There at Riblah, in the land of Hamath, the king had them executed. So Judah went into captivity, away from her land. – 2 Kings 25:21

Today's Scripture Reading (August 17, 2026): 2 Kings 25

The story is told of the early days of Abraham Lincoln's first term as President. In an unusual picture of humility, a common sight in Springfield was of the President-elect making his daily trip to the local post office to pick up his mail. Finally, Lincoln concluded that he needed help, and, with that determination in mind, early in 1861, he hired a young immigrant named John Nicolay as his private secretary. Nicolay would hold the office until Lincoln's assassination in 1865.

Nicolay was alarmed as he began reading the letters the President was receiving; many were threats against the newly elected President. Lincoln seemed to be unperturbed. Lincoln was unable to imagine how it could be that political hatred could ever be transformed into an attack that would cause physical harm. Yet, on the evening of his first inauguration, the president-elect found himself sneaking into Washington. At the same time, citizens who had planned the first assassination attempt on President Lincoln's life waited for him in Baltimore.

The strategy of killing the leaders is an ancient one. And as the saga of the Kingdom of Judah ends, that is exactly what happens. In all fairness to Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar had tried other avenues, but the nation had repeatedly rebelled against his rule. And so, as he closes this chapter, he expels the people and kills the leaders, both political and religious, of the nation.

There is an almost eerie lack of emotion as the writer of 2 Kings announces the demise of the nation. A nation that began with acts of dependence on God and the faith of the people, first with the crossing of the Jordan at its flood stage when the water of the Jordan was the deepest and the swiftest, and then with the miraculous fall of the walled city of Jericho, over eight hundred years later ends with consecutive acts of idolatry, a dependence on other gods, and rebellion. It is with these acts of rebellion that the story of the nation ends. It had started as the story of a people given the honor of reaching the world and making it a better place. It ends as the people are scattered and driven from the land that God had promised to them, all because of their failure to fulfill that very responsibility that had been given to them by the God who had brought them out of Egypt in the first place.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Jeremiah 21

They became prostitutes in Egypt, engaging in prostitution from their youth. In that land their breasts were fondled and their virgin bosoms caressed. – Ezekiel 23:3

Today's Scripture Reading (August 16, 2026): Ezekiel 23

On December 7, 1941, at 7:48 in the morning, the first wave of Japanese fighters reached their target: Pearl Harbor. The U.S. Military base was attacked by 353 Japanese fighters, bombers, and torpedo planes launched from six Japanese aircraft carriers. The attack was intended to knock the United States out of World War II before it could formally enter the war. The overwhelming fight at Pearl Harbor was really a Japanese attempt to put into practice a military agenda that the United States, a few decades later, would master and label as "shock and awe." The intention was to demoralize the United States and convince them that they needed to stay out of the war. If they had succeeded in their mission, Japan would have been left unchallenged in the Pacific Theater of Operations. Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto hatched the Pearl Harbor plan. But the Admiral quickly realized his error. Pride had led Japan into a fatal blunder. Yamamoto warned his colleagues just after the Pearl Harbor attack that "I fear all we have done is awaken the sleeping giant and filled him with a terrible resolve." No words could have been truer. With the help of her allies (England, Australia, Canada, and the Soviet Union), American vengeance would be swift and complete. In the end, Japanese pride would cost them two of their largest cities as well as cause an embarrassing surrender of Japan to the United States.

As Ezekiel begins to describe the reason for the defeat of Judah, he describes the situation with a story of two adulterous sisters. The story itself has been called lewd and vulgar, and some have refused to read the story in public. But the words used in the story accurately describe the situation and the history of Judah. Ezekiel begins his story in Egypt. And the event he attempts to describe is Aaron's building of the golden calf, an act buried deep in the nation's past. In a moment when Israel was deeply indebted to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob because of the marvelous acts that he had performed in the presence of the Pharaoh, which included the parting of the Red Sea as Israel made their miraculous escape from the Egyptian army, the building of the golden calf was an incredibly vulgar and adulterous act which revealed the pride of a people who seemed to believe that they could serve whatever God they wanted. It was a pride that insisted that the people of Israel were indebted to no one.

The act would set the nation up for a series of vulgar adulterous acts throughout her history, all led by her pride that insisted that she could do whatever it was that she wanted. And she had decided that her future lay with gods other than Yahweh. That pride had been Israel's blunder, and the result was a reality through which Ezekiel and his friends in exile were now being forced to live. Their adulterous pride contained the seeds of their eventual defeat, and that day had finally arrived.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: 2 Kings 25

As silver is melted in a furnace, so you will be melted inside her, and you will know that I the LORD have poured out my wrath on you.'" – Ezekiel 22:22

Today's Scripture Reading (August 15, 2026): Ezekiel 22

In 2014, NASCAR's Brad Keselowski spun out on lap 137, trying to make up a lap. Earlier in the race, Keselowski was involved in an incident with Danica Patrick, and he had been chasing the race ever since. But on lap 137, Keselowski, essentially out of the race by that time, aggressively tried to make up a lap. The spinout resulted in a crash involving 14 cars and shut down the track for over 10 minutes. What caused a backlash at the time was that Keselowski had criticized Matt Kenseth the week before for essentially doing the same thing. The issue did not seem to be that Keselowski's aggressive driving caused the pile-up, although drivers would like him to ease up a little. The real issue seems to be that Keselowski was still driving aggressively even though he was essentially out of the race. Some of the big names in the sport would have liked Keselowski to learn the difference between driving aggressively when the race was still in doubt and driving aggressively when there is no possibility of winning, or even of placing in the important top ten.

As far as Keselowski was concerned, if he was on the track and had a steering wheel in his hands, he wanted to compete to the best of his abilities. To be honest, this is the attitude of a winner. In any other sport, we want to see our teams compete until the final whistle, no matter how lopsided the score might be.

What we sometimes miss is that heat (and fire), whether we are talking about a competitive fire in sports or a physical fire, often come with two very different outcomes. One is to destroy. Fire burns and destroys what it touches. We witness the destructive power of fire whenever it breaks out in places where we don't want it, and we put in significant effort to fight it. But the second purpose of fire is to cleanse. Here, destruction is not the purpose; fire removes the impurities within something. For Keselowski in 2014, maybe that was the hope. No one wanted the figurative fire of criticism to destroy the drivers; rather, they hoped Keselowski, Kenseth, and others would emerge as better, more competitive NASCAR drivers as a direct result of the heat and scrutiny focused on their aggressive driving techniques at various stages of a race. The purpose of the fire of criticism was to purify and make the drivers better, and maybe a little safer on the track.

Biblically, it is often hard to tell the difference between these two fires. But it seems that the biblical use of fire is often for the second purpose, not the first. Some have even argued that the fires of Revelation, which we often take as purely destructive, are really intended to have a purification aspect.

But in Ezekiel, the author really leaves us no doubt. Even though we are told that it is God's wrath that has burned toward Israel, this is not about the destruction of the nation; it is about purification and making something better out of what has come before. And the clue is that Ezekiel speaks about the melting of silver, a melting which is done very purposefully for purification reasons. While God's wrath may have been part of the reason for the exile, the overwhelming message is that God is not done with Israel yet. He still has more in store for his people. God's intention was and still is to burn away everything that does not belong so that it is only the pure us, which is actually the real us, that is left.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Ezekiel 23

Son of man, set your face against Jerusalem and preach against the sanctuary. Prophesy against the land of Israel. – Ezekiel 21:2

Today's Scripture Reading (August 14, 2026): Ezekiel 21

Jews (and admittedly Christians) from all over the world are drawn to the Western Wall in Jerusalem. The Western Wall is believed to be the outer wall of the western perimeter section of the partition that separated the court area of the Temple in Jerusalem from the rest of the city, or, more precisely, the Second Temple, which the Romans destroyed in 70 C.E. Still, the wall stands as a testimony to the power of Holy places in our lives. The Temple itself is no longer standing; the Ark of the Covenant and the holy relics are long gone, lost to antiquity, and yet this one wall still exerts its strange attraction on literally millions of people on our planet. And for each of these people, the wall provides a very tangible connection to God.

Maybe for the Christian, the wall we worship at is much closer. A while back, a gentleman walked into the church looking for a connection with God. He asked if he could take some time to pray in the sanctuary. After I said he could, he walked into the sanctuary, and I returned to my office. A few minutes later, he came to me looking a little confused. Why didn't our church have a cross? I smiled and said that it did, but it just wasn't where he expected it to be. In our sanctuary, the cross is in the middle of a side wall over the baptistery. My new friend returned to the sanctuary and located the cross.  A few minutes later, when I went to check on him, I found him kneeling at the side of the church as close to the cross as he could get. For him, the cross was his Western Wall and the point of his connection with God.

What sometimes surprises people is that we are often more attracted to these Holy Places than God would seem to be. God's requirement has always been that we live in obedience to him. And sacrifice and prayers at a particular Holy Place always take second place to that obedience. Therefore, God instructs Ezekiel to set his face against the city of Jerusalem, and more specifically against the sanctuary; against the Temple of God. It seems that, as far as God is concerned, if there is no obedience, there is no need for a Holy Place.

As God sets his face against the Temple, he seals the fate of the Holy Place. Without God, the Temple could not stand. Some experts think that it was not just the destruction of Solomon's Temple at the hands of the Babylonian Empire that God is speaking of, but also of the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 C.E. at the hands of the Romans; the very destruction that left only the Western Wall standing. So, we continue to travel to the wall; to pray, to wail, and to ask of God what his plans are for our future. And as we come to the wall, God reminds us that we don't need a Holy place; we never have. We just need to decide to be obedient to him.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Ezekiel 22

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) is 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