Read: Ezekiel 29:1-30:26; Hebreews 11:32-12:13; Psalm 112:1-20a; Proverbs 27:17
In the tenth year of Israel’s exile, Ezekiel prophesied against the king of Egypt calling him a great monster of the sea. God pronounced 40 years of captivity for Egypt because of the harm they did to the children of Israel. Egypt would never be the great power in the earth that it had been.
In the 27th year on the first day of the year (Roshashana) God had Ezekiel prophesy about Babylon. God had used Babylon to defeat and punish Tyre and for its reward, God was going to give them Egypt. How amazing is that! God is so just God that he rewards the just and the unjust. On the day that he did this, God promised to start raising up his people. Many of them would die in the destruction of Egypt. Egypt would be sold to evil men and lay wasted. All its idols would be destroyed and all its temples with their images of their gods.
Hebrews starts out with a list of men God used to bring justice on the land. They conquered kingdoms, served justice and obtained the promise God had given them. These wonderful men and women that have gone before us - some having escaped and others having suffered to the point of death. These people are part of our cloud of witnesses that cheer us on to finish the work they started.
Lord, we are so grateful that you discipline us because it means that you love us and we are his children.
Wednesday, November 14, 2018
Tuesday, November 13, 2018
Tues.’s Devo - Tyre and Sidon
Read: Ezekiel 27:1-28:26; Hebrews 11:17-31; Psalm 111:1-10; Proverbs 27:15-16
In Ezekiel 27, Tyre is depicted as a merchant ship that is built of the finest materials and equipped with the finest of goods. It trades with all the countries and brings back the best the world has to offer. It was used to enrich the whole world and they would see it crash and be shattered by the sea and look upon its destruction with horror and fear. Tyre means “distress” which is suffering, agony and anguish. These synonyms describe Satan’s plan very well.
In Chapter 28, the king of Tyre is addressed as a type of the anti-christ to come. We see in him the picture of Satan and his pride before his fall from heaven. He will also die on the seas as he will be thrown into the lake of fire. We learn that Satan was created blameless but chose wickedness. He was a guardian cherub but his pride over his own beauty and splendor caused him to become corrupted in his wisdom. He was thrown to the earth and made a spectacle before kings (which are us). The horrible things he does to the earth will come back on him and he will have a bad end.
Ezekiel also prophesied against Sidon which means “hunting”. They were Israel’s malicious neighbors who were like painful briers and sharp thorns. God was going to make himself known to them in judgment.
In Hebrews, Abraham was the picture of God who gave his only son to die and be raised again. By faith, Isaac could see the future promise given to Jacob and Esau and when Jacob was dying, he spoke the future over his sons. When Joseph was about to die, he spoke the future over his whole family, the children of Israel. He said that they would come out of Egypt and when they did, they were to bring his bones with them and bury them in the promised land. Moses’ parents saw the future plan God had for Moses and hid him so he could live. Moses believed what they saw and gave up the world’s throne and position to become what God chose for his life. He was able to do this because he saw the one who was invisible - God. By faith, Moses observed the Passover and believed that God would kill the first born if he didn’t apply the blood. He believed that if he would lift up his staff, God would make a way through the Red Sea. He believed that God would give him Jericho if he just did what God told him to do. Even Rahab, a Canaanite, believed God by faith which led to her salvation. Faith is the currency of the Kingdom of God.
Lord, your works are faithful and just; all your precepts are trustworthy and steadfast for ever and ever.
In Ezekiel 27, Tyre is depicted as a merchant ship that is built of the finest materials and equipped with the finest of goods. It trades with all the countries and brings back the best the world has to offer. It was used to enrich the whole world and they would see it crash and be shattered by the sea and look upon its destruction with horror and fear. Tyre means “distress” which is suffering, agony and anguish. These synonyms describe Satan’s plan very well.
In Chapter 28, the king of Tyre is addressed as a type of the anti-christ to come. We see in him the picture of Satan and his pride before his fall from heaven. He will also die on the seas as he will be thrown into the lake of fire. We learn that Satan was created blameless but chose wickedness. He was a guardian cherub but his pride over his own beauty and splendor caused him to become corrupted in his wisdom. He was thrown to the earth and made a spectacle before kings (which are us). The horrible things he does to the earth will come back on him and he will have a bad end.
Ezekiel also prophesied against Sidon which means “hunting”. They were Israel’s malicious neighbors who were like painful briers and sharp thorns. God was going to make himself known to them in judgment.
In Hebrews, Abraham was the picture of God who gave his only son to die and be raised again. By faith, Isaac could see the future promise given to Jacob and Esau and when Jacob was dying, he spoke the future over his sons. When Joseph was about to die, he spoke the future over his whole family, the children of Israel. He said that they would come out of Egypt and when they did, they were to bring his bones with them and bury them in the promised land. Moses’ parents saw the future plan God had for Moses and hid him so he could live. Moses believed what they saw and gave up the world’s throne and position to become what God chose for his life. He was able to do this because he saw the one who was invisible - God. By faith, Moses observed the Passover and believed that God would kill the first born if he didn’t apply the blood. He believed that if he would lift up his staff, God would make a way through the Red Sea. He believed that God would give him Jericho if he just did what God told him to do. Even Rahab, a Canaanite, believed God by faith which led to her salvation. Faith is the currency of the Kingdom of God.
Lord, your works are faithful and just; all your precepts are trustworthy and steadfast for ever and ever.
Monday, November 12, 2018
Mon.’s Devo - The Plan
Read: Ezekiel 24:1-26:21; Hebrews 11:1-16; Psalm 110:1-7; Proverbs 27:14
Ezekiel had been giving them a countdown to destruction and today God pronounced the day that Babylon would lay siege to Jerusalem. That day: the tenth day of the tenth month of the ninth year was the day God would put the pot (Jerusalem) on the fire to cook its contents.
Ezekiel, as the watchman on the wall had to carry a heavy burden as their prophet. God told him his wife, the pride and delight of his eyes and object of his affection would die and he was not to mourn for her. When this happened the people asked what it meant and he told them that they would lose their families and the things they loved the most and not be able to mourn for them either.
God would punish all the nations that were glad when Jerusalem was plundered - the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Edomites and the Philistines.
Two years later, God pronounced a sentence against Tyre. Her beautiful port and city would become an empty rock. Nebuchadnezzar from Babylon would batter and beat it down to the ground and it would no longer be a wealthy metropolis of parties and opulence, but a fallen city of God’s wrath never to be rebuilt.
Today we read the “faith chapter” in Hebrews. Faith is defined as being able to imagine what we cannot see, believing that one day it will manifest on earth. We have a list of people in the Bible who’s lives are examples of faith.
Abel had faith to give God an offering that was perfect making him righteous. Abel was the picture of Jesus, our perfect sacrifice.
Enoch walked straight into heaven bypassing death. His life pleased God and was a picture of the rapture of the Bride.
Noah believed what God said about destroying the earth and built the ark according to God’s blueprints. He was a picture of the Church that would go through the Great Tribulation.
Abraham left his homeland by faith to travel to a land he had never seen looking for a city that God would build. He is a picture of the father of the New Earth.
In these four examples we see the whole picture of God’s plan for the world. All these people were living through their imagination seeing something that never manifested in their lifetime but will one day and they will see it and be a part of it.
We sometimes forget that life is short, but we get to live eternally and never die. We are walking out on earth and setting up structures and plans that will live on through eternity. What we begin down on earth will live on through our children and their children and one day it will all make sense.
Lord, help us to see the importance of what we are doing on this earth. We are walking out lands, preparing futures and setting examples for those to walk behind us. We are part of the kingdom and the family of God.
Ezekiel had been giving them a countdown to destruction and today God pronounced the day that Babylon would lay siege to Jerusalem. That day: the tenth day of the tenth month of the ninth year was the day God would put the pot (Jerusalem) on the fire to cook its contents.
Ezekiel, as the watchman on the wall had to carry a heavy burden as their prophet. God told him his wife, the pride and delight of his eyes and object of his affection would die and he was not to mourn for her. When this happened the people asked what it meant and he told them that they would lose their families and the things they loved the most and not be able to mourn for them either.
God would punish all the nations that were glad when Jerusalem was plundered - the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Edomites and the Philistines.
Two years later, God pronounced a sentence against Tyre. Her beautiful port and city would become an empty rock. Nebuchadnezzar from Babylon would batter and beat it down to the ground and it would no longer be a wealthy metropolis of parties and opulence, but a fallen city of God’s wrath never to be rebuilt.
Today we read the “faith chapter” in Hebrews. Faith is defined as being able to imagine what we cannot see, believing that one day it will manifest on earth. We have a list of people in the Bible who’s lives are examples of faith.
Abel had faith to give God an offering that was perfect making him righteous. Abel was the picture of Jesus, our perfect sacrifice.
Enoch walked straight into heaven bypassing death. His life pleased God and was a picture of the rapture of the Bride.
Noah believed what God said about destroying the earth and built the ark according to God’s blueprints. He was a picture of the Church that would go through the Great Tribulation.
Abraham left his homeland by faith to travel to a land he had never seen looking for a city that God would build. He is a picture of the father of the New Earth.
In these four examples we see the whole picture of God’s plan for the world. All these people were living through their imagination seeing something that never manifested in their lifetime but will one day and they will see it and be a part of it.
We sometimes forget that life is short, but we get to live eternally and never die. We are walking out on earth and setting up structures and plans that will live on through eternity. What we begin down on earth will live on through our children and their children and one day it will all make sense.
Lord, help us to see the importance of what we are doing on this earth. We are walking out lands, preparing futures and setting examples for those to walk behind us. We are part of the kingdom and the family of God.
Sunday, November 11, 2018
Sun.’s Devo - Love and Good Deeds
Read: Ezekiel 23:1-49; Hebrews 10:18-39; Psalm 109:1-31; Proverbs 27:13
God compared Israel’s capital, Samaria, to a prostitute named Oholah and Judah’s capital, Jerusalem, to a prostitute named Oholibah. Oholah means idolatrous sanctuary which was how God looked at Samaria. Oholibah means my tent is in her because God’s tabernacle was in Jerusalem.
God gave the people a vivid analogy of the idolatry they had entered into. It’s not a passage you would want to read out loud in church because it is so disgusting and distasteful. But it was the perfect picture of their sin and their lust for the power and the gods of other nations. God had entered into covenant with his people to be their father, their husband and their god. They had rejected them in all three and as a loving father, he would have to discipline them.
Even under the new covenant, there is no room for deliberate sin. Jesus took our sin from us so to keep sinning after salvation is to face judgment. Eve was seduced into sin, but Adam chose to sin. Sin didn’t enter the world when Eve ate the forbidden fruit, sin entered when Adam ate it. The devil can seduce us to sin and we can be forgiven of that sin, but when we know it is sin and choose to defy God, that is to crucify the Lord again. In my limited understanding, I think that God is saying that there is nothing other than Jesus blood that can forgive sin. So, when we apply his blood to our lives we are forgiven once and for all. We become new creatures that don’t have a heart to sin and to defy that is to step outside our salvation into death. That is why the writer of Hebrews tells us to think of ways we can encourage one another to love and good deeds. If we are trying to turn from sin and do good, we will not be choosing it.
Lord, help us in our weaknesses to overcome the tricks of the enemy. Show us ways to encourage one another in love and good deeds.
God compared Israel’s capital, Samaria, to a prostitute named Oholah and Judah’s capital, Jerusalem, to a prostitute named Oholibah. Oholah means idolatrous sanctuary which was how God looked at Samaria. Oholibah means my tent is in her because God’s tabernacle was in Jerusalem.
God gave the people a vivid analogy of the idolatry they had entered into. It’s not a passage you would want to read out loud in church because it is so disgusting and distasteful. But it was the perfect picture of their sin and their lust for the power and the gods of other nations. God had entered into covenant with his people to be their father, their husband and their god. They had rejected them in all three and as a loving father, he would have to discipline them.
Even under the new covenant, there is no room for deliberate sin. Jesus took our sin from us so to keep sinning after salvation is to face judgment. Eve was seduced into sin, but Adam chose to sin. Sin didn’t enter the world when Eve ate the forbidden fruit, sin entered when Adam ate it. The devil can seduce us to sin and we can be forgiven of that sin, but when we know it is sin and choose to defy God, that is to crucify the Lord again. In my limited understanding, I think that God is saying that there is nothing other than Jesus blood that can forgive sin. So, when we apply his blood to our lives we are forgiven once and for all. We become new creatures that don’t have a heart to sin and to defy that is to step outside our salvation into death. That is why the writer of Hebrews tells us to think of ways we can encourage one another to love and good deeds. If we are trying to turn from sin and do good, we will not be choosing it.
Lord, help us in our weaknesses to overcome the tricks of the enemy. Show us ways to encourage one another in love and good deeds.
Saturday, November 10, 2018
Sat.’s Devo - A Better Covenant
Read: Ezekiel 21:1-22:31; Hebrews 10:1-17; Psalm 108:1-13; Proverbs 27:12
Ezekiel was to prophesy against the sanctuary - their worship, and against the land of Israel. God was going to cut off the righteous and the wicked of the land because no one was standing in the gap for their nation.
God told Ezekiel to go out to the people and groan as if his heart was broken and he was grieving. When the asked what he was doing he was to tell them that he was grieving over the news God had given him about them and their nation. The sword was coming and it would be devastating to them.
Ezekiel was to draw a picture of two roads for the king of Babylon to take. They were to start in Babylon then meet at a fork where the king would consult his mediums and idols. They would choose Jerusalem, so he would begin to besiege Jerusalem. The priests, the ones wearing the turbans and the kings, the ones wearing the crowns would be brought low. God would give their hats to one who was humble, Jesus, who would be both priest and king. He is the one whom it rightfully belongs to.
God looked for a person who would stand with Ezekiel in the gap and found no one so everything he said would happen.
In Hebrews we see that the law was just a shadow of the good things to come, so the law spoke of good things. In the law there were several offerings and sacrifices we could bring to get forgiveness, God’s favor, and God’s blessings. Their promises expired every year and had to be done over and over every year. God set it up that way to remind them of them every year so that when he fulfilled it through Jesus, they would know what he was doing.
Jesus offered his own blood to perfect those that are sanctified forever then he sat down on the right hand of God. There he prays for us.
Lord, thank you that your plan gets better and better.
Ezekiel was to prophesy against the sanctuary - their worship, and against the land of Israel. God was going to cut off the righteous and the wicked of the land because no one was standing in the gap for their nation.
God told Ezekiel to go out to the people and groan as if his heart was broken and he was grieving. When the asked what he was doing he was to tell them that he was grieving over the news God had given him about them and their nation. The sword was coming and it would be devastating to them.
Ezekiel was to draw a picture of two roads for the king of Babylon to take. They were to start in Babylon then meet at a fork where the king would consult his mediums and idols. They would choose Jerusalem, so he would begin to besiege Jerusalem. The priests, the ones wearing the turbans and the kings, the ones wearing the crowns would be brought low. God would give their hats to one who was humble, Jesus, who would be both priest and king. He is the one whom it rightfully belongs to.
God looked for a person who would stand with Ezekiel in the gap and found no one so everything he said would happen.
In Hebrews we see that the law was just a shadow of the good things to come, so the law spoke of good things. In the law there were several offerings and sacrifices we could bring to get forgiveness, God’s favor, and God’s blessings. Their promises expired every year and had to be done over and over every year. God set it up that way to remind them of them every year so that when he fulfilled it through Jesus, they would know what he was doing.
Jesus offered his own blood to perfect those that are sanctified forever then he sat down on the right hand of God. There he prays for us.
Lord, thank you that your plan gets better and better.
Friday, November 9, 2018
Fri.’s Devo. - The Power of The Blood
Read: Ezekiel 20:1-49; Hebrews 9:11-28; Psalm 107:1-43; Proverbs 27:11
Three times Ezekiel made the statement that the man who obeys God’s decrees will live by them. This statement sounded like a parable to them that they couldn’t understand just like Jesus told parables that the people didn’t understand. What God was saying to his people through this parable was that He was the only one who could give them abundant life on earth and eternal life in heaven. The way to get it was by obeying him. He gave them Sabbaths as a sign of his covenant with hem. But they desecrated his Sabbaths and chose to reflect his laws and follow the statues of other nations that were not good for them and follow other gods that could not bring them life but would give them death instead.
At the end of his prophecy he spoke expressly to the people in the south. Jerusalem was in this region. Judgement that could not be stopped was coming and it would be a consuming fire.
Everything good on earth is a copy of what is in heaven. In heaven there is a priesthood and a tabernacle and all the furniture that was in Moses’ tabernacle. Moses was shown heaven’s tabernacle and told to duplicate it on earth. Jesus had to die on earth to take his blood to heaven to cleanse the tabernacle there once and for all. He put an end to sin once and for all. When he appears again he will be bringing salvation to the earth and a nation will be saved in a day.
In Hebrews we learn that Jesus became the high priest of heaven’s tabernacle which was cleansed by his own blood, not the blood of animals like the tabernacle here on earth. The tabernacle here on earth was a picture of what God’s tabernacle in heaven was like.
Lord, help us to grasp the power of your blood and the redemption you bought for us that we can now have a clear conscience and stand before you without sin.
Three times Ezekiel made the statement that the man who obeys God’s decrees will live by them. This statement sounded like a parable to them that they couldn’t understand just like Jesus told parables that the people didn’t understand. What God was saying to his people through this parable was that He was the only one who could give them abundant life on earth and eternal life in heaven. The way to get it was by obeying him. He gave them Sabbaths as a sign of his covenant with hem. But they desecrated his Sabbaths and chose to reflect his laws and follow the statues of other nations that were not good for them and follow other gods that could not bring them life but would give them death instead.
At the end of his prophecy he spoke expressly to the people in the south. Jerusalem was in this region. Judgement that could not be stopped was coming and it would be a consuming fire.
Everything good on earth is a copy of what is in heaven. In heaven there is a priesthood and a tabernacle and all the furniture that was in Moses’ tabernacle. Moses was shown heaven’s tabernacle and told to duplicate it on earth. Jesus had to die on earth to take his blood to heaven to cleanse the tabernacle there once and for all. He put an end to sin once and for all. When he appears again he will be bringing salvation to the earth and a nation will be saved in a day.
In Hebrews we learn that Jesus became the high priest of heaven’s tabernacle which was cleansed by his own blood, not the blood of animals like the tabernacle here on earth. The tabernacle here on earth was a picture of what God’s tabernacle in heaven was like.
Lord, help us to grasp the power of your blood and the redemption you bought for us that we can now have a clear conscience and stand before you without sin.
Thursday, November 8, 2018
Thurs.’s Devo - The Power of the New Covenant
Read: Ezekiel 18:1-19:14; Hebrews 9:1-10; Psalm 106:32-48; Proverbs 27:10
In Ezekiel, God dealt with many of their “sayings”. One of them was: “The fathers eat sour grapes and the children’s teeth are set on edge.” It is like the saying we say: “the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.” God was not pleased with this because he wanted them to know that they didn’t have to be the product of their parents, they should choose to change and make their own decisions. We don’t have to be the product of our parents, we can choose to become a new creature in Christ.
They didn’t have Jesus, but they had the Father and he wanted them to know that they were responsible for their own sins. Even then, God was explaining that they could have a new heart and a new spirit.
In Hebrews, the writer explained the process of the first covenant and the significance of the furniture in the tabernacle. Everything about the old covenant was strategic and symbolic of the new covenant that Jesus would bring. It was a shadow of the the better. The old covenant was not able to clear the conscience of the people but the new covenant would.
Lord, thank you for the new covenant that makes us clean on the outside and the inside. Thank you for the blood of Jesus.
In Ezekiel, God dealt with many of their “sayings”. One of them was: “The fathers eat sour grapes and the children’s teeth are set on edge.” It is like the saying we say: “the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.” God was not pleased with this because he wanted them to know that they didn’t have to be the product of their parents, they should choose to change and make their own decisions. We don’t have to be the product of our parents, we can choose to become a new creature in Christ.
They didn’t have Jesus, but they had the Father and he wanted them to know that they were responsible for their own sins. Even then, God was explaining that they could have a new heart and a new spirit.
In Hebrews, the writer explained the process of the first covenant and the significance of the furniture in the tabernacle. Everything about the old covenant was strategic and symbolic of the new covenant that Jesus would bring. It was a shadow of the the better. The old covenant was not able to clear the conscience of the people but the new covenant would.
Lord, thank you for the new covenant that makes us clean on the outside and the inside. Thank you for the blood of Jesus.
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