Ezekiel 14-15

Dear RTB’ers,

Taking the first half of today’s first chapter to heart… Suppose there is something “wicked” in my heart and I conceal that in a discussion in which I am seeking some sort of positive outcome; if that wickedness might have had bearing on that conversation, then I am doubly wrong (a) for having that wickedness in the first place and (b) for concealing it when it might have had bearing. That’s the situation set forth in today’s reading. Elders keeping idols in their heart go to Ezekiel, presumably for consultation or advice. God never needs justification from us for anything that He does, but it’s clear to us that these elders deserve any punishment that God decrees.

The second half of the first chapter… But behold, some survivors … when they come out to you, and you see their ways and their deeds, you will be consoled for the disaster that I have brought upon Jerusalem, for all that I have brought upon it. (v. 14:22) My Study Bible clarified it for me. These survivors are bringing their idol worship with them; Ezekiel will see that wrongdoing and will know that God was justified in what He did to Jerusalem and its inhabitants.

I had never considered how truly useless a dead vine is until God (through Ezekiel in today’s second chapter) pointed it out. When a grape vine no longer produces fruit or a wicked aggressive vine grows up and kills a tree, when any vine is “terminated”, it is good for nothing. It goes to the fire. It’s not even good for compost!

Blessings.

Ezekiel 12-13

Dear RTB’ers,

It might be helpful to set the context in which Ezekiel is operating. Jerusalem was overwhelmed by the Babylonians (Chaldeans) in 597 BC and a number of the people (including Ezekiel) were taken as exiles to Babylon. [NOTE: We saw in Jeremiah 52:28 that 3,023 were taken in that first exile. More came later, when Jerusalem was destroyed in 586 BC.] So in today’s readings Ezekiel is in Babylon speaking to his fellow exiles (sometime between 597 and 586 BC) about what will be happening to their friends and relatives back in Jerusalem.

In today’s first chapter Ezekiel acts out his own exile to show his fellow Babylonian exiles that more people from Jerusalem will be brought to Babylon, including their king Zedekiah, who will come as a blind man after the Babylonians destroy his sight. (Recall Jeremiah 39:4-7.)

Then in today’s second chapter the Lord speaks out against the false prophets and magicians (or voodoo artists?) who are still back in Jerusalem. We have already seen the Lord challenging false prophets (in Isaiah and Jeremiah, among others), but beginning in verse 17 we see something new – the Lord rebuking women (in Jerusalem) who are acting as soothsayers or diviners or fortune-tellers. These women have spoken out against (or cast “evil spells”) against faithful Jews, even to the point of causing death for them: You have profaned Me among My people … putting to death souls who should not die and keeping alive souls who should not live, by your lying to My people, who listen to lies. (v. 13:19) Truly strange…!

Therefore say to them, Thus says the Lord& GOD: None of My words will be delayed any longer, but the word that I speak will be performed, declares the Lord GOD. (v. 12:28)

Blessings.

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See also:

• August 8 (2023) / II Chronicles 36:17-21; Ezekiel 12; Psalm 89
• July 28 (2023) / Ezekiel 13-15

Ezekiel 11

Dear RTB’ers,

Ezekiel’s vision that began in Ez. 8 (recall the abominations in that chapter) ends today. The glory of the Lord departs Jerusalem and rests above the Mount of Olives (Ez. 11:23). In the first half of the chapter the Lord reiterates that Jerusalem and its leaders are doomed: And I will bring you out of the midst of it, and give you into the hands of foreigners, and execute judgments upon you. You shall fall by the sword. (vv. 9-10a)

Then in the second half of the chapter the Lord assures the exiles that He is in their midst; verse 16 is today’s key verse: Therefore say, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD: Though I removed them far off among the nations, and though I scattered them among the countries, yet I have been a sanctuary to them for a while in the countries where they have gone.’ Verses 19a and 20b together constitute a good memory verse for today: And I will give them one heart, and a new spirit I will put within them. … And they shall be My people, and I will be their God.

Verse 3b in today’s chapter is confusing: This city is the cauldron, and we are the meat. That sounds like a bad situation for Jerusalem, that the city is being cooked! But in the previous verse we read that it’s the men who devise iniquity and who give wicked counsel in this city (v. 2b) who are speaking. That is, their statement is misguided. Our STS companion book explains that these “false prophets” are misleading the people by suggesting that the meat in the cauldron is safe from the fire. My Study Bible adds that the meat is the good portion in the soup and that the bones are the exiles who have been discarded from the soup (i.e., from Jerusalem). So the statement from these wicked counselors is completely wrong – those residents who have remained in the city are not safe, This city shall not be your cauldron, nor shall you be the meat in the midst of it. (v. 11a) Instead, it’s the slain in the city who are the meat and the city itself is the cauldron. (Ez. 11:7)

And they shall be My people, and I will be their God. And WE are His people and He is our God! Glory!!

Blessings.

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See also: July 27 (2023) / II Chronicles 36:13-16; Ezekiel 8-11 (again).

Ezekiel 9-10

Dear RTB’ers,

We continue with Ezekiel’s abominations vision from yesterday. In today’s first chapter we see God’s judgment on the people, beginning with the elders at the temple. [P]ut a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and groan over all the abominations … Kill old men outright, young men and maidens, little children and women, but touch no one on whom is the mark. (vv. 9:4b, 6b) These saving marks remind us of the blood above the door for the Israelites in Egypt. In His judgment God distinguishes between the faithful and the unfaithful, an encouraging note for those of us who seek Him.

The second chapter continues the vision, with the glory of the Lord leaving the temple. He had moved from the threshold of the temple in Ez. 9:3 and then hovered above the cherubim, apparently leaving the temple (Ez. 10:18-19) and later leaving the city altogether. I can picture the cherubim (although it’s a fuzzy picture) and I can imagine the striking brightness of the Lord, but I have a hard time with the wheels, especially one wheel … within another wheel (Ez. 10:10). Not an important item, just a (non)observation…!

The vision continues tomorrow…

Blessings.

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See also: July 27 (2023) / II Chronicles 36:13-16; Ezekiel 8-11.

Ezekiel 8

Dear RTB’ers,

And He said to me, “Son of man, do you see what they are doing, the great abominations that the house of Israel are committing here, to drive Me far from my sanctuary? But you will see still greater abominations.”

Ezekiel 8:6

He said also to me, “You will see still greater abominations that they commit.”

Ezekiel 8:13

Then He said to me, “Have you seen this, O son of man? You will see still greater abominations than these.”

Ezekiel 8:15

So I went in and saw. And there, engraved on the wall all around, was every form of creeping things and loathsome beasts, and all the idols of the house of Israel. And before them stood seventy men of the elders of the house of Israel, with Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan standing among them. Each had his censer in his hand, and the smoke of the cloud of incense went up.

Ezekiel 8:10-11

Then He brought me to the entrance of the north gate of the house of the LORD, and behold, there sat women weeping for Tammuz.

Ezekiel 8:14

And behold, at the entrance of the temple of the LORD … were about twenty-five men, with their backs to the temple of the LORD, and their faces toward the east, worshiping the sun toward the east.

Ezekiel 8:16b

God did not bring Ezekiel back to Jerusalem to see the destruction that had been wrought upon the city and its inhabitants. Instead, God wanted to show him the greater abominations – their idolatry! God hates it when we put our idols before Him. Think on that today.

Blessings.

Ezekiel 6-7

Dear RTB’ers,

Today’s first chapter is all about Judah’s idolatry and the Lord’s judgment against those practices: Your altars shall become desolate, and your incense altars shall be broken, and I will cast down your slain before your idols. And I will lay the dead bodies of the people of Israel before their idols, and I will scatter your bones around your altars. And you shall know that I am the LORD, when their slain lie among their idols around their altars… (vv. 6:4-5, 13a) And with all this I saw a new twist in the Lord’s raving against idolatry: …I have been hurt by their adulterous hearts which turned away from Me… (v. 6:9b, NASB) The ESV has “I have been broken”; the word “hurt” in the NASB got my attention – that their idolatry (our idolatry!) actually causes pain to our Lord. An eye-opener for me…!

The second chapter speaks more of the Lord’s judgment: …I will punish you for your ways, while your abominations are in your midst. Then you will know that I am the LORD. The sword is without; pestilence and famine are within. He who is in the field dies by the sword, and him who is in the city famine and pestilence devour. (v. 7:4b, 15) When there is no food, when water is scarce, items of tangible wealth mean nothing: They cast their silver into the streets, and their gold is like an unclean thing. Their silver and gold are not able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the LORD. And I will give it into the hands of foreigners for prey, and to the wicked of the earth for spoil… (v. 7:19, 21a) Much of the silver and gold that is thrown into the streets is in the form of the idols that they have created and worshiped. When God brings forth His judgment, it becomes clear to the people that their idols are of no use to them.

We might not be ready to throw our silver and gold into the street, but there may be some idol worship in our lives that we need to discard. What might be keeping us from seeking God above all else?

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind. (Luke 10:27a) All.

Blessings.

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See also: August 3 (2023) / Ezekiel 6-7; 29:1-16; 30:20-31:18.

Ezekiel 3:22-5:17

Dear RTB’ers,

Today we see Ezekiel playing out the siege and fall of Jerusalem with images – himself tied up and mute; a siege brick and its surroundings; a meager diet, including cannibalism; using a sharp sword to cut off his hair and dividing it three ways; and eating food prepared over human and animal dung. The Lord is asking a lot of Ezekiel in playing out these symbols of the destruction of Jerusalem and the judgment upon its inhabitants.

The Lord is angry with Jerusalem and its people. Although He had established them as preeminent among the nations, yet they failed to follow His laws: This is Jerusalem. I have set her in the center of the nations, with countries all around her. And she has rebelled against My rules by doing wickedness more than the nations, and against My statutes more than the countries all around her; for they have rejected My rules and have not walked in My statutes. (vv. 5:5b-6)

He makes it clear that it is He who is responsible for what is happening: …therefore thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I, even I, am against you. And I will execute judgments in your midst in the sight of the nations. And because of all your abominations I will do with you what I have never yet done, and the like of which I will never do again. (vv. 5:8-9)

Thus shall My anger spend itself, and I will vent My fury upon them and satisfy Myself. And they shall know that I am the LORD—that I have spoken in My jealousy—when I spend My fury upon them. (v. 5:13)

Blessings.

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See also: August 2 (2023) / Ezekiel 21:18-32; 24; 3:22-5:17.

Ezekiel 2:1-3:21

Dear RTB’ers,

A couple of items that stood out for me…

And as He spoke to me, the Spirit entered into me and set me on my feet, and I heard Him speaking to me.(v. 2:2) As Ezekiel is called, he is filled with the Spirit. This indwelling Spirit will guide him and strengthen him and give him ears to hear the Lord’s words to him. We have that same Spirit within us, for guidance, strength, and an ear to hear God speaking to us.

…a hand was stretched out to me, and behold, a scroll of a book was in it. …and there were written on it words of lamentation and mourning and woe. … Then I ate it, and it was in my mouth as sweet as honey. (vv. 2:9b-10, 3:3) Although Ezekiel would be delivering harsh words to the exiles, he would not be adversely affected in his speaking out. He would do what he had to do, in the strength of his indwelling Spirit.

In Ez. 3:4-7 the Lord tells Ezekiel that if he spoke words to a foreign people whose language he could not understand, they would ear and listen to him. But if he spoke these same words to the obstinate exiles, they would not listen because they have a hard forehead and a stubborn heart. I love this contrast – it reminds me of how very intelligent people have a hard time accepting a “simple” message of salvation, a message more easily embraced by people who are less well schooled.

Then the Spirit lifted me up, and … I came to the exiles at Tel-abib, who were dwelling by the Chebar canal… (vv. 3:12a, 15a) Reading literally, we might imagine Ezekiel flying through the sky and landing by the canal. My sense, however, is that the Spirit simply moved Ezekiel to travel the distance necessary to join the exiles.

Finally, one confusion between two translations. The ESV has Ezekiel being overwhelmed in Ez. 3:15b, while the NASB says that his arrival caused consternation among the exiles. Very different understandings! Or maybe both are possible? As we surely know, even great minds can often differ! We will learn more as we read on!

Blessings.

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See also: July 22 (2023) / II Chronicles 36:11-12; Ezekiel 1:1-3:21; II Kings 24:20-25:3; Jeremiah 52:3-6.

Ezekiel 1

Dear RTB’ers,

Ezekiel. The STS and my Study Bible introductions are helpful. With help from these sources we learn that Ezekiel began his prophetic and priestly ministry in 593 BC when he was 30 years old and that he served for 22 years – two more than the normal priestly service. He was an exile, taken to Babylon in 597 BC, eleven years before the fall of Jerusalem. Today’s reading is his detailed account of a vision at three levels – first, a storm and four “creatures”, all well described; second, an “expanse”, reminding us of the expanse in Genesis 1 that separated the waters above from the waters below; then finally above the expanse a throne and a stunning brightness, a “likeness with a human appearance” (v. 26b), later referred to as “the likeness of the glory of the LORD” (v. 28b). Ezekiel is overwhelmed and falls on his face as he hears the beginning of a voice speaking.

How can we not read ahead to what the voice is saying??!!

Blessings.

Philippians 4

Dear RTB’ers,

I have mentioned it before, of Paul writing in other letters, “Be imitators of me.” So, here again: What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things. (v. 9) Brothers, join in imitating me, and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us.. (v. 3:17) Paul is not afraid to set himself up as an example. So, what about us? Could we say to a young believer, “Be imitators of me”? If not, what’s lacking in our lives? What needs to change?

…think about these things … whatever is

• honorable,
• just,
• pure,
• lovely,
• commendable,
• excellent,
• worthy of praise… (v. 8)

…think about these things…

I’ll leave it at that. On to Ezekiel…

Blessings.

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See also:

• October 16 (2021) / Philippians 4:1-23
• December 16 (2023) / Philippians