Day 251, September 8: Bible reading & prayer
Ezekiel 38-39 (chronological); Proverbs 13-14, 1 Corinthians 16 (OT/NT)
We are reading Ezekiel. Ezekiel the priest actually wrote as an exile in the land of the Chaldeans during the era of the kings of Judah and the kings of Israel. The Lord gave Ezekiel vision of what Jeremiah experienced and spoke about, so Ezekiel fills in a lot of understanding for us. The LORD consistently repeats that He even in His wrath and punishment, He will leave a remnant as witness that His word stands, who will then know that He is the LORD.
Reminder that Jehoiachin (Coniah, Jeconiah), king of Judah, grandson of Josiah, actually surrendered to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon after only three months of reign after the death of his rebellious father Jehoiakim. He was taken to Babylon with ten thousand other captives. The LORD appeared to Ezekiel and appointed him to speak His word during the fifth year of Jehoiachin’s exile. Nebuchadnezzar had replaced Jehoiachin with his uncle Mattaniah, renaming him Zedekiah. Zedekiah eventually rebelled against Nebuchadnezzar, like his brother Jehoiakim, had done. This led to the siege and fall of Jerusalem, about which Ezekiel prophesied, and which occurred in our reading on Day 249 (Ezekiel 33:21).
The last couple days of our reading in Ezekiel has been full of the LORD’s promises for Israel, and consequences for the nations who have rejoiced over her plight. Note that the LORD repeats over and over that we know He is the LORD when He fulfills His word which He has spoken.
Yesterday, the LORD had Ezekiel prophesy against Mount Seir [Edom, Esau]. They rejoiced over the desolation of Israel, did not defend them, thought they would possess the land, and spoke arrogantly against the LORD, so He said He would make their land a desolation and then they will know that He is the LORD.
Then the LORD had Ezekiel prophesy to the mountains of Israel. The LORD made them desolate for good reason, so that they would become a possession of the rest of the nations, but He has spoken against the rest of the nations who appropriated His land for themselves with wholehearted joy and scorn of soul. The LORD has spoken in His wrath and jealousy that since they have endured the insults of the nations, the nations around them will endure insults. He is for them and will turn to them. They will be inhabited as formerly and He will treat them better than at the first, and thus they will know that He is the LORD. He will act for the sake of His name which the house of Israel has profaned among the nations where they went. He will vindicate His holiness and then the nations will know that He is the LORD. He will gather Israel from the nations and cleanse them. He will give them a new heart and put a new spirit within them. He will put His Spirit in them and cause them to walk in His statutes and observe His ordinances. They will be His people and He will be their God. He is not doing this for their sake. They should be ashamed and confounded in their ways. When He has rebuilt Israel, the nations will know that He has done it. He will let Israel ask Him to increase their men like a flock. He has spoken and He will do it.
Then the LORD brought Ezekiel in the Spirit to a valley full of bones. He had him prophesy and the bones came together, with sinews, flesh, and skin. Then He told him to prophesy to the breath and they became alive, an exceedingly great army. He said the house of Israel believes their bones are dried up and their hope has perished, but He promises to bring them out of their graves and bring them to the land of Israel. He will put His Spirit within them and they will come to life. He will place them in their own land. Then they will know that He is the LORD, that He has spoken and He has done it. He also has him take two sticks, one which represents Judah and one which represents Israel, and join them together in his hand so they become one stick. He will gather the sons of Israel from the nations and make them one nation, no longer divided into two kingdoms, in the land, with one king, His servant David, over them. He will make an everlasting covenant of peace with them. He will set His sanctuary in their midst forever. His dwelling place will be with them. He will be their God and they will be His people. And the nations will know that He is the LORD, when His sanctuary is in their midst forever.
An overview of our yearly Bible reading plan, with all summaries so far, can be found here. My appeal for the resolution to read your Bibles is here.
September 8 chronological reading: Ezekiel 38-39
Ezekiel 38
v1-6 “And the word of the LORD came to me saying, ‘Son of man, set your face toward Gog of the land of Magog, the prince of Rosh, Meshech and Tubal [prophetic prince], and prophesy against him and say, “Thus says the Lord GOD, ‘Behold, I am against you, O Gog, prince of Rosh, Meshech and Tubal. I will turn you about and put hooks into your jaws, and I will bring you out, and all your army, horses and horsemen, all of them splendidly attired, a great company with buckler and shield, all of them wielding swords; Persia, Ethiopia and Put [probably Libya] with them, all of them with shield and helmet; Gomer [Japeth’s descendants] with all its troops; Beth-togarmah [also descendants of Japehth, probably Assyria] from the remote parts of the north with all its troops—many peoples with you.
v7-9 ‘Be prepared, and prepare yourself, you and all your companies that are assembled about you, and be a guard for them. After many days you will be summoned; in the latter years you will come into the land that is restored from the sword, whose inhabitants have been gathered from many nations to the mountains of Israel which had been a continual waste; but its people were brought out from the nations, and they are living securely, all of them. You will go up, you will come like a storm; you will be like a cloud covering the land, you and all your troops, and many peoples with you.’
v10-13 “Thus says the Lord GOD, ‘It will come about on that day, that thoughts will come into your mind and you will devise an evil plan, and you will say, “I will go up against the land of unwalled villages. I will go against those who are at rest, that live securely, all of them living without walls and having no bars or gates, to capture spoil and to seize plunder, to turn your hand against the waste places which are now inhabited, and against the people who are gathered from the nations, who have acquired cattle and goods, who live at the center of the world.” Sheba [Ethiopia] and Dedan [Arabia] and the merchants of Tarshish [port, likely on the Mediterranean] with all its villages will say to you, “Have you come to capture spoil? Have you assembled your company to seize plunder, to carry away silver and gold, to take away cattle and goods, to capture great spoil?”’”
v14-16 ‘Therefore prophesy, son of man, and say to Gog, “Thus says the Lord GOD, ‘On that day when My people Israel are living securely, will you not know it? You will come from your place out of the remote parts of the north, you and many peoples with you, all of them riding on horses, a great assembly and a mighty army; and you will come up against My people Israel like a cloud to cover the land. It shall come about in the last days that I will bring you against My land, so that the nations may know Me when I am sanctified through you before their eyes, O Gog.’
v17-23 “Thus says the Lord GOD, ‘Are you the one of whom I spoke in former days through My servants the prophets of Israel, who prophesied in those days for many years that I would bring you against them? It will come about on that day, when Gog comes against the land of Israel,’ declares the Lord GOD, ‘that My fury will mount up in My anger. In My zeal and in My blazing wrath I declare that on that day there will surely be a great earthquake in the land of Israel. The fish of the sea, the birds of the heavens, the beasts of the field, all the creeping things that creep on the earth, and all the men who are on the face of the earth will shake at My presence; the mountains also will be thrown down, the steep pathways will collapse and every wall will fall to the ground. I will call for a sword against him on all My mountains,’ declares the Lord GOD. ‘Every man’s sword will be against his brother. With pestilence and with blood I will enter into judgment with him; and I will rain on him and on his troops, and on the many peoples who are with him, a torrential rain, with hailstones, fire and brimstone. I will magnify Myself, sanctify Myself, and make Myself known in the sight of many nations; and they will know that I am the LORD.’”’”
Ezekiel 39
v1-6 “‘And you, son of man, prophesy against Gog and say, “Thus says the Lord GOD, ‘Behold, I am against you, O Gog, prince of Rosh, Meshech and Tubal; and I will turn you around, drive you on, take you up from the remotest parts of the north and bring you against the mountains of Israel. I will strike your bow from your left hand and dash down your arrows from your right hand. You will fall on the mountains of Israel, you and all your troops and the peoples who are with you; I will give you as food to every kind of predatory bird and beast of the field. You will fall on the open field; for it is I who have spoken,’ declares the Lord GOD. ‘And I will send fire upon Magog and those who inhabit the coastlands in safety; and they will know that I am the LORD.
v7-8 ‘My holy name I will make known in the midst of My people Israel; and I will not let My holy name be profaned anymore. And the nations will know that I am the LORD, the Holy One in Israel. Behold, it is coming and it shall be done,’ declares the Lord GOD. ‘That is the day of which I have spoken.
v9-10 ‘Then those who inhabit the cities of Israel will go out and make fires with the weapons and burn them, both shields and bucklers, bows and arrows, war clubs and spears, and for seven years they will make fires of them. They will not take wood from the field or gather firewood from the forests, for they will make fires with the weapons; and they will take the spoil of those who despoiled them and seize the plunder of those who plundered them,’ declares the Lord GOD.
v11-16 ‘On that day I will give Gog a burial ground there in Israel, the valley of those who pass by east of the sea, and it will block off those who would pass by. So they will bury Gog there with all his horde, and they will call it the valley of Hamon-gog [the multitude of Gog]. For seven months the house of Israel will be burying them in order to cleanse the land. Even all the people of the land will bury them; and it will be to their renown on the day that I glorify Myself,’ declares the Lord GOD. ‘They will set apart men who will constantly pass through the land, burying those who were passing through, even those left on the surface of the ground, in order to cleanse it. At the end of seven months they will make a search. As those who pass through the land pass through and anyone sees a man’s bone, then he will set up a marker by it until the buriers have buried it in the valley of Hamon-gog. And even the name of the city will be Hamonah. So they will cleanse the land.’”
v17-20 ‘As for you, son of man, thus says the Lord GOD, “Speak to every kind of bird and to every beast of the field, ‘Assemble and come, gather from every side to My sacrifice which I am going to sacrifice for you, as a great sacrifice on the mountains of Israel, that you may eat flesh and drink blood. You will eat the flesh of mighty men and drink the blood of the princes of the earth, as though they were rams, lambs, goats and bulls, all of them fatlings of Bashan. So you will eat fat until you are glutted, and drink blood until you are drunk, from My sacrifice which I have sacrificed for you. You will be glutted at My table with horses and charioteers, with mighty men and all the men of war,’ declares the Lord GOD.
v21-24 ‘And I will set My glory among the nations; and all the nations will see My judgment which I have executed and My hand which I have laid on them. And the house of Israel will know that I am the LORD their God from that day onward. The nations will know that the house of Israel went into exile for their iniquity because they acted treacherously against Me, and I hid My face from them; so I gave them into the hand of their adversaries, and all of them fell by the sword. According to their uncleanness and according to their transgressions I dealt with them, and I hid My face from them.’”’
v25-29 “Therefore thus says the Lord GOD, ‘Now I will restore the fortunes of Jacob and have mercy on the whole house of Israel; and I will be jealous for My holy name. They will forget their disgrace and all their treachery which they perpetrated against Me, when they live securely on their own land with no one to make them afraid. When I bring them back from the peoples and gather them from the lands of their enemies, then I shall be sanctified through them in the sight of the many nations. Then they will know that I am the LORD their God because I made them go into exile among the nations, and then gathered them again to their own land; and I will leave none of them there any longer. I will not hide My face from them any longer, for I will have poured out My Spirit on the house of Israel,’ declares the Lord GOD.”
September 8 OT/NT readings: Proverbs 13-14, 1 Corinthians 16
We are reading Proverbs in the Old Testament reading plan. We first read Proverbs 13 & 14 in the chronological reading plan on Day 158.
Today we finish Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians in the New Testament reading plan. Paul went to Corinth during his second missionary journey (see timeline of the book of Acts). It was the first place he remained for any length of time (18 months) until a disturbance was formed against him and he moved on. He had met Romans Priscilla and Aquila in Corinth, and he took them with him to Ephesus and left them there while he returned to Antioch. He returned to Ephesus at the beginning of his third missionary journey, staying over 2 years. He wrote what we know as the first letter to the Corinthians from Ephesus. 1 Corinthians 5:9 refers to a previous letter that Paul wrote to the Corinthians and 1 Corinthians 7:1 refers to their writing a letter in return, containing questions he addresses in this letter.
Paul wrote the church in Corinth because he knew there was both division and immorality in the church. He addressed that in the first six chapters. In the seventh chapter, he turned to answering questions that they had written to him, first addressing marriage and then idol worship. He then went on to answer criticisms about himself. He made clear that he, like others, had freedom in Christ. He also explained he had the right, for instance, to be paid for his service as a minister of the gospel. He never exercised this right, however, because he was under compulsion to preach the gospel. He was willing to be all things to all men so that he might save some. He was willing to discipline himself for the sake of the gospel. Paul gave an example of the need for discipline by reminding the Corinthians of the Israelites who were led by Moses and saw amazing miracles and still sinned, warning “let him who thinks he stands take heed that he does not fall” and reminding that the Lord has provided a way of escape from all temptation. We flee idolatry in order not to provoke God to jealousy, to protect ourselves, and not to hurt the conscience of others. We seek the good of others, not pleasing ourselves, so that many may be saved. He turned from this discussion to a criticism of how the Corinthians came together to celebrate the Lord’s Supper. Just as we need to understand our place in the hierarchy and authority of God’s creation, we need to judge ourselves rightly that we are sinners in need of a Savior. That is the proper way to celebrate the Lord’s Supper. He then turned to the consideration of spiritual gifts, reminding us that there are different gifts, ministries, and effects of the Holy Spirit in different individuals, given for the common good, as we are all different and necessary members of one body. Our spiritual gifts are worthless, however, if we do not have love. We should also desire edification of the church in our spiritual gifts. All things done when we assemble are done for edification and should be done in an orderly manner.
In chapter 15, over the last two days, Paul described the essential components of the gospel: “Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.” It matters that Christ was raised from the dead. If Christ has not been raised, our faith is worthless and we will die in our sins. Paul warns us not to be deceived by those who say there is no resurrection, which implies our actions don’t matter: “Do not be deceived: ‘Bad company corrupts good morals.’ Become sober-minded as you ought, and stop sinning; for some have no knowledge of God. I speak this to your shame.” [Our sin distracts us from sharing the gospel, which matters for eternity.] Paul goes on to explain how resurrection works, which is hard for us to understand: “That which you sow does not come to life unless it dies; and that which you sow, you do not sow the body which is to be, but a bare grain, perhaps of wheat or of something else. But God gives it a body just as He wished, and to each of the seeds a body of its own. There are also heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the glory of the heavenly is one, and the glory of the earthly is another. So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown a perishable body, it is raised an imperishable body….flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.” He also tells us another mystery: “we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.” There are implications of this truth for our life: “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord.”
1 Corinthians 16
v1-4 “Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I directed the churches of Galatia, so do you also. On the first day of every week each one of you is to put aside and save, as he may prosper, so that no collections be made when I come. When I arrive, whomever you may approve, I will send them with letters to carry your gift to Jerusalem; and if it is fitting for me to go also, they will go with me.
v5-9 “But I will come to you after I go through Macedonia, for I am going through Macedonia; and perhaps I will stay with you, or even spend the winter, so that you may send me on my way wherever I may go. For I do not wish to see you now just in passing; for I hope to remain with you for some time, if the Lord permits. But I will remain in Ephesus until Pentecost; for a wide door for effective service has opened to me, and there are many adversaries.
v10-11 “Now if Timothy comes, see that he is with you without cause to be afraid, for he is doing the Lord’s work, as I also am. So let no one despise him. But send him on his way in peace, so that he may come to me; for I expect him with the brethren.
v12 “But concerning Apollos our brother, I encouraged him greatly to come to you with the brethren; and it was not at all his desire to come now, but he will come when he has opportunity.
v13-14 “Be on the alert, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong. Let all that you do be done in love.
v15-18 “Now I urge you, brethren (you know the household of Stephanas, that they were the first fruits of Achaia, and that they have devoted themselves for ministry to the saints), that you also be in subjection to such men and to everyone who helps in the work and labors. I rejoice over the coming of Stephanas and Fortunatus and Achaicus, because they have supplied what was lacking on your part. For they have refreshed my spirit and yours. Therefore acknowledge such men.
v19-20 “The churches of Asia greet you. Aquila and Prisca greet you heartily in the Lord, with the church that is in their house. All the brethren greet you. Greet one another with a holy kiss.
v21-24 “The greeting is in my own hand—Paul. If anyone does not love the Lord, he is to be accursed. Maranatha. The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you. My love be with you all in Christ Jesus. Amen.”
Dear Lord,
“My holy name I will make known in the midst of My people Israel; and I will not let My holy name be profaned anymore. And the nations will know that I am the LORD, the Holy One in Israel. Behold, it is coming and it shall be done,” declares the Lord GOD. “That is the day of which I have spoken.”
You are so patient. But there will be a day when Your patience is exhausted. May we be ready.
a wide door for effective service has opened to me, and there are many adversaries.
Help us not be discouraged by obstacles and adversaries. Help us to persevere in serving You.
In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
"You are so patient. But there will be a day when Your patience is exhausted. May we be ready." & "Help us not be discouraged by obstacles and adversaries. Help us to persevere in serving You." Amen. Amen. Thank you Dr. Milhoan. Peace.