Originally, November 1 was celebrated by western churches as All Saint’s Day, a day to remember the saints who have gone before us. Non-religious traditions combined pagan festivals with the name to celebrate “all hallow’s eve.” Setting aside secular customs for a moment, I do like the notion of remembering…
Ezekiel emphasized his theme, you will know that I am the Lord, in the second half of chapter 13. God struck out in wrath against the false prophets. He removed their power to sway the people and lead them astray. Ezekiel didn’t describe this remnant, but the Lord said He…
In the past chapter, God reassured Ezekiel He would indeed fulfill His Words concerning Israel. God then gave Ezekiel a message for Israel’s false prophets. The word of the Lord came to me: “Son of man, prophesy against the prophets of Israel who are now prophesying. Say to those who…
The experience of writing this blog post illustrated the truth of the title concept: God is faithful. It’s been a different week here, with hubby’s injury last Saturday night and all. the. things. that follow such an event. I sat at the computer this afternoon to write, after attending a…
Ezekiel used simple, literal language in much of this passage. It’s interesting to note, though, that he used four different words to discuss God’s upcoming judgment of captivity. To shed light on this concept in our language, “captive” means to take prisoner. Another word Ezekiel used means “capture,” which means…
The word of the Lord came to me: “Son of man, the people of Jerusalem have said of your fellow exiles and all the other Israelites, ‘They are far away from the Lord; this land was given to us as our possession’” (Ezekiel 11:14-15). Ezekiel heard the Word of the…
Let’s review Ezekiel’s travels in the Spirit, in Jerusalem. The Spirit lifted Ezekiel and carried him to the entrance to the north gate of the inner court (8:3). Later the Spirit instructed Ezekiel to go in (to the court) to see the detestable things Israel’s elders were doing within the…
Good intentions turned into sun on beach waves that overpowered the computer screen. (Please excuse typos, etc. as I’m writing Friday afternoon at home after vacation!) Last week we observed a cleansing as a result of Israel’s wickedness, although God preserved for Himself a remnant. “I looked, and I saw…
Chapter 10 is fascinating reading. There’s so much here it will take more than one week to read and study. Ezekiel saw the same, or a similar, vision as the one described in chapter 1. Except, we now have much more context regarding God’s interactions with Israel in these scenes….
Through reading the story of Israel’s relationship with God, we observe not only His justice and punishment of the wicked, but also about God’s mercy and compassion to always save for Himself a remnant. In this chapter, Ezekiel described a time when God reserved a remnant of righteous people for…