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.

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.

God will judge all people on the basis of their actions, not on the basis of what their parents, or other ancestors, have done.  We should do likewise.  If we do what is righteous and just, it does not matter to God that our ancestors were terrible sinners.  On the other hand, if we do what is sinful and wrong, it does not matter to God that our ancestors were upright and godly.  We should treat people in the same way, although we so often fail to do so.  More importantly, we should remember that if we are upright and godly we need not feel guilt for our ancestors sins and if we commit heinous sins, the fact that our ancestors were wonderful, godly people will not protect us.

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.

I was struck by Ezekiel’s condemnation of false prophets whom he identifies as those who have done nothing to repair the breaks in the walls around the nation of Judah.  They failed to help the nation stand firm.  We know from elsewhere in Ezekiel’s writings (and those of other prophets) that he meant that they had done nothing to fight the idolatry and bring the people back to God.  I find this terribly relevant today.  While I do not consider myself a prophet, I felt called out by it.  In the United States, too many people think that the solution to what is wrong with the country and with society is to elect the correct people into government: if only the right people held office our government would fix things.

That idea has it exactly backwards.  If we turn to God, He will fix things, and then, and only then, the right people will hold office.  I have been guilty of arguing politics rather than calling people to God.   I had this realization on the issue of abortion some time back.  As a Christian, I do not care if abortion is legal or illegal, I just pray that no one kills their unborn child.  Instead of seeking to change the law on abortion, or many other issues where the law allows evil, we should attempt to change hearts so that people do not do those evil things.
As I was writing this I came across this article which provides a starting point for repairing the walls around our nation.

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.

The thing which struck me right away was that before God sent His agents out to punish Jerusalem, He sent a messenger to mark those who grieved over the sins being committed in the city.  Then He told His agents to kill everyone without that mark.  As I read this it strikes me that God expects us to be saddened by the sins we see rather than angered by them.  This does not mean that we should never be angered by sin.  However, more than anything else, sin should make us sad.  We should be saddened by the harm which the sinner does to themselves with their sin, and saddened that they fail to even see that harm.  Yes, there is room for us to be angered by the harm they may be doing to others, but even then we should feel sadness for the sinner.

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.

The first thing which struck me in today’s passage was when God told Ezekiel that the people of Judah had not even lived up to the standard of righteousness of the nations around them.  I was not quite sure what to make of that until I considered that most nations have laws restricting abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy.  Then I read further into the passage where Ezekiel was shown the idolatry going on in the Temple, both that which was going on publicly and that which the leaders were doing in secret.  This reminded me of the sexual deviancy of which our society publicly approves and the sexual abuse of children which some number of our society’s leaders practice in secret.  As I read it, the practices which Ezekiel saw practiced secretly would have been “a bridge too far” for the general populace of Jerusalem, yet they refused to condemn the practices conducted in public which led people down the path to those vile secret practices.  Such is where I find our society to be.

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 have long wished that I had the artistic talent to draw Ezekiel’s vision of the four living beings.  I have always imagined them flying in formation making a square, one on each face of the square, but when I did an Internet search for images of them some of those images showed them in a line.  My desire to be able to draw this is not because I think getting the image right is important, I’m just curious as to what this would look like (and a picture of what I imagine this to look like might reveal something I did not get from the word picture).

As much as I would like to see a drawing of this vision, the words spoken to Ezekiel are much more important.  God warned Ezekiel that those to whom he was called to preach were stubborn and would likely refuse to listen to his message.  However, God told Ezekiel that He had made him as obstinate and as hard-hearted as those to whom He was sending him to preach.  God’s instruction to Ezekiel was that he was to give the people God’s message whether they listened to him or not.  Further on in His instructions to Ezekiel God called him a watchman.  If God told Ezekiel that people were going to die because of their sins, and Ezekiel failed to warn them, he would be guilty of their deaths.  On the other hand, if Ezekiel warned them and they failed to listen, they would still die, but Ezekiel would be innocent regarding their deaths.  To one degree or another we are all held to this standard.  When we see people acting in self-destructive ways, and all sin is self-destructive, if we fail to warn them we bear some guilt for the suffering which will come their way.