Lamentations 3:34-5:22 With a second day in Lamentations, are you beginning to get a sense of the devastation of Jerusalem? If you are having trouble imagining this ancient city, let me offer more contemporary settings. On this 78th anniversary of the dropping of the first Atomic Bomb, consider Hiroshima or Nagasaki. Or for something directly …
Author Archives: John S.
August 5 / Lamentations 1:1-3:33
Lamentations 1:1-3:33 Yesterday, I encouraged us all to contemplate the desolation of Jerusalem, to get a real sense of the devastation wrought by the Babylonian conquest. The book of Lamentations should help us do just that, if we let it. Listen to the words. Visualize the desolation. Put yourself into the picture. Feel the pathos. …
August 4 / II Kings 25:4-21; Jeremiah 52:7-27; 39:1-10
II Kings 25:4-7; Jeremiah 52:7-11; 39:1-7; II Kings 25:8-21; Jeremiah 52:12-27; 39:8-10 It’s 587 or 586 B.C. Jeremiah has been warning of this day for years, proclaiming the destruction of Jerusalem as God’s judgment upon Judah. Ezekiel has said the same, modeling the siege, with its attendant starvation and disease. But the king, the priests, …
Continue reading “August 4 / II Kings 25:4-21; Jeremiah 52:7-27; 39:1-10”
August 3 / Ezekiel 6-7; 29:1-16; 30:20-31:18
Ezekiel 6-7; 29:1-16; 30:20-31:18 Yet I will leave some of you alive. When you have among the nations some who escape the sword, and when you are scattered through the countries, then those of you who escape will remember me among the nations where they are carried captive, how I have been broken over their …
Continue reading “August 3 / Ezekiel 6-7; 29:1-16; 30:20-31:18”
August 2 / Ezekiel 21:18-32; 24; 3:22-5:17
Ezekiel 21:18-32; 24; 3:22-5:17 But the Spirit entered into me and set me on my feet, and He spoke with me and said to me, “Go, shut yourself within your house. And you, O son of man, behold, cords will be placed upon you, and you shall be bound with them, so that you cannot …
Continue reading “August 2 / Ezekiel 21:18-32; 24; 3:22-5:17”
August 1 / Ezekiel 22:1-22; 23
Ezekiel 22:1-22; 23 If reading Ezekiel 23 feels a bit like déjà vu, that may be because it sounds a lot like Ezekiel 16, which we read just a few days ago. We again see Jerusalem (and Judah) “looking for love in all the wrong places” and doing so despite having observed the LORD’s judgment …
August 2023 Readings
Date Reading(s) Verses 01-Aug Ezekiel 22:1-22; 23 71 02-Aug Ezekiel 21:18-32; 24; 3:22-5:17 82 03-Aug Ezekiel 6-7; 29:1-16; 30:20-31:18 82 04-Aug II Kings 25:4-7; Jeremiah 52:7-11; 39:1-7II Kings 25:8-21; Jeremiah 52:12-27; 39:8-10 49 05-Aug Lamentations 1:1-3:33 77 06-Aug Lamentations 3:34-5:22 77 07-Aug II Kings 25:22-26; Jeremiah 39:11-44:30 112 08-Aug II Chronicles 36:17-21; Ezekiel 12; Psalm …
July 31 / Ezekiel 20:1-21:17
Ezekiel 20:1-21:17 But I acted for the sake of My name, that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations… Ezekiel 20:9a But I acted for the sake of My name, that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations… Ezekiel 20:14a But I withheld My hand and acted …
July 30 / Ezekiel 17-18
Ezekiel 17-18 Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways, declares the Lord GOD. 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 …
July 29 / Ezekiel 16
Ezekiel 16 With the LORD’s likening of Jerusalem’s behavior to harlotry, our reading today sounds a lot like Hosea. (By way of refresher, feel free to look back at the posts for June 6, June 7, and June 8.) The LORD sent Hosea to prophesy primarily to the Northern Kingdom of Israel (aka Samaria), who …