King Nebuchadnezzar, To the nations and peoples of every language, who live in all the earth: May you prosper greatly! – Daniel 4:1

Today's Scripture Reading (October 9, 2026): Daniel 4

I have to admit that until recently, I believed our politicians had less power than we sometimes think they possess. The reality is that the checks and balances built into the political structure of most democratic nations leave little room for leaders to act. I still believe that when everything in the nation is going well, political leadership likely has less to do with it than many will admit. During tough times, the blame belongs less to our political leaders than their critics are ever willing to admit. However, Donald Trump's presidency has changed my thinking a bit. Political leaders can do things that tank a nation, something I am not sure I really believed before Donald Trump. Of course, even Donald Trump requires the permission of key people and the public to bring the nation down. Writing this in the mid-2020s, I hope we are not watching the demise of the American Empire. That reality probably rests on the political reaction to Donald Trump after his term is through.

What sometimes amazes me is how divergent public opinion is about our political leaders' potential. One sector often considers our leaders saints, while another part of society sees them as demons. Sometimes the obvious has to be stated; usually, they are neither. Could you imagine a book on the Republican Party's (the Grand Old Party) influence on U.S. politics and its impact on world events? The book would include writings by and about the Great Republicans of the past. It would even mention Republicans who didn't shine the way the Grand Old Party wished they had. Overall, the book would be generally positive yet offer a balanced look at Republican politics. However, in the middle of this book about Republican politics is a chapter written by Barack Obama. That chapter would not seem to fit. After all, it was the Republicans who have done the most to demonize the former Democratic President. Maybe the flip side is easier to imagine: a book on Democratic politics with a chapter written by Donald Trump. How insane would either scenario be?

Yet, that is exactly what the fourth chapter of Daniel represents. This chapter is written by someone who is not a Jew and who is actually demonized in many places in the Hebrew Bible. The Babylonian invader, Nebuchadnezzar, wrote the chapter. The same Nebuchadnezzar who was responsible for destroying Jerusalem, demolishing the Temple, and taking the people of Judah away from their homeland into exile. The fourth chapter of the Book of Daniel is one of the most unexpected chapters in literary history.

But the chapter exists. It testifies to the Babylonian king's support for the God of Israel, proving that God can reach into every corner of the earth and that all the people of the earth truly belong to him.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Ezekiel 40

At this time some astrologers came forward and denounced the Jews. – Daniel 3:8

Today's Scripture Reading (October 8, 2026): Daniel 3

Every once in a while, a blog post garners unwanted attention. I remember one post that mentioned the December 2012 tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School. In that case, a couple of readers questioned the validity of the Sandy Hook tragedy. They weren't convinced the tragedy ever really happened. Several videos and websites openly question the tragedy. They have noticed discrepancies in the media reports surrounding the shooting and have decided that the 2012 Sandy Hook events simply did not take place. Other websites refute conspiracy theorists' attempts to downplay the tragedy. The problem is that if conspiracy theorists' logic is solid, the arguments supporting the tragedy are just as solid. If there are holes in the reporting of the tragedy at Sandy Hook, there are also holes in the theories of those who do not believe that it happened. But neither side sees the other as a responsible witness to the events of that awful December day.

I need to make this clear; I am not trying to solve the mystery of the events at Sandy Hook Elementary School. Neither side is willing to listen to me anyway. But another tragedy is at play. For one thing, no matter what the real story is concerning Sandy Hook Elementary, the situation itself reveals a sick society. If it really happened, which is what I believe, what kind of society willingly kills its children? If it was faked, that takes a warped society willing to fake the heinous events that were supposed to happen on that day. And if it really happened, yet conspiracy theorists want to convince us that it was faked, what kind of society is willing to believe that a tragedy like this didn't happen when it really did? Given all of this, in the end, there is absolutely no upside to the Sandy Hook Elementary School tragedy: none. And it is time that we took steps to stop these kinds of events.

Even one of the conspiracy-theorist websites admits that children lost their lives at Sandy Hook Elementary School. According to these people, it just didn't happen the way we think it did. And that is the real tragedy. Potential assistance was cut off too soon. The tragedy happened for no reason. Whatever the reality might be, kids who could have changed our world were cut down before they even had a chance to reach their potential, and that just isn't fair to any of us.

Daniel notes that some wise men came forward and denounced the Jews. The idea is filled with tragedy. The comment shares the same root evil as was present in all of the Sandy Hook tragedy theories. A willingness to hate before we even know. And that is simply a tragedy our world cannot afford.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Daniel 4

From that day forward the people of Israel will know that I am the Lord their God. – Ezekiel 39:22

Today's Scripture Reading (October 7, 2026): Ezekiel 39

How well do you know what you do? Whatever it is that you spend your time doing, whatever consumes your time, whether it is your job or the activities you are involved in during your off time, my guess is that you know what it is you do fairly well. Each one of us has a skill set. I am sure you do some things better than others, and conversely, there are some things you don't do quite as well. That's how it is supposed to be. There are things that I do quite well; I hope that writing and teaching are in that group. However, I know there are things I am not good at: carpentry and mechanics are part of that rather large group of "some things."

Sometimes what we do is passed down through family lines. We learn the secrets of the occupation or business from our parents. Part of knowing what we do is understanding the purpose of what occupies our time. I remember attending a lecture many years ago by evolutionary creationist Denis Lamoureux. It was a great evening, partly because Dr. Lamoureux knows what he's talking about. You don't have to agree with his stand, but you quickly become convinced he knows what he's talking about and passionately believes what he teaches.

The repeated phrase in Ezekiel is that they "will know that I am the Lord their God." As Ezekiel concludes this controversial prophecy, he speaks directly to Israel. Israel will know that the one they call Lord is their God. I think there is reason for that. Israel's purpose was to bless the world; that was their job. They stood, as the children of God, at the center of God's blessing so they could bless the people with whom they came into contact. They couldn't do it unless they realized who God was. They needed continual reminders of that reality. So, the Bible continually contains this important idea, a reminder of who God is.

We need the same continual reminder. Church, you are here to bless the world. You can only do that if you recognize that God is at work in you. There are no other options. And you (we) need to be reminded of that continually: the reason why we are here and who God really is.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Daniel 3

After many days you will be called to arms. In future years you will invade a land that has recovered from war, whose people were gathered from many nations to the mountains of Israel, which had long been desolate. They had been brought out from the nations, and now all of them live in safety. – Ezekiel 38:8

Today's Scripture Reading (October 6, 2026): Ezekiel 38

Do you ever wish that you knew what was going to happen in the future? Maybe you would like to pick the winning lottery numbers, or know who will win the big game. Or even just to know what the weather will be like today so you can dress properly. (I don't know about where you live, but around here it seems the weather changes faster than I can keep up with, and sometimes the forecasting leaves a little to be desired.) Sometimes it might be fun to know the future, although knowing the winner of the big football game would take all the fun out of it for me.

Ezekiel 38 starts as a very controversial prophecy. Part of the controversy is that the prophecy doesn't seem to have been fulfilled. In fact, the description contained in Ezekiel's words fits more with today than maybe any time in Israel's history. In the past century, we have watched Israel be gathered back from many nations. Despite the violence, it seems they live in relative safety. At least, Israel's defense is in her hands in a way it hasn't been for over two millennia. So some people have openly wondered if, just maybe, there is a war on the horizon. Okay, it really doesn't take that much imagination.

Prophecy can lead us into the future. But the real problem with it is that until the events actually happen, it is hard to read meaning into them. I don't know what will happen tomorrow. I don't know whether the words of a prophet, now over 2500 years old, are unfulfilled or ready to be fulfilled. I don't know whether the world will end in 2026, as suggested by Riaz Ahmed Gohar Shahi's book "The Religion of God," or in 2060, as suggested in an unpublished manuscript by Isaac Newton, or sometime in the next century, as predicted by a few prognosticators. I am comfortable that God is in control. Ezekiel 38 ends with the words "they will know that I am the Lord." And that is really the point. Above everything else, we need to know that God is the Lord and that he is really in control.

So, have a great week, no matter what the future may hold!

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Ezekiel 39

I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the LORD. – Ezekiel 37:6

Today's Scripture Reading (October 5, 2026): Ezekiel 37

I love sitting down with friends and just talking. Admittedly, I like the conversation to be consequential. I enjoy sitting with friends and talking politics, something I try to do at least occasionally. And I have been like this for quite a while. In 2026, as the Canadian province of Alberta prepares to vote on separating from Canada, I remembered moments from childhood, when Quebec considered the same question. I remember sitting in front of a black-and-white television, watching for news of what Quebec had decided, hoping the people of Quebec would choose to stay with Canada, even though I lived thousands of miles away in eastern Canada. My sense, then and now, was that these questions often resolve around a feeling of hopelessness. Alberta and Quebec share that they sometimes feel like the national government is not on their side. Hopelessness about their future within Confederation is compared to a dream of what it might be like if the province seceding from the nation could make its own rules. I am not convinced that, in the long run, the sense of hopelessness would be any better if Alberta or Quebec did decide to go it alone. Hopelessness would still reign in our lives, though who we blame for it might change.

Hopelessness has almost become epidemic in our lives. It is robbing us of the sparkle in our lives and the smile in our worship. We are running too hard.  Work is good for us, but too often it doesn't get us where we need to be. The situation seems so hopeless. As a society, the hopeless desires of our hearts are killing us. We are dying.

I love this passage. There is no valley of dry bones. This passage does not tell of a true story of an actual valley; it is a vision or dream God gave Ezekiel as he tried to instill hope in the prophet, who now lived in exile, far from the places of his youth. I remember an old song that my grandfather used to sing. It was an old spiritual that declared the message of the bones: "Dem bones, dem bones, dem dry bones. Now hear the word of the Word of the Lord." I think we might need the song sung over us in our Valley of Dry Bones. We need the life God brought to the dead, dry bones, instilled into our lives. We need life back in our desires. We need God's breath in us. We need a reason to hope.

That hope is what God promised Ezekiel and the exiled nation of Israel, and what he still offers us. To look at our dry lives and bring life where there was none before. To renew us and put the flesh back on our dry bones.

I have no idea what today might hold for you. But remember: when everything seems hopeless, that is the time to turn to God and ask for his hope. Be willing to tell the Creator of this world that the dry bones need life. Remember that the battle is His, not ours. Now, hear the word of the Lord.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Ezekiel 38

I will show the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, the name you have profaned among them. Then the nations will know that I am the LORD, declares the Sovereign LORD, when I am proved holy through you before their eyes. – Ezekiel 36:23

Today's Scripture Reading (October 4, 2026): Ezekiel 36

Christianity started as a small provincial belief system. Our best guess is that, at the time of the death of Jesus Christ, the one whom the faith is named and patterned after, there were at most 500 true believers in Christianity. No distinct people groups were the target audience for the belief system. For the Jews, the target audience for the faith is evident. Judaism is aimed at the children of Abraham, through Isaac and Jacob. Jacob was renamed Israel and became the father of the nation the Bible calls the Children of God. For Islam, the other sister faith of Christianity, the primary audience is the children of Abraham through Ishmael. But for Christianity, the audience, at least according to the Apostle Paul, is the children of Abraham through faith (Galatians 3). In other words, Christianity's primary audience is the world, or at least the portion of the world that wishes to claim to be the descendants of Abraham in Spirit, whether or not they are physically linked to the patriarch.

Paul finds an echo of the Old Testament belief in Abraham in the gospel presented in the Christian Testament. Paul writes, "Understand, then, that those who have faith [in Jesus Christ] are children of Abraham. Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: "All nations will be blessed through you" (Galatians 3:7-8).

So, starting with Paul, this small provincial faith with no real target audience has seen itself as the realization of God's promise to Abraham and to Israel. It is a promise that somehow, through them, they would bless the world. Admittedly, the church has often failed at the task. Somehow, at the same time, the world has often been blessed by God through the church.

This same idea echoes in Ezekiel's words. God says he will show Israel the holiness of his name, and then the world will know that holiness "through them." The idea was that because Israel knew the holiness of God, then they would be able to share that God with the world. The holiness of his name was summed up in the love that sent God to a cross to die for the sins, not of the descendants of Abraham through Isaac and Jacob nor of the descendants of Abraham through Ishmael, but of the children of Abraham by faith. In other words, those who are the children of Abraham because they have chosen to be just that: the children of Abraham. They were not born into that position, but have voluntarily chosen to wear that identification badge and share God's love with the people.

With Jesus Christ lifted on the cross, we have seen God's holiness. Now it is time to share that holiness with the world. Those willing to see that sacrifice made on their behalf will also know that the holiness of God has truly been proved before their eyes.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Ezekiel 37

Because you have said, "These two nations and countries will be ours and we will take possession of them," even though I the LORD was there. – Ezekiel 35:10

Today's Scripture Reading (October 3, 2026): Ezekiel 35

As the American Civil War dragged on, a story tells of Abraham Lincoln attending a scientific convention in Washington. At one point during the convention, a member called on the President with a question. "Mr. President, we trust during this time of trial in which the nation is engaged, God is on our side, and will give us victory." Lincoln looked at the inquisitive member and replied, "Sir, my concern is not whether God is on our side. My great concern is to be on God's side. For God is always right!" No one knows for sure whether the incident ever happened; no firsthand references to the meeting appear, and the first mention of this conversation appears in the minutes of the Connecticut Temperance Union in 1881, a little more than fifteen years after Lincoln's assassination. As a result, some have rightfully questioned whether the conversation ever happened. However, the comment fits Lincoln and the moral battle he fought during the American Civil War. Lincoln's opposition to slavery was deeply ingrained. In his Peoria speech, given by Lincoln opposing the pro-slavery Kansas Act, Lincoln declared, "I cannot but hate it. I hate it because of the monstrous injustice of slavery itself. I hate it because it deprives our republican example of its just influence in the world ..." But it was more than just the hate the President had for slavery. He chose the hard road that led him into the Civil War, and almost to the dissolution of a nation, not because he believed that slavery was wrong, but because everything that he studied and that he knew about God convinced him that God thought that slavery was wrong. And if God thought it was wrong, how could he not oppose it? At least, that is the argument from what we know of the Civil War President.

The central element of God's charge against Mount Seir and Edom was not that they opposed Israel and Judah. While that would have been enough, God also says that they opposed the descendants of Jacob even though they knew that God was there. Their concern was themselves; they wanted what they wanted, and they would chase it, even if it meant opposing God's will. The only God Edom wanted was one that would blindly agree to the nation's aims; that would never be the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

I have to admit that the one thing that concerns me about the contemporary church, and often contemporary politics, is that we want God to be on our side, but we don't seem to want to figure out exactly where God is moving. It is easier to pray that God will be on our side; that he will rubber-stamp our goals, than it is to commit to be on God's side. After all, making sure we are on God's side might carry us into conflicts for which we are not ready.

If we want to change the world, we don't need God to be on our side. We need to make sure that we are on God's side. The last thing that we want to hear when we finally meet God face to face is God asking us why we opposed him or why we didn't even seem to want to try to be on his side. After all, deep down we know that Abraham Lincoln is correct; God is always right.  

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Ezekiel 36