Son of man, speak to the elders of Israel and say to them, 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Have you come to inquire of me? As surely as I live, I will not let you inquire of me, declares the Sovereign LORD.' – Ezekiel 20:3

Today's Scripture Reading (August 13, 2026): Ezekiel 20

Robert Mugabe (1924-2019) was consistently labeled one of the worst rulers of the contemporary world. When he was elected as Prime Minister of Zimbabwe on April 18, 1980, Zimbabwe was a model African nation. Its economy was growing, and its currency was stronger than the U.S. dollar. Then, Mugabe became the nation's supreme leader. His critics also note that Mugabe's popularity was in free fall from almost the moment his reign began. Mugabe was accused of repeatedly abusing his position and cheating against his opposition, and that the only opinion that he really wants to hear is his own. During the 1988 Zimbabwe elections, it was rumored that Mugabe told his supporters that he would accept the election results only if he won (Hmmm, reminds me of someone else). In later elections, he used coercion, intimidation, and beatings to remain in power. As a result, Zimbabwe is considered one of the most corrupt and least transparent nations in the world. Political observer Heidi Holland makes this comment about Mugabe's legacy.

The story of Robert Mugabe is a microcosm of what bedevils African democracy and economic recovery at the beginning of the 21st century. It is a classic case of a genuine hero—the guerrilla idol who conquered the country's former leader and his white supremacist regime—turning into a peevish autocrat whose standard response to those suggesting he steps down is to tell them to get lost. It is also the story of activists who try to make a better society but bear the indelible scars of the old system. Mugabe's political education came from the autocrat Ian Smith, who had learnt his formative lessons from imperious British colonisers (Heidi Holland).

As the elders of the Israelites in exile come to Ezekiel, their visit suggests they wanted to inquire of the prophet what God would have them do. I mean, why else would you go to visit a prophet, and in this case, the pre-eminent prophet of the exile in Babylon? But God sees something else. The truth was that the leaders did not care what God was saying. They just needed the appearance of going to the prophet to inquire of God. In the end, all they wanted to do was follow their own desires. And unfortunately, it does not seem to occur to them that it was the pursuit of their own desires that led to their exile in the first place.

I wish this were a story fully contained in the past, but it continues today. Too many people go to church not because they want to inquire of God, but because they want to give the appearance of doing so. And too many Christians are too obsessed with following their own beliefs rather than hearing whatever it is that God might be saying to them. Too often, it seems the Christian Church would rather lean on its own understanding than search for the message that comes from God. It is a situation that needs desperately to change. Our world does not need to hear more of what the Christian Church thinks; however, it urgently needs to hear from the God of all Creation.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Ezekiel 21

 

 

 

Your mother was like a vine in your vineyard planted by the water; it was fruitful and full of branches because of abundant water. – Ezekiel 19:10

Today's Scripture Reading (August 12, 2026): Ezekiel 19

In 2014, the CBS show "48 Hours" decided to use portions of a four-minute voicemail, recorded by Danielle Thomas just moments before she was murdered, on the weekly show. In fact, it might be that the moment of her murder is caught on the audio tape. The decision to air portions of the recording was controversial. Those close to Thomas did not want to hear the tape and wished that CBS would reverse its decision. However, millions of others most likely did want to hear Thomas' final words. Maybe it is a sign of our morbid preoccupation with death (even though death is something about which we seldom speak in Western Culture). But I wonder if the more likely cause is that we want desperately to make sense out of life, and a young woman being killed in the prime of her life doesn't make sense. So, we struggle for details. We want to know the answers to our questions, as if, in the act of knowing, we can make sense of the tragedy. But often it is a fool's chase; some things just don't make sense.

We often play the game at funerals. We like to trace the life; we give eulogies (sometimes very long ones) that attempt to reference the life we are celebrating, a life that has now ended. We tell stories of life that are intended to ease the pain, but sometimes seem to heighten it, especially if the one who has died did so before their time. All of this is just part of what we do, and these words are ways for us to try to move past the tragic ending of a life. I do not think that we ever heal from these times of sorrow (I know that I am often reminded of the people who were important to me who have passed away, and always with a fresh feeling of pain). Still, survival in our world requires that we somehow get past the pain and sorrow so we can get on with life.

In many ways, Ezekiel 19 is a eulogy for a life that was cut short. The princes of Israel may remain, but the nation (the mother of the passage) is now totally gone. In Ezekiel's story, there are no remnants and no life. Ezekiel begins to look back over the life of the nation, and what he sees is a life that began with so much promise. The vine (Mother Israel) was planted close to the water. In ancient times, especially in the heat of the Middle East, a vine had to be planted near water if it was going to produce fruit. And Ezekiel declares that Mother Israel bore fruit, at least for a time.

Ezekiel also describes the vine as full of branches. Israel had been a place where all the tribes, the descendants of Jacob, could find life and, perhaps more importantly, peace. There was no violent breaking off of branches on the vine, at least not until the Assyrian captivity for the Northern Tribes, and now this snuffing out of Judah and Benjamin by Babylon.

However, what had started with such potential had now ended. All that was left were the cries of the princes in a place that was not their own. It was a sad story of a life ending early and of a promise never fully realized. But the story is supposed to be sad, after all, it is a eulogy being given at a funeral, it is the last words being recorded on tape before an untimely death. We are not supposed to find good things here; this passage is all about potential that has ended before its time. And Ezekiel's final words of the chapter remind us of this single-focused reality. "This is a lament and is to be used as a lament" (Ezekiel 19:14).

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Ezekiel 20

For I take no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Sovereign LORD. Repent and live! – Ezekiel 18:32

Today's Scripture Reading (August 11, 2026): Ezekiel 18

Clayton Lockett was not a "good" man. His life had been horrible, almost from the beginning. He was raised by his father, who regularly abused him and began forcing him to take drugs at the age of three. Dad also taught him how to steal without being caught. The talent for theft was something that Locket was able to put into practice.

Lockett was sixteen when he pleaded no contest to charges of intimidating state witnesses. That same year, he was arrested and pleaded guilty to burglary and knowingly concealing stolen property. He received a seven-year prison sentence for the crime.

The sixteen-year-old Lockett was incarcerated at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary, an adult prison. There he was gang raped by three adult male prisoners. When Lockett emerged from prison, his criminal way of life continued. Everything came to a head when he kidnapped and shot nineteen-year-old Stephanie Neiman. By the time he was finally arrested, he was charged and convicted of a long list of crimes: first-degree murder, seven counts of rape, four counts of kidnapping, two counts of robbery, first-degree burglary, two counts of assault with a dangerous weapon, assault and battery, and conspiracy.

On October 5, 2000, Lockett was sentenced to death plus 2,285 years. Some of us take a look at the life of Clayton Lockett, and we see someone who never had a chance. We don't know everything. But from the time of his birth, it seems that Lockett was trained in how to be someone so evil that the death penalty was almost assured. 

Clayton Lockett died on April 29, 2014. I use the word died instead of executed because Lockett's execution matched his life; it was botched from the very beginning. Lockett was to be executed by lethal injection. An untried cocktail of drugs was used. Lockett fought the execution, so getting the drugs into him was a problem. Finally, he was sedated, and the execution of Clayton Lockett began. But three minutes after the execution began, Lockett seemed to wake up and said, "Something's wrong." He attempted to get up from the table. His lawyer said it looked like torture. For the next half hour, Lockett fought the drugs in obvious pain. Finally, the life of Clayton Lockett came to an end with a heart attack. No lifesaving measures were used to revive him. It took forty-three minutes for Clayton Lockett to die.

Should Lockett have died? I am not a proponent of Capital Punishment, but in the case of Clayton Lockett, part of me thinks that we eventually put a man out of the misery that life had been since the beginning of his existence. However, I am disturbed by the racial differences in how the decision to execute is made (Clayton Lockett was an African American). Add to that a report from The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), which proclaims that out of every 1000 executions, forty-one of the executed criminals are actually innocent. One innocent man condemned to death is too many, 4.1% becomes immoral. There simply has to be another way.  

Sometimes I wonder if it is we, the ones who are doing the executing, who are emotionally stunted. Too many people seem to live for payback and vengeance. But the problem is that even when payback comes, we find it unsatisfying. The pain inside of us remains - the only difference is that now we get to spread it around.

God speaks of this. He says, "I take no pleasure in the death of anyone." Maybe we need to stress "anyone." In fact, God is so repelled by death that, as far as he is concerned, repentance is enough to stop it. He seems to be telling the exiles through Ezekiel that it is not too late. Even with all of the sins that they had committed and the magnitude of their crimes, God desperately wanted to find another way out of the situation, so that death would not be involved.

And I hope that that is where our culture finds itself one day. I love the pictures of the protestors carrying signs that say "Don't kill for me." I think the message reflects God's deep purposes. So let me join them by saying, don't kill for me, either.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Ezekiel 19

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