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

In the year 2000, on the 23rd day of this month, my wife married me.  So here we are on day 8 of the 20 days that I am going to wish her Happy Anniversary for 20 years of marriage.  Happy Anniversary Darling!

Today, I am reading and commenting on Ezekiel 41-43.

In an earlier passage Ezekiel described the glory of the Lord leaving the Temple in a vision in which he saw people performing idol worship in the Temple.  In today’s passage, he describes the measurements of the Temple which he sees in a vision.  In the middle of that description he sees the glory of the Lord enter this new Temple.  In Ezekiel’s vision God tells him that the description of the Temple which he saw in this vision will cause the Israelites to be ashamed of their sins.  This suggests to me that there is some significance to the measurements and other details which Ezekiel relates concerning the Temple he saw, but I have never been able to decipher what that significance is.

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

In the year 2000, on the 23rd day of this month, my wife married me.  So here we are on day 7 of the 20 days that I am going to wish her Happy Anniversary for 20 years of marriage.  Happy Anniversary Darling!

Today, I am reading and commenting on Ezekiel 39-40.

Today’s continuation of Ezekiel’s prophecy against Gog and Magog contains an element which has always led me to think it was figurative.  He speaks of the people of Israel using the weapons of the defeated army as fuel for seven years.  I cannot imagine modern weapons carried by an army which could be used in that manner.  This is really the only part of Ezekiel’s description of the aftermath of the battle which I cannot see how it would potentially describe the aftermath of a modern battle.  If Israel was attacked by a force such as that described here by Ezekiel, it would not be out of the question for Israel to use nuclear weapons to stop them.  It would also not be out of the question for such an army to be carrying biological agents with them.  Both of those things would explain the description of special groups being designated for cleanup of the battlefield.  Ultimately, I pray that the fulfillment of this prophecy is not ordained to happen in my lifetime.

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

In the year 2000, on the 23rd day of this month, my wife married me.  So here we are on day 6 of the 20 days that I am going to wish her Happy Anniversary for 20 years of marriage.  Happy Anniversary Darling!

Today, I am reading and commenting on Ezekiel 37-38.

I have always considered Ezekiel’s prophecy concerning the Valley of the Dry Bones to contain one of the most important lessons for us.  I have frequently witnessed Christians decide that a congregation has gotten too old, or too staid, or both, to ever thrive again.  While there is some truth to this, we should never believe that God’s Spirit cannot revive such a congregation.  However, the Valley of Dry Bones prophecy does not just apply to congregations, or other institutions, which we think are dead and dried up.  The prophecy also teaches us that God’s Spirit can move and bring life, even when we think something is long dead.  Let us pray that God’s Spirit will move in the world today and bring the fire of revival to it.  Let us pray that God will bring new life to the dry bones of Christianity in parts of the world where it once thrived.  But, let us do more than just pray, let us speak as the Spirit guides us to bring about that change.

I have long wondered whether the passage here about Gog and Magog attacking Israel was a figurative prophecy, or perhaps if it was a reference to the 1967 Arab-Israel War.  Now, the other day I mentioned how Meshech and Tubal were mentioned in a list of nations which Ezekiel’s original readers would have been familiar.  So, as I was reading this prophecy today, I thought about current world affairs and wondered if this prophecy might refer to something about to happen.  It is not that this is something that I know is about to happen, merely something which current world affairs, for the first time in my lifetime, make a possibility.  So, Meshech and Tubal most likely would have been nations bordering the Black Sea towards the east end.  Gomer, which is also mentioned here, would have been in an area which is now part of Turkey.  In the prophecy we have Sheba and Dedan warning this alliance against attacking Israel.  Interestingly, Sheba and Dedan were nations of the Arabian Peninsula.  With the recent normalization between the United Arab Emirates and Israel, and Saudi Arabia’s long term silent cooperation with Israel, it makes such a warning not at all improbable.  Looking at the current world situation, the alliances of nations which geographically fit those described in this prophecy are possible for the first time in my life time (during the 1967 War the nations of the Arabian Peninsula were in the alliance against Israel).

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

In the year 2000, on the 23rd day of this month, my wife married me.  So here we are on day 5 of the 20 days that I am going to wish her Happy Anniversary for 20 years of marriage.  Happy Anniversary Darling!

Today, I am reading and commenting on Ezekiel 34-36.

Ezekiel condemned the leaders of Israel who used their position to feed themselves without caring for the people, the sheep, placed under their care.  The same can be said of many of the political and religious leaders of today.  I want to focus on the religious leaders of today.  God’s people have been scattered and become easy prey to those who seek to lead them astray.  No one from the Church has gone out looking for them.  Rather than seek the lost our churches have sought to become places where they will come, but that just makes them susceptible to any pretty face.  Even with the model of God’s Good Shepherd to follow we have failed to seek out His lost sheep in order to bring them home.  God is looking for people who will go seeking His lost sheep, people who will guide others back to Him. Oh Lord show me how to bring your lost sheep back to you!

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

In the year 2000, on the 23rd day of this month, my wife married me.  So here we are on day 4 of the 20 days that I am going to wish her Happy Anniversary for 20 years of marriage.  Happy Anniversary Darling!

Today, I am reading and commenting on Ezekiel 32-33.

Today I struggle with Ezekiel’s prophecies concerning the nations around Judah, but was struck by something.  As Ezekiel concluded his prophecy concerning the fall of Egypt he listed other powerful nations which had fallen (or were about to fall).  As he goes through this list it contains nations with which we are familiar, both from elsewhere in the Bible and from archeology, but in the middle of the list he names two nations with which we have little familiarity: Meshech and Tubal.  To the best of my knowledge, the only source we have which mentions them which is contemporary with, or earlier than, Ezekiel, is Ezekiel.  There are later mentions of these two nations, but they all appear to be identifying their location from conjecture, either their own or that of those who preceded them. Some have concluded from this that they represent figurative nations rather than real nations.  Yet, here Ezekiel lists them among nations with which he readers would have been familiar.

Once again God gives Ezekiel the command to be a watchman over the people of Israel.  Many of us today have been given a similar command, perhaps all of us who follow Christ.  There are really two elements of the watchman’s job as described here.  The first element, the obvious element, is to warn people of coming danger; to warn them that their actions will lead to their death.  The second element is to let them know that God does not desire the death of the wicked, that He instead desires them to turn from their wickedness.  As a codicil to that second element we should realize that we should not desire the death of the wicked, we should also desire for them the turn to God.  We should desire that the wicked avoid the consequences of their sin by turning from it, rather than taking joy in the possibility that they will suffer for it.

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

In the year 2000, on the 23rd day of this month, my wife married me.  So I am going to wish her Happy Anniversary here for 20 days to celebrate 20 years of marriage.  Happy Anniversary Darling!

Today, I am reading and commenting on Ezekiel 29-31.

As I said yesterday, I never really know what to think about Ezekiel’s prophecies against Judah’s neighbors.  Today’s passage covers Egypt.  Today’s passage tells us that Egypt came to believe that its geography was its own great accomplishment.  The rulers of Egypt became arrogant and made promises which they could not fulfill.  They became convinced that their own skills had provided them with the advantages which came from being located along the Nile and that they could use those advantages elsewhere.  Their arrogance led to their downfall.

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

In the year 2000, on the 23rd day of this month, my wife married me.  So I am going to wish her Happy Anniversary here for 20 days to celebrate 20 years of marriage.  Happy Anniversary Darling!

Today, I am reading and commenting on Ezekiel 27-28.

I never really know what to make of Ezekiel’s prophecies against Judah’s neighbors.  That being said, the prophecy here against Tyre tells us that the king of Tyre, which really means those who governed it, not just one individual, thought that he was a god (like the rulers of many other nations.  Tyre had risen to great wealth and prominence through trade.  Perhaps I am reading this wrong, but Ezekiel seems to be saying that their riches came through fair trade, those they dealt with felt well served by the deals they made.   But then, as I read this, they started to take advantage of those with whom they did business, they were no longer satisfied with fair trade and wanted more.  They became caught up in debauchery and excess.  They became arrogant and proud.  This led to their downfall.

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 22-23.

As I have been reading Ezekiel I have seen parallels between the condemnation Ezekiel made of Jerusalem and our modern society.  Yet, as I look at what is going on our society does not look as if it has reached the point of facing God’s judgement as Jerusalem was when Ezekiel prophesied.  Then I began reading today’s passage: “You despise my holy things and violate my Sabbath days of rest.”  It goes on from there describing other sins which I see around us today.  Which led me to wonder if I am misreading how close God’s judgement is today.  Then I came to the end of chapter 22.

Perhaps I am mistaken, but I believe our society today is at the stage before God got to what he said to Ezekiel at the end of chapter 22.  Right now things are bad, but God is still looking for someone to rebuild the wall of righteousness, for someone to stand in the gap in the wall.  I am not sure those two things are the same.  It seems to me that some of us need to stand in the gaps in the wall, while others among us begin the work of rebuilding that wall.  Are you willing to do your part?  Perhaps your part is calling out sin for the harm it does to those who practice it, especially among those who claim to worship God.  Or, perhaps your part is lovingly working with those who have been hurt by the sin in their lives to show them how God can heal them.  In the first case, you will be standing in the gap and the Enemy will strike at you in an attempt to bring you down.  In the second case, you will be doing the hard work of rebuilding the wall, a task which has little glory and is very strenuous.

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 20-21.

Two days ago I wrote about how great spiritual revivals in the United States preceded great changes in this country, about how God’s Spirit swept through it to bring about positive social change.  That passage caused me to focus on how God’s Spirit had built this country up into a nation of power and wealth.  Today’s passage reminds me that time and again throughout its history the people of the United States have worshiped power and wealth instead of God.  Ezekiel recounted to the leaders of the Exiles who came to him for a message from God how the Israelites time and again turned to idol worship, and how even these leaders coming to him for a message from God had done so.  Yet, for all of that, God told Ezekiel that someday the people of Israel would give up their idolatry and worship God.  I believe that the same thing is true of the people of the United States.  The day will come when we will truly be ashamed of the idolatry we have committed as a nation and will bring honor to God’s name.  Everything that has gone right in this nation happened after we as a people turned our hearts to God and listened to His word.  If we turn our hearts to Him once more He will bring a great blessing out of these turbulent times.