Ezekiel 34:1-36:38 Shepherding is a foreign concept to us but not to the pages of the Bible. One of our most familiar passages from Psalm 23 is that God is our shepherd. The imagery of God being our shepherd extends beyond that one well known chapter. Ezekiel 34 speaks of God as our loving, caring, and concerned shepherd. God meticulously provides for his people─every one of us, every day. This sa...  Read More

Jeremiah 42:1-44:30; Ezekiel 33:21-33How many times have you asked for someone's opinion when you really did not care what they said because you already had your mind made up? You may have been looking more for validation rather than information. The remnant in Jerusalem claimed they were willing to do what God told them, but when the answer was not what they expected, they refused to listen. They...  Read More

Lamentations 5:1-22; Obadiah 1:1-21; 2 Kings 25:22-26; Jeremiah 40:7-41:18 As we saw yesterday, the book of Lamentations is filled with great sorrow but also substantial hope. The exile has happened, the remnant has no leader, and the land is no longer theirs. Yet in the midst of it all, God is still enthroned, and Obadiah speaks of a future return to the land. Hopelessness and despair are never t...  Read More

Lamentations 2:1-4:22 A long time ago my wife went into my daughter's kindergarten class to present a feelings chart. It was a series of pictures that could help the kids identify their emotions. The book of Lamentations is Jeremiah essentially pointing to the saddest picture on the chart and emphatically announcing that is what matches his feelings. Lamentations 2:11 says, "My eyes fail from weep...  Read More

Jeremiah 39:11-18, 40:1-6; 2 Kings 25:8-21; Jeremiah 52:12-27; 2 Chronicles 36:15-21; Lamentations 1:1-22 The destruction of Jerusalem and the exile of nearly the whole nation occurred in 586 BC. For nearly a millennia God had warned his people what would happen if they abandoned him. Now the fullness of these consequences has come. A clear, tragic description of what happened is found in 2 Chroni...  Read More

Ezekiel 26:15-28:26; 2 Kings 25:3-7; Jeremiah 52:6-11; Jeremiah 39:2-10 What do you do when your circumstances seem hopeless? The Israelites found themselves in a state of complete hopelessness in our reading today. Babylon surrounded their walls and "the famine in the city had become so severe that there was no food for the people to eat" (2 Kings 25:3). We are not talking about inflation prices,...  Read More

Jeremiah 32:1-33:26; Ezekiel 26:1-14 No one buys a bunch of stuff right before they move. Typically, you are trying to throw or give away everything you can. I would imagine these values would be heightened even more when you are facing an exile. The pictures we see of refugees around the world are typically of them carrying a bag or suitcase with all that they own. Jeremiah's response to exile is...  Read More

Ezekiel 24:15-25:17; Jeremiah 34:1-22, 21:1-14; Ezekiel 29:1-16, 30:20-31:18 When we are facing difficulties in life, it is easy to turn inward. We become so consumed by our own circumstances we stop seeing opportunities to serve. We become self-centered rather than others focused. Israel finds itself in a similar time of difficulty. The destruction of Jerusalem is coming (along with the destructi...  Read More

Ezekiel 22:17-23:49; 2 Kings 24:20-25:2; Jeremiah 52:3-5, 39:1; Ezekiel 24:1-14 In America the most common view of God is described as moral therapeutic deism. This is a view that there is a god, but he is primarily concerned about me being a good person more than me having a relationship with him. In this view, he exists for my personal happiness and not for his glory; and he created the world, b...  Read More

Ezekiel 20:1-22:16 Have you ever missed an ingredient in a recipe, and it just did not taste right? Similarly, when we miss aspects of God’s character, it should not feel right. We need to understand fully who God is to be able to respond to him rightly. Ezekiel wanted the “elders of Israel” to know God’s character, so he recounted the Exodus. The phrase “for the sake of my name” is repeated three...  Read More

Ezekiel 17:1-19:14 Ezekiel 17 ends with the Sovereign Lord taking a “tender sprig” from the top of the “cedar,” the messianic line, and planting the Messiah as King over Israel. The birds nesting in the tree symbolize all nations submitting to Messiah’s rule. The chapter ends with a promise, “I the Lord have spoken, and I will do it.” The Messiah will ultimately reign over the world.This Messianic...  Read More

Ezekiel 14:1-16:63 I forgot. This is something I say almost daily as things go in one ear and out the other. How easily we forget things. God, in understanding the forgetfulness of his people, reminds them in Ezekiel 16 of all he has done for them. He brought life to them, raised them, married them, and provided for all their needs. Despite God's extravagant grace and provision, they ran from him ...  Read More