Earlier this week, I read an Old Testament story about Naaman, a commander in the Aramean army who had leprosy. He heard about Elisha, a prophet in Samaria, and asked if he could go to request healing. The king of Aram sent him to the king of Israel with a…
In this passage, Ezekiel’s personal life formed the object lesson for the Israelites. Not by choice, he lived out Jesus’ description of the cost of following God. Jesus said, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even their own…
Welcome to another theatrical presentation from Ezekiel. I mean that in a good sense of the word, as his words give us a dramatic picture of God’s judgment and punishment on Israel for their spiritual adulterous ways and idolatry. God told Ezekiel Babylon would lay siege to Jerusalem that day,…
After reading the account of Samaria and Jerusalem’s continued spiritual adultery with idols, the last third of chapter 23 describes their consequences and punishment for such detestable practices against the Lord. This passage doesn’t have quite the same glimmer of hope, but it does have a message for us. Read…
Two weeks ago, we read about the older of two adulterous sisters, Samaria, in chapter 23. Newer readers can find previous reading comments on the blog, https://www.tracieheskett.com/blog/. In the next part of this chapter, Ezekiel wrote about the younger sister, Jerusalem. A reader observed much repetition in Ezekiel’s message. Why?…