Read chapter in full: biblegateway.com/passage/?version=ESV&search=Ezekiel+009
 

Ezekiel 9 (ESV)

¹ Then he cried in my ears with a loud voice, saying, “Bring near the executioners of the city, each with his destroying weapon in his hand.” ² And behold, six men came from the direction of the upper gate, which faces north, each with his weapon for slaughter in his hand, and with them was a man clothed in linen, with a writing case at his waist. And they went in and stood beside the bronze altar.

³ Now the glory of the God of Israel had gone up from the cherub on which it rested to the threshold of the house. And he called to the man clothed in linen, who had the writing case at his waist. ⁴ And the Lord said to him, “Pass through the city, through Jerusalem, and put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and groan over all the abominations that are committed in it.” ⁵ And to the others he said in my hearing, “Pass through the city after him, and strike. Your eye shall not spare, and you shall show no pity. ⁶ Kill old men outright, young men and maidens, little children and women, but touch no one on whom is the mark. And begin at my sanctuary.” So they began with the elders who were before the house. ⁷ Then he said to them, “Defile the house, and fill the courts with the slain. Go out.” So they went out and struck in the city. ⁸ And while they were striking, and I was left alone, I fell upon my face, and cried, “Ah, Lord God! Will you destroy all the remnant of Israel in the outpouring of your wrath on Jerusalem?”

⁹ Then he said to me, “The guilt of the house of Israel and Judah is exceedingly great. The land is full of blood, and the city full of injustice. For they say, ‘The Lord has forsaken the land, and the Lord does not see.’ ¹⁰ As for me, my eye will not spare, nor will I have pity; I will bring their deeds upon their heads.”

¹¹ And behold, the man clothed in linen, with the writing case at his waist, brought back word, saying, “I have done as you commanded me.”

 

REFLECTION:

This chapter depicts the picture of God’s judgment. After Ezekiel saw the corruption of Jerusalem, God asked a messenger to leave behind a few loyal people, and called six executioners to kill the evil people in the city. This was a judgment ordered by God. “Writing case” was a very common thing in Ezekiel’s time. It consists of a long and narrow board with a groove on it for holding a reed brush. This pen is used to write on parchment, papyrus, or dried mud. There is also a recessed place on the board to hold the black ink and the red ink block, which must be wetted before use. God told the executioner with the writing case to mark those who are loyal to God. They are “the men who sigh and groan over all the abominations that are committed in it” (v4), showing that they have a deep understanding of the sins committed by the people and are deeply saddened by them. The marked people were preserved when the six executioners began to destroy the wicked. When the Israelites came out of Egypt, they put blood on the door lintel as a mark to save them from death. At the end of the day, God will imprint the mark on those who are redeemed (cf. Rev. 7:3). Satan will also mark his followers (cf. Rev. 13:16-17), and those who do not believe in the Lord are doomed to perish just like Satan. When God punishes sin, He will not forget the promise to protect His people. Today, God has carved His mark on our heart, and we are all people who have been saved by grace. If we follow God to the end, we will also receive grace to the end, and we will be rewarded by God and be with God in eternal glory.

 

PRAYER:

The Spirit himself bears witness with your spirit that you are a child of God (cf. Rom. 8:16). You have received the mark of God’s children, and will never perish again. Thanks again to God for His grace and salvation for you; ask God to enable you to act with a good conscience and a sincere faith. At the judgment day you can stand up and come to God without fear and make an account to God.

 

HYMN:

No Longer Slaves – youtu.be/dwLFp1weuA8

 

Read chapter in full: biblegateway.com/passage/?version=ESV&search=Ezekiel+008
 

Ezekiel 8 (ESV)

¹ In the sixth year, in the sixth month, on the fifth day of the month, as I sat in my house, with the elders of Judah sitting before me, the hand of the Lord God fell upon me there. ² Then I looked, and behold, a form that had the appearance of a man. Below what appeared to be his waist was fire, and above his waist was something like the appearance of brightness, like gleaming metal. ³ He put out the form of a hand and took me by a lock of my head, and the Spirit lifted me up between earth and heaven and brought me in visions of God to Jerusalem, to the entrance of the gateway of the inner court that faces north, where was the seat of the image of jealousy, which provokes to jealousy. ⁴ And behold, the glory of the God of Israel was there, like the vision that I saw in the valley.

⁵ Then he said to me, “Son of man, lift up your eyes now toward the north.” So I lifted up my eyes toward the north, and behold, north of the altar gate, in the entrance, was this image of jealousy. ⁶ And he said to me, “Son of man, do you see what they are doing, the great abominations that the house of Israel are committing here, to drive me far from my sanctuary? But you will see still greater abominations.”

 

REFLECTION:

Chapter 8 records that Ezekiel was taken to Jerusalem from Babylon in a vision and saw the evil things done there. The first vision Ezekiel saw in chapters 1-3 shows that the judgment comes from God. The vision in this chapter emphasizes that the reason for the judgment is the sins of religious leaders and the people. In a previous vision of Ezekiel, he saw a human-like image sitting on the throne of God. This person may be an angel, or it may be a manifestation of God himself. God allowed Ezekiel to see His own glory, and at the same time Ezekiel saw the corruption of man, forming a sharp contrast between light and darkness, holiness and filth. The “idol that provokes jealousy” may refer to Asherah, the so-called “god of harvest” in Canaan. The characteristic of Asherah is to encourage sexual promiscuity and self-indulgence. King Manasseh had erected this idol in the temple (see 2 Kings 21:7). Although King Josiah burned the Asherah pillar (see 2 Kings 23:6), the influence of the Asherah idol continued. The so-called postmodern society today is actually not much different from the society of Ezekiel back then, and even worse. We have seen a variety of individualistic and liberal thoughts and behaviours flooding all aspects of society. Many people in the world live in fornication and corruption, which will surely trigger the wrath and judgment of God. Reflect if we, as the people of God, are imperceptibly influenced by the world’s values ​​and behaviours. May we fix our eyes on the glory of God, refrain from participating in any form of idolatry, and refrain from doing things that irritate God.

 

PRAYER:

Pray for God to strengthen your faith so that you can live out the holy and glorious way of life of the Lord Jesus Christ in this crooked and perverse world. Pray that God will enlighten you so that you can walk with God every day without seeing, listening or saying anything related to the filth, indulgence, or fornication of the world. May your thoughts, words, and actions be pleasing to God, and be a good testimony to the Lord in the world.

 

HYMN:

To Be Pleasing You – youtu.be/m9O1GPUqn8M

 

Read chapter in full: biblegateway.com/passage/?version=ESV&search=Ezekiel+007
 

Ezekiel 7 (ESV)

²⁰ His beautiful ornament they used for pride, and they made their abominable images and their detestable things of it. Therefore I make it an unclean thing to them. ²¹ And I will give it into the hands of foreigners for prey, and to the wicked of the earth for spoil, and they shall profane it. ²² I will turn my face from them, and they shall profane my treasured place. Robbers shall enter and profane it.

²³ “Forge a chain! For the land is full of bloody crimes and the city is full of violence. ²⁴ I will bring the worst of the nations to take possession of their houses. I will put an end to the pride of the strong, and their holy places shall be profaned. ²⁵ When anguish comes, they will seek peace, but there shall be none. ²⁶ Disaster comes upon disaster; rumor follows rumor. They seek a vision from the prophet, while the law perishes from the priest and counsel from the elders. ²⁷ The king mourns, the prince is wrapped in despair, and the hands of the people of the land are paralyzed by terror. According to their way I will do to them, and according to their judgments I will judge them, and they shall know that I am the Lord.”

 

REFLECTION:

God gave people gold, silver and all kinds of gorgeous materials, but people used them to make idols. The resources God gives us should be used to do God’s work and carry out God’s will. Sometimes, like the Israelites back then, we often use them to show our own glory and satisfy our desires. When we abuse God’s gifts or selfishly use resources, we lose the true purpose of worshiping God and are as proud and short-sighted as idolaters. The people of Jerusalem are very proud of their buildings, and the temple itself has become their proud capital. After the evil and unbelieving Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem and the Holy Land, this pride was completely shattered. Reflect what desires I have today has turned into my idol. What capital do I have become a source of my pride? May God destroy our idols, stop our pride, and keep us from falling into the situation of the Israelites.

 

PRAYER:

Pray for the church, asking God to make the church conform to God’s will in all its ministries, without mixing people’s desires, not promoting human pride, not robbing God’s glory, especially not creating all kinds of tangible and intangible idols; Pray that God will enable you to have a deeper understanding of holiness in the church ministry you participate in, and be willing to live a more holy life.

 

HYMN:

Glory To God Forever – youtu.be/W_LFa275HVE

 

Read chapter in full: biblegateway.com/passage/?version=ESV&search=Ezekiel+006
 

Ezekiel 6 (ESV)

¹ The word of the Lord came to me: ² “Son of man, set your face toward the mountains of Israel, and prophesy against them, ³ and say, You mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord God! Thus says the Lord God to the mountains and the hills, to the ravines and the valleys: Behold, I, even I, will bring a sword upon you, and I will destroy your high places. ⁴ Your altars shall become desolate, and your incense altars shall be broken, and I will cast down your slain before your idols. ⁵ And I will lay the dead bodies of the people of Israel before their idols, and I will scatter your bones around your altars. ⁶ Wherever you dwell, the cities shall be waste and the high places ruined, so that your altars will be waste and ruined, your idols broken and destroyed, your incense altars cut down, and your works wiped out. ⁷ And the slain shall fall in your midst, and you shall know that I am the Lord.

 

REFLECTION:

Chapters 6 to 7 use two messages to prophesy the fate of Israel. This chapter is the first message, declaring that God will attack the idol-worshiping people. At that time, there were high places for worshipping Baal everywhere in the “mountains and hills” of Israel, and the “ravines and valleys” also became places of abominable idolatry rituals. The people offered children to Molech in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom (cf. Jer. 32: 35). Therefore, God declared that He would attack the “mountains of Israel” and cleanse the defiled Promised Land. The cleansing work that God did with the “sword” was exactly what He did when He commanded the Israelites to enter Canaan: “destroy all their figured stones and destroy all their metal images and demolish all their high places.” (Num. 33:52). But now the people who use the sword are not the people of God, but the army of Babylon; it is not the Canaanites who are destroyed, but the Israelites. What a huge irony and a bitter lesson. “Yahweh” is a self-revelation name when God makes a covenant with the people. Now, the people do not have the position of the covenant God in their hearts. Therefore, the covenant God allows the people to be killed in front of the idols they worship, so that they know that idols are vanity; and the rebellious people know to fear God only after they experience the discipline themselves. Today, if we call ourselves children of God but do not have the place of God in our hearts, God will also give us severe lessons to let us know that He is Yahweh, a jealous God, and our lifelong trust.

 

PRAYER:

Come to God in awe and ask God to enlighten you and examine your heart, so that you can see what position God occupies in your heart today. Do you still have the influence of various idols in your heart that have not been cleaned up? Pray for God to purify you so that you will only respect the Lord in your heart, obey God’s will throughout your life, and behave in accordance with God’s will.

 

HYMN:

Be Thou My Vision – youtu.be/Optrm7lF16s

 

Read chapter in full: biblegateway.com/passage/?version=ESV&search=Ezekiel+005
 

Ezekiel 5 (ESV)

¹ “And you, O son of man, take a sharp sword. Use it as a barber’s razor and pass it over your head and your beard. Then take balances for weighing and divide the hair. ² A third part you shall burn in the fire in the midst of the city, when the days of the siege are completed. And a third part you shall take and strike with the sword all around the city. And a third part you shall scatter to the wind, and I will unsheathe the sword after them. ³ And you shall take from these a small number and bind them in the skirts of your robe. ⁴ And of these again you shall take some and cast them into the midst of the fire and burn them in the fire. From there a fire will come out into all the house of Israel.

⁵ “Thus says the Lord God: This is Jerusalem. I have set her in the center of the nations, with countries all around her. ⁶ And she has rebelled against my rules by doing wickedness more than the nations, and against my statutes more than the countries all around her; for they have rejected my rules and have not walked in my statutes. ⁷ Therefore thus says the Lord God: Because you are more turbulent than the nations that are all around you, and have not walked in my statutes or obeyed my rules, and have not even acted according to the rules of the nations that are all around you, ⁸ therefore thus says the Lord God: Behold, I, even I, am against you. And I will execute judgments in your midst in the sight of the nations. ⁹ And because of all your abominations I will do with you what I have never yet done, and the like of which I will never do again. ¹⁰ Therefore fathers shall eat their sons in your midst, and sons shall eat their fathers. And I will execute judgments on you, and any of you who survive I will scatter to all the winds.

 

REFLECTION:

Shaving one’s hair and beard represents grief, humiliation or repentance. God asked Ezekiel to shave off his hair and beard and divide them into three parts, symbolizing that something important will happen to the people in Jerusalem. In addition to the verbal prophecy, God also asked Ezekiel to use dramatic behaviour to attract the attention of the people, and imprint an indelible impression on their hearts. During the Republic of China, when Brother John Sung preached the gospel, he put a real coffin on the podium, jumped in and out by himself, symbolizing death from sin and resurrection from the Lord, and it also left a great impression on the people at that time. The deep impression made them feel more real about the Lord’s salvation. Ezekiel put a few hairs into the skirt of his clothes, symbolizing that God wants to protect a small number of faithful people. But even among these people, some will be judged and destroyed because of their insincere faith. Reflect if we can stand up in the coming judgment. Matthew 7:22-23 warns that many people who think they are safe are not protected. It is essential that we make sure that our commitment to God comes from our spirit and honesty. In addition, just as God asked Ezekiel and Brother John Sung to convey God’s message in a creative way, today we can also creatively preach the good news about God to this generation of lost people and save more lost souls.

 

PRAYER:

Pray for God to examine your heart and give you more obedience, so that you can sincerely follow the Lord every day; pray for God to give you wisdom so that you can use impressive and creative methods to preach the gospel; especially pray for a friend or relative who have not believed in the Lord for a long time, ask God to lead you to share the gospel message to him/her in a more targeted way.

 

HYMN:

Yet Not I But Through Christ In Me – youtu.be/zundjUFazfg

 

Read chapter in full: biblegateway.com/passage/?version=ESV&search=Ezekiel+004
 

Ezekiel 4 (ESV)

⁹ “And you, take wheat and barley, beans and lentils, millet and emmer, and put them into a single vessel and make your bread from them. During the number of days that you lie on your side, 390 days, you shall eat it. ¹⁰ And your food that you eat shall be by weight, twenty shekels a day; from day to day you shall eat it. ¹¹ And water you shall drink by measure, the sixth part of a hin; from day to day you shall drink. ¹² And you shall eat it as a barley cake, baking it in their sight on human dung.” ¹³ And the Lord said, “Thus shall the people of Israel eat their bread unclean, among the nations where I will drive them.” ¹⁴ Then I said, “Ah, Lord God! Behold, I have never defiled myself. From my youth up till now I have never eaten what died of itself or was torn by beasts, nor has tainted meat come into my mouth.” ¹⁵ Then he said to me, “See, I assign to you cow’s dung instead of human dung, on which you may prepare your bread.” ¹⁶ Moreover, he said to me, “Son of man, behold, I will break the supply of bread in Jerusalem. They shall eat bread by weight and with anxiety, and they shall drink water by measure and in dismay. ¹⁷ I will do this that they may lack bread and water, and look at one another in dismay, and rot away because of their punishment.

 

REFLECTION:

Ezekiel prophesied the destruction of Jerusalem to the people through various symbolic actions commanded by God. God specifically explained to Ezekiel what to do, what to say, how to do, and how to say it. Every detail has specific meaning. We often ignore or disrespect the nuances of God’s words, thinking that God probably won’t mind these details. We are to be like Ezekiel, even in the details of God’s Word, to be completely obedient. Ezekiel’s unusual behaviour symbolized the fate of Jerusalem. He lay on the left side for 390 days, which means that Israel will be punished for 390 years; then he lay on the right side for 40 days, which means that Judah will be punished for 40 years. Ezekiel could not move the place, which symbolized that people in Jerusalem would be imprisoned in the city. He was allowed to eat a small amount of food, which meant that when the enemy was besieging the city, the people in the city still had food to eat. But this food must be baked on dung, which symbolizes the fate of Judah’s uncleanness and destruction. Ezekiel asked God not to let him bake food on human dung, because this violated the Purity Laws (cf. Lev. 21, 22; Deut. 23:12-14). God assign to him cow’s dung instead of human dung on which he may prepare his bread. As a priest, Ezekiel has been careful to obey these laws, but he is more willing to obey God’s direct instructions to him. Many people must have seen these abnormal scenes and heard Ezekiel’s message from time to time throughout the process. Unfortunately, they did not respond as they should. Today, when we face the warning signs of God, will we be as slow as the Israelites back then?

 

PRAYER:

Pray that God will give you sufficient alertness toward the disasters and tragedies happening in the world. God’s judgment is not delayed but is an expression of His patience, not wanting anyone to perish. Pray for Canada and for global disasters and suffering, asking God to show mercy and bring healing to those who are facing sickness and the threat of death.

 

HYMN:
His Mercy Is More – youtu.be/I1GiZL60c80

 

Read chapter in full: biblegateway.com/passage/?version=ESV&search=Ezekiel+003
 

Ezekiel 3 (ESV)

¹ And he said to me, “Son of man, eat whatever you find here. Eat this scroll, and go, speak to the house of Israel.” ² So I opened my mouth, and he gave me this scroll to eat. ³ And he said to me, “Son of man, feed your belly with this scroll that I give you and fill your stomach with it.” Then I ate it, and it was in my mouth as sweet as honey.

⁴ And he said to me, “Son of man, go to the house of Israel and speak with my words to them. ⁵ For you are not sent to a people of foreign speech and a hard language, but to the house of Israel— ⁶ not to many peoples of foreign speech and a hard language, whose words you cannot understand. Surely, if I sent you to such, they would listen to you. ⁷ But the house of Israel will not be willing to listen to you, for they are not willing to listen to me: because all the house of Israel have a hard forehead and a stubborn heart. ⁸ Behold, I have made your face as hard as their faces, and your forehead as hard as their foreheads. ⁹ Like emery harder than flint have I made your forehead. Fear them not, nor be dismayed at their looks, for they are a rebellious house.” ¹⁰ Moreover, he said to me, “Son of man, all my words that I shall speak to you receive in your heart, and hear with your ears. ¹¹ And go to the exiles, to your people, and speak to them and say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God,’ whether they hear or refuse to hear.”

 

REFLECTION:

Ezekiel ate the message of God in a vision and found that this spiritual food was not only delicious but also sweet as honey (see similar usage in Revelation 10:8-10). If we “digest” God’s words, we will find that it not only makes our faith stronger, but God’s wisdom can make our lives more abundant and sweeter. So we have to eat spiritual food like we eat every day. We cannot communicate with God only occasionally, but keep God’s words in our hearts all the time and become a part of our lives. Before Ezekiel preached the word of God to others, he had to remember the word of God in his heart. In other words, God’s word must first be deeply rooted in our hearts and manifested in our lives before we can effectively help others understand and apply the gospel. Today, we will also face some people with “hard foreheads and hard hearts.” To break through their defenses, it is not because of the great words and wisdom, but our good life as Christians, and a faith that is like emery stronger than flint.

 

PRAYER:

Pray for God to make you more thirsty for His words, eat spiritual food every day, and digest this spiritual food in your life, so that you will be stronger and have more heavenly characters; pray that God will strengthen your faith and enable you to live out your faith no matter what environment you are in, use your life to bear a good testimony for God, and attract more people to God.

 

HYMN:

Thy Word – youtu.be/a6LC8cu03Ig

 

Read chapter in full: biblegateway.com/passage/?version=ESV&search=Ezekiel+002
 

Ezekiel 2 (ESV)

¹ And he said to me, “Son of man, stand on your feet, and I will speak with you.” ² And as he spoke to me, the Spirit entered into me and set me on my feet, and I heard him speaking to me. ³ And he said to me, “Son of man, I send you to the people of Israel, to nations of rebels, who have rebelled against me. They and their fathers have transgressed against me to this very day. ⁴ The descendants also are impudent and stubborn: I send you to them, and you shall say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God.’ ⁵ And whether they hear or refuse to hear (for they are a rebellious house) they will know that a prophet has been among them. ⁶ And you, son of man, be not afraid of them, nor be afraid of their words, though briers and thorns are with you and you sit on scorpions. Be not afraid of their words, nor be dismayed at their looks, for they are a rebellious house. ⁷ And you shall speak my words to them, whether they hear or refuse to hear, for they are a rebellious house.

⁸ “But you, son of man, hear what I say to you. Be not rebellious like that rebellious house; open your mouth and eat what I give you.” ⁹ And when I looked, behold, a hand was stretched out to me, and behold, a scroll of a book was in it. ¹⁰ And he spread it before me. And it had writing on the front and on the back, and there were written on it words of lamentation and mourning and woe.

 

REFLECTION:

When the eternal God spoke to Ezekiel, He called him the “son of man” (in the Book of Ezekiel, God called Ezekiel the “son of man” a total of ninety-three times), which emphasizes the distance between man and God. Ezekiel certainly did not understand what he saw, but he knew that these were from God, so it was very important. God saw Ezekiel’s frank and obedient attitude, so He filled him with His spirit and gave him the ability to complete His work. God does not want us to understand everything about Him, but we are required to be obedient servants and be faithful to the true and correct principles that God has revealed to us. God gave Ezekiel a difficult task: God wanted him to preach the message of God to those who are ungrateful and stubborn. God said that the people were rebellious because they refused to confess their sins. Rebellion was the greatest feature of the nation of Israel at that time. Even after God pointed out their wrong behaviour, they still turned a deaf ear to the truth. God told Ezekiel not to be afraid or resist. Whether people listen or not, just tell them what God said. Today, when God calls us to preach the gospel, we may also face rejection, opposition, and even persecution. God wants us to preach the gospel no matter be in season or out of season (see 2 Timothy 4:2). More importantly, does God also use people around us to point out certain sins in us? Let us not be stubborn and rebellious, but confess our sins to God and learn the lesson of obedience every day.

 

PRAYER:

Pray for God to give you the courage to preach the gospel no matter the time is right; pray for a friend or relative who consistently rejected the gospel, and ask God to remove his/her hardiness so that he/she may be enlightened, and accept the gift of eternal life; ask God to make you more meek and humble, more obedient, and to please God in everything you do.

 

HYMN:

O Church Arise – youtu.be/A98YQHG8tLY

 

Read chapter in full: biblegateway.com/passage/?version=ESV&search=Ezekiel+001
 

EZEKIEL

INTRODUCTION

The priest Ezekiel was among the Judeans that Nebuchadnezzar brought to Babylon in 597 BC. Five years into this exile, God called Ezekiel to go to Israel (both those in Babylon and those back in Judea) and speak my words to them. Ezekiel often brought this message by composing finely polished poetic oracles and speaking (or perhaps singing) them in public. But he also told stories with symbolic meanings, performed symbolic actions, and described extraordinary visions that he had received.

The book of Ezekiel organizes these messages into three main parts: oracles of judgment against Israel, oracles against other nations, and then promises of Israel’s restoration. These divisions are marked by references to the prophet losing and then regaining his ability to speak. A key vision near the beginning describes how God removed His presence from the Jerusalem temple because of Israel’s evil. The oracles against the nations make it clear that though God’s temple was destroyed, no one should conclude that God is not still in control of the world. Those who threaten His people will be defeated in the end. The book’s closing promises confirm that God will renew the hearts of His people and refresh all life on the face of the earth. Ezekiel’s visions fit the ongoing drama of the Bible: a broken world will be healed when the Lord returns to live with His people in a land that has become like the Garden of Eden.

 

www.bible.com/zh-TW/bible/111/EZK.INTRO1.NIV

 

Ezekiel 1 (ESV)

¹ In the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, on the fifth day of the month, as I was among the exiles by the Chebar canal, the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God. ² On the fifth day of the month (it was the fifth year of the exile of King Jehoiachin), ³ the word of the Lord came to Ezekiel the priest, the son of Buzi, in the land of the Chaldeans by the Chebar canal, and the hand of the Lord was upon him there.

⁴ As I looked, behold, a stormy wind came out of the north, and a great cloud, with brightness around it, and fire flashing forth continually, and in the midst of the fire, as it were gleaming metal. ⁵ And from the midst of it came the likeness of four living creatures. And this was their appearance: they had a human likeness, ⁶ but each had four faces, and each of them had four wings…

¹⁵ Now as I looked at the living creatures, I saw a wheel on the earth beside the living creatures, one for each of the four of them. ¹⁶ As for the appearance of the wheels and their construction: their appearance was like the gleaming of beryl. And the four had the same likeness, their appearance and construction being as it were a wheel within a wheel. ..

²⁶ And above the expanse over their heads there was the likeness of a throne, in appearance like sapphire; and seated above the likeness of a throne was a likeness with a human appearance. ²⁷ And upward from what had the appearance of his waist I saw as it were gleaming metal, like the appearance of fire enclosed all around. And downward from what had the appearance of his waist I saw as it were the appearance of fire, and there was brightness around him. ²⁸ Like the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud on the day of rain, so was the appearance of the brightness all around.

Such was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. And when I saw it, I fell on my face, and I heard the voice of one speaking.

 

REFLECTION:

Ezekiel was born and raised in Judah. When he was preparing to serve as a priest in the temple in 597 BC, the Babylonians attacked Jerusalem and took 10,000 captives, including Ezekiel himself (cf. 2 Kings 24:10-14). The entire nation is facing destruction. Four or five years later, when Ezekiel was thirty years old (this is the legal age to become a priest), God called him to be a prophet. During the first six years of Ezekiel’s ministry in Babylon, Jeremiah was still preaching to those who remained in Judah. Daniel served in the palace of King Nebuchadnezzar. The place of exile of Judah was by the Chebar canal, where Babylon and the Euphrates met. God communicated with Ezekiel through visions to reveal God’s truth. These visions are revelatory, so they look strange. The people in exile do not understand the will of God for them. Ezekiel brought the vision from God to them, showed them the awesome glory and holiness of God, and warned people of the consequences of their sins as early as possible. “A likeness with a human appearance” (v26) revealed the God sitting on the throne. In a similar way, Christ revealed God to people in the image of man, and prepared the message of salvation for us. Before the glory of the Lord, Ezekiel fell face down to the ground, seeing the holy God and the sinful self, completely surrendering to God. Today, although we cannot see God with our eyes, the Holy Spirit and our heart testify that we are children of God, allowing us to see the glory and holiness of God with our spiritual eyes, and causing us to have a deep and incomparable awe.

 

PRAYER:

Come to God in awe, open your spiritual eyes and focus on God’s holiness and glory; thank God that although you are filthy and insignificant, He covers your sins with the blood of Christ so that you can walk with Him; ask God to cleanse you and illuminate the darkness of your heart so that you can live a holy life and glorify God.

 

HYMN:

Only A Holy God – youtu.be/Jxn_fu6rdCU

 

Read chapter in full: biblegateway.com/passage/?version=ESV&search=2Peter+003
 
Chapter 3 (ESV)

⁸ But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. ⁹ The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. ¹⁰ But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.

¹¹ Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, ¹² waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn! ¹³ But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.

 

REFLECTION：

1. Chapter at a Glance: Peter urged his readers to trust the prophets and apostles despite scoffers who ridicule the Lord’s second coming and deliberately ignore past divine judgment. God’s timing is different from ours, but this present world will surely be destroyed.  So, be godly and grow in grace.
2. Peter gave two insights into the lengthy delay between the promise of Jesus’ return and its fulfillment. First, God doesn’t view time as we do. What we might refer to as “a few thousand years”, He might think of just as “a couple of days”.  So we can’t impose our time sense on God. Second, God has good reason for the delay.  Christ hasn’t returned yet, because the Lord does not wish that “any should perish”.  As long as Jesus is absent, the door to salvation remains open.  But when Jesus comes, that door will slam shut. And then it will be too late.
3. Peter then wanted us to know that, when “the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved”, every material things we treasure will be all gone. So, Peter wanted us to act appropriately.  The Message puts vv11-12 this way: “Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming.”

 

PRAYER:

Stay with God for a little longer.  Continue to converse with God and listen to what He wants to tell you.  Then write down any thought and/or prayer in your spiritual journal.

 

HYMN:

Lord I Give You My Heart – youtu.be/gW6PHQAQsD8