Daily Bible Reading, Week 43

Hello, and welcome to the Westside churches special Monday Morning Coffee podcast on this podcast, our preacher Mark Roberts will help you get your week started right. With look back at yesterday's sermon so that we can think through it further and better work the applications into our daily lives . Mark will then look forward into this week's Bible reading so that we can know what to expect and watch for. And, he may have some extra bonus thoughts from time to time. So grab a cup of coffee as we start the week together on Monday Morning Coffee with Mark.

Good morning. Good morning. Welcome to the Monday Morning Coffee podcast for Monday, October the 23rd. I'm M ark Robertson. I've got my coffee, I've got my Bible. I don't have sermon notes from yesterday because I didn't preach yesterday. William Stewart, who we support in the work in Canada, preached for us. What a wonderful day. Get to see him and to continue to hear about his good work. We've supported him in Canada now for a long time. A joy to have him with us, but I , like I said, don't have sermon notes. Instead, I'm ready to get right i nto daily Bible reading. And I have to tell you, I am so thankful that we made some tweaks and some revisions.

Got this new and improved Bible reading scheduled , getting us more time in Ezekiel. We need more time in Ezekiel. Ezekiel. Oh , just a tremendous book. And today we're moving forward in the book of Ezekiel, in Ezekiel chapter eight. Get you some coffee, get your Bible open, Ezekiel eight. Let's get started for Monday. Our reading is simply Ezekiel, the eighth chapter, just 18 verses. This is not a long reading. We are doing a little bit more reading as we're doing a whole chapter now, instead of some chunks of things, we just needed to get a little bit more so we could get more of Ezekiel. And I think you're gonna be glad that we're doing it that way. This begins an extremely important section of Ezekiel because there's a sense and , and you'll get this as people come and talk to Ezekiel and ask questions, what's the problem? I , I mean, are we really that wicked? I mean surely people back home in Jerusalem have cleaned it up since the 5 97 deportation. I mean, things have gotta be going along pretty well. Why is punishment and judgment still being decreed? And to answer those kinds of questions, God gives Ezekiel a vision of what's going on back home and what he learns out of that is gonna give him renewed courage and strength to preach God's word. And we might think about, we might think a little bit about how God sees everything that we do, particularly 'cause there's an emphasis in our reading today about seeing in secrecy. And we need to think about what makes God angry. If we're gonna draw near to God, we don't wanna make an , we don't wanna make God angry. You can't draw near to God when we're engaging him in his wrath and doing things that are sinful and wrong . You think about that, chapter eight really causes us to think about. That begins then. This would be sometime verse one, six years . Six months . This is about 14 months after the first vision. So somewhere 5 92, 5 91, somewhere around there. And here come, here comes the elders of Judah, verse one. They're sitting before me. Had they come to inquire of God, had they come to ask Ezekiel, how come God's still angry with us? I mean, we've been punished enough, haven't we? And e Ezekiel then is taken in a vision. It's not a real trip. He's taken in a vision to see what's going on in Jerusalem and what he sees is just awful. Verse five, there is an idol, an image of jealousy there in the temple. Manasseh had erected idols in the temple. And again, these idol worshiping kings at the end of Judas timeframe, they're worshiping in the temple, doing wrong in the temple. Jeremiah preaches about this in Jeremiah chapter seven. Look at verse six. They're driving me from my sanctuary. That becomes the idea in our reading this week. God is being pushed out of his house. He can't stay there. It's so unholy and so outrageously, perverse and wicked. And so Ezekiel digs in to see more of what's going on. There's vile abominations. Verse nine, what are they doing? Verse 11 has Ja and I are the son of Shain . He may be the son of Josiah's, secretary of state, so he would be a prominent man. And the leaders here are saying, God has given up on us. God has forsaken us. He doesn't know what we're doing. He doesn't care about us anymore. So they're rationalizing what they're doing. They're worshiping idols right in the in the temple. And they're worshiping Tama verses 13 and 14. Tamaz is a God of fertility. When the fall came. Here we are in the fall seasons. He died and then he was revived by crying in the spring. So it seems like this vision is in the fall, and this would be during the time when he was mourned as the winter comes on. Interestingly, in the month of August and September later actually comes to be known as tams in the Hebrew calendar. And you're getting a little taste of that right here. And then the chapter concludes, there's even sun worship going on in verse 16. There's 25 prominent men. They seem to be priests who have the access to the inner court and and so there's just wickedness and idolatry everywhere going on here . The elders come to inquire of you, Ezekiel, hasn't God punished us enough? Ezekiel now knows what's happening back home. Punishment has to fall more on that on Tuesday as we push into Ezekiel chapter nine. It is Tuesday. And today we read the ninth chapter of Ezekiel, just 11 verses , not a long reading by any means, but in some ways a terrifying reading. The man with the writing kit shows up in chapter nine, and he comes and he's gonna mark the people of God. Notice verse three, the glory of the God of Israel has gone up from the Cher by which it rested to the threshold of the house. Keep track of the glory of God. This is about God, chapter eight, verse six, read this yesterday being driven out of the temple. And so God's glory sometimes that's called the Sheia glory. That's a Hebrew word for for glory and for the presence of God. Um , that's pronounced different ways. You may hear Shekinah , the glory of God filled the house of God and that glory is moving. It moves from the cherub over the Ark of the Covenant. And so the man with the writing kit marks those who are righteous. He marks those who are righteous. Kind of reminds us of Revelation seven. Once again, an idea in an Old Testament prophet will get used in the book of Revelation. And then there's this terrible judgment kill outright. Verse six and seven, young men, old men , little children kill all these people. It's so terrible. Verse eight, that Ezekiel thinks everybody's gonna get killed. Are you gonna just destroy everybody? No, not everybody's gonna be destroyed. There's gonna be a remnant. And maybe you're wondering, well , well , what did the righteous get? I thought they got marked. Remember, righteous people did die in the siege. There were righteous people who listened to Jeremiah who were trying to serve God Babylonians breakthrough. They killed a chunk of people, killed everybody, and everybody that they didn't kill, they drug back into slavery. Well , the righteous people didn't get exempted out of that. What's the deal with that? Well, remember, there's a huge difference in suffering due to guilt and suffering because we are part of a nation of guilty people. We don't wanna push the vision too far. Even babies get killed and the vision, but babies aren't guilty of sin at all. The point is judgment's going to fall. Will you destroy verse eight, all the remnant of Israel in the outpouring of your wrath on Jerusalem. Remember, Ezekiel needs to see what's going on back home. And the point of this is verse nine, God knows, they say God doesn't know God does no . And as a result of that, God isn't going to stay in a dirty vile house full of abominations and wickedness and sin. Tomorrow, God moves out. In Ezekiel chapter 10, it is hump day . It's Wednesday. We're reading Ezekiel chapter 10, and the glory of the Lord is moving out of the temple. God's presence is leaving his house because of the wickedness of the people in Jerusalem. Look at the coals of fire in the Cher them . They're reappearing. We've got the mention of the throne of God again, as the book began with these cherubim, God's throne bearers, the chariot bearers, if you will, of the Lord. They come and they're moving. They're moving, and there's coals of fire which are taken. Verse two, from between the cherub, the city of Jerusalem is going to be burned. And it's not because somebody was careless with matches. Don't play with matches. It's not because the Babylonian army was so amazing. It's not because somebody got careless and their cow kicked over a lamp. No, no. What happens is God burns the city down. The Babylonians are executing the judgment of God. They throw the coals of fire and burn this city down, but the glory of the Lord verse four leaves the house. The house was filled with cloud and the court was filled. Gradually we're seeing the glory of God. Nine three, it moved from the Cher. Now ten four went up from the Cher to the threshold of the house. It's on the door. It's right there on right at the edge of the door, ready to go out. Verse 18, the glory of the Lord went out from the threshold of the House and stood of the Cher, and then it went to the east gate of the house of the Lord. Verse 19, the glory of God is moving as the wrath and justice of God is carried out against the wicked people that are in Jerusalem. And this looks so much like Revelation, so much like Revelation, the fourth chapter. And of course it looks like Revelation, the fourth chapter, John sees an image of, sees a vision of the glory of God, sees a vision of God in all of his splendor in heaven. Well , well, who would be there? God's throne bearers. God, the cherin that carry God's chariot carry God's throne everywhere that he wants to go. Of course there , there again in Revelation the fourth chapter, and we're not gonna make something out of the face of the chair of verse 14 in the face of a human in the third face of a line . We don't need to do that. We don't want to do that. That detracts from the power of the vision. The point is to see God's presence is leaving the house of God. God is abandoning the temple. Deuteronomy 31 17 said this would happen. Hosea talked about it. We read the book of Hosea, Hosea nine 12, and God is abandoning the temple. What a shocking revelation. This must have been to the people in captivity who were thinking, that's God's presence. That's where God's house is. We're going home there. Nothing can ever happen to us as long as God's house is there. Remember the sermon that Jeremiah preaches in Jeremiah seven? Oh, you say the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord. Don't be telling us we're gonna be destroyed. We got the temple. Jeremiah. Ezekiel says, it's an empty shell. God isn't there anymore . What an incredible, what an incredible vision Ezekiel is seeing today and showing us today. Tomorrow, Ezekiel chapter 11, I'll see you on Thursday. It is Thursday, and today we read Ezekiel the 11th chapter. What Aly important chapter, can you be pivotally important? I'm thinking. So what Aly important chapter, this really is, there's two pieces to this, and we need to see that. Ezekiel's dealing with two groups of Jews. There's a group in Babylonian captivity and there's another group in Jerusalem. And this chapter shows clearly that the future of God's people lies with the folks in Babylon that is contrary and completely contradictory to what everybody thought. And we get a good idea here that the people who remained in Jerusalem looked down on the people who got drug off into captivity. Oh, look at you guys. Y'all are so wicked. Y'all are so terrible. Oh, you're really awful. God took you off into Babylon captivity. We are so righteous. We're so much better than you. Are you well, swig of coffee right there? No, you're not. You are the problem. J Ezekiel 11, one to 13 talks about the future of the remnant versus 14 to 21 is with the people in Babylon and captivity. So let's work along with this. You get the idea verse one, Ja aniah. That's not the Ja aniah that we read earlier in chapter eight in verse 11. But this Ja aniah and palat Aya , they seem to be well-known people. And these people are those who devise iniquity. Verse two, one translation has they plot treason against Jehovah. You ever thought of sin that way? Treason against Jehovah? And they say it's not the time for submission and surrender. It's not the time to build houses. Now, Jeremiah consistently taught people they need to submit to the yo of Babylon. We need to surrender. Jeremiah chapter 29 sends a letter to Babylon telling the captives they need to settle down in Babylon because they're gonna be there for 70 years. The message of Jeremiah was submit and surrender. These people say, no, no, we are the meat in the cauldron. Oh, we're just being done so wrong. But Ezekiel reminds them. God knows exactly what they're saying and God knows exactly what they're doing and he uses their terminology to express his verdict. Verse seven, these wicked leaders are not gonna die in the city. No, they'll not even get to be kind of sort of correct able to say, see, yeah, we died here in this cauldron. No, no. They fear the enemy. Verse eight. They need to fear the Lord. And the truth of ma of the matter is of course, that ZTE and his princesses were caught trying to escape. Verse 11. And they end up being judged at Ribble second Kings chapter 25. We read that and Second Kings chapter 25 tells us that they got caught trying to run away. And yeah, Kaya's sons were executed before his eyes and then he was blinded. Then we get this terrible note, verse 13, that pate dies. And the death of pate would confirm Ezekiel's words. When that word came back to Babylon, they would, the people would say, wow, Ezekiel told us that was gonna happen. And Ezekiel's love for his people is just clearly shown here in verse 13. Now then what about the people in Babylon? Even though the folks in Jerusalem have this self-righteous attitude, you're so sinful. God is judging you by deporting you off into Babylonian exile. Go far from the Lord. Verse 15. No, God says, I removed you. Verse 16, and then I'm gonna gather you, verse 17, and I'm gonna give you a new heart and a new spirit. Verse 19. Tremendous idea, tremendous idea. And Ezekiel will sound that several times in his book, we're gonna read several places where he talks about a new heart and a new spirit. Such an important idea. And one scholar talked about how sinners can't possibly serve God without that new heart and new Spirit can't do this on our own. We need the grace of God. We need the transforming power of God through his word to change us. As for those people whose heart, verse 21 goes after detestable things, oh , they're gonna get judgment right here. You just have to ask yourself, where's my heart? Where's my heart? Do I have the new heart, the new spirit, the one heart, so that I will walk in God's statutes, verse 20, keep his rules and obey them so I can be God's people and he will be my God. Is that who I am? Am I with these people in Babylonian captivity who are learning about sin and that they need to repent and have a new heart? Or am I stubbornly justifying myself? Well, those people justifying themselves, there's no hope there. So the cherub in verse 22, lift up and take the glory of God away. God leaves the city of Jerusalem. It's a city of death. It's a city of destruction. God leaves Jerusalem verse 22 and 23, and Ezekiel tells the people, verse 25, this is what's happening in Jerusalem. You need to be ready to hear that terrible word that Jerusalem has been burned. The temple of God has been destroyed. We'll complete our reading tomorrow by reading Ezekiel chapter 12. It's Friday, and we're completing our reading this week in Ezekiel, in this section of Ezekiel by reading Ezekiel the 12th chapter. And once again, here is Ezekiel doing something very creative, maybe a little out of the box. This is not a standard sermon. He's acting out the word of the Lord at the command of God. I'm gonna say again, we really need to see how much God wants his people to pay attention to him and how God uses many different avenues and ways of teaching. Sometimes in evangelism, someone will come and, oh, this is it. This is a silver bullet way. If you're not doing it the way I'm doing it, then you're not even really doing evangelism or this is the way to preach the sermon's. Gotta have three points , gotta have PowerPoint. We need to be really careful about that. We've seen in Jeremiah, we've seen in Isaiah, we've seen in the other prophets different methodologies to bring the message of God. And Ezekiel seems to be just the prince of visual aids in this chapter. He packs up like an exile, packs up a bag like he's going off into captivity because the lie that's circulating in Judah and in Babylon is that we're not gonna be in captivity a long time that we're gonna go home. We read in Jeremiah about false profits sending word to Babylon. Hey, don't worry, don't build a house. You're coming home. Don't settle down. Everybody's coming . It's gonna be quick. Gonna be home in a couple years. No, Jeremiah says That's not true. Ezekiel says, that's not true in this thinking that because we have a son of David on the throne, oh, can't anything happen to us? We've got the promises of two Samuel seven. We've got the promise of a son of David on the throne. Well, God says, I got something to do something for that prince. I've got something for that one who's related to David. And it's not gonna stop the judgment of God. And I do think it's important that the chapter begins without any kind of chronological information. So I think we need to hold this tied up against the material that we've been reading all week long. This goes right along with that. And God is trying to teach the people in Babylon judgments coming on Jerusalem. They need to be prepared for that. That's gonna be a huge shock to their system. It's gonna help them see that they haven't treated God right, they haven't been obedient to God and that they need to repent. That's gonna be the message here. So Ezekiel lives the message. He enacts the message. This really is about your leader. Verse 10, the son of David that sits on David's throne and Zeek , Kayah did. He tried to sneak out of the city. You remember in Jeremiah 52, 2 Kings chapter 25, they breached the wall at night and try to sneak out and try to flee, escape at night. They end up being caught. I think maybe Zaka here is called a prince because he may not really be the legitimate king. Jehan is in Babylonian captivity. Maybe. Maybe he would be thought of as the real king here. But the emphasis is that God has sent a remnant among the Gentiles. He's using that remnant. The people in Babylon who are gonna turn back to him. Those people will help the world know I am the Lord. There's that operative expression in Ezekiel again, I'll let a few of them escape. Verse 16, they will know that I'm the Lord. Verse 20. And then here, there's another sign, beginning verse 17, the sign of splashing water and dropping bread because you're so afraid. You're just shaking. You can hardly eat. Once again, judgment, the judgment of God. And look here how judgment is really seen as a manifestation of God's love. It shows that God still cares for his people or he would not discipline his people. But the idea is judgment's going to come. And God is particularly concerned about this false proverb. Verse 22, lots in Ezekiel answers the common wisdom of the day. Answers what people are telling themselves answers what people are saying to each other and clearly the days go along . Verse 22, and every vision comes to nothing. Oh , Ezekiel, you just preach this all the time. Judgment, judgment, judgment. Jerusalem's gonna be destroyed. Hey, Jerusalem's not being destroyed. Why do you keep saying that? It's never gonna happen. It's the city of God. David's son's reigning there can't happen. Won't happen. We got a word from that prophet guy. It's not gonna happen . We're not listening to you. We're not listening to Jeremiah. You just preach gloom and doom all the time. Ezekiel says, God says, the days are near, the fulfillment of the vision is near Jerusalem is going to be destroyed just as God says through his prophet Ezekiel. There you go. Those are the notes for Daily Bible we're reading for this week as we are in the book of Ezekiel. I'm so pleased that we tweaked the schedule and made more room for this great prophet of God. Look forward to seeing you on Sunday q and a in the nine o'clock hour, and then more on the preaching theme, having a heart for God in the 10 40. Thank you for listening to the Monday Morning Coffee podcast. Hope that you are subscribed or following it so it downloads automatically onto your device. Hope that you've rated or given it a review to help more people find the podcast. And of course, I always ask you , share the show with somebody else. Help somebody else make progress in their daily Bible reading by telling them, Hey, listen to this podcast. It'll help you stay with Bible reading and understand your Bible reading. So until next week, may your coffee be delightful. I hope your Friday's wonderful and that the Lord will be with you today all day. I'm Mark Roberts and I want to go to heaven, and I want you to come to see you on Monday with a cup of coffee.

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