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Journaling through the Bible Chronologically in 2025, Days 229 & 230

Aug18

NOTE: Sunday and Monday studies are posted on Mondays.

Day 229 – Reading – Jeremiah 35 – 37

Day 230 – Reading – Jeremiah 38 – 40 and Psalm 74, 79

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

Day 229 – Jeremiah 35.

This chapter again goes back in time more than 20 years, during the reign of King Jehoiakim, soon after the good King Josiah died, and the evil King Jehoahaz was taken to Egypt. 

In contrast to the Jews’ absolute disobedience toward the LORD their God, these Rechabites showed remarkable obedience to their ancestor for over 400 years!  These non-Jews, related to Moses’s father-in-law, had made a vow not ever to drink wine, to own no land, and to dwell in tents all their lives.  They were nomads living in Israel, peaceably.

But when Nebuchadnezzar first came to Judah, they decided to come up and dwell close to Jerusalem (for protection? Or, to be identified as God’s people?)

When Jeremiah told them to come up to the Temple and have some wine, they refused and told their story. 

The LORD told Jeremiah to remonstrate with Judah in the face of this loyalty, and challenge the Jews to listen and amend their ways … and not go after other gods, but incline their ears to their God.

As for these Rechabites, God told them they would never “lack a man to stand before Him.”  In other words, there would always be a remnant from that family to serve God.  (In Nehemiah 3:14, we see just such a man, working along with the returned Jews, repairing the wall of Jerusalem.)

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Jeremiah 36.

A few years after the above story of the Rechabites’ faithfulness, the LORD told Jeremiah to write down ALL THE WORDS that He had given to him, so far. (Think: the first 35 chapters of this book!  WOW, that’s a lot!  This was done, so the “house of Judah” would be reminded of all the disaster God had planned for them … SO THEY WOUD TURN FROM EVIL, AND GOD MIGHT FORGIVE THEM.

(Doesn’t it twist your heart to see how much God cared for His people, and tried again and again to bring them back to Himself?  He does this today too.  He is slow to anger, “not wishing that any should perish, but that all would come to repentance.” See 2 Peter 3:9 & Exodus 343:6)

Jeremiah called Baruch, his secretary, and dictated all the words of the LORD, while the man wrote it on a scroll. It took about a year.   Then Baruch, at the command of Jeremiah, read the scroll in the Temple. 

Micaiah, the grandson of the secretary, heard all these words and went to the king’s house and into the secretary’s chamber.  All the officials were there, and Micaiah told them the words he had heard when Baruch read the scroll. 

They sent for Baruch and commanded that he “sit down and read it” to them.   When they’d heard the whole thing, they turned to each other in fear.  “We must report all these words to the king!”

They asked Baruch if HE had written the words, or if they had been dictated to him. Baruch answered, “He (Jeremiah) dictated all these words to me, while I wrote them with ink on the scroll.”

“Go and hide,” they said, “you and Jeremiah, and let no one know where you are.”  Then they took the scroll to the secretary of the king, and he read it to Jehoiakim in the presence of all the officials..  It was during the winter, and the king had a fire going.  As the scroll was read … King Jehoiakim cut off a section of the scroll and threw it into the fire until the whole thing was read … and destroyed. 

And neither the officials nor the king were afraid, sorrowful, or repentant.  WOW.

So God told Jeremiah to WRITE THE SCROLL AGAIN. 

And concerning the king, his future was dreadful, and he would not have a single descendant to sit on the throne of David.  

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Jeremiah 37.

Jeremiah jumps ahead to the kingship of Zedekiah, another son of Josiah, whom King Nebuchadnezzar had put in place when he took the 3-month reigning King Jehoiachin to Babylon. 

This was before Jeremiah had been put into prison.  It was when the Babylonian army had temporarily ended the siege of Jerusalem to deal with an invading Egyptian army. (They would soon return and destroy Jerusalem.)

Zedekiah had (surprisingly) sent for Jeremiah to pray for him and the people.  But no words of comfort came from Jeremiah. Instead, the LORD said that the Babylonians would return, fight against the city, capture it, and burn it with fire.  WHOA!

Interestingly, while the Babylonians had withdrawn, Jeremiah thought he would go out and visit his hometown in Benjamin.  But at the gate of the city, a sentry seized Jeremiah, accusing him of “deserting to the Chaldeans.” 

Jeremiah denied it, but the guard would not listen to the prophet.  The city officials were enraged.  The beat Jeremiah and imprisoned him in the house of Jonathan, the secretary, for it had been made a prison.  He was thrown into the dungeon and remained there MANY days. 

Then King Zedekiah sent for him secretly, asking if there had been any new word from the LORD…. 

“Nope,” said Jeremiah.  You WILL be delivered into the hands of the king of Babylon.” Then Jeremiah asked, “What wrong have I done that you have put me in prison? Please don’t send me back to the dungeon in the house of Jonathan.”

Surprisingly, the king agreed and gave orders for Jeremiah to be held at the court of the guard. AND, that a loaf of bread be given to him daily … until all the bread in the city was gone.

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Day 230 – Jeremiah 38.

Jeremiah kept telling the people the LORD’s compassionate words.  “This says the LORD, ‘He who stays in this city shall die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence … BUT, he who goes out to the Chaldeans shall live. He shall have his life as a prize of war, and live. (Surrender and live.) This city shall surely be given into the hand of the army of the king of Babylon and be taken.”

But the city officials said to the king, “LET THIS MAN BE PUT TO DEATH, for he is weakening the hands of the soldiers who are left in this city, and the hands of all the people by speaking such words to them.”

“Behold, he is in your hands,” said the king.

So they took Jeremiah and cast him into the cistern of the king’s son, which was in the court of the guard, letting Jeremiah down by ropes.  There was no water in the cistern, only mud. Jeremiah sank into the mud.

When the Ethiopian eunuch, who was in the king’s palace, heard of that, he went to the king and said, “My lord the king, these men have done evil in all that they did to Jeremiah the prophet by casting him into the cistern. He will die there of hunger.”

“Take 30 men with you and lift Jeremiah out of the cistern before he dies,” said the king.

The Ethiopian took rags and clothes and let them down into the cistern to Jeremiah.  “Put these rags between your armpits and the ropes.”  

Jeremiah did that, and they lifted him out of the cistern and kept him in the court of the guard.  Later, King Zedekiah called for Jeremiah and said to him, “If I ask you a question, hide nothing from me.“

Jeremiah: “If I tell you, will you not put me to death. And if I counsel you, you won’t listen.“

“I will listen,” promised the King, “and not put you to death.”

Jeremiah:  ‘If you will surrender to the officials of the king of Babylon, then your life shall be spared, and this city shall not be burned with fire, and you and your house will live.”  “But if you do not surrender, then this city shall be given into the hand of the Chaldeans, and they will burn it with fire, and you will not escape from their hand.”

Zedekiah: “I’m afraid of the Judeans who have deserted already, let they hand me over and deal cruelly with me.

Jeremiah:  “You shall not be given to them. OBEY NOW the voice of the LORD in what I say to you, and it shall be well with you, and your life will be spared.   But if not…. oh boy will you regret it!!”

Zedekiah:  “Let no one know of these words, or you shall die.“

Jeremiah obeyed and remained in the court of the guard …. until the day that Jerusalem was taken.

(I guess the king did not surrender.)

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Jeremiah 39.

No, the king did not surrender.  He tried slipping out a narrow gate and running for Jericho! (Seriously!)

Jerusalem – the City of Gold, the City of the LORD God, the Holy City where God had put His name – fell to the Chaldeans on the ninth day of the fourth month of the eleventh (and last) year of Zedekiah’s reign.  And the officials of the Chaldean army came flooding in. 

When Zedekiah saw it, he and his close soldiers slipped out the narrow gate in the king’s garden and ran for their lives toward Jericho that night.   He was heading towards the Arabah wilderness on the other side of the Dead Sea, where David had hid from King Saul those many years ago.

But the Chaldean army pursued and captured him before he got to Jericho.  They took him to Riblah, 230 miles north of Jerusalem, where King Nebuchadnezzar had his headquarters.  And so, Jeremiah’s prophecy came true. King Zedekiah saw the Babylonian king face-to-face and eye-to-eye.

Remember, when the Babylonians took King Jehoiachin off to Babylon (he’d surrendered)? King Nebuchadnezzar had made Zedekiah king of Judah in his place. Zedekiah promised to send tribute to Babylon and did so for a few years. Then he broke his vow and stopped it. 

So, now, Nebuchadnezzar saw him as a traitor, and treated him like one. The Babylonian King killed all of Zedekiah’s sons before his eyes (Oh, what a horrible sight!).  Then the Babylonian put out Zedekiah’s eyes, so the last thing he saw was his sons being massacred. Then he was hauled off to Babylon in chains.

Oh, if only he’d listened to Jeremiah.  But this was God’s plan.

Back in Jerusalem, the Chaldeans set the king’s house afire, and burned the House of the people (the Temple). They broke down the walls of Jerusalem, leaving the city in ruins.  Only the very poor remained to care for the vineyards and fields.

About Jeremiah…. King Nebuchadnezzar told his army captain, “Take him, look after him well, and do him no harm, but deal with him as he tells you.”  So the Captain took Jeremiah from prison and sent him home to live among his people.

God also took care of that Ethiopian who’d rescued Jeremiah. “I will deliver him on that day, declares the LORD.  He shall not be given into the hand of the men of whom he is afraid. For I will deliver him on the day the city falls.  I will save him, and he shall not fall by the sword… because he has put his trust in the LORD.”

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Jeremiah 40.

A few more details about Jeremiah’s release are listed here.  The Captain of the guard gave him three choices….

  1. “If it seems good to you to come with me to Babylon, come, and I will look after you well.
  2. “Or, if not, the whole world is before you; go wherever you want.
  3. “Or you can return to Gedaliah and dwell among your people.

Jeremiah chose option #3, and after receiving an allowance of food and a present, went to live under Gedaliah’s leadership. 

When the captains of the scattered forces of Judah, who had escaped and dwelled in the wild, heard that Gedaliah was governor, they met with him. The governor assured them everything would be okay. “Live on your land, gather the fruits of the field and vine. As long as we serve (pay tribute) to the Babylonian king, all will be well.”

One of the captains later came to Gedaliah, saying the king of the Ammonites had sent Ishmael, his warrior, to kill the governor.  But Gedaliah did NOT believe him, and forbade the captain from going to “taking care of” Ishmael.

(Stubborn Gedaliah! We’ll see tomorrow that Ismael does come … and kill him. (Sigh.)

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Psalm 74. 

Wow, this psalm tells of the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple by Nebuchadnezzar. 

  • “Remember Your congregation, which You have purchased of old, which You have redeemed to be the tribe of Your heritage!
  • Remember Mount Zion, where You have dwelt.
  • Direct Your steps to the perpetual ruins; the enemy has destroyed everything in the sanctuary!”
  • All its carved wood they broke down with hatchets and hammers.
  • They set Your sanctuary on fire; they profaned the dwelling place of Your Name, bringing it down to the ground. 
  • They burned all the meeting places of God in the land.

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Psalm 79.

This psalm also tells of that time.

  • “O God, the nations have come into Your inheritance; they have defiled Your holy temple; they have laid Jerusalem in ruins.
  • They have given the bodies of your servants to the birds of the heavens for food, the flesh of your faithful to the beasts of the earth.
  • They have poured out their blood like water all around Jerusalem…. and there was no one to bury them.
  • “Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of Your name deliver us and atone for our sins, for Your name’s sake!

Journaling through the Bible Chronologically in 2025, Day 225

Aug13

Day 225 – Reading – Jeremiah 23 – 25

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

Jeremiah 23.

“The LORD is my shepherd. I shall not want (have any needs).  (Think of the following words in David’s Psalm 23, describing the Lord Jesus Christ.) He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still (peaceful) waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.  Even though I (will) walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.  You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.  Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me ALL the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD forever.”

And now, in Jeremiah 23, see what God says about the “shepherds” who were supposed to look after and care for the “sheep” of Israel, but didn’t.

  • “Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of My pasture!
  • You have scattered my flock and have driven them away, and you have not attended to them.  Behold, I will attend to YOU for your evil deeds,” declares the LORD.

The “bad” shepherds were the false leaders in Israel who failed in their duty to take care/protect/teach the flock of God.  They included the kings, prophets and priests.  

  • “Then I will gather the remnant of My flock out of all the countries where I have driven them.  
  • I will bring them back to their fold, and they shall be fruitful and multiply.
  • I will set shepherds over them who will care for them, and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall ANY be missing,” declares the LORD.

After the exile, God will bring Judah back from Babylon to their homeland.  Men like Zerubbabel, Ezra, and Nehemiah will be like good shepherds caring for them.

In a fuller sense, in the end times, the Great Shepherd, Jesus, will restore all His people to their land. This has yet to happen.

  • “The days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch and He shall reign as King and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.  In His days, JUDAH WILL BE SAVED, and ISRAEL WILL DWELL SECURELY.

Meanwhile, God’s heart is broken in him … for the land is full of adulterers, and the (formerly green) pastures of the wilderness are dried up.  Both prophet and priest are UNGODLY.  “EVEN IN MY HOUSE I HAVE FOUND EVIL!”  “And from the prophets of Jerusalem UNGODLINESS has gone out into all the land.”

  • “BEHOLD, the storm of the LORD! Wrath had gone forth, a whirling tempest; it will burst upon the head of the wicked.”
  • Am I a God at hand, declares the LORD, and not a God far away? Can a man hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him?  Do I not fill heaven and earth? 
  • “You false prophets and seers (evil shepherds) … “I will surely lift you up and cast you away from My presence, you and the city that I have given to you and your fathers.  I will bring upon you everlasting reproach and perpetual shame, which shall not be forgotten.”

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Jeremiah 24.

Jeremiah received a vision, then a word from the LORD explaining the vision. This happened AFTER King Nebuchadnezzar’s second attack, and his carrying King Jeconiah (Jehoiachin, Coniah – this king had several names!), back to Babylon (alive) along with his mother, officials, craftsmen, and metal workers.  

Jeremiah’s vision showed TWO BASKETS OF FIGS in front of the Temple.  One basket had VERY GOOD FIGS; the other had VERY BAD (rotten) FIGS.

The LORD:  “What do you see, Jeremiah?”

Jeremiah: Figs; very good figs and very bad figs.

The LORD: “I will regard as “the good figs” the exiles from Judah, whom I have sent away from this place. I will set my eyes on them for good, and build them up, and plant them, and give them a heart to know that I am the Lord. They shall be my people and I will be their God. For they will return to me with their whole heart.”

The LORD continues.  “But I will treat Zedekiah, king of Judah, his officials, the remnant of Jerusalem, who remain, and those who fled to Egypt … “as the very bad, rotten figs.”   I will make them a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth, a reproach, a byword, a taunt, and a curse in all the places I shall drive them.  I will send sword, famine, and pestilence on them until they are utterly destroyed.”

WOW.  This reminds me of Jesus separating the sheep and goats on the Last Day, one to eternal life, and the other one to eternal punishment. Matthew 25:31-46

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Jeremiah 25.

This chapter takes a few steps backward, to the fourth year of the reign of Jehoiakim in Judah, and the first year of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign in Babylon.  For 23 years, Jeremiah had been predicting this, but the people had not listened, nor turned from their evil ways.

And so … as prophesied … the Lord was going to send for Nebuchadnezzar “His servant” against all this land.  “I will devote it to destruction, and make it a horror, a hissing, a desolation.   This whole land will become a ruin and a waste, and you will serve the King of Babylon SEVENTY YEARS.”

There it is! 

But … “After seventy years are completed, I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation for their iniquity.“

Then figuratively, God gave to Jeremiah His “cup of wrath.”  He was to go to all the nations to which God would send him and MAKE THEY DRINK FROM THE CUP. 

So, Jeremiah took the cup and went …

  • to Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, 
  • to Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and all the mixed tribes there, 
  • to all the land of Uz and the Philistines, 
  • to Edom, Moab, and Ammon,
  • to Tyre, Sidon, Dedan, Tema and Buz, 
  • to the kings of Arabia and the mixed tribes who dwell in the desert, Zimri, Elam, Media, 
  • and to ALL THE KINGDOMS OF THE WORLD on the face of the earth. 
  • And finally,  to the King of Babylon who SHALL drink. 

And the LORD said, “I begin to work disaster at the city THAT IS CALLED BY MY NAME, and shall you, Babylon, go unpunished? No, for I am summoning a sword against ALL the inhabitants of the earth … ALL FLESH.”

And a special disaster for the false shepherds and lords of the flocks. No refuge. No escape.

WOW.  The LORD is really raging.  Just think how it will be AT THE END OF THE AGE, when Jesus comes, and the world goes into the Great Tribulation before the final Day of the Lord, the destruction of evil!  PRAISE GOD!

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(LORD, Thank you for the promise of Eternal Life through Jesus, the great Shepherd and the eternal King. Keep my heart turned wholly towards YOU. Help me to be obedient to your Word and to those who speak Your Words.)

 

 

 

 

Journaling through the Bible Chronologically in 2025, Day 224

Aug12

Day 224 – Reading – Jeremiah 18 – 22

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

Jeremiah 18.

God gives Jeremiah another picture prophecy. (Don’t you love those?) 

He is to go to a potter’s shop and watch the man work.  The potter sees a dry chunk, a flaw, in the clay and has to begin again.  He squashes the clay vase, picks out the hard chunk, kneads the “purified” clay, forms it into an oblong, puts it back on the wheel, and begins shaping again.  His clay.  His choice. 

Jeremiah watches. He gets it.  God is the potter, Israel/Judah the clay. There are flaws in the clay – sin.  God can decide to follow through on the judgment he’s planned because the flaw is just too great (crush the clay and form another), or … if the clay is pliable enough, He can work the bad spots out as it spins and finish that flawless vase.  His people.  His choice.

The people were not happy when Jeremiah finished the story and he said, “Behold, God is devising a plan against you. Return, every one from his evil way, and amend your ways and deeds.“

They stubbornly replied, “We will follow our OWN plans.  We will, every one of us, act according to the stubbornness of his own evil heart.”  (So there! says the clay to the potter. What are you going to do about it?)

Here’s what: “Like the east wind, I will scatter them before the enemy. I will show them my back and not my face, on the day of their calamity.” (God turning his back on me would be a scary thought!)

Scolded people never like the messenger. They say, “Come, let us plot against Jeremiah. Let us strike him with the tongue. Let us not pay attention to any of his words.” That seems pretty mild, but Verse 23 reveals that they were plotting to KILL him, as well.)

Jeremiah runs to God and complains.  “Listen to them!   Hear how they plot evil for me. Remember when I spoke up for You??  Therefore, God, give them over to famine, sword, and pestilence… just as you said.”  WHOA, Jeremiah has done an about-face.  He’d prayed that God would NOT bring those things on Israel before. 

(Boy, I’ve done that, haven’t you?  Touch a bit of me or mine, and I turn nasty!) 

Let’s see what God does.

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Jeremiah 19.

Back to the potter’s shop.  Only this time, Jeremiah was to buy a finished clay flask.  Then he was to take it to the Valley of Hinnom, called Topeth (where babies were burned alive to Molech), and say God’s words of disaster to the kings of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. 

“Because they have forsaken God and profaned the city and Temple, making offerings in it to other gods, and because they have filled the place “with the blood of innocent babies, to burn them as an offering to a god….. “which I did not command or decree, nor did it come into my mind!!    Therefore, I will make void all the plans of Judah. I will cause the people to fall by the sword. I will give THEIR dead bodies for food to the birds and beasts.  I will make them EAT the flesh of their own sons and daughters … and their neighbors…”   Yikes!

Then Jeremiah was to break the clay flask against the wall and say, “Thus will I break this people and this city … as the potter’s vessel, so that it can never be mended.”   (Great object lesson!)

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Jeremiah 20.

When Pashhur (meaning “ease”), the priest and chief officer of the temple police, heard Jeremiah, he grabbed him and BEAT him (the 40 lashes of Deuteronomy 25:3).  Then he put the prophet into stocks – hands, feet and neck – and left him bleeding and bruised over night. 

The next morning, Jeremiah gave Pashhur the “what for!!” 

Your name will no longer be “Ease” but “Terror On Every Side.”  You will watch all those horrific things happen to Jerusalem, the Temple, and the people. And YOU will be carried into captivity in Babylon, where you will die and be buried … you and all your friends.

Understandably, Jeremiah was in excruciating pain – back raw, blood crusted on the stripes, bruised, and maybe still bleeding. And joints aching from the stocks.   He says to God,

  • I have become a laughingstock all day; everyone mocks me. Whenever I speak, cry out, and shout “‘Violence and destruction!’  Well, the word of the LORD has become a reproach and derision for me….   
  • I say, ‘I will not mention Him, or speak His name anymore.”  But there comes in my heart a burning fire, shut up in my bones.  I am weary of holding it in.  I CANNOT hold it in!
  • I hear many whispering to denounce me. “Let us denounce him,” say my friends. “We can overcome him and take our revenge on him.”
  • “But the LORD is with me as a dread warrior.  “O LORD of hosts … to you have I committed my cause.  “Sing to the LORD; praise the LORD. For He has delivered the life of the needy from the hand of the evildoers.”

(This is such an example for me.  When I feel down, and people make fun of me, I should never consider stopping my testimony.  I should look to God, preach his love and care to myself, sing praises to him, and say in my heart, and aloud, HE HAS DELIVERED ME!)

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Jeremiah 21.

Okay…  the time is nigh. Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, is approaching to make war on them. (No surprise!)

King Zedekiah (the very last king of Judah) tries to do what his ancestor King Hezekiah did when Sennacherib, king of Assyria, surrounded Jerusalem. He had sent for Isaiah to pray and seek the LORD.

Zedekiah sent a priest (another Pashhur, not the one who beat Jeremiah) to the prophet to “Inquire of the LORD,” for him, thinking that maybe God would do one of His “wonderful deeds” for them and make the Babylonians withdraw.   But this was a different king, a different situation.  Zedekiah was not the righteous Hezekiah. 

Jeremiah spoke.  It was NOT what King Zedekiah wanted to hear.  God was NOT going to kill 185,000 of the enemy in a night.

No, the Babylonians were going to attack and prevail against Zedekiah’s weak weapons.  God Himself was also going to fight against Zedekiah and Jerusalem with a strong arm, in anger and in fury and in great wrath.   He was going to give King Zedekiah and the people over to Nebuchadnezzar, who would strike them with the sword … without pity or compassion.  And then he would loot and burn Jerusalem.

Yikes!

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Jeremiah 22.

Wow!! Surprise, surprise! See what God – O, the merciful and forgiving, LORD God of Israel – does!

He tells Jeremiah to go to the King of Judah and tell him this:

  • “Hear the word of the LORD< O king of Judah, who sits on the throne of David, you, and your servants, and your people who enter these gates.  THUS says the LORD, 
  • “Do justice and righteousness, and deliver from the hand of the oppressor him who has been robbed.  And do no wrong or violence to the resident alien, the fatherless, and the widow, nor shed innocent blood in this place!
  • For… IF you will indeed obey this word, THEN there shall enter the gates of this house kings who sit on the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, they and their servants and their people. (Posterity and Success offered.)
  • But IF NOT …. the house of the kings of Judah shall become a desolation. (No continuing posterity.)

And then, the LORD gives a word – the end of each of the following kings, sons of Josiah.

SHALLUM (or Jehoahaz) – carried captive to Babylon, where he will die.  “Your father (Josiah) did justice and righteousness, and it went well with him. But YOU have eyes and heart only for dishonest gain, shedding innocent blood, and practicing oppression and violence.”

JEHOIAKIM – They shall not lament for him.  “With the burial of a donkey, he shall be buried, dragged, and dumped beyond the gates of Jerusalem.” 

CONIAH (or Jehoiachin) – I will give you into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and into the hands of the Chaldeans (of whom you are afraid). I will hurl you and the mother who bore you into another country where you were not born, and there you shall die. “You are a despised, broken pot, a vessel no one cares for.”

(These were the last kings of Judah, all despised.  Israel/Judah would have NO MORE KINGS until that last Glorious One.)

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Wow.  Not the epitaphs I’d want! 

(But take heart. The next chapter (tomorrow) reveals the “Greater Son of David, the King of Kings, holy and righteous, who will sit on his throne forever!”)

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Journaling through the Bible Chronologically in 2025, Day 198

Jul17

Day 198 – Reading – Isaiah 18 – 22

Read today’s Scriptures.  Do you see connections?

Isaiah 18.

Cush (Ethiopia), a nation, tall and smooth, to a people feared near and far, a nation mighty and conquering, whose land the rivers divide. (The Nile River and its tributaries extend south through Ethiopia.)  

At that time (Messiah’s Kingdom) tribute will be brought to the LORD of hosts from a people tall and smooth, from a people feared near and far, a nation mighty and conquering, whose land the rivers divide …. to Mount Zion, the place of the Name of the LORD of hosts.”

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Isaiah 19.

Behold the LORD is riding on a swift cloud and comes to Egypt (to execute judgment); and the idols of Egypt will tremble at his presence, and the heart of the Egyptians will melt within them.

“I will confound their counsel; and they will inquire of the idols and sorcerers, and the mediums and the necromancers; and I will give over the Egyptians into the hand of a hard master, and a fierce king (Assyria) will rule over them,” declares the LORD GOD of hosts. 

‘And the river will be dry and parched, and its canals will become foul, and the branches of Egypt’s Nile will diminish and dry up, reeds and rushes will rot away…..

  • And the fishermen, who cast hooks and spread nets will mourn and lament…
  • The workers in combed flax and weavers of white cotton will be crushed and grieved….
  • And there will be nothing for Egypt to do.

Nevertheless, “in THAT Day” (Messiah’s Kingdom)….

  • “there will be five cities in the land of Egypt that speak the language of Canaan and swear allegiance to the LORD of hosts…. 
  • And there will be an altar to the LORD in the midst of Egypt…
  • And the LORD will make Himself known to the Egyptians…
  • And the Egyptians will know the LORD in that day and worship….
  • They will return to the LORD and He will listen… and heal them.

IN THAT DAY, there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria (through Israel), and the Egyptians will worship (the LORD) with the Assyrians. 

IN THAT DAY, Israel will be the third with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth whom the LORD has blessed.  “Blessed be EGYPT my people, and ASSYRIA the work of my hands, and ISRAEL, my inheritance.

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Isaiah 20.

But, BEFORE the Day of the LORD comes, Egypt and Ethiopia will be shamed and conquered by Assyria, and taken captive.

The LORD told Isaiah to strip off his clothes and sandals and walk about naked. WHAT??  Often the prophets of God did things to “symbolize” what they were also speaking.  This nakedness was to show the shame of Egypt and Ethiopia being conquered and taken away.

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Isaiah 21.

Then suddenly, we go past Babylon’s conquest of Jerusalem and captivity of the Jews, to a time IN PROPHECY, that Babylon itself will be conquered by the Medes 

Isaiah says, “A stern vision is told to me; the traitor betrays, and the destroyer destroys.  Go up, O Elam (Persia); lay siege, O Media; all the sighing she (Babylon) has caused I will bring to an end.

Then God reveals to Isaiah the wicked feast of Belshazzar (Daniel 5), “They prepare the table, they spread the rugs, they eat, they drink…” when amid the celebration the call to fight the attacking enemy invading the city came. (Remember the writing on the wall?)

“Fallen, fallen is Babylon…”

Isaiah finishes the chapter with Oracles against other smaller nations.

Isaiah 22.

And then… Isaiah circles back to Israel, and JERUSALEM.  He portrays a picture of destruction (without a sword, for Babylon starved the people of Jerusalem) and of capture. But all the while Jerusalem is celebrating with wild parties.  THEY SHOULD HAVE BEEN IN SACKCLOTH, REPENTING!!

Judah is shown trying to withstand the enemy by their own methods (which will surely fail) instead of looking to God for help.

The LORD:  Weep and mourn, shave your heads and wear sackcloth (evidence of repentance).

The people of JUDAH:  Joy and gladness, killing oxen and slaughtering sheep, eating flesh and drinking wine, saying, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.”
The LORD:  Surely this iniquity will NOT BE ATONED FOR YOU until you die.”

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From Egypt and Cush in the south, to Assyria, to Babylon’s fall, and the refusal to repent in Jerusalem, Isaiah proclaims the truth of God, hard as it may be (or as embarrassing as when he’s naked). 

God had asked for a servant to proclaim His message, even they wouldn’t listen,  Isaiah had said, “Send ME!”  Now God was using this faithful prophet to predict His purposes. 

(And Isaiah would one day pay for his faithfulness with martyrdom.

He would be sawed in half by a wooden saw under wicked King Manasseh.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Journaling through the Bible Chronologically in 2025, Day 192

Jul11

Day 192 – Reading – Amos 1 – 5

Read today’s Scriptures.  Do you see connections?

Amos 1.

Amos was a contemporary of Jonah, Isaiah, and Hosea.  Even though he was from the southern kingdom of Judah, he mainly prophesied to the dying northern kingdom of Israel and a few surrounding peoples. (He was a shepherd and an orchard keeper (figs). He prophesied two years before “a memorable earthquake!” Whoa! One did happen in 755 B.C.

Amos’s two main “prophecy arrows” were against Israel’s hypocrisy in worship and their lack of justice toward the most vulnerable (the poor, widows, orphans) because of greed.  He aimed them at the wicked Jeroboam II.

Amos begins by prophesying against the surrounding nations.

  • Damascus (capital of Syria).  Because of their cruel advances on the northern parts of Israel, he sends destruction on King Hazael and Ben-Hadad. 
  • Gaza, Ashdod, Ashkelon, Ekron (Philistia).  Because they delivered the people up to Edom.
  • Tyre (north of Israel). Because they also delivered the people up to Edom.
  • Edom (south and east of the Dead Sea). He warred against and betrayed “his brother,” Israel.
  • Ammonites (east of Jericho and the Jordan River). They brutally attacked  Israel at Gilead.
  • (And in Amos, chapter 2). Moab (east of the Dead Sea, bordering Edom). They were extremely brutal in war.

(Notice that Assyria is not mentioned.  They are the people who will eventually come, brutally attack, destroy, and carry captive the northern kingdom of Israel.  They seem subdued at this time of Amos.  Perhaps because of their repentance after the preaching of Jonah!)  WOW!

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Amos 2.

And then Amos aims his scathing prophecy at JUDAH!  God has four things against them, and “will not revoke the punishment!”

  • They have rejected the law of the LORD.
  • They have not kept His statutes.
  • Their lies led them astray.
  • They walked in the evil ways in which their fathers walked.

And so FIRE will come on them as well and shall devour the strongholds of Jerusalem.

And finally, to ISRAEL, in the center of the Bull’s Eye, is judged. 

(NOTE: IF YOU HAVE A MAP of the area at that time, mark the countries and cities mentioned in these chapters. See how they spiral in and end, right smack dab on Israel in the center.)

  • They sell righteous people for silver, and the needy for a pair of sandals. They trample the head of the poor and turn aside the way of the afflicted.
  • They engage in uncontrolled sexual passion; a man and his father with the same girl … so that God’s Holy Name is profaned.
  • They take the pledges and fines from the poor and use them for themselves…even in God’s house.

Amos reminds them how God fought for them, protected them, brought them out of Egypt to possess the “promised” land, and raised up some of them to be prophets and Nazirites.

  • But they made the Nazirites drink wine, and commanded the prophets not to prophesy.

And so god will weaken them and press them down so they cannot fight or escape “in that day” of judgment.

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Amos 3.

“Hear this word that the LORD has spoken against you, O people of Israel….”  

Whoa!  Can you just hear that echoing voice of God? I would be terrified!!

“YOU ONLY have I known of all the families of the earth, therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities.”

Then in verses 3-8, God gives a series of questions to show that – as some things are certain in nature – surely NOTHING happens in Israel that is outside God’s sovereignty.  And God makes it VERY CLEAR what is going to happen.

“An adversary shall surround the land and bring down your defenses from you, and your strongholds shall be plundered.”

And then God gives a vivid and horrible description of the small remnant left in Israel after the Assyrian invasion.  “As the shepherd rescues from the mouth of the lion… two legs or a piece of an ear… so shall the people of Samaria be rescued….”  YIKES!

And on to the details!  “Hear, and testify against the house of Jacob, declares the Lord God, the God of hosts, ON THE DAY that I punish Israel for his transgressions… I will punish the altars of Bethel…  I will strike the winter house (Jezreel) along with the summer house (Samaria), and the houses of ivory shall perish, and the great houses … shall come to an end.”

NOTE that verse 7 of that chapter says, “For the Lord God does nothing without revealing His secret to His servants the prophets.”  Even in His wrath, God is merciful; He warns, warns, and warns again.  PEOPLE!!! Hear and repent!

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Amos 4.

See how the LORD speaks to the women of Samaria who lived luxuriously. “You cows of Bashan, who oppress the poor and crush the needy; who say to your husbands, ‘Bring me something to drink.'”

“The LORD has sworn by His holiness that they shall take you away … with hooks, even the last of you with fish hooks!”  Yikes.

Then God condemns them for their hypocrisy in worship – doing it all “just to be seen,” as the Pharisees in Jesus’ day. 

Then God lists all the things He did to WARN THEM and bring them back to Himself.

  • I gave you a lack of bread, YET you did not return to me.
  • I withheld the rain … YET you did not return to me.
  • I struck your gardens, vineyards, and orchards with blight and mildew and locusts, YET you did not return to me.
  • I sent pestilence among you, and killed your young men with the sword, YET you did not return to me.
  • I overthrew some of you, and I plucked you out of the burning fire, YET you did not return to me.

“THEREFORE, thus I will do to you, O Israel; because I will do this to you … PREPARE TO MEET YOUR GOD, O ISRAEL!”

WOW.

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Amos 5.

This chapter is a LAMENTATION for Israel, as if she were a virgin who just died, and this is the funeral procession.   And His sorrowful Call to them, over and over…

  • Seek me and live…
  • Seek the LORD and live…
  • Seek good, and not evil, that you may live…
  • Hate evil, and love good…
  • Let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.

“Take up the images you have made for yourselves… and I will send you into exile BEYOND Damascus, says the LORD, whose name is the God of hosts.”

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God judges the heathen nations, but the greater judgment is for His own people – those he loved and rescued, and taught, and helped. 

It reminds me of 1 Peter 4:17-18 – “For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God. ‘If the righteous is scarcely saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?'”

**** O LORD, may I always hear and yield to your call!  Please soften my heart to love and obey you supremely. Thank You for all the good and merciful ways you love me.

Journaling through the Bible Chronologically in 2025, Day 191

Jul10

Day 191 – Reading – Isaiah 5 – 8

Read today’s Scriptures.  Do you see anything you love in these chapters?

Isaiah 5.

The parable of the vineyard (5:1-7).  I can never read these verses without “hearing” the song that the Christian organization, JEWS FOR JESUS, sang so many years ago.

https://www.invubu.com/music/show/song/Liberated-Wailing-Wall/Vineyard-Song.html

Here is the last stanza of their song:

O, you who seek the Lord today
The lesson still holds true.
For what he sought of Israel
He still requires of you.
O, walk with Him in righteousness
And be a fruitful vine.
And press your life into His hands
That He might drink the wine.

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Anyway, Isaiah said it first, a song he wrote to the Lord, his “beloved.”  It’s a sad song, but it portrays Israel and Judah in that day. God did EVERYTHING for His Chosen Nation, including giving them this land forever. But they (like we all do) turned away from Him.  And the consequences?  They would be removed from that “very fertile land.” 

The LORD looked for justice and righteousness… but found in His people only bloodshed and iniquity. 

Jesus, the true vine, promises good and abundant fruit from us, His Chosen, when we abide in Him. (John 15:1-11)

Isaiah 5:8-30 tells of the consequences of Israel’s “rejecting the law of the LORD of hosts, and despising the Word of the Holy One of Israel.”  (Six woes)  And the LORD was “angry with his people. He stretched out His hand and struck them.”   

Isaiah says that God will “whistle for the nations far away … and quickly, speedily they will come.”  The picture is of a strong and well-equipped army.  “Their roaring is like a lion, like young lions they roar; they growl and seize their prey; they carry it off, and NONE CAN RESCUE.“

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Isaiah 6.

This chapter shows the original calling of Isaiah, before he began to prophesy. He received the prophecies of the first five chapters AFTER this astonishing event.  He describes it here to authenticate what he’s written.  ‘Here’s how it happened, folks. Here’s how God called me…..’

  • “In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train (hem) of his robe filled the temple. Above Him stood the seraphim.” 
  • “And one called to another and said, ‘Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!’
  • “And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke.
  • “And I said, ‘Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!”
  • “Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. And he TOUCHED my mouth and said, “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.”
  • “And I heard the voice of the LORD saying, ‘Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?”
  • “Then I said, ‘Here am I! Send me.”

Then God gave Isaiah his ‘marching orders.’  He was to go to the people of Israel and give them the warnings and predictions God would tell him.  They would not hear, their eyes would be blind, their hearts would be without understanding.  But still, Isaiah was to TELL THEM.

“How long, O Lord?” Isaiah asked.  God told him, “Until the cities lie waste and empty and the LORD removes the people far away, and the land is burned.”   

But God promised that a “holy seed” or remnant, WOULD hear and believe.

*** (WOW, what an experience!  Isaiah was changed.  And he went out to prophesy. (Go through the first chapters again, with this image in your mind.)

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Isaiah 7.

And now we see the armies that the LORD “whistled for.”  

In the days of Judah’s King Ahaz (grandson of Uzziah),  the kings of Syria and Israel (north) came up to Jerusalem to wage war against it.  When King Ahaz and the people heard they were coming, their hearts “shook as trees in the wind.”  So God sent Isaiah to meet King Ahaz at a specific location and to tell him…

  • “Be careful. Be quiet. Do not fear. Do not let your heart be faint because of these two ‘smoldering stumps of firebrands’ because they have devised evil against Judah.
  • “It will not stand. It shall not come to pass. Soon, Israel would cease to be a people, and Syria would be conquered by Assyria.

Then the LORD gave King Ahaz a choice to trust Him or not. 

He even told Ahaz to “ask for a sign to prove it was true … a GREAT sign (deep as the grave or high as heaven).”  But King Ahaz was afraid to “put the LORD to a test.”   (EVEN THOUGH THE LORD TOLD HIM TO!!!)

You can feel God’s exasperation when he says, “Hear then, O house of David! Is it too little for you to weary men, that you weary GOD also???  Therefore, the Lord Himself will give you a sign.”

Does that sound familiar?  You’ve read it in Matthew 1:22-23.

“Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call His name, Immanuel.   Then the prophecy gets more specific for King Ahaz.  Before a son born in nine months can distinguish between evil and good… the land whose two kings you dread will be deserted. They will meet their doom at the hands of the King of Assyria.”  Whew! Good news, right?

(Not so reassuring was that the LORD would also bring the Assyrians against Judah. It would be the beginning of the end for them as well.  Babylon would eventually lead them into captivity.)

And the LORD would whistle for “the fly” (Egypt, known for flies) and “the bee” (Assyria, known for beekeeping).  These insects represented the armies of these countries, which would overrun Judah.

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Isaiah 8.

Then another strange prophecy that would foretell the Assyrian invasion.  Isaiah and his wife would get pregnant and have a son. They would name the boy, Maher-shalal-hash-baz.  Yep, you got that right. (Would you call him “Baz” for short?)  The words mean, “the spoil speeds, the prey hastens,” and they are a prophecy to Israel.

BUT, because King Ahaz called for help from Assyria against the nearer enemies, and didn’t call on God, that far enemy would rise like a massive flash flood and overwhelm them too … to their necks.

(***** Imagine if all these scary predictions were leveled at our own country.  Would the words sink in and be believed?  Would we turn from our wicked ways and seek “the gently flowing waters of Shiloah” (the Lord)?)

God gave a message to Isaiah and warned him not to walk in the way of the people, “Do not fear what they fear or dread what they dread. But the LORD of hosts, Him you shall honor as holy. Let Him be your fear and let Him be your dread. And he will become a sanctuary … and a stone of offense and a rock of stumbling to both houses of Israel, a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. Many shall stumble on it. They shall fall and be broken; they shall be snared and … taken.”

Whoa.

Isaiah answered. “I will wait for the LORD, who is hiding His face from the house of Israel, and I will hope in Him.”

I agree with Isaiah. Wait for HIM, Hope in HIM!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Journaling through the Bible Chronologically in 2025, Day 37

Feb6

Day 37. Reading  Exodus 22 – 24. 

Read the scripture for today. What do you learn about God? Share what you learn with others.

Exodus 22.

Liability and Social Justice – sounds like today’s courtrooms, except God’s laws are righteous.

  • Restitution for theft of an animal (a person’s livelihood) is four or five times the worth.
  • You’re cool if a thief breaks into your home at night, and you kill him. But … better just capture him during the daytime. 
  • If a fire breaks out, catches dry grass, and consumes stacked or standing grain or a field … HE WHO STARTED THE FIRE SHALL MAKE FULL RESTITUTION!  
  • Full restitution is required if you borrow anything from a neighbor and it’s broken, lost, (or dies).
  • Rape of a virgin means paying a bride price and marrying her.
  • No witch shall live.
  • Do not mistreat or take advantage of a foreigner, widow, or orphan. SERIOUS penalties follow!
  • Never take interest when loaning money to a friend or fellow believer.
  • Never curse God … OR a ruler of your people. (Oops!)
  • The first of EVERYTHING belongs to the LORD.

Exodus 23.

Laws of righteous justice.

  • Don’t spread false reports or be a malicious witness.
  • Don’t join groups to do evil (rioting?)
  • Don’t pervert justice against the poor.
  • Don’t take bribes.
  • Don’t oppress foreigners.
  • Observe the Sabbath year so your fields and workers may have rest, and so the poor can collect the crops of grain, grapes, or fruit that are produced naturally.
  • Keep these three feasts of remembrance and gratitude to the Lord every year:
  • 1) Passover/Unleavened Bread, 2) Feast of Firstfruits (Weeks, Pentecost), and 3) Feast of Ingathering (Tabernacles/Booths).

And lest the people feel overwhelmed with all these regulations, God reminds them of the Promised Land. 

“If you carefully obey, then I will be an enemy to your enemies.”  “I will blot them out. You shall not bow down to their gods or serve them … but overthrow and break their pillars into pieces. YOU SHALL SERVE THE LORD YOUR GOD, AND HE WILL BLESS YOUR BREAD AND YOUR WATER  … and take sickness away from you. None shall miscarry or be barren. You will live to your full age.”

Exodus 24.

Moses wrote all this down. He built an altar and made sacrifices to the Lord. He read these laws to the people, and they said, “All that the LORD has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient.” Then Moses sprinkled blood on the altar and the people to confirm what they said.

And God called Moses, Aaron, two of his sons, and seventy elders up onto the mountain (part way, only Moses went near God). 

And they “saw the God of Israel.”  WHAT???

WHAT DID THEY SEE, for God has said, even to Moses, that no one shall see Him and live?  Verse 10 mentions the clear-as-glass sapphire stone under His feet. That is all that was revealed, or … perhaps in the terror of awe, they dared not raise their eyes higher than the pavement where God’s feet rested.

They all ate and drank there. Then God called Moses and his assistant, Joshua, up into the mountain of God to give Moses the Tables of Stone (10 Commandments).  Moses told the elders and gave them Aaron and Hur to help with the people if there were disputes while he was gone.

Moses went up, and the cloud of God’s glory covered the Mountain for six days before God spoke. It appeared like a devouring fire to the people of Israel who waited below. Moses entered the cloud and was on the mountain for forty days and nights.

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(And what a glorious vision Moses had of a place of worship and God’s presence with His people!!)

 

 

2024GOAL – Reading Through The Bible Chronologically, day 365 – the last day!

Dec31

   Day 365—We are in the LAST month of Bible reading for the year, studying THE REVELATION to John.

Day 365 – Revelation 19 – 22 (Rejoicing in Heaven, 1,000 years, Satan defeated, new Heaven/Earth, new Jerusalem, River & Tree of Life, Jesus is coming)

Revelation 19.

“Hallelujah! Salvation, and glory, and power belong to our God, for His judgments are true and just.”

“Praise our God, all you His servants, you who fear Him, small and great.”

“Hallelujah! For the Lord our God, the Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and exult and give Him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His Bride has made herself ready: it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure.”  Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.”

Then John saw a white horse ridden by One called “Faithful and True.” His eyes are like a flame of fire and on His head are many diadems. He has “a name written that no one knows but Himself.”

He is clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which He is called is “The Word of God.”  This One will defeat the nations and rule them. He will “tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty.”  On his robe and on his thigh, He has a name written, “King of Kings and Lord of Lords.”

And the “armies of heaven, arrayed in fine linen, white a pure” (the saints) were following Him on white horses.

“I saw the beast and the kings of the earth with their armies gathered to make war against Him who was sitting on the horse and against His army. The beast was captured, and the false prophet, who in its presence had done the signs by which he deceived those who had received the Mark of the Beast and those who worshipped its image.  THESE TWO WERE THROWN ALIVE INTO THE LAKE OF FIRE THAT BURNS WITH SULFER.”

Revelation 20.

Then John saw an angel holding the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain. “And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, and threw him into the pit, and shut it, and sealed it over him, so that he might not deceive the nations any longer.” (Until the thousand years have ended, and he is released for a LITTLE while.)

Then John saw the thousand-year reign of Christ on earth. (It’s when Israel’s promised King will reign on the actual earth from Jerusalem.  (A promise fulfilled to the Jews.)

After that, Satan will be released to try to deceive men again, and there will be a great war until fire from Heaven comes down and consumes them. THEN THE DEVIL WILL BE THROWN INTO THE LAKE OF FIRE AND SULFUR AND WILL BE TORMENTED DAY AND NIGHT FOREVER AND EVER!”

Next comes “the Great White Throne Judgment,” when all the dead will stand before God’s throne. Books will be opened and the dead will be judged by WHAT THEY HAVE DONE, as written in the books.  “If anyone’s name was not written in the Lamb’s Book of Life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.“. 

Revelation 21.

John then saw a NEW heaven and a NEW earth.  He saw “the Holy City” descending out of heaven from God, like a bride adorned for her husband.  GOD IS GOING TO DWELL WITH MEN, AND THEY WILL BE HIS PEOPLE, AND HE THEIR GOD. 

All tears will be wiped away. There won’t be death, no mourning, no crying, and no more pain.  All things will be made new. 

Then, an angel showed John the Holy City, Jerusalem, descending out of Heaven from God. It was radiant like the most rare jewel, crystal clear like a diamond.  It had a high wall with twelve gates. Inscribed on each gate was the name of one of the twelve sons of Israel.  The wall had twelve foundations made of twelve precious jewels, with each of the twelve apostles’ names on them. 

The angel with John measured the city. It was a perfect 1,500-mile cube (about 2 million square miles in volume). It mirrored the configuration of the Most Holy Place in the temple.  It was made of pure gold, transparent as glass. 

There was NO TEMPLE because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb were the temple.

There was NO SUN OR MOON because the glory of God and the lamp of the Lamb gave it light.

There was NOTHING UNCLEAN, ONLY those whose names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life are allowed to enter the city.

Revelation 22.

The angel then showed John the pure, crystal-clear river of the Water of Life flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb.  It flowed through the middle of the street of the city. Growing on either side was the Tree of Life with twelve kinds of fruits, one for each month.

The servants of God and the Lamb will worship  Him.  And they will SEE HIS FACE. (see 1 John 3:2)

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John then signs his name. “I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things.”   

The angel told John, “Do NOT seal up the words of the prophecy of this book (like the prophet Daniel was told to do in Daniel 8:26, 12:4-10), “for the time is near.”

“Behold, I am coming soon, bringing my recompense with me to repay everyone for what he has done. I am the Alpha and Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.” 

“I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify to you about these things for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star.”

The Spirit and the Bride say, COME!

Let the one who hears (reads) say, COME!

He who testifies to these things (Jesus) says, SURELY I AM COMING SOON.

John says, AMEN. COME, LORD JESUS!

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We did it. What a glorious trip through the Word of Almighty God, from pure beginning to purity restored.  Glory, hallelujah!

2024GOAL – Reading Through The Bible Chronologically, days 363-364, Part B.

Dec30

 Day 363-364—We are in the LAST month of Bible reading for the year, studying the LETTERS of the Apostles.

NOTE: Usually, Sunday’s and Monday’s studies are posted together, but because these readings are so long, I will post them separately.

Day 364, Part B – Revelation 12 – 18 (Woman & dragon, Satan cast down, the Beast, 3 visions, 7 plagues, 7 bowls of wrath, 666, Babylon falls, Yay!)

This section of Revelation is filled with symbols and allegories. The people in the churches of John’s day would probably have understood their meanings more than we do. The sequence of events is not necessarily linear but often overlapping & repeating.

Revelation 12.

This chapter pictures Satan attempting to destroy the infant of a woman with a crown of 12 stars. But the child is taken to heaven and his throne before the Dragon can kill him. The woman (Israel?) is protected by God in the wilderness.

There is a great war in heaven. Michael and the angels fight against the dragon and his angels (demons). Michael’s army wins and throws the great dragon (that ancient serpent, the devil, Satan) down to earth with his angels.  Satan, “the accuser of the brethren” (remember Job?), is thrown down and mad. 

“WOE to the earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath because he knows his time is short.“

Revelation 13.

Then, an ugly, multiheaded, powerful “beast” emerges from the sea. (He looks a little like the beast in Daniel’s vision of end times.)  To this beast (Antichrist), the dragon gives his power, throne, and great authority.  The people of the earth worship the dragon and worship the beast. The beast speaks great blasphemies against God, His name, and His Temple.   The beast was “allowed” to make war on the saints and conquer them. All on the earth worshiped it, EXCEPT those whose names were written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.

Then a second beast emerges from the sea, looking like a lamb, but speaking like the dragon. This beast can do miracles and deceive the people of Earth into worshiping the Beast. It has them make a statue of the Beast and he enables it to speak too.  It makes all who live on Earth to get the MARK on their forehead or hand, or they cannot buy or sell anything. 

The mark? 666 is “the number of a man.” In John’s time, this was clearly NERO.

  • And so, now there is an unholy trinity: the Dragon/false prophet, the Beast/Antichrist, and the miracle-working second Beast. 
  • NOTE: Even the required Mark of the Beast is a foul imitation of God’s command in Deuteronomy 6:4-8 to Love the LORD, the ONE TRUE GOD, with all their hearts, soul, and strength. They were to teach His Words to their children and…” bind them as a sign on your HAND, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes (FOREHEAD).” (Their actions and thoughts.)

Revelation 14.

The victory is at hand!!

The Lamb of God stands on Mount Zion and with Him, the 144K evangelists, with HIS name on their foreheads. John heard thunderous singing, like a gazillion harps singing a new song.  An angel comes from the temple and flies overhead, proclaiming the Eternal Gospel. “Fear God and give Him glory, because the hour of His judgement has come.”

A second angel proclaims the good news, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, she who made all nations drink the wine of the passion of her sexual immorality!”

A third angel proclaims, “If anyone worships the Beast & its image and receives the mark, he also will drink the WINE of God’s wrath, poured full strength into the cup of his anger.” And they will be tormented hell with the sulfur and smoke of the torment forever and ever with no rest, day or night.

Here, John inserts, “a call for ENDURANCE of the saints, those who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus.”

Then John sees Jesus with a sharp sickle. He swings the sickle across the earth, and the earth is reaped.

Another angel with a sharp sickle goes to the “VINE of the earth” because its grapes are ripe.  So this angle swings his sickle and reaps the grapes and throws them into the winepress of the Wrath of God.  “And the winepress was trodden outside the city, and the blood from it flowed from the winepress as high as a horse’s bridle for 184 miles.”

  • This reminds me of the Battle Hymn of the Republic. “Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord. He is tramping out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored.”
  • Also, if you reread Mark 14:34-36 (and passages in Matthew & Luke), you will see that JESUS drank that cup of Almighty God’s WRATH for us, when he died on the cross, PUNISHED FOR OUR SINS. This scene in Heaven portrays God’s wrath on those WHO REFUSED THIS SO GREAT SALVATION.

Revelation 15.

Next, John saw a great and amazing sign in heaven, “Seven angels with seven plagues, which are the last, for with them the wrath of God is FINISHED.”

First, there was a vast “sea” of what looked like fiery glass. By it were those who overcame the Beast and with harps, they sang the song of Moses and the Lamb. “Great and amazing are Your deeds, O Lord God the Almighty! Just and true are your ways, O King of the nations…”

Then, out of the Sanctuary came the seven angels with seven plagues in seven golden bowls, FULL OF THE WRATH OF GOD, who lives forever and ever.

Revelation 16.

John heard, “Go and pour out on the earth the seven bowls of the wrath of God!”

  • First bowl: harmful and painful sores on those who bore the Mark of the Beast.
  • Second bowl: blood into the seas, killing every living creature in them.
  • Third bowl: blood into the rivers and springs of water.
  • Fourth bowl: on the sun so it scorched people with fire. (The people did not repent and give God glory but cursed the name of God.)
  • Fifth bowl: darkness on the Beast and his kingdom. People gnawed their tongues in anguish and cursed the God of heaven, but they did not repent.
  • Sixth bowl: into the river Euphrates, so it dried up and prepared the way for the great kings and hoards from the East.  The dragon, beast, and second beast opened their mouths, and demonic spirits like frogs came out, going abroad to assemble all the kings of the world to assemble for battle at the place, ARMAGEDDON.
  • Seventh bowl: into the air, and a loud voice came out of the Temple, from the Throne, saying, “IT IS DONE!”  There came lightning, thundering, and a great earthquake so destructive that the great city was split into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell.  Every island fled away, and no mountains could be found.  Great hailstones, weighing 100 pounds, fell on the people.  AND THEY CURSED GOD!

Revelation 17.

Then, the seventh angel took John to view “The Great Prostitute” and her judgment. She was seated “on many waters,” picturing her rule over the peoples of many nations.  Written on her forehead was a name of mystery: “BABYLON” (code name: Rome).  She also sat on seven hills (again, Rome). She was drunk with the blood of the saints martyred for Jesus. The angel also explains the heads/horns of the Beast as kings who make war on the LAMB. 

The Lamb of God defeats them all, for He is King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

Revelation 18.

Then, with the calls of angels, the announcement of Babylon’s fall is made known. 

“Fallen, fallen is Babylon the Great! She has become a dwelling place for demons, a haunt for every unclean spirit, a haunt for every unclean and detestable beast.”

All the kings of the earth weep and wail for her fall.

“Alas, alas! You great city, you mighty city, Babylon! For in a single hour, your judgment has come.”

And all the merchants of the earth weep and mourn for her, for no one buys their cargo.

All the shipmasters and seafaring men, sailors on the sea stood far off and cried out as they saw the smoke of her burning.

“Alas, alas, for the great city where all who had ships at sea grew rich by her wealth, For in a single hour, she has been laid waste.”

And a mighty angel took up a huge millstone and threw it into the sea saying, “So will Babylon the great city be thrown down with violence and will be found no more.”

.

(WHEW, that was hard!)

Tomorrow, rejoicing in Heaven!

 

2024GOAL – Reading Through The Bible Chronologically, day 348

Dec14

   Day 348—We are in the LAST month of Bible reading for the year, studying the ACTS of the Apostles and the LETTERS of the Apostles.

Day 348 – Acts 27 – 28 (Paul to Italy, shipwrecked, Malta, preaching in Rome)

Acts 27.

King Agrippa’s final words, “This man could have been set free if he had not appealed to Caesar.” (Acts 26:32)

And so Paul, with some other prisoners, was delivered into the custody of a  Centurion named  Julius to catch a ship to Rome. Paul’s friend, Aristarchus, the Thessalonian, was allowed to go with him. They sailed as far as Sidon, where Julius allowed Paul off the ship to visit fellow believers and receive care.

It was late in the year, and the winds were unfavorable.  They sailed past Cyprus and Cilicia and stopped at Myra, where Julius found an Alexandrian ship bound for Rome.  Slowly and with great difficulty, they sailed past desirable ports and came to Fair Havens on the island of Crete.  It was very late in the season, and the winds were fierce. 

Paul, who had sailed many times on the Mediterranean, advised the Centurion to stay put, for he feared the ship, its cargo, and all passengers would be lost in the winter storms.  But Julius paid more attention to the harbor pilot and the ship’s owner. Fair Havens was not a desirable place to spend the winter. They decided on a chance run to Phoenix, further around Crete. When the winds let up, they took a chance and sailed westward, close to shore.

But they soon encountered the “Northeaster,” a tempestuous wind, and the ship was blown out to sea. The wind and waves battered the ship mercilessly. With great difficulty, they used rope supports to undergird the ship. Then they lowered the gear and let the boat run where she would.  The next day, they tossed all the cargo overboard, and the following day all the ships tackle.  For many days, they were at the mercy of the tempest and lost hope of ever being saved.

Paul, “You should have listened to me and not have set sail from Crete. But, take heart, for there will be NO LOSS OF LIFE among you…..only the ship.” This was not good for the ship’s owner, but perhaps the passengers felt somewhat relieved.  Paul then told him how he knew this truth, “This very night there stood before me an angel of God to whom I belong and whom I worship, and He said, ‘Do not be afraid, Paul; you must stand before Caesar. And behold, God has granted you ALL those who sail with you.'”

Paul told them he had FAITH in God that they would all be saved, but they had to run the ship aground on some island.

About two weeks after leaving Crete, somewhere in the Adriatic Sea, the sailors took soundings and discovered they were nearing land. They let down four anchors off the stern and prayed for daylight. Some of the sailors secretly put the dingy overboard with plans to escape. But Paul caught them. “Unless these men stay in the ship, you cannot be saved.” The soldiers cut the dingy free.

As the day was breaking, Paul urged them all to eat. He took bread, thanked God in the presence of all of them, and began eating. Everyone was encouraged as they ate food, too. 

When it was light, they saw land but didn’t recognize it. But they did see a bay. Quickly, they cut the anchors, hoisted the foresail, and made for the beach.  The ship’s bow hit a hidden reef and stuck while the stern began to break up.  The soldiers planned to kill all the prisoners lest they escape, but Julius, wishing to save Paul, stopped them. He ordered all who could swim to jump overboard and make for land.  The others were to grab a plank from the ship and ride it ashore. (No, not surfing!)

And so it was that ALL were brought safely to land! (Just as God had promised Paul.)

Acts 28, the last chapter.

Once on the island, they learned they had shipwrecked on Malta. The native people were kind, welcomed the weary passengers, and kindled a fire because it was raining and they were cold.  Paul grabbed some firewood, and out popped a viper which had been hiding there.  It sunk its fangs into Paul’s hand.  Everyone gasped in horror and expected Paul to fall down dead, for the snake was very poisonous. But Paul shook it off and continued to stoke the fire.  

At first, the people thought him a murderer and said the viper was meting out justice. But when Paul showed no signs of illness or death, they changed their minds and thought he was a god. 

The chief guy, named Publius, showed them hospitality. When Paul learned that his father was very sick, he went to him and prayed, laying his hands on the man. When he was healed, the rest of the people on the island brought their sick, and they were cured, too.

After about three months on Malta, the winter storms were done with their terror. Julius secured a ship from Alexandria that had wintered on Malta. The islanders help to stock the ship with provisions for them.

They sailed to Syracuse on the island of Sicily and stayed three days. From there, they went to Rhegium on the southern tip of the Italian peninsula and then on to Puteoli (Naples) where Paul disembarked and was met by fellow believers.  He stayed there for a week, and then, together, they traveled along the Appian Way to Rome. 

Paul made it to Rome, just as God had told him. 

In Rome, under house arrest, until he was seen by Caesar, Paul preached from morning to night to Jews and Gentiles alike about “the hope of Israel,” the Messiah, Jesus.   Some were convinced, but others disbelieved.  (Just as scripture foretold. Isaiah 6:9-10) 

He lived there two whole years at his own expense and welcomed all who came to him, proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hindrance.

End of Acts.