Today’s Scripture:
Things to remember in today’s reading:
*Speaking to a community forced from it’s home, Ezekiel sets the scene for an awesome vision of the glory of God (1:1-28).
*Ezekiel receives his commission to prophesy, through swallowing a scroll, given him by God. This scroll strengthens him and trains him in obedience (2:1-3:11).
*The glory of God withdraws and Ezekiel’s role becomes that of a watchman, then God’s glory returns to him in the valley telling him to shut himself within his house (3:12-27).
*Ezekiel receives his first vision of judgement against his own nation of Judah (usually called Israel in the text), prediction of death of one-third by pestilence, one-third by famine, an one-third by sword (4:1-5:17).
*Ezekiel receives his vision against the “mountains of Israel” (6:1-14).
Things God is teaching me in today’s reading:
*It is right to vindicate the holiness of our Go and to attempt to restore His glory before people who have spurned it!
*As we preach and teach, we will encounter those who “have a hard forehead and a stubborn heart” (3:7).
*Ezekiel stood on the cusp between those who called for repentance by threatening judgment and those who called for repentance by promising restoration. He influenced those who came after him (ESV Study Bible, p. 1497).
Things to act on in today’s reading:
*I am thinking about what it might have been like to live in the time of Ezekiel.
*I am writing a note to encourage one of my brothers who has rebelled against God’s rules and has not walked in His steps and is doing wickedness that even many in the world around him recognize as immoral.
Things to pray about in today’s reading:
*That I might be an influence, on those who will follow me, in the same positive way that Ezekiel was.