Oct 27, 2022
EZEKIEL 26-27:
Yesterday we heard a second word picture of
Jerusalem as a cooking pot. This was not good news. Then Ezekiel
received word that his treasure— his wife, would die. And he was
commanded not to mourn as a sign of what the people would do when
they heard about the slaughter in Jerusalem. Then there were
messages of punishment for the nations of Ammon, Moab, Edom, and
Philistia.
ISAIAH 9:
In
yesterday’s reading, God gave Isaiah the name of his son, which
pictures the conquest of Judah by the Assyrian army. Then there was
a wonderful and often quoted part that in the New Testament
identifies Jesus as the stumbling stone:
Is. 8:12 GNT “Do not join in the schemes of the people and do not be afraid of the things that they fear. 13 Remember that I, the Lord Almighty, am holy; I am the one you must fear. 14 Because of my awesome holiness I am like a stone that people stumble over; I am like a trap that will catch the people of the kingdoms of Judah and Israel and the people of Jerusalem. 15 Many will stumble; they will fall and be crushed. They will be caught in a trap.”
HEBREWS 5:
Chapter 4 contains the wonderful verse about
God’s word being living and active, and the encouragement to come
boldly with our prayers before the throne of God.
The Greek for 4:9 literally says, “There remains a sabatismos for the people of God.” GNT translated that word as “‘a rest like God's resting on the seventh day.” Sabatismos— a word evidently coined by the writer, could mean God resting on the 7th day or the Sabbath day observance, or both. Here is verse 9 in our PET translation, which shows how we made the concept of a ‘place/land of rest’ clear in Indonesian:
Heb. 4:9 PET So this shows that there is still an opportunity for us— the people of God, to enter God’s ‘land of rest’— which is a spiritual calmness that can be pictured as like stopping work on the Sabbath Day.