Ezekiel 3:16-6:14 + Hebrews 4:1-16 + Psalm 104:24-35 + Proverbs 26:27
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Old Testament – In Ezekiel chapter 3 today God appoints Ezekiel as a watchman for Israel! This might sound pretty good at first… but there are some serious ramifications for Ezekiel to follow through with what God asks Ezekiel to do. My thoughts based on this chapter – Are there times in our lives where God asks us to do something that may sound good at first, but then turns out to be harder than we initially thought it would be? With potential some serious ramifications? If so, do you quit? Or do you forge ahead with what God asks of you? Will you stay within God’s will for your life – even when the going gets tough? If God calls you to be a watch-person, will you be obedient to the call?
Ezekiel chapters 4 and 5 get into God’s signs of the coming siege and judgment of Jerusalem and Israel. The thing that went through my mind when reading all of this was the 3rd commandment from Exodus chapter 20, verses 4-6: “You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand {generations} of those who love me and keep my commandments.” The term in these verses “jealous God” did come to my mind when reading Ezekiel 4 and 5. And not in a bad way. But, just in the way it was. God commanded no idols. Israel/Jerusalem created idols and did not repent after repeated warnings. God was “jealous” of all of this, and the siege and judgment came.
Ezekiel chapter 6 continues along the lines of chapters 4 & 5 – with judgment against the very land of Israel because of the pagan shrines. Verses 8 & 9 stood out to me in this chapter: “”But I will let a few of my people escape destruction, and they will be scattered among the nations of the world. Then when they are exiled among the nations, they will remember me. They will recognize how grieved I am by their unfaithful hearts and lustful eyes that long for other gods. Then at last they will hate themselves for all their wickedness.” Here we see that God will preserve the Davidic line – and that the Israelites will eventually repent, and the nation will eventually be restored (as we know in hindsight now). Verse 10 in this chapter also seems to sum up a lot of what’s going on in God’s mind in today’s readings in Ezekiel: “They will know that I alone am the LORD and that I was serious when I predicted that all this would happen to them.” Do we know that God is alone the Lord in our lives today? Do we trust his Word and his predictions without a doubt?
New Testament – Hebrews chapter 4 verse 12 of course makes a One Year Bible blogger’s heart happy 🙂 – “For the word of God is full of living power. It is sharper than the sharpest knife, cutting deep into our innermost thoughts and desires. It exposes us for what we really are.” Do you believe that the Word of God is full of power? Not just power, but Living power? Does it cut deep into your innermost thoughts and desires – and expose the condition of your heart? Does the Bible expose you for who you really are? Do you believe that the Word of God can do this? Will you let the Word of God do this?
This chapter opens up with a beautiful verse: “God’s promise of entering his place of rest still stands.” On a busy day, doesn’t God’s place of rest sound nice? I like that! God has promised us a place of eternal rest if we will simply have faith in his Son. His Son whom verse 14 today tells us: “That is why we have a great High Priest who has gone to heaven, Jesus the Son of God. Let us cling to him and never stop trusting him.” Are you clinging to Jesus as your High Priest? Do you trust Him? Are you longing for your eternal rest with Jesus?
Psalms – Today we finish up Psalm 104, which we started yesterday. I mentioned in yesterday’s post, that this is a great Psalm of praising God’s creation. And indeed it is. What I didn’t realize yesterday, but I picked up today, is that this Psalm overall goes through Genesis 1 and the story of creation. Not quite in the same order of creation, or the same details. But, essentially this Psalm is a retelling of Genesis 1. Very powerful…
I love Psalm 104 verse 33 today – “I will sing to the LORD as long as I live. I will praise my God to my last breath!” I so pray that this verse will be true for both you and me. I pray we will sing to God as long as we live. I pray we will praise God to our very last breath. And in particular at our very last breath I pray we are praising God!
Proverbs – Proverbs 26, verse 27 today is so true: “If you set a trap for others, you will get caught in it yourself. If you roll a boulder down on others, it will roll back and crush you.” This is a great reminder to “do unto others as you’d have done unto you” – and if you do unto others bad stuff, you’ll often fall into your own trap!
Worship Video: Today’s readings in Hebrews 4 reminded me of the Third Day song “Lift Up Your Face:”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ij71LWwPt-w
Have you lifted up your face? Click here to lift up your face to God!
Please join us in memorizing and meditating on a verse of Scripture today: “For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.” Hebrews 4:12 (NIV)
Prayer Point: Pray that God’s Word is living and active in your life! Pray that God words penetrates to your soul and spirit, joints and marrow. Pray that God’s Word judges the thoughts and attitudes of your heart each and every moment of your life!
Comments from You: What verses or insights stand out to you from today’s readings? Please post up by clicking on the “Comments” link below!
Grace, love, peace, and joy!
Mike
p.s. Download our monthly Small Group study notes for our Bible readings at this link.
p.s. #2 – Download a schedule of our Bible readings for the year in PDF format at this link.
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BLOG READERS HISTORICAL COMMUNITY COMMENTS:
Ezekiel 3:16-6:14
I find verses 24 through 27, which are the last four verses in the third chapter very interesting. It’s not so much the words that are spoken to Ezekiel by God but what the reactions of the those watching him might be. I began thinking about what I would say, do and think if I saw a man doing and behaving like Ezekiel. Because I would only see or hear one side of his “conversations” with God, I would more than likely think he was a couple of French fries short of a Happy Meal.
Then the Spirit entered into me and set me on my feet; He spoke and said to me, Go, shut yourself up in your house. But you, O son of man, behold, ropes will be put upon you and you will be bound with them, and you cannot go out among people. And I will make your tongue cleave to the roof of your mouth so that you cannot talk and be a reprover of the people, for they are a rebellious house. But when I speak with you, I will open your mouth and you shall say to the people, Thus says the Lord God; he who hears, let him hear, and he who refuses to hear, let him refuse; for they are a rebellious house. (Ezekiel 3:24-27 AMP)
It is one thing to read the Word of God and just take it all in as if what is being spoken to the prophets is a normal day’s occurrence. If we really thought about how we would react if a serpent came up to us and began speaking like he did to Eve, how we read the Bible would probably take on a new sense of purpose. If the next-door neighbor went into his house, tied himself up with a rope and became reclusive, only speaking intermittently, and when he spoke, they were words of rebuke and judgment, how many of us would take him seriously? I doubt if I would.
Maybe our tendency to dismiss the odd balls amongst us is why we are not to judge situations and people based on mere appearance. Wisdom, godly Wisdom, as stated in the book of Proverbs, should be searched for as diligently as a prospector searches and pans for gold. It doesen’t just walk up to you and smack you in the face and proclaim, “Here I am.” Mabe some thoughtful introspection is needed when something strange this way comes. Maybe some time needs to be set aside to observe, think on and evaluate those strange “church” folk down the street.
I think I need to make some serious changes in my life.
There is a verse in the fifth chapter that has given me something to think about regarding our youth, the next generation,
Because of all your abominable practices, I will do to you what I have never done before and will never do again. Therefore, fathers will eat their own children within you and children will eat their own fathers. I will execute judgments against you, and I will scatter to the wind any among you who survive. (Ezekiel 5:9-10 NET.)
We are a society that devours our own children for the sake of our own pleasure. Instead of protecting them, we expend them to pay for our own sins. They in turn, having learned this behavior from the generation that should have valued them and protected them, they turn and consume their parents having learned the lesson well.
Hebrews 4:1-6
I took note of something here that I had never paid attention to before, God’s rest has always been in existence since the foundation of the world.
3 … “In my anger I made a vow:
`They will never enter my place of rest,’ ”
even though his place of rest has been ready since he made the world.
I know none too few Christians who are looking forward to Jesus’ return because of the “rest” they believe they will receive from work. However, I think God’s rest is not like the rest we have envisioned. If God’s rest existed since creation, then Adam, before the Fall had to have lived in that rest. Yet Adam had a job. He took care of the Garden and He named the animals. It appears to me that rest and work do not cancel each other out and in God’s economy intersect and interact with each other.
Have you enjoyed your work today?
Grace and peace,
Ramona
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Ezekiel 6 (English Standard Version)
8
“Yet I will leave some of you alive. When you have among the nations some who escape the sword, and when you are scattered through the countries,
9
then those of you who escape will remember me among the nations where they are carried captive, how I have been broken over their whoring heart that has departed from me and over their eyes that go whoring after their idols. And they will be loathsome in their own sight for the evils that they have committed, for all their abominations.
10
And they shall know that I am the LORD. I have not said in vain that I would do this evil to them.”
I like verse 9 in the Amplified Bible:
9
Then those of you who escape shall [earnestly] remember Me among the nations to which they shall be carried captive, how that
* I have been broken by their lewdness and
* [I] have Myself broken their wanton heart which has departed from Me and
* [I have] blinded their eyes which turn after their idols wantonly;
and they shall be loathsome in their own sight for the evils which they have committed in all their abominations.
NOTE / PRAYER:
Lord, do not listen to my squealing prayers which want to escape from difficult situations. I know that truth is progressive—that is, if I do not learn truth now, it will be more difficult for me to learn it later.
So, may I allow You, Lord, to use every circumstance from You—even painful ones—to work in me Your mindset. I ask You, Spirit of God, to place within me Your mindset as I seek You and Your Word.
Hebrews 4 (English Standard Version)
1
Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it.
2
For good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened.
6
Since therefore it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience,
7
again he appoints a certain day, “Today,” saying through David so long afterward, in the words already quoted,
“Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.”
11
Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience.
12
For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
NOTE:
I REALLY like verses 11 and 12 in the Amplified Bible:
11
Let us therefore be zealous and exert ourselves and strive diligently to enter that rest [of God, to know and experience it for ourselves], that no one may fall or perish by the same kind of unbelief and disobedience [into which those in the wilderness fell].
12
For the Word that God speaks is alive and full of power [making it active, operative, energizing, and effective]; it is sharper than any two-edged sword, penetrating to the dividing line of the breath of life (soul) and [the immortal] spirit, and of joints and marrow [of the deepest parts of our nature], exposing and sifting and analyzing and judging the very thoughts and purposes of the heart.
***
Our response to our hearts, to the Lord, to life, and to others is key. Our mindset about God is key!
I like Hebrews 3
English Standard Version
12
Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God.
13
But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.
~~~
I like this thought I heard this morning on a CD:
Thank God that the mind we had when we entered the Kingdom of God through faith in Jesus is not the mind we will have when we go to heaven.
I just found this meditation this morning, and it really blessed me.
So I share it with you.
~~~
Those who choose to do this will find that Jesus’ yoke is light because He is a Master who cares for us.
His yoke is not lighter because He demands less, but because He bears more of the load with us.
Vance
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I think it was really interesting that in yesterdays ready in Hebrews 3:15 we are told that “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion.”
And in todays reading in Hebrews 4:7 we are told the same thing–. I take warning in this because it is important enough to mention 2 times in 2 chapters. I”d like to hear your thought on this.
Teri
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I dont read your posts that often as I sould ,but some thing told me to today I was so into it that I started to read out loud (i home school my kids) and my kids started to come one by one and listen I even was explaining not noticing that I was doing just that, what I have been told !
so thanks today I got my children to listen (well as a kid can) is there a way or a kids page any were that they can get to that is safe ? thanks and God Bless.
Nelly
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wow…Eze is pretty heavy…if you dont warn them, their blood is own your hands. Is God saying this to us today? Shouldnt we take others’ salvation that seriously.
Eze hadto do some crazy things!! and this verse:
“Very well,” he said, “I will let you bake your bread over cow manure instead of human excrement.” —hahahahaha.
Hebr. had a beautiful promise to believers: “Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need”
…We can boldly and with “confidence” approach holy God, through Jesus. Isnt that amazing?
Jesus is our high priest yet isnt unsympathedic to us. He is compassionate and knows our temptations, weaknesses and shortcomings. He is attainable!
I think these readings, Eze and Heb. we get a pretty full picture of God.
Great Psalm! I love animals and am so awed by the vast array of sealife and every animal, fish, and bird. If you just look at all those creatures, the colors, the shapes, its incredible!
Great word!
Jenny
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Ezekiel 3:16-6:14
When God gives us something to do and something to say, obedience requires that we do it and say it. Our message should not be tempered by how we think people will feel or whether they will like us are not our job is to just do it and submitted servants and children of God. Ezekiel job as a “Watchman” was not an easy thing to do in his own strength he would have had to rely totally on God to sustain him and empower him.
His job as the nation’s Watchman was not just one of looking to see who was coming and going. The Hebrew word translated watchman is the word:
tsâphâh (tsaw-faw) it is, A primitive root; properly to lean forward, that is, to peer into the distance; by implication to observe, await
This had to be a very lonely job. If you are watching you can’t socialize or “party.” Your people relationships must be few and far between because if you are to watch with a clear line of vision you cannot be encumbered by distractions. You have to be far enough away from the situation to see the “big picture” and to observe any breaches in the landscape. God may be your only companion if the call is placed on your life to “lean forward” so that you can “peer into the distance.”
Grace and peace,
Ramona
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I agree with everything written in the Blog about worshiping idols. I for one waste away too much time idolizing the perfect images of actors and actresses and not worshiping God who is really perfect. God wants us to be perfect as he is perfect and we have this desire to be perfect but it is warped by the idols we see.Our aim for perfection should be directed towards worshiping God who is perfect, not on the images of perfection themselves. This is one of the greatest lies sold and bought by us to worship perfection or images of perfection rather than to worship God who is perfect. Thus the only way to get the perfection we seek is by worshiping God.
David
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Perhaps God wants us all to step out of the box we built in an effort to feel safe, and embrace the possibility that really exist if we are dependent upon HIM (Jesus Christ). HIS rest is active not passive – HIS rest empowers and bring peace to our soul – HIS rest is eternal and without end – HIS rest is to be shared …!
HIS rest and our understanding of rest really are incongruent. 2Cor 13:10
Step out of the box — and press into HIS fullness!
Bishop
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Grateful for being free to read God’s word that penetrates the heart and soul. More thankful to have a savior who truly understands my human conditions and acts as a high priest on my behalf.
Karen
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Hebrews Chapters 4 to 10
Melchizedek.
I am looking forward to the next few days as we try to go a bit deeper into who was this guy? More important is how this affects me, the world around me and my knowledge of this very interesting mysterious man. Jesus is our high priest in the order of Melchizedek. Lots of thoughts here like Abraham’s relationship with him, He was Priest and King, different than the Aaronic Priesthood, some interesting tangents that the Book of Mormon suggests and some Catholic thought that it may have been Jesus himself.
Robert
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In Hebrews, I believe what we gloss over is the rest. One day – “Today” – God appointed the 7th day as a rest day – for eternity. That means as Christians (adopted Israelites) we too are to keep the Sabbath – I believe Paul is clear on this in Hebrews 4:9-10 (also read Isaiah 56 and 58) – this is part of our obedience to Him. We are indeed saved by grace, but we show our love for Him by our obedience. (Matthew 5:17-19)
Lynn
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I feel sometimes like I am a watchman..God uses me to be a watchman and care for his land and to love and encourage others to follow Christ. Often I want to pursue leadership or pursue things in this world that just doesn’t feel right then I know to look up ..seek Him, know he is in control and serve him only. Be watchful but not be watched mentality.
I truly believe that the older we get God prepares us for that eternal rest..I don’t sleep well at night most days..I wake up , get things on my mind. I go go go. So I long for that eternal peaceful rest and I love the rest in Him. I love reading my Bible before a rest and then doze off and have peaceful rest. It’s so nice! Yes it is. Love like none other. To rest in Him.
So true, we see the blemishes not the blessings..we need to see His blessings to be good stewards of God’s creation
Setting traps for others to fall will in cause you to be crushed in the end. Don’t do it. Amen
Dee
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