Monthly Archives: August 2019

Daily Bible Study

September 1, 2019 Bible Study — Judge Each Person, Not On What Their Parents Did, and Not On What They Did In the Past, But On What They Do Now

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Ezekiel 17-19.

Ezekiel gave a parable directed against King Zedekiah.  In the parable Ezekiel suggests that Jerusalem and Judah were beginning to prosper with King Zedekiah ruling as a vassal to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, who had placed King Zedekiah on the throne.  Despite this turn in their fortunes, King Zedekiah and the elites of Jerusalem turned to Egypt to escape their vassalage to Babylon.  I just realized that I am going to take a detour into a history lesson here.  Under Zedekiah’s father, King Josiah, Jerusalem and Judah had prospered by allying with Babylon against the weakening Assyrian Empire.  This prosperity came to an end when King Josiah was killed trying to take on Egypt’s army without the aid of his allies, who were busy elsewhere at the time.  Eventually, the Babylonians put Zedekiah on the throne to end the Egyptian attempt to use Judah to extend their influence into the middle of the trade routes.  Zedekiah, and his advisers, thought that he could gain independence by playing Egypt off against Babylon.  

There are some important political lessons here, but there is also some spiritual lessons as well.  First, the political lesson: the leaders of Judah thought that, because Egypt was the weaker power, they could gain more concessions from them in exchange for their allegiance than they could from Babylon.  They were probably correct.  Their mistake was that Egypt lacked the will, and perhaps the power, to aid them against Babylon.  Now, the spiritual lesson: the people of Judah thought that they could navigate their way through the vagaries of life without paying any attention to God.  They thought that they could control things.  Instead of seeking God’s guidance and aid, they sought the guidance and aid of Egypt.  If the people of Jerusalem and Judah had faithfully followed God, and part of that would have meant keeping their oaths to Babylon, God would have guided them to independence and, perhaps, power.

After that parable, Ezekiel addresses another issue, actually tow related issues.  First, Ezekiel  speaks about the issue of prejudice against people because of who their parents were and what their parents did.  There was a parable which was used to justify holding a parent’s sins against their children.  Ezekiel’s response to this was, God will judge people for their sins, not us.  And God says that He will judge people according to their actions, not that of their parents.  If God will not hold the sins of the parents against their children, then neither should we.  More importantly, we can choose to be different from our parents.  If they were terrible evil people, we do not have to be.  We can choose not to do the same as they did.  If we do good we do not have to suffer all our lives for the evil which our parents did.  Of course, the other side of that is true.  If our parents were wonderful people, we still have to choose to do good things.  Our parents’ goodness does not give us a pass to do evil.

Second, Ezekiel tells us that God will judge people based on what they are doing now, not on what they did many years ago.  This means that we can change.  If we repent of doing wrong and begin doing good, we will reap the rewards of doing good.  On the other hand, if we cease doing good and start doing evil, we will reap the punishments for evil.  Further, We should follow God’s lead in how we judge people.  If someone did terrible things in the past, but no longer does them but instead does good things, we should treat them according to the good things they do now, not the terrible things they used to do.  On the other hand, if someone used to do wonderful, generous, kind things that does not mean we should overlook their current behavior.  There is one final point about how we should treat people.  We are not God, so we do not know what is going on in people’s hearts.  So, we should always give people the benefit of the doubt and show them God’s love.

Daily Bible Study

August 31, 2019 Bible Study — We Owe All That We Have and Are To God

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Ezekiel 16.

There are a few prophetic visions in the Bible which I struggle with applying to my life, or to society around me.  This is one of them because it is so specifically to the people of Jerusalem and Judah just before the Exile.  Yet, there are aspects of it we can generalize to ourselves and the society around us.  The line which made it come home to me was the beginning of verse 15: “But you thought your fame and beauty were your own.”  This made me see how we as individuals and as a society often fail to credit God for what He has given us.  As individuals, we see our wealth, our possessions, our health, or even our bodies as things which we obtained on our own and as things with which we can do whatever we want.  We fail to recognize that they are gifts from God and that we should seek to discover what He wants us to do with them.

As a society we often view our blessings as things which came to be purely through the hard work of our predecessors who passed these good things on to us to use, or throw away, as we desire.  Again, we fail to recognize that these things were gifts from God, given for His purposes.  Some of the things we choose to throw away are values which led our predecessors to do the things which brought about the world in which we live.  Rather than look to see which of those values were gifts from God which brought about good and which were products of our predecessors sins, we choose those which appeal to us and throw away those which do not. 

It is not enough that our society takes the wealth and possessions which God gave us and uses them selfishly.  No, our society has chosen to take the children which God gives us and sacrifice them on the altar of convenience.  When I read passages such as today’s, my first thought is on the atrocity which is abortion in this country, but really our society’s sacrifice of children goes far beyond that.  We see it in the parents who use their children to satisfy their own ambitions, whether that is in sports, or show business, or the many other ways in which parents push their children that are not healthy for the children. 

Daily Bible Study

August 30, 2019 Bible Study — God Condemns False Prophets And Those Who Set Up Their Own Idols

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Ezekiel 13-15.

Ezekiel once again condemns those who falsely prophesy that nothing is wrong.  And once again he addresses two different types of false prophets.  First he condemns those who speak in the name of God and say to the people that everything is OK, that there is no reason to turn from their sins.  As I mentioned the other day, we have such people today.  People who claim to speak on behalf of God who preach “tolerance”, but are really saying there is no reason to not sin.  Yes, as Christians we should be tolerant of others, and we should strive to show God’s love to them.  But it is not tolerant and loving to tell people it is OK to continue practicing self-destructive and/or hurtful practices.  People set up barriers to protect themselves against the self-destructive and hurtful things they, or others, do.  The prophets Ezekiel is talking about come along and apply a “whitewash” which covers up the inadequacy of these barriers.  They allow people to continue destroying themselves and others while thinking that everything is OK.  God will bring judgement against those who have helped them to think this way.

The second group of false prophets whom Ezekiel condemns are those who provide spiritual comfort aside from God.  Ezekiel aims this second condemnation at women, but I think that is merely a product of his time.  Men are equally capable of this sort of gimmicky false prophecy.  This second group of false prophets encourages people to put their trust in “magic” items, or rituals.  They convince people that they do not need to turn from sin because these “magic” items or actions will protect them from the consequences of their self-destructive or hurtful behavior.  It was prophets such as these who gave Harvey Weinstein and Roman Polansky a pass for many years because they supported the “right” causes.  But these “prophets” are not necessarily outside of the Church.  It was prophets such as these who gave organized crime bosses a pass for many years because they gave money to the Church.  I use an example from the Catholic Church because we all are familiar with it, but every other denomination has had similar things happen.  Sometimes these prophets only give an “exemption” to the rich and powerful, but other times they offer it to all anyone willing to check the right boxes.  God offers no such special exemptions and will bring His judgment against those who lead people astray in this manner.

Finally, Ezekiel condemns those who set up idols in their own hearts which lead them to sin and then turn to God for guidance.  This one scares me.  Am I guilty of doing this?  To what things have I committed myself that lead me to sin?  Are there things in my life which I put ahead of serving and worshiping God?  I know that I frequently turn to God for guidance, but I also know that I often sin.  

Daily Bible Study

August 29, 2019 Bible Study — God Will Bring Judgement On the Sinful

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Ezekiel 9-12.

Continuing his vision of idolatry in Jerusalem, Ezekiel describes God sending men through Jerusalem to kill the idolaters living there.  However, before they went out into the city, God sent a man to mark those who were horrified by the sins and idolatry going on there.  As an aside I want to note that throughout Ezekiel he uses “idolatry” and “detestable sins” somewhat interchangeably.  This indicates to me that justifying sins is idolatry.  Back to the main thread.  Ezekiel’s vision of God sending men through Jerusalem to kill the idolaters living there.  In Ezekiel’s understanding this was the majority of the population to the point where he feared God would wipe out everyone left in Israel.  There is an interesting subtext here.  No, God was not going to kill everyone left in Israel, but only because there were a few faithful left.  “Everybody else is doing it” is no defense against God’s judgement for sin.  If everyone turns from God to sin, He will indeed kill all of us.

Prophets had been telling the people of Israel for a long time that if they did not turn from their sins, God would bring devastation on the land.  As a result, people had begun to think that these prophecies were for the distant future.  Through Ezekiel, God told the people that time was up.  The distant future had arrived.  As I read this I wondered if God is sending the same message to us today.  When I was growing up, most Christians believed that Christ’s return was just around the corner, that time was running short for people to turn to God and be saved.  I no longer get that sense.  Today, it feels like most Christians believe that God’s final judgement will be some time in the distant future.  I fear that means that it will be any day now.  We need to have a sense of urgency in order to transform society the way in which God intends.

Daily Bible Study

August 28, 2019 Bible Study — Idolatry That Masquerades As Righteousness

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Ezekiel 5-8.

Ezekiel prophesied among the first set of Exiles who had been taken to Babylon before the fall of Jerusalem.  We know from the Book of Jeremiah that there were false prophets who were telling them that Jerusalem would not fall and that they would soon return home.  Ezekiel warned them that it would not happen that way.  Indeed, he prophesied that Jerusalem would fall because of the idolatry and other sins of its people.  His prophecy was designed to counter those who claimed otherwise and to turn those already exiled from the sins which had led to their exile.  His prophecy also serves to remind us today that, if we continue in sin and idolatry, we will suffer the same fate as the people of Jerusalem.

Then Ezekiel has a vision about the idolatry and other detestable practices in Jerusalem.  Ezekiel describes idolatry committed by those who claim to be religious in Jerusalem.  First, he describes an idol which is set up in the courtyard of the Temple.  Next, Ezekiel describes how the leaders of Jerusalem (or, at least, a large group of them) worshiped disgusting things in secret, things which even the idolatrous general public would have found horrifying.  Next, Ezekiel witnesses a group of women weeping over the death of a Mesopotamian god.  Finally, he describes how even the religious leaders, those with access to the Temple sanctuary, had turned their backs on God to worship the East.  

I really think this vision is relevant today, although I am not sure I can make a coherent whole out of the various ways in which I think this is true.  First, all of this idolatry took place among those who either thought they were worshiping God or who presented themselves as worship God.  Those who the common people turned to for guidance on what it means to be righteous directed them to idolatry rather than to God.  The first part of the vision shows that there was nothing subtle about that idolatry.  When people went to the Temple, they were confronted by an idol front and center.  To what degree are we doing the same thing today when our Churches encourage people to be politically active?  All too often that political activism places government where God belongs.  We need to be careful that we, who consider ourselves Christians do not allow idolatry to replace our worship of God.

But there is more to it than that.  When I read the part about the leaders worship detestable things in a hidden room I was reminded of Harvey Weinstein and Jeffrey Epstein.  Not so much those individuals as the people around them, the people who were aware of and took part in their depravity.  Many of these people are among those who form the opinions which are held up as what we should believe.  They guide public thought about what it means to be “righteous” in our society (although they would never use the word “righteous”).  Related, and abetting, this group are the “women” weeping for the god Tammuz.  They are caught up in “the feels”.  They do not want to talk about facts and logic because they feel the sadness of the death of Tammuz and that is more important than anything else.  These are the people caught up in the emotional.  They want to avoid confrontation and go into their safe space.  Finally, there are the religious leaders who instead of pointing people towards God point them away towards self-destructive behavior.

I want to close this out by pointing out that our society has two competing groups which are trying to lure us into idolatry.  One tries to get us to throw away Christianity all together, and most of those who read this are on to them.  But the other group is more subtle and attempts to convince us to set up the Church, or “traditional values”, or other positive things as idols in place of God.  

 

Daily Bible Study

August 27, 2019 Bible Study — Live By God’s Word Before Preaching God’s Word

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Ezekiel 1-4.

I wish I had the artistic talent to draw the image Ezekiel describes here at the beginning of his book.  In fact, I think it would be enlightening if someone were to draw each of the visions Ezekiel had throughout this book (and many of the other apocalyptic visions in other parts of the Bible as well).  I suspect that we would learn both from seeing what Ezekiel described and from seeing the differences between those descriptions.

From this amazing spectacle a voice spoke to Ezekiel and a Spirit took control of his body.  I had actually never noticed the second part of that before today.  When Ezekiel saw his vision, he threw himself face down on the ground.  Then he tells us that the Spirit which spoke to him out of the vision came into him and set him on his feet.  I am not sure how I overlooked this, nor why I never heard someone teach on the importance of it.  Much like Saul/Paul, Ezekiel was not exactly given a choice in the ministry he undertook.  Of course, both Saul/Paul and Ezekiel sought fervently to do God’s will.  But once they were called, neither felt like they had a choice in the matter.

Ezekiel was not sent to a foreign people on God’s behalf.  In fact, God tells Ezekiel that that would be an easier mission.  When God sends you to your own people you will struggle to overcome the fact that they think they know what you have to say without actually listening to what you say.  People in the United States think they know what the Christian Gospel is, but they are almost always wrong.  Even many of those who consider themselves Christian fail to listen to God’s words.  Here comes the most important part of God’s commission to Ezekiel.  Before speaking God’s words to others, Ezekiel must listen to, and act according to, those words.  We must hold ourselves to the standard to which God calls us to hold others.

Daily Bible Study

August 26, 2019 Bible Study — Even In the Darkest Times, God’s Love Is Faithful

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Lamentations 3-5.

There is much more to this passage than I am able to put into words.  However, early in it the prophet makes a point which I want to focus on.  Assuming the prophet is Jeremiah, as tradition claims for this Book, we can see a parallel between what is written at the beginning of Chapter 3 and his life.  He saw the destruction of Jerusalem coming and prophesied calling the people to change their ways to avoid it.  But they did not listen and the destruction came.  Then, even after the destruction and the suffering he experienced leading up to it, he was forced to join those who fled to Egypt.  Yet, for all of this, he remembered that God’s love is faithful and endures forever.  He put his hope in God and was not disappointed.

The prophet reminds us that the Lord is good to those who depend on Him.  Therefore, we should submit to His discipline from an early age.  Let us patiently wait for the Lord’s salvation and quietly accept His demands. 

Daily Bible Study

August 25, 2019 Bible Study — Sorrow Awaits Those Who Turn Away From God

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Lamentations 1-2.

Here the prophet, generally thought to be Jeremiah, laments the destruction of Jerusalem.  The prophet writes of how beautiful Jerusalem had been and how it has been devastated.  However, he warns everyone that Jerusalem’s devastation resulted from the sins of her people.  They had given no thought to the consequences of their action and lived for the moment; sinning without fear of what would happen later.  They listened to prophets who told them what they wanted to hear rather than those who spoke God’s word.  The people thought that because the Temple was there that God would never allow the city to fall.  They turned from God to make friends with other nations (Note: this does not necessarily mean that it was wrong for them to make friends with those nations.  The wrong was in turning from God to do so).  However, when God brought home the consequences of their sins, none of those nations were willing, or able, to come to their aid.  In all of this Jerusalem, and the Kingdom of Judah, are object lessons for all nations and peoples.  If you turn from God and sin against Him when His judgement comes none will stand by you to offer you aid.

Daily Bible Study

August 24, 2019 Bible Study — We Are Called To Deliver God’s Love, Not His Punishment

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Jeremiah 51-52.

Babylon was chosen by God to punish His people by conquering Jerusalem and destroying the Temple there.  Yet, here Jeremiah prophesied that God would punish Babylon and the Babylonians for what they had done to the people of Jerusalem.    So, let’s recap.  Jerusalem and the Temple was destroyed because of the sins of the Jewish people.  Babylon was God’s chosen tool for this task.  Nevertheless, God chose to punish Babylon for what they did to the people of Israel.  

As I read this I thought about the modern state of Israel.  There are many who condemn the modern state of Israel for what they perceive as the sins of its politicians and people.  I am not going to address the merits of those accusations today because it is not relevant to the point.  If the people of the modern state of Israel are guilty of the sins which their opponents accuse them of, God will punish them and the state of Israel will fall.  However, those who work to bring that about will pay a price, even if they are doing so because of the sins of the people of Israel.

However, as I started typing the last paragraph I realized there is a more general lesson.  One which all of us should heed.  Those who repeatedly sin will suffer God’s punishment for their sins (especially the sins of oppressing the weak and powerless).  However, when that punishment is delivered by their fellow human, the one delivering the punishment may be sinning by doing so.  We are all sinners and avoid God’s terrible punishment only by His grace.  It is not our place to decide who should receive God’s punishment and who should receive His grace.  Let us leave that to God.  Our place is to demonstrate God’s love.  That we should not leave to God.

Daily Bible Study

August 23, 2019 Bible Study — How To Make Yourself God’s Enemy

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Jeremiah 49-50.

Today’s passage contains some of Jeremiah’s prophecies against the nations surrounding Judah.  These prophecies condemn them for their idolatry.  My first thought as I read Jeremiah’s prophecy against Ammon was of the Muslim Arabs living in lands which Jeremiah would have considered part of Israel’s land.  God promised the destruction of Ammon for its idolatry, but also promised to restore its people after a time.  I am really hesitant to apply Old Testament prophecies to the modern world because I have seen so many people read their own understanding of the world back into these prophecies and then use them to support their own bias.  We should instead seek to discover God’s message for us in these passages.  Which leads me to the following point: these prophecies have one common thread.  All of the nations Jeremiah prophecies against held enmity towards God’s chosen people.

When Jeremiah speaks of the fall of Edom, he tells us that in the midst of the death and destruction God will protect the orphans and the widows.  This reflects a theme which comes up again and again in the Old Testament.  God comes to the defense of the powerless when the powerful abuse them.  We should take two things away from this.  If we use whatever power we have to take advantage of the powerless we make ourselves God’s enemies.  When we help those in need, we act on God’s behalf.