This is what the Sovereign LORD says: I myself will take a shoot from the very top of a cedar and plant it; I will break off a tender sprig from its topmost shoots and plant it on a high and lofty mountain. – Ezekiel 17:22

Today's Scripture Reading (August 10, 2026): Ezekiel 17

Stephen Hawking (1942-2018) was a physicist and best-selling author of "A Brief History of Time" (not to mention the intellectual idol and sometime antagonist of Sheldon Cooper on the television comedy "The Big Bang Theory"). Hawking admitted that the idea of artificial intelligence scared him. With so many advances in the field of artificial intelligence, as well as the number of companies and the amount of money that is being spent to chase after the elusive dream, the science fiction plot device might not be all that far off. In fact, we are already seeing forms of artificial intelligence in our daily lives, including self-driving cars and digital personal assistants like Google Now. Even my phone insists on telling me driving times to places without being asked, simply because it knows that I have been there before. More than once, my phone has interrupted my teaching because it thinks it is a much better teacher than I am. I am reading more and more articles that include a disclaimer stating that they were "written by humans, assisted by AI." Artificial intelligence is creating fake photos and videos that are almost indistinguishable from the real thing. If your politician says something stupid, just blame it on AI. 

For Hawking, the problem of artificial intelligence comes down to who is controlling the intelligence. In the wrong hands, artificial intelligence could be a weapon unlike any we have seen before. For Hawking, the larger problem is whether an independent artificial intelligence could be controlled at all. And if it can't be controlled, what would happen then? Hawking didn't know the answer to that question, and he was pretty sure that no one else did, either. His solution is to pause the development of artificial intelligence while the scientific community ponders the appropriate questions and holes in our knowledge. While Hawking believes we might be technologically ready to make the leap toward artificial intelligence, he is also sure that in every other area of our existence, we are simply not mature enough to take that leap.    

Ezekiel tells a parable about two eagles and a vine. The eagles represented the two major powers in Israel's circle of influence. The eagles represented the Empires of Babylon and Egypt. The vine itself represents Israel. And according to the story, the vine is threatened by the one eagle, and so it creeps toward the other. But in the end, the second eagle cannot help the vine, and so the vine is uprooted. The reality for the people of the time was that the two eagles seemed unstoppable. The vine would not just be uprooted; it looked as if it would be permanently destroyed.

But this is when God steps in. He, too, has a shoot of the vine; one that he had taken from the top of a cedar. And he, too, decides to plant the vine. Only God doesn't plant it in the lush valley. He plants it on the top of the mountain, not the most advantageous place to plant a vine. But according to the story, while the vine in the valley would be destroyed, the remnant God would plant on the mountain would survive. The identification of that remnant from the mountain is evident in the Israel that was born after most of the nation had been exiled. This Israel remained in Canaan, living in constant danger and without the support of a nation. This Israel was one that ultimately mirrored the coming of a Messiah who would not be born in a palace but in a manger. It almost seems like a fiction dreamed up by Artificial Intelligence, but it is a truth that we don't confront often enough. No matter the challenges, it is the remnant that would survive because God had decreed it.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Ezekiel 18

Then I passed by and saw you kicking about in your blood, and as you lay there in your blood I said to you, "Live!" – Ezekiel 16:6

Today's Scripture Reading (August 9, 2026): Ezekiel 16

The Harappan Civilization existed in the Indus Valley in modern-day Pakistan 4500 years ago. The modern significance of the Harappan Civilization is in the discovery of advanced architectural wonders and in the mystery of what happened to them. At the height of the culture, the Indus Valley inhabitants appear to have had a writing system, a well-developed trade and transportation system, and an interest in producing significant works of art. Aiding the civilization's ability to create great architectural marvels was the development in the valley of precise methods for measuring length, weight, and time. The people of the Indus Valley were among the first peoples on Earth to develop a system of uniform weights and measures. All of this should have placed the Indus Valley residents on the fast track to success. Yet somewhere between 3000 and 3500 years ago, the Harappan people mysteriously disappeared. Some experts have postulated a violent end to the Harappan Civilization, but we really do not have any evidence of that. It appears that they just faded away.

One of the proposed culprits behind the end of the Harappan Civilization was simple climate change. It appears that local environmental conditions in the Indus Valley changed around the time the civilization disappeared. The monsoon system that allowed the valley's vegetation to flourish weakened and shifted eastward. The weather change led to a cooler, drier world in the Indus Valley. As a result, the crops that they had traditionally planted refused to grow. Starvation would have followed. Many inhabitants probably died, and others moved on, leaving the remains of their civilization for us to find and a mystery to examine.

In the ancient world, it didn't take much for a civilization to die. Many did; some left us puzzles we can solve; others left us stories to tell and retell. Still others have achieved the status of myth and legend. We are no longer even sure if some of these civilizations ever existed because they have left no evidence for us to discover. The mystery of Atlantis would fall into that category. One researcher humorously admitted that the only way we will ever be able to prove that Atlantis existed is if we find a sign that says, "Atlantis: Population 58,672." And there are a multitude of civilizations that have disappeared so quickly that we don't wonder about them because they didn't get to live long enough to give us anything to remember them by.

God says that Israel should have been one of those short-lived civilizations. Ezekiel compares the birth of Israel to the biological birth of a baby. In biological births, there is a set procedure, a list of things that must be done if the baby is going to survive; the umbilical cord has to be cut and properly tied off, and the baby has to be cleaned and sterilized to minimize the risk of infection. The baby then needs to be fed and protected. But in the early days of Israel, none of these elemental things were done. The newborn nation was simply dumped in the desert of Egypt. It existed in its own pain and in its own blood. There was no reason for Israel to survive.

However, Israel did survive. And according to Ezekiel, the only explanation for life was that God spoke the word over them, commanding them to live. Israel does not belong among all of the lost civilizations of the world, even though it really should. With Israel, the real mystery is how the nation survived. And the answer is that they live because God has decreed it; no other reason is needed.

I believe that God is still speaking the same words over his church. There is no reason why the Christian Church has survived for the past 2000 years. It is certainly not because of anything that the church has done. The only reason that I can discern for why we still exist is simply that God has spoken over his church and commanded her to live. And we will live until God stops speaking.  

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Ezekiel 17

 

 

 

Is wood ever taken from it to make anything useful? Do they make pegs from it to hang things on? – Ezekiel 15:3

Today's Scripture Reading (August 8, 2026): Ezekiel 15

Years after the event, Monica Lewinsky finally broke her silence on a story that captured the imaginations of a generation during the late 1990s. Lewinsky's affair with then-President Bill Clinton was stuff that seemed to be designed for the tabloids. But it isn't the tabloids that Lewinsky blames in hindsight. Lewinsky said, "Thanks to the DRUDGE REPORT (an American-based news aggregation website), I was … possibly the first person whose global humiliation was driven by the Internet." And she is probably right. It isn't that Lewinsky believes herself to be a victim. The only person she publicly seems to want to blame is herself. She says that she "deeply regrets" what happened between her and President Clinton. However, maybe for the first time, the scandal of a relationship was taken to a new level, with more people commenting on and evaluating it than ever before, all presented to us on a platter via the internet and its various social media platforms. And the process continues today through blogs (like this one) and social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter.

I have to admit, I continue to question our use of social media. Don't get me wrong, if you look for me on Facebook (or X), you will find me there. Some of you may even be accessing this blog via social media links. My problem is not that I do not see uses for the social-media giants. I am just convinced that too many people have no idea how to use their social media accounts. Too many people seem to operate under the assumption that whatever they don't dare say in person to someone is quite okay to publish on social media for anyone who wants to read it. Too often, private fights are made public, and passive-aggressive people are being given an incredible voice; none of this is good. Social media has a huge upside; it gives each of us the ability to connect and encourage, but only if we know how to use it. Beyond that purpose, social media is dangerous and, if not used properly, quite possibly useless or, at worst, horribly damaging to its users.

Ezekiel argues that the vine is useful for only one thing: producing fruit. Other than that, it is useless. Fruit-bearing trees may give fruit, but they can also be used in other ways; they can provide shade in the heat of the day, and even when their existence is brought to an end, the wood that is left can be used to build useful things, even if it is just pegs on which things can be hung. But this is not the case with the vine. Once the vine stops giving fruit, there is nothing useful left that it can do.

In light of Ezekiel, it is probably no surprise that Jesus compares us to the vine. He says that as long as we are connected to him, we will bear fruit. However, being detached from him means there is nothing constructive left for us to do. With no purpose left for us to accomplish, the only thing left for us is to be discarded and burned.   

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Ezekiel 16

 

… as surely as I live, declares the Sovereign LORD, even if Noah, Daniel and Job were in it, they could save neither son nor daughter. They would save only themselves by their righteousness. – Ezekiel 14:20

Today's Scripture Reading (August 7, 2026): Ezekiel 14

In the ancient Ugaritic texts, there is a story about a wise man named Danel. Danel is described as a good and just man, one who judges the cause of the widow and defends the rights of the orphan. The text itself comes from Ugarit in Northern Syria and was written around the fourteenth century B.C.E. It has many parallels with Hebrew writing, including Hebrew poetic parallelism and the use of the word El to describe God. El is also used to describe God in some portions of the Books of Moses. But the Ugaritic texts are not Hebrew. The last Ugarit King, Ammurapi, reigned around 1215 to 1180 B.C.E. At that time, the king wrote a letter describing the dire situation of the Near Eastern peoples, who were struggling under threat from the Sea Peoples, seafaring raiders from the Aegean Sea in southern Europe. Apparently, the help never came, and the city was destroyed around 1178 B.C.E., about 600 years before Ezekiel was written. And yet, even though Ugarit was gone, the story of this wise man named Danel continued to be told throughout the Middle Eastern cultures. Danel became the pattern and description of a just man.

The original Hebrew text of this passage mentions the name Danel, and not Daniel. Translators have most likely made the change to Daniel because Danel is not a wise man from Hebrew literature (both Noah and Job are heroes of the Hebrew Bible). But there is a problem with the interpretation that the wise man mentioned in this passage is Daniel, the survivor of the lion's den. Daniel was a contemporary of Ezekiel. In fact, large portions of the story of Daniel occur long after the events being described here by Ezekiel. And the reality is that the story of Daniel and the captivity would not be complete, nor a part of the wisdom literature of Israel, until well after the time of the writing of Ezekiel. Including Daniel on this list really doesn't make sense. And the placement of the name Danel between Noah and Job would also seem to indicate that Danel was a man from antiquity, just as Noah and Job were. This chronology would seem to rule out Daniel and leave us with the Ugarit Danel as the best option in our attempt to identify the man that Ezekiel was describing.

However, all three of these men are also linked by their inability to save their cultures. Noah's righteousness was only good enough to save himself and his family during the time of the flood, Job's righteousness was only good enough to save himself, he lost all of his children in the tragedy at the beginning the story told by the book that bears his name, and while Danel might have been concerned about the widows and the orphans and had become the pattern of a just man, in the end Danel could not save his culture either. His city was burned, and his culture died. All that was left was this story of a wise man who had once lived in northern Syria. Ezekiel's message is clear. Each of these exiles needed to be righteous to be saved; they could not depend on anyone else. However, incredible men like Daniel, Ezekiel, and Jeremiah would not be able to save Israel any more than Noah, Danel, and Job could save theirs. Each person needed to develop their own relationship with God. And each person still does.      

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Ezekiel 15

Therefore this is what the Sovereign LORD says: Because of your false words and lying visions, I am against you, declares the Sovereign LORD. – Ezekiel 13:8

Today's Scripture Reading (August 6, 2026): Ezekiel 13

I admit that I am confused about the doctrine that some churches seem to want to proclaim. Some seem to effortlessly proclaim a gospel of hate that I admit I have a hard time understanding. The members of these churches are comfortable carrying picket signs protesting what they consider to be the sins of the age, namely homosexuality and abortion, among a few other unimaginative sins, proclaiming that this is the will of God. But in reality, I struggle to see the connection. And the one question I keep asking myself is this: would Jesus carry the signs? Over and over again, the conclusion that I come up with is that Jesus would more likely be holding the scared girl inside the abortion clinic than he would be holding the picket sign outside the clinic.

If I have a message to the world, it is that all churches are not created equal. At least in my corner of the world, we all seem to get painted with the same brush. But the Bible's overarching message would seem to be love for those who are different, not hate. Jesus partied with the tax collector and welcomed the prostitute into his presence. I am convinced that His church can do nothing less. And anyone who suggests a gospel filled with hate and picket signs must be reading a different Bible; they must be reading different words of God.

I say I am convinced because I feel I need to be. Declaring what God will or will not do is dangerous business. God declares that he will set himself against those who attribute words and actions to him that are not his. Making those kinds of assertions is probably something with which the contemporary church should be extremely careful. Too often, we seem to get carried away declaring the words of God that he has never spoken.

If there is a message that I believe we need to declare, it is about the wideness of God's love. There is no other message that is worthy of the Body of Christ, the Christian Church. And no other message that our world needs to hear more, especially because there are those among us who seem intent on spreading a gospel of hate that just cannot have originated with God of the Bible, the God who loves tax-collectors and always invites the sinner into a relationship with him.  

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Ezekiel 14

Son of man, the Israelites are saying, 'The vision he sees is for many years from now, and he prophesies about the distant future.' – Ezekiel 12:27

Today's Scripture Reading (August 5, 2026): Ezekiel 12

As I write this, the conflict between Russia and Ukraine continues. This news might surprise some, because the war has been largely excluded from most of our news cycles by other events, primarily at the United States' behest. But the war in Ukraine continues, and there are still a lot of unanswered questions. Not surprisingly, one question that still hasn't been answered is what this means for the rest of the world. Of key interest is whether the situation in Ukraine can be contained in Eastern Europe and Asia, or whether it will spill over into other countries; will this remain just a Russian/Ukrainian issue, or will it lead to a broader world conflict? The nations have worked hard to contain the conflict, but every day it seems we are a step closer to, at the very least, a struggle in the European-Asian theater. As Vladimir Putin continues to dream of putting the band back together and forming a revised Soviet Union, some Russia watchers point to an East/West conflict that the world has been anticipating since the end of the Second World War. However, the fear of an East/West conflict has never really gone away. The expectation of conflict was just somehow delayed. And now, with the Ukraine/Russia war, the possibility of this major conflict has been brought back into the forefront of the world's consciousness. The message of many is that world trouble is no longer a distant possibility; the events in Ukraine have made it an immediate probability.

Ezekiel has revealed everything that God has told him to the exiles. The news is overwhelming. But far from the intended effect of showing that God is still on the throne, God says the people have instead claimed the prophecies refer to the distant future. And because the prophecies are so distant, there is nothing that needs to be done now. Actions can wait until later, closer to the time revealed in God's prophecies. God responds that the people are wrong and that the prophecies are not about the distant future but about a much closer time. The words of the Prophets are about the immediate, so a response is also required now, not later.

God still expects his people to react to his prophecies with an eye to the near future. The "when" of a prophecy is ultimately unimportant; the expected reaction is always supposed to be in the now. The reality is that we can do nothing about the past, but the future is shaped by the actions we take in the present. So, God expects us to take the present very seriously. For the exiles, there was a path they needed to take to return to where God wanted and needed them to be, and to where they themselves desired to be. But that path started in the now. Ezekiel's prophecies were not something that could be procrastinated into the distant future because even the distant future begins in the eternal now.

The most important time of your life is the now. The past is dead and buried, but the future will be written by the actions we take today. The only hope the world has is that we can agree on what the future should look like, so that we can also agree to take action in the present.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Ezekiel 13

… and I told the exiles everything the LORD had shown me. – Ezekiel 11:25

Today's Scripture Reading (August 4, 2026): Ezekiel 11

In May 1931, Adolf Hitler found himself in a somewhat unusual situation. It was definitely a very uncomfortable time for the future Führer. Hitler was on trial, led by a German lawyer named Hans Litten (1903-1938). The actual trial was over the death of two workers at the hands of four "Sturmabteilung" officers. The "Sturmabteilung" (SA) were early members of the Nazi special forces until they were eventually replaced by the "Schutzstaffel," the dreaded Nazi SS.

Litten's examination of Hitler lasted for three hours. The three hours that Hitler spent on the stand in 1931 were so traumatic that Hitler would not let Litten's name be spoken in his presence for the rest of his life. During Hitler's three hours on the stand, Litten made some important discoveries. First, Hitler was contradicting himself, indicating that the Nazi leader was not being totally honest with the German people. He also discovered that Hitler was involved in using violence against those who dared to oppose the Nazi Party. It was a crucial discovery because it called into question Hitler's claim that the Nazi's were a strictly legal middle-class party. The judge finally intervened, freeing Hitler from eventual conviction. Still, Litten hoped that the trial had exposed Hitler enough, that enough information about the Nazi Party had been revealed to the German people, that it would cause permanent damage to the Party. In fact, newspapers in Germany covered the trial in detail, and Hitler was investigated for perjury the following summer. Unfortunately, he survived the investigation, but the experience rattled him. For the rest of his reign, Hitler maintained an iron hand on the amount and type of information that the public would be allowed to know. What the public didn't know would benefit Hitler and his Nazi Party.

Knowledge is power. Often, it seems that what is evil survives by limiting what people know. Ezekiel realized this, so he told the exiles everything God had shown him. Nothing was to be concealed; everything needed to be revealed. Ezekiel knew the exiles needed to know that, even though their situation was not what they wanted, God was still in control and on the move, and that there was still hope. Don Rickles says that he talks to God, but whenever he calls, God is out of town. It must have seemed that way for the exiles; the truth was that God was still answering, still leading his prophets, even in a strange land. And this was a message that Ezekiel had to make sure that the exiles knew beyond a shadow of a doubt. Ezekiel realized that this kind of knowledge could not be hidden. The people had to know – everything.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Ezekiel 12