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

The king will mourn, the prince will be clothed with despair, and the hands of the people of the land will tremble. I will deal with them according to their conduct, and by their own standards I will judge them. – Ezekiel 7:27

Today's Scripture Reading (July 31, 2026): Ezekiel 7

There is a "WKRP in Cincinnati" episode where the city of Cincinnati is about to be hit by a tornado. The radio stations, including WKRP, are asked to get the word out about the coming storm and what to do in case a tornado strikes in your area, but Les Nessman, WKRP's news anchor, does not have a script to follow concerning significant weather disruptions. Nessman's boss remembers that Les did pen a script about a possible communist attack on the city. (I mean, in Cincinnati, Ohio, which is the more obvious danger, an attack by communists or the possibility of a tornado?) So, on the boss's instructions, Les reads his warning bulletin on the attack of the communists and substitutes the word tornado every time he sees the word communist. Although the episode's subject matter is deadly serious, the resulting news release is amusing, and at least once, Les gets to utter the phrase "those godless red tornados."

Where I live, we are in the middle of storm season. I am hearing warnings of tornado clusters. (If Les were writing the news release, maybe we would get to hear the phrase "godless red tornado clusters.”) And there have already been deaths and damage caused by the season's tornadoes. However, today is also the thirty-ninth anniversary of an F4 tornado that ripped through the area on July 31, 1987. Part of the destructive outcome of this tornado was the result of the sixty-five minutes that the tornado stayed on the ground. Hurricanes are also brewing over the warm waters of the world's oceans, and all of this is to be expected. However, in recent years, it seems that the storms have been getting worse.

One writer recently commented that we need to start thinking about removing the phrase "Act of God" to describe these storms. It might be that Les Nessman is actually right. The storms that are attacking are godless. While this planet has always suffered from severe storms, the magnitude of the storms we are facing today might have less to do with an unpredictable "Act of God" than it has to do with being the very predictable result of the things that we have done to our planet. We are the ones who have decimated the earth's ability to withstand the various storms on the planet, and the result has been that these storms have become more threatening, more dangerous, and have caused much greater loss of property and life than ever before. The only ones we can blame for this outcome are ourselves.

Ezekiel writes one of the scariest lines of the Bible in this passage. Writing concerning the downfall of the Kingdom of Judah, Ezekiel says that God will "deal with them according to their conduct, and by their own standards [he] will judge them." Basically, God has decided to leave the people to their own devices. And the same comment might be applied to us. In the same way that God allowed the rulers of Judah to destroy their nation so that they would finally recognize that God is God over all, maybe he has allowed us to destroy our planet so that we will recognize the same thing. There is a bit of a strange epitaph that could be added here. It is not in the beauty that we recognize God (a beautiful sunrise is never called an "Act of God," although I believe that it is.) It is in the storms that we see God. And I think that is sad, but deep down I know that it is also our choice.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Ezekiel 8

Son of man, set your face against the mountains of Israel; prophesy against them … - Ezekiel 6:2

Today's Scripture Reading (July 30, 2026): Ezekiel 6

In 1842, Edgar Allan Poe published his short story "The Mask of the Red Death" (now better known by the slightly different title "The Masque of the Red Death"). The story follows the adventures of Prince Prospero as he tries to avoid a plague known as the "Red Death." Prospero plans to hide with his nobles inside the walls of his Abbey. While death reigns in the countryside, the prince and his nobles hide safely behind the walls of the Abbey. According to Poe's story, one night Prospero decides to hold a masquerade party. But as the party progresses, a visitor appears in the room disguised as a victim of the Red Death. Prospero confronts the stranger, but there is no substance to him. However, as a direct result of the contact that Prospero has with this apparition, Prospero dies, and in short order so do all of the nobles who had gathered in the Abbey. The moral of the story is that, in reality, there is no way to avoid a plague, and it is the height of foolishness to believe you can.

No one really knows what the Red Death represents, but some interesting suggestions have been made. Maybe one of the most interesting ideas is that the Red Death was Poe's representation of the disease consumption, or what we now know as tuberculosis. The argument is that Poe had extensive experience with the disease. Poe's mother, step-mother, and brother had all died of tuberculosis, and at the time of the writing of the Red Death, Poe's wife was suffering from the disease. It is thought that Poe himself was in denial about the disease's finality, but that, deep down, he might have known the truth, which Poe understood and revealed in his writing about the Red Death.

Ezekiel is commanded to set himself against the mountains of Israel. It was in these mountains that Israel found their security. It was there that they had sacrificed to the false gods. It was there that they had built their cities, making them hard to attack. The mountains were the walls behind which Judah had tried to hide, secure in the thought that the mountains would protect them. Judah was in denial of what seemed to be so apparent to everyone else who was watching, that the nation was about to fall, and the mountains couldn't save them any more than the walls of the Abbey could save Prospero and his friends. Judah had placed their faith in the mountains, and in the end, it would be the mountains that revealed the stupidity of the nation's plan.   

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Ezekiel 7

 

Therefore this is what the Sovereign LORD says: You have been more unruly than the nations around you and have not followed my decrees or kept my laws. You have not even conformed to the standards of the nations around you. – Ezekiel 5:7

Today's Scripture Reading (July 29, 2026): Ezekiel 5

As the Nazi Party began to take hold of Germany in the 1930's, it quickly became apparent that the political structure of the nation was being set up for a conflict with the Christian Church. Adolf Hitler was willing to take steps beginning with a mediating position concerning the church. Still, ultimately, Hitler believed that Christianity and all other religions were incompatible with the National Socialism espoused by Hitler's Nazi Party. The problem, for Hitler, was that Germany had strong Christian roots. So, the only response for the Nazi's was to change Christianity.

The plan began by restricting the church's teaching. Nazi racism meant that Christianity had to make a clean break with its Jewish roots. The attack on the Jewish basis for Christianity appears to have had two main focal points. First, the Hebrew Bible (the Old Testament) had to be removed from Christian teaching. So, Hitler adopted a position similar to the position that the heretic Marcion had held in the second century; everything Jewish had to be removed from the Christian Bible. The second attack was found in the Nazi accusation that the Jews bore the guilt for the crucifixion of Jesus. What more could be expected from what Hitler believed was an inferior people? But there was a third line of attack. Quietly, Adolf Hitler was portrayed as the new Messiah: the new Jesus. And the specter of a "Positive Christianity," one dominated by the policies of National Socialism, rose within the nation.

The unfortunate truth was that many Christians seemed to be willing to make the shift from a historical Christianity to a Nazi-dominated version of the Christian faith. But not all Christians made the switch. A remnant of the confessing church remained active in the nation, and leaders like Dietrich Bonhoeffer kept the image of the Biblical Christ fresh in the minds of those they encountered. But for others, it seems that Jesus' message of love was all too easily exchanged for the Nazi-dominated Messiah characterized by hate. Knowing what Christ had demanded, they decided to go in a different direction. And the truth that the world discovered as the Second World War ended was that the Nazi's had not only violated the teachings of Jesus, but they had not even lived up to the moral standards of nations that had never accepted the teachings of Christ.

God warns the nation of Judah that their sins were greater than those of the other nations because, although they knew what God had demanded of them, they had decided not to keep his decrees and follow his instructions. Not only did they fail to measure up to the instructions of God, but they also did not even live up to the morality of the pagan nations that surrounded them. For God, that was unacceptable. It was then, and it remains unacceptable in modern times. God demands more of us. The disturbing truth is that the church still seems too willing to exchange the message of Jesus of love for one based on hate. In doing so, we continue to reject the demands of God, and we fail to live up to the moral standards of even our secular world. And God remains unimpressed by our moral ineptitude. 

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Ezekiel 6

Then lie on your left side and put the sin of the people of Israel upon yourself. You are to bear their sin for the number of days you lie on your side. I have assigned you the same number of days as the years of their sin. So for 390 days you will bear the sin of the people of Israel. After you have finished this, lie down again, this time on your right side, and bear the sin of the people of Judah. I have assigned you 40 days, a day for each year. – Ezekiel 4:4-6

Today's Scripture Reading (July 28, 2026): Ezekiel 4

The more I deal with broken relationships, the more I wonder whether we have any relationships at all. I mean, we assume, maybe I should say that I assume, that we mean what it is that we say. We want to be assured that words, in whatever medium we might find them, mean something. However, in broken relationships, words that have been spoken often don't carry the meaning we think they should. Maybe the classic example is when one partner tells the other that the relationship is over. Often, admittedly not always, what is meant is that the one wants the partner to fight for the relationship and not just give up. But too often, we quit, thinking this is the required action. The truth is that words carry a message, but often that message is veiled and hard to understand. Maybe the clearest statement of what we really feel is displayed through what we do.

Ezekiel seems to be the master of speaking through his actions. And this passage is no exception. Ezekiel does not speak with words; he speaks with his actions. Unfortunately, separated by time as much as we are, we often miss the message. Ezekiel starts his message by lying on his left side for 390 days. Ancient peoples often oriented themselves to face the rising sun, or the east. Therefore, the left would be the north. Spending 390 days on his left side would indicate the time spent by the Northern tribe of Israel in their sin. However, 390 is also a significant number. Forty is the Hebrew number or symbol for punishment. Israel spent forty years in their desert wanderings because of their lack of trust and obedience to God. Lashings or beatings were often administered with the instruction that the one being punished was to receive forty stripes less one, or thirty-nine. Since Ezekiel is lying on his left side for Israel, the math is pretty simple. It is thirty-nine times the ten tribes of Israel; forty less one for each tribe. It is an illustration that repeats something the prophets have spoken of a few times: the northern ten tribes of Israel may be missing, but they are not forgotten, nor is God through with them. The Northern tribes would still have a role to play in the future that God was setting up.

Ezekiel lies on his right side for forty days. Following the same imagery we used for the Northern tribes, we find that the action pertains to the punishment of the Southern Kingdom, which had become dominated by one tribe, Judah, even though Judah consisted of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin. The southern kingdom retained the name of that one, dominant tribe. But, interestingly, Judah was not to suffer the normal forty minus one – they were to suffer the full forty. The reason might be simply that their punishment was fully upon them. Judah would have felt the coming destruction of the city of Jerusalem and of the Temple as consisting of the full punishment of God. This time, it would seem, God was holding nothing back.

But often this seems to be where our analysis stops. Maybe the most significant aspect of the story is often left unmentioned: that Ezekiel bears the punishment for both the northern Kingdom of Israel and its southern counterpart, Judah. And in this, he becomes a type of Christ, and the image he portrays becomes a forerunner of the sacrifice that Jesus will make on behalf of all the people of the world. And Jesus would once again bear the full punishment for our sins; he would give his very life.      

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Ezekiel 5

 

You are not being sent to a people of obscure speech and strange language, but to the people of Israel—Ezekiel 3:5

 

Today's Scripture Reading (July 27, 2026): Ezekiel 3

A while back, I read an article by Brian McLaren about our responsibility to creation. McLaren starts off the article by describing where he was. 

RIGHT NOW, I'M thigh-deep in muck. Clad in hip waders, I'm slogging through a spring-fed bog in northern Maryland. I'm surrounded by tussock sedge, alder, jewelweed, skunk cabbage, and swamp rose. And I'm having a great time (Brian McLaren)

At that time, McLaren had been part of a volunteer team for a couple of days each year that studied and tried to protect the North American Bog Turtle, the rarest turtle in our part of the world. But as he tells his story of his search for the turtle, he also begins to describe his own disappointment in a Christian Church that does not seem to care about protecting the ecology of our world. In fact, he openly points to Christians as part of the problem. Unfortunately, he is right. We have become enamored with an escapist theology that preaches that this world will one day be thrown into the trash pile, and we will simply escape to somewhere else. Yet, in Genesis 1, God looked at creation and called it good, and in the end, he called it very good. Why would he want to throw all of it away when time has been completed?

Baby Bog Turtle

And it is not just our ecology that is taking the brunt of our negligence. Evangelically, we have carried the same carelessness into our practices, often going all over the world to talk about the "love of Jesus" but ignoring the ones who are closest to us, the ones who live around the place where we live. Mission has become something that we do somewhere else. The idea of following your passions and searching for Bog Turtles close to home as part of our mission often seems absurd.

Yet, it might be the most important part of our mission. When I first became a Pastor, one of the earliest pieces of advice I received (from a retired Pastor and Missionary) was that I would now dedicate my life to things I did not want to do. My days were now to be spent on things that I was not gifted for, rather than the things for which I possessed a talent. This removal from areas where I was gifted was the life of a Pastor. It was like he was saying that God had gifted me, he had given me a set of talents and passions and had helped me to develop them; all so that one day I could become a pastor and throw all of the gifts that he had given to me away. My gifts become just a part of God's disposable creation.

For me, this is the passion of this passage. God speaks to Ezekiel and says, I am not sending you to speak to a foreign people. I am not calling you to be a Jonah and travel to Nineveh to speak to the foreigners; I am sending you to your own people, those who speak the same language you do. And not only am I sending you to them, but I also know that you have a passion for them. I am the author of that passion, and now I need you to use your passion for them as you deliver the message I am giving you.

Ezekiel is a strange book filled with strange images. But part of that arises from Ezekiel's passions, passions that God was able to use because he was willing to submit them to God. We all have passions, but sometimes we refuse to see them as opportunities for mission. McLaren, as he searches for Bog Turtles in Maryland, is every bit as much of a missionary as someone who chases all over Africa in search of the heathen (maybe more, but I might be accused of pushing it). I am thankful for the passions God has given each of us. Passions for people and things, even a passion for this world that God created. Because I have a sneaking suspicion that the earth is part of our mission, and that when the end comes, the earth will be restored rather than destroyed. God's message to each of us is that when we are chasing our passions (even our passion for turtles), we are chasing after him. And that is precisely where we want to be.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Ezekiel 4

You must speak my words to them, whether they listen or fail to listen, for they are rebellious. – Ezekiel 2:7

Today's Scripture Reading (July 26, 2026): Ezekiel 2

Former astronaut Ed Lu, a veteran of two Space Shuttle missions and an extended stay on the International Space Station, argues that the risk of a collision between Earth and a city-destroying asteroid is much higher than previously thought. And part of the problem is the small size an asteroid would need to be to level a city. NASA currently monitors space for Earth-changing asteroids 0.65 miles (3,432 feet) in diameter or bigger, which could come into close contact with our planet. But it would only take an object with a diameter of 131 feet to level a city. The problem is that we have had no idea how to monitor space for such a small object, and space seems well populated with rocks of this size. Since we don't know how to find these objects, much less what to do with them when we do find them, why worry about them? Our attitude has been that we might as well ignore the possibility until we have found a solution to the problem.

Ed Lu is talking about these objects because he thinks he has a solution to the problem. However, now he needs public opinion to swing in his favor on detecting these smaller space rocks so he can finance his solution. Ed Lu's space rocks also reveal what seems to be a disturbing trend, at least to me, in the public statements we make. Politically, scientifically, and spiritually, there appears to be a trend to speak messages that are expedient rather than true. It seems that in all areas of life, we are ignoring the small rocks we don't know what to do with. In the area where I spend most of my time (the spiritual arena), it is revealed in a reluctance to talk about what is true because it is not the truth that the people around us really want to hear. We have become the Pied Pipers of our society, just telling people what we think they want to hear. After all, some wonder what we could do with the truth even if we did know it?

Yet, knowing the truth has consistently driven us toward imaginative solutions. Repeatedly throughout history, knowing the uncomfortable truth has forced us to move in the right direction. But if we don't know the truth, we can't develop the fix the problem requires.

God tells Ezekiel to give God's message to the people, even if they aren't listening. If the truth is hidden from the exiles, it won't be because they haven't been told; it will be because they were unwilling to listen. And we stand in a similar situation. The prophets of our society need to be willing to speak the uncomfortable truth, a truth that might surprise us from a God who loves us, all of us, dearly. But if we don't understand that, it must not be because we have never been told. It has to be because we were unwilling to listen.     

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Ezekiel 3