Ezra 2:1-4:5; 1 Chronicles 3:19-24 First things first. This proverbial statement speaks to the issue of priorities. Generally, the first thing we do shows what is important to us. Do we check social media accounts first thing in the morning, scan the news, check our emails, read our Bible, or something else? As the Israelites returned from exile, one of the first things they did was build an altar...

Daniel 6:1-28, 9:1-27; 2 Chronicles 36:22-23; Ezra 1:1-11; 1 Chronicles 3:17-19 There is a cost to every decision we make. If we decide to do one thing, we are giving up the opportunity to do all the other things we might have done. Further, sometimes there is a real cost in deciding to follow God. Daniel chose to remain obedient in praying to God alone rather than the king. The result was being t...

Daniel 7:1-8:27, 5:1-31 God knows all truth, and the future, and sometimes chooses to reveal it to us. In Daniel 5, 7, and 8 God reveals the future, and thus his truth in three ways. First, Daniel sees four beasts and it takes the "son of man" (Daniel 7:13) (Jesus) to explain these are four kingdoms. The fourth kingdom will include a king that will oppose God and his people, but he will be overthr...

Ezekiel 47:1-48:35, 29:17-30:19; 2 Kings 25:27-30; Jeremiah 52:31-34 The final image of Ezekiel's temple is a massive river flowing from the threshold of the temple. The river begins as a trickle but soon becomes so massive it purifies the Dead Sea. That which was formerly dead becomes alive through the power of this river. This river is meant to remind us that all life ultimately comes from God. ...

Ezekiel 44:1-46:24 The temple Ezekiel describes seems to be a still future temple. So the natural question we might ask is, why all the sacrifices? If Christ is the once for all sacrifice, then why would there still be sacrifices offered in Ezekiel's temple? This is a great question. It may help to consider the chronology of sacrifices throughout the Old Testament. Initially, all people could offe...

Ezekiel 40:38-43:27 Unless you are really into architecture, you may have found today's reading a tad dry. It is like we have entered a construction office and are staring at floor plans on a desk. Since this vision came immediately after Israel's exile, it would be natural to assume this temple must have been that which was built upon Israel's return, but it is not. The size of this temple is des...

1 Chronicles 8:29-9:1; Daniel 4:1-37; Ezekiel 40:1-37 Humility. This crucial quality is often missing from our lives and seems to be completely devoid from Nebuchadnezzar's. For us to have a relationship with God, it demands humility. God’s work in the life of Nebuchadnezzar is one of the most drastic acts of God to humble someone. God lowered him to almost animal status so that he might acknowled...

1 Chronicles 5:18-26, 6:3, 6:49, 6:4-15, 7:1-8:28 Unless you are my grandmother, genealogies tend to be tedious, especially when it is not your family. Yet the Bible is filled with genealogies. As we read them, I think it teaches us a few important lessons. First, every person matters to God. People like Ibsam, Iri, Aniam, Suah, and others are only included here in the Bible. We know nothing about...

Ezekiel 32:17-33:20; Jeremiah 52:28-30; Psalm 137:1-9; 1 Chronicles 4:24-5:17 Our world is filled with brokenness and sin. As we look inside our own hearts, we discover brokenness is not just somewhere out there in the world but inside each one of us. One of the appropriate responses to this is brokenness is sadness. We find this attitude expressed in Psalm 137. Judah had been exiled to Babylon an...

Ezekiel 37:1-39:29, 32:1-16 As we read the Bible, it is important we understand the difference between the meaning of a passage and its application. If we knew anything about the book of Ezekiel before this reading it may have been the image in chapter thirty-seven of dry bones coming to life. This image is so popular it has made it into many worship songs. Yet with any passage, it is important fo...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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,...

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...

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...

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...

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...