and by this you will know that I am the Lord

Ezekiel seems to talk about ways that the Israelites would know the Lord.
One that recurs is that they will know that He is God when they are punished for their sins. I take that to mean they will see that God is righteous and just and see that they are not and know that God is Lord.
In Ezekiel 24 it says that Ezekiel himself would be a sign to the people and they would know that He is Lord.
Now in what way would he be a sign? By being a prophet and them seeing that what he foretold was correct? I think even being himself with the crazy goings on might be a sign!

Ezekiel 18 and the life of Darth Vader

Yesterday night I read Ezekiel 18 and today I read to James the book "The life of Darth Vader" and I couldn't help but see the similarities. Vader starts out as good but becomes evil but then turns back to good again and it was what he was at the last that counted for where he went to Jedi heaven.
This is the same as what Ezekiel 18 says- if you live righteously and do right you will live.
If you change and do evil, you will be punished for your sin.
But if you change again and do good your sin will be washed away.
You are only punished for your own sin, not your parents sin, not your kids sins.
And this was all before Jesus came!

your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite

Ezekiel 16 is not too pretty. God doesn't seem bothered by the reality of humanity as He(through Ezekiel) speaks of a newborn baby covered in blood and left in a field to die. It's reality. We are that way before God restores us. Rustle started out that way too. God redeems us from the state we were in.
The chapter goes on to be a warning. When God has taken you away from being a bloody baby in a field. When you are starting to grow up. When you are becoming the man or woman that God wants you to be, don't get so full of yourself that you think you can make it without Him. Because you can't. There may be things in the world that cause you to take your focus off God, if you are doing ok, but He always is ready and waiting for you to come back.

Don't ask

In Jeremiah 42 Johanan and all the people approached Jeremiah to ask a question
"What should we do?"
And they must have known that asking God questions sometimes means you have to do difficult things and so they say:

6 Whether it is favorable or unfavorable, we will obey the LORD our God, to whom we are sending you, so that it will go well with us, for we will obey the LORD our God.

It wasn't that they didn't know what they were getting themselves into- they KNEW!
And then 10 days later the Word of the Lord came to Jeremiah.
My guess is that Jeremiah probably spent those 10 days praying.
This was direction for a whole COUNTRY. A whole people. I'd guess he dedicated some time to this. That he wasn't out cavorting and having a good time, when suddenly the Word came to him. I'd guess he was seeking it.
And then he tells them the answer:
"Stay"
Well they didn't LIKE the answer and they said that Jeremiah was lying. The answer didn't make sense- the king of Babylon was taking over their country so of course they should go. But God's answers don't always have to make sense. In fact they may more often than not make sense to our human minds. But God doesn't see things the way we see them. So He said "Stay" and they said "No"
Help me, Lord, to be obedient to you even when it looks like your answer is the wrong one.

The truth

In Jeremiah 40, 41 Johanan tells Gedaliah the truth about a guy named Ishmael.

40:16 But Gedaliah son of Ahikam said to Johanan son of Kareah, "Don't do such a thing! What you are saying about Ishmael is not true."

But it was true.
Sometimes we want things to be a certain way. We want the world to be a certain way, that we disrgard the truth because it doesn't fit with how we want the world to be. But how we want it to be is not always how it is.
It is important to be able to recognize truth.

Jeremiah 21

Jeremiah had the task quite frequently of telling people things that weren't so good. Things they probably didn't want to hear.
In this case a contingent comes to him with hope, wanting to ask God if He could do for them what He had done in the past. Could He rescue them from Babylon?
God's answer in this case is not positive- if you want to live: get out of the city!
I would have left the city right then! If God's answer is no to what you want, He still offers a path of life out of the difficult situation.
In the case in this chapter, the people of that city had created a problem and apparently the only way to fix the problem was to destroy the city. Sometimes fixing a problem requires destruction. But there is always a path out.

stocks

In Jeremiah 20 Jeremiah gets put in stocks. When the guy who put him in the stocks lets him out Jeremiah comes out with a not very nice prophesy against him. It's a wonder Jeremiah didn't end up back in the stocks. Some people may have thought to keep things on the quiet side after being put in stocks. Play nice for a while. But not Jeremiah!

Isaiah 60

I thought that Isaiah 60 read a lot like a description of what heaven might be like. Especially the last bit:

19 The sun will no more be your light by day,
nor will the brightness of the moon shine on you,
for the LORD will be your everlasting light,
and your God will be your glory.

20 Your sun will never set again,
and your moon will wane no more;
the LORD will be your everlasting light,
and your days of sorrow will end.

21 Then will all your people be righteous
and they will possess the land forever.
They are the shoot I have planted,
the work of my hands,
for the display of my splendor.

22 The least of you will become a thousand,
the smallest a mighty nation.
I am the LORD;
in its time I will do this swiftly."

I finished Isaiah yesterday and start Jeremiah today. I hope I will have more time to write about Jeremiah. I hope my crazy season at work will be over now.

Highs and lows

Isaiah seems to be a book of extremes. There is a lot of stuff being bad and so needing to be destroyed and also a lot of great praise. Maybe out of great darkness comes great praise.

Isaiah

A couple of days ago I started Isaiah.

As I read chapter 1 verses 4-8, I realized that earlier on the same day that I read it, I had met a guy who wandered into Rustle who WAS those verses. It made me cry.

Song

I have to say, of all the books of the bible, I have the most trouble with the Song of Solomon. I get that it is supposed to be a picture of God's love for us, but at times it is a bit odd. I found it very hard work to read this book! This part I liked:

2:11 See! The winter is past;
the rains are over and gone.

12 Flowers appear on the earth;
the season of singing has come,
the cooing of doves
is heard in our land.

This part I had a bit of trouble with:

5: 2 I slept but my heart was awake.
Listen! My lover is knocking:
"Open to me, my sister, my darling,
my dove, my flawless one.
My head is drenched with dew,
my hair with the dampness of the night."

3 I have taken off my robe—
must I put it on again?
I have washed my feet—
must I soil them again?

4 My lover thrust his hand through the latch-opening;
my heart began to pound for him.

5 I arose to open for my lover,
and my hands dripped with myrrh,
my fingers with flowing myrrh,
on the handles of the lock.

6 I opened for my lover,
but my lover had left; he was gone.
My heart sank at his departure. [a]
I looked for him but did not find him.
I called him but he did not answer.

7 The watchmen found me
as they made their rounds in the city.
They beat me, they bruised me;
they took away my cloak,
those watchmen of the walls!

It puzzled me that the Jesus/God character would knock and then leave, as there is a scripture in the NT about knocking and it being opened, etc.
In http://www.ldolphin.org/ssong.shtml they suggest that the passage talks about Jesus at Gethsemane- how he wants the disciples there, but they waver and then He is gone. Then they have to defend their faith.
When God is hard to find, I generally find that the problem is me, not Him. That He wants to be found. But that watchmen beat you up all the time, yeah, I understand that!

Ecclesiastes

I finished reading Ecclesiastes last night. It's a very different sort of book in the old testament because through it all it seems to be asking- 'what is the point?' and then only at the very end does it conclude by saying that the point is to "fear God and keep His commandments" (Ecc. 12:13) It's ok to ask questions. It's ok to think about things. In fact, by including this book, maybe it is encouraging questions and thinking about eternal things.

where you are going

Proverbs 20:24 A man's steps are directed by the LORD. How then can anyone understand his own way?

In thinking we can know and understand it all, even with God's help, we are wrong. We are so small compared to a God so big. We can't even understand how we get to where we are in our own life. Sometimes we think we are directing our own paths, and sometimes we do. Looking back we just need to be thankful that God knows what He is doing, even if we can't always understand it at the time.

I found reading this verse amusingly painful, considering the swollen state of my ears:

12 Ears that hear and eyes that see—
the LORD has made them both.

our fault

Proverbs 19:3 A man's own folly ruins his life,
yet his heart rages against the LORD. (NIV)
or
Proverbs 19:3 People ruin their lives by their own stupidity,
so why does God always get blamed? (Message)

Sometimes I feel bad when God gets the blame, when people are not able to take responsibility for their own actions. It's always easier to blame someone else. Luckily, God is big enough to handle whatever people throw at Him. The person who suffers the most in this is the person who is blaming God and therefore blocking their own growth potential.

I pray that You keep my ears and eyes open to see my stupidity and help me to correct it

Proverbs

I am now in Proverbs. There is a lot in it. A lot to digest.
A good summary of what is being said comes from the Book of Common Prayer

"Give us such an awareness of your mercies, that our hearts may be sincerely thankful, and that we may show forth your praise not only with our lips, but in our lives, by giving up ourselves to your service, and by walking before you in holiness and righteousness all our days"

Ascents

In my Bible it notes that Psalms 120-134 are psalms of ascents that the Israelites would sing on their way to Jerusalem to celebrate festivals.

My Bible also lists a word of meaning for each psalm and I have tried to focus on seeing this word in these Psalms:
120-Repentance
121-Providence
122-Worship
123-Service
124-Help
125-Security
126-Joy
127-Work
128-Happiness
129-Perseverance
130-Hope
131-Humility
132-Obedience
133-Community
134-Blessing

Psalm 119

Ps. 119 talks a lot about the value of the Word and the Law. There are many benefits listed to reading them and following God.
It made me think of a friend who is struggling in her faith. She has many needs that ps. 119 indicates could be met by reading the Word (Bible) but she doesn't feel up to it. She knows the truth of the Word. The Word has been planted deep in her heart. So her not reading the Bible could be for a number of reasons
-it is powerful
-it will confront her on things she knows she should be doing (or not doing as the case may be)
-it could change her(!)

Psalm 117

This looks like the shortest psalm but it packs quite a punch! Short and sweet. I am tackling psalm 119 tonight. Some things are short and some are long. As long as they need to be.

Psalm 115

Psalm 115 seems to give a good description of an idol. Though the idols today probably don't look like the idols of psalm 115's time, they are still around. They are manmade not God-made. Trying to think of modern day idols- money probably tops the list. Maybe cars? Houses? TVs? Idols are also trusted in, so maybe that would make money the top one over other possessions. More people trust in money than other things.
I am happy to trust in the Lord

Psalm 107

Psalm 107 is a series of stories that all make the same points:
1. We make bad choices or get in bad situations
2. If we realize the situation and call on the Lord, He will deliver us.

Now, the deliverance may not look like what we would expect or want, but He seems to be pretty good at bringing us out if we want to be brought out.
Why do we (as humans) only tend to look to God when the things are bad? Though other psalms are about praising God for good things, there seems to be a theme about calling on God when things get bad. I am glad He is there for us when things are both good and bad.

Psalm 101

Well, upon reading psalm 101 I had some difficulty with it. It came off a bit proud to me. What with the seemingly required perfection and the destruction of evildoers. As I found this psalm puzzling I looked up a spurgeon internet reference and what I got from that was to think about it as David singing not how he is, but how he would LIKE to be. Which made it a bit easier to understand. There can always be a utopia in how we would like to be compared to how we are.
I read that it was a psalm of longing and expectation, which is not how I interpreted it at all on the first read.
When I read it, I think I was reading it in the light of Jesus, which may have been missing the point altogether.

7 No one who practices deceit will dwell in my house;
no one who speaks falsely will stand in my presence.

But Jesus hung out with the sinners

8 Every morning I will put to silence all the wicked in the land;
I will cut off every evildoer from the city of the LORD.

Oh dear, I couldn't see Jesus in this at all.
So, obviously, interpreting this psalm in the light of Jesus was the wrong way to read it.

Psalm 87

Psalm 87:7 As they make music they will sing,
"All my fountains are in you."

Apparently, I am not thinking up too many interesting things to talk about in the Psalms! I am at 87 now. I think they are very good for me. Maybe they have contributed to me getting the songs in my head back. I think the Psalms really wash your soul. They seem to be a mix of praise, prayer and emotion. I am enjoying them. Hopefully, I will be able to write more as my work should be letting up a bit at this time.

slug

Psalm 58:8 Like a slug melting away as it moves along...

I love the imagery in that and I feel this way too sometimes!

Psalm 29

Reading Psalm 29 brought great comfort and good focus. God is in control and knows what He is doing. Even though the current physical world we live in looks out of control and chaotic, we need to look to God's world- to see things His way.

Psalms

I have now started into the Psalms. I remember as a 5th grader getting the gideon bible in my class. It was my first Bible that I remember. I think I read it- I remember singing the Psalms- and I'm not a singer. I'm not sure why I knew to do that. I guess they said they were songs at the top and I thought that it only did them justice to sing them. I also remember using the 'resource' list at the back- there were scriptures that you could read if you were feeling lonely or hurt or so and I tried the read the scripture corresponding to my mood!

25 To the faithful you show yourself faithful,
to the blameless you show yourself blameless,

26 to the pure you show yourself pure,
but to the crooked you show yourself shrewd.

This scripture seems to indicate that the aspects that you see of God are the ones that are most like you!

Suffering

Well, I finished Job but I'm not sure that I understand it any better. Job doesn't curse God after all he goes through, so I guess he passes. But God does bring him up short at the end, which Job agrees with and then everything is fine and dandy. I wasn't sure what to make of Job repeating multiple times that he was sinless, when it says in the New Testament that all have sinned. (well, minus Jesus) And I don't think that God particularly cared if he was sinless or not, just that his heart was right towards Him.

Job

When I first became a Christian, my friends encouraged me to read the Bible. But they qualified it. They said read the Bible, but skip Job. They implied that Job was really complicated. It probably is good advice to a new Christian to start in the New Testament.
I have read Job a number of times since being a Christian but have never got a lot out of it. I think this is the first time I have read it and really tried to understand the characters. Do I know people like this? From hearing other people discussing Job, I went into it thinking that Job is right and the 'friends' are wrong. But in reading it, I am not sure who is right and who is wrong and if it really matters. I think they both have interesting points on suffering. I am only about halfway through- we'll see how things go in the next half!

Esther

Reading Esther is always like a breathe of fresh air. I got through it quickly. My favorite quote is:

4:14 For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father's family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this?"

It is quite possible that God had Esther in this position so that He could bring deliverance through her. But if she didn't go along with it, God would bring deliverance another way.

A quote from Helen Keller seems to fit here:

It is for us to pray not for tasks equal to our powers, but for powers equal to our tasks,

Nehemiah

I am halfway through Nehemiah at this point. I always love the part in Chapter 4 where he talks about half of the men doing the work of rebuilding the wall and half were the warriors. Each worker had a warrior assigned to them. I see that as a picture of prayer.

The verse that has stood out to me during this reading was in Nehemiah 6

13 He had been hired to intimidate me so that I would commit a sin by doing this, and then they would give me a bad name to discredit me.

He is talking about how Shemaiah told him he should hide in the temple because men were coming to kill him. Would it be a sin to go in the temple? Was the man talking about going in a part of the temple that was sacred and he was not allowed to go in. Or was Nehemiah saying that it would be a sin not to stand up to his enemies?

Revelation of sin

When Ezra is told of the people's sin of marrying the neighbouring countries women, he takes it quite hard.

And I sat there appalled until the evening sacrifice. Ezra 9:4

Then he begins prayer and petitioning and Israel works out a way to make it right.
What I thought was interesting about this whole episode is that Ezra is truly blindsided by the facts that are told to him, but this marrying was not a sudden happening. There were lots of men who had done this, with children being born from the unions. That takes time, that isn't instantaneous. So either he was off doing other things and he wasn't really in tune with the people or he knew about it, but didn't understand the impact of it.
Sometimes we have sin in our lives that we allow to continue on because either we ignore it, or we don't understand the impact of it.
Lord, open our eyes to our sin, so we can repent, and move on with our life in you.