Journaling through the Bible Chronologically in 2025, Day 248

Sep5

Day 248 – Reading – EZEKIEL 28 – 30

Read the Scriptures.  Meditate on what the prophets were saying.

EZEKIEL 28.

Ezekiel continues the scathing prophesies against the nations around God’s people for cheering the destruction of Jerusalem, and their eagerness to plunder her themselves.  Here, he continues with the City-State of Tyre.

“The word of the LORD came to me: son of man, say to the prince of Tyre…….”

  • “Because your heart is proud, and you have said, ‘I am a god, I sit in the seat of the gods,’ yet you are but a man and no 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, and they will draw their swords against the beauty of your wisdom and defile your splendor. 
  • They shall thrust you down into the pit, and you shall die the death of the slain in the heart of the seas.
  • “Will you still say I am a god…?

Then God tells Ezekiel to raise a lamentation over the kin of Tyre.  (This “lamentation,” although about the King of Tyre, has many people comparing it to Satan’s pride and beauty, as an anointed guardian cherub, and his fall from heaven.)

Sidon.  God next tells Ezekiel to prophesy against Sidon, a sister city with Tyre. He will execute judgment on them too, and show them His holiness when He sends “pestilence into her, and blood into her streets.”

Having settled accounts with Israel’s neighbors on all sides, He says that the House of Israel shall no more have briar or thorn to hurt her.   And when He gathers them home from the nations of exile, they will build houses and plant vineyards and dwell securely.  (Can you hear a big sigh?) 

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Ezekiel 29.

Ezekiel steps back a few years (twelfth day, tenth month, tenth year) of their exile.  Nebuchadnezzar is at Jerusalem, but it will be seven months before it is destroyed.

God tells Ezekiel to set his face against Pharaoh, king of Egypt (for four chapters).

  • “Behold, I am against you, Pharaoh king of Egypt, the great dragon that lies in the midst of his streams, that says, ‘My Nile is my own; I made it myself.’ 
  • I will put hooks in your jaws, and make the “
  • fish” (people) of your streams stick to you when I draw you up.
  • And I will cast you out into the wilderness, and you will fall in the open field… to the beasts of the earth and birds of the heavens …. for food.”

God will judge them because they failed Israel when they grasped them for help.

God will also judge them for their pride in saying they “made” the Nile River.

  • “I will make the land of Egypt a desolation … and her cities shall be a desolation for forty years. 
  • I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations and disperse them through the countries. 
  • Then I will gather and restore their fortunes. But they shall be a lowly kingdom, the most lowly. They will never rule over nations again. 
  • They will never again be the reliance of Israel.
  • THAT THEY WILL KNOW THAT I AM THE LORD GOD.

Then God tells Ezekiel something interesting… 

He brought Nebuchadnezzar against Tyre (as foretold in chapter 26), and the Babylonian army had to “labor hard” against them. But they never got anything for their labor.  THEREFORE, says God, He was going to pay for the labor Nebuchadnezzar performed for Him by giving the king the land of Egypt and her wealth. 

HUH!  Yes, God is totally sovereign!  He has the nations in the palms of His hands.  (He would always win at Monopoly!)

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Ezekiel 30.

Then God told Ezekiel to “lament” for Egypt.

  • “Wail, ‘Alas for the day!’ For the day is near, the day of the LORD is near;
  • it will be a day of clouds, a time of doom for the nations.
  • sword shall come upon Egypt, and anguish shall be in Cush,
  • when the slain fall in Egypt, and her wealth is carried away,
  • and her foundations are torn down.

(Cush, Put, Lud, all Arabia, and Libya, and the people who are in league … shall fall with them (Egypt) by the sword.)  “Those who support Egypt shall fall.”

  • “I will put an end to the wealth of Egypt by the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon.
  • He and his people with him shall be brought in to destroy the land,
  • draw their swords against Egypt,
  • fill the land with the slain.   
  • And I will dry up the Nile… I am the LORD, I have spoken. 
  • There shall no longer be a prince from Egypt. 
  • I will set fire to Egypt. 

And Ezekiel continues to tell again that the LORD will defeat, scatter and take captive Egypt by Nebuchadnezzar.  THEN, THEY WILL KNOW….

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God uses nations and kings as pieces on a chessboard.  He knows, He sees. And He performs, according to His goodwill… and with His own people in His mind. All for His chosen. Yes, He is spanking them severely, but for their own good.  But the enemies around them will die.

I recall the blessing God gave to Abraham. (Genesis 12)

“I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.  I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

**** LORD, Thank You for Abraham’s blessing and his children (from both flocks). Thank You, that You never change, and a promise is secure with You!

 

 

Journaling through the Bible Chronologically in 2025, Day 247

Sep4

Day 247 – Reading – EZEKIEL 25 – 27

Read the Scriptures.  Meditate on what the prophets were saying.

EZEKIEL 25.

With the total judgment and destruction of Jerusalem, Ezekiel now proclaims judgment on seven other nations in the following eight chapters (like Jeremiah 46-51).  Chapter 25 covers four of them, known for their jealousy and vindictive hate of Israel.  

Ammonites.  (Distantly related to Israel [along with Moab] through Abraham’s nephew Lot.)  They are judged especially because of their glee at the destruction of God’s temple and the exile of God’s people to Babylon.   The LORD  tells them through this prophecy that they will be conquered and assimilated into “the people of the East” (the Arabian people). 

“Because you have clapped your hands and stamped your feet and rejoiced with all the malice within your soul against the land of Israel … therefore, I have stretched out My hand against you, and will hand you over to the nations.  THEN YOU WILL KNOW THAT I AM THE LORD.”

Moabites. (Descended from Lot.) They are also judged for saying Judah was not chosen by God, but a people like all peoples. They are also to be absorbed into the Arabian tribes.

Edomites. (Descendants of Israel’s brother Esau.) Edom was south of Ammon, Moab, and the Dead Sea. David had almost annihilated them. Their revenge was hostility to Israel… constantly. They cheered the Babylonians when Israel was defeated and exiled.  Much later, the Jewish forces under Judas Maccabeus fully conquered Edom.  They also were absorbed into the Arab peoples.

Philistines.  Because the Philistines acted revengefully “with malice of soul” to destroy Israel in never-ending enmity, God was going to destroy them (as well as the Cretons who joined them on the coast) via the Babylonians.

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Ezekiel 26.

The prophet again announces the day Jerusalem was captured. On the eleventh year, first day (of Jehoiachin’s captivity) (and Ezekiel’s).

Tyre. It was situated north of Israel on a well-fortified island. Known for fishing, it became a “world power” in shipping and trading throughout the Mediterranean.  It was King Hiram who helped David and Solomon with Cedar wood and supplies for building the Temple and the King’s Palace.  Later, they were guilty of selling Jews into slavery. 

God would use several nations (in waves) to destroy this power: the Babylonians, Alexander the Great, and finally, the Greeks in a devastating attack.   It takes three chapters for Ezekiel to write out the judgment on them.  

When Jerusalem was conquered, Tyre said, “Aha, the gate of the peoples is broken; it has swung open to ME. I shall be replenished now that she is laid waste.”

And so God said, “I am against you, O Tyre, and will bring up many nations against you, as a sea brings up its waves.  They will destroy the WALLS of Tyre and break down her TOWERS, and I will SCRAPE HER SOIL and make her a BARE ROCK, and she will never be rebuilt.  And her daughters on the mainland shall be killed by the sword. 

Then they will KNOW THAT I AM THE LORD.”

“(First) I will bring against Tyre from the north Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon… and he will kill with the sword.” 

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Ezekiel 27.

This whole chapter is a lamentation for Tyre, as a great ship destroyed on the high seas.   

Verses 3-9 describe the building of that ship. 

Verses 10-25 describe the merchants who did business with Tyre.

Verses 26-27 describe the shipwreck.

Verses 28-35 describes the merchants bemoaning the loss of her commerce.

“The merchants among the peoples hiss at you; you have come to a dreadful end and shall be no more forever.”

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(Although God judges [disciplines] Judah and Jerusalem, His heart is still wholly on them.  And when surrounding nations jump and clap with glee, and plan how they will ransack her for their own benefit, God turns his wrathful judgment on THEM.

This reminds me of a protecting shepherd, who runs with vengeance upon any animal that taunts or attacks his sheep.  Thank you for caring for me so much, even when I foolishly wander off.  Thank you for “walking with me through the Valley of the Shadow of Death.”  Thank You for the promise of eternity with YOU!)

 

 

 

Journaling through the Bible Chronologically in 2025, Day 246

Sep3

Day 246 – Reading EZEKIEL – 23 – 24

Read the Scriptures.  Meditate on what the prophets were saying.

Ezekiel 23.

This chapter about two sisters is a metaphor for Samaria, the capital of Israel, and Jerusalem, the capital of Judah.  Oholah represents Samaria, and Oholibah represents Jerusalem.  Both are presented as lewd and unrepentant prostitutes, decked and adorned like royalty by their paramours.  Both began as belonging to God, but proved unfaithful.

Oholah’s “lovers” were the Assyrians, warriors, governors, and commanders, all desirable men riding on horses. These betrayed her, took her sons and daughters, and killed her.

Oholibah observed her “sister’s” downfall and became more corrupt. Assyrian governors, commanders, warriors in full armor, horsemen, all desirable young men.  And Chaldean officers portrayed in vermillion, wearing belts and turbans.  All came to her and defiled her. And she lusted even more.

God says, He turned from her in disgust as He had with her sister. Yet she increased her evil, and played the whore with Egypt.

And so God turned her “lovers” against her, the Babylonians and Chaldeans, who would cut off her nose and ears, and even slay her.

  • “You shall drink your sister’s  cup that is deep and large;
  • You shall be laughed at and held in derision, for it contains much;
  • You will be filled with drunkenness and sorrow.
  • A cup of horror and desolation, the cup of your sister Samaria;
  • You shall drink it and drain it out.”

God told Ezekiel to judge the sisters.  “Declare their abominations for they have committed adultery with their idols and have offered up to them for food the children whom they had borne to me.”

“Bring up a vast host against her and make her an abject of terror and plunder!”

“Thus I will put an end to lewdness in the land, and ALL WOMEN may take warning and not commit lewdness as you have done. 

“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 THE NINETH YEAR, IN THE TENTH MONTH, ON THE TENTH DAY OF THE MONTH, “This very day, the king of Babylon has laid siege to Jerusalem,” said the LORD.

Even though Ezekiel and the exiles were 900 miles away, he knew what was happening in real time in Judah.  The great city and the magnificent, adored Temple of God were under attack.  RIGHT THEN!  And like a war correspondent on the scene, Ezekiel was to write it down and describe it.

  • Set a pot on the fire.
  • Pour in the water.
  • Put in good pieces of meat.
  • Fill it with choice bones. 
  • Pile logs under it.
  • Boil it well.
  • Seethe its bones.”

“Woe to the bloody city, says the LORD, to the pot whose corrosion is in it.  Woe to the bloody city, says the LORD. Heap on logs, kindle the fire, boil the meat well, mix in the spices, and let the bones be burned up! Then set the pot on the coals that it may become hot, and its copper may burn, that its uncleanness may be melted in it, its corrosion consumed.”

“You shall not be cleansed anymore till I have satisfied my fury upon you. I am the LORD. I have spoken; it shall come to pass. I will do it. I will not go back. I will not spare. I will not relent. According to your ways and your deeds, you will be judged, declares the Lord GOD.

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And then, the news came to Ezekiel, so he could identify with the LORD losing Jerusalem.  “I am about to take the delight of your eyes away from you at a stroke.”  And that evening, Ezekiel’s wife died.  WOW.

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Ezekiel was not allowed to mourn or weep or let tears flow in public.  He could only sigh softly and not eat.

When the people in exile asked what this meant, he gave them God’s words.

“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 daughters whom you left behind shall fall by the sword.  And … you shall NOT mourn or weep.  When the time comes, then you will KNOW THAT I AM THE LORD GOD.” (When the messenger (a fugitive) comes with the news.)

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What a prophet Ezekiel was! His own life and peculiar actions had represented many things that would happen to Israel.  But to lose his wife, to experience the grief of sudden loss, must have been hardest of all.  And yet to portray God’s grief to the nation in exile was needful. And Ezekiel did what God said.

 (**** O LORD, I don’t know if I could be as dedicated and obedient to Your words as Ezekiel!  But I remember Jesus’ words, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and  follow me.”  (Matthew 16:24.)

Journaling through the Bible Chronologically in 2025, Day 245

Sep2

Day 245 – Reading – EZEKIEL 21 – 22

Read today’s Scriptures. Meditate on what the prophets were saying.

Ezekiel 21.

It is getting close to that time of Jerusalem’s fall and ruin, and God tells Ezekiel urgently to preach to the exiles in Babylon with him, and prophesy against the land of Israel.  God says,

  • “Behold I am against you and will draw my sword from its sheath and will cut off from you both righteous and wicked. Therefore my sward shall be drawn from its sheath against all flesh from south to north, and all flesh SHALL KNOW THAT I AM THE LORD. I have drawn my sword from its sheath; it shall not be sheathed again.”

Then he tells Ezekiel to GROAN with breaking heart and bitter grief.  “GROAN before their eyes.  And when they ask why you groan, say, “Because of the news that is coming.”

Every heart will melt, and all hands will be feeble; every spirit will faint and all knees will be weak as water.

BEHOLD, IT IS COMING!  Cry out and wail, O son of man, for the sharpened and polished sword is to be given to the hand of the slayer. Then God gives a picture of the flashing sword cutting left and right and reveals that the glittering, flashing, deadly sword is none other than the King of Babylon in the hand of God.  And Zedekiah, the profane and wicked “prince” (not king) of Israel, will be dethroned.  His day has come!

“Ruin, ruin, ruin,”

This must have been a totally freaky-scary message for the exiles!

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Ezekiel 22.

God asks Ezekiel (son of man) to judge the bloody city (Jerusalem), and declare aloud all her “abominations.” And he does.  

  1. Princes of Israel have been bent on shedding blood.
  2. Father and mother are treated with contempt;
  3. Sojourners suffer extortion,
  4. Fatherless and widows are wronged.
  5. They despised God’s holy things,
  6. Profaned God’s Sabbaths
  7. They slander to shed blood,
  8. Eat on the mountains (worshipping idols)
  9. Commit lewdness.
  10. Men uncover their father’s nakedness
  11. Violate women who are unclean
  12. Commits abomination with his neighbor’s wife
  13. Violates his sister
  14. Lewdly violates his sister-in-law,
  15. Take bribes to shed blood
  16. Take interest and profit,
  17. Make gain by extortion,
  18. And forgotten ME, their God.
  19. Her prophets have conspired to get rich
  20. Her priests have done violence to God’s law and profaned holy things
  21. Her princes are wolves tearing the prey, shedding blood, destroying lives for gain,
  22. Extortion,
  23. Robbery,
  24. Oppression of the poor and needy.

God said, “I sought for a man among them who should build up the wall and stand in the breach before me for the land, that I should not destroy it.

“BUT I FOUND NONE.  Therefore I have returned their way upon their heads.”

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Another heart-wrenching two chapters!  I shutter at God’s anger. It is fully justified, but it is a horrible thing.  He is so good and does good to his people, but they (we?) turn their backs on Him and do all they can to defile themselves and insult Him. It’s like a fist (or a finger) in His face!  He is a God of mercy, but He is also a HOLY God, and there comes a time when He says,, “ENOUGH!”

I wonder if He has reaching that point today!

 

 

 

 

 

Journaling through the Bible Chronologically in 2025, Days 243 & 244

Sep1

A NEW MONTH!

NOTE: Sunday and Monday studies are posted on Mondays.

Day 243 – Reading – EZEKIEL 16 – 17

Day 244 – Reading – EZEKIEL 18 – 20

Read today’s Scriptures … ANYWHERE you find yourself. 

Day 243 – EZEKIEL 16.

And now, the LORD paints a story of his beloved people and city, comparing them to a helpless newborn baby cast away into a field to die.   He passed by and had pity on the babe. He commanded it to “LIVE!” and bathed and covered it. 

Later, He took the young woman she’d become and married her. He clothed her in fine linen and silk clothes and draped silver, gold, and jewels on her. He fed her with delicacies and sweetness. She was perfect under His care.

But she “trusted in her beauty” and played the whore to ANY passerby.  She gave THEM her fine clothes and jewels, and fed them with sweet and savory-smelling offerings. His children she slaughtered and burned with fire. She accepted no payment for her whoring, but PAID THEM.   

She was an adulterous wife who received strangers instead of her Husband.

And so, the LORD took all her “lovers” and gathered them against her, to strip her, stone her,  and be taken away by them.

He compares Jerusalem to Sodom and Samaria, only many times worse. The main guilt of Sodom?  They had pride, an excess of food, and prosperous ease, but they did not aid the poor and needy. They were haughty and did an abomination before me.   I removed them when I saw it. (Homosexual perversion).  But Jerusalem acted MORE abominably than they.

THEY despised the oath in breaking the covenant, YET THE LORD will remember His covenant with them, and He will establish for them an everlasting covenant.  Then they will remember their ways… and be ashamed. 

And they will KNOW that He is the LORD when He atones for them for all they have done. (Thru Christ.)

(Oh, the goodness and mercy of the LORD!)

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Ezekiel 17.

The LORD also tells Ezekiel to “consider a riddle, and tell “a parable” to the house of Israel. (This takes place about 2 years before Jerusalem is destroyed.)

  • “A great eagle (king of Babylon) with great wings and long pinon feathers, rich in plumage of many colors, came to Lebanon (northern border of Israel) and took the top of the cedar (Judah). He broke off the topmost of its young twigs (18-year-old King Jehoiachin) and carried it to a land of trade and set it in the city of merchants (Babylon). 
  • He (Nebuchadnezzar) took of the seed of the land (King Zedekiah), and planted it in fertile soil.  He set it like a willow twig and helped it to prosper. It spread as a vine towards him (paying tribute).

 

  • “There was another great eagle (the pharaoh of Egypt) with great wings and much plumage. The vine bent its roots toward him and shot forth branches toward him, that he might water it (help him rebel against Nebuchadnezzar).  Where the vine was, in good soil and with water, it might have borne fruit and become a noble vine. (If Zedekiah had remained faithful to ‘the Babylonian,’ Judah would have prospered as a tributary kingdom.) 
  • But no, it pulled up its roots, cut off its fruits, and withered. And the EAST wind struck it and it faded away.  It’s easy to see what happened (from Jeremiah). Zedekiah rebelled against Babylon and turned to Egypt. Nebuchadnezzar came from the East, plucked him up, blinded him, and led him in chains to Babylon, where he died.
  • Read verses 11-18 and have the picture clearly explained.

 

  • And then the LORD painted one more scenario.  He, HIMSELF, as an “eagle” plucking a sprig from the lofty top of the cedar and setting it out.  He himself will plant it on a high and lofty mountain, the mountain height of Israel, that it may bear branches, bear fruit, and become a noble cedar.  EVERY KIND of bird will dwell in its shade and safety.  (This is clearly a picture of the Messianic Kingdom of Jesus, where ALL GROUPS of people will be welcome.)
  • “I AM the LORD; I have spoken, and I will do it.”

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Day 244 – EZEKIEL 18.

In this chapter, God scolds Ezekiel and Israel for quoting and believing this proverb:

“The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge.”

No, says the LORD, a child will not die for the sins of his father. 

THE SOUL THAT SINS SHALL DIE.

Then the LORD gives five scenarios to explain what He means.

  1. If a man does what is just and right.

If he doesn’t eat on the mountains, lift up his eyes to idols, does not defile his neighbor’s wife, approach a woman in her monthly period, does not oppress anyone, restores to the debtor his pledge, commits no robbery, gives his bread to the hungry, covers the naked with a garment, does not lend at interest, or take any profit, withholds his hand from injustice, executes true justice between man and man, walks in my statutes, and keeps my rules by acting faithfully — HE IS RIGHTEOUS; HE SHALL SURELY LIVE.

      2. If he fathers a son who is violent, a shedder of blood who does any of these things (although the father, himself, did none of those things),—- THE SON SHALL NOT LIVE, BUT SURELY DIE.  HIS BLOOD SHALL BE UPON HIMSELF.

      3. Now suppose this man fathers a son who sees all the sins that his father has done; he sees, and does NOT do likewise. — THIS SON SHALL NOT DIE FOR HIS FATHER’S INIQUITY. HE SHALL SURELY LIVE.

—– But you may ask, “Why should not the son suffer for the iniquity of the father?  Because when the son has done what is just and right and careful to observe all my statutes, he shall live.

“The soul who sins shall die.”

      4. But, if a wicked person repents from all his sins that he has committed and keeps my statutes and does what is just and right — HE SHALL SURELY LIVE. HE SHALL NOT DIE.   None of the transgressions that he has committed shall be remembered against him. 

      5. But, when a righteous person turns away from his righteousness,  and does injustice and the same abominations that the wicked person does, shall he live? — NO. HE SHALL DIE.  None of the righteous deeds that he has done shall be remembered; only the treachery of which he is guilty and the sin he has committed.

 Then the LORD finishes with this plea:

  • “Repent and turn from all your transgressions, lest iniquity be your ruin.
  • Cast away from you all the transgressions that 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. 
  • So turn and live.”

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Ezekiel 19.

This chapter is a Lament over the Princes (kings) of Israel who went into captivity or were killed.

Verse 1 describes  Judah as a lioness, with her cubs being the kings of Judah.

Verses 3-4 describe Jehoahaz, who was caught and taken captive to Egypt.

Verses 5-9 describe Jehoiachin, who was also caught, and with hooks taken to the king of Babylon, who put him into custody. 

Verses 10-14 describe Zedekiah, the vine spoken of in the parable of chapter 17.  The responsibility for the catastrophe of Jerusalem’s burning was blamed on him because of his treachery against Babylon and alliance with Egypt. 

Now the Lioness grieves. There remains no stem… no scepter for ruling in Judah…

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Oh, but wait, there IS a descendant from a son of David, King Jehoiachin, followed closely through the centuries by Matthew, chapter 1.  The Messiah, the Lion of Judah, WILL reign in Israel for one thousand years!!  And then for ETERNITY!  Hallelujah!!   

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Ezekiel 20.

In the seventh year of Ezekiel’s captivity, in the fifth month and on the tenth day…… certain of the elders of Israel came to him to inquire of the LORD.

(Probably these men wanted to know when HE was going to end this captivity and send them home.  But God comes down HARD on them, telling them it was THEIR abominations and their fathers that got them in this predicament. Then, Ezekiel was to remind them of God’s choosing them, His loving care of them throughout the ages, and THEIR sin and rebellion, over and over.

(Egypt … the wilderness trek and their rebellion … the entry into the Promised Land and idolatry … delivering them again and again from their enemies … and then finally, the promised judgment.)

But, after trial and terrible testing, God will bring a remnant home. They will serve him on His Holy Mountain. He will manifest His HOLINESS among them to the nations,  AND THEY SHALL KNOW THAT I AM THE LORD.

“And you shall know that I am the LORD, when I deal with you for my name’s sake, not according to your evil ways, not according to your corrupt deeds, O house of Israel.”

After all that, did the Elders accept what God said through Ezekiel?

Nope.

“Ah, Lord God!” said Ezekiel. “They are saying of me that I am a maker of parables.”  (They didn’t believe him, or God.)

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(LORD, give me faith to believe all that you say. Keep me in Your word, from which comes FAITH.  Keep me from being stubborn, disbelieving. May my heart be soft toward Your Word.)

I love how the LORD used so many parables in these chapters, just as His Son would do 500 years later.

 

 

 

Journaling through the Bible Chronologically in 2025, Day 242

Aug30

Day 242 – Reading Ezekiel 13 – 15

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

Ezekiel 13.

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

Ezekiel was to go and prophesy against them.

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

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

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

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Ezekiel 14.

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

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

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

And then God speaks to Ezekiel about Jerusalem.

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

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

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

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

Ezekiel 15.

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

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

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

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

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

 

 

 

Journaling through the Bible Chronologically in 2025, Day 241

Aug29

Day 241 – Reading Ezekiel 9 – 12

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

Ezekiel 9.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Ezekiel 10.

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

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

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

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

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Ezekiel 11.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Ezekiel 12.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Journaling through the Bible Chronologically in 2025, Day 240

Aug28

Day 240 – Reading Ezekiel 5 – 8

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

Ezekiel 5.

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

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

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

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

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

“And they shall KNOW that I am the LORD”

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

. Ezekiel 6.

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

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

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

“And they shall KNOW that I am the LORD”

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

“And they shall KNOW that I am the LORD”

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

“And they shall KNOW that I am the LORD”

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

“And they shall KNOW that I am the LORD”

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Ezekiel 7.

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

  • “Thus says the Lord GOD to the land of Israel.
  • An end! The end has come upon the four corners of the land. NOW the end is upon you, and I will send my anger against you,
  • I will judge you according to your ways, and I will punish you for all your abominations.”

“And you shall KNOW that I am the LORD”

  • Disaster after disaster!
  • Behold, it comes. An end has come, the end has come; it has awakened against you.
  • Behold, it comes.
  • Your doom has come to you, O inhabitant of the land.
  • I will punish you according to your ways, while your abominations are in your midst.”

“And you shall KNOW that I am the LORD”

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

“And they shall KNOW that I am the LORD”

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Ezekiel 8.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Have you seen this, O son of man?

Therefore, I will act in wrath.

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

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

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Journaling through the Bible Chronologically in 2025, Day 239

Aug27

Day 239 – Reading Ezekiel 1 – 4

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

Ezekiel 1.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Ezekiel 2.

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

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

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

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

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Ezekiel 3.

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

So Ezekiel opened his mouth.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

WHAT??

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

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Ezekiel 4.

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

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

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

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

WHEW!

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

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

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

Yikes!  It’s tough to be a prophet!!

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

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

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Journaling through the Bible Chronologically in 2025, Day 238

Aug26

Day 238 – Reading Lamentations 3 – 5

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

Lamentations 3. 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

  • It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD. 
  • It is good for a man that he bear “the yoke” in his youth.  Let him sit alone in silence when “it” is laid on him; let him put his mouth in the dust – there may yet be hope;  let him give his cheek to the one who strikes, and let him be filled with insults. 
  • THE LORD WILL NOT CAST HIM OFF FOREVER.  Though He causes grief, He will have compassion according to the abundance of His steadfast love; for He does not willingly afflict or grieve the children of men.

And a bit more good advice.

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

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Lamentations 4.

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

First, the appearance of devastated Jerusalem.

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

And the deprivation of food, as God foretold.

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

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

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Lamentations 5.

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

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

More of the horrors of captivity…..

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

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

  • The joy of our hearts has ceased; our dancing has been turned to mourning.
  • The crown has fallen from our head; woe to us, FOR WE HAVE SINNED.

Yes!  Confession of sin!

  • But You, O LORD, reign forever; Your throne endures to all generations.
  • Why do you forget us forever? Why do you forsake us for so many days?
  • Restore us to yourself, O LORD, that we may be restored!
  • Renew our days as of old.

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

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

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

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