This week, we see God at work in one individual’s life, even as John’s narrative sets the stage for future opposition in response to Jesus’ invitation to all. Read John 4:1-9. John clarified Jesus was not baptizing—only his disciples. The Pharisees heard Jesus was gaining popularity, which sets the stage…
Not quite two years after the previous section addressed to Pharaoh, the Lord called Ezekiel to write a lament for Pharaoh. The lament he wrote served as a song to mourn the death of Egypt and its people.1 Again, Ezekiel used several words to describe Egypt’s destruction to convey there…
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…
Ezekiel was quite the word smith as he described Israel’s spiritual adultery and unfaithfulness to the Lord. In this single chapter, he used more than one word for harlot, two different words for lover, and more than one word for nakedness. He also wrote more than one word for alienated…
The Sovereign Lord is also a God of restoration and reconciliation. He calls His people back to Himself over and over again. He does all this for His glory, to uphold the power and essence of His holy Name. We observed in Ezekiel 19 how God remained true to His…
Picking up where we left off in Ezekiel, we learned back in November that God continued to pursue Israel, even in the midst of judging them for their detestable pagan practices. God offered new birth through covenant relationship with them. In the next part of this chapter, Ezekiel painted quite…
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…
Sorry about the same photo—I need new light photos! Who knew there would be so much “light” in Ezekiel’s message. For anyone who has recently joined in this read-along, notes from previous chapters are available here on this blog. Separately, this week, I studied and wrote brief talks based on…
In the previous chapter, Ezekiel proclaimed God would use a sword to punish Israel, along with famine, plague, and scattering through exile. Here, God specifically described how He would apply His sword to Israel. “The word of the Lord came to me: ‘Son of man, set your face against the…
This study began from a “word for the year” of “know God” and His character, and from there to learn to worship Him more. Blue colored pencil marks phrases in my Bible for “then they will know that I am the Lord” in Ezekiel’s message. It would be good if…