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2024GOAL – Reading Through The Bible Chronologically, day 249

Sep5

    Day 249—We are in the NINETH month of Bible reading, with more of Israel’s history and EZEKIEL’s prophecy.

    Day 249– Ezekiel 31 – 33 (Pharoah, Egypt & Assyria, Ezekiel as watchman, Jerusalem fallen)

Ezekiel 31. Egypt and its leader are metaphorically compared to a towering tree that dominates the forest and a nation that dominates the world.  Then Ezekiel warns them that, like great Assyria, compared to a cedar in Lebanon, God could and will easily topple it.

“Because it towered high and set its top among the clouds, and its heart was proud of its height, I will give it into the hand of a mighty one of the nations. He shall surely deal with it as its wickedness deserves. I have cast it out.”  “This is Pharaoh and all the multitude, declares the Lord God.”

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Ezekiel 32  is a lament over Pharaoh and Egypt. God says they considered themselves like a great lion or dragon, but He will easily “throw his net over them, cast them up on the ground, and let the birds and beasts of the earth gorge on them.”  How will this be done?  “The sword of the king of Babylon shall come upon them and cause their multitudes to fall.” And God will make the land of Egypt desolate.

Then, there is a picture of Egypt and her mighty chiefs in Sheol (the grave), along with other great and fallen nations. Assyria is there. Elam is there, along with Meshech-Tubal, Edom, and Sidon. Pharoah and all his army are laid to rest among the uncircumcised… declares the Lord GOD.

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Ezekiel 33 portrays Ezekiel as a watchman over the house of Israel.  When he hears a word from the LORD, he must speak it and warn them.  A watchman who warns the people will be saved, even if the warned people do not listen to him.  But if the watchman fails to warn the people and they perish, their blood will be on his hands.

Then God tells Ezekiel His desire for the wicked. “As I live, declares the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live; turn back from your evil ways, for why will you die, O house of Israel?”

On the other side of the coin, Ezekiel must tell them that the “righteousness of the righteous” shall not deliver them either.  “If he TRUSTS in his (own) righteousness and does injustice, none of his righteous deeds shall be remembered, but in his injustice that he has done, he shall die.”   But if he turns from his sin and does what is right, he shall surely live and not die. None of the sins that he has committed shall be remembered against him.

Still, Israel’s heart is hard. “YOUR way is not just!” they tell their God.   Whoa!!

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And then….on the 12th year of their exile to Babylon, in the 10th month, and on the 5th day….a fugitive from Jerusalem comes to tell Ezekiel that “THE CITY HAS BEEN STRUCK DOWN.”

“Then they will know that I am the LORD when I have made the land a desolation and a waste because of all their abominations that they have committed…..”

(Oh, American, wake up too!)

2024GOAL – Reading Through The Bible Chronologically, day 248

Sep4

    Day 248—We are in the NINETH month of Bible reading, with more of Israel’s history and EZEKIEL’s prophecy.

    Day 248– Ezekiel 28 – 30 (prophecy and lament against the Prince of Tyre, with metaphor, Sidon, plus prophecy and lament for Egypt)

Ezekiel 28. The word of the LORD continues against the prince (or leader) of Tyre because of his PRIDE in saying he was “a god.”

Yet the LORD says, “Yet you are but a man and no god, though you make your heart like the heart of a god.”   “Because you make your heart like the heart of a god, therefore, behold, I will bring foreigners upon you, the most ruthless of nations….they shall draw their swords against the beauty of your wisdom and defile your splendor.”

Verses 13-15, speaking of the king of Tyre in metaphor, is often taken for a description of Satan. Perhaps it’s good to consider the powerful, proud king of Tyre as being used by Satan, much like the king of Babylon in Isaiah 14:3-23. And in both cases, the supreme sin is of PRIDE.

Next a prophecy against Sidon, which was a sister port city to Tyre.  Even in the times of the Judges it had a corrupting influence on Israel. It was the center of Baal worship, and where Jezebel was from.  God promises to execute judgment (death by pestilence and sword) on Sidon and to “manifest my HOLINESS in her” (as opposed to corrupt idol worship).

The last of chapter 28 speaks of the opposite end of Israel — restoration.  “…then they shall dwell in their own land that I gave to my servant Jacob. And they shall dwell securely in it, and they shall build houses and plant vineyards. They shall dwell securely when I execute judgments upon all their neighbors who have treated them with contempt.”

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Ezekiel 29 & 30 are prophecies against Egypt.  God has set his face against Pharaoh, calling him the great dragon that dwells in the midst of his streams, who says, “My Nile is my own; I made it for myself.” (Again, PRIDE precludes a fall.)  God says he will draw him out of the water and throw him into the desert…“Then all the inhabitants of Egypt shall know that I am the LORD.”

“I will strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon, but the arms of Pharaoh shall fall. Then they shall know that I am the LORD, when I put my sword into the hand of Babylon, and he stretches it out against the land of Egypt. And I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations and disperse them throughout the countries. Then they will know that I am the LORD.”

Egypt was to lay dormant for forty years (after they fell to Babylon), then God would restore them, but not to a world power again to which Israel would run for help. They would be a “lowly kingdom.” (Because Nebuchadnezzar “put an end to the wealth of Egypt.”)

 

2024GOAL – Reading Through The Bible Chronologically, day 247

Sep3

    Day 247—We are in the NINETH month of Bible reading, with more of Israel’s history and EZEKIEL’s prophecy.

    Day 247– Ezekiel 25 – 27 (Prophecies against  seven other nations around Israel)

Ezekiel 25. In this chapter, the LORD, through Ezekiel, prophesies vengeance on five city-nations surrounding Israel, giving the reason for each pronouncement. Ammon, Moab, Seir, Edom, & Philistia all gloated over the fall of Israel, Jerusalem, and the Temple when Babylon invaded, saying that this proved Israel’s God, the LORD, also failed.

When God enacted his judgments on them, they would “know that I am the LORD.”

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Ezekiel 26. This chapter and the next two are against Tyre, the kingdom-city north of Israel. In David’s and Solomon’s time they were friendly, supplying their great cedars in the building of the Palaces and the Temple. Later they were involved in selling Jews as slaves. They boasted of their incredible commercial success.

“For thus says the Lord GOD; Behold I will bring against Tyre from the north Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, king of kings (because he’d conquered so many kingdoms), with horses and chariots, and with horsemen and a host of soldiers. He will kill with the sword your daughters on the MAINLAND. He will set up a siege wall against you…..”  

The following verses could also picture the successive attacks “wave on wave” by the Greeks who brought ships against it, and the Saracens until Tyre is finally totally destroyed in the 4th century, “I will make you a bare rock. You shall be a place for spreading nets. You will never be rebuilt, for I am the LORD; I have spoken.”     “I will bring you to a dreadful end, and you shall be no more.”

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Ezekiel 27.  Here, the LORD tells Ezekiel to “raise a lament over Tyre.”  The chapter describes Tyre as a great trade ship destroyed on the high seas.  Sections describe the commercial glory of Tyre with the nations around the then-known world,  Greece, Spain, Asia Minor, Assyria, Turkey, Rhodes, Syria, Arabia, and Mesopotamia.

In verses 26-27, Tyre’s fall is pictured as a shipwreck on the seas. The “east wind” pictures Babylon.  “Now you are wrecked by the seas, in the depths of the waters; your merchandise and all your crew in your midst have sunk with you. All the inhabitants of the coastlands are appalled at you, and the hair of their kings bristles with horror; their faces are convulsed. ….you have come to a dreadful end and shall be no more forever.”

2024GOAL – Reading Through The Bible Chronologically, days 245 & 246

Sep2

    Days 245 & 246—We are in the NINETH month of Bible reading, with more of Israel’s history and the prophecies of Ezekiel.

NOTE: Sundays and Mondays are posted together.

    Day 245– Ezekiel 21 – 22 (The sharp & polished “sword” of Babylon judging Jerusalem/Judah, the end of turban and crown in Israel, bloody sins in Jerusalem returns upon her.)

Ezekiel 21. Ezekiel is to “groan with breaking heart and bitter grief: before the people because God is “drawing a sword against all flesh from the north to the south…“to cut off from you both RIGHTEOUS and WICKED.”

God is to judge the RIGHTEOUS?

Remember in Genesis when Abraham prayed the wicked city of Sodom would be spared judgment because his nephew, Lot, lived there. God agreed to spare it if just TEN RIGHTEOUS people could be found there.  Well, Lot was the only one, and God saved him and his immediate family but destroyed the city.  IN EZEKIEL 22:30, God said He looked for ONE RIGHTEOUS MAN in Jerusalem that He should not destroy the city…but He found NONE. No, not one. (Romans 3:10-14)  Wow.

And now God (the swordsman) is using Babylon as His sharp and polished sword (21:19) to “slaughter” the wicked.   God especially speaks against Judah’s last king, Zedekiah. “And you, O profane wicked one, prince of Israel, whose day has come, the time of your punishment.”

God also says, “Remove the turban and take off the crown.  Things shall not remain as they are. A ruin, ruin, ruin, I will make it. This also shall not be until HE comes, the One to whom judgment belongs, and I will give it to HIM.”  This says that neither the office of king or priest will be fully restored after captivity….until the Messiah takes BOTH.   This judgment begins “the times of the Gentiles.”

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Ezekiel 22.  In verses 4-13, God, through Ezekiel, lists more than 17 kinds of sin condemning Jerusalem (their blood-guiltiness). More are listed in verses 25-29.

God tells Ezekiel (and us) that “the house of Israel has become dross to me, like bronze, tin, iron, and lead in the furnace when you smelt silver.”  All are to be melted and burned off.  And so, “I have poured out my indignation upon them. I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath. I have returned their way upon their heads, says the Lord GOD.”

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    Day 246 – Ezekiel 23 – 24 (More metaphors, dark, bloody, and a shared grief)

Ezekiel 23. This is a dark chapter, with an obscene metaphor for the capital cities of Israel: Samaria & Jerusalem, and how they acted as lewd, adulterous wives of the Lord in their idolatry.

God gives Samaria the name Oholah and Jerusalem the name Oholibah. Both “played the whore” in a spiritual sense, seeking fulfillment and security from other nations and their idols. And as “Oholah” was taken into Assyrian captivity, “Oholibah” learned nothing and lusted after the pagan power of Egypt and Babylon, and will be taken away too.  Some parts of the chapter portray spiritual unfaithfulness in graphic sexual terms.

God, therefore, stirred up these cities’ “lovers” to deal with them in fury, God’s fury for being so shamed when He was a faithful and loving “husband.” These nation-lovers will “cut off the noses and ears of the unfaithful “wives,” and the survivors will be burned with fire.”  “They will “strip them of their clothes and take their beautiful jewels.”object lesson  And so, God will put an end to their lewdness and their whoring brought on them because they defiled themselves with idols.”

In Verses 36-49, God tells Ezekiel how to judge Oholah and Oholibah, first with their “nation-lovers” whom they pursued, turning to them and using them brutally as whores.

For thus says the Lord God, “Thus will I put an end to lewdness in the land, that all women may take warning and not commit lewdness as you have done. And they shall return your lewdness upon you, and you shall bear the penalty for your sinful idolatry, and you shall know that I am the LORD GOD.”

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Ezekiel 24.  In this chapter, God sends word to Ezekiel (900 miles away in Babylon) that right then, the city of Jerusalem is under siege by the king of Babylon.  God compares the inhabitants of Jerusalem to bloody pieces of meat ready for the boiling cauldron. God gives the harsh proclamation, “I will not go back; I will not spare; I will not relent; according to your ways and your deeds, you (Jerusalem) will be judged.”

Then Ezekiel performs another harsh “object-lesson.”  His wife dies, but he is not allowed to mourn or weep. He can sigh, but not aloud, and make NO MOURNING for the dead. This is an example to the Jews in Babylon not to mourn the fall of Jerusalem because this is the just judgment of God on their wickedness. 

God told him to say, “Thus says the Lord GOD; Behold, I will profane my sanctuary, the pride of your power, the delight of your eyes, and the yearning of your soul, and your sons and your daughters whom you left behind shall fall by the sword.” And you shall do as I have done… you shall not mourn or weep.

Then God tells Ezekiel that when it is completed in Jerusalem, He will send a fugitive to report the news.  On that day, Ezekiel can open his mouth to speak, for after the previous judgment, he was mute (there was no more need to preach judgment) – although he was allowed to prophesy against other nations.

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!)