prophets who follow their own spirit and have “seen” nothing from Me! False visions and lying divinations! Therefore, behold, I am against you. 
  • And you shall know that I am the Lord God.“

And as for the prophetesses who also prophesy out of their own minds, Ezekiel was to say,

  • “Woe to the women who sew magic bands upon all wrists, and made veils for the heads of persons of every stature in the hunt for souls. You have profaned Me among My people for handfuls of barley and pieces of bread  … by your lying to My people who listen to lies. Therefore, behold, I am against your magic bands with which you hunt the souls, and will tear them from your arms… your veils also will I tear off and deliver My people out of your hand. 
  • And you will know that I am the LORD.”

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Ezekiel 14.

There were also “certain elders of Israel” who came to Ezekiel to consult God through him. Ezekiel asked if he let himself be consulted by them?  God revealed to Ezekiel that these men had “taken their idols into their hearts and set a stumbling block of iniquity before them. HE was not to answer them, but God would.

So, Ezekiel was to speak a message from God to them. 

  • “Repent and turn away from your idols, and turn your faces away from all your abominations.  I, the LORD, will set my face against that man, and cut him off from the midst of My people.   
  • The punishment of a prophet AND AN INQUIRER is the same.  I will stretch out my hand against him and will destroy him from the midst of my people. 
  • And you shall know that I am the LORD.” 

And then God speaks to Ezekiel about Jerusalem.

  • “Son of man, when a land sins against Me by acting faithlessly, and I stretch out my hand against it and break its supply of bread and send famine upon it,  EVEN IF THESE THREE MEN, NOAH, DANIEL and JOB were in it, they would deliver but their own lives by their righteousness. 
  • If I cause wild beasts to pass through the land and they ravage it and make it desolate, EVEN IF THESE THREE MEN were in it, they would deliver neither sons nor daughters. They ALONE would be delivered. 
  • Or if I bring a sword upon the land and I cut off man and beast, THOUGH THESE THREE MEN were in it, they would deliver neither sons nor daughters, but they ALONE would be delivered. 
  • Or… if I send a pestilence into the land, EVEN IF NOAH, DANIEL, AND JOB were in it, they would deliver but their own lives by their righteousness. 

Wow, why do you think God used these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, as illustrations of godliness, trust, and righteousness?  (Or Moses and Samuel, whom Jeremiah used in his illustration.)  These men PRAYED for the forgiveness of their generation. They were great intercessors.  However, THEIR generation did not turn to God.  And so, with Jerusalem. Nothing would stop God’s judgment on the city and His own Holy Temple.

Then God tells Ezekiel that even the very few who escape death and come to Babylon will serve as witnesses of His righteous judgment. 

  • “You will see their ways and their deeds, and you will be consoled for the disaster that I have brought upon Jerusalem.  You will know that I have not done WITHOUT CAUSE, all that I have done in it, declares the Lord God.”
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Ezekiel 15.

Next, God gives Ezekiel a short object lesson.  Compare the “wood” of the grapevine with that of a tree in the forest.  Can you make anything from the vine wood?  Can you make a peg from it to hang a pot on?  No, it’s suitable only for the fire, and when it’s burned, it’s still not good for anything. 

  • “Therefore, like wood, of the vine among the trees of the forest are the inhabitants of Jerusalem. Though they escape from the fire, the fire shall yet consume them, because they acted faithlessly. 
  • And you will know that I am the LORD.”

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Yes, the LORD is determined to punish Jerusalem.   It’s past is the time for intercession. It will do no good for the people are set in “their ways and deeds.” His mind is made up.  It will happen. And God is just in it all.

(Lord, is there a time when our intercession will not help?  Is there a time when we should stop praying for someone or a particular situation?  A time to step back, close our mouths, and trust You to be just and righteous?  (Jeremiah 7:16, 11:14, 14:11, 1 John 5:16, Deuteronomy 3:25-26.) 

**** LORD, help me not to give up praying for my unsaved friends and family, “because I’m just tired of no results.”  I will pray for them, until You say, “Enough.”)  

 

 

 

Journaling through the Bible Chronologically in 2025, Day 241

Aug29

Day 241 – Reading Ezekiel 9 – 12

Read today’s Scriptures … ANYWHERE you find yourself this summer. Stay in the WORD!

Ezekiel 9.

If you remember, in chapter 8, God had just finished showing Ezekiel all the abominations in the Temple, and the pagan worship that had been established right at the door of God’s dwelling place. Ezekiel is horrified, and God is at the end of His patience. In this chapter, He calls for the nearest heavenly EXECUTORS, each with a destroying weapon in his hand.  Six of these fearsome men appear with their weapons of slaughter in their hands.

With these killers is a man, in linen, with only “a writing case.”  To this man, God said,

  • “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.”

The man left to obey.  And then to the six “hulks,” God says,

  • “Pass through the city after him, and strike. Your eye shall not spare, and you shall show no pity.  Kill old men outright, young men and maidens, little children and women…. BUT touch NO ONE on whom is the mark.  Begin here at my sanctuary.”  

They began their gory duty with those 25 men facing the east and worshiping the sun, their backs to the Holy Sanctuary of God. 

Then the killers went out into the city, killing all they met, except those marked by the Man.

Ezekiel is aghast! “Will You destroy ALL the remnant of Israel in Jerusalem??“

God explains that the people’s GUILT is exceedingly great. 

  • “The land is FULL of blood, and the city is FULL of injustice. My eye will not spare, nor will I have pity.”

Then the “man clothed in linen with the writing case” (possibly the pre-incarnate Jesus) returned to report that he had finished the task,

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Ezekiel 10.

Ezekiel then noticed the awesome, holy “chariot” with the cherubim and wheels.  God told the man in linen to go “among the wheels, under the Cherubim,” and fill his hands with the burning coals found there. He was to take them then, and scatter them over the city.

Other Cherubim  were standing on the south side of the Temple. When the man went between the wheels, these other Cherubim made the inner court and Temple to be filled with the bright cloud of the “glory of the LORD.”  Only the wings of the cherubim could be heard outside the court.  The man in linen got the burning coals and went out.

Then, a heart-wrenching scene, as the Glory of the LORD leaves the temple and then Jerusalem.  

The flaming, roaring “chariot” rose.  The Glory of God left the door of the Temple and stood over the the Cherubim.  The “chariot,” with the glory of the LORD, moved to stand over the Eastern Gate.

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Ezekiel 11.

The Spirit lifted Ezekiel and brought him to the Eastern Gate too.  God pointed out the men below as the officials and princes of Jerusalem “who devise iniquity and give wicked council.”  “Prophesy against them, PROPHESY, O son of man!” the LORD God instructed.

And so Ezekiel did, condemning these men with their false prophesies of being responsible for many deaths in the city.  And as he finished, one of the official men dropped down dead. Right then.  And Ezekiel feared the whole city was about to die. “Ah, Lord God!” cried Ezekiel.. “Will you make a full end of the remnant of Israel?”

Then…. God reveals His plans. No, he will not completely destroy the remnant of Israel. 

  • “Though I removed them far off among the nations, and though I scattered them among the countries, YET… I have been a sanctuary to them for a while in the countries where they’ve gone. 
  •  I will gather them and assemble them, and I will give them the land of Israel.  And when they come, they will remove the detestable things and the abominations. 
  • And I will give them one heart and a new spirit.  I will remove the heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh that they may walk in my statutes to obey them.
  • They shall be my people and I will be their God.”

Then the Cherubim lifted up the flaming “chariot” and the glory of the God of Israel was over it.  The glory of the LORD went up from the city and stood on the mountain East of the city.

The Glory of the LORD had gone from the temple, Jerusalem, and Judah, then to Chaldea, where His people were.

And the Spirit carried Ezekiel back to the exiles and he told them everything he had seen.

(This is really a sorrowful scene to me.  God had dwelt with His people since they exited Egypt, in that brilliant cloud and fiery pillar, and then, when the Tabernacle and Temple were built, God had the Ark of the Covenant in the Holy of Holies, as “His footstool.” But now, He was gone from His Temple and His City.  O, what destruction was left for the people remaining!)   

(This reminds me of the end times when antichrist will rule and fool all the people (almost the very elect too!). But his real evil will come when “that which restrains” is removed. (The Holy Spirit in believers at the rapture.) When God departs.) (2 Thessalonians 2:1-12.)

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Ezekiel 12.

Again, Ezekiel was to perform another “object lesson” for the exiles.  He was to prepare “an exile’s baggage” and pretend to go into exile by day in their sight.  At night he was to go to another place, like an exile sneaking out at night.  At one point, he was even to dig through a wall and pull out his baggage in their sight. 

So he did this. (What an actor, Ezekiel was!) 

If the people asked what he was doing, he would explain what was happening in Jerusalem.  AND  explain how Prince Zedekiah had tried to sneak out, too.  He even pointed to the fact that Zedekiah would not see Babylon because he’d had his eyes put out. 

(NOTE: Ezekiel calls Zedekiah “Prince,” because he believed the “real king” was already in Babylon, King Jehoiachin, who had been taken when Ezekiel was taken.)

Then the LORD tells Ezekiel to speak against a  PROVERB” that is going around, saying, “The days have grown long, and every vision comes to nothing.”

In other words, they don’t believe what God and Ezekiel are saying about the total destruction of the city and Temple. They thought and were preaching that the “vision of destruction” was FAR OFF.

(It’s like what people were saying in 2 Peter 3:3-4, “knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days, with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. They will say, ‘Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning….’.”)  But they, like the people of Ezekiel’s time, didn’t KNOW God.

God was shortly going to put an end to that proverb. He was going to speak the word, and it WILL be performed.

“That they will KNOW that I am the LORD.”

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(So much to learn and apply in this book! Ezekiel’s obedience is one thing that stands out to me.  Whatever he is asked to do… Ezekiel does it … without question.) 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Journaling through the Bible Chronologically in 2025, Day 240

Aug28

Day 240 – Reading Ezekiel 5 – 8

Read today’s Scriptures … ANYWHERE you find yourself this summer. Stay in the WORD!

Ezekiel 5.

Ezekiel – at God’s instruction – is to now shave off his hair and beard (a disgrace to a Jew) WITH A BATTLE SWORD! Whoa! Then he is to weigh it and divide it into three parts.  One third is to be burned in the fire, another part would be chopped with the sword, and the last third would be scattered to the wind. 

These actions were to represent: FIRE – plague and famine, SWORD – killed outright by the enemy, and WIND – being scattered throughout the nations. (And with this group, the LORD would also send a sword to slash some. 

Ezekiel was also to keep out a small part and put it in his pocket. And even from this small part, he was to throw a few into the fire to be burned. 

It sounds confusing, but these were to be the destinies of the horribly sinful people of the holy God.  The extent of Israel’s sins was:  rejecting God’s rules and statutes, doing wickedness MORE than the other nations. They had not even acted according to the laws of the nations around them!  AND, they had DEFILED GOD’S SANCTUARY with all their detestable things and abominations. 

“Therefore, I will withdraw (from them). My eye will not spare. I will have no pity. I will vent my fury upon them and satisfy myself. 

“And they shall KNOW that I am the LORD”

  • “I will bring more and more famine upon you and break your supply of bread.
  • I will send famine and wild beasts against you, and they will rob you of your children.
  • Pestilence and blood shall pass through you, and I will bring the sword upon you.
  • I AM the LORD; I have spoken.”

. Ezekiel 6.

Again, the Word of the LORD came to Ezekiel. “Son of man, set your face toward the mountains of Israel and prophesy against them.” 

And God went on to tell of his “curses” against the altars, pillars, and the high places where His people had worshiped other gods. 

  • He would lay their dead bodies before the idols, and scatter their bones around their altars. 
  • All the high places will be ruined; the altars wasted, the idols broken and destroyed, the incense altars cut down, and all their works wiped out.

“And they shall KNOW that I am the LORD”

When the few that survive and are scattered to other nations remember how their God was “broken over their whoring hearts, they will be loathsome in their own sight for the evils that they committed. 

“And they shall KNOW that I am the LORD”

“The house of Israel shall fall by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence. He who is FAR OFF shall die of pestilence, and he who is NEAR shall fall by the sword, and he who is LEFT and PRESERVED shall die of famine.  In this way, I will send my fury upon them!”

“And they shall KNOW that I am the LORD”

“When their slain shall lie among their idols and around their altars, wherever they offered pleasing aromas to all their idols, I will stretch out my hand against them and make the land desolate.”

“And they shall KNOW that I am the LORD”

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Ezekiel 7.

Again the word of the LORD came to the prophet, and he wrote it down. 

  • “Thus says the Lord GOD to the land of 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 against you,
  • I will judge you according to your ways, and I will punish you for all your abominations.”

“And you shall KNOW that I am the LORD”

  • Disaster after disaster!
  • Behold, it comes. 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.
  • I will punish you according to your ways, while your abominations are in your midst.”

“And you shall KNOW that I am the LORD”

  • “Your doom has come; the rod has blossomed; pride has budded. Violence has grown up into a rod of wickedness. 
  • None shall remain, not their abundance, not their wealth, not their preeminence.  My wrath is upon all their multitude.
  • The sword is without; pestilence and famine are within.
  • They cast their silver into the streets; their gold is like an unclean thing. Their silver and gold are not able to deliver them on the Day of Wrath.
  • They will seek peace, but there shall be none. 
  • They seek a vision from the prophet, while the law perishes from the priests. 
  • I will judge them….

“And they shall KNOW that I am the LORD”

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Ezekiel 8.

Then one day, 18 months later, while Ezekiel was sitting in his house talking with the elders of Judah, the hand of the Lord God fell upon him.  He looked, and there was that appearance of God, brilliant, gleaming like metal, bright. 

God’s hand reached out and took Ezekiel by the hair. (Had it grown back in?)  And the Spirit lifted him up between earth and heaven and brought him in visions of God to Jerusalem, to the court before the Temple.

“Son of man, look toward the north. Do you see what they are doing, the great abominations that Israel is committing here, to drive me far from MY SANCTUARY?

Ezekiel looked and, north of the altar gate, in the entrance, was a great pagan idol, with the people sacrificing and worshiping it.

At God’s word, Ezekiel then dug through a portion of the wall into the court and, at God’s direction, saw engraved on the inside wall all around every form of creeping things, loathsome beasts, and idols.   And worst of all, the 70 elders of Israel stood before them with censers, and a cloud of incense went up.

God then took Ezekiel to the entrance gate of the Temple. There, he saw women weeping before the idol Tammuz.

  • Next, in the inner court of the Temple, between the porch and the altar was THE CROWNING INSULT TO GOD!  There, 25 men, with their backs to the Temple of God, where His Presence dwelt, were facing the east and worshiping THE SUN.

“Have you seen this, O son of man?

Therefore, I will act in wrath.

Though they cry in my ears with a loud voice, I WILL NOT HEAR THEM.

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Ezekiel, who was preparing to be a priest, would have been horrified too, at this sight. 

(As for us, for me, how horrified am I to hear the Name of God or Jesus insulted?  When I see pagan centers of worship, how affronted am I for my Lord?   O LORD God, forgive us, forgive me. Turn my heart my face, and my adoration towards YOU alone!!)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Journaling through the Bible Chronologically in 2025, Day 239

Aug27

Day 239 – Reading Ezekiel 1 – 4

Read today’s Scriptures … ANYWHERE you find yourself this summer. Stay in the WORD!

Ezekiel 1.

Twenty-five-year-old Ezekiel, from a priestly family, was exiled to Babylon during Nebuchadnezzar’s massive second deportation of Jews.  (Daniel and his three friends had been taken 8 years earlier.)  Because of his priestly background and familiarity with the Temple, God used him to write a lot about it.  

Ezekiel and his wife lived in Tel-abib on the bank of the Chebar River/Canal, SE of Babylon.

One day, five years after arriving, while sitting by the river (perhaps thinking about how, at age 30 now, he would have begun his priestly ministry in the Temple), Ezekiel had a glorious vision of God.  He SAW the LORD, much like Isaiah did in Isaiah 6:1-2, but Ezekiel’s was the “mobile version.” (And St. John did in Revelation.)

Like Isaiah, the vision was hard to describe/understand.

  • As I looked, behold, a stormy wind came from the north, and a great cloud with brightness around and fire flashing forth continually, and in the midst of the fire, as it were, gleaming metal.
  • From the middle of it came the likeness of four living creatures. In appearance, they were like humans …. kind of.  Each had four faces (human, lion, ox, and eagle), each had four wings. Their legs were straight, and the soles of their feet were like calves’ feet. AND THEY SPARKLED like burnished bronze. 
  • Under their wings on their four sides were human hands.   Each had two wings, each touched the wing of another, while two covered their bodies. 
  • Each one of them went straight forward without turning as they went. 
  • As for likeness….. the creatures were like burning coals of fire moving to and fro, like torches flitting among themselves. They darted to and fro, LIKE flashes of lightning.

WHEW.  That is hard to imagine!  I don’t think these creatures could be better described today.  They were Cherubim. 

  • There were wheels next to the feet of these creatures – a wheel within a wheel – so they could go in any direction without turning. The wheels flashed like beryl.  And … they had eyes all around the rims. 
  • Over these Cherubim creatures was an “expanse” (nothing could contain the Living God!). On it was a sapphire throne, and seated above it a human-like figure, gleaming like metal with fire all around. 
  • And around that, a bright rainbow of color.  The SHEKINAH GLORY OF THE LORD!

And, like Isaiah, when Ezekiel saw this vision of the Living God, HE FELL ON HIS FACE.

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Ezekiel 2.

The LORD told Ezekiel to “Stand on your feet, and I will speak with you.”  And as God spoke, the Spirit entered into Ezekiel and set him on his feet. 

God told Ezekiel that He was sending him to the stubborn and rebellious people of Israel. He was to say, “Thus says the LORD,” no matter if they listened or not.

And Ezekiel was NOT to be afraid of their WORDS or their LOOKS.  He was to speak God’s Words whether they heard or refused to hear. 

“But you, son of man, hear what I say to you.  Be not rebellious like them, open your mouth and eat what I give you.”   And when Ezekiel looked, a hand was stretched out to him with a scroll in it.  The hand spread the parchment out in front of Ezekiel, and he saw that there were words written on its front and back.  They were words of lamentation, mourning, and woe.

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Ezekiel 3.

God said, “Son of man, eat whatever you find here. Eat this scroll, and go, speak to the house of Israel.”

So Ezekiel opened his mouth.

God said, “Son of man, feed your belly with this scroll that I gave you and fill your stomach with it.”

So Ezekiel ate the scroll, and in his mouth it tasted like honey.

God said, “Son of man, go to the house of Israel and speak with my words to them. You are not sent to a people of foreign speech and a hard language, but to the house of Israel.  But the house of Israel will not be willing to listen to you.  They have a hard forehead and a stubborn heart.”

“But I have made YOUR face as hard as theirs, YOUR forehead as hard as theirs.  Like emery harder than flint, have I made YOUR forehead.  Fear them not, nor be dismayed at their looks.

“Then the Spirit lifted me up and I heard a voice behind me …. “Blessed be the glory of the LORD from its place! Then the sound of wings as they touched each other, the sound of wheels beside them, and … the sound of a great earthquake.

The Spirit took me away, and I went in bitterness in the heat of my spirit, the hand of the LORD being strong upon me.  I came back to Tel-abib by the Chebar canal and sat where the Exiles were dwelling.  I sat there, overwhelmed among them for forty days.”

Then, Ezekiel heard the Word of God again, saying that He had made him a Watchman for the house of Israel.  Whatever God spoke to him, he was to exactly speak it to the people. 

“As a watchman, if I say to the wicked, “You shall surely die,” and you give him NO WARNING, he will die in his iniquity, BUT his blood will be on YOUR hands.

“But if you warn the wicked and he does not turn from his wickedness, he shall die for his iniquity, BUT you have delivered your soul.

Then God gave Ezekiel a very unusual task.  After gloriously appearing to the prophet as before, God told Ezekiel to go into his house. Cords would be placed on him, binding him so he could not go out among the people. His tongue would also not be able to speak.

WHAT??

Then God would speak to Ezekiel there, bound in his house, and Ezekiel would SPEAK THE WORDS OF GOD.  “He who will hear, will hear.  He who will refuse to hear, will refuse.”

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Ezekiel 4.

Next, Ezekiel (like sitting in a child’s sandbox) was to go, take a brick, and write on it “Jerusalem.”  Then he was to build tiny siegeworks against it and its walls. He was to set camps around it and build battering rams around it.  

Then he was to take an iron griddle and put it between himself and the toy city. Then, with the griddle and the other things, “press the siege against the city.”  This would illustrate to the house of Israel what was happening in Judah at that moment.

That might have been a little fun … but also sad.

Next, Ezekiel was to lie on his left side (like he was facing the northern kingdom of Israel), showing God’s punishment on them for 390 days.  Then he was to turn on his right side (as in facing the southern kingdom of Judah) and show the punishment of God on them for 40 days.  And God would put cords on him so he couldn’t turn from one side to another, illustrating, no release from the punishment for each kingdom.

WHEW!

But what was he to eat for over a year?  God told him to collect seeds and make bread beforehand.  He was to bake it on a low stove, using poop as fuel.  He could eat a bare 8 ounces a day, with less than a quart of water to drink.  (I am assuming his wife would help him with all this!!)

This illustrated the decline of food supplies and finally the complete famine in Jerusalem during the siege.

“I will do this that they may lack bread and water, and look at one another in dismay, and rot away because of their punishment,”  says the LORD.

Yikes!  It’s tough to be a prophet!!

Okay, Ezekiel has his marching orders, strange as they may be. He obeys. And God gives him many more of these “acting out” tasks to do.  Maybe he doesn’t understand them, but as a called and chosen prophet of God, he does them exactly, often at a personal cost.

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(O LORD, how faithful were your chosen men to obey, not matter the cost.  And I think of Jesus, also doing perfectly YOUR will at a great cost to Himself.  Help me to put off this selfish, pampering self, and desire to serve and obey You, no matter what!)

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Journaling through the Bible Chronologically in 2025, Day 238

Aug26

Day 238 – Reading Lamentations 3 – 5

Read today’s Scriptures … ANYWHERE you find yourself this summer. Stay in the WORD!

Lamentations 3. 

In the first 20 verses, Jeremiah shows himself as “a man who has seen affliction” by the hand of God. Yes, even the righteous experience it.

  • “I am a man who has seen affliction under the rod of His wrath; He has driven and brought me into darkness without any light; surely against me He turns his hand again and again the whole day long.

WOW!  That is hard to read.  It reminds me a little of Job.  How can God do this with His own prophet??  And yet, haven’t I sometimes felt the same?

  • “He has walled me about so that I cannot escape; He has made my chains heavy; though I call and cry for help, He shuts out my prayer;

Did Jeremiah feel this way in that deep, dark cistern, sunk to his armpits in stinking mud?

  • I have become the laughingstock of all peoples, the object of their taunts all day long.

Yes, Jeremiah was put into literal stocks and laughed at while he groaned in pain.

  • He has made my teeth grind on gravel, and made me cower in ashes; my soul is bereft of peace.

And then, it seems as if Jeremiah comes to his senses. He is considering the grace, mercy and compassion of God!  And his attitude totally changes.

  • But … 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. 

Wow, it seems like Jeremiah has been recalling some psalms of David!  And then Jeremiah gives us some advice.  When the LORD calls you, there is a time of learning, but persevere because He loves you.

  • It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD. 
  • It is good for a man that he bear “the yoke” in his youth.  Let him sit alone in silence when “it” is laid on him; let him put his mouth in the dust – there may yet be hope;  let him give his cheek to the one who strikes, and let him be filled with insults. 
  • THE LORD WILL NOT CAST HIM OFF FOREVER.  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.

And a bit more good advice.

  • Let us test and examine our ways, and return to the LORD!  Let us lift up our hearts and hands to the God in Heaven.

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Lamentations 4.

This chapter goes back to the horrors of the long siege and horrific assault by the Babylonians.

First, the appearance of devastated Jerusalem.

  • How the gold has grown dim, how the pure gold is changed! The holy stones lie scattered at the head of every street. 

And the deprivation of food, as God foretold.

  • The daughter of my people has become cruel, like the ostriches in the wilderness (no thought for their young).  The tongue of the nursing infant sticks to the roof of its mouth for thirst; the children beg for food, but no one gives to them. Those who once feasted on delicacies perish in the streets.  Happier were the victims of the sword than the victims of hunger, who wasted away by lack of the fruits of the field.  The hands of “compassionate women” have boiled their own children; they became their food!

Whoa! Yuck!  But who knows what I would do in such hunger….what gross sin lurks in my own heart?

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Lamentations 5.

Even knowing the gross sins the people committed in their heyday, lusting after idols and each other, hurting the poor out of greed, defiling holy things… still Jeremiah pleads for the people.

  • Remember, O LORD, what has befallen us; look, and see our disgrace!
  • Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers, our homes to foreigners. We have become orphans, fatherless; our mothers are like widows.
  • We must pay for the water we drink; the wood we get must be bought. Our pursuers are at our necks; we are weary; we are given no rest.

More of the horrors of captivity…..

  • Our fathers sinned and are no more; and we bear their iniquities. 
  • Slaves rule over us; there is none to deliver us from their hand. 
  • We get our bread at the peril of our lives because of the sword in the wilderness. 
  • Our skin is hot as an oven, with the burning heat of famine.
  • Women are raped…
  • Princes are hung up by their hands…
  • No respect is shown to the elders..
  • Young men are compelled to grind at the mill…
  • Boys stagger under loads of wood.

And the LORD listens, but does not see repentance, only moaning.

  • 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.

Yes!  Confession of sin!

  • But You, O LORD, reign forever; Your throne endures to all generations.
  • Why do you forget us forever? Why do you forsake us for so many days?
  • 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….

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(Can you imagine the Jewish synagogue-goers reading this book aloud every year?  Can you imagine the thoughts they’ve had about God and their own sin, an how cruelly the world as a whole as treated them. (Think of the holocaust!)   There must be silence and anguish at the reading of that last line….

Unless….. You have utterly rejected us, and You remain exceedingly angry with us….

Oh, praise God, that there will be a day when Israel as a whole will turn to God and His Messiah, and be blessed.  God has NOT forgotten or rejected them.  As with the 70 years of exile, these are the times of the Gentiles, when God has graciously allowed us come in and be a part of Abraham’s family.  But one day!)

Journaling through the Bible Chronologically in 2025, Days 236 & 237

Aug25

NOTE: Sunday and Monday studies are posted on Mondays.

Day 236 – Reading – Jeremiah 51 – 52

Day 237 – Reading – Lamentations 1 – 2

Read today’s Scriptures … ANYWHERE you find yourself this summer. Stay in the WORD!

Day 236 – Jeremiah 51.

Yes, I’ve learned, this is one of the longest chapters in the Bible!  It ends with, “Thus shall Babylon sink, to rise no more, because of the disaster that I AM bringing upon her, and they shall become exhausted.  Thus far are the words of Jeremiah.”

Even though we read of the fall and destruction of Babylon in chapter 50, this one goes over it again. And even as the destruction of Babylon, Judah’s fierce captors, nears their end, God encourages His people. “For Israel and Judah have not been forsaken by their God, the LORD of hosts…”

“Suddenly Babylon has fallen and been broken; wail for her.  (This speaks of the Babylon that captured Judah, but it also has echoes of the Babylon in Revelation 18, the Great, wicked Babylon that will also fall to the joy of heaven.

Jeremiah even names the nations that will conquer Babylon in verse 11. “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.”

“I will repay Babylon and all the inhabitants of Chaldea before your very eyes for ALL THE EVIL THEY HAVE DONE IN ZION, declares the LORD.”

There are many hints at how the Medes/Persians will attack the “unapproachable” Babylon and conquer it.  The inhabitants will be drunk (Belshazzar’s party), the river Euphrates diverted, and the moat dried up, so attacking soldiers could go under the wall.  Then, like Babylon did to Jerusalem, the tall and mighty walls will come down, and the gates will be burned.  (This happened in Daniel’s time.)

The last couple of paragraphs tell how Jeremiah gave this “book of all the disaster that should come on Babylon,” to Seraiah when he was taken captive to Babylon with the blinded King Zedekiah. 

Jeremiah’s instructions were to “Read all these words, and say, ‘O LORD, You have said concerning this place that you will cut it off, so that nothing shall dwell in it, neither man nor beast, and it shall be desolate forever.'”  

Then, when he was finished reading it, he was to tie a stone onto the scroll and throw it into the Euphrates River and say, “Thus shall Babylon sink, to rise no more, because of the disaster that I AM bring upon her, and they shall become exhausted.”

Thus far are the words of Jeremiah.

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Jeremiah 52.

This last chapter is a recap of the fall of Jerusalem.  It was so vital that the account is told FOUR TIMES in the Old Testament.  Here, Jeremiah 39:1-14, 2 Kings 25, and 2 Chronicles 36:11-21.

The conquerors plundered the magnificent Temple of God that Solomon built, and took the articles to Babylon.  Belshazzar would use some of these at his immoral banquet, gloating over victory that he attributed to his gods. (Daniel 5).  He would die holding one of the golden bowls full of wine … while looking at “the handwriting on the wall” telling his doom.

A count of the people of Judah taken into captivity totaled 4,600. (3,023 in the first round, with Daniel and his friends, 832 in the second round with Ezekiel and King Jehoiachin, and 745 in the third and final round, with King Zedekiah.)   

(TO ME, that seems like a small number. I imagined tens of thousands.  That only means that MANY Jews were killed by “sword, famine, and pestilence” as God had said.

Then…. that last paragraph (verses 31-34) tells of an amazing thing.  Thirty-seven years into the exile, King Jehoiachin was taken out of prison by Evil-merodach. The Babylonian king graciously freed him, spoke kindly to him, and gave him a seat above the seats of the kings that were with him in Babylon.  WOW!!!

“So Jehoiachin put off his prison garments. And every day of his life, he dined regularly at the king’s table.  His allowance was given to him by the king regularly according to his daily needs … until the day he died.

WHAT??  Why such grace shown to this captive king?  In Judah, he was one of the “evil” kings who did evil in the sight of the LORD.  BUT.  He obeyed in one point.  When God told His people through Jeremiah that they would be kept alive and treated well in Babylon …IF THEY SURRENDERED TO THE INVADING KING AND WENT PEACEABLY, only King Jehoiachin (18 years old) listened and obeyed. (See 2 Kings 24:11-12) It was 37 years, but God honored that promise. 

He always does. 

And it was through King Jehoiachin, a descendant of King David, that Jesus’ step-father, Joseph, descended, giving Jesus the “legal” right to the throne of David. (Matthew 1:12-16)

Hey, obedience matters with God, no matter the sinful life you may have lived before.

(Lord, thank you for this good lesson in my own life. Thank you for showing me the importance of obedience to your Word is. Help me to always choose to obey.)

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Day 237 – Lamentations 1.

  • The verses in these chapters are written in acrostic style, meaning the first letter of each verse begins with the next letter of the alphabet. (a-b-c-d etc.)  There are 22 letters in the Hebrew alphabet. Chapter three, has three verses for each letter (aaa-bbb-ccc-ddd. etc.)  Of course you can’t see this in an English Bible.)

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Lamentation = loud cries of dismay.   

The entire book of Lamentations is a distressful dirge, marking the funeral of the once beautiful city of Jerusalem.  (Lam. 2:15) “Jerusalem; is this the city that was called the perfection of beauty, the joy of the earth?”

This book keeps alive the memory of the fall of Jerusalem and teaches believers how to handle suffering. Although not stated, Jeremiah is the author.  He was an eyewitness to Jerusalem’s fall. Jeremiah wrote it soon after the city and then the Temple fell, before his forced departure to Egypt. 

This book is read in Jewish synagogues to this day, on the 9th of AB (July/August) to remember the date of Nebuchadnezzar’s destruction of the Temple. (Interestingly, it is also the exact date of the destruction of Herod’s temple by the Romans in A.D. 70. So lamentations of both are read aloud.)

  • 1:1 – “How lonely sits the city that was full of people,”
  • 1:4 – “The roads to Zion mourn, for none come to the festival; all her gates are desolate;
  • 1:5b – “the LORD has afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions;
  • 1:7 – “Jerusalem remembers in the days of her affliction and wandering all the precious things that were hers from days of old.
  • 1:8 – “Jerusalem sinned grievously; therefore she has become filthy;
  • 1:9b – “O LORD, behold my affliction, for the enemy has triumphed!
  • 1:10 – “she has see the nations enter her sanctuary, those whom You forbade to enter…
  • 1:18 – The LORD is in the right, for I have rebelled against His word;
  • 1:20b – I have been very rebellious…

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Lamentations 2.

  • 2:1 – “How the LORD in His anger has set the daughter of Zion under a cloud! He has cast down from heaven to earth, the splendor of Israel; He has not remembered Hos footstool in the day of His anger.
  • 2:3 – “He has cast down in fierce anger all the might of Israel; He has withdrawn from them His right hand in the face of the enemy;
  • 2:7 – “The LORD has scorned His alter, disowned His sanctuary; He has delivered into the hand of the enemy the walls of her palaces;
  • 2:9 – “Her gates have sunk into the ground; He has ruined and broken her bars; her king and princes are among the nations; the law is no more; and her prophets find no vision from the LORD.
  • 2:14 – “O daughter of Jerusalem… O virgin daughter of Zion...” “Your prophets have seen for you false and deceptive visions; they have not exposed your iniquity…  but have seen for you oracles that are false and misleading.
  • 2:19-21 – “Pour out your heart like water before the presence of the Lord! Lift your hands to Him for the lives of your children, who faint for hunger at the head of every street.  LOOK, O LORD, and see!  Should women eat the fruit of their womb, the children of their tender care? Should priest and prophet be killed in the sanctuary of the Lord?  In the dust of the streets lie the young and old; my young women and my young me have fallen by the sword; You have killed them in the day of Your anger, slaughtering with out pity.

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 (We may hate to read this, hate to see the anger of the LORD in such gruesome details, but such is the hatred and wrath of the LORD for those who forsake HIM, the Living God, and worship man-made  idols. Over and over and over, He pleaded with them to turn from their wicked ways and come back to him. He would forgive, He promised. He would restore, He promised.  But they would not.  And so….)

 

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Journaling through the Bible Chronologically in 2025, Day 235

Aug23

Day 235 – Reading – Jeremiah 49 – 50

Read today’s Scriptures … ANYWHERE you find yourself this summer. Stay in the WORD!

Jeremiah 49.

The next nation to be addressed is Ammon. (Jordan, today) They, along with Moab, were descendants of Abraham’s nephew, Lot.  They seized the land of the eastern tribes of Israel, Gad, Reuben, and 1/2 of Manasseh when the northern kingdom was taken captive by Assyria. 

Five years after Nebuchadnezzar destroyed Jerusalem, he defeated Ammon.  As with Moab, God promised that a remnant of the Ammonites would return to their land, partially under Cyrus, but fully in the Kingdom of the Messiah.

  • Behold, I will bring terror upon you, declares the Lord GOD of hosts, from all who are around you, and you shall be driven out, every man straight before him with none to gather the fugitives.  
  • But afterward I will restore the fortunes of the Ammonites, declares the LORD.”

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Edom is addressed next by the LORD, through Jeremiah.  The Edomites descended through Abraham, as Jacob/Israel’s older twin brother, Esau.  From before birth, there had been contention between these two brothers, then between the two nations.  They lived south of the Dead Sea.  They, too, were defeated by Babylon after Israel went into captivity.  There is NO PROPHECY of a future restoration.

  • “For I have stripped Esau bare; I have uncovered his hiding places, and he is not able to conceal himself.
  • His children are destroyed … and he is no more.

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NEXT is Damascus, which was the capital of Syria.  Nebuchadnezzar conquered it on its way south, before reaching Jerusalem.  Here, many evils against the northern kingdom of Israel were planned. That was the reason for its fall. 

  • “I will kindle a fire in the wall of Damascus, and it shall devour the strongholds of Ben-Hadad.”

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Kedar and Hazor (not the one North/west of Galilee) are addressed next.  They were areas in the Arabian desert east of Judah, and descendants of Ishmael.  Nebuchadnezzar conquered them shortly before seizing Jerusalem. 

  • “Thus says the LORD: Rise up, advance against Kedar! Destroy the people of the east! Their tents and flocks shall be taken … their camels led away.   
  • Terror on every side! Flee, wander far away, dwell in the depths!   
  • For Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, has made a plan against you and formed a purpose against you. 

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Elam was east of Babylon, between the Euphrates and the Tigris rivers.  They were subjugated by Babylon, but later incorporated into the Persian forces when Cyrus conquered Babylon.  Its capital was Susa, and it became the center of the Persian Empire under Darius.  They were to be destroyed and scattered to the four quarters of heaven…. to every nation. (There are lots of Persians in the US today.)  

  • I will send the sword after them, until I have consumed them … and destroy their king and officials.
  • But in the latter days I will restore the fortunes of Elam, declares the LORD.”

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Jeremiah 50.

And now, to Babylon, the land of the Chaldeans.

God’s judgment focuses mainly on the Persian conquest of Babylon, first by Cyrus, and then later, more violently, near the coming of the Messiah in glory.

  • Babylon is taken, Bel is put to shame, Merodach is dismayed, Babylon’s images are put to shame, her idols (dung pellets) are dismayed.  Out of the north a nation has come up against her, which shall make her land a desolation…

Then, Cyrus releases the Jews. 

  • “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. 
  • “Flee from the midst of Babylon, and go out of the land of the Chaldeans… 
  • How the “Hammer of the whole earth” is cut down and broken! 
  • How Babylon has become a horror among the nations!
  • Woe to them, for their day has come, the time of their punishment.
  • Declare in Zion the vengeance of the LORD our God, VENGEANCE FOR HIS TEMPLE!

 

  • Behold, I am against you, O proud one, declares the Lord GOD of hosts, for your day has come, the time when I will punish you
  • The Proud One shall stumble and fall, … and I will kindle a fire in his cities, and it will devour all…

 

  • A sword against the Chaldeans,
  • Against the inhabitants of Babylon and her officials and her wise men!
  • A sword against the diviners,
  • A sword against her warriors,
  • A sword against her horses and chariots and her foreign troops,
  • A sword against all her treasures, may they be plundered!
  • A drought against her waters.
  • For it is a land of images, and they are mad over idols.

 

  • 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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WHEW!  Yes, God used Babylon to judge His own people, but… they ARE His own people, and He will get vengeance on those who mistreat them. And for His Holy Temple.

What can I learn from today’s reading?  Yes, God may use evil people, companies, and countries to discipline His children, even today, with you and me.  They may not be Babylon, but they may seem like a “hammer” pounding on us, or taking away the things and people we love.  What do do?  Turn, turn to God, humble ourselves, confess our sin, and seek His Face (His will).

 

 

 

 

 

 

Journaling through the Bible Chronologically in 2025, Day 234

Aug22

Day 234 – Reading – Jeremiah 46 – 48

Read today’s Scriptures … ANYWHERE you find yourself this summer. Stay in the WORD!

Jeremiah 46.

(In chapters 46 – 51, Jeremiah speaks of the judgment of God that is coming to the nations mentioned in Jeremiah 25:15-26.  (Judah has already been covered.) (Here’s the list again of the nations surrounding His beloved Israel. )

  1. Jerusalem/Judah
  2. Egypt
  3. Uz
  4. Philistines
  5. Edom
  6. Moab
  7. Ammon
  8. Tyre
  9. Sidon
  10. the Coastlands (Dedan, Tema, Bus)
  11. Arabia
  12. the Mixed Tribes in the desert
  13. Zimri
  14. Elam
  15. Media
  16. the North, far and near
  17. Babylon
  18. Damascus
  19. Kedar and Hazor

After Jerusalem in Judah, the judgment goes to Egypt.

The section begins with Pharaoh Neco, who came through Judah when Josiah was king, heading north to join Nebuchadnezzar and attack Assyria at Carchemish. 

Then the focus is back in Egypt near the Nile River, with proud claims by Egypt. “Who is this, rising like the Nile, like rivers whose waters surge?  Egypt rises like the Nile. He said, ‘I will rise, I will cover the earth, I will destroy cities and their inhabitants! Advance, O horses, and rage, O chariots!”

The LORD spoke to Jeremiah the prophet about the coming of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon to strike the land of Egypt. Declare in Egypt, “Stand ready and be prepared, for the sword shall devour around you. Prepare yourselves baggage for exile, O inhabitants of Egypt!  A beautiful heifer is Egypt, but a biting fly from the north has come upon her.  The day of their calamity has come upon them, the time of their punishment.”

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Jeremiah 47.

Next are the Philistine cities.

“Behold, the waters are rising out of the north, and shall become an overflowing torrent; they shall overflow the land and all in it.  At the noise of the stamping of the hoofs of his stallions, at the rushing of his chariots, at the rumbling of their wheels … because of the day that is coming to destroy all the Philistines.

The LORD is destroying the Philistines … Gaza. Ashkelon … ah, sword of the LORD!

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Jeremiah 48.

And now Moab.

“Woe to Nebo, for it is laid waste! The fortress is put to shame and broken down; the renown of Moab is no bore.  In Heshbon they planned disaster against her (Israel); ‘Come let us cut her off from being a nation!’  YOU, also, O Madmen, shall be brought to silence; the sword shall pursue YOU. 

“Flee! Save yourselves! The destroyer shall come upon every city, and no city shall escape; the valley shall perish, the plain shall be destroyed, as the LORD has spoke.  Moab is put to shame, for it is broken; wail and cry! Tell it beside the Arnon (river), that Moab is laid waste.

Judgment has come upon the table land, and all the cities of the land of Moab, for and near. The horn (strength) of Moab is cut off, and his arm is broken,’ declares the LORD. ‘Moab shall be destroyed and be NO LONGER A PEOPLE, because he magnified himself against the LORD.  Woe to you, O Moab.”

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(Tomorrow:  Ammon, Edom. Syria, and …. Babylon, part 1.)

 

(Oh, LORD, thank You for these fulfillments of your promises. At last, Israel’s enemies will stand before you in judgment.  It’s been so long, but you are a God of mercy and patience. You give chances beyond our belief for people(s) to repent and turn to You.  There is forgiveness with You!  But, the Day of Judgment will surely come.  O Father, help me to have that compassion on unbelievers an persecutors; help me to share Your love and Your Son, Jesus… before it is too late!)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Journaling through the Bible Chronologically in 2025, Day 233

Aug21

Day 233 – Reading – Jeremiah 41 – 45

Read today’s Scriptures … ANYWHERE you find yourself this summer. Stay in the WORD!

Jeremiah 41.

We are back in Jeremiah to finish the book in the next few days.  

Remember yesterday, that King Nebuchadnezzar had appointed Gedaliah as governor over the remaining Judeans after the majority of religious and political leaders were deported. 

(Gedaliah’s grandfather was secretary for the good King Josiah, and G’s father was in the group that brought the book of the law to King Josiah when it was found.  G. was a supporter of Jeremiah.)

A group of Judeans related to the Royal family, and led by Ishmael, came to the representative for the Chaldeans and killed him. They also killed all the Judeans who were with him, and all the Chaldean soldiers who happened to be there.

Ah-Oh.  Sounds like an act of war to me.

And just then, a group of 80 men from the old northern kingdom of Israel (Samaria, Shechem, and Shiloh) came bringing offerings to present at the Temple of God. (They obviously hadn’t heard that it had been destroyed!)  Ishmael pretended gladness to see them and welcomed them inside.  But then, he murdered 70 of them and threw their bodies in the cistern.  But TEN of them said, Wait!  We have supplies hidden in the field. Don’t kill us!  So Ishmael didn’t.

Then Ishmael took captive all the people left from the deportation and headed across the Jordan to the Ammonites.

But one of the men with Ishmael, Johanan, saw what he’d done and where he was going and fought against him. Ishmael fled, and Johanan led the people to Bethlehem.  He intended, then, to go to Egypt out of fear of the Babylonians, because they had killed Gedaliah, the governor. They were afraid of retaliation.

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Jeremiah 42.

But there was some reluctance.  All the people and the forces, as well as Johanan, came to Jeremiah. “Pray to the LORD your God for us, for all of this remnant that are left are but a few. Pray that the LORD your God may show us the way we should go, and the thing that we should do.” They promised that whatever the LORD said, they WOULD DO.

(That was a good start!!)

Jeremiah prayed, and after 10 days, the LORD answered.  Jeremiah brought the answer to Johanan and the people.

  • Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, to whom you sent to plea for mercy,  “IF you will remain in this land, then I will build you up and not pull you down; I will plant you, and not pluck you up; for I relent of the disaster that I did to you. 
  • Do not fear the king of Babylon, of whom you are afraid. Do not fear him, declares the LORD, for I am with you to save you and to deliver you from his hand. 
  • I will grant you mercy that he may have mercy on you and let you remain in your own land.
  • BUT, if you say, ‘We will not remain in the land,’ disobeying the voice of the LORD your God, and saying ‘No we will go to the land of Egypt, where we will not see war, or be hungry, and will dwell there…
  • THEN the sword you fear shall overtake you there in Egypt. 
  • And famine will follow you.
  • You will die. You will have no remnant or survivor.” 
  • As My anger and wrath were poured out on the inhabitants of Jerusalem… so it will be poured out on you in Egypt.   
  • O remnant of Judah…  DO NOT GO TO EGYPT! I have warned you this day.”

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Jeremiah 43.

The leaders and the people listened, then they said, “Jeremiah, you are telling a lie. God did not say that to you. If we stay here, the Chaldeans will kill us.”

So, Johanan and the other guards took all the people, AND Jeremiah the prophet, and went to the land of Egypt.  They did not obey the voice of the LORD, for which they had asked.

So the LORD said to them,

  • Behold, I will send for Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon – my servant – and I will set his throne here. 
  • He will come and strike the land of Egypt. He will burn the temples and break the obelisks.
  • And he shall carry away captive those who are doomed to captivity. 
  • He will totally destroy Egypt.

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Jeremiah 44.

  • “Why do you commit this great evil against yourselves?  Why do you provoke me to anger in the land of Egypt? 
  • Therefore, says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will set my face against you for HARM, to cut off all Judah. 
  • As I have punished Jerusalem with the sword, with famine, and with pestilence…. so I will do to Egypt. 
  • And I will give Pharaoh Hophra into the hands of his enemies, as I gave Zedekiah into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar.  Period. The End.

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Jeremiah 45.

FLASHBACK to the time when King Jehoiakim was still reigning:  A message to Baruch, the secretary of Jeremiah, back when he wrote all the prophet’s words into a book. Baruch had been complaining, “Woe is me.” God had said to him, “Do not seek great things for yourself.  Seek them not.  I am bringing disaster upon all flesh. But I will give you (Baruch) your life as a prize of war in all the places to which you go.” 

(This was a similar message of hope that God also gave to Abed-Melech, the Ethiopian who had helped keep Jeremiah alive. Jer. 39:16-18)   

(God rewards those who even “offer a cup of cold water to a believer in His Name!” Matt, 10:42)

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(So much turmoil and death in this lesson. The remaining people were confused and scared.  But they DISOBEYED the direct word of the LORD. And will suffer the consequences.  But a few will obey, serve the LORD, and be rewarded.  Only a very few.  LORD, oh, my I obey you always!  Please!)

 

Journaling through the Bible Chronologically in 2025, Day 232

Aug20

Day 232 – Reading – Habakkuk 1 – 3

Read today’s Scriptures … ANYWHERE you find yourself this summer. Stay in the WORD!

Habakkuk 1.

This guy prophesied just before the coming of Nebuchadnezzar and the Chaldean army.  Good King Josiah had just died, and the prophet was seeing evil seep back into Judah through kings Jehoahaz and Jehoiakim and the wealthy. And now… the rumors of the approaching Babylonian army!

Habakkuk doesn’t speak “TO” the growing-more-wicked people & leaders of Judah, but his statements and complaints are laments TO GOD.  WHY hasn’t He punished these kings and the people???  Why will He let these cruel pagans devour His own people?

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Have you ever ranted against God for His seeming to ignore the injustice around you? Especially if it’s against YOU or a LOVED ONE?  Habakkuk does.

  • O LORD, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not hear? Or cry to You, “violence!” and you will not save?
  • Why do you make me see iniquity, and why do you idly look at wrong? Destruction and violence are before me; strife and contention arise.
  • So the law is paralyzed, and justice never goes forth. For the wicked surround the righteous: so justice goes forth perverted.”

God answers Habakkuk’s rant. He was sending … NOT REVIVAL … but the dreaded and fearsome judgment.

  • “Behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, who march through the breadth of the earth, to seize dwellings not their own.
  • They are dreaded and fearsome….  They all come for violence….. They gather captives like sand.
  • They laugh at every fortress, for they pile up earth and take it. Then they sweep by like the wind and go on…. their own might is their god!

Habakkuk is aghast!  NO!, he cries.

  • “Are you not from everlasting, O LORD my God, my HOLY One? 
  • You who are of purer eyes than to see evil and cannot look at wrong, WHY do you idly look at traitors and remain silent when the wicked swallows up the man more righteous than he??

Pretty brave, is our prophet, Habakkuk!

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Habakkuk 2.

Habakkuk really wants to know the answer to his “why?”.  He says he will – like Ezekiel (3:33) will go up on the wall of Jerusalem, and be as a watchman.  Habakkuk will wait and “see what He will say to me … and what I will answer.”

Habakkuk was to write down on a tablet the VISION God was going to give to him. But He cautions Habakkuk, “If it seems slow in coming, wait for it; it will surely come and not delay.” Then he speaks of the Chaldeans, and their fall to the Medes & Persians.

  • “HIS SOUL is puffed up, it is not upright within him, (but the righteous shall live by his faith.) 
  • Wine is a traitor, an arrogant man who is never at rest. 
  • His greed is as wide as Sheol; like death, he has never enough. He gathers FOR HIMSELF all nations and collects AS HIS OWN all peoples.
  • Woe to him who heaps up what is not his own…. 
  • Will not YOUR debtors suddenly arise, and those awake who will make you tremble?  Then YOU will be spoil for THEM… 
  • Woe to him who gets evil gain for his house …
  • Woe to him who builds a town with blood…
  • Woe to him who makes his neighbors drink and get drunk — in order to gaze at their nakedness…
  • Woe to him who says to a wooded think, Awake! and to a silent stone, Arise!…

And then God’s slight reprimand…  “But the LORD is in His holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him!

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Habakkuk 3.

Our prophet seems rebuked.  His tone has changed. Now he switches from judgment on his fellow Judahites, to … mercy for them.

  • O LORD, I have heard the report of You, and Your work, O LORD, do I fear.  In wrath … remember MERCY.

He recalls all the mighty works God has done, and then, it seems the TRUTH hits him.  Whatever comes at HIS HAND, will for His people’s good, and His glory. They must experience judgment at the hands of evil men, but God will “take care” of them one day.

  • “Yet I will quietly wait for the day of trouble to come upon people who invade us.

And this glorious statement of TRUST, no matter what the circumstances.

  • “Though the fig tree should not blossom, 
  • nor fruit be on the vines,
  • the produce of the olive fall
  • and the fields yield no food,
  • the flock be cut off from the fold
  • and there be no heard in the stalls.
  • YET…
  • I will rejoice in the LORD,
  • I will take joy in the God of my salvation. 
  • God, the LORD, is my strength;
  • He makes my feet like the deer’s,
  • He makes me tread on my high places.”

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WOW. This is a reminder to me.  Though the politics of my time, and the wonton actions of the people of this country make me want to plead for judgment …  I am thankful for God’s mercy and patience.  And I pray that as I wait for His Coming, I will be able to pray, or sing, this last refrain of Habakkuk’s. “Though the worst may happen, I will rejoice in the LORD.  He is my strength.