Bible in 90 Days - Day 63 (Ezekiel 47:13-Daniel 8)

We pray, Lord,

that you will open the door of our hearts

to receive you within our hearts.

Through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

 

At first glance Ezekiel seems to end with a geography lesson. It is not. This is a picture of a restored, single nation. Think of all of the brokenness and division and exile the people have seen. This map at the end of the book is a map of wholeness and peace. The final words of the book are the name of the city: “The LORD is there.” For a comparable picture for us, see Revelation 21:10-27.

Daniel was one of the early exiles from Judah to Babylon. After the fall of the Babylonian empire, Daniel served the Medo-Persian empire that followed.

Daniel 2:11 is prophetic. Indeed God does reveal everything to Daniel, and God has chosen to dwell among people.

One of my favorite lines in Daniel is 3:18. The three know that God can (and will) save them, but that is not the basis of their devotion. “But even if he does not, we want you to know O king…” That is faith and devotion!

Does Nebuchadnezzar seem a little fickle to anyone else? He goes back and forth between his own grandeur and God’s power.

In chapter 5 Belshazzar was a descendant of Nebuchadnezzar, and his father was Nabonidus. Nabonidus brought Belshazzar up to the position of co-ruler because of his own travels. Since Belshazzar was the second ruler, the highest position he could offer was third ruler, as in 5:7.

The visions of Daniel have received many interpretations. Some of it referred to the Babylonian, then Medo-Persian, then Greek, then Roman empires, but to what extent they are end time revelations and what exactly they mean is still disputed.

Bible in 90 Days - Day 62 (Ezekiel 36-47:12)

Lord Jesus Christ, your light shines within us.

Let not my doubts nor my darkness speak to me.

Lord Jesus Christ, your light shines within us.

Let my heart always welcome your love. Amen.

36:22-38 is another one of the glorious restoration texts. This is our new heart as well!

Look at all of the times God says “I” here and what the “I” will be doing. God is the active agent in his people’s lives.

Ezekiel 37 is a prophecy about “One nation under God.” After all of the trouble we’ve seen between Israel and Judah, this is good news! I can’t help but think of the Church here. We believe in one holy catholic church, but that is not what we see around us. One day that will be the Church’s reality too – one church, one denomination under God.

Much of today’s reading is a vision of the new temple and the new city. God will make things right again. This stands in sharp contrast to the visions we read a few days ago about Ezekiel seeing the leaders desecrate the temple. Then in chapter 43 the glory of the LORD fills the temple again. By now you know that is the best news for God’s people. God dwelling with them. This, of course, is a vision that gets fulfillment in Jesus, the Word who became flesh and made his dwelling among us.

The river at the end of today’s reading is the refreshment and life that comes from God. The most notable comparison is the river in Revelation 22:1-2, “Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.”

Bible in 90 Days - Day 61 (Ezekiel 23:40-35:15)

Our Lord and our God,

now as we hear your Word, fill us with your Spirit.

Soften our hearts that we may delight in your presence.

Sharpen our minds that we may discern your truth.

Shape our wills that we may desire your ways.

Through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

The way that Ezekiel is called to demonstrate the fall of Jerusalem and the temple through the death of his wife is tough to read. The magnitude of that sign is still just a minor show of what the fall of Jerusalem means. God is clear: he wants his people to know that he is the LORD.

A huge part of today’s reading is prophecies against the nations around Israel – Israel’s enemies. Ezekiel 28:25 says, “This is what the Sovereign Lord says: When I gather the people of Israel from the nations where they have been scattered, I will show myself holy among them in the sight of the nations. Then they will live in their own land, which I gave to my servant Jacob.” God’s glory and his reach are universal. This text speaks against any idea that there are many paths and religions in this world that all lead to the same place. God will show himself holy, and nothing in the world is beyond his reach.

33:30-32 is a pastor’s nightmare! You could easily rewrite this section inserting the words, “Sunday morning,” “coffee,” “handshake,” and “great sermon, pastor” and have the scene at any number of churches today. When Jesus tells the story of the wise and foolish builders, the foolish one is the person who hears the Word and doesn’t do it, and the wise one hears the Word and does it. May that be us!

Ezekiel 34 is one of the foundational texts for God as shepherd of his people. It is also an instruction and warning to anyone who is any kind of leader in the church. We see Jesus all over this text as the Good Shepherd.

Bible in 90 Days - Day 60 (Ezekiel 12:21-23:39)

God of mercy,

you promised never to break your covenant with us.

Amid all the changing words of our generation,

speak your eternal Word that does not change.

Enable us to respond to your gracious promises

with faithful and obedient lives.

Through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Ezekiel 14 talks about people who have set idols up in their hearts. God isn’t simply going to discipline those who set up idols, but he is going to shower his anger on anyone whose heart is trying to face two directions. That is always something for us to watch! But God is clear – he is out to recapture (in the best sense) the hearts of his people.

Ezekiel 16 is a very vivid (VERY vivid) picture of the relationship between God and Israel. Beginning in verse 15 God makes the point that everything Israel used to worship false gods was originally a gift from the true God. We owe God everything. What do we give him?

16:46-51 compare Judah with Israel (Samaria was the capital) and Sodom. Many people think primarily of sexual sins with Sodom, but here we see there was more going on. Think of all of the wicked kings of Israel and the fire that rained down on Sodom, and here Judah is said to be worse than both of them. Verse 59 – God to the rescue, because he is a covenant-keeping God!

Ezekiel 20 verses 12 and 14 (and 22) are particularly interesting to me. We often think everything is about us, and God makes it clear here that he is the center. He wants us to be like him (“be holy because I am holy,” and the Sabbath is a reminder of that), and the honor of his name is his main objective.

Bible in 90 Days - Day 59 (Lamentations 2-Ezekiel 12:20

Holy Spirit,

pour out upon us

wisdom and understanding,

that, being taught by you in Holy Scripture,

our hearts and minds may be opened to receive

all that leads to life and holiness.

Through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

I found myself stopped at Lamentations 2:5. “The Lord is like an enemy.” I looked it up in Hebrew and in several other English translations. They all agree. This is a lament – Jeremiah crying out. After reading Jeremiah, we know that God was like an enemy, and we know why. I think it is very important to keep this message close when we also quote, “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” That good and true promise must put our focus on God, not ourselves. God must be the center of our attention and our lives. We just saw Judah listen to that promise while thinking only of their own desires, and that was a disaster. That is when God becomes like an enemy.

3:22-27 are near the center of the poem (and poems), and the center frequently draw the attention. Here is surely does. The main word in the midst of the sorrow is that God is the God of new beginnings, the God who said to Moses in Exodus 34:6-7, “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation.”

Ezekiel prophesied to the Israelites in their exile in Babylon from Babylon. Jeremiah had prophesied from the homeland, but Ezekiel is in exile. The phrase “son of man” occurs 99 times in the Old Testament, and 93 of those refer to Ezekiel (Daniel also is called “son of man”). In 2:4 God identifies himself as “the Sovereign LORD.” Adonai is the Hebrew word for Lord, and Yahweh is the Hebrew word for the covenant name LORD, and here God calls himself Adonai Yahweh, which the NIV translates “the Sovereign LORD” (rather than “Lord LORD”).

We have seen God require the prophets to enact God’s judgments for the people to see. Chapter 4 is a very interesting scene. Ezekiel has to enact this for about 14 months! We don’t know if this was day and night or exactly what it looked like, but it was big. There is a note of grace from God in that the scene does have an end. There is a message that “this too shall pass,” but the shaving scene at the beginning of chapter 5 tells us that even the end of those days is not completely good news.

Ezekiel 11:13 shows the despair of the righteous at the extent of this judgment. “Will you completely destroy the remnant of Israel?” Will everyone be wiped out? God responds with another key word of grace in 11:19-20. God himself will give the people new hearts.

God has indeed given us new hearts as well!

Bible in 90 Days - day 58 (Jeremiah 48-Lamentations 1)

God, source of all light,

by your Word give light to our lives. Amen.

We have been reading judgments against the nations, and God is using Babylon to carry out those judgments. In chapter 50 Jeremiah gives God’s word against Babylon. In 50:2 Bel is the chief god in Babylon, and Marduk is Bel’s personal name. Even though God is using Babylon for his own purposes, Babylon is not a God-fearing or God-honoring nation. Babylon will be punished for its actions as well.

The promise at that time (50:4-5) is that the two nations of Israel and Judah will again be one, and again they will live under the covenant.

Jeremiah 52 is the story of the fall of Judah. It functions like a flashback or a summary. If you are thinking, “didn’t we just read about this?” the answer is yes.

We generally attribute the book of Lamentations to Jeremiah. This is the lament of someone who has experienced the judgments described in the book of Jeremiah. It is actually 5 distinct poems (one each chapter), and they are masterfully written. Chapters 1, 2, and 4 are acrostic poems where each verse begins with the successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet. That would be like a poem in English where the first line began with a, the second with b, the third with c, and so on through z. In this case it is Hebrew – aleph, beth, gimel, dalet, he, all the way through tav. The middle poem has three lines each beginning with the same letter. This is no hastily written little book! Tomorrow we will dig into these poems.

Bible in 90 Days - day 57 (Jeremiah 33:23-47:7)

Living God,

help us to hear your holy Word with open hearts

so that we may truly understand;

and, understanding,

that we may believe;

and, believing,

that we may follow in all faithfulness and obedience,

seeking your honor and glory in all that we do.

Through Christ, our Lord. Amen.

Jeremiah 34:17-20 reflects the process of making a covenant. We saw this with Abraham in Genesis 15. There was usually a sign with the making of a covenant that would symbolize the penalty for breaking it. Often the sign was cutting animals in half and walking between the halves. Here we see God describing the penalty in terms of the sign made at the beginning of the covenant – the cutting in half of animals. God would make the leaders like the calf that was cut in half (figuratively, though).

Jeremiah 37 begins with another dismal description. Zedekiah and the people would not listen to the word of the LORD that came through Jeremiah, but they asked Jeremiah to pray for them. Did they believe Jeremiah was a man of God? If so, why wouldn’t they listen? If not, why ask him to pray? Zedekiah wanted it both ways, and that can’t work. In 38:15 Jeremiah calls Zedekiah out on this. Even after Zedekiah is gone, we see the pattern repeating. The people say they will obey a word from the LORD, but they choose their own ways over and over.

Let’s take this Word to heart.