Daily Bible Reading, Week 45

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, November the sixth. I'm Mark Robertson . I have my Bible open to the book of Ezekiel because I'm going to talk with you about daily Bible reading as I drink this great cup of coffee. And I am not going to talk to you about yesterday's sermon because I didn't preach yesterday at West Side . My good friend Warren Berkeley covered for me. I'm in Phoenix, Arizona with the Monteverde Church preaching in a meeting here. This is a very impressive congregation. They talked to me about this meeting here a while back and really wanted to come out here and and have opportunity to be part of some of the good things they're doing in the name of the Lord. This year's theme for them is growing and I came to preach some lessons I think that will help them grow. So I'm in Phoenix. Warren preached for me on Grace yesterday and I'm excited to hear that. Just can't hear enough about grace, but we'll just have to get started in the daily Bible reading stuff 'cause that's what's next. Get your Bible to Ezekiel, get some coffee. Let's get started.

It is Monday and our reading today is Ezekiel the 33rd chapter. If you are ready for a change of pace in the book of Ezekiel, welcome to today's reading because this is going to be a big change of pace as we read this. A couple of sections here, Ezekiel the Watchman verses one to 20, then Israel and the promised land verses 21 to 29. And then the people, the people in Babylon in verses 30 to 33. As we're reading this, I think you're going to hear what sounds an awful lot like Ezekiel, the third chapter where Ezekiel is commissioned and especially chapter 18, which we read where individual responsibility is emphasized. One of the advantages of not reading everything in the book of Ezekiel is it's not been that long since we are reading those key chapters. So maybe they're echoing in our ears and still a little fresh and we'll make those connections. But what we see in Ezekiel the 33rd chapter here is that Ezekiel probably not being treated very well by the people in Babylon and Jeremiah wasn't treated very well back in Jerusalem. I don't think that there's a lot of reason to expect that Ezekiel had fared any better. But finally the Eze , the exiles come to realize that it is their fault that they are in captivity, that they have sinned against God. And I get a little bit of that in verse 10 after Ezekiel is commissioned again and told, you have to keep preaching the word, all of the word. And in a moment we're gonna see why that's so important to Ezekiel. But finally, the exiles do see that they are responsible for their terrible situation. They had blamed their parents, that's chapter 18, and they tried to claim every kind of promise or blessing of God to say judgment could not come upon them because with the people of God, we saw that working back in Jerusalem and Jeremiah had to deal with that. And we see some of that in back in Ezekiel as well. Maybe though in verse 10, is there a little whining going on there? Is there a little whining? Listen, it's not Ezekiel's fault, verse 11. And what you need to do is stop whining and accept personal accountability. One writer said every Israelite in Babylonia as he pondered God's fulfillment of judgment on Jerusalem and Judah and the promised destruction of the heathen nations had a decision to make, would he personally turn from sin to God? That is exactly what's going on, particularly 17, 18, 19, yet still. Verse 20, there is some whining about how God does, but God is bringing judgment and this is a big change in the book in verse 21, in the 12th year of our exile, this is 5 87. 5 86 in the 10th month, on the fifth day of the month, the fugitive from Jerusalem came and said the city has been struck down. Now, Ezekiel had prophesied this in chapter 24 that a messenger would come see verse 27. And that siege had been going on for 18 months and I used it eight of 5 86 as the date for the destruction. So I'm gonna say the 12th year of our ex office , 21 , I'm gonna go the 5 86 date. There's probably some gap in here. It's not like they destroyed it on Thursday and by Friday somebody was in Babylon saying, Hey , the city's been destroyed. It would take time to deal with the mass to sort through everybody to decide who's being marched off into slavery, who was being slaughtered on the spot. And nebuzaradan didn't even take on the destruction of the city until nearly a month after they had formally captured the city. Two kings, chapter 25 in verse eight. And there would be a lot of questions people would want to know, is God done with us entirely? What do you mean we can go home? There is no home to go to. Do we still stand to inherit the land? What about the Abrahamic promises? In Genesis chapter 12, mark is always talking about those promises. In Genesis chapter 12, Ezekiel, are those promises still going to come to pass? Okay, maybe they weren't saying it exactly like that, but that is what's going on. And you should be mindful. And if you have some extra time, maybe jump over and go read Jeremiah 40 and 41 because Ishmael gathers up some followers. There's kind of a little mini revolution going on. He kills the governor, Galia , who seems to be naive and not paying attention. People tell him, Hey, you're gonna get killed. And he is like, no, that won't happen. He gets killed. And then Ishmael tries to make his own little kingdom. And I wonder if some of these followers are saying, Hey, Abraham was one man, verse 24, he got the land, we're a group. We can get it it. If one man can do it, the group of us, we can do it. But God says, no, you have violated your end of the covenant. You cannot inherit the land. Verse 25 and 26. And of course eventually the wicked remnant verse 28, go to Egypt and disappear there and never amount to anything. Sadly, they take Jeremiah, the prophet with them . So then this chapter concludes 30 to 33 where the people are listening to Ezekiel, but it does seem like they're listening with superficial interest. Verse 31 seems to say, maybe they just go see what that crazy prophet has to say. It's kind of entertaining. And then however, verse 33, as these things start to come to pass that Ezekiel's been telling them now since 5 97 , uh, or thereabouts, then all this time has gone on and Ezekiel said, the city's gonna be destroyed. Don't listen to the people who say , um, we're all going home. None of that's gonna happen. Not gonna happen. We really started 5 93, 5 92, Ezekiel one, verse two on the fifth day of the month and the fifth year of the exile. So it's been going on now six, seven years. Ezekiel's been prophesying this. As people get the news, they will know. Verse 33, a prophet has been among them. Welcome to Tuesday. And today we read Ezekiel the 34th chapter, which is a powerful and wonderful chapter at least after some difficult things at the beginning that are just hard to hear. The prophet here, speaking to people who have just had every hope and dream they've ever had taken away, we're going to go home. The temple is there, Jerusalem is there. Someday we will be home. The messenger comes and yesterday's reading and says, your home is rubble and in fact it's smoking rubble. So what are we gonna do about that? And what is Ezekiel going to do about that? In his previous messages, he has said that all this would come because you're a bunch of sinners. But in this chapter, Ezekiel precisely and specifically lays the blame on bad leaders and bad leadership. However, I promised a refreshing change and I'm glad to tell you there's a refreshing change. 'cause Ezekiel comes to say, better leadership is on the way. We need to be careful here. We don't wanna make too much of this language and try to make it overly specific and overly literal. I think much of this language about the land and the prosperity of the land is just telling people good news in a way that they can comprehend. What would you say to people who are farmers and who love their land and they are far away in exile? You're going home to your land, your farms will be productive. Again, this is God condescending to speak in a way that we would understand. I don't know, maybe if Ezekiel was prophesying to us today, he would say, and every day rush hour will be empty and you can get home in 10 minutes instead of spending an hour in traffic. We would understand that, wouldn't we? Maybe 2000 years from now, people would struggle to understand exactly what that means, especially if they're driving space cars and the Jetsons are working. I don't know, and I'm not entirely sure I want to press that metaphor any further than that. I just want to say that Ezekiel is expressing this in a fashion that these people can understand. And when you think about it as one writer noted, how could he possibly have said the Church of Christ will rise and have victory over her enemies? What would that have meant to any of these people? So the first 10 verses contain a condemnation against the shepherds of Israel because they have failed. Shepherds should feed the sheep and strengthen the disease and heal the sick and bind up the broken and bring back what was driven away and seek what was wandered off. That's what good shepherds do. I think there's a fabulous blueprint here for elders who are called of course shepherds. I think there's a great application to that, and I think maybe the major application of that is to notice verse six, my sheep, my sheep, my sheep. Verse eight over and over again, my sheep. One of the most important thing for the leaders of these people to remember is that they're not in charge. They are stewards of God's people. And of course we thank God for good elders who remember that today we are blessed at west side with 10 shepherds. And this is a lesson that burns very brightly in their minds. They're very aware of how they are serving the Lord's people and that they are not in charge. And in fact, in verse seven, you get a sense of how things go in e equals day because in that day, the charges were read before the verdict was rendered. And that's how it is here. Verse 10 sums all that up. God is against them. God is going to deal with them. So how about something better than Ezekiel? This is kind of gloom and doom. In fact , it's not kind of, it's pretty gloom and doomy. How about something better? And what's better then is the true shepherd is coming verses 11 to 24. Describe how God will do what the false shepherds failed to do. God will be personally involved. I will bring them out. I will seek my sheep, I will rescue them, I will feed them I myself. Verse 15 will be the shepherd of my sheep and I myself will make them lie down. Remember sheep lie down when they are contented and fed and safe and happy. It is a marvelous picture of shepherds who are doing their job. You see a bunch of sheep laying down, that's good shepherding right there. And then there's a little metaphor change in verse 17. Don't get lost, but hold by judge between sheep and sheep, between rams and male goats. So we've gone from the business with the false shepherds being compared to God who's the true shepherd. But remember those false shepherds, the evil leaders, they were part of the people of God. So in a sense they were sheep. So now we have sheep to sheep instead of sheep to shepherds. They were crummy sheep. They were mean sheep. And so the one true shepherd will come and he will be verse 23. In the spirit of David, of course this is not literally David, David is dad, just as Elijah in Malachi four, five is figurative. So it is here. If it is really David ruling, then Jesus couldn't rule because David would be doing the ruling. And I guess Jesus would've to tell him, get outta my chair. That would be awkward. It is the one who comes in the spirit of David. It is the one who comes in the lineage of David and this is Jesus. I think there's a ton of passages that connect Jesus to this passage. John 10 and 11, I'm the good shepherd one Peter 2 25, Hebrews the 13 chapter verses 20 and 21. Lots of places portray Jesus as being the good shepherd. Some are. Now I should tell you, some scholars are not as convinced of that and they just see this as being that image that would bring a smile to an Israelites face. We're going home. Our farms are gonna be productive. We're gonna have sheep again, we're gonna have good leadership. But I just think there's more here. The one shepherd verse 23, my servant David, he shall be their shepherd and I, the Lord will be their God and my servant David shall be prince among them. This looks to me like this is the messianic time in the messianic age. And so the pastor to which the sheep will return is covered then in verses 25 to 31. And there isn't any question here. Verse 25, the land is Palestine and they're gonna find security in their relationship with God. And there's just lots of metaphors here. It's a great place for you to work that question on the back of your reading schedule about metaphors, figures of speech like normal wild beast and showers of rain and, and of course the land will produce instead of devouring its people. Verse 28, verse 29. And I , I don't think any of this is, has to be literal. There's been lots of figurative stuff all through the prophets. Hosea , for example, promises an Egyptian captivity for Israel, but that's actually fulfilled by the Assyrians, not the Egyptians. Isaiah describes Israel defeating Moab and the Philistines, all nations that no longer existed. And that is fulfilled in the time of the Messiah with the messianic peace. And we're gonna read here even further in Ezekiel and I think see more of this figurative language that speaks of coming times of blessing. And in fact, as a kind of preview of coming attractions, the remaining sections of the book really take up and elaborate on various aspects of the prosperity of the people. Chapters 35 and 36 describe that foreign nations are gonna be removed. Chapter 37 then stresses the reunion of the nation. Something that must have been near and dear to many people's hearts as it broke their hearts that Israel no longer existed. There's really no Israel, it's all Judah's intent. And we'll talk more about that as we move further in into the book of Ezekiel. But it is, it is good to hear about that one shepherd, isn't it? And we'll hear more about coming days of the Messiah as we continue to draw near to the Lord in the book of Ezekiel. I'll see you tomorrow on Wednesday. It is Wednesday and today we read Ezekiel the 35th chapter. And I'm home today looking forward to teaching Bible class tonight at Westside. Once again, as we open the book of Ezekiel, we find Edomites in our way. There's been lots of reading about the Edomites in these prophets this year. I think maybe that's one of the surprises. I don't think I understood just how much Edem figures in the biblical narrative. But the prophet is spoken of Israel going home and maybe somebody was thinking, Hey, we can't go home. The mites are there. Those mites hate us and they have been ugly to us. In fact, Psalm 1 37, 7 talks about how the Edomites hurt them. In Lamentations chapter four, we read that verses 21 and 22 discuss as well that the Edomites are their feared enemies That began with the conflict between Jacob and Esau in Genesis the 22nd chapter. And it's just been going ever since. So this conflict is literally hundreds of years old. We can't go home. Those mites are there. No, the mites aren't going to be there. God is gonna bring judgment upon them and you'll know that I'm the Lord. Verse four, when this judgment falls, Edam busted for blood. Verse six. She's gonna get what she wanted but not in the way that she wanted it. So notice here that we've been told a Palestine prospering, but now we're told that Eden's land is gonna wither and be desolate. The connection between land and people is very strong in the Bible. When the land withers, the people wither, particularly since Israel's survival in the land depended upon her faithfulness to God's covenant. What happened when they didn't do what God wanted them to do? There was a drought when they worshiped Baal and the prophet Elijah came and prayed that there would be no rain and there was no rain. For three years the land withered because the people were withering spiritually. And when the land withered physically, the people withered physically as well. So judgment comes, they have barked at God. Verse 10 in a derisive kind of way. But now Edam is judged. They wanted the land of Israel. They spoke VOAs forcefully against Jehovah God. And they did not recognize Jehovah as the only one true God. And so there is poetic justice in verses 14 and 15. I will deal with you and you will be desolate, Mount Sr . All of it. And please catch the final line. Then they, they will know that I'm the Lord. All this business of Israel's god's not very strong. And our gods are stronger. And that's why we were able to help the Babylonians destroy the Israelites, or in this case, really the Jews, because that Jehovah God, he's just not very much. Oh, they'll know. They'll know better than that. Which takes us to chapter 36 on Thursday. See you tomorrow. It is Thursday. And today we read one of the most powerful chapters in the entire book of Ezekiel. This is the famous chapter, Ezekiel 36, that speaks of a new heart and a new spirit. The wonderful blessings that come particularly under the time of the Messiah. Our prefigured here as the nation of Israel. Hmm , really more like I said yesterday, the Jews return home. Let's talk a little bit about this chapter as it gets going. There is discussion here of many nations. Verse five, look at verse five. I've spoken in my hot jealousy against the rest of the nation. So yesterday's reading was so important 'cause we see God moving the mites out of the way so that the people of Israel, once again, the Jews can go home from the baby , from Babylonian captivity. This chapter broadens that into all of the oppressive nations. All of these nations who are standing in the way, God's going to move them out of the way so that these people can in fact go back home. And I'm thinking about battle on and Meads and Persians and all that people must have been thinking about, there's no way that we can be returned from exile. We're just stuck here forever. And Ezekiel says, no , God can do this. This is a great chapter to draw closer to God. 'cause we hear the words of hope and the hurt, the words of restoration. Verse 13, some people were saying the land is kind of like a cursed land. There's a jinx on it. Anybody who lives there ends up being destroyed and stomped on. No, God is bringing the house of Israel back home in verses 16 to 38. Really detail that there's a reminder in verses 16 to 19 about why they got taken to captivity. This is what happened here. It's not on God. Verse 22. It's not God's fault. I had to do this for the sake of my name, God stands up for his reputation. I will vindicate verse 23, the holiness of my nation. I want the nation's, verse 23 to know that I am the Lord. These are huge, huge pieces in our understanding of who God is and what God wants. God wants people to know him, to know who he is. And these people need to be gathered up . Verse 24, they need to be cleansed. Verse 25, God's taking the initiative here to cleanse the nation. Verse 25, and then this lovely verse. I will give you a new heart and a new spirit I will put within you. I'll remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give your heart you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. They will be a new people. They will be different than they were when they went into exile. And this is just true on so many levels. The people who come home from exile never struggle with idolatry again. I wonder sometimes how many people have noticed this? Jesus never calls out idolatry. Jesus never says, could you stop worshiping Baal? What is that thing in the temple? Get that out of there. Jesus never has to do that. There are problems for sure, and we're going to read Malachi, I get it. But the idolatry thing gets cured in the Babylonian captivity. But I think even beyond that, I think even beyond just the people returning from captivity, this speaks of the time of the Messiah and a new people who have the spirit within 'em . This ties to Joel two , which of course is heavily used in the New Testament specifically and especially in Acts chapter two. What does it take to become these new people? It takes the action of God. God has to do something. God has to give a new heart. God has to give a new spirit. We have to become new people. Think about how many times in the New Testament baptism is portrayed that way. We're baptized into Christ. Romans chapter six, we arise to walk in newness of life. We put off the old man and put on the new man. Paul talks about in Ephesians, this passage just echoes all around the New Testament over and over again. Be careful. Verse 31. You'll remember your evil ways and your deeds that were not good and you'll loa yourselves . The key to this is gonna be repentance. It's not that God just magically picks people up and smacks 'em on the back of the head and says, Hey, now you're a new person. I'm doing these new things to you. There is a combination here of divine initiative and human response to what God is doing. And don't get swallow up with pride. Verse 32. It's not for your sake. I'm doing this so that people will know the Lord. I want them to know who I am. I want nations verse 36 to know that I want the House of Israel to know that. I want them to know I am God. Verse 38. And I want you to know what kind of God I am. Ezekiel chapter 36 is a marvelous chapter that helps us draw closer to God. I want to worship this God. I want to love this God. I want to know this God. 'cause he caress about his people even when his people don't care about him. God didn't give up on him and let him rot and babble on . And that was the end of it. And God keeps his word even when it doesn't look like there's any way that God could keep his word. He keeps his word. Anyway. God is amazing. And now he takes initiative to purify his people and give them a new heart and a new spirit. And the Messiah will bring that to the fullest culmination. Now, we too can have the spirit of God, a new heart and a new spirit as we serve the Lord through Jesus the Christ. What an incredible chapter. E equal 36 is probably, probably just need to do a whole reading plan and just read Eel 36 as many times as we can in a month or something. It's just such a marvelous, marvelous chapter. Read it. Read it again. Pray about it and be thankful for it. See you tomorrow. We'll read about some bones. Welcome to Friday. And today we read Ezekiel, the 37 chapter, the famous passage about the valley of the dry bones. I love this passage and I love where we're reading it. We're reading at the end of this week where we've been thinking so much about the restoration of Israel. 'cause that's what this chapter is about. Ezekiel sees a valley of very dry bones, verse two that emphasizes that there isn't anything regular people are gonna be able to do about this. It's gonna take the action of God. And there's the emphasis, verse four on the word of the Lord, because I will cause verse five breath to enter you in the Hebrew breath and spirit and wind or all the same words. And so the breath of God is breathed into this valley of dry bones, which causes the bones to live. Verse eight, prophesy come wins . Verse nine. And so I prophesied verse 10, and they stood an exceedingly great army. This is the whole house of Israel. Verse 11, Ezekiel is told. Notice the people say, our hope is lost. See the pessimism. We'll never go home. Our home has been burned. Nobody can save us. We're just gonna end up disappearing into all the other nations that become part of Babylonian culture. We, we can't do anything. We're never gonna amount to anything. No, God can breathe life into this dead nation and I will be their God and they shall be my people. Verses 15 down, actually verse 16, down to about verse 38, begin to talk about how the house of Israel is going to be restored. And some have tried to make this into every kind of crazy prophecy and fulfillment that you can imagine. People have tried to see that this is the house of Israel and and European nations. Lots of times that's England and America. We, we love to read ourselves into the Bible, don't we? Hey, there we are. Look, it's the 13 colonies and there's every other kind of misuse of this. The Mormon church tries to do some things with this and and say that the sticks , uh, is the Bible and the Book of Mormon. But of course it sticks, not scrolls. That's a flagrant misreading of the Bible. And, and Mormons don't believe the Bible is complete and intact. They believe it's been lost and corrupted. So it's really, really fake for them to jump up and down in Ezekiel and say, oh, look , you here. This is talking about the book of Mormon. That will come someday . Is it? Maybe this is the part that's faked and corrupted. How about that? You can't use part of the Bible and not all of the Bible. You can't say the Bible's corrupted, which is why you need the Book of Mormon. And then go read your corrupted Bible to say it's a prophecy about the Book of Mormon. That is circular reasoning for certain. This is just a prophecy about the nation going home. And part of this, of course, would be the idea of the restoration of them as Israel, all of Israel. And so we read about the stick of Ephraim in verse 16, and why are we looking to make this super literal? Look at verse 24. My servant David shall be king over them. Are , are we thinking this is a resurrection of the dad? This just goes very beautifully with the restoration promises of chapter 36. You're going home, you're gonna know the Lord. You're gonna repent. You're gonna have a new heart, a new spirit. You're gonna be new people. Verse 23, you'll not defile yourselves with idols, detestable things. I will save them from all their backsliding. Verse 23 in which they've sinned . I will cleanse 'em . They shall be my people. I will be their God. It is a beautiful picture of the people serving the Lord like they should and like they ought. As I'm teaching exodus on Wednesday nights at West Side , there's been two or three times where it's actually said, and the people believe Moses and believe God. Or the people obeyed Moses and they obeyed God. And those are, that passage is not repeated very often in the Old Testament. But now we're coming to Ezekiel. I'll make a covenant of peace with them. Verse 26. It'll be an everlasting covenant. Covenant with them. I'll set them in the land and multiply them and set my sanctuary in their midst forevermore. Wanna be careful here about forever. Sometimes folks have tried to make this into some kind of endless promise to the Jews, and they have rights to that land, which is of course now heavily contested. And the hostilities and all the horrible things that are going on over there forever here and forever, often in the prophets is not meant to mean without end eternity. Eternal. We know, for example, that you can't dwell in the land of Israel forever, whatever that means, because the earth is going to be burnt up. Second Peter, chapter three. So don't try to go hyper literal with this. We just need to know, verse 27, my dwelling place shall be with them and I'll be their God and they shall be my people. The restoration of God's fellowship with his people. And I do think maybe there's kind of two tiers to this, the national restoration. But of course, the fullest restoration will come with Jesus, who will be God in the flesh, dwelling with his people. Then the nations will know verse 28, that I am the Lord who sanctifies Israel and my sanctuary is in their midst forevermore. So God will have that special relationship with them when they return from Babylonian captivity. What a beautiful and powerful chapter. Ezekiel chapter 37 is, if you saw a bunch of skeletons, we just had Halloween. What's with the people who got the giant skeletons in the yard? And they're just scaring me, scaring small children. If you saw a pile of bleached bones, sometimes when I'm out hunting, we'll come across a a , a cow's skull or some other animal that's died. I've never looked at any of those bones. I've never thought, wow, you know, we could put this thing back together again and get this cow moving. We could, yeah, let's, let's get Bessie up here. No, no. And that's how the people of Israel felt, the Jews felt in Babylonian captivity. We're just done. We're cooked no more. And God says, I'll breathe life into you. I'm bringing you home. What a tremendous and powerful promise in Eel 37. And from there, we turn our attention now next week to reading the history of God, doing what Ezekiel had prophesied he would do. The people are going home next week. We read the Book of Ezra. Thank you so much for listening to the Monday Morning Coffee podcast. I hope that you have subscribed or followed this podcast so that it appears automatically on your device and you don't have any difficulties looking for it Monday morning. Who wants to be looking for a podcast Monday morning? Maybe you haven't even made coffee yet. That would be almost impossible, wouldn't it? Sometimes you need to make coffee just to have the ability to make coffee. I'm not sure how to fix that. But we certainly would love for you to leave a review of the podcast that will help more people find the podcast and that will help more people read their Bible and draw closer to the Lord. So until next week, I hope that your coffee is delightful. I hope that your Friday is wonderful and that the Lord will be with you today all day. I certainly am looking forward to preaching Sunday at the West Side Church of Christ. Hope that you will be there as well. I'm Mark Roberts and I wanna go to Heaven and I want you to come to see you on Monday on the Monday Morning Coffee podcast .

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