Devotions

The Crown Has Fallen From Our Head

by  • 

This cry to the Lord in Lamentations 5:1–2 “take note, and see our disgrace! 2 Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers” is not news to the Lord. It has only come because of Judah’s hard refusal to listen to the Lord through the prophets. Now that Jerusalem has been taken and burned and its leaders killed, they recognize in Lamentations 5:16 “The crown has fallen from our head; woe to us, for we have sinned!” Gedaliah is appointed, people are returning, peace begins to be restored, but then one from the kingship, another doing evil, rises up and in Jeremiah 41:3 “Then Ishmael killed all the Judeans who were with Gedaliah at Mizpah, along with the Chaldeans who were found there, the soldiers”. But Ismael is not able to seize power and runs to the Ammonites, his allies in this misguided endeavor. 

Our Inheritance Has Been Turned Over

Lamentations 5:1–11
Israel, the nation of covenant with God, is crying out in

Lamentations 5:1–2 Remember, O Yahweh, what has become of us; take note, and see our disgrace! 2 Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers, our houses, to foreigners.

but where was their voice when the Lord was crying out to them through the prophets? Now they want the Lord to “take note” after they drove the Lord away in

Ezekiel 8:6 And he said to me, “Son of man, “Do you see what they are doing—great detestable things that the house of Israel is committing here so as to drive me from my sanctuary, and yet you will see again greater detestable things.”

 

The Crown Has Fallen From Our Head

Lamentations 5:12–22
The last king of Judah was Zedekiah who in

2 Chronicles 36:12–13 And he did evil in the eyes of Yahweh his God. He did not humble himself before Jeremiah the prophet who spoke for Yahweh. 13 And he also rebelled against King Nebuchadnezzar”

so, Nebuchadnezzer came the third time to the city and in Jeremiah 39:2 “the city was taken by assault”. Gedaliah was appointed governor, but Judah ceased to exist as a nation, and as an independent government and as it says in

Lamentations 5:16 The crown has fallen from our head; woe to us, for we have sinned!

Serve the King of Babylon

2 Kings 25:22–26
Gedaliah is appointed by Nebuchadnezzar and takes up the message the Lord has been giving through the prophets in

2 Kings 25:24 Gedaliah … said to them, “You must not be afraid because of the Chaldeans. Settle in the land and serve the king of Babylon, and may it go well with you.”

Yahweh Has Done Just As He Threatened

Jeremiah 40:1–6

All the Judeans Returned From All the Places

Jeremiah 40:7–16
After the siege of Jerusalem, Nebuchadnezzar established Gedaliah “in an official position” in Jeremiah 40:7. As people heard this, and as Gedaliah said in Jeremiah 40:9 “You must not be afraid of serving the Chaldeans. Stay in the land and serve the king of Babylon, and it will go well with you”. Gedaliah also said in Jeremiah 40:10 “I am staying at Mizpah … live in your towns” and people returned in Jeremiah 40:12 “from all the places to which they were scattered” and there began to be some sense of stability. 

Ishmael Killed All Who Were With Gedaliah

Jeremiah 41:1–9
Then, about nine months after Jerusalem was taken, in Jeremiah 41:1 “Ishmael … from the offspring of the kingship … came to Gedaliah … along with ten men. And they ate bread together there at Mizpah”. And in Jeremiah 41:2 “they struck Gedaliah”, and in

Jeremiah 41:3 Then Ishmael killed all the Judeans who were with Gedaliah at Mizpah, along with the Chaldeans who were found there, the soldiers.

and in Jeremiah 41:4 “men came from Shechem, from Shiloh, and from Samaria, eighty men … to the temple of Yahweh” and in Jeremiah 41:7 “Ishmael … along with the men who were with him, slaughtered them and threw them to the middle of the pit”. but there were ten that paid for their lives in Jeremiah 41:8.

This Ishmael, was typical of the evil leaders of Israel because he killed those that were doing what the Lord had said they should do (yield to Babylon), he rebelled against the Lord and the king of Babylon, he destroyed the peace in the land, he took money to spare peoples lives, and in the end he ran for his life. It seems that “Ishmael plotted with Baalis, king of Ammon, to assassinate Gedaliah, whom Nebuchadnezzar had appointed governor over Judea, now reduced to a province of Babylonia. After carrying out the assassination, Ishmael escaped to Ammon (Jer 41:1–15). Nebuchadnezzar then sent troops which sacked Rabbah and took captive many of the Ammonites.1

They Set Out Intending to Go to Egypt

Jeremiah 41:10–18

Study Verses

Today’s Reading

  • Lamentations 5:1-22
  • 2 Kings 25:22-26
  • Jeremiah 40:1-16
  • Jeremiah 41:1-18

References

  • 1. Elwell, W. A., & Beitzel, B. J. (1988). Ammon, Ammonites. In Baker encyclopedia of the Bible (Vol. 1, p. 73). Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House.
Devotions

Let Us Lift Up Our Hearts

by  • 

The name of this book, Lamentations, describes the state of the house of Israel as they shrink fully into their seventy years of exile. There is a sense of the depths of their despair in Lamentations 3:5-6 “bitterness and hardship. In darkness like the dead”. But even at this lowest point, there is a memory of God’s faithfulness in Lamentations 3:22 “The loyal love of Yahweh does not cease” and hope begins to arise. There is no barrier preventing them from coming to the Lord, there is only a need for our action as in Lamentations 3:40 “Let us test and examine our ways; let us return to Yahweh”. The Lord want only one thing from us, in Lamentations 41 “Let us lift up our hearts with our hands to God in the heavens”. 

I am a Man Who Has Seen Misery

Lamentations 3:1–11
There are few that have not seen misery at some point in their life. And, I might ask, are there any? We aren’t living in the garden of Eden any more. There is sin and death in the world. For us though, there is a mediator, a new covenant in

Acts 10:38 Jesus of Nazareth—how God anointed him with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, because God was with him.

This idea of salvation, of reconciliation, of God’s blessing had been introduced to Israel who was the nation of promise, the nation of God’s presence. They held the covenant of blessing, but forgot that the other side of their covenant was cursing. And we find here in Lamentations 3:5-6 “bitterness and hardship. In darkness like the dead”, we find the depths of the curse for those separated from God. 

The Loyal Love of Yahweh Does Not Cease

Lamentations 3:12–22
These are desperate times where they are in Lamentations 3:12-19 “the target for the arrow”, “a laughingstock”, “I have forgotten goodness”. Yet, even in times like these it is important for us to encourage ourselves as in Lamentations 3:20 “my soul remembers” and in Lamentations 3:21 “I have reminded myself”, “I will hope”. But what is our hope? For those of us that have come to Christ, it is in

Lamentations 3:22 The loyal love of Yahweh does not cease; his compassions do not come to an end.

There is though, one more action in moving from despair to hope. “I have reminded myself” of “the loyal love of Yahweh” and “his compassion” but now I must yield myself to him as it also says in Lamentations 3:20 “my soul … bows down within me”. In my soul, in my mind and will and emotions, I must lay down all of my feelings about my situation, all of my disappointments, all of my expectations, all of my failures and make room for “a future and a hope”. As it was for these exiles, so it will be for us because of his “loyal love” and he says “as soon as the time is passed” in

Jeremiah 29:10–11 For thus says Yahweh, ‘As soon as the time has passed, seventy years for Babylon, I will attend to you, and I will fulfill my good word to you, to bring you back to this place. 11 For I know the plans that I am planning concerning you,’ declares Yahweh, ‘plans for prosperity and not for harm, to give to you a future and a hope.

Yahweh is Good to Those Who Wait on Him

Lamentations 3:23–33 

Let Us Lift Up Our Hearts With Our Hands

Lamentations 3:34–44
God is righteous. Evil must be dealt with, but as it said in Lamentations 3:33-36 “he does not afflict willingly”, “to crush under his feet”, “to subvert … in a legal dispute” because “the Lord has not found delight in these things”.

It is in our hands though, to follow after him and to seek his ways as in

Lamentations 3:40–41 Let us test and examine our ways; let us return to Yahweh. 41 Let us lift up our hearts with our hands to God in the heavens.

We are the ones fallen into sin. We are the ones separated from God under the penalty of death. But if we will “examine ourselves” and “lift up our hearts and hands” in repentance, as it says in

Psalm 24:4–5 “He who is innocent of hands and pure of heart, who does not lift up his soul to falseness, and does not swear deceitfully. 5 He will receive blessing from Yahweh, and justice from the God of his salvation.

Then, we “Earth-bound mortals are thus promised liberation from the predicament of their crushing environment by the power of God, which frees the prisoner from bondage to sin and self. For the Christian, faith in the finished work of Christ achieves victory (cf. 1 Cor. 15:57)”.1

My Enemies Hunt Me Without Cause

Lamentations 3:45–55

O Lord, You Have Pleaded for My Cause

Lamentations 3:56–66

The Precious Sons of Zion as Earthen Vessels of Clay

Lamentations 4:1–11

The Kings of the Earth Did Not Believe

Lamentations 4:12–22

Study Verses

Today’s Reading

  • Lamentations 3:1-66
  • Lamentations 4:1-22

References

  • 1. Harrison, R. K. (1973). Jeremiah and Lamentations: an introduction and commentary (Vol. 21, p. 231). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.
Devotions

I Am For Peace They Are For War

by  • 

There are those around us that are against us with in Psalm 120:2 “lying lips from a deceitful tongue”. There is a recognition that in Psalm 120:2 “I sojourn in … I dwell among” people that do not know God and do not want peace. As the captives are now taken to Babylon, they are mocked and in Psalm 137:3 “our tormentors asked of us jubilation, “Sing for us from a song of Zion.”” But the Lord had departed and the glory that once set Israel apart was gone. There was no protection for them, no government for them, and no revelation. And as their enemies pass by they, in Lamentations 2:16 “say “We have destroyed her!””. Now, because of their distress in Lamentations 2:18 “Their heart cried to the Lord”.

Do Not Carry Me Off From My Life

Psalm 102:23–28 

I Am For Peace, They Are For War

Psalm 120:1–7
Why is it that we wait until we are in distress to call on the Lord as in Psalm 120:1? The Lord says in

Jeremiah 33:3 ‘Call to me, and I will answer you, and I will tell you great things and inaccessible things that you have not known.’

We can call on him at any time. But this occasion of calling on the Lord is in response to abuse, “lying lips from a deceitful tongue” in Psalm 120:2. And even more, it is the culture of all those around him. It say in Psalm 12:5-6 “that I sojourn in Meshech, that I dwell among the tents of Kedar”. This doesn’t have any meaning for us but if you look at a map of the time, “Meshech and Kedar are so far apart (steppe-dwellers of the far north, Ezek. 39:1f., and Arab neighbours of Israel to the south-east) that they can only be coupled here as a general term for the heathen … as foreign as the remotest peoples, and as implacable as his Arab kinsmen (cf. Gen. 16:12; 25:13)”.1

Living among them is a burden because, in

Psalm 120:7 I am for peace, but when I speak, they are for war.

 

Sing For Us From a Song of Zion

Psalm 137:1–9
The captives, those being deported to Babylon, “wept, when we remembered Zion” in Psalm 137:1. And in Psalm 137:2 “we hung up our lyres” but in Psalm 137:3 “our tormentors asked of us jubilation, “Sing for us from a song of Zion.” There was a history, known by all, and even remembered in this time when the judgement of God was on the nation for their rebellion. There was a “song of Yahweh” in Psalm 137:4 and a memory these captives are holding on to in Psalm 137:6 “I exalt Jerusalem above my highest joy”.

There had been a joy, a song of the Lord in the land, but “The Hallelujah Ps. 135 and the Hodu Ps. 136 are followed by a Psalm which glances back into the time of the Exile, when such cheerful songs as they once sang to the accompaniment of the music of the Levites at the worship of God on Mount Zion were obliged to be silent”.2

How Desolate the City Sits

Lamentations 1:1–11

See If There is Sorrow Like My Sorrow

Lamentations 1:12–22 

Her Prophets Have Not Found a Revelation

Lamentations 2:1–11
The nation of Israel, the city of Jerusalem had been the place where the glory of God was found among men. And the nations around them had seen in Lamentations 2:1 “the splendor of Israel” but now “he (the Lord) drew a veil, or caused a cloud to come over all her brightness and glory, and surrounded her with darkness, that her light and splendour might not be seen … all its glory, both in church and state; this was brought down from the highest pitch of its excellency and dignity, to the lowest degree of infamy and reproach”.3

There is no longer the presence of the Lord because in Lamentations 2:7 “The Lord has rejected his altar; he has rejected his sanctuary; he has delivered into the hands of the enemy the walls of its citadel fortresses”.

Now, there is no protection for her (the daughter of Zion), there is no government because her leaders are scattered as captives, and even her prophets are are not hearing from the Lord in

Lamentations 2:9 Her gates have sunk into the earth; he has ruined and broken her bars, her kings and its princes are among the nations; there is no more law. Also, her prophets have not found a revelation from Yahweh.

They Have Opened Their Mouths Against You

Lamentations 2:12–22

Study Verses

Today’s Reading

  • Psalm 102:23-28
  • Psalm 120:1-7
  • Psalm 137:1-9
  • Lamentations 1:1-22
  • Lamentations 2:1-22

References

  • 1. Kidner, D. (1975). Psalms 73–150: An Introduction and Commentary (Vol. 16, pp. 466–467). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.
  • 2. Keil, C. F., & Delitzsch, F. (1996). Commentary on the Old Testament (Vol. 5, p. 799). Peabody, MA: Hendrickson.
  • 3. Gill, John. “Commentary on Lamentations 2:1”. “The New John Gill Exposition of the Entire Bible”. https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/geb/lamentations-2.html. 1999.
Devotions

Restore Us O God of Our Salvation

by  • 

The word of the Lord by his prophets has been fulfilled. The leaders of Judah have been struck down and those that weren’t are deported to Babylon. Some, the poorest, are left behind, but the Lord says in 2 Kings 25:21 “Judah has been removed from the land”. Now we hear the lament in Psalm 74:1 “have you rejected us forever?”, and in Psalm 74:10 “Will the enemy treat your name with contempt forever?”. They are saying, as we often may, “God, When will you do something about this!”. But the issues the house of Israel faced here were not with God’s side of the covenant. Eventually, their cries turn in Psalm 74, to “help us” then in Psalm 79, “restore us” and in Psalm 85:4, “show us” and finally, to in Psalm 85:8 “I will hear what God, Yahweh, will speak”. Now they are in a place to move forward. Do you remember what the Lord had said in Jeremiah 33:3 ‘Call to me, and I will answer you, and I will tell you great things and inaccessible things that you have not known.’

The City (Jerusalem) Came Under Siege

Jeremiah 52:11–20 

The King of Babylon Struck Them Down

Jeremiah 52:21–30
The Lord had spoken through the prophet directly to the king Zedekiah in

Jeremiah 38:18 But if you do not go surrender to the officials of the king of Babylon, then this city will be given into the hand of the Chaldeans, and they will burn it with fire, and you will not escape from their hand.’ ”

Then he went on to say in Jeremiah 38:21 “But if you are refusing to surrender, this is the thing that Yahweh has shown me” … Jeremiah 38:23 “And all your wives and your children will be led out to the Chaldeans, and you will not escape from their hand, but by the hand of the king of Babylon you will be seized, and this city will burn with fire.”

So after the city was taken and as it was being plundered and burned, the Babylonian army captured Zedekiah, and these men in the city as recorded in 2 Kings 25:18-19 and also recorded here in

Jeremiah 52:24–25 “Then the captain of the guard took Seraiah the chief priest, and Zephaniah the second priest, and three keepers of the threshold. 25 And from the city he took one high official who was chief officer over the soldiers, and seven men of the king’s advisors who were found in the city, and the secretary of the commander of the army who levied for military service the people of the land, and sixty men of the people of the land who were found in the midst of the city”.

These who were captured as leaders in Jeremiah 52:27 “the king of Babylon struck them down and killed them at Riblah”. The others who lived were taken to Babylon as had happened with Daniel and others previously in Jeremiah 52:30 “the captain of the guard, deported seven hundred and forty-five Judean persons”. The king and his leaders could have gone with them if they had been willing to yield to God’s word.

Have You Rejected Us Forever?

Psalm 74:1–8

How Long Will the Adversary Taunt?

Psalm 74:9–17 

Have Regard for the Covenant

Psalm 74:18–23
This lament is said to have been written at the time of the exile. Certainly it would seem that the Lord had rejected them and allowed their adversary to overtake them. So, they cry out in

Psalm 74:20 “Have regard for the covenant, because the dark places of the land are full of the haunts of violence”.

But this request to the Lord to “have regard for the covenant” had been made before, saying that they are gods people and that these foreign nations around them were uncircumcised, heathen, pagan, without any relationship with God. They are still depending on the power of the Lords covenant and are still not recognizing their actions need to change. It is their culture, that has been tainted by the nations around them. It is their religious profession that God is for them followed by complete disregard by them to be for God. Here is what the Lord had been saying to them all along in

Jeremiah 7:3 Thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, “Make your ways and your deeds good and let me dwell with you in this place”.

Help Us, O God of Our Salvation

Psalm 79:1–13 

Restore Us, O God of Our Salvation

Psalm 85:1–13
They have cried out, “how long” in Psalm 74, “help us” in Psalm 79, “restore us” here in Psalm 85:4, “show us” here in

Psalm 85:7 Show us, O Yahweh, your loyal love, and grant us your salvation.

and now they say “I will hear” in

Psalm 85:8 I will hear what God, Yahweh, will speak, because he will speak peace to his people, even his faithful ones, but let them not return to folly.

Isn’t this what the Lord has been looking for, a people that will not only hear his word, but heed them and live by them?

O Yahweh, Hear My Prayer

Psalm 102:1–10

That A People Yet To Be Created May Praise Yah

Psalm 102:11–22

Study Verses

Today’s Reading

  • Jeremiah 52:11-30
  • Psalm 74:1-23
  • Psalm 79:1-13
  • Psalm 85:1-13
  • Psalm 102:1-22
Devotions

I Will Rescue You on That Day

by  • 

The word of the Lord is fulfilled, the siege of Jerusalem is over. In Jeremiah 39:2 “the city was taken by assault” and the army of Nebuchadnezzar burns the city, takes the gold, silver and bronze from the temple and break down the walls of the city. Those leaders that had resisted were killed, many others were “deported to Babylon”. And in the midst of all of this, “God had honoured his promise to deliver Jeremiah (cf. 1:8), saving him when others were being destroyed” and the Lord honored his promise to Ebed-melech the Cushite in Jeremiah 39:17 “But I will rescue you on that day … because you have trusted in me”.

Babylon Burned Jerusalem and Tore Down the Walls

2 Kings 25:8–12 

Judah Was Removed From its Land

2 Kings 25:13–21
The Chaldeans, the army of Nebuchadnezzar, took from the temple in Jerusalem, in 2 Kings 25:13-21 they “broke into pieces and carried their bronze … whatever was gold … and whatever was silver … there was no weighing to the bronze of all of these vessels”. There was an accounting for the objects of silver and gold, but it seems, too much bronze. It wasn’t only these valuables, in 2 Kings 25:18-19 “the commander of the imperial guard took Seraiah the chief priest, Zephaniah the second priest, and three of the threshold keepers” and the few officials remaining in the city and “sixty men from the people of the land”. In 2 Kings 25:21 “the king of Babylon struck them down and killed them … thus Judah was removed from its land”.

There were many reasons for this removal from the land, refusal to listen to the Lord through the prophets, wickedness in the land, and all of the reasons clearly spoken by the prophets until this final wave, this third time the Chaldeans had been to Jerusalem and the destruction of the temple and the city walls.

2 Chronicles 36:15-21
We also learn from this parallel passage that from the Lords perspective, Judah was removed also to give the land its Sabbath rest in

2 Chronicles 36:21 “to fulfill the word of Yahweh by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land has enjoyed its Sabbaths. All the days of desolation it kept Sabbath, to fulfill seventy years”.

 

That Which He Speaks to You, So Do With Him

Jeremiah 39:1–14
Jerusalem had been under siege for more than a year and a half until the day when in Jeremiah 39:2 “the city was taken by assault”. It may have seemed never ending to those in the city, and they resisted to the end so seemed to have hope that Egypt would rescue them, more likely though, at the end, it was just fear that prevented them from releasing the city and themselves into Nebuchadrezzar’s hand as the Lord had told them to do.

Now it was too late, in Jeremiah 39:3 “all the officials of the king of Babylon came and sat in the Middle Gate”. It was a show of strength so all would know the siege over and Babylon had won. And what had been spoken by the prophet came to pass in Jeremiah 39:6-9 “the king of Babylon slaughtered the sons of Zedekiah … slaughtered all the nobles of Judah … blinded the eyes of Zedekiah … burned the (city) … broke down the walls … (and) the rest of the people who were left … deported to Babylon”.

But the king spoke specifically about the prophet in Jeremiah 39:12 “And you must not do something bad to him, but only that which he speaks to you, so do”. Nebuchednezzar was more willing to listen to the prophet than his own people had been. Here, “The superstitious Mesopotamians treated Jeremiah, as a man of God, with the same respect and deference as that accorded their own seers in Babylonia, and he was placed in the care of Gedaliah ben Ahikam ben Shaphan (14), later made governor over the remnants of the populace (cf. 40:5) … God had honoured his promise to deliver Jeremiah (cf. 1:8), saving him when others were being destroyed”.1 

I Will Rescue You on That Day

Jeremiah 39:15–18
Ebed-melech the Cushite was the one that had rescued the prophet in Jeremiah 38:7-13. And now, just before the end of the siege, the word of the Lord comes in Jeremiah 39:16-18 “I am about to bring my words to pass against this city for evil and not for good. And they will be before you on that day”. This wasn’t news, it is what the Lord had been saying all along, destruction is coming.

Then comes the assurance that is based on the action taken to save the prophet when others were intent on killing him. The Lord promises in Jeremiah 39:17 “But I will rescue you on that day … you will not be given into the hand of the men of whom you are frightened” and in Jeremiah 39:18 “surely I will save you, and you will not fall by the sword … because you have trusted in me”. Trusting in the Lord is not just mentally understanding who he is and it is not just saying you know who he is. Trusting in the Lord is taking action.

All His Army Was Scattered

Jeremiah 52:1–10

It says of Zedekiah, in

Jeremiah 52:2 And he did evil in the eyes of Yahweh like all that Jehoiakim had done.

and in Jeremiah 52:3 it says “this happened in Jerusalem and Judah until his casting them from his presence”. This happened because of the evil, the wickedness of Zedekiah. But Jeremiah 52:3 goes on to say, “And Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon”. Zedekiah was unfaithful with God and also with men. So in Jeremiah 52:8 “the Chaldeans pursued … they overtook Zedekiah … and all his army was scattered.

Study Verses

Today’s Reading

  • 2 Kings 25:8-21
  • Jeremiah 39:1-18
  • Jeremiah 52:1-10

References

  • 1. Harrison, R. K. (1973). Jeremiah and Lamentations: an introduction and commentary (Vol. 21, p. 160). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.
Devotions

Turn Back Why Should You Die

by  • 

Judgement is coming in Ezekiel 32:23 to “those who spread terror in the land of the living”. And in Ezekiel 32:22 “all of them killed” and in Ezekiel 32:25 “all of them uncircumcised”. These great warriors fought with everything in them, yet now they go to the grave having no relationship with God, no covenant, no redemption. What futility. No wonder the Lord says in Ezekiel 33:11 ‘Surely I have no delight in the death of the wicked, except in the wicked returning from his way, and he lives’. No wonder he says in Ezekiel 33:11 “Turn back! Turn back from your ways”. But here is the Lords delight in Ezekiel 34:11 “I, will seek my flock, and I will look after them” and in Ezekiel 34:22 “I will save my flock, and they will no longer be for plunder”. 

Those Who Spread Terror

Ezekiel 32:22–32
We find here, an account that begins with Assyria in Ezekiel 32:22 “all of them killed, those fallen by the sword”. It is followed by a description of who they are in Ezekiel 32:23 “those who spread terror in the land of the living”. But now, all of them are decreed “uncircumcised” in death which in this time meant, they did not have a covenant with the Lord. They are forever cut-off from God.

  • Elam in Ezekiel 32:24 “those who went down uncircumcised”
  • Likely Persia in Ezekiel 32:25 “all of them uncircumcised”
  • Meshech, Tubal “are ruled by Gog of the land of Magog (Ezek 38:2, 3; 39:1)”2 in Ezekiel 32:26 “all of them uncircumcised”
  • (see 28 Da. 2:34, 35)1 in Ezekiel 32:28 “in the midst of uncircumcised people”
  • Edom in Ezekiel 32:29 “they will lie with the uncircumcised”
  • Sidonians in Ezekiel 32:30 “and they lie uncircumcised”
  • Pharaoh in Ezekiel 32:32 “laid down in the midst of the uncircumcised”.

We might step back for a moment and look at this list where “there are six heathen nations mentioned, viz., Asshur, Elam, Meshech-Tubal, Edom, the princes of the north, and Sidon; and if we add Egypt to the list, we shall have seven, which would be thoroughly adapted, as it was eminently intended, to depict the fate of universal heathenism.”3

These are all like gladiators fighting in the ring of global power, they all fight valiantly, yet they all die by the sword and even their great leaders lay among them and as it says in Ezekiel 32:30 “they bear their disgrace”. There is nothing remaining of value, nothing redemptive, only the silence as the cries of the terror they spread fall to the grave with them.

You Must Warn Them From Me

Ezekiel 33:1–8 

Turn Back Why Should You Die

Ezekiel 33:9–17
The Lord says in Ezekiel 33:9 “warn the wicked”. But this warning isn’t that they should stop oppressing others, that they shouldn’t rob by usury, that they shouldn’t commit murder, or any of a long list of injustice one human might do to another. This warning goes to the result of these actions, and it is not the outcome for the victims, but it is the end for the perpetrator, as repeated by the Lord through Ezekiel, “the death of the wicked”. The Lord had said this to them before in

Ezekiel 18:23 “Have I delight by any means in the death of the wicked, declares the Lord Yahweh, and not at his turning from his way, so that he lives?”

The answer is a resounding no, the Lord does not delight in the death of the wicked. As the Lord repeats this, there is something the Lord does delight in, “the wicked returning from his way, and he lives” in.

Ezekiel 33:11 Say to them, ‘As I live,’ declares the Lord Yahweh, ‘Surely I have no delight in the death of the wicked, except in the wicked returning from his way, and he lives.’

And now, as if he were shouting at them, the Lord continues in Ezekiel 33:11 ‘Turn back! Turn back from your ways, O evil ones, for why should you die, house of Israel?’

I Will Judge You Each According to His Ways

Ezekiel 33:18–26

You Ruled Over Them With Force

Ezekiel 34:1–10 

I Will Save My Flock

Ezekiel 34:11–22
It is clear that judgement is coming on the heathen, the “uncircumcised”, those outside of the covenant. And as the judgement of the Lord comes, he says in Ezekiel 34:11 “I, will seek my flock, and I will look after them”. From Ezekiel 34:10-22 the Lord says “I will” twenty three times and four more times he says “they will”.

But the Lord is also judging throughout his flock to remove those that in Ezekiel 34:21 “shoved” and “pushed” and in Ezekiel 34:22 “plunder” in

Ezekiel 34:17 ‘And you, my flock, thus says the Lord Yahweh: “Look! I am judging between one sheep and another, between the rams and between the he-goats” ‘.

The City Was Breached, Men of War Entered

2 Ki 25:1–7

Study Verses

Today’s Reading

  • Ezekiel 32:22-32
  • Ezekiel 33:1-26
  • Ezekiel 34:1-22
  • 2 Kings 25:1-7

References

  • 1. Blayney, B., Scott, T., & Torrey, R. A. with Canne, J., Browne. (n.d.). The Treasury of Scripture knowledge (Vol. 1, p. 532). London: Samuel Bagster and Sons.
  • 2. Baker, D. W. (1992). Meshech (Person). In D. N. Freedman (Ed.), The Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary (Vol. 4, p. 711). New York: Doubleday.
  • 3. Keil, C. F., & Delitzsch, F. (1996). Commentary on the Old Testament (Vol. 9, p. 275). Peabody, MA: Hendrickson.