August 2021 – If Not For Grace

31 Aug 202130 Aug 2021

God’s Love – In this Storm

“And I will establish My covenant with you. Then you shall know that I am the Lord, that you may remember and be ashamed, and never open your mouth anymore because of your shame, when I provide you an atonement for all you have done,” says the Lord God.’” Ezekiel 16:62-63 NKJV

With the new year and the day of anointment right around the corner, and in the midst of wars, perilous times and ‘acts of God’, and as we study God’s judgments and we are still in the month when the king is in the field hearing His people’s complaints and promises justice and judgment…. In today’s reading, we are reminded how much God loves us and is merciful and true to the covenant He has with His people…

Dear Heavenly Father – As always, please open eye to see and our ears to hear what you are saying! Lord – open our understanding that we may know you and give us wisdom. Please do not let us miss out on what you want and need from us today. Lord, I pray that your word prepares us and not scares us! We forbid the works and influences of fear over your word. And please keep us and bless us and shine your face upon us and pour out grace over us and give us peace! Thank you! – In Jesus name we pray, Amen

Today’s reading is from the book of Ezekiel, chapters 16 and 17 (embedded below the image below for your convenience).

His people – let me define that, as many see this to mean just the Israelites. BUT I have a friend who has adopted a child – and loves that child just as if the child was born of his seed.
“But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God,” John 1:12 ESV
We who believe and have entered into a relationship with God, have a covenant with Him. Our covenant is slightly different than the children of Jacob – but we still have the inheritance. The differences are the way we manage the law and the temple. Under our covenant we are holy priesthood (1 Peter 2:9) making daily sacrifices of ourselves, as a living sacrifice, inside the temple of the Holy Spirit – which is our self. Therefore we are the rebuilt temple. (but I am getting ahead)
The point here is we are God’s children (or have the ability to be) and therefore under a covenant, and therefore God’s love and mercy and remembrance of the covenant with us applies to us – and so does the humbling. Because God loves us.

Again with the humbling!!! I do feel like a write more about us humbling ourselves than I write about grace. So if you have been reading awhile, you already know the bible is very clear that self-humility is glorifying God – and therefore the purpose of our existence. We are made to glorify Him and do so by being contrite before Him and give the glory honor and praise to Him. I cannot express enough how important humility is – it activates the transforming power of grace and bestowed on us through His eternal love. Without it we are saved as if by fire (or by the skin of our teeth) – but with it we are embolden and empowered in Him to draw close to God and enter His holy secret place and commune there. Not an ounce of pride is permitted in His presence. Not in the deep anyway. I mean even satan can walk into the court room and accuse us – but satan cannot go into the inner chambers and sup with God. We can – there is that LOVE!!

So – again… the prophesies and book unfold honestly before us in real time.

These judgment are coming just as the siege of Jerusalem and some have happened and some are happening. They ARE falling on the righteous and unrighteous. God is in it. He loves us – and He made a way. He provided a His holiday of New Years and Yom Kippur and timed things so now is the time. You aren’t Jewish?! HELLO?! YOU ARE ADOPTED!!! And these are the Lord’s holidays – He decreed them! Do not let them go by unnoticed! At least try to act like you are part of the family! You do not need a traditional Jewish festival – but maybe understand that New Year is about new beginning and hope (so badly needed) it is also time for sounding the alarm in Zion! It is a time for anticipating the Messiah! (Even our New Testament says He will return with the trumpet call!) and the day of atonement – repent – humble yourself and lay before Him.
God is stirring and shaking – are our eyes on the provider or the provisions? Easy for me to say? I lost all my income – God rebuilt me from the ground up – just a few months ago (by the way please keep the business in prayer as it is still growing). It does not provide for me – God does! I have not gone without and I have the ability to bless others. God is GOOD!!! So when your house is underwater, trust Him. When your life is falling apart around you, trust Him. When it looks as if you might die – trust Him (besides I hear heaven is a wonderful place)! Trust Him – because He loves you!!

Do you know who can relate? Shadrech, Meshech and Abendigo! From the book of Daniel. These boys lived through Ezekiel’s prophesy it is possible they even knew him or knew of him. They experienced God’s judgment falling on all – they were subject to it and carried away into Babylon, even though they were righteous. While there they were forced to work for their captors – slaves. And they refused to take the vaccine (yes, I can substitute it – has it not become our idol – man made to be our savior? Are not the false prophets and gummy bear Christians all bowing to it? If you have taken it – repent. Hopefully you didn’t know better and grieve the spirit within you telling you not to defile your temple! Repent and be saved!). And Shadrech, Meshech and Abendigo were thrown into the fire. And what on earth causes someone to take that kind of stand?

“Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.” Ephesians 6:13 NKJV
Is this not the evil day? Can you really make a logical and Biblical argument that now is not the evil day?

“And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death. Therefore rejoice, O heavens, and you who dwell in them! Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea! For the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, because he knows that he has a short time.” Revelations 12:11-12 NKJV

Those three Jewish boys in captivity lived through the fire and Jesus Himself saved them – because they knew their Father God. Do you know your God well enough to say that He is able to save you and even if He doesn’t you shall not bow?! Even in earthquake and hurricane and even governments and mandates – will you bow? Or will you serve Him? Will you pull out the old Hymn and say – it is well, with my soul? Is it well? The answers lays within your relationship with God – so search there (especially in this season of new year and new beginnings – and a season of repentance).

RELATIONSHIP:
Do you already have a relationship with a powerful God who cares about your every need because He loves you? Did you know my God can communicate with you and protect you – He has a plan for you to prosper if you just submit to His will and let His plan play out in your life!!! God wants a relationship with you and has already made a plan for your life. He loves you so much He sent His son to this world, to die as a sacrifice for your sins and rise from death with victory over sin and the ability to have a personal relationship with you.
“If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.” Romans 10:9-10 NIV
Here is a prayer for you to pray:
Jesus, I believe you are the way, the truth, the life, and the only way to the Father. I believe you are the son of God, you came to Earth and lived. That you died on the cross as a sacrifice for my sins, and rose again so that I may be saved from my sins and be able to get to know you. I declare: Jesus, you are Lord!
Therefore, I confess that I am a sinner and I ask that you forgive me of my sins and come into my life. Help me to turn away from my sins and transform me into what you have lovingly created me to be. Help me through a real personal relationship grow and accept your will for my life – that I may live in your blessings. Please walk with me, and talk with me – I accept a relationship with you and with our Father God, through you. In the name of Jesus I pray ~ Amen

MEMORY WORK: As I promised, this year is full of memory verses that when the enemy comes up against us we can quote: It is written! Just as Jesus did when the devil tempted him. I know I have the victory and I must just stand fast and continue to submit to God… so let us memorize and quote this with authority! So as we submit, we can remind the old devil where he can go!

Matthew 18:18-19

NKJV – “Assuredly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Again I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven.”
NAS – “Truly I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven. Again I say to you, that if two of you agree on earth about anything that they may ask, it shall be done for them by My Father who is in heaven.”
ESV – “Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven.”
AMP – “I assure you and most solemnly say to you, whatever you bind [forbid, declare to be improper and unlawful] on earth shall have [already] been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose [permit, declare lawful] on earth shall have [already] been loosed in heaven. Again I say to you, that if two believers on earth agree [that is, are of one mind, in harmony] about anything that they ask [within the will of God], it will be done for them by My Father in heaven.”
NIV – “Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will bebound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will beloosed in heaven. Again, truly I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven.”

Thank you for reading.
May the God of peace keep you and bless you. May you stay focused on Christ and covered in grace.
Maranatha ~ Come Lord Jesus!

BIBLE READING: Ezekiel 16-17 NKJV

God’s Love for Jerusalem

16 Again the word of the Lord came to me, saying, ²“Son of man, cause Jerusalem to know her abominations, ³and say, ‘Thus says the Lord God to Jerusalem: “Your ^[a]birth and your nativity are from the land of Canaan; your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite. ⁴As for your nativity, on the day you were born your navel cord was not cut, nor were you washed in water to cleanse you; you were not rubbed with salt nor wrapped in swaddling cloths. ⁵No eye pitied you, to do any of these things for you, to have compassion on you; but you were thrown out into the open field, when you yourself were ^[b]loathed on the day you were born.

⁶“And when I passed by you and saw you struggling in your own blood, I said to you in your blood, ‘Live!’ Yes, I said to you in your blood, ‘Live!’ ⁷I made you ^[c]thrive like a plant in the field; and you grew, matured, and became very beautiful. Your breasts were formed, your hair grew, but you were naked and bare.

⁸“When I passed by you again and looked upon you, indeed your time was the time of love; so I spread ^[d]My wing over you and covered your nakedness. Yes, I swore an oath to you and entered into a covenant with you, and you became Mine,” says the Lord God.

⁹“Then I washed you in water; yes, I thoroughly washed off your blood, and I anointed you with oil. ¹⁰I clothed you in embroidered cloth and gave you sandals of ^[e]badger skin; I clothed you with fine linen and covered you with silk. ¹¹I adorned you with ornaments, put bracelets on your wrists, and a chain on your neck. ¹²And I put a ^[f]jewel in your nose, earrings in your ears, and a beautiful crown on your head. ¹³Thus you were adorned with gold and silver, and your clothing was of fine linen, silk, and embroidered cloth. You ate pastry of fine flour, honey, and oil. You were exceedingly beautiful, and succeeded to royalty. ¹⁴Your fame went out among the nations because of your beauty, for it was perfect through My splendor which I had bestowed on you,” says the Lord God.

Jerusalem’s Harlotry

¹⁵“But you trusted in your own beauty, played the harlot because of your fame, and poured out your harlotry on everyone passing by who would have it. ¹⁶You took some of your garments and adorned multicolored ^[g]high places for yourself, and played the harlot on them. Such things should not happen, nor be. ¹⁷You have also taken your beautiful jewelry from My gold and My silver, which I had given you, and made for yourself male images and played the harlot with them. ¹⁸You took your embroidered garments and covered them, and you set My oil and My incense before them. ¹⁹Also My food which I gave you—the pastry of fine flour, oil, and honey which I fed you—you set it before them as ^[h]sweet incense; and so it was,” says the Lord God.

²⁰“Moreover you took your sons and your daughters, whom you bore to Me, and these you sacrificed to them to be devoured. Were your acts of harlotry a small matter, ²¹that you have slain My children and offered them up to them by causing them to pass through the fire? ²²And in all your abominations and acts of harlotry you did not remember the days of your youth, when you were naked and bare, struggling in your blood.

²³“Then it was so, after all your wickedness—‘Woe, woe to you!’ says the Lord God— ²⁴that you also built for yourself a shrine, and made a ^[i]high place for yourself in every street. ²⁵You built your high places at the head of every road, and made your beauty to be abhorred. You offered yourself to everyone who passed by, and multiplied your acts of harlotry. ²⁶You also committed harlotry with the Egyptians, your very fleshly neighbors, and increased your acts of harlotry to provoke Me to anger.

²⁷“Behold, therefore, I stretched out My hand against you, diminished your ^[j]allotment, and gave you up to the will of those who hate you, the daughters of the Philistines, who were ashamed of your lewd behavior. ²⁸You also played the harlot with the Assyrians, because you were insatiable; indeed you played the harlot with them and still were not satisfied. ²⁹Moreover you multiplied your acts of harlotry as far as the land of the trader, Chaldea; and even then you were not satisfied.

³⁰“How degenerate is your heart!” says the Lord God, “seeing you do all these things, the deeds of a brazen harlot.

Jerusalem’s Adultery

³¹“You erected your shrine at the head of every road, and built your ^[k]high place in every street. Yet you were not like a harlot, because you scorned payment. ³²You are an adulterous wife, who takes strangers instead of her husband. ³³Men make payment to all harlots, but you made your payments to all your lovers, and ^[l]hired them to come to you from all around for your harlotry. ³⁴You are the opposite of other women in your harlotry, because no one solicited you to be a harlot. In that you gave payment but no payment was given you, therefore you are the opposite.”

Jerusalem’s Lovers Will Abuse Her

³⁵‘Now then, O harlot, hear the word of the Lord! ³⁶Thus says the Lord God: “Because your filthiness was poured out and your nakedness uncovered in your harlotry with your lovers, and with all your abominable idols, and because of the blood of your children which you gave to them, ³⁷surely, therefore, I will gather all your lovers with whom you took pleasure, all those you loved, and all those you hated; I will gather them from all around against you and will uncover your nakedness to them, that they may see all your nakedness. ³⁸And I will judge you as women who break wedlock or shed blood are judged; I will bring blood upon you in fury and jealousy. ³⁹I will also give you into their hand, and they shall throw down your shrines and break down your ^[m]high places. They shall also strip you of your clothes, take your beautiful jewelry, and leave you naked and bare.

⁴⁰“They shall also bring up an assembly against you, and they shall stone you with stones and thrust you through with their swords. ⁴¹They shall burn your houses with fire, and execute judgments on you in the sight of many women; and I will make you cease playing the harlot, and you shall no longer hire lovers. ⁴²So I will lay to rest My fury toward you, and My jealousy shall depart from you. I will be quiet, and be angry no more. ⁴³Because you did not remember the days of your youth, but ^[n]agitated Me with all these things, surely I will also recompense your ^[o]deeds on your own head,” says the Lord God. “And you shall not commit lewdness in addition to all your abominations.

More Wicked than Samaria and Sodom

⁴⁴“Indeed everyone who quotes proverbs will use this proverb against you: ‘Like mother, like daughter!’ ⁴⁵You are your mother’s daughter, ^[p]loathing husband and children; and you are the sister of your sisters, who loathed their husbands and children; your mother was a Hittite and your father an Amorite.

⁴⁶“Your elder sister is Samaria, who dwells with her daughters to the north of you; and your younger sister, who dwells to the south of you, is Sodom and her daughters. ⁴⁷You did not walk in their ways nor act according to their abominations; but, as if that were too little, you became more corrupt than they in all your ways.

⁴⁸“As I live,” says the Lord God, “neither your sister Sodom nor her daughters have done as you and your daughters have done. ⁴⁹Look, this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom: She and her daughter had pride, fullness of food, and abundance of idleness; neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. ⁵⁰And they were haughty and committed abomination before Me; therefore I took them away as ^[q]I saw fit.

⁵¹“Samaria did not commit half of your sins; but you have multiplied your abominations more than they, and have justified your sisters by all the abominations which you have done. ⁵²You who judged your sisters, bear your own shame also, because the sins which you committed were more abominable than theirs; they are more righteous than you. Yes, be disgraced also, and bear your own shame, because you justified your sisters.

⁵³“When I bring back their captives, the captives of Sodom and her daughters, and the captives of Samaria and her daughters, then I will also bring back the captives of your captivity among them, ⁵⁴that you may bear your own shame and be disgraced by all that you did when you comforted them. ⁵⁵When your sisters, Sodom and her daughters, return to their former state, and Samaria and her daughters return to their former state, then you and your daughters will return to your former state. ⁵⁶For your sister Sodom was not a byword in your mouth in the days of your pride, ⁵⁷before your wickedness was uncovered. It was like the time of the reproach of the daughters of ^[r]Syria and all those around her, and of the daughters of the Philistines, who despise you everywhere. ⁵⁸You have paid for your lewdness and your abominations,” says the Lord. ⁵⁹For thus says the Lord God: “I will deal with you as you have done, who despised the oath by breaking the covenant.

An Everlasting Covenant

⁶⁰“Nevertheless I will remember My covenant with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish an everlasting covenant with you. ⁶¹Then you will remember your ways and be ashamed, when you receive your older and your younger sisters; for I will give them to you for daughters, but not because of My covenant with you. ⁶²And I will establish My covenant with you. Then you shall know that I am the Lord, ⁶³that you may remember and be ashamed, and never open your mouth anymore because of your shame, when I provide you an atonement for all you have done,” says the Lord God.’ ”

The Eagles and the Vine

17 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying, ²“Son of man, pose a riddle, and speak a parable to the house of Israel, ³and say, ‘Thus says the Lord God:

“A great eagle with large wings and long pinions,
Full of feathers of various colors,
Came to Lebanon
And took from the cedar the highest branch.
⁴He cropped off its topmost young twig
And carried it to a land of trade;
He set it in a city of merchants.
⁵Then he took some of the seed of the land
And planted it in a fertile field;
He placed it by abundant waters
And set it like a willow tree.
⁶And it grew and became a spreading vine of low stature;
Its branches turned toward him,
But its roots were under it.
So it became a vine,
Brought forth branches,
And put forth shoots.

⁷“But there was ^[s]another great eagle with large wings and many feathers;
And behold, this vine bent its roots toward him,
And stretched its branches toward him,
From the garden terrace where it had been planted,
That he might water it.
⁸It was planted in ^[t]good soil by many waters,
To bring forth branches, bear fruit,
And become a majestic vine.” ’

⁹“Say, ‘Thus says the Lord God:

“Will it thrive?
Will he not pull up its roots,
Cut off its fruit,
And leave it to wither?
All of its spring leaves will wither,
And no great power or many people
Will be needed to pluck it up by its roots.
¹⁰Behold, it is planted,
Will it thrive?
Will it not utterly wither when the east wind touches it?
It will wither in the garden terrace where it grew.” ’ ”

¹¹Moreover the word of the Lord came to me, saying, ¹²“Say now to the rebellious house: ‘Do you not know what these things mean?’ Tell them, ‘Indeed the king of Babylon went to Jerusalem and took its king and princes, and led them with him to Babylon. ¹³And he took the king’s offspring, made a covenant with him, and put him under oath. He also took away the mighty of the land, ¹⁴that the kingdom might be brought low and not lift itself up, but that by keeping his covenant it might stand. ¹⁵But he rebelled against him by sending his ambassadors to Egypt, that they might give him horses and many people. Will he prosper? Will he who does such things escape? Can he break a covenant and still be delivered?

¹⁶‘As I live,’ says the Lord God, ‘surely in the place where the king dwells who made him king, whose oath he despised and whose covenant he broke—with him in the midst of Babylon he shall die. ¹⁷Nor will Pharaoh with his mighty army and great company do anything in the war, when they heap up a siege mound and build a ^[u]wall to cut off many persons. ¹⁸Since he despised the oath by breaking the covenant, and in fact gave^[v] his hand and still did all these things, he shall not escape.’ ”

¹⁹Therefore thus says the Lord God: “As I live, surely My oath which he despised, and My covenant which he broke, I will recompense on his own head. ²⁰I will spread My net over him, and he shall be taken in My snare. I will bring him to Babylon and try him there for the ^[w]treason which he committed against Me. ²¹All his ^[x]fugitives with all his troops shall fall by the sword, and those who remain shall be scattered to every wind; and you shall know that I, the Lord, have spoken.”

Israel Exalted at Last

²²Thus says the Lord God: “I will take also one of the highest branches of the high cedar and set it out. I will crop off from the topmost of its young twigs a tender one, and will plant it on a high and prominent mountain. ²³On the mountain height of Israel I will plant it; and it will bring forth boughs, and bear fruit, and be a majestic cedar. Under it will dwell birds of every sort; in the shadow of its branches they will dwell. ²⁴And all the trees of the field shall know that I, the Lord, have brought down the high tree and exalted the low tree, dried up the green tree and made the dry tree flourish; I, the Lord, have spoken and have done it.”

Footnotes

Ezekiel 16:3 origin and your birth
Ezekiel 16:5 abhorred
Ezekiel 16:7 Lit. a myriad
Ezekiel 16:8 Or the corner of My garment
Ezekiel 16:10 Or dolphin or dugong
Ezekiel 16:12 Lit. ring
Ezekiel 16:16 Places for pagan worship
Ezekiel 16:19 Or a sweet aroma
Ezekiel 16:24 Place for pagan worship
Ezekiel 16:27 Allowance of food
Ezekiel 16:31 Place for pagan worship
Ezekiel 16:33 Or bribed
Ezekiel 16:39 Places for pagan worship
Ezekiel 16:43 So with LXX, Syr., Tg., Vg.; MT were agitated with Me
Ezekiel 16:43 Lit. way
Ezekiel 16:45 Or despising
Ezekiel 16:50 Vg. you saw; LXX he saw; Tg. as was revealed to Me
Ezekiel 16:57 Heb. Aram; so with MT, LXX, Tg., Vg.; many Heb. mss., Syr. Edom
Ezekiel 17:7 So with LXX, Syr., Vg.; MT, Tg. one
Ezekiel 17:8 Lit. a good field
Ezekiel 17:17 Or siege wall
Ezekiel 17:18 Took an oath
Ezekiel 17:20 Lit. unfaithful act
Ezekiel 17:21 So with MT, Vg.; many Heb. mss., Syr. choice men; Tg. mighty men; LXX omits All his fugitives

30 Aug 202130 Aug 2021

Persistent

“The word of the Lord came again to me, saying:“Son of man, when a land sins against Me by persistent unfaithfulness, I will stretch out My hand against it; I will cut off its supply of bread, send famine on it, and cut off man and beast from it. Even if these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they would deliver only themselves by their righteousness,” says the Lord God.” Ezekiel 14:12-14 NKJV

Persistent. In a time such as this – it is a word we should humbly meditate upon. We should stubbornly persist in some things and while we should not persist in unfaithfulness. I would love to blame the deterioration of the understanding of the word “pride” – not knowing fully what it means more of us fall into it. I would love to blame the spirit of sleep, the spirit of jealousy, the spirit of rebellion – but the truth of the matter is so much worse. The human heart is bent towards the wickedness of unfaithfulness. From Adam and Eve – through the dispensation of grace and through the great day of the Lord. This is why we must be ever so disciplined in self-control.

Today’s reading is from the book of Ezekiel, chapters 13-15 (embedded below the image below for your convenience).

I have not mastered it – neither did any of Jesus’s disciples. If I was perfect, then you wouldn’t need a savior. It is true – because if I can make myself perfect, then so can you and the grace of the cross and resurrection is worthless. But I make mistakes and pray you all have the same grace for me that Christ has – that my errors will not later be held against me.

The enemy knows my name and calls me by sins I am freed from – trying to keep and accuse me of continuing in captivity – Jesus knows my sins and calls me by my name. Remember this and let there be no condemnation. Have you asked for forgiveness and asked to be washed? You are good.

Do you struggle? Then try prayer and fasting or go to your pastor and ask for accountability. But do not persist in unfaithfulness (or sin).

“What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?” Romans 6:1-2 kjv

“For he that is dead is freed from sin.” Romans 6:7 kjv

Now – never the less persist… not as the world, but as the persistent widow (Luke 18:1-8) persisted in intercession. Do not ever give up.
Persist in prayer. Persist in seeking God. Persist in seeking righteousness and holiness. Persist in being so heavenly minded that you are of no earthly good! Because you aren’t made to be of the world – but be a light to the world.

As we read about the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple and the judgement of the Lord – and we see the parallels to our time. Let us not be proud – now we are the temple… shall our bodies be plundered and destroyed or will we “having done all stand” (as it says at the end of the armor of God passage). Later in this book we see the temple overflowing with living water – that is who we can be.

First – more humility. More. It doesn’t matter who is right of wrong – or who said what – or if they come in a wrong spirit or whatever the trial, or manner of distracting nonsense it is. Repent for humoring it and move forward. Stay low and beneath it in humility. Stay in the sacred place in prayer. Let go and let God.

Drawing in close into your relationship with him is the only answer to avoiding the wrath and judgment coming, to avoiding the accusations of the enemy, to the knowledge that these weapons shall be formed – but nothing shall hurt you. Yes, a relationship is our only answer to learning not to persist in unfaithfulness and learning to persist in love. We cannot do our Father’s will without Him – so draw close to Him.

Matthew 18:18-19

NKJV – “Assuredly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Again I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven.”
NAS – “Truly I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven. Again I say to you, that if two of you agree on earth about anything that they may ask, it shall be done for them by My Father who is in heaven.”
ESV – “Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven.”
AMP – “I assure you and most solemnly say to you, whatever you bind [forbid, declare to be improper and unlawful] on earth shall have [already] been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose [permit, declare lawful] on earth shall have [already] been loosed in heaven. Again I say to you, that if two believers on earth agree [that is, are of one mind, in harmony] about anything that they ask [within the will of God], it will be done for them by My Father in heaven.”
NIV – “Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will bebound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will beloosed in heaven. Again, truly I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven.”

Thank you for reading.
May the God of peace keep you and bless you. May you stay focused on Christ and covered in grace.
Maranatha ~ Come Lord Jesus!

BIBLE READING: Ezekiel 13-15 NKJV

Woe to Foolish Prophets

13 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying, ²“Son of man, prophesy against the prophets of Israel who prophesy, and say to those who prophesy out of their own heart,^[^a^] ‘Hear the word of the Lord!’ ”

³Thus says the Lord God: “Woe to the foolish prophets, who follow their own spirit and have seen ^[^b^]nothing! ⁴O Israel, your prophets are like foxes in the deserts. ⁵You have not gone up into the ^[^c^]gaps to build a wall for the house of Israel to stand in battle on the day of the Lord. ⁶They have envisioned futility and false divination, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord!’ But the Lord has not sent them; yet they hope that the word may ^[^d^]be confirmed. ⁷Have you not seen a futile vision, and have you not spoken false divination? You say, ‘The Lord says,’ but I have not spoken.”

⁸Therefore thus says the Lord God: “Because you have spoken nonsense and envisioned lies, therefore I am indeed against you,” says the Lord God. ⁹“My hand will be against the prophets who envision futility and who divine lies; they shall not be in the assembly of My people, nor be written in the record of the house of Israel, nor shall they enter into the land of Israel. Then you shall know that I am the Lord God.

¹⁰“Because, indeed, because they have seduced My people, saying, ‘Peace!’ when there is no peace—and one builds a wall, and they plaster^[^e^] it with untempered mortar— ¹¹say to those who plaster it with untempered mortar, that it will fall. There will be flooding rain, and you, O great hailstones, shall fall; and a stormy wind shall tear it down. ¹²Surely, when the wall has fallen, will it not be said to you, ‘Where is the mortar with which you plastered it?’ ”

¹³Therefore thus says the Lord God: “I will cause a stormy wind to break forth in My fury; and there shall be a flooding rain in My anger, and great hailstones in fury to consume it. ¹⁴So I will break down the wall you have plastered with untempered mortar, and bring it down to the ground, so that its foundation will be uncovered; it will fall, and you shall be consumed in the midst of it. Then you shall know that I am the Lord.

¹⁵“Thus will I accomplish My wrath on the wall and on those who have plastered it with untempered mortar; and I will say to you, ‘The wall is no more, nor those who plastered it, ¹⁶that is, the prophets of Israel who prophesy concerning Jerusalem, and who see visions of peace for her when there is no peace,’ ” says the Lord God.

¹⁷“Likewise, son of man, set your face against the daughters of your people, who prophesy out of their own ^[^f^]heart; prophesy against them, ¹⁸and say, ‘Thus says the Lord God: “Woe to the women who sew magic charms ^[^g^]on their sleeves and make veils for the heads of people of every height to hunt souls! Will you hunt the souls of My people, and keep yourselves alive? ¹⁹And will you profane Me among My people for handfuls of barley and for pieces of bread, killing people who should not die, and keeping people alive who should not live, by your lying to My people who listen to lies?”

²⁰‘Therefore thus says the Lord God: “Behold, I am against your magic charms by which you hunt souls there like ^[^h^]birds. I will tear them from your arms, and let the souls go, the souls you hunt like birds. ²¹I will also tear off your veils and deliver My people out of your hand, and they shall no longer be as prey in your hand. Then you shall know that I am the Lord.

²²“Because with lies you have made the heart of the righteous sad, whom I have not made sad; and you have strengthened the hands of the wicked, so that he does not turn from his wicked way to save his life. ²³Therefore you shall no longer envision futility nor practice divination; for I will deliver My people out of your hand, and you shall know that I am the Lord.” ’ ”

Idolatry Will Be Punished

14 Now some of the elders of Israel came to me and sat before me. ²And the word of the Lord came to me, saying, ³“Son of man, these men have set up their idols in their hearts, and put before them that which causes them to stumble into iniquity. Should I let Myself be inquired of at all by them?

⁴“Therefore speak to them, and say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God: “Everyone of the house of Israel who sets up his idols in his heart, and puts before him what causes him to stumble into iniquity, and then comes to the prophet, I the Lord will answer him who comes, according to the multitude of his idols, ⁵that I may seize the house of Israel by their heart, because they are all estranged from Me by their idols.” ’

⁶“Therefore say to the house of Israel, ‘Thus says the Lord God: “Repent, turn away from your idols, and turn your faces away from all your abominations. ⁷For anyone of the house of Israel, or of the strangers who dwell in Israel, who separates himself from Me and sets up his idols in his heart and puts before him what causes him to stumble into iniquity, then comes to a prophet to inquire of him concerning Me, I the Lord will answer him by Myself. ⁸I will set My face against that man and make him a sign and a proverb, and I will cut him off from the midst of My people. Then you shall know that I am the Lord.

⁹“And if the prophet is induced to speak anything, I the Lord have induced that prophet, and I will stretch out My hand against him and destroy him from among My people Israel. ¹⁰And they shall bear their iniquity; the punishment of the prophet shall be the same as the punishment of the one who inquired, ¹¹that the house of Israel may no longer stray from Me, nor be profaned anymore with all their transgressions, but that they may be My people and I may be their God,” says the Lord God.’ ”

Judgment on Persistent Unfaithfulness

¹²The word of the Lord came again to me, saying: ¹³“Son of man, when a land sins against Me by persistent unfaithfulness, I will stretch out My hand against it; I will cut off its supply of bread, send famine on it, and cut off man and beast from it. ¹⁴Even if these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they would deliver only themselves by their righteousness,” says the Lord God.

¹⁵“If I cause wild beasts to pass through the land, and they ^[ⁱ^]empty it, and make it so desolate that no man may pass through because of the beasts, ¹⁶even though these three men were ^[^j^]in it, as I live,” says the Lord God, “they would deliver neither sons nor daughters; only they would be delivered, and the land would be desolate.

¹⁷“Or if I bring a sword on that land, and say, ‘Sword, go through the land,’ and I cut off man and beast from it, ¹⁸even though these three men were in it, as I live,” says the Lord God, “they would deliver neither sons nor daughters, but only they themselves would be delivered.

¹⁹“Or if I send a pestilence into that land and pour out My fury on it in blood, and cut off from it man and beast, ²⁰even though Noah, Daniel, and Job were in it, as I live,” says the Lord God, “they would deliver neither son nor daughter; they would deliver only themselves by their righteousness.”

²¹For thus says the Lord God: “How much more it shall be when I send My four ^[^k^]severe judgments on Jerusalem—the sword and famine and wild beasts and pestilence—to cut off man and beast from it? ²²Yet behold, there shall be left in it a remnant who will be brought out, both sons and daughters; surely they will come out to you, and you will see their ways and their doings. Then you will be comforted concerning the disaster that I have brought upon Jerusalem, all that I have brought upon it. ²³And they will comfort you, when you see their ways and their doings; and you shall know that I have done nothing without cause that I have done in it,” says the Lord God.

The Outcast Vine

15 Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying: ²“Son of man, how is the wood of the vine better than any other wood, the vine branch which is among the trees of the forest? ³Is wood taken from it to make any object? Or can men make a peg from it to hang any vessel on? ⁴Instead, it is thrown into the fire for fuel; the fire devours both ends of it, and its middle is burned. Is it useful for any work? ⁵Indeed, when it was whole, no object could be made from it. How much less will it be useful for any work when the fire has devoured it, and it is burned?

⁶“Therefore thus says the Lord God: ‘Like the wood of the vine among the trees of the forest, which I have given to the fire for fuel, so I will give up the inhabitants of Jerusalem; ⁷and I will set My face against them. They will go out from one fire, but another fire shall devour them. Then you shall know that I am the Lord, when I set My face against them. ⁸Thus I will make the land desolate, because they have persisted in unfaithfulness,’ says the Lord God.”

Footnotes

a Ezekiel 13:2 Inspiration

b Ezekiel 13:3 No vision

c Ezekiel 13:5 breaches

d Ezekiel 13:6 Come true

e Ezekiel 13:10 Or whitewash

f Ezekiel 13:17 Inspiration

g Ezekiel 13:18 Lit. over all the joints of My hands; Vg. under every elbow; LXX, Tg. on all elbows of the hands

h Ezekiel 13:20 Lit. flying ones

i Ezekiel 14:15 Lit. bereave it of children

j Ezekiel 14:16 Lit. in the midst of it

k Ezekiel 14:21 Lit. evil

29 Aug 202127 Aug 2021

Weekend Reading (August 29)

Matthew 18:18-19

Thank you for reading.
May the God of peace keep you and bless you. May you stay focused on Christ and covered in grace.
Maranatha ~ Come Lord Jesus!

BIBLE READING: Ezekiel 9-12 NKJV

The Wicked Are Slain

9 Then He called out in my hearing with a loud voice, saying, “Let those who have charge over the city draw near, each with a ^[a]deadly weapon in his hand.” ²And suddenly six men came from the direction of the upper gate, which faces north, each with his ^[b]battle-ax in his hand. One man among them was clothed with linen and had a writer’s inkhorn ^[c]at his side. They went in and stood beside the bronze altar.

³Now the glory of the God of Israel had gone up from the cherub, where it had been, to the threshold of the ^[d]temple. And He called to the man clothed with linen, who had the writer’s inkhorn at his side; ⁴and the Lord said to him, “Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and cry over all the abominations that are done within it.”

⁵To the others He said in my ^[e]hearing, “Go after him through the city and kill;^[f] do not let your eye spare, nor have any pity. ⁶Utterly^[g] slay old and young men, maidens and little children and women; but do not come near anyone on whom is the mark; and begin at My sanctuary.” So they began with the elders who were before the ^[h]temple. ⁷Then He said to them, “Defile the ^[i]temple, and fill the courts with the slain. Go out!” And they went out and killed in the city.

⁸So it was, that while they were killing them, I was left alone; and I fell on my face and cried out, and said, “Ah, Lord God! Will You destroy all the remnant of Israel in pouring out Your fury on Jerusalem?”

⁹Then He said to me, “The iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah is exceedingly great, and the land is full of bloodshed, and the city full of perversity; for they say, ‘The Lord has forsaken the land, and the Lord does not see!’ ¹⁰And as for Me also, My eye will neither spare, nor will I have pity, but I will recompense their deeds on their own head.”

¹¹Just then, the man clothed with linen, who had the inkhorn at his side, reported back and said, “I have done as You commanded me.”

The Glory Departs from the Temple

10 And I looked, and there in the firmament^[j] that was above the head of the cherubim, there appeared something like a sapphire stone, having the appearance of the likeness of a throne. ²Then He spoke to the man clothed with linen, and said, “Go in among the wheels, under the cherub, fill your hands with coals of fire from among the cherubim, and scatter them over the city.” And he went in as I watched.

³Now the cherubim were standing on the ^[k]south side of the ^[l]temple when the man went in, and the cloud filled the inner court. ⁴Then the glory of the Lord went up from the cherub, and paused over the threshold of the ^[m]temple; and the house was filled with the cloud, and the court was full of the brightness of the Lord’s glory. ⁵And the sound of the wings of the cherubim was heard even in the outer court, like the voice of Almighty God when He speaks.

⁶Then it happened, when He commanded the man clothed in linen, saying, “Take fire from among the wheels, from among the cherubim,” that he went in and stood beside the wheels. ⁷And the cherub stretched out his hand from among the cherubim to the fire that was among the cherubim, and took some of it and put it into the hands of the man clothed with linen, who took it and went out. ⁸The cherubim appeared to have the form of a man’s hand under their wings.

⁹And when I looked, there were four wheels by the cherubim, one wheel by one cherub and another wheel by each other cherub; the wheels appeared to have the color of a beryl stone. ¹⁰As for their appearance, all four looked alike—as it were, a wheel in the middle of a wheel. ¹¹When they went, they went toward any of their four directions; they did not turn aside when they went, but followed in the direction the head was facing. They did not turn aside when they went. ¹²And their whole body, with their back, their hands, their wings, and the wheels that the four had, were full of eyes all around. ¹³As for the wheels, they were called in my ^[n]hearing, “Wheel.”

¹⁴Each one had four faces: the first face was the face of a cherub, the second face the face of a man, the third the face of a lion, and the fourth the face of an eagle. ¹⁵And the cherubim were lifted up. This was the living creature I saw by the River Chebar. ¹⁶When the cherubim went, the wheels went beside them; and when the cherubim lifted their wings to mount up from the earth, the same wheels also did not turn from beside them. ¹⁷When ^[o]the cherubim stood still, the wheels stood still, and when ^[p]one was lifted up, ^[q]the other lifted itself up, for the spirit of the living creature was in them.

¹⁸Then the glory of the Lord departed from the threshold of the ^[r]temple and stood over the cherubim. ¹⁹And the cherubim lifted their wings and mounted up from the earth in my sight. When they went out, the wheels were beside them; and they stood at the door of the east gate of the Lord’s house, and the glory of the God of Israel was above them.

²⁰This is the living creature I saw under the God of Israel by the River Chebar, and I knew they were cherubim. ²¹Each one had four faces and each one four wings, and the likeness of the hands of a man was under their wings. ²²And the likeness of their faces was the same as the faces which I had seen by the River Chebar, their appearance and their persons. They each went straight forward.

Judgment on Wicked Counselors

11 Then the Spirit lifted me up and brought me to the East Gate of the Lord’s house, which faces eastward; and there at the door of the gate were twenty-five men, among whom I saw Jaazaniah the son of Azzur, and Pelatiah the son of Benaiah, princes of the people. ²And He said to me: “Son of man, these are the men who devise iniquity and give wicked ^[s]counsel in this city, ³who say, ‘The time is not near to build houses; this city is the ^[t]caldron, and we are the meat.’ ⁴Therefore prophesy against them, prophesy, O son of man!”

⁵Then the Spirit of the Lord fell upon me, and said to me, “Speak! ‘Thus says the Lord: “Thus you have said, O house of Israel; for I know the things that come into your mind. ⁶You have multiplied your slain in this city, and you have filled its streets with the slain.” ⁷Therefore thus says the Lord God: “Your slain whom you have laid in its midst, they are the meat, and this city is the caldron; but I shall bring you out of the midst of it. ⁸You have feared the sword; and I will bring a sword upon you,” says the Lord God. ⁹“And I will bring you out of its midst, and deliver you into the hands of strangers, and execute judgments on you. ¹⁰You shall fall by the sword. I will judge you at the border of Israel. Then you shall know that I am the Lord. ¹¹This city shall not be your ^[u]caldron, nor shall you be the meat in its midst. I will judge you at the border of Israel. ¹²And you shall know that I am the Lord; for you have not walked in My statutes nor executed My judgments, but have done according to the customs of the Gentiles which are all around you.” ’ ”

¹³Now it happened, while I was prophesying, that Pelatiah the son of Benaiah died. Then I fell on my face and cried with a loud voice, and said, “Ah, Lord God! Will You make a complete end of the remnant of Israel?”

God Will Restore Israel

¹⁴Again the word of the Lord came to me, saying, ¹⁵“Son of man, your brethren, your relatives, your countrymen, and all the house of Israel in its entirety, are those about whom the inhabitants of Jerusalem have said, ‘Get far away from the Lord; this land has been given to us as a possession.’ ¹⁶Therefore say, ‘Thus says the Lord God: “Although I have cast them far off among the Gentiles, and although I have scattered them among the countries, yet I shall be a little ^[v]sanctuary for them in the countries where they have gone.” ’ ¹⁷Therefore say, ‘Thus says the Lord God: “I will gather you from the peoples, assemble you from the countries where you have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel.” ’ ¹⁸And they will go there, and they will take away all its detestable things and all its abominations from there. ¹⁹Then I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within ^[w]them, and take the stony heart out of their flesh, and give them a heart of flesh, ²⁰that they may walk in My statutes and keep My judgments and do them; and they shall be My people, and I will be their God. ²¹But as for those whose hearts follow the desire for their detestable things and their abominations, I will recompense their deeds on their own heads,” says the Lord God.

²²So the cherubim lifted up their wings, with the wheels beside them, and the glory of the God of Israel was high above them. ²³And the glory of the Lord went up from the midst of the city and stood on the mountain, which is on the east side of the city.

²⁴Then the Spirit took me up and brought me in a vision by the Spirit of God into ^[x]Chaldea, to those in captivity. And the vision that I had seen went up from me. ²⁵So I spoke to those in captivity of all the things the Lord had shown me.

Judah’s Captivity Portrayed

12 Now the word of the Lord came to me, saying: ²“Son of man, you dwell in the midst of a rebellious house, which has eyes to see but does not see, and ears to hear but does not hear; for they are a rebellious house.

³“Therefore, son of man, prepare your belongings for captivity, and go into captivity by day in their sight. You shall go from your place into captivity to another place in their sight. It may be that they will consider, though they are a rebellious house. ⁴By day you shall bring out your belongings in their sight, as though going into captivity; and at evening you shall go in their sight, like those who go into captivity. ⁵Dig through the wall in their sight, and carry your belongings out through it. ⁶In their sight you shall bear them on your shoulders and carry them out at twilight; you shall cover your face, so that you cannot see the ground, for I have made you a sign to the house of Israel.”

⁷So I did as I was commanded. I brought out my belongings by day, as though going into captivity, and at evening I dug through the wall with my hand. I brought them out at twilight, and I bore them on my shoulder in their sight.

⁸And in the morning the word of the Lord came to me, saying, ⁹“Son of man, has not the house of Israel, the rebellious house, said to you, ‘What are you doing?’ ¹⁰Say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God: “This burden^[y] concerns the prince in Jerusalem and all the house of Israel who are among them.” ’ ¹¹Say, ‘I am a sign to you. As I have done, so shall it be done to them; they shall be carried away into captivity.’ ¹²And the prince who is among them shall bear his belongings on his shoulder at twilight and go out. They shall dig through the wall to carry them out through it. He shall cover his face, so that he cannot see the ground with his eyes. ¹³I will also spread My net over him, and he shall be caught in My snare. I will bring him to Babylon, to the land of the Chaldeans; yet he shall not see it, though he shall die there. ¹⁴I will scatter to every wind all who are around him to help him, and all his troops; and I will draw out the sword after them.

¹⁵“Then they shall know that I am the Lord, when I scatter them among the nations and disperse them throughout the countries. ¹⁶But I will spare a few of their men from the sword, from famine, and from pestilence, that they may declare all their abominations among the Gentiles wherever they go. Then they shall know that I am the Lord.”

Judgment Not Postponed

¹⁷Moreover the word of the Lord came to me, saying, ¹⁸“Son of man, eat your bread with ^[z]quaking, and drink your water with trembling and anxiety. ¹⁹And say to the people of the land, ‘Thus says the Lord God to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the land of Israel: “They shall eat their bread with anxiety, and drink their water with dread, so that her land may be emptied of all who are in it, because of the violence of all those who dwell in it. ²⁰Then the cities that are inhabited shall be laid waste, and the land shall become desolate; and you shall know that I am the Lord.” ’ ”

²¹And the word of the Lord came to me, saying, ²²“Son of man, what is this proverb that you people have about the land of Israel, which says, ‘The days are prolonged, and every vision fails’? ²³Tell them therefore, ‘Thus says the Lord God: “I will lay this proverb to rest, and they shall no more use it as a proverb in Israel.” ’ But say to them, ‘ “The days are at hand, and the ^[aa]fulfillment of every vision. ²⁴For no more shall there be any false^[ab] vision or flattering divination within the house of Israel. ²⁵For I am the Lord. I speak, and the word which I speak will come to pass; it will no more be postponed; for in your days, O rebellious house, I will say the word and perform it,” says the Lord God.’ ”

²⁶Again the word of the Lord came to me, saying, ²⁷“Son of man, look, the house of Israel is saying, ‘The vision that he sees is for many days from now, and he prophesies of times far off.’ ²⁸Therefore say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God: “None of My words will be postponed any more, but the word which I speak will be done,” says the Lord God.’ ”

Footnotes

a Ezekiel 9:1 Or destroying

b Ezekiel 9:2 Lit. shattering weapon

c Ezekiel 9:2 Lit. upon his loins

d Ezekiel 9:3 Lit. house

e Ezekiel 9:5 Lit. ears

f Ezekiel 9:5 Lit. strike

g Ezekiel 9:6 Lit. Slay to destruction

h Ezekiel 9:6 Lit. house

i Ezekiel 9:7 Lit. house

j Ezekiel 10:1 expanse

k Ezekiel 10:3 Lit. right

l Ezekiel 10:3 Lit. house

m Ezekiel 10:4 Lit. house

n Ezekiel 10:13 Lit. ears

o Ezekiel 10:17 Lit. they

p Ezekiel 10:17 Lit. they were

q Ezekiel 10:17 Lit. they lifted them

r Ezekiel 10:18 Lit. house

s Ezekiel 11:2 Advice

t Ezekiel 11:3 Pot

u Ezekiel 11:11 Pot

v Ezekiel 11:16 holy place

w Ezekiel 11:19 Lit. you (pl.)

x Ezekiel 11:24 Or Babylon, and so elsewhere in the book

y Ezekiel 12:10 oracle, prophecy

z Ezekiel 12:18 shaking

aa Ezekiel 12:23 Lit. word

bb Ezekiel 12:24 Lit. vain

28 Aug 202127 Aug 2021

Weekend Reading (August 28)

Matthew 18:18-19

Thank you for reading.
May the God of peace keep you and bless you. May you stay focused on Christ and covered in grace.
Maranatha ~ Come Lord Jesus!

BIBLE READING: Ezekiel 5-8 NKJV

A Sword Against Jerusalem

5 “And you, son of man, take a sharp sword, take it as a barber’s razor, and pass it over your head and your beard; then take scales to weigh and divide the hair. ²You shall burn with fire one-third in the midst of the city, when the days of the siege are finished; then you shall take one-third and strike around it with the sword, and one-third you shall scatter in the wind: I will draw out a sword after them. ³You shall also take a small number of them and bind them in the edge of your garment. ⁴Then take some of them again and throw them into the midst of the fire, and burn them in the fire. From there a fire will go out into all the house of Israel.

⁵“Thus says the Lord God: ‘This is Jerusalem; I have set her in the midst of the nations and the countries all around her. ⁶She has rebelled against My judgments by doing wickedness more than the nations, and against My statutes more than the countries that are all around her; for they have refused My judgments, and they have not walked in My statutes.’ ⁷Therefore thus says the Lord God: ‘Because you have ^[a]multiplied disobedience more than the nations that are all around you, have not walked in My statutes nor kept My judgments, ^[b]nor even done according to the judgments of the nations that are all around you’— ⁸therefore thus says the Lord God: ‘Indeed I, even I, am against you and will execute judgments in your midst in the sight of the nations. ⁹And I will do among you what I have never done, and the like of which I will never do again, because of all your abominations. ¹⁰Therefore fathers shall eat their sons in your midst, and sons shall eat their fathers; and I will execute judgments among you, and all of you who remain I will scatter to all the winds.

¹¹‘Therefore, as I live,’ says the Lord God, ‘surely, because you have defiled My sanctuary with all your detestable things and with all your abominations, therefore I will also diminish you; My eye will not spare, nor will I have any pity. ¹²One-third of you shall die of the pestilence, and be consumed with famine in your midst; and one-third shall fall by the sword all around you; and I will scatter another third to all the winds, and I will draw out a sword after them.

¹³‘Thus shall My anger be spent, and I will cause My fury to rest upon them, and I will be avenged; and they shall know that I, the Lord, have spoken it in My zeal, when I have spent My fury upon them. ¹⁴Moreover I will make you a waste and a reproach among the nations that are all around you, in the sight of all who pass by.

¹⁵‘So ^[c]it shall be a reproach, a taunt, a lesson, and an astonishment to the nations that are all around you, when I execute judgments among you in anger and in fury and in furious rebukes. I, the Lord, have spoken. ¹⁶When I send against them the terrible arrows of famine which shall be for destruction, which I will send to destroy you, I will increase the famine upon you and cut off your supply of bread. ¹⁷So I will send against you famine and wild beasts, and they will bereave you. Pestilence and blood shall pass through you, and I will bring the sword against you. I, the Lord, have spoken.’ ”

Judgment on Idolatrous Israel

6 Now the word of the Lord came to me, saying: ²“Son of man, set your face toward the mountains of Israel, and prophesy against them, ³and say, ‘O mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord God! Thus says the Lord God to the mountains, to the hills, to the ravines, and to the valleys: “Indeed I, even I, will bring a sword against you, and I will destroy your ^[d]high places. ⁴Then your altars shall be desolate, your incense altars shall be broken, and I will cast down your slain men before your idols. ⁵And I will lay the corpses of the children of Israel before their idols, and I will scatter your bones all around your altars. ⁶In all your dwelling places the cities shall be laid waste, and the ^[e]high places shall be desolate, so that your altars may be laid waste and made desolate, your idols may be broken and made to cease, your incense altars may be cut down, and your works may be abolished. ⁷The slain shall fall in your midst, and you shall know that I am the Lord.

⁸“Yet I will leave a remnant, so that you may have some who escape the sword among the nations, when you are scattered through the countries. ⁹Then those of you who escape will remember Me among the nations where they are carried captive, because I was crushed by their adulterous heart which has departed from Me, and by their eyes which play the harlot after their idols; they will loathe themselves for the evils which they committed in all their abominations. ¹⁰And they shall know that I am the Lord; I have not said in vain that I would bring this calamity upon them.”

¹¹‘Thus says the Lord God: “Pound^[f] your fists and stamp your feet, and say, ‘Alas, for all the evil abominations of the house of Israel! For they shall fall by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence. ¹²He who is far off shall die by the pestilence, he who is near shall fall by the sword, and he who remains and is besieged shall die by the famine. Thus will I spend My fury upon them. ¹³Then you shall know that I am the Lord, when their slain are among their idols all around their altars, on every high hill, on all the mountaintops, under every green tree, and under every thick oak, wherever they offered sweet incense to all their idols. ¹⁴So I will stretch out My hand against them and make the land desolate, yes, more desolate than the wilderness toward Diblah, in all their dwelling places. Then they shall know that I am the Lord.’ ” ’ ”

Judgment on Israel Is Near

7 Moreover the word of the Lord came to me, saying, ²“And you, son of man, thus says the Lord God to the land of Israel:

‘An end! The end has come upon the four corners of the land.
³Now the end has come upon you,
And I will send My anger against you;
I will judge you according to your ways,
And I will repay you for all your abominations.
⁴My eye will not spare you,
Nor will I have pity;
But I will repay your ways,
And your abominations will be in your midst;
Then you shall know that I am the Lord!’

⁵“Thus says the Lord God:

‘A disaster, a singular disaster;
Behold, it has come!
⁶An end has come,
The end has come;
It has dawned for you;
Behold, it has come!
⁷Doom has come to you, you who dwell in the land;
The time has come,
A day of trouble is near,
And not of rejoicing in the mountains.
⁸Now upon you I will soon pour out My fury,
And spend My anger upon you;
I will judge you according to your ways,
And I will repay you for all your abominations.

⁹‘My eye will not spare,
Nor will I have pity;
I will ^[g]repay you according to your ways,
And your abominations will be in your midst.
Then you shall know that I am the Lord who strikes.

¹⁰‘Behold, the day!
Behold, it has come!
Doom has gone out;
The rod has blossomed,
Pride has budded.
¹¹Violence has risen up into a rod of wickedness;
None of them shall remain,
None of their multitude,
None of ^[h]them;
Nor shall there be wailing for them.
¹²The time has come,
The day draws near.

‘Let not the buyer rejoice,
Nor the seller mourn,
For wrath is on their whole multitude.
¹³For the seller shall not return to what has been sold,
Though he may still be alive;
For the vision concerns the whole multitude,
And it shall not turn back;
No one will strengthen himself
Who lives in iniquity.

¹⁴‘They have blown the trumpet and made everyone ready,
But no one goes to battle;
For My wrath is on all their multitude.
¹⁵The sword is outside,
And the pestilence and famine within.
Whoever is in the field
Will die by the sword;
And whoever is in the city,
Famine and pestilence will devour him.

¹⁶‘Those who survive will escape and be on the mountains
Like doves of the valleys,
All of them mourning,
Each for his iniquity.
¹⁷Every hand will be feeble,
And every knee will be as weak as water.
¹⁸They will also be girded with sackcloth;
Horror will cover them;
Shame will be on every face,
Baldness on all their heads.

¹⁹‘They will throw their silver into the streets,
And their gold will be like refuse;
Their silver and their gold will not be able to deliver them
In the day of the wrath of the Lord;
They will not satisfy their souls,
Nor fill their stomachs,
Because it became their stumbling block of iniquity.

²⁰‘As for the beauty of his ornaments,
He set it in majesty;
But they made from it
The images of their abominations—
Their detestable things;
Therefore I have made it
Like refuse to them.
²¹I will give it as plunder
Into the hands of strangers,
And to the wicked of the earth as spoil;
And they shall defile it.
²²I will turn My face from them,
And they will defile My secret place;
For robbers shall enter it and defile it.

²³‘Make a chain,
For the land is filled with crimes of blood,
And the city is full of violence.
²⁴Therefore I will bring the worst of the Gentiles,
And they will possess their houses;
I will cause the pomp of the strong to cease,
And their holy places shall be defiled.
²⁵^[i]Destruction comes;
They will seek peace, but there shall be none.
²⁶Disaster will come upon disaster,
And rumor will be upon rumor.
Then they will seek a vision from a prophet;
But the law will perish from the priest,
And counsel from the elders.

²⁷‘The king will mourn,
The prince will be clothed with desolation,
And the hands of the common people will tremble.
I will do to them according to their way,
And according to what they deserve I will judge them;
Then they shall know that I am the Lord!’ ”

Abominations in the Temple

8 And it came to pass in the sixth year, in the sixth month, on the fifth day of the month, as I sat in my house with the elders of Judah sitting before me, that the hand of the Lord God fell upon me there. ²Then I looked, and there was a likeness, like the appearance of fire—from the appearance of His waist and downward, fire; and from His waist and upward, like the appearance of brightness, like the color of amber. ³He stretched out the form of a hand, and took me by a lock of my hair; and the Spirit lifted me up between earth and heaven, and brought me in visions of God to Jerusalem, to the door of the north gate of the inner court, where the seat of the image of jealousy was, which provokes^[j] to jealousy. ⁴And behold, the glory of the God of Israel was there, like the vision that I saw in the plain.

⁵Then He said to me, “Son of man, lift your eyes now toward the north.” So I lifted my eyes toward the north, and there, north of the altar gate, was this image of jealousy in the entrance.

⁶Furthermore He said to me, “Son of man, do you see what they are doing, the great abominations that the house of Israel commits here, to make Me go far away from My sanctuary? Now turn again, you will see greater abominations.” ⁷So He brought me to the door of the court; and when I looked, there was a hole in the wall. ⁸Then He said to me, “Son of man, dig into the wall”; and when I dug into the wall, there was a door.

⁹And He said to me, “Go in, and see the wicked abominations which they are doing there.” ¹⁰So I went in and saw, and there—every sort of creeping thing, abominable beasts, and all the idols of the house of Israel, ^[k]portrayed all around on the walls. ¹¹And there stood before them seventy men of the elders of the house of Israel, and in their midst stood Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan. Each man had a censer in his hand, and a thick cloud of incense went up. ¹²Then He said to me, “Son of man, have you seen what the elders of the house of Israel do in the dark, every man in the room of his idols? For they say, ‘The Lord does not see us, the Lord has forsaken the land.’ ”

¹³And He said to me, “Turn again, and you will see greater abominations that they are doing.” ¹⁴So He brought me to the door of the north gate of the Lord’s house; and to my dismay, women were sitting there weeping for ^[l]Tammuz.

¹⁵Then He said to me, “Have you seen this, O son of man? Turn again, you will see greater abominations than these.” ¹⁶So He brought me into the inner court of the Lord’s house; and there, at the door of the temple of the Lord, between the porch and the altar, were about twenty-five men with their backs toward the temple of the Lord and their faces toward the east, and they were worshiping the sun toward the east.

¹⁷And He said to me, “Have you seen this, O son of man? Is it a trivial thing to the house of Judah to commit the abominations which they commit here? For they have filled the land with violence; then they have returned to provoke Me to anger. Indeed they put the branch to their nose. ¹⁸Therefore I also will act in fury. My eye will not spare nor will I have pity; and though they cry in My ears with a loud voice, I will not hear them.”

Footnotes
a. Ezekiel 5:7 Or raged
b. Ezekiel 5:7 So with MT, LXX, Tg., Vg.; many Heb. mss., Syr. but have done (cf. 11:12)
c. Ezekiel 5:15 LXX, Syr., Tg., Vg. You
d. Ezekiel 6:3 Places for pagan worship
e. Ezekiel 6:6 Places for pagan worship
f. Ezekiel 6:11 Lit. Strike your hands
g. Ezekiel 7:9 Lit. give
h. Ezekiel 7:11 Or their wealth
i. Ezekiel 7:25 Lit. Shuddering
j. Ezekiel 8:3 Arouses the Lord’s jealousy
k. Ezekiel 8:10 Or carved
l. Ezekiel 8:14 A Sumerian fertility god similar to the Gr. god Adonis

27 Aug 202127 Aug 2021

Ezekiel

“When I say to the wicked, ‘You shall surely die,’ and you give him no warning, nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life, that same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood I will require at your hand. Yet, if you warn the wicked, and he does not turn from his wickedness, nor from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but you have delivered your soul.
“Again, when a righteous man turns from his righteousness and commits iniquity, and I lay a stumbling block before him, he shall die; because you did not give him warning, he shall die in his sin, and his righteousness which he has done shall not be remembered; but his blood I will require at your hand. Nevertheless if you warn the righteous man that the righteous should not sin, and he does not sin, he shall surely live because he took warning; also you will have delivered your soul.” Ezekiel 3:18-21 NKJV

The responsibility of the calling is a lesson for ALL of us not just those of us who move in gifts, like teachers and evangelists. When God gives us a prompting to do something or say something to others – we need to obey. If we do not obey – we are in trouble for disobedience AND we are also held responsible for what happens to the person(s) we were supposed to interact with. If we obey – that little bit of Grace God was going to use us for may have saved their soul even if we never knew here on earth. God knows. Because God is all about relationships – God holds us responsible for how we relate and the outcomes of those interactions. This is His preferred method of working on earth. He would rather use a man – then make a donkey speak or send an angel. We are here to do His will and glorify Him!

I still have no words, and mourn for the events that happened yesterday.
I used to enjoy playing strategy games and rarely ever lost. With the world’s attention span being what it is there is a short time frame for a news cycle. It is rumored that there has been a breakthrough in the USA election front – but they cannot release it now or it will get lost in the Afghanistan news cycle. There are now a great number to children dead from Australia rounding up the kids and forcing the vax on them without their parent’s consent – but that too got lost in the middle east crisis news cycle. While watching it – all evil is breaking loose elsewhere and we are held captive by one story…. but that cycle was about to end. If this was a strategy board game, I would have waited until today to blow something up. It would have been last minute and the masses would have just started to harden their hearts and leave them helpless and in turmoil for the weekend and keep it in the news cycle. Hitting yesterday was not on my radar (good strategy to strike earlier). But you do not have to be a prophet to see what’s coming next, until the Lord himself intervenes!
Meanwhile – many souls have been lost – the count continues to rise. Are these men, women and children hearing: “well done my good and faithful servant”? Are they entering into rest. Or did they go from the worst possible violence man can create into one, a billion times worse, which was created for the devil and the fallen angels. We were not meant to go there. It isn’t for us – you lying old devil! Oh Lord, save these souls!!! Save these souls!!

Let us move into today’s study:

Today’s reading is from the book of Ezekiel, chapters 1-4 (embedded below the image below for your convenience). We will be spending the next 2 weeks (and a few days) in the book of Ezekiel. Since our readings have been rather Jumanji-style lately, I will recommend fastening your seatbelts, keeping your hands and feet inside the ride and holding on tight!
(NOTE I: Jumanji was a Hollywood movie, where a board game came to life. For example, if they ran into a swarm of bees in the board game, the same would happen in real life. So saying the reading is Jumanji-style means that what we read in prophecy is being fulfilled as we read it – in real life. Surprisingly literal. )
(NOTE II: ‘fastening seatbelts / carnival ride’ metaphor = I used symbolic language to compare living prophesy to an implied rollercoaster ride. Obviously there are no literal seatbelts for daily living and there is no ride to keep your hands and feet in. )

I explained these symbols for a reason – I easily (within 1 sentence) mixed 2 metaphor-like descriptions. I did not mean we are literally playing Jumanji (a fictions game from a movie) nor did I mean we were literally on a carnival ride. What I meant is that if prophesy continued to come true as we read – and it comes from the book of Ezekiel – then things are going to get wild, weird, and well – more surreal then they already feel!

When someone speaks/writes in symbolic images suddenly we need ‘notes’ to explain – without the notes, some of you may have thought we were going to a carnival while other may have understood it as a metaphor. And the more you read into, and study, sentences which have multiple unrelated symbols that somehow relate (as they are in the same sentence) the more confusing it could be. For example – I implied the word of God came to life literal, so do I mean a literal carnival ride will also come? (no). The reasoning is logical, though. So – put away logic because we are now in the book of Ezekiel and symbols rule, and symbols are mixed, and symbolic meanings are fluid. Things change. AND Ezekiel acts out many prophecies with bizarre behaviors. Like, he lays on his side in the busy street for a year eating food cooked on dung and warns of cannibalism!!! Oh Lord, I pray these are not LITERAL symbols!

Ezekiel is also blessed with seeing images of heavenly beings! And that is how chapter 1 begins. Again, remember, we do not know what he saw literally, figuratively or poetically. (Ezekiel was obviously an artist – poetic, dramatic and creative. – God does love the creative type, but He is also The Creator.) So, let God open your eyes and understanding. A lot of the details described, of these beings, are symbols used throughout the Hebrew community and are understood differently than gentiles understand things. So asking a search engine (on the internet) for the meanings of different symbols in the Hebrew culture is highly recommended – especially since I cannot do this for you, for every symbol. We would be here all year and we only have 2 weeks to unpack a brief gem or two of what God has for us!

There are people who try to interpret this book literal. My thought is that not everything is literal – BUT during the last year many prophesies have come to pass literally – when I was waiting for something to happen that would be symbolically represented by it. So it could be literal. And we have seen the symbolic representation of other prophesies being fulfilled. So it could be symbolic.

Historic timeframe: Ezekiel begins after Judah was already under attack by Babylon, as this happened over many years. Ezekiel and the people around him were in a refugee camp in Babylonian territory. BUT Jerusalem has not fallen yet and Jeremiah is still in the Holy City doing all the things we have read. The tribe of Judah did not fall overnight. It fell little by little – almost like backsliding – right into captivity. Ezekiel was in captivity – God also transported Him in and out of Jerusalem and back to the refugee camp – literally? Figuratively?

Ezekiel is an incredible example of walking in the spirit. It is the only explanation of all of this. Let us also strive to walk in the spirit so we can understand these things which are outside of time and space as we understand it. Also, since (like other prophets) he is outside of time – many of the prophecies pertain to the future and some apply today.

Chapter 1 begins with images of heavenly beings and chapter 2 is God’s call. Chapter 3 describes the weight and responsibility of the calling. And chapter 4 – well, Ezekiel is told to get to work. And warn of the final fall of Jerusalem.

Whenever something bad is happening – God is talking. He wants us to draw close, get into the prayer closet (literal or figuratively) and spend time with Him. He may not tell you directly, but He may use someone else. If this is the case (as is most common) your alone time with God will teach you to be in the spirit so your spirit can bear witness to truth verses lies. Deception runs ramped – false teachers, false prophets and even (in fulfillment of prophesy) false christs are giving lies. Get into the word of God and spend time with him so that you are not deceived. Grow your relationship with God.

RELATIONSHIP:
Do you already have a relationship with a powerful God who cares about your every need because He loves you? Did you know my God can communicate with you and protect you – He has a plan for you to prosper if you just submit to His will and let His plan play out in your life!!! God wants a relationship with you and has already made a plan for your life. He loves you so much He sent His son to this world, to die as a sacrifice for your sins and rise from death with victory over sin and the ability to have a personal relationship with you.
“⁹If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. ¹⁰For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.” Romans 10:9-10 NIV
Here is a prayer for you to pray:
Jesus, I believe you are the way, the truth, the life, and the only way to the Father. I believe you are the son of God, you came to Earth and lived. That you died on the cross as a sacrifice for my sins, and rose again so that I may be saved from my sins and be able to get to know you. I declare: Jesus, you are Lord!
Therefore, I confess that I am a sinner and I ask that you forgive me of my sins and come into my life. Help me to turn away from my sins and transform me into what you have lovingly created me to be. Help me through a real personal relationship grow and accept your will for my life – that I may live in your blessings. Please walk with me, and talk with me – I accept a relationship with you and with our Father God, through you. In the name of Jesus I pray ~ Amen

Matthew 18:18-19

Thank you for reading.
May the God of peace keep you and bless you. May you stay focused on Christ and covered in grace.
Maranatha ~ Come Lord Jesus!

BIBLE READING: Ezekiel 1-4 NKJV

Ezekiel’s Vision of God

1 Now it came to pass in the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, on the fifth day of the month, as I was among the captives by the River Chebar, that the heavens were opened and I saw visions^[a] of God. ²On the fifth day of the month, which was in the fifth year of King Jehoiachin’s captivity, ³the word of the Lord came expressly to Ezekiel the priest, the son of Buzi, in the land of the ^[b]Chaldeans by the River Chebar; and the hand of the Lord was upon him there.

⁴Then I looked, and behold, a whirlwind was coming out of the north, a great cloud with raging fire engulfing itself; and brightness was all around it and radiating out of its midst like the color of amber, out of the midst of the fire. ⁵Also from within it came the likeness of four living creatures. And this was their appearance: they had the likeness of a man. ⁶Each one had four faces, and each one had four wings. ⁷Their ^[c]legs were straight, and the soles of their feet were like the soles of calves’ feet. They sparkled like the color of burnished bronze. ⁸The hands of a man were under their wings on their four sides; and each of the four had faces and wings. ⁹Their wings touched one another. The creatures did not turn when they went, but each one went straight forward.

¹⁰As for the likeness of their faces, each had the face of a man; each of the four had the face of a lion on the right side, each of the four had the face of an ox on the left side, and each of the four had the face of an eagle. ¹¹Thus were their faces. Their wings stretched upward; two wings of each one touched one another, and two covered their bodies. ¹²And each one went straight forward; they went wherever the spirit wanted to go, and they did not turn when they went.

¹³As for the likeness of the living creatures, their appearance was like burning coals of fire, like the appearance of torches going back and forth among the living creatures. The fire was bright, and out of the fire went lightning. ¹⁴And the living creatures ran back and forth, in appearance like a flash of lightning.

¹⁵Now as I looked at the living creatures, behold, a wheel was on the earth beside each living creature with its four faces. ¹⁶The appearance of the wheels and their workings was like the color of beryl, and all four had the same likeness. The appearance of their workings was, as it were, a wheel in the middle of a wheel. ¹⁷When they moved, they went toward any one of four directions; they did not turn aside when they went. ¹⁸As for their rims, they were so high they were awesome; and their rims were full of eyes, all around the four of them. ¹⁹When the living creatures went, the wheels went beside them; and when the living creatures were lifted up from the earth, the wheels were lifted up. ²⁰Wherever the spirit wanted to go, they went, because there the spirit went; and the wheels were lifted together with them, for the spirit of the ^[d]living creatures was in the wheels. ²¹When those went, these went; when those stood, these stood; and when those were lifted up from the earth, the wheels were lifted up together with them, for the spirit of the ^[e]living creatures was in the wheels.

²²The likeness of the ^[f]firmament above the heads of the ^[g]living creatures was like the color of an awesome crystal, stretched out over their heads. ²³And under the firmament their wings spread out straight, one toward another. Each one had two which covered one side, and each one had two which covered the other side of the body. ²⁴When they went, I heard the noise of their wings, like the noise of many waters, like the voice of the Almighty, a tumult like the noise of an army; and when they stood still, they let down their wings. ²⁵A voice came from above the firmament that was over their heads; whenever they stood, they let down their wings.

²⁶And above the firmament over their heads was the likeness of a throne, in appearance like a sapphire stone; on the likeness of the throne was a likeness with the appearance of a man high above it. ²⁷Also from the appearance of His waist and upward I saw, as it were, the color of amber with the appearance of fire all around within it; and from the appearance of His waist and downward I saw, as it were, the appearance of fire with brightness all around. ²⁸Like the appearance of a rainbow in a cloud on a rainy day, so was the appearance of the brightness all around it. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord.

Ezekiel Sent to Rebellious Israel

So when I saw it, I fell on my face, and I heard a voice of One speaking.

Ezekiel Called to Be a Prophet

2 And He said to me, “Son of man, stand on your feet, and I will speak to you.” ²Then the Spirit entered me when He spoke to me, and set me on my feet; and I heard Him who spoke to me. ³And He said to me: “Son of man, I am sending you to the children of Israel, to a rebellious nation that has rebelled against Me; they and their fathers have transgressed against Me to this very day. ⁴For they are ^[h]impudent and stubborn children. I am sending you to them, and you shall say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God.’ ⁵As for them, whether they hear or whether they refuse—for they are a rebellious house—yet they will know that a prophet has been among them.

⁶“And you, son of man, do not be afraid of them nor be afraid of their words, though briers and thorns are with you and you dwell among scorpions; do not be afraid of their words or dismayed by their looks, though they are a rebellious house. ⁷You shall speak My words to them, whether they hear or whether they refuse, for they are rebellious. ⁸But you, son of man, hear what I say to you. Do not be rebellious like that rebellious house; open your mouth and eat what I give you.”

⁹Now when I looked, there was a hand stretched out to me; and behold, a scroll of a book was in it. ¹⁰Then He spread it before me; and there was writing on the inside and on the outside, and written on it were lamentations and mourning and woe.

The Responsibility of the Prophet

3 Moreover He said to me, “Son of man, eat what you find; eat this scroll, and go, speak to the house of Israel.” ²So I opened my mouth, and He caused me to eat that scroll.

³And He said to me, “Son of man, feed your belly, and fill your stomach with this scroll that I give you.” So I ate, and it was in my mouth like honey in sweetness.

⁴Then He said to me: “Son of man, go to the house of Israel and speak with My words to them. ⁵For you are not sent to a people of unfamiliar speech and of hard language, but to the house of Israel, ⁶not to many people of unfamiliar speech and of hard language, whose words you cannot understand. Surely, had I sent you to them, they would have listened to you. ⁷But the house of Israel will not listen to you, because they will not listen to Me; for all the house of Israel are ^[i]impudent and hard-hearted. ⁸Behold, I have made your face strong against their faces, and your forehead strong against their foreheads. ⁹Like adamant stone, harder than flint, I have made your forehead; do not be afraid of them, nor be dismayed at their looks, though they are a rebellious house.”

¹⁰Moreover He said to me: “Son of man, receive into your heart all My words that I speak to you, and hear with your ears. ¹¹And go, get to the captives, to the children of your people, and speak to them and tell them, ‘Thus says the Lord God,’ whether they hear, or whether they refuse.”

¹²Then the Spirit lifted me up, and I heard behind me a great thunderous voice: “Blessed is the glory of the Lord from His place!” ¹³I also heard the noise of the wings of the living creatures that touched one another, and the noise of the wheels beside them, and a great thunderous noise. ¹⁴So the Spirit lifted me up and took me away, and I went in bitterness, in the ^[j]heat of my spirit; but the hand of the Lord was strong upon me. ¹⁵Then I came to the captives at Tel Abib, who dwelt by the River Chebar; and I sat where they sat, and remained there astonished among them seven days.

Ezekiel Is a Watchman

¹⁶Now it came to pass at the end of seven days that the word of the Lord came to me, saying, ¹⁷“Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel; therefore hear a word from My mouth, and give them warning from Me: ¹⁸When I say to the wicked, ‘You shall surely die,’ and you give him no warning, nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life, that same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood I will require at your hand. ¹⁹Yet, if you warn the wicked, and he does not turn from his wickedness, nor from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but you have delivered your soul.

²⁰“Again, when a righteous man turns from his righteousness and commits iniquity, and I lay a stumbling block before him, he shall die; because you did not give him warning, he shall die in his sin, and his righteousness which he has done shall not be remembered; but his blood I will require at your hand. ²¹Nevertheless if you warn the righteous man that the righteous should not sin, and he does not sin, he shall surely live because he took warning; also you will have delivered your soul.”

²²Then the hand of the Lord was upon me there, and He said to me, “Arise, go out into the plain, and there I shall talk with you.”

²³So I arose and went out into the plain, and behold, the glory of the Lord stood there, like the glory which I saw by the River Chebar; and I fell on my face. ²⁴Then the Spirit entered me and set me on my feet, and spoke with me and said to me: “Go, shut yourself inside your house. ²⁵And you, O son of man, surely they will put ropes on you and bind you with them, so that you cannot go out among them. ²⁶I will make your tongue cling to the roof of your mouth, so that you shall be mute and not be ^[k]one to rebuke them, for they are a rebellious house. ²⁷But when I speak with you, I will open your mouth, and you shall say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God.’ He who hears, let him hear; and he who refuses, let him refuse; for they are a rebellious house.

The Siege of Jerusalem Portrayed

4 “You also, son of man, take a clay tablet and lay it before you, and portray on it a city, Jerusalem. ²Lay siege against it, build a siege wall against it, and heap up a mound against it; set camps against it also, and place battering rams against it all around. ³Moreover take for yourself an iron plate, and set it as an iron wall between you and the city. Set your face against it, and it shall be besieged, and you shall lay siege against it. This will be a sign to the house of Israel.

⁴“Lie also on your left side, and lay the iniquity of the house of Israel upon it. According to the number of the days that you lie on it, you shall bear their iniquity. ⁵For I have laid on you the years of their iniquity, according to the number of the days, three hundred and ninety days; so you shall bear the iniquity of the house of Israel. ⁶And when you have completed them, lie again on your right side; then you shall bear the iniquity of the house of Judah forty days. I have laid on you a day for each year.

⁷“Therefore you shall set your face toward the siege of Jerusalem; your arm shall be uncovered, and you shall prophesy against it. ⁸And surely I will ^[l]restrain you so that you cannot turn from one side to another till you have ended the days of your siege.

⁹“Also take for yourself wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet, and spelt; put them into one vessel, and make bread of them for yourself. During the number of days that you lie on your side, three hundred and ninety days, you shall eat it. ¹⁰And your food which you eat shall be by weight, twenty shekels a day; from time to time you shall eat it. ¹¹You shall also drink water by measure, one-sixth of a hin; from time to time you shall drink. ¹²And you shall eat it as barley cakes; and bake it using fuel of human waste in their sight.”

¹³Then the Lord said, “So shall the children of Israel eat their defiled bread among the Gentiles, where I will drive them.”

¹⁴So I said, “Ah, Lord God! Indeed I have never defiled myself from my youth till now; I have never eaten what died of itself or was torn by beasts, nor has abominable^[m] flesh ever come into my mouth.”

¹⁵Then He said to me, “See, I am giving you cow dung instead of human waste, and you shall prepare your bread over it.”

¹⁶Moreover He said to me, “Son of man, surely I will cut off the supply of bread in Jerusalem; they shall eat bread by weight and with anxiety, and shall drink water by measure and with dread, ¹⁷that they may lack bread and water, and be dismayed with one another, and waste away because of their iniquity.

Footnotes
a. Ezekiel 1:1 So with MT, LXX, Vg.; Syr., Tg. a vision
b. Ezekiel 1:3 Or Babylonians, and so elsewhere in the book
c. Ezekiel 1:7 Lit. feet
d. Ezekiel 1:20 Lit. living creature; LXX, Vg. spirit of life; Tg. Creatures
e. Ezekiel 1:21 See note at v. 20
f. Ezekiel 1:22 Or expanse
g. Ezekiel 1:22 So with LXX, Tg., Vg.; MT living creature
h. Ezekiel 2:4 Lit. stiff-faced and hard-hearted sons
i. Ezekiel 3:7 Lit. strong of forehead
j. Ezekiel 3:14 Or anger
k. Ezekiel 3:26 Lit. one who rebukes
l. Ezekiel 4:8 Lit. put ropes on
m. Ezekiel 4:14 Ritually unclean flesh, Lev. 7:18

26 Aug 202124 Aug 2021

Repent and Draw Closer

“Let us search out and examine our ways, And turn back to the Lord; Let us lift our hearts and hands To God in heaven. We have transgressed and rebelled; You have not pardoned.” Lamentations 3:40-42 NKJV

Yesterday we learned it was, not only ok to, but preferred by God for us to take our complaints to Him. He will not call us negative or see us as a problem. Now, let us explore the answer to our complaints. Regardless of what our complaint is – the answer ALWAYS begins with us humbling our selves, repenting and turning to God. In the USA, I have found many Christians who did that when they “got saved” and do not see a need to do it again. Their salvation prayer said forgive us from past and future sins so they are covered, right? Jesus did, after all forgive all past sins as well as future or we would not be forgiven, right???? Let’s take a closer look…

Dear Heavenly Father – As always, please open eye to see and our ears to hear what you are saying! Lord – open our understanding that we may know you and give us wisdom. Please do not let us miss out on what you want and need from us today. Lord, I pray that your word prepare us and not scare us! We forbid the works and influences of fear over your word. And please keep us and bless us and shine your face upon us and pour out grace over us and give us peace! Thank you! – In Jesus name we pray, Amen

Today’s reading is from the book of Lamentations, the second half of chapter 3 through the end of the book (embedded below the image below for your convenience).

First – let me address fear. Head on. I have been accused of trying to manipulate other through fear. I will admit, I forgot how loosed fear is in our world and how it sneaks in even where it was not intended. I am now adding a prayer against it to our daily prayer. It is not my intention to manipulate anyone – make up your own mine. I see we are all in a burning ship – I stand next to a life raft and yell fire!!! I am sorry if that scares you into being paralyzed or scares you into rebelling and declaring there is no fire. It is your choice to board the raft or not. God told me to yell fire and lead you to the raft. I don’t yell fire to scare you or manipulate you – I yell fire because there is a fire.

If I preach hell and brimstone and you turn to God out of fear of hell – have I manipulated you? Shall we remove the passages about hell because it scares you and you may not turn to God for His love, but out of fear of hell?? How many old revivals came from fear of hell – but they stay with God for His love.

I am sorry you are troubled by demonic spirits, which twist the clean work of the Lord. That is my apology. I will not apologize for yelling fire and telling you I have the life raft. I will not apologize for speaking the word of the Lord. Now, you can shake it off you and press in to God or not. I am praying you will press in.

Don’t tell me I need to be more soft and gentle and sweet and show more compassion and speak with softer words – This is who God made me to be. Those with soft words have proven to be the REAL manipulators – and I will not be counted among them. I will not change who I am to manipulate you into listening to me. God made me and said speak this – God did not say add flowers and rainbows and inclusivity! God made me for such a time as this – and as the Lord lives, what the Lord says unto me – That will I speak.

You do not need to listen to me – Israel did not listen to Jeremiah. Isaiah was commissions and the last part of that commission was: hey, by the way, the people will reject you. People even rejected Jesus when he walked the earth and did miracles. I do not need you to listen to me – I NEED to obey God (if you understand that or not).

So to pick back up on today’s reading – no matter our complaint, the answer is our repentance. Too many times we are blind to our own daily need to repent. The disciples asked Jesus – how do we pray? and Jesus said that daily we should pray: “Our Father….. forgive us our sins as we forgive others…”
Yeah, daily we should repent. Daily we should humble ourselves. Do not say you did not sin today – you aren’t dead! I know we strive to die to our sinful nature – but even in that struggle we find ways to sin. None of us have obtained the Holiness that God requires – therefore He imputes it to us as we obey His word and seek Him. You see, true repentance is turning away from the world and seeking God.

Then we can, confidently, pray, declare and decree Psalms 64 (the fasting prayer we are doing – Suddenly God will strike them) or we can pray and decree the many other Psalms and passages for God to come with justice! (And as I said the other day – when that judgment comes, be repented or you will be exposed as well. This is not to scare you but to inform you that you have a chance right now to avoid a potential mess.)

Psalm 64 speaks of the secret plans and agenda that are coming against us individually, locally, nationally and prophetically – so does this passage below. I am praying it for myself as well as for the Body of Believers trapped in Afghanistan and in every part of this world:

“O Lord, You have seen how I am wronged; Judge my case. You have seen all their vengeance, All their schemes against me.
You have heard their reproach, O Lord, All their schemes against me, The lips of my enemies And their whispering against me all the day. Look at their sitting down and their rising up; I am their taunting song.
Repay them, O Lord, According to the work of their hands. Give them a veiled heart; Your curse be upon them! In Your anger, Pursue and destroy them From under the heavens of the Lord.” Lam 3:59-66

Ok, Jesus said to love your enemy. Yes, and forgive them as well. And you will – but first as we discussed yesterday – complain it to God. David had some of the best complaint prayers – he wished some silly things (as well as serious things) would happen to his enemies. God knows our hearts and we need to vent and complain! He is a safe place to complain. Talk it through with Him…. as I take this prayer to God, there are strong principles in here for me to cherish and find hope in: God judges and repays. God knows and is hurt and unhappy with us. God’s got this.
And there are certain things that are poetic, dramatic and helpful to human emotional processing – give them a veiled heart – your curse be upon them – destroy them! Pray it anyway – then pray for God’s will on earth as it is in heaven. Go ahead and love your enemies with prayers of God’s destruction – because He only destroys evil and uses it to grow life. It is love that God destroys the enemies’ influences and strongholds. We pray it because of what happens in the spirit is not what we understand in the flesh. It is a battle NOT against flesh and blood – but it is to destroy the enemy. And humans are NOT the enemy. So pray for the destruction of the enemy! Pray, fervently!

I am so blessed for my relationship with God. In this crazy world we live in – knowing I can hear from Him and obey Him – I can be kept safe from harm because of Him. And quite frankly, I am not making friends, obviously – so it is nice to have His companionship. The bottom line, repent and draw close to God. If you have, do it again and again – each time you get closer and closer.

RELATIONSHIP:
Do you already have a relationship with a powerful God who cares about your every need because He loves you? Did you know my God can communicate with you and protect you – He has a plan for you to prosper if you just submit to His will and let His plan play out in your life!!! God wants a relationship with you and has already made a plan for your life. He loves you so much He sent His son to this world, to die as a sacrifice for your sins and rise from death with victory over sin and the ability to have a personal relationship with you.
“⁹If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. ¹⁰For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.” Romans 10:9-10 NIV
Here is a prayer for you to pray:
Jesus, I believe you are the way, the truth, the life, and the only way to the Father. I believe you are the son of God, you came to Earth and lived. That you died on the cross as a sacrifice for my sins, and rose again so that I may be saved from my sins and be able to get to know you. I declare: Jesus, you are Lord!
Therefore, I confess that I am a sinner and I ask that you forgive me of my sins and come into my life. Help me to turn away from my sins and transform me into what you have lovingly created me to be. Help me through a real personal relationship grow and accept your will for my life – that I may live in your blessings. Please walk with me, and talk with me – I accept a relationship with you and with our Father God, through you. In the name of Jesus I pray ~ Amen

Matthew 18:18-19

Thank you for reading.
May the God of peace keep you and bless you. May you stay focused on Christ and covered in grace.
Maranatha ~ Come Lord Jesus!

BIBLE READING: Lamentations 3:37-5:22 NKJV

³⁷Who is he who speaks and it comes to pass,
When the Lord has not commanded it?
³⁸Is it not from the mouth of the Most High
That woe and well-being proceed?
³⁹Why should a living man ^[a]complain,
A man for the punishment of his sins?

⁴⁰Let us search out and examine our ways,
And turn back to the Lord;
⁴¹Let us lift our hearts and hands
To God in heaven.
⁴²We have transgressed and rebelled;
You have not pardoned.

⁴³You have covered Yourself with anger
And pursued us;
You have slain and not pitied.
⁴⁴You have covered Yourself with a cloud,
That prayer should not pass through.
⁴⁵You have made us an offscouring and refuse
In the midst of the peoples.

⁴⁶All our enemies
Have opened their mouths against us.
⁴⁷Fear and a snare have come upon us,
Desolation and destruction.
⁴⁸My eyes overflow with rivers of water
For the destruction of the daughter of my people.

⁴⁹My eyes flow and do not cease,
Without interruption,
⁵⁰Till the Lord from heaven
Looks down and sees.
⁵¹My eyes bring suffering to my soul
Because of all the daughters of my city.

⁵²My enemies without cause
Hunted me down like a bird.
⁵³They ^[b]silenced my life in the pit
And threw ^[c]stones at me.
⁵⁴The waters flowed over my head;
I said, “I am cut off!”

⁵⁵I called on Your name, O Lord,
From the lowest pit.
⁵⁶You have heard my voice:
“Do not hide Your ear
From my sighing, from my cry for help.”
⁵⁷You drew near on the day I called on You,
And said, “Do not fear!”

⁵⁸O Lord, You have pleaded the case for my soul;
You have redeemed my life.
⁵⁹O Lord, You have seen ^[d]how I am wronged;
Judge my case.
⁶⁰You have seen all their vengeance,
All their schemes against me.

⁶¹You have heard their reproach, O Lord,
All their schemes against me,
⁶²The lips of my enemies
And their whispering against me all the day.
⁶³Look at their sitting down and their rising up;
I am their taunting song.

⁶⁴Repay them, O Lord,
According to the work of their hands.
⁶⁵Give them ^[e]a veiled heart;
Your curse be upon them!
⁶⁶In Your anger,
Pursue and destroy them
From under the heavens of the Lord.

The Degradation of Zion

4 How the gold has become dim!
How changed the fine gold!
The stones of the sanctuary are ^[f]scattered
At the head of every street.

²The precious sons of Zion,
^[g]Valuable as fine gold,
How they are ^[h]regarded as clay pots,
The work of the hands of the potter!

³Even the jackals present their breasts
To nurse their young;
But the daughter of my people is cruel,
Like ostriches in the wilderness.

⁴The tongue of the infant clings
To the roof of its mouth for thirst;
The young children ask for bread,
But no one breaks it for them.

⁵Those who ate delicacies
Are desolate in the streets;
Those who were brought up in scarlet
Embrace ash heaps.

⁶The punishment of the iniquity of the daughter of my people
Is greater than the punishment of the sin of Sodom,
Which was overthrown in a moment,
With no hand to help her!

⁷Her ^[i]Nazirites were ^[j]brighter than snow
And whiter than milk;
They were more ruddy in body than rubies,
Like sapphire in their ^[k]appearance.

⁸Now their appearance is blacker than soot;
They go unrecognized in the streets;
Their skin clings to their bones,
It has become as dry as wood.

⁹Those slain by the sword are better off
Than those who die of hunger;
For these pine away,
Stricken for lack of the fruits of the field.

¹⁰The hands of the compassionate women
Have ^[l]cooked their own children;
They became food for them
In the destruction of the daughter of my people.

¹¹The Lord has fulfilled His fury,
He has poured out His fierce anger.
He kindled a fire in Zion,
And it has devoured its foundations.

¹²The kings of the earth,
And all inhabitants of the world,
Would not have believed
That the adversary and the enemy
Could enter the gates of Jerusalem—

¹³Because of the sins of her prophets
And the iniquities of her priests,
Who shed in her midst
The blood of the just.

¹⁴They wandered blind in the streets;
They have defiled themselves with blood,
So that no one would touch their garments.

¹⁵They cried out to them,
“Go away, unclean!
Go away, go away,
Do not touch us!”
When they fled and wandered,
Those among the nations said,
“They shall no longer dwell here.”

¹⁶The ^[m]face of the Lord scattered them;
He no longer regards them.
The people do not respect the priests
Nor show favor to the elders.

¹⁷Still our eyes failed us,
Watching vainly for our help;
In our watching we watched
For a nation that could not save us.

¹⁸They ^[n]tracked our steps
So that we could not walk in our streets.
Our end was near;
Our days were over,
For our end had come.

¹⁹Our pursuers were swifter
Than the eagles of the heavens.
They pursued us on the mountains
And lay in wait for us in the wilderness.

²⁰The breath of our nostrils, the anointed of the Lord,
Was caught in their pits,
Of whom we said, “Under his shadow
We shall live among the nations.”

²¹Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Edom,
You who dwell in the land of Uz!
The cup shall also pass over to you
And you shall become drunk and make yourself naked.

²²The punishment of your iniquity ^[o]is accomplished,
O daughter of Zion;
He will no longer send you into captivity.
He will punish your iniquity,
O daughter of Edom;
He will uncover your sins!

Prayer for Restoration

5 Remember, O Lord, what has come upon us;
Look, and behold our reproach!
²Our inheritance has been turned over to aliens,
And our houses to foreigners.
³We have become orphans and waifs,
Our mothers are like widows.

⁴We pay for the water we drink,
And our wood comes at a price.
⁵They pursue at our ^[p]heels;
We labor and have no rest.
⁶We have given our hand to the Egyptians
And the Assyrians, to be satisfied with bread.

⁷Our fathers sinned and are no more,
But we bear their iniquities.
⁸Servants rule over us;
There is none to deliver us from their hand.
⁹We get our bread at the risk of our lives,
Because of the sword in the wilderness.

¹⁰Our skin is hot as an oven,
Because of the fever of famine.
¹¹They ravished the women in Zion,
The maidens in the cities of Judah.
¹²Princes were hung up by their hands,
And elders were not respected.
¹³Young men ground at the millstones;
Boys staggered under loads of wood.
¹⁴The elders have ceased gathering at the gate,
And the young men from their music.

¹⁵The joy of our heart has ceased;
Our dance has turned into mourning.
¹⁶The crown has fallen from our head.
Woe to us, for we have sinned!
¹⁷Because of this our heart is faint;
Because of these things our eyes grow dim;
¹⁸Because of Mount Zion which is desolate,
With foxes walking about on it.

¹⁹You, O Lord, remain forever;
Your throne from generation to generation.
²⁰Why do You forget us forever,
And forsake us for so long a time?
²¹Turn us back to You, O Lord, and we will be ^[q]restored;
Renew our days as of old,
²²Unless You have utterly rejected us,
And are very angry with us!

Footnotes

Lamentations 3:39 Or murmur
Lamentations 3:53 LXX put to death
Lamentations 3:53 Lit. a stone on
Lamentations 3:59 Lit. my wrong
Lamentations 3:65 A Jewish tradition sorrow of
Lamentations 4:1 Lit. poured out
Lamentations 4:2 Lit. Weighed against
Lamentations 4:2 reckoned
Lamentations 4:7 Or nobles
Lamentations 4:7 Or purer
Lamentations 4:7 Lit. polishing
Lamentations 4:10 boiled
Lamentations 4:16 Tg. anger
Lamentations 4:18 Lit. hunted
Lamentations 4:22 has been completed
Lamentations 5:5 Lit. necks
Lamentations 5:21 returned

25 Aug 202123 Aug 2021

Merciful Complaint Department

“Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, Because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness. “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “Therefore I hope in Him!” Lamentations 3:22-24 NKJV

God’s mercies are new every morning. They never run out. This seemed like nice poetic words which we sang in my youth – when we prospered and peace (under threats) abounded. Now, as we struggle to see the Lord’s goodness and mercies in the perilous evils of our modern world – we need to know that we know that we know that it is written: The Lord is my portion. This is hope.

Dear Heavenly Father – As always, please open eye to see and our ears to hear what you are saying! Lord – open our understanding that we may know you and give us wisdom. Please do not let us miss out on what you want and need from us today. And please keep us and bless us and shine your face upon us and pour out grace over us and give us peace! Thank you! – In Jesus name we pray, Amen

Today’s reading is from the book of Lamentations chapters 1, 2 and through verse 36 of chapter 3 (embedded below the image below for your convenience). The author is not knows, but we do know he survived the destruction of Jerusalem when the Babylonians took it (and set Jeremiah free as we read in Jeremiah). We cannot begin to understand the horrors the author may have seen. War back then was bloody and rule-less.

I think about Afghanistan. The women and all females ages 6 and up taken as wives in what is really a pedophiliac sex-slave situation. I think of how quickly the airport in Kabul became a symbol of hope even as innocent lives were lost in the cross fire – and then the images of it burning. I see it via the internet – I cannot imagine being there. Even here, not having seen firsthand, I lament.

We have read other poems of lamentation in the Bible already – some of them are: Job’s laments to God, Psalms 10, 63, 69, 74 and 79. These are a form of protest (like if I wrote about how sad Afghanistan is right now – it would be my only way to protest what is happening there). These are a way to share in suffering and process shared emotions. They validate how we feel – not only is this an acceptable prayer to God – But God wants us to go to him and work out our confusion in emotions – it restores dignity in a way that only God can. Many times our grief is shared by God – and our words to Him become His words to us, like in this book.

Chapters 1-4 are Acrostics or Alphabet Poems where each line in chapters one and two starts with a letter from the Hebrew alphabet of 22 letters. Chapter three is the longest chapter and has 3 verses per letter (and is the center of the book) and takes language from Job and the lament psalms.

Chapter one Jerusalem is a widow and chapter two the fall of Jerusalem and God’s inevitable judgment. And poem three – Israel is a suffering man.

These are poems of complaints. In our modern world – if we lodge a complaint (even if justified) you are labeled a “negative person”. Even if you take the complaint to the correct authority. I met a man the other day who was into self-help and had declared that day to be ‘No Complaint Day’. So, how is that helpful to our mental health? It is NOT like thinking about positive things fix the source of the complaint. Thinking about sunshine and rainbows does not stop the violence in Afghanistan. Keeping my complaint inside me is NOT healthy either. Same with the pandemic, the robbing of rights and freedom, the herding innocent children though a clinic for a shot when they cannot give informed consent and their parents are not there, and other complaints.

I can and have told my senator and congressman. They are deaf. Facebook and social media are NOT the world’s complaint department. So who do we cry out to? Who can mourn with us and fix it. Only God. Only our beloved. Only our Father. Our good good Father.

“The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, To the soul who seeks Him. It is good that one should hope and wait quietly For the salvation of the Lord.” Lam 3:25-26

The best part is we can have a relationship with this compassionate and eternally merciful God – who is the creator and the fixer and in control. He loves us each individually – and comes to our rescue.

RELATIONSHIP:
Do you already have a relationship with a powerful God who cares about your every need because He loves you? Did you know my God can communicate with you and protect you – He has a plan for you to prosper if you just submit to His will and let His plan play out in your life!!! God wants a relationship with you and has already made a plan for your life. He loves you so much He sent His son to this world, to die as a sacrifice for your sins and rise from death with victory over sin and the ability to have a personal relationship with you.
“⁹If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. ¹⁰For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.” Romans 10:9-10 NIV
Here is a prayer for you to pray:
Jesus, I believe you are the way, the truth, the life, and the only way to the Father. I believe you are the son of God, you came to Earth and lived. That you died on the cross as a sacrifice for my sins, and rose again so that I may be saved from my sins and be able to get to know you. I declare: Jesus, you are Lord!
Therefore, I confess that I am a sinner and I ask that you forgive me of my sins and come into my life. Help me to turn away from my sins and transform me into what you have lovingly created me to be. Help me through a real personal relationship grow and accept your will for my life – that I may live in your blessings. Please walk with me, and talk with me – I accept a relationship with you and with our Father God, through you. In the name of Jesus I pray ~ Amen

Matthew 18:18-19

Thank you for reading.
May the God of peace keep you and bless you. May you stay focused on Christ and covered in grace.
Maranatha ~ Come Lord Jesus!

BIBLE READING: Lamentations 1:1-3:36 NKJV

Jerusalem in Affliction

1 How lonely sits the city
That was full of people!
How like a widow is she,
Who was great among the nations!
The princess among the provinces
Has become a ^[a]slave!

²She weeps bitterly in the night,
Her tears are on her cheeks;
Among all her lovers
She has none to comfort her.
All her friends have dealt treacherously with her;
They have become her enemies.

³Judah has gone into captivity,
Under affliction and hard servitude;
She dwells among the ^[b]nations,
She finds no rest;
All her persecutors overtake her in dire straits.

⁴The roads to Zion mourn
Because no one comes to the ^[c]set feasts.
All her gates are desolate;
Her priests sigh,
Her virgins are afflicted,
And she is in bitterness.

⁵Her adversaries have become ^[d]the master,
Her enemies prosper;
For the Lord has afflicted her
Because of the multitude of her transgressions.
Her children have gone into captivity before the enemy.

⁶And from the daughter of Zion
All her splendor has departed.
Her princes have become like deer
That find no pasture,
That ^[e]flee without strength
Before the pursuer.

⁷In the days of her affliction and roaming,
Jerusalem remembers all her pleasant things
That she had in the days of old.
When her people fell into the hand of the enemy,
With no one to help her,
The adversaries saw her
And mocked at her ^[f]downfall.

⁸Jerusalem has sinned gravely,
Therefore she has become ^[g]vile.
All who honored her despise her
Because they have seen her nakedness;
Yes, she sighs and turns away.

⁹Her uncleanness is in her skirts;
She did not consider her destiny;
Therefore her collapse was awesome;
She had no comforter.
“O Lord, behold my affliction,
For the enemy is exalted!”

¹⁰The adversary has spread his hand
Over all her ^[h]pleasant things;
For she has seen the nations enter her ^[i]sanctuary,
Those whom You commanded
Not to enter Your assembly.

¹¹All her people sigh,
They ^[j]seek bread;
They have given their ^[k]valuables for food to restore life.
“See, O Lord, and consider,
For I am scorned.”

¹²“Is it nothing to you, all you who ^[l]pass by?
Behold and see
If there is any sorrow like my sorrow,
Which has been brought on me,
Which the Lord has inflicted
In the day of His fierce anger.

¹³“From above He has sent fire into my bones,
And it overpowered them;
He has spread a net for my feet
And turned me back;
He has made me desolate
And faint all the day.

¹⁴“The yoke of my transgressions was ^[m]bound;
They were woven together by His hands,
And thrust upon my neck.
He made my strength fail;
The Lord delivered me into the hands of those whom I am not able to withstand.

¹⁵“The Lord has trampled underfoot all my mighty men in my midst;
He has called an assembly against me
To crush my young men;
The Lord trampled as in a winepress
The virgin daughter of Judah.

¹⁶“For these things I weep;
My eye, my eye overflows with water;
Because the comforter, who should restore my life,
Is far from me.
My children are desolate
Because the enemy prevailed.”

¹⁷Zion ^[n]spreads out her hands,
But no one comforts her;
The Lord has commanded concerning Jacob
That those around him become his adversaries;
Jerusalem has become an unclean thing among them.

¹⁸“The Lord is righteous,
For I rebelled against His ^[o]commandment.
Hear now, all peoples,
And behold my sorrow;
My virgins and my young men
Have gone into captivity.

¹⁹“I called for my lovers,
But they deceived me;
My priests and my elders
Breathed their last in the city,
While they sought food
To restore their life.

²⁰“See, O Lord, that I am in distress;
My soul^[p] is troubled;
My heart is overturned within me,
For I have been very rebellious.
Outside the sword bereaves,
At home it is like death.

²¹“They have heard that I sigh,
But no one comforts me.
All my enemies have heard of my trouble;
They are glad that You have done it.
Bring on the day You have ^[q]announced,
That they may become like me.

²²“Let all their wickedness come before You,
And do to them as You have done to me
For all my transgressions;
For my sighs are many,
And my heart is faint.”

God’s Anger with Jerusalem

2 How the Lord has covered the daughter of Zion
With a cloud in His anger!
He cast down from heaven to the earth
The beauty of Israel,
And did not remember His footstool
In the day of His anger.

²The Lord has swallowed up and has not pitied
All the dwelling places of Jacob.
He has thrown down in His wrath
The strongholds of the daughter of Judah;
He has brought them down to the ground;
He has profaned the kingdom and its princes.

³He has cut off in fierce anger
Every ^[r]horn of Israel;
He has drawn back His right hand
From before the enemy.
He has blazed against Jacob like a flaming fire
Devouring all around.

⁴Standing like an enemy, He has bent His bow;
With His right hand, like an adversary,
He has slain all who were pleasing to His eye;
On the tent of the daughter of Zion,
He has poured out His fury like fire.

⁵The Lord was like an enemy.
He has swallowed up Israel,
He has swallowed up all her palaces;
He has destroyed her strongholds,
And has increased mourning and lamentation
In the daughter of Judah.

⁶He has done violence to His ^[s]tabernacle,
As if it were a garden;
He has destroyed His place of assembly;
The Lord has caused
The appointed feasts and Sabbaths to be forgotten in Zion.
In His burning indignation He has spurned the king and the priest.

⁷The Lord has spurned His altar,
He has abandoned His sanctuary;
He has ^[t]given up the walls of her palaces
Into the hand of the enemy.
They have made a noise in the house of the Lord
As on the day of a set feast.

⁸The Lord has ^[u]purposed to destroy
The wall of the daughter of Zion.
He has stretched out a line;
He has not withdrawn His hand from destroying;
Therefore He has caused the rampart and wall to lament;
They languished together.

⁹Her gates have sunk into the ground;
He has destroyed and broken her bars.
Her king and her princes are among the ^[v]nations;
The Law is no more,
And her prophets find no ^[w]vision from the Lord.

¹⁰The elders of the daughter of Zion
Sit on the ground and keep silence;
^[x]They throw dust on their heads
And gird themselves with sackcloth.
The virgins of Jerusalem
Bow their heads to the ground.

¹¹My eyes fail with tears,
My ^[y]heart is troubled;
My ^[z]bile is poured on the ground
Because of the destruction of the daughter of my people,
Because the children and the infants
Faint in the streets of the city.

¹²They say to their mothers,
“Where is grain and wine?”
As they swoon like the wounded
In the streets of the city,
As their life is poured out
In their mothers’ bosom.

¹³How shall I console^[aa] you?
To what shall I liken you,
O daughter of Jerusalem?
What shall I compare with you, that I may comfort you,
O virgin daughter of Zion?
For your ruin is spread wide as the sea;
Who can heal you?

¹⁴Your prophets have seen for you
False and deceptive visions;
They have not uncovered your iniquity,
To bring back your captives,
But have envisioned for you false prophecies and delusions.

¹⁵All who ^[ab]pass by clap their hands at you;
They hiss and shake their heads
At the daughter of Jerusalem:
“Is this the city that is called
‘The perfection of beauty,
The joy of the whole earth’?”

¹⁶All your enemies have opened their mouth against you;
They hiss and gnash their teeth.
They say, “We have swallowed her up!
Surely this is the day we have waited for;
We have found it, we have seen it!”

¹⁷The Lord has done what He purposed;
He has fulfilled His word
Which He commanded in days of old.
He has thrown down and has not pitied,
And He has caused an enemy to rejoice over you;
He has exalted the ^[ac]horn of your adversaries.

¹⁸Their heart cried out to the Lord,
“O wall of the daughter of Zion,
Let tears run down like a river day and night;
Give yourself no relief;
Give ^[ad]your eyes no rest.

¹⁹“Arise, cry out in the night,
At the beginning of the watches;
Pour out your heart like water before the face of the Lord.
Lift your hands toward Him
For the life of your young children,
Who faint from hunger at the head of every street.”

²⁰“See, O Lord, and consider!
To whom have You done this?
Should the women eat their offspring,
The children ^[ae]they have cuddled?
Should the priest and prophet be slain
In the sanctuary of the Lord?

²¹“Young and old lie
On the ground in the streets;
My virgins and my young men
Have fallen by the sword;
You have slain them in the day of Your anger,
You have slaughtered and not pitied.

²²“You have invited as to a feast day
The terrors that surround me.
In the day of the Lord’s anger
There was no refugee or survivor.
Those whom I have borne and brought up
My enemies have destroyed.”

The Prophet’s Anguish and Hope

3 I am the man who has seen affliction by the rod of His wrath.
²He has led me and made me walk
In darkness and not in light.
³Surely He has turned His hand against me
Time and time again throughout the day.

⁴He has aged my flesh and my skin,
And broken my bones.
⁵He has besieged me
And surrounded me with bitterness and ^[af]woe.
⁶He has set me in dark places
Like the dead of long ago.

⁷He has hedged me in so that I cannot get out;
He has made my chain heavy.
⁸Even when I cry and shout,
He shuts out my prayer.
⁹He has blocked my ways with hewn stone;
He has made my paths crooked.

¹⁰He has been to me a bear lying in wait,
Like a lion in ^[ag]ambush.
¹¹He has turned aside my ways and torn me in pieces;
He has made me desolate.
¹²He has bent His bow
And set me up as a target for the arrow.

¹³He has caused the ^[ah]arrows of His quiver
To pierce my ^[ai]loins.
¹⁴I have become the ridicule of all my people—
Their taunting song all the day.
¹⁵He has filled me with bitterness,
He has made me drink wormwood.

¹⁶He has also broken my teeth with gravel,
And ^[aj]covered me with ashes.
¹⁷You have moved my soul far from peace;
I have forgotten ^[ak]prosperity.
¹⁸And I said, “My strength and my hope
Have perished from the Lord.”

¹⁹Remember my affliction and roaming,
The wormwood and the ^[al]gall.
²⁰My soul still remembers
And ^[am]sinks within me.
²¹This I recall to my mind,
Therefore I have hope.

²²Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed,
Because His compassions fail not.
²³They are new every morning;
Great is Your faithfulness.
²⁴“The Lord is my portion,” says my soul,
“Therefore I hope in Him!”

²⁵The Lord is good to those who wait for Him,
To the soul who seeks Him.
²⁶It is good that one should hope and wait quietly
For the salvation of the Lord.
²⁷It is good for a man to bear
The yoke in his youth.

²⁸Let him sit alone and keep silent,
Because God has laid it on him;
²⁹Let him put his mouth in the dust—
There may yet be hope.
³⁰Let him give his cheek to the one who strikes him,
And be full of reproach.

³¹For the Lord will not cast off forever.
³²Though He causes grief,
Yet He will show compassion
According to the multitude of His mercies.
³³For He does not afflict ^[an]willingly,
Nor grieve the children of men.

³⁴To crush under one’s feet
All the prisoners of the earth,
³⁵To turn aside the justice due a man
Before the face of the Most High,
³⁶Or subvert a man in his cause—
The Lord does not approve.

Footnotes

Lamentations 1:1 Lit. forced laborer
Lamentations 1:3 Gentiles
Lamentations 1:4 appointed
Lamentations 1:5 Lit. her head
Lamentations 1:6 Lit. are gone
Lamentations 1:7 Vg. Sabbaths
Lamentations 1:8 LXX, Vg. moved or removed
Lamentations 1:10 desirable
Lamentations 1:10 holy place, the temple
Lamentations 1:11 hunt food
Lamentations 1:11 desirable things
Lamentations 1:12 Lit. pass by this way
Lamentations 1:14 So with MT, Tg.; LXX, Syr., Vg. watched over
Lamentations 1:17 Prays
Lamentations 1:18 Lit. mouth
Lamentations 1:20 Lit. inward parts
Lamentations 1:21 proclaimed
Lamentations 2:3 Strength
Lamentations 2:6 Lit. booth
Lamentations 2:7 delivered
Lamentations 2:8 determined
Lamentations 2:9 Gentiles
Lamentations 2:9 Prophetic revelation
Lamentations 2:10 A sign of mourning
Lamentations 2:11 Lit. inward parts
Lamentations 2:11 Lit. liver
Lamentations 2:13 Or bear witness to
Lamentations 2:15 Lit. pass by this way
Lamentations 2:17 Strength
Lamentations 2:18 Lit. the daughter of your eye
Lamentations 2:20 Vg. a span long
Lamentations 3:5 hardship or weariness
Lamentations 3:10 Lit. secret places
Lamentations 3:13 Lit. sons of
Lamentations 3:13 Lit. kidneys
Lamentations 3:16 Lit. bent me down in
Lamentations 3:17 Lit. good
Lamentations 3:19 bitterness
Lamentations 3:20 Lit. bowed down
Lamentations 3:33 Lit. from His heart

24 Aug 202123 Aug 2021

‘You’ are God

“Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hamutal the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah. He also did evil in the sight of the Lord, according to all that Jehoiakim had done. For because of the anger of the Lord this happened in Jerusalem and Judah, till He finally cast them out from His presence. Then Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.” Jeremiah 52:1-3 NKJV

Today we finish Jeremiah and I want to start at the beginning and do it again. How oddly comforting God’s judgment is! How strange that this book showed us what was meant for evil – God not only turned around, but God moved. God’s hand was in it. God’s hand protected the ones counted righteous and GOD is GOOD.
And for those who are a bit confused by the circle writing style of prophets – they circle around one last time to recap and summarize. Thank you, God!

Dear Heavenly Father – As always, please open eye to see and our ears to hear what you are saying! Lord – open our understanding that we may know you and give us wisdom. Please do not let us miss out on what you want and need from us today. And please keep us and bless us and shine your face upon us and pour out grace over us and give us peace! Thank you! – In Jesus name we pray, Amen

Today’s reading is from the book of Jeremiah chapters 51-52 (embedded below the image below for your convenience). Chapter 51 continues the proclamations of judgment and 52 reviews and summarizes the historical facts. There is a section in today’s reading that has always left me with questions – so I took this opportunity to dig in deeper, pull out the lexicon and concordance and pull out some commentaries. I prayed about It as well – so today’s thought are just meant to be thought provoking and not meant as a strong study of what it understood as truth about this passage. I will present my questions as a means to encourage you to study, pray about, and discuss it as well. Maybe we can see scripture in multiple lights – and maybe God intended us to understand it in various ways?

“You are My battle-ax and weapons of war: For with you I will break the nation in pieces; With you I will destroy kingdoms;With you I will break in pieces the horse and its rider; With you I will break in pieces the chariot and its rider; With you also I will break in pieces man and woman; With you I will break in pieces old and young; With you I will break in pieces the young man and the maiden; With you also I will break in pieces the shepherd and his flock; With you I will break in pieces the farmer and his yoke of oxen; And with you I will break in pieces governors and rulers.” Jeremiah 51:20-23

My question is simple: In this passage, who is “you”? The traditionally understood interpretation is that Israel / Jacob is God’s battle Ax in this time – the “you” is His people. But God rose up another Nation to Reign down judgment and destruction on Babylon and instructed His children in verse 6 (a few verses before) to flee unless that get caught in it.
Then I think about the style of prophetic writing – where the author goes back and forth between praying (where “you” would be God) and speaking on God’s behalf (where “you” would be Israel/Judah). The passage above this has a “thus says the Lord” and so does the one below – but this passage does not clarify that the Lord is speaking.
Then I think about how when Jesus walked the earth, He had to constantly correct His disciples and other who expected a warrior Messiah and they expected to fight at His side as the battle-ax. We battle NOT against flesh and blood. God doesn’t want blood on our hands. He will and can handle it.

So let us look into the original text – the word for ‘you” used here is the word “you”. It is the pronoun used for second person masculine singular – in other words the typical “you”. (אַתָּ֣ה [’at·tāh]) So we have no new or deeper revelation about who “you” is.

If I logic it out – there is a fairly good chance this passage is not saying the sons of Jacob are the battle-ax – the great and all mighty breaker into pieces! Especially since time showed us God used another nation. So let me propose that the “you” in this passage is actually Jeremiah’s prayer to God and therefore the “you” is God!

If, yes if, this is the case – what a powerful and amazing prayer to pray at such a time as this – God, You do it! God, YOU save! YOU deliver! YOU break the enemies into pieces! YOU are capable, able, and willing! YOU, be loosed to fulfill Your will!!!

I do not know of an Army strong enough to set right the events unfolding in Afghanistan. I do not know of an army willing to rise up against the demon of Pharma and the evil of Australia herding innocent unaccompanied children into get the shot and many falling sick and two have died – Lord God avenge those innocent lives! I do not know of man-made army, who would give credit to our Father, and actually right the wrong without rising above that and into pride and evil corrupted rule!

When God came to me and said it was time to get my life right – I said I will not unless: He is powerful and Mighty, Living God. I said I needed a REAL God – not some pansy make-believe feel good, self-help, watered down version of someone’s hope of who God is! NO! I need the real deal!

This passage – this prayed to God – GOD IS THESE THINGS! God alone can save us. God alone can preserve us! And God alone can look at us and judge and say this is right and this is wrong. And we can have a relationship with Him! This is awesome and amazing! God is so good.

RELATIONSHIP:
Do you already have a relationship with a powerful God who cares about your every need because He loves you? Did you know my God can communicate with you and protect you – He has a plan for you to prosper if you just submit to His will and let His plan play out in your life!!! God wants a relationship with you and has already made a plan for your life. He loves you so much He sent His son to this world, to die as a sacrifice for your sins and rise from death with victory over sin and the ability to have a personal relationship with you.
“⁹If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. ¹⁰For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.” Romans 10:9-10 NIV
Here is a prayer for you to pray:
Jesus, I believe you are the way, the truth, the life, and the only way to the Father. I believe you are the son of God, you came to Earth and lived. That you died on the cross as a sacrifice for my sins, and rose again so that I may be saved from my sins and be able to get to know you. I declare: Jesus, you are Lord!
Therefore, I confess that I am a sinner and I ask that you forgive me of my sins and come into my life. Help me to turn away from my sins and transform me into what you have lovingly created me to be. Help me through a real personal relationship grow and accept your will for my life – that I may live in your blessings. Please walk with me, and talk with me – I accept a relationship with you and with our Father God, through you. In the name of Jesus I pray ~ Amen

Matthew 18:18-19

Thank you for reading.
May the God of peace keep you and bless you. May you stay focused on Christ and covered in grace.
Maranatha ~ Come Lord Jesus!

BIBLE READING: Jeremiah 51-52 NKJV

The Utter Destruction of Babylon

51 Thus says the Lord:

“Behold, I will raise up against Babylon,
Against those who dwell in ^[a]Leb Kamai,
A destroying wind.
²And I will send winnowers to Babylon,
Who shall winnow her and empty her land.
For in the day of doom
They shall be against her all around.
³Against her let the archer bend his bow,
And lift himself up against her in his armor.
Do not spare her young men;
Utterly destroy all her army.
⁴Thus the slain shall fall in the land of the Chaldeans,
And those thrust through in her streets.
⁵For Israel is not forsaken, nor Judah,
By his God, the Lord of hosts,
Though their land was filled with sin against the Holy One of Israel.”

⁶Flee from the midst of Babylon,
And every one save his life!
Do not be cut off in her iniquity,
For this is the time of the Lord’s vengeance;
He shall recompense her.
⁷Babylon was a golden cup in the Lord’s hand,
That made all the earth drunk.
The nations drank her wine;
Therefore the nations are deranged.
⁸Babylon has suddenly fallen and been destroyed.
Wail for her!
Take balm for her pain;
Perhaps she may be healed.

⁹We would have healed Babylon,
But she is not healed.
Forsake her, and let us go everyone to his own country;
For her judgment reaches to heaven and is lifted up to the skies.
¹⁰The Lord has revealed our righteousness.
Come and let us declare in Zion the work of the Lord our God.

¹¹Make^[b] the arrows bright!
Gather the shields!
The Lord has raised up the spirit of the kings of the Medes.
For His plan is against Babylon to destroy it,
Because it is the vengeance of the Lord,
The vengeance for His temple.
¹²Set up the standard on the walls of Babylon;
Make the guard strong,
Set up the watchmen,
Prepare the ambushes.
For the Lord has both devised and done
What He spoke against the inhabitants of Babylon.
¹³O you who dwell by many waters,
Abundant in treasures,
Your end has come,
The measure of your covetousness.
¹⁴The Lord of hosts has sworn by Himself:
“Surely I will fill you with men, as with locusts,
And they shall lift up a shout against you.”

¹⁵He has made the earth by His power;
He has established the world by His wisdom,
And stretched out the heaven by His understanding.
¹⁶When He utters His voice—
There is a multitude of waters in the heavens:
“He causes the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth;
He makes lightnings for the rain;
He brings the wind out of His treasuries.”

¹⁷Everyone is dull-hearted, without knowledge;
Every metalsmith is put to shame by the carved image;
For his molded image is falsehood,
And there is no breath in them.
¹⁸They are futile, a work of errors;
In the time of their punishment they shall perish.
¹⁹The Portion of Jacob is not like them,
For He is the Maker of all things;
And Israel is the tribe of His inheritance.
The Lord of hosts is His name.

²⁰“You are My battle-ax and weapons of war:
For with you I will break the nation in pieces;
With you I will destroy kingdoms;
²¹With you I will break in pieces the horse and its rider;
With you I will break in pieces the chariot and its rider;
²²With you also I will break in pieces man and woman;
With you I will break in pieces old and young;
With you I will break in pieces the young man and the maiden;
²³With you also I will break in pieces the shepherd and his flock;
With you I will break in pieces the farmer and his yoke of oxen;
And with you I will break in pieces governors and rulers.

²⁴“And I will repay Babylon
And all the inhabitants of Chaldea
For all the evil they have done
In Zion in your sight,” says the Lord.

²⁵“Behold, I am against you, O destroying mountain,
Who destroys all the earth,” says the Lord.
“And I will stretch out My hand against you,
Roll you down from the rocks,
And make you a burnt mountain.
²⁶They shall not take from you a stone for a corner
Nor a stone for a foundation,
But you shall be desolate forever,” says the Lord.

²⁷Set up a banner in the land,
Blow the trumpet among the nations!
Prepare the nations against her,
Call the kingdoms together against her:
Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz.
Appoint a general against her;
Cause the horses to come up like the bristling locusts.
²⁸Prepare against her the nations,
With the kings of the Medes,
Its governors and all its rulers,
All the land of his dominion.
²⁹And the land will tremble and sorrow;
For every purpose of the Lord shall be performed against Babylon,
To make the land of Babylon a desolation without inhabitant.
³⁰The mighty men of Babylon have ceased fighting,
They have remained in their strongholds;
Their might has failed,
They became like women;
They have burned her dwelling places,
The bars of her gate are broken.
³¹One runner will run to meet another,
And one messenger to meet another,
To show the king of Babylon that his city is taken on all sides;
³²The passages are blocked,
The reeds they have burned with fire,
And the men of war are terrified.

³³For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel:

“The daughter of Babylon is like a threshing floor
When it is time to thresh her;
Yet a little while
And the time of her harvest will come.”

³⁴“Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon
Has devoured me, he has crushed me;
He has made me an empty vessel,
He has swallowed me up like a monster;
He has filled his stomach with my delicacies,
He has spit me out.
³⁵Let the violence done to me and my flesh be upon Babylon,”
The inhabitant of Zion will say;
“And my blood be upon the inhabitants of Chaldea!”
Jerusalem will say.

³⁶Therefore thus says the Lord:

“Behold, I will plead your case and take vengeance for you.
I will dry up her sea and make her springs dry.
³⁷Babylon shall become a heap,
A dwelling place for jackals,
An astonishment and a hissing,
Without an inhabitant.
³⁸They shall roar together like lions,
They shall growl like lions’ whelps.
³⁹In their excitement I will prepare their feasts;
I will make them drunk,
That they may rejoice,
And sleep a perpetual sleep
And not awake,” says the Lord.
⁴⁰“I will bring them down
Like lambs to the slaughter,
Like rams with male goats.

⁴¹“Oh, how Sheshach^[c] is taken!
Oh, how the praise of the whole earth is seized!
How Babylon has become desolate among the nations!
⁴²The sea has come up over Babylon;
She is covered with the multitude of its waves.
⁴³Her cities are a desolation,
A dry land and a wilderness,
A land where no one dwells,
Through which no son of man passes.
⁴⁴I will punish Bel^[d] in Babylon,
And I will bring out of his mouth what he has swallowed;
And the nations shall not stream to him anymore.
Yes, the wall of Babylon shall fall.

⁴⁵“My people, go out of the midst of her!
And let everyone deliver ^[e]himself from the fierce anger of the Lord.
⁴⁶And lest your heart faint,
And you fear for the rumor that will be heard in the land
(A rumor will come one year,
And after that, in another year
A rumor will come,
And violence in the land,
Ruler against ruler),
⁴⁷Therefore behold, the days are coming
That I will bring judgment on the carved images of Babylon;
Her whole land shall be ashamed,
And all her slain shall fall in her midst.
⁴⁸Then the heavens and the earth and all that is in them
Shall sing joyously over Babylon;
For the plunderers shall come to her from the north,” says the Lord.

⁴⁹As Babylon has caused the slain of Israel to fall,
So at Babylon the slain of all the earth shall fall.
⁵⁰You who have escaped the sword,
Get away! Do not stand still!
Remember the Lord afar off,
And let Jerusalem come to your mind.

⁵¹We are ashamed because we have heard reproach.
Shame has covered our faces,
For strangers have come into the ^[f]sanctuaries of the Lord’s house.

⁵²“Therefore behold, the days are coming,” says the Lord,
“That I will bring judgment on her carved images,
And throughout all her land the wounded shall groan.
⁵³Though Babylon were to ^[g]mount up to heaven,
And though she were to fortify the height of her strength,
Yet from Me plunderers would come to her,” says the Lord.

⁵⁴The sound of a cry comes from Babylon,
And great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans,
⁵⁵Because the Lord is plundering Babylon
And silencing her loud voice,
Though her waves roar like great waters,
And the noise of their voice is uttered,
⁵⁶Because the plunderer comes against her, against Babylon,
And her mighty men are taken.
Every one of their bows is broken;
For the Lord is the God of recompense,
He will surely repay.

⁵⁷“And I will make drunk
Her princes and wise men,
Her governors, her deputies, and her mighty men.
And they shall sleep a perpetual sleep
And not awake,” says the King,
Whose name is the Lord of hosts.

⁵⁸Thus says the Lord of hosts:

“The broad walls of Babylon shall be utterly broken,^[h]
And her high gates shall be burned with fire;
The people will labor in vain,
And the nations, because of the fire;
And they shall be weary.”

Jeremiah’s Command to Seraiah

⁵⁹The word which Jeremiah the prophet commanded Seraiah the son of Neriah, the son of Mahseiah, when he went with Zedekiah the king of Judah to Babylon in the fourth year of his reign. And Seraiah was the quartermaster. ⁶⁰So Jeremiah wrote in a book all the evil that would come upon Babylon, all these words that are written against Babylon. ⁶¹And Jeremiah said to Seraiah, “When you arrive in Babylon and see it, and read all these words, ⁶²then you shall say, ‘O Lord, You have spoken against this place to cut it off, so that none shall remain in it, neither man nor beast, but it shall be desolate forever.’ ⁶³Now it shall be, when you have finished reading this book, that you shall tie a stone to it and throw it out into the Euphrates. ⁶⁴Then you shall say, ‘Thus Babylon shall sink and not rise from the catastrophe that I will bring upon her. And they shall be weary.’ ”

Thus far are the words of Jeremiah.

The Fall of Jerusalem Reviewed

52 Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hamutal the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah. ²He also did evil in the sight of the Lord, according to all that Jehoiakim had done. ³For because of the anger of the Lord this happened in Jerusalem and Judah, till He finally cast them out from His presence. Then Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.

⁴Now it came to pass in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, on the tenth day of the month, that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and all his army came against Jerusalem and encamped against it; and they built a siege wall against it all around. ⁵So the city was besieged until the eleventh year of King Zedekiah. ⁶By the fourth month, on the ninth day of the month, the famine had become so severe in the city that there was no food for the people of the land. ⁷Then the city wall was broken through, and all the men of war fled and went out of the city at night by way of the gate between the two walls, which was by the king’s garden, even though the Chaldeans were near the city all around. And they went by way of the ^[i]plain.

⁸But the army of the Chaldeans pursued the king, and they overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho. All his army was scattered from him. ⁹So they took the king and brought him up to the king of Babylon at Riblah in the land of Hamath, and he pronounced judgment on him. ¹⁰Then the king of Babylon killed the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes. And he killed all the princes of Judah in Riblah. ¹¹He also put out the eyes of Zedekiah; and the king of Babylon bound him in ^[j]bronze fetters, took him to Babylon, and put him in prison till the day of his death.

The Temple and City Plundered and Burned

¹²Now in the fifth month, on the tenth day of the month (which was the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon), Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, who served the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem. ¹³He burned the house of the Lord and the king’s house; all the houses of Jerusalem, that is, all the houses of the great, he burned with fire. ¹⁴And all the army of the Chaldeans who were with the captain of the guard broke down all the walls of Jerusalem all around. ¹⁵Then Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried away captive some of the poor people, the rest of the people who remained in the city, the defectors who had deserted to the king of Babylon, and the rest of the craftsmen. ¹⁶But Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard left some of the poor of the land as vinedressers and farmers.

¹⁷The bronze pillars that were in the house of the Lord, and the carts and the bronze Sea that were in the house of the Lord, the Chaldeans broke in pieces, and carried all their bronze to Babylon. ¹⁸They also took away the pots, the shovels, the trimmers, the ^[k]bowls, the spoons, and all the bronze utensils with which the priests ministered. ¹⁹The basins, the firepans, the bowls, the pots, the lampstands, the spoons, and the cups, whatever was solid gold and whatever was solid silver, the captain of the guard took away. ²⁰The two pillars, one Sea, the twelve bronze bulls which were under it, and the carts, which King Solomon had made for the house of the Lord—the bronze of all these articles was beyond measure. ²¹Now concerning the pillars: the height of one pillar was eighteen ^[l]cubits, a measuring line of twelve cubits could measure its circumference, and its thickness was ^[m]four fingers; it was hollow. ²²A capital of bronze was on it; and the height of one capital was five cubits, with a network and pomegranates all around the capital, all of bronze. The second pillar, with pomegranates was the same. ²³There were ninety-six pomegranates on the sides; all the pomegranates, all around on the network, were one hundred.

The People Taken Captive to Babylonia

²⁴The captain of the guard took Seraiah the chief priest, Zephaniah the second priest, and the three doorkeepers. ²⁵He also took out of the city an ^[n]officer who had charge of the men of war, seven men of the king’s close associates who were found in the city, the principal scribe of the army who mustered the people of the land, and sixty men of the people of the land who were found in the midst of the city. ²⁶And Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard took these and brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah. ²⁷Then the king of Babylon struck them and put them to death at Riblah in the land of Hamath. Thus Judah was carried away captive from its own land.

²⁸These are the people whom Nebuchadnezzar carried away captive: in the seventh year, three thousand and twenty-three Jews; ²⁹in the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar he carried away captive from Jerusalem eight hundred and thirty-two persons; ³⁰in the twenty-third year of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried away captive of the Jews seven hundred and forty-five persons. All the persons were four thousand six hundred.

Jehoiachin Released from Prison

³¹Now it came to pass in the thirty-seventh year of the captivity of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the twelfth month, on the twenty-fifth day of the month, that ^[o]Evil-Merodach king of Babylon, in the first year of his reign, lifted^[p] up the head of Jehoiachin king of Judah and brought him out of prison. ³²And he spoke kindly to him and gave him a more prominent seat than those of the kings who were with him in Babylon. ³³So ^[q]Jehoiachin changed from his prison garments, and he ate bread regularly before the king all the days of his life. ³⁴And as for his provisions, there was a regular ration given him by the king of Babylon, a portion for each day until the day of his death, all the days of his life.

Footnotes

Jeremiah 51:1 Lit. The Midst of Those Who Rise Up Against Me; a code word for Chaldea, Babylonia
Jeremiah 51:11 Polish the arrows!
Jeremiah 51:41 A code word for Babylon, Jer. 25:26
Jeremiah 51:44 A Babylonian god
Jeremiah 51:45 Lit. his soul
Jeremiah 51:51 holy places
Jeremiah 51:53 ascend
Jeremiah 51:58 Lit. laid utterly bare
Jeremiah 52:7 Or Arabah; the Jordan Valley
Jeremiah 52:11 shackles
Jeremiah 52:18 basins
Jeremiah 52:21 18 inches each
Jeremiah 52:21 3 inches
Jeremiah 52:25 Lit. eunuch
Jeremiah 52:31 Or Awil-Marduk; lit. The Man of Marduk
Jeremiah 52:31 Showed favor to
Jeremiah 52:33 Lit. he

23 Aug 202123 Aug 2021

Judgment on the Nations

“For indeed, I will make you small among nations, Despised among men. Your fierceness has deceived you, The pride of your heart, O you who dwell in the clefts of the rock, Who hold the height of the hill! Though you make your nest as high as the eagle, I will bring you down from there,” says the Lord.” Jeremiah 49:15-16 NKJV

This opening verse is just a very fancy way to say pride comes before a fall. As we wrap up this book – God proclaims His vengeance and His judgment on all the nations. And this opening verse certainly describes many national leaders – therefore this is a warning for them. But, before we even get into the thick of things today – let me challenge you to inspect your own heart and make sure there is no pride in you. Repent before The Justice drops His gavel. We are all praying for the Lord to take action – so we should not be surprised when He does. But let us also be spotless and blameless so we do not find ourselves fallen at the beginning of this judgment.

Dear Heavenly Father – As always, please open eye to see and our ears to hear what you are saying! Lord – open our understanding that we may know you and give us wisdom. Please do not let us miss out on what you want and need from us today. And please keep us and bless us and shine your face upon us and pour out grace over us and give us peace! Thank you! – In Jesus name we pray, Amen

Today’s reading is from the book of Jeremiah chapters 49-50 (embedded below the image below for your convenience). Again! This book parallels our modern lives!! And again! I can pull out my sign on a stick and run downtown to the street corner and yell – REPENT FOR THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS AT HAND!!! Seriously – THIS IS MY CALLING! (and helping to lead other to freedom and deliverance.) You see, even if today is not the rapture and even if today is not the last day… the world is literally crashing and burning all around us. Wake up and see our brothers die, our sisters are forced into slavery, and our friends in the middles east, who were regular daily readers of this with you have not been on here in weeks (the closest has been India). Not even Kazakhstan. It is time to get this right, do it right. No matter what others think. I am friends with sinners (so was Jesus) and I have therefore been accused of many things. I stand NOT before my accusers and if they speak to me or not – no matter… I stand ever morning, humbly before the Mighty Living God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and answer to Him alone for my actions. Today we all must choose – what others think or what God thinks.

God’s judgment is already being rolled out. I do not need to be a prophet to see it and you see it too. It will start in the church – with the leaders and then those of us in those pastures/flocks. It will happen. One then the other. Quickly. We asked for God’s judgment on the evil – so the evil in us must be addressed first. It might even feel like it is happening all at once, but there is order.

“My people have been lost sheep. Their shepherds have led them astray; They have turned them away on the mountains. They have gone from mountain to hill; They have forgotten their resting place. All who found them have devoured them; And their adversaries said, ‘We have not offended, Because they have sinned against the Lord, the habitation of justice, The Lord, the hope of their fathers.’“ Jeremiah 50:6-7

Oh yes – the shepherds then the sheep will also be subject – “be Holy as I am Holy” says the Lord. Or be judged and corrected. Thankfully our judgment, even though it will publicly reveal all darkness and might be rather embarrassing, will be for our corrections to make sure we are where He needs us. Unless we have pride and resist the correction (see the opening verse today).

Some say we are seeing the separation of the sheep from the goats – but that is a heavenly separation and with all my study seems to be a judgment of nations at the end of this time. I think the parable of the wheat and tares seems more fitting… At the time of harvest – which it is (Jesus himself said it was time to harvest). The harvesters go in and shake the plants the tares fall and can be separated, gathered, and removed. The divide that you feel and the shaking you feel – God is cleaning things up.

The prayers for revelation, for eyes to be open, for lies exposed, etc… well, here comes the answer – on us and then the world. And here is the joyous hope: Vengeance is His and it come through this justice. The battle is His and it is victorious in His Judgment. We are redeemed, justified, sanctified, and vindicated through His judgment. We are hidden and protected through His righteousness – put on us as a gift through grace.

The Glorious hope: we can plead the blood of Christ over our self and accept His sacrifice for our sins – turn from our ways – and present our self to Him as a living sacrifice daily…. So when the judgment comes – like the first Passover, the judgment will see the blood of Christ the lamb and it will not disgrace us!!!

I do not care if you are a 50 year servant of the most high or a new convert – you want to get this right? Every morning wake up and start your day by offering yourself and your day to God. And every night repent from any evil or any sins and plead and apply the blood of the lamb. Every day – choose who you will serve. Do not test God to see if the judgment will fall on you or not – but go ahead and pray this way for (at least) a week and see the change in you and your prayer life. Get right and miss the judgment. Better yet – get it right so you can just enjoy the blessed life of having a relationship with the Father!!!

RELATIONSHIP:
Do you already have a relationship with a powerful God who cares about your every need because He loves you? Did you know my God can communicate with you and protect you – He has a plan for you to prosper if you just submit to His will and let His plan play out in your life!!! God wants a relationship with you and has already made a plan for your life. He loves you so much He sent His son to this world, to die as a sacrifice for your sins and rise from death with victory over sin and the ability to have a personal relationship with you.
“⁹If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. ¹⁰For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.” Romans 10:9-10 NIV
Here is a prayer for you to pray:
Jesus, I believe you are the way, the truth, the life, and the only way to the Father. I believe you are the son of God, you came to Earth and lived. That you died on the cross as a sacrifice for my sins, and rose again so that I may be saved from my sins and be able to get to know you. I declare: Jesus, you are Lord!
Therefore, I confess that I am a sinner and I ask that you forgive me of my sins and come into my life. Help me to turn away from my sins and transform me into what you have lovingly created me to be. Help me through a real personal relationship grow and accept your will for my life – that I may live in your blessings. Please walk with me, and talk with me – I accept a relationship with you and with our Father God, through you. In the name of Jesus I pray ~ Amen

Matthew 18:18-19

Thank you for reading.
May the God of peace keep you and bless you. May you stay focused on Christ and covered in grace.
Maranatha ~ Come Lord Jesus!

BIBLE READING: Jeremiah 49-50 NKJV

Judgment on Ammon

49 Against the Ammonites.

Thus says the Lord:

“Has Israel no sons?
Has he no heir?
Why then does ^[a]Milcom inherit Gad,
And his people dwell in its cities?
²Therefore behold, the days are coming,” says the Lord,
“That I will cause to be heard an alarm of war
In Rabbah of the Ammonites;
It shall be a desolate mound,
And her ^[b]villages shall be burned with fire.
Then Israel shall take possession of his inheritance,” says the Lord.

³“Wail, O Heshbon, for Ai is plundered!
Cry, you daughters of Rabbah,
Gird yourselves with sackcloth!
Lament and run to and fro by the walls;
For ^[c]Milcom shall go into captivity
With his priests and his princes together.
⁴Why do you boast in the valleys,
^[d]Your flowing valley, O backsliding daughter?
Who trusted in her treasures, saying,
‘Who will come against me?’
⁵Behold, I will bring fear upon you,”
Says the Lord God of hosts,
“From all those who are around you;
You shall be driven out, everyone headlong,
And no one will gather those who wander off.
⁶But afterward I will bring back
The captives of the people of Ammon,” says the Lord.

Judgment on Edom

⁷Against Edom.

Thus says the Lord of hosts:

“Is wisdom no more in Teman?
Has counsel perished from the prudent?
Has their wisdom vanished?
⁸Flee, turn back, dwell in the depths, O inhabitants of Dedan!
For I will bring the calamity of Esau upon him,
The time that I will punish him.
⁹If grape-gatherers came to you,
Would they not leave some gleaning grapes?
If thieves by night,
Would they not destroy until they have enough?
¹⁰But I have made Esau bare;
I have uncovered his secret places,
And he shall not be able to hide himself.
His descendants are plundered,
His brethren and his neighbors,
And he is no more.
¹¹Leave your fatherless children,
I will preserve them alive;
And let your widows trust in Me.”

¹²For thus says the Lord: “Behold, those whose judgment was not to drink of the cup have assuredly drunk. And are you the one who will altogether go unpunished? You shall not go unpunished, but you shall surely drink of it. ¹³For I have sworn by Myself,” says the Lord, “that Bozrah shall become a desolation, a reproach, a ^[e]waste, and a curse. And all its cities shall be perpetual ^[f]wastes.”

¹⁴I have heard a message from the Lord,
And an ambassador has been sent to the nations:
“Gather together, come against her,
And rise up to battle!

¹⁵“For indeed, I will make you small among nations,
Despised among men.
¹⁶Your fierceness has deceived you,
The pride of your heart,
O you who dwell in the clefts of the rock,
Who hold the height of the hill!
Though you make your nest as high as the eagle,
I will bring you down from there,” says the Lord.

¹⁷“Edom also shall be an astonishment;
Everyone who goes by it will be astonished
And will hiss at all its plagues.
¹⁸As in the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah
And their neighbors,” says the Lord,
“No one shall remain there,
Nor shall a son of man dwell in it.

¹⁹“Behold, he shall come up like a lion from the ^[g]floodplain of the Jordan
Against the dwelling place of the strong;
But I will suddenly make him run away from her.
And who is a chosen man that I may appoint over her?
For who is like Me?
Who will arraign Me?
And who is that shepherd
Who will withstand Me?”

²⁰Therefore hear the counsel of the Lord that He has taken against Edom,
And His purposes that He has proposed against the inhabitants of Teman:
Surely the least of the flock shall ^[h]draw them out;
Surely He shall make their dwelling places desolate with them.
²¹The earth shakes at the noise of their fall;
At the cry its noise is heard at the Red Sea.
²²Behold, He shall come up and fly like the eagle,
And spread His wings over Bozrah;
The heart of the mighty men of Edom in that day shall be
Like the heart of a woman in birth pangs.

Judgment on Damascus

²³Against Damascus.

“Hamath and Arpad are shamed,
For they have heard bad news.
They are fainthearted;
There is ^[i]trouble on the sea;
It cannot be quiet.
²⁴Damascus has grown feeble;
She turns to flee,
And fear has seized her.
Anguish and sorrows have taken her like a woman in ^[j]labor.
²⁵Why is the city of praise not deserted, the city of My joy?
²⁶Therefore her young men shall fall in her streets,
And all the men of war shall be cut off in that day,” says the Lord of hosts.
²⁷“I will kindle a fire in the wall of Damascus,
And it shall consume the palaces of Ben-Hadad.”

Judgment on Kedar and Hazor

²⁸Against Kedar and against the kingdoms of Hazor, which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon shall strike.

Thus says the Lord:

“Arise, go up to Kedar,
And devastate the men of the East!
²⁹Their tents and their flocks they shall take away.
They shall take for themselves their curtains,
All their vessels and their camels;
And they shall cry out to them,
‘Fear is on every side!’

³⁰“Flee, get far away! Dwell in the depths,
O inhabitants of Hazor!” says the Lord.
“For Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has taken counsel against you,
And has conceived a plan against you.

³¹“Arise, go up to the wealthy nation that dwells securely,” says the Lord,
“Which has neither gates nor bars,
Dwelling alone.
³²Their camels shall be for booty,
And the multitude of their cattle for plunder.
I will scatter to all winds those ^[k]in the farthest corners,
And I will bring their calamity from all its sides,” says the Lord.
³³“Hazor shall be a dwelling for jackals, a desolation forever;
No one shall reside there,
Nor son of man dwell in it.”

Judgment on Elam

³⁴The word of the Lord that came to Jeremiah the prophet against Elam, in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah, saying, ³⁵“Thus says the Lord of hosts:

‘Behold, I will break the ^[l]bow of Elam,
The foremost of their might.
³⁶Against Elam I will bring the four winds
From the four quarters of heaven,
And scatter them toward all those winds;
There shall be no nations where the outcasts of Elam will not go.
³⁷For I will cause Elam to be dismayed before their enemies
And before those who seek their life.
I will bring disaster upon them,
My fierce anger,’ says the Lord;
‘And I will send the sword after them
Until I have consumed them.
³⁸I will set My throne in Elam,
And will destroy from there the king and the princes,’ says the Lord.

³⁹‘But it shall come to pass in the latter days:
I will bring back the captives of Elam,’ says the Lord.”

Judgment on Babylon and Babylonia

50 The word that the Lord spoke against Babylon and against the land of the Chaldeans by Jeremiah the prophet.

²“Declare among the nations,
Proclaim, and ^[m]set up a standard;
Proclaim—do not conceal it—
Say, ‘Babylon is taken, Bel is shamed.
^[n]Merodach is broken in pieces;
Her idols are humiliated,
Her images are broken in pieces.’
³For out of the north a nation comes up against her,
Which shall make her land desolate,
And no one shall dwell therein.
They shall ^[o]move, they shall depart,
Both man and beast.

⁴“In those days and in that time,” says the Lord,
“The children of Israel shall come,
They and the children of Judah together;
With continual weeping they shall come,
And seek the Lord their God.
⁵They shall ask the way to Zion,
With their faces toward it, saying,
‘Come and let us join ourselves to the Lord
In a perpetual covenant
That will not be forgotten.’

⁶“My people have been lost sheep.
Their shepherds have led them astray;
They have turned them away on the mountains.
They have gone from mountain to hill;
They have forgotten their resting place.
⁷All who found them have devoured them;
And their adversaries said, ‘We have not offended,
Because they have sinned against the Lord, the habitation of justice,
The Lord, the hope of their fathers.’

⁸“Move from the midst of Babylon,
Go out of the land of the Chaldeans;
And be like the ^[p]rams before the flocks.
⁹For behold, I will raise and cause to come up against Babylon
An assembly of great nations from the north country,
And they shall array themselves against her;
From there she shall be captured.
Their arrows shall be like those of ^[q]an expert warrior;
None shall return in vain.
¹⁰And Chaldea shall become plunder;
All who plunder her shall be satisfied,” says the Lord.

¹¹“Because you were glad, because you rejoiced,
You destroyers of My heritage,
Because you have grown fat like a heifer threshing grain,
And you ^[r]bellow like bulls,
¹²Your mother shall be deeply ashamed;
She who bore you shall be ashamed.
Behold, the least of the nations shall be a wilderness,
A dry land and a desert.
¹³Because of the wrath of the Lord
She shall not be inhabited,
But she shall be wholly desolate.
Everyone who goes by Babylon shall be horrified
And hiss at all her plagues.

¹⁴“Put yourselves in array against Babylon all around,
All you who bend the bow;
Shoot at her, spare no arrows,
For she has sinned against the Lord.
¹⁵Shout against her all around;
She has given her hand,
Her foundations have fallen,
Her walls are thrown down;
For it is the vengeance of the Lord.
Take vengeance on her.
As she has done, so do to her.
¹⁶Cut off the sower from Babylon,
And him who handles the sickle at harvest time.
For fear of the oppressing sword
Everyone shall turn to his own people,
And everyone shall flee to his own land.

¹⁷“Israel is like scattered sheep;
The lions have driven him away.
First the king of Assyria devoured him;
Now at last this Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has broken his bones.”

¹⁸Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel:

“Behold, I will punish the king of Babylon and his land,
As I have punished the king of Assyria.
¹⁹But I will bring back Israel to his home,
And he shall feed on Carmel and Bashan;
His soul shall be satisfied on Mount Ephraim and Gilead.
²⁰In those days and in that time,” says the Lord,
“The iniquity of Israel shall be sought, but there shall be none;
And the sins of Judah, but they shall not be found;
For I will pardon those whom I preserve.

²¹“Go up against the land of Merathaim, against it,
And against the inhabitants of Pekod.
^[s]Waste and utterly destroy them,” says the Lord,
“And do according to all that I have commanded you.
²²A sound of battle is in the land,
And of great destruction.
²³How the hammer of the whole earth has been cut apart and broken!
How Babylon has become a desolation among the nations!
²⁴I have laid a snare for you;
You have indeed been trapped, O Babylon,
And you were not aware;
You have been found and also caught,
Because you have contended against the Lord.
²⁵The Lord has opened His armory,
And has brought out the weapons of His indignation;
For this is the work of the Lord God of hosts
In the land of the Chaldeans.
²⁶Come against her from the farthest border;
Open her storehouses;
Cast her up as heaps of ruins,
And destroy her utterly;
Let nothing of her be left.
²⁷Slay all her bulls,
Let them go down to the slaughter.
Woe to them!
For their day has come, the time of their punishment.
²⁸The voice of those who flee and escape from the land of Babylon
Declares in Zion the vengeance of the Lord our God,
The vengeance of His temple.

²⁹“Call together the archers against Babylon.
All you who bend the bow, encamp against it all around;
Let none of them ^[t]escape.
Repay her according to her work;
According to all she has done, do to her;
For she has been proud against the Lord,
Against the Holy One of Israel.
³⁰Therefore her young men shall fall in the streets,
And all her men of war shall be cut off in that day,” says the Lord.
³¹“Behold, I am against you,
O most haughty one!” says the Lord God of hosts;
“For your day has come,
^[u]The time that I will punish you.
³²The most proud shall stumble and fall,
And no one will raise him up;
I will kindle a fire in his cities,
And it will devour all around him.”

³³Thus says the Lord of hosts:

“The children of Israel were oppressed,
Along with the children of Judah;
All who took them captive have held them fast;
They have refused to let them go.
³⁴Their Redeemer is strong;
The Lord of hosts is His name.
He will thoroughly plead their case,
That He may give rest to the land,
And disquiet the inhabitants of Babylon.

³⁵“A sword is against the Chaldeans,” says the Lord,
“Against the inhabitants of Babylon,
And against her princes and her wise men.
³⁶A sword is against the soothsayers, and they will be fools.
A sword is against her mighty men, and they will be dismayed.
³⁷A sword is against their horses,
Against their chariots,
And against all the mixed peoples who are in her midst;
And they will become like women.
A sword is against her treasures, and they will be robbed.
³⁸A ^[v]drought is against her waters, and they will be dried up.
For it is the land of carved images,
And they are insane with their idols.

³⁹“Therefore the wild desert beasts shall dwell there with the jackals,
And the ostriches shall dwell in it.
It shall be inhabited no more forever,
Nor shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation.
⁴⁰As God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah
And their neighbors,” says the Lord,
“So no one shall reside there,
Nor son of man dwell in it.

⁴¹“Behold, a people shall come from the north,
And a great nation and many kings
Shall be raised up from the ends of the earth.
⁴²They shall hold the bow and the lance;
They are cruel and shall not show mercy.
Their voice shall roar like the sea;
They shall ride on horses,
Set in array, like a man for the battle,
Against you, O daughter of Babylon.

⁴³“The king of Babylon has heard the report about them,
And his hands grow feeble;
Anguish has taken hold of him,
Pangs as of a woman in childbirth.

⁴⁴“Behold, he shall come up like a lion from the ^[w]floodplain of the Jordan
Against the dwelling place of the strong;
But I will make them suddenly run away from her.
And who is a chosen man that I may appoint over her?
For who is like Me?
Who will arraign Me?
And who is that shepherd
Who will withstand Me?”

⁴⁵Therefore hear the counsel of the Lord that He has taken against Babylon,
And His purposes that He has proposed against the land of the Chaldeans:
Surely the least of the flock shall draw them out;
Surely He will make their dwelling place desolate with them.
⁴⁶At the noise of the taking of Babylon
The earth trembles,
And the cry is heard among the nations.

Footnotes

Jeremiah 49:1 Heb. Malcam, lit. their king; an Ammonite god, 1 Kin. 11:5; Molech, Lev. 18:21
Jeremiah 49:2 Lit. daughters
Jeremiah 49:3 See v. 1
Jeremiah 49:4 Lit. Your valley is flowing
Jeremiah 49:13 ruin
Jeremiah 49:13 ruins
Jeremiah 49:19 Or thicket
Jeremiah 49:20 Or drag them away
Jeremiah 49:23 anxiety
Jeremiah 49:24 childbirth
Jeremiah 49:32 Lit. cut off at the corner, Jer. 9:26; 25:23
Jeremiah 49:35 Power
Jeremiah 50:2 lift
Jeremiah 50:2 Or Marduk; a Babylonian god
Jeremiah 50:3 Or wander
Jeremiah 50:8 male goats
Jeremiah 50:9 So with some Heb. mss., LXX, Syr.; MT, Tg., Vg. a warrior who makes childless
Jeremiah 50:11 Or neigh like steeds
Jeremiah 50:21 Or Attack with the sword
Jeremiah 50:29 Qr., some Heb. mss., LXX, Tg. add to her
Jeremiah 50:31 So with MT, Tg.; LXX, Vg. The time of your punishment
Jeremiah 50:38 So with MT, Tg., Vg.; Syr. sword; LXX omits A drought is
Jeremiah 50:44 Or thicket

22 Aug 202120 Aug 2021

Weekend Reading (August 22)

Dear Heavenly Father, Please open my understanding as I read the Bible so that I may be able to know you better and hear from you today. Please help your word be planted in my mind, so I may recall it as needed. Bless me with wisdom and knowledge, please. We also pray for Israel and the peace of Jerusalem. In the name of Jesus we pray ~ amen

RELATIONSHIP:
Do you already have a relationship with a powerful God who cares about your every need because He loves you? Did you know my God can communicate with you and protect you – He has a plan for you to prosper if you just submit to His will and let His plan play out in your life!!! God wants a relationship with you and has already made a plan for your life. He loves you so much He sent His son to this world, to die as a sacrifice for your sins and rise from death with victory over sin and the ability to have a personal relationship with you.
“⁹If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. ¹⁰For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.” Romans 10:9-10 NIV
Here is a prayer for you to pray:
Jesus, I believe you are the way, the truth, the life, and the only way to the Father. I believe you are the son of God, you came to Earth and lived. That you died on the cross as a sacrifice for my sins, and rose again so that I may be saved from my sins and be able to get to know you. I declare: Jesus, you are Lord!
Therefore, I confess that I am a sinner and I ask that you forgive me of my sins and come into my life. Help me to turn away from my sins and transform me into what you have lovingly created me to be. Help me through a real personal relationship grow and accept your will for my life – that I may live in your blessings. Please walk with me, and talk with me – I accept a relationship with you and with our Father God, through you. In the name of Jesus I pray ~ Amen

Matthew 18:18-19

NKJV – “Assuredly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Again I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven.”
NAS – “Truly I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven. Again I say to you, that if two of you agree on earth about anything that they may ask, it shall be done for them by My Father who is in heaven.”
ESV – “Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven.”
AMP – “I assure you and most solemnly say to you, whatever you bind [forbid, declare to be improper and unlawful] on earth shall have [already] been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose [permit, declare lawful] on earth shall have [already] been loosed in heaven. Again I say to you, that if two believers on earth agree [that is, are of one mind, in harmony] about anything that they ask [within the will of God], it will be done for them by My Father in heaven.”
NIV – “Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Again, truly I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven.”

Thank you for reading.
May the God of peace keep you and bless you. May you stay focused on Christ and covered in grace.
Maranatha ~ Come Lord Jesus!

BIBLE READING: Jeremiah 46-48 NKJV

Judgment on Egypt

46 The word of the Lord which came to Jeremiah the prophet against the nations. ²Against Egypt.

Concerning the army of Pharaoh Necho, king of Egypt, which was by the River Euphrates in Carchemish, and which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon defeated in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah:

³“Order^[a] the ^[b]buckler and shield,
And draw near to battle!
⁴Harness the horses,
And mount up, you horsemen!
Stand forth with your helmets,
Polish the spears,
Put on the armor!
⁵Why have I seen them dismayed and turned back?
Their mighty ones are beaten down;
They have speedily fled,
And did not look back,
For fear was all around,” says the Lord.
⁶“Do not let the swift flee away,
Nor the mighty man escape;
They will stumble and fall
Toward the north, by the River Euphrates.

⁷“Who is this coming up like a flood,
Whose waters move like the rivers?
⁸Egypt rises up like a flood,
And its waters move like the rivers;
And he says, ‘I will go up and cover the earth,
I will destroy the city and its inhabitants.’
⁹Come up, O horses, and rage, O chariots!
And let the mighty men come forth:
^[c]The Ethiopians and ^[d]the Libyans who handle the shield,
And the Lydians who handle and bend the bow.
¹⁰For this is the day of the Lord God of hosts,
A day of vengeance,
That He may avenge Himself on His adversaries.
The sword shall devour;
It shall be ^[e]satiated and made drunk with their blood;
For the Lord God of hosts has a sacrifice
In the north country by the River Euphrates.

¹¹“Go up to Gilead and take balm,
O virgin, the daughter of Egypt;
In vain you will use many medicines;
You shall not be cured.
¹²The nations have heard of your shame,
And your cry has filled the land;
For the mighty man has stumbled against the mighty;
They both have fallen together.”

Babylonia Will Strike Egypt

¹³The word that the Lord spoke to Jeremiah the prophet, how Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon would come and strike the land of Egypt.

¹⁴“Declare in Egypt, and proclaim in Migdol;
Proclaim in ^[f]Noph and in Tahpanhes;
Say, ‘Stand fast and prepare yourselves,
For the sword devours all around you.’
¹⁵Why are your valiant men swept away?
They did not stand
Because the Lord drove them away.
¹⁶He made many fall;
Yes, one fell upon another.
And they said, ‘Arise!
Let us go back to our own people
And to the land of our nativity
From the oppressing sword.’
¹⁷They cried there,
‘Pharaoh, king of Egypt, is but a noise.
He has passed by the appointed time!’

¹⁸“As I live,” says the King,
Whose name is the Lord of hosts,
“Surely as Tabor is among the mountains
And as Carmel by the sea, so he shall come.
¹⁹O you daughter dwelling in Egypt,
Prepare yourself to go into captivity!
For ^[g]Noph shall be waste and desolate, without inhabitant.

²⁰“Egypt is a very pretty heifer,
But destruction comes, it comes from the north.
²¹Also her mercenaries are in her midst like ^[h]fat bulls,
For they also are turned back,
They have fled away together.
They did not stand,
For the day of their calamity had come upon them,
The time of their punishment.
²²Her noise shall go like a serpent,
For they shall march with an army
And come against her with axes,
Like those who chop wood.

²³“They shall cut down her forest,” says the Lord,
“Though it cannot be searched,
Because they are innumerable,
And more numerous than grasshoppers.
²⁴The daughter of Egypt shall be ashamed;
She shall be delivered into the hand
Of the people of the north.”

²⁵The Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, says: “Behold, I will bring punishment on ^[i]Amon of No,^[j] and Pharaoh and Egypt, with their gods and their kings—Pharaoh and those who trust in him. ²⁶And I will deliver them into the hand of those who seek their lives, into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and the hand of his servants. Afterward it shall be inhabited as in the days of old,” says the Lord.

God Will Preserve Israel

²⁷“But do not fear, O My servant Jacob,
And do not be dismayed, O Israel!
For behold, I will save you from afar,
And your offspring from the land of their captivity;
Jacob shall return, have rest and be at ease;
No one shall make him afraid.
²⁸Do not fear, O Jacob My servant,” says the Lord,
“For I am with you;
For I will make a complete end of all the nations
To which I have driven you,
But I will not make a complete end of you.
I will rightly correct you,
For I will not leave you wholly unpunished.”

Judgment on Philistia

47 The word of the Lord that came to Jeremiah the prophet against the Philistines, before Pharaoh attacked Gaza.

²Thus says the Lord:

“Behold, waters rise out of the north,
And shall be an overflowing flood;
They shall overflow the land and all that is in it,
The city and those who dwell within;
Then the men shall cry,
And all the inhabitants of the land shall wail.
³At the noise of the stamping hooves of his strong horses,
At the rushing of his chariots,
At the rumbling of his wheels,
The fathers will not look back for their children,
^[k]Lacking courage,
⁴Because of the day that comes to plunder all the Philistines,
To cut off from Tyre and Sidon every helper who remains;
For the Lord shall plunder the Philistines,
The remnant of the country of Caphtor.^[l]
⁵Baldness has come upon Gaza,
Ashkelon is cut off
With the remnant of their valley.
How long will you cut yourself?

⁶“O you sword of the Lord,
How long until you are quiet?
Put yourself up into your scabbard,
Rest and be still!
⁷How can ^[m]it be quiet,
Seeing the Lord has given it a charge
Against Ashkelon and against the seashore?
There He has appointed it.”

Judgment on Moab

48 Against Moab.

Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel:

“Woe to Nebo!
For it is plundered,
Kirjathaim is shamed and taken;
^[n]The high stronghold is shamed and dismayed—
²No more praise of Moab.
In Heshbon they have devised evil against her:
‘Come, and let us cut her off as a nation.’
You also shall be cut down, O Madmen!^[o]
The sword shall pursue you;
³A voice of crying shall be from Horonaim:
‘Plundering and great destruction!’

⁴“Moab is destroyed;
^[p]Her little ones have caused a cry to be heard;
⁵For in the Ascent of Luhith they ascend with continual weeping;
For in the descent of Horonaim the enemies have heard a cry of destruction.

⁶“Flee, save your lives!
And be like ^[q]the juniper in the wilderness.
⁷For because you have trusted in your works and your treasures,
You also shall be taken.
And Chemosh shall go forth into captivity,
His priests and his princes together.
⁸And the plunderer shall come against every city;
No one shall escape.
The valley also shall perish,
And the plain shall be destroyed,
As the Lord has spoken.

⁹“Give wings to Moab,
That she may flee and get away;
For her cities shall be desolate,
Without any to dwell in them.
¹⁰Cursed is he who does the work of the Lord deceitfully,
And cursed is he who keeps back his sword from blood.

¹¹“Moab has been at ease from ^[r]his youth;
He has settled on his dregs,
And has not been emptied from vessel to vessel,
Nor has he gone into captivity.
Therefore his taste remained in him,
And his scent has not changed.

¹²“Therefore behold, the days are coming,” says the Lord,
“That I shall send him ^[s]wine-workers
Who will tip him over
And empty his vessels
And break the bottles.
¹³Moab shall be ashamed of Chemosh,
As the house of Israel was ashamed of Bethel, their confidence.

¹⁴“How can you say, ‘We are mighty
And strong men for the war’?
¹⁵Moab is plundered and gone up from her cities;
Her chosen young men have gone down to the slaughter,” says the King,
Whose name is the Lord of hosts.

¹⁶“The calamity of Moab is near at hand,
And his affliction comes quickly.
¹⁷Bemoan him, all you who are around him;
And all you who know his name,
Say, ‘How the strong staff is broken,
The beautiful rod!’

¹⁸“O daughter inhabiting Dibon,
Come down from your glory,
And sit in thirst;
For the plunderer of Moab has come against you,
He has destroyed your strongholds.
¹⁹O inhabitant of Aroer,
Stand by the way and watch;
Ask him who flees
And her who escapes;
Say, ‘What has happened?’
²⁰Moab is shamed, for he is broken down.
Wail and cry!
Tell it in Arnon, that Moab is plundered.

²¹“And judgment has come on the plain country:
On Holon and Jahzah and Mephaath,
²²On Dibon and Nebo and Beth Diblathaim,
²³On Kirjathaim and Beth Gamul and Beth Meon,
²⁴On Kerioth and Bozrah,
On all the cities of the land of Moab,
Far or near.
²⁵The ^[t]horn of Moab is cut off,
And his arm is broken,” says the Lord.

²⁶“Make him drunk,
Because he exalted himself against the Lord.
Moab shall wallow in his vomit,
And he shall also be in derision.
²⁷For was not Israel a derision to you?
Was he found among thieves?
For whenever you speak of him,
You shake your head in scorn.
²⁸You who dwell in Moab,
Leave the cities and dwell in the rock,
And be like the dove which makes her nest
In the sides of the cave’s mouth.

²⁹“We have heard the pride of Moab
(He is exceedingly proud),
Of his loftiness and arrogance and pride,
And of the haughtiness of his heart.”

³⁰“I know his wrath,” says the Lord,
“But it is not right;
His ^[u]lies have made nothing right.
³¹Therefore I will wail for Moab,
And I will cry out for all Moab;
^[v]I will mourn for the men of Kir Heres.
³²O vine of Sibmah! I will weep for you with the weeping of Jazer.
Your plants have gone over the sea,
They reach to the sea of Jazer.
The plunderer has fallen on your summer fruit and your vintage.
³³Joy and gladness are taken
From the plentiful field
And from the land of Moab;
I have caused wine to ^[w]fail from the winepresses;
No one will tread with joyous shouting—
Not joyous shouting!

³⁴“From the cry of Heshbon to Elealeh and to Jahaz
They have uttered their voice,
From Zoar to Horonaim,
Like ^[x]a three-year-old heifer;
For the waters of Nimrim also shall be desolate.

³⁵“Moreover,” says the Lord,
“I will cause to cease in Moab
The one who offers sacrifices in the ^[y]high places
And burns incense to his gods.
³⁶Therefore My heart shall wail like flutes for Moab,
And like flutes My heart shall wail
For the men of Kir Heres.
Therefore the riches they have acquired have perished.

³⁷“For every head shall be bald, and every beard clipped;
On all the hands shall be cuts, and on the loins sackcloth—
³⁸A general lamentation
On all the housetops of Moab,
And in its streets;
For I have broken Moab like a vessel in which is no pleasure,” says the Lord.
³⁹“They shall wail:
‘How she is broken down!
How Moab has turned her back with shame!’
So Moab shall be a derision
And a dismay to all those about her.”

⁴⁰For thus says the Lord:

“Behold, one shall fly like an eagle,
And spread his wings over Moab.
⁴¹Kerioth is taken,
And the strongholds are surprised;
The mighty men’s hearts in Moab on that day shall be
Like the heart of a woman in birth pangs.
⁴²And Moab shall be destroyed as a people,
Because he exalted himself against the Lord.
⁴³Fear and the pit and the snare shall be upon you,
O inhabitant of Moab,” says the Lord.
⁴⁴“He who flees from the fear shall fall into the pit,
And he who gets out of the pit shall be caught in the snare.
For upon Moab, upon it I will bring
The year of their punishment,” says the Lord.

⁴⁵“Those who fled stood under the shadow of Heshbon
Because of exhaustion.
But a fire shall come out of Heshbon,
A flame from the midst of Sihon,
And shall devour the brow of Moab,
The crown of the head of the sons of tumult.
⁴⁶Woe to you, O Moab!
The people of Chemosh perish;
For your sons have been taken captive,
And your daughters captive.

⁴⁷“Yet I will bring back the captives of Moab
In the latter days,” says the Lord.

Thus far is the judgment of Moab.

Footnotes

Jeremiah 46:3 Set in order
Jeremiah 46:3 A small shield
Jeremiah 46:9 Heb. Cush
Jeremiah 46:9 Heb. Put
Jeremiah 46:10 Filled to the full
Jeremiah 46:14 Ancient Memphis
Jeremiah 46:19 Ancient Memphis
Jeremiah 46:21 Lit. calves of the stall
Jeremiah 46:25 A sun god
Jeremiah 46:25 Ancient Thebes
Jeremiah 47:3 Lit. From sinking hands
Jeremiah 47:4 Crete
Jeremiah 47:7 Lit. you
Jeremiah 48:1 Heb. Misgab
Jeremiah 48:2 A city of Moab
Jeremiah 48:4 So with MT, Tg., Vg.; LXX Proclaim it in Zoar
Jeremiah 48:6 Or Aroer, a city of Moab
Jeremiah 48:11 Heb. uses masc. and fem. pronouns interchangeably in this chapter.
Jeremiah 48:12 Lit. tippers of wine bottles
Jeremiah 48:25 Strength
Jeremiah 48:30 idle talk
Jeremiah 48:31 So with DSS, LXX, Vg.; MT He
Jeremiah 48:33 cease
Jeremiah 48:34 Or The Third Eglath, an unknown city, Is. 15:5
Jeremiah 48:35 Places for pagan worship