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

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

Then the glory of the LORD rose from above the cherubim and moved to the threshold of the temple. The cloud filled the temple, and the court was full of the radiance of the glory of the LORD. – Ezekiel 10:4

Today's Scripture Reading (August 3, 2026): Ezekiel 10

As a sports fan, I've had numerous times when I thought my team had the game won, only to watch the opposition stage an amazing comeback. And there have been moments when I thought my team was about to lose, only to watch them come back. I remember a hockey game a couple of decades ago when my team was down five goals by the end of the first period. I really thought the game was over. The second period went by with no scoring. I guess the reality for the team in the lead was that five goals were more than enough. However, in the third period, the team I was cheering for began to score. One, two, it was still a long shot, but I kept watching. Late in the third period, the feel of the game had changed. It was five to four when my team pulled their goaltender for an extra attacker. With the momentum solidly on their side of the ice, my team scored the tying goal and won the game in overtime. It doesn't happen often, but sometimes a team gets lucky. Confidence turns to panic, and nothing a team does seems right.

In many ways, this is simply the story of life. It does not seem to take us long to go from the top of the world to life in the pits. Everything is interconnected, and a slide in one area of our lives quickly becomes a problem in another. And it does not just happen to us. We watch as our mood starts to be reflected in those closest to us, and then slowly spreads to everyone with whom we have contact. The fog that once resided with us now resides with those around us. But it isn't just with the bad that this is true; it also concerns the good. Smile at those around you, and you might be surprised how little time it takes before they are smiling back at you. We are designed to have an amazing influence on each other in the arena, on the court, on the field, and in life.

Ezekiel describes a scene in Jerusalem. The Glory of the Lord begins to be on the move. It rises like a fog above the cherubim, most likely a reference to the precious Ark of the Covenant, which resided in the Holy of Holies. But this move of God could not be confined to the most Holy place of the Temple. It kept moving until it had encompassed the entire Temple, the very place where the priests did their ministry before God. But even the threshold of the Temple could not stop God. From the Temple, God's move spread to the courts. It started with the court of men, where the Hebrew men gathered to worship, and then moved to the court of women, where the women worshipped God. But even then, God was not done. The Spirit then moves out into the court of the Gentiles. Symbolically, Ezekiel's vision meant that God's move now occupied the world; all of it, not just the Jewish portion.

This vision is one that, as Christians, we understand to be the move of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Jesus was clear; the gospel started with the Jews. But it could not be contained there. While it started among the Jews, it would spread into the court of the Gentiles and over the entire world. And this becomes our mission. We are the ones who are to carry the message of Christ into the world because God refuses to be contained. We are designed to be an influence for Christ in the world, and if we truly understand our place, that is exactly what we will be.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Ezekiel 11

 

 

Then I heard him call out in a loud voice, "Bring near those who are appointed to execute judgment on the city, each with a weapon in his hand." – Ezekiel 9:1

Today's Scripture Reading (August 2, 2026): Ezekiel 9

It was a little disappointing that the Donald Sterling saga hijacked the first round of the 2014 NBA playoffs. I love the playoffs in almost every sport, but amid all the excitement of the 2014 NBA playoffs, our attention was interrupted by the racism charge against Sterling. At the time, Sterling was the longtime owner of the Los Angeles Clippers, and he had been caught talking to his mistress about a picture she had posted on Instagram of herself with Lakers great Magic Johnson. TMZ released the conversation.

It bothers me a lot that you want to broadcast that you're associating with black people. Do you have to?" -- "You can sleep with [black people]. You can bring them in, you can do whatever you want. The little I ask you is not to promote it on that (presumably her social media accounts) ... and not to bring them to my games." -- "I'm just saying, in your lousy (explicative) Instagrams, you don't have to have yourself with, walking with black people." -- "...Don't put him [Magic] on an Instagram for the world to have to see so they have to call me. And don't bring him to my games."

Suddenly, there seemed to be more conversation about Sterling than about the great basketball being played on the court.

As a result of the recording, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver was forced to intervene. After reviewing the evidence and deciding that the charges were true, which is not all that surprising given Sterling's checkered past on race relations, Silver announced that he had arrived at the punishment. This punishment would come in three steps. First, Sterling was banned from basketball for life. He was no longer to be involved in any basketball decisions or negotiations, or have anything to do with the team he owned: the Los Angeles Clippers. Second, Sterling was fined $2.5 million, the maximum allowable fine under the NBA constitution. All the money would go to charities that address racial issues. And the last part of the punishment is that Silver says that he will do everything in his power to force Sterling to sell the Clippers. Sterling's forced sale of the Clippers was an action that Mark Cuban, then-owner of the Dallas Mavericks, called justified but "a slippery slope." In the end, the Clippers were sold to former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer for $2 billion.

Silver's action was proper and quick. Regardless of how difficult it might have been to enforce the punishment, it has received favorable reviews from players, ex-players, and fans alike. Silver recognized that something needed to be done and that it could not wait for a meeting. Silver moved and received praise from those in the basketball world for taking action quickly. There is truly no room for this kind of racist attitude in basketball, or any other place in our world.

The vision of Ezekiel continues. God has presented the evidence to Ezekiel, and now he is calling for "those who are appointed to execute judgment." It is an interesting phrase because "those who are appointed to execute judgment" are the Babylonians. Ezekiel is admitting that his removal from his home was lawful and at the instruction of the God that he served. Not only was Ezekiel's removal part of God's plan, but the judgment also wasn't finished, not yet. Babylon would continue to carry out the punishment on Judah, destroying both Jerusalem and the Temple within her walls, all with the approval of God. The call for judgment is quick. What begins on this day of Ezekiel's life will also take time to be fulfilled, but there is no doubt it will be. And in the end, the world would be a better place because of what God was doing on this day. All of this must be done if God really wants to bring his blessing upon his people at some moment in the future.  

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Ezekiel 10

He stretched out what looked like a hand and took me by the hair of my head. The Spirit lifted me up between earth and heaven and in visions of God he took me to Jerusalem, to the entrance of the north gate of the inner court, where the idol that provokes to jealousy stood. – Ezekiel 8:3

Today's Scripture Reading (August 1, 2026): Ezekiel 8

As a culture, we react negatively to the concept of jealousy. B. C. Forbes, the Scottish financial writer and the founder of Forbes magazine, even called jealousy a "mental cancer." Saint Augustine argued that anyone who experienced  jealousy was also "incapable of love." So it is a little surprising to have the word applied to God. Yet jealousy is applied to God in several places. So the only question that we can ask is this: when we speak of jealousy as a characteristic, is that jealousy the same as the jealousy that we experience as part of the human race? And the answer to the question is a qualified no.

The jealousy we react negatively to is an illogical emotion that causes so much damage in our lives. This jealousy is closely related to a lack of trust. Forbes and Augustine are both right; this kind of jealousy is a cancer that prohibits the experience of love. This human jealousy is the green-eyed monster, which reacts with too little evidence and damages relationships that could be healthy if not for it. This kind of jealousy is always self-directed and selfish.

God's jealousy is different. For starters, it is never based on a lack of trust, nor is it selfish. God's jealousy is always in defense of his creation, grounded in a covenant he has made with his people. Because of this covenant, God and his message are to be carried to the world. God's words to Abraham at the beginning of the story were that all of the earth would be blessed through God's blessing of Abraham. God loves the world he has created and desires to be a blessing, but the path of this blessing was always supposed to be through a group of people.

However, the people rejected God, and therefore, the blessing that was meant for the world was never given. And this is what aroused God's jealousy. The people, along with the world God loved, were suffering, and for God, there was no response but jealousy. It was not a selfish jealousy but rather one borne out of love for his creation.

God gives Ezekiel a vision. He takes him to the temple gate and shows him the image in the Temple that had made God jealous and caused Israel to lose the power that should have been theirs. We don't know what the idol was; most experts believe that it was likely an image of Baal, but it doesn't really matter. Any image of a false deity placed in the Temple would cause God to become jealous and his blessing to cease flowing to his creation.

The people whom God wants to use now to bless the world include the Christian church. But that can only happen if we are willing to put our idols aside and let God bless us. Any other response will do nothing but arouse God's jealousy once more.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Ezekiel 9